Luke Ford writes: I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs Mondays at 7:00 pm PST on the Rabbi Rabbs cam and on YouTube. Facebook Fan Page.
This week we study Parashat Ki Tavo (Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8).
* Deut. 26:11. Another commandment to be happy. How does one interrupt shiva (mourning) for the Sabbath or a Jewish holiday?
* Deut. 26:15. When the Torah describes Israel as a "land flowing with milk and honey", does it mean it literally? If this is just a metaphor, why could not the seven days of creation be just a metaphor? Or Adam and Eve be myths? Or the whole Torah be a metaphor? When the Torah describes the sun standing still so the Israelites can win a great victory (while Moshe has his arms held up), did the sun literally stand still?
* Western civilization is in decay and it starts at the top with the Moral Leader. He might think he's a tzaddik because he has only been with an average of a woman a year for the past 16 years, but when the Moral Leader engages in such nonsense, the gangbanger down the street impregnates a woman a year. It's just like the Vilna Gaon studied Torah 18 hours a day so German rabbis would study for at least four hours a day and Jews in England would still keep the Sabbath. We're defining deviancy down and Western Civilization is collapsing.
The Middle Class can get away with a lot of vices, wrote Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations in 1776, that would destroy the lower classes.
