Jul 28th, 2009
by rabbifink.
This post has been cross-posted to DovBear – more discussion there.
The newswires have been full reporting the massive scandal in NY / NJ the last few days. There is a strong correlation between the scandal and something prevalent in contemporary Orthodox Jewish society.
You may think you are far from a money-laundering, tax evading, kidney-dealing, FBI snitching, tax-evading, “knucklehead”. You may even be have the cleanest books on Wall Street and third party audits to prove it. Yet, our entire generation is infected with the same virus that the”knucklehead”are carrying.
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Jul 9th, 2009
by rabbifink.
The proliferation of Segulahs and tricks to get your way with God is increasing daily.
The Yated (American Yeshivish news paper) has a Chinuch Roundtable where this issue was discussed. Almost to a man the Rabbis (one of whom is my father) warned of the danger in relying too heavily on these tricks.
Last time I linked to Parshablog it was for a similar reason and yesterday Parshablog had another disturbing example of this trend.
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Jun 24th, 2009
by rabbifink.
I have had so many conversations about the issue posed today on ParshaBlog.
A couple weeks ago the Chinuch Roundtable in the Yated dealt with this as well. We have become the Segulah Generation. We look for shortcuts and magic to avoid the effort involved in Personal Growth.
In short Messilas Yesharim > Segulahs. But Segulahs tempt us with their instant gratification, no effort results.
I urge everyone to read the article on ParshaBlog. (more…)
