mentalblog.com comments:
The Glorification of War makes me sick - have we learnt nothing from WW2?
I guess everyone will feel differently about this video. Maybe it was intended to "promote" war... but I highly doubt it. People are tierd of wars, of death, of hurt, tears... This video was very emotional for me, and the only anger it brought - was just against the war - not any particular country... Just war in general...
I look at Israel and don't see myself. does that mean i'm not jewish? or Israel isn't?
MaxKohanzad: Yeah! This video soooo glorifies war. In fact, I REALLY want to go out there and kick Hzebollah ass now!
I don't think this video glorifies war. Amid all the cool scenes, what stands out most is the death and destruction. What stands out most is a sense of purpose whose ultimate aim is peace once and for all.
For nearly 2,000 years the Jewish Nation did not have a State and did not have an Army. The results are well known. Now Am Yisroel has Medinas Yisroel and the Tzeva Haganah L'Yisroel. There are many aspects of Statehood that are unappealing in theory and practice. To train and deploy an army is indeed tragic. As Wellington said, the only thing worse than winning a battle is losing a battle. Yes, losing a battle is worse. Do not run away from life. The pursuers really do mean to kill you too. If you value the life which was given you by Hashem Yisborach, you must defend it, do not throw it away.
Well said Gandalin; You must defend what you value. Only a fool throws away a precious gift.
MaxKohanzad; We don't have a culture of glorifying war, we don't have sword blades depicted on our flag, we value scholars more than warriors. When a war of self-defense (ie a milchemas mitzva) is thrust upon us we need to get tough and do it quickly. I may not like the video clip but I see that it performs a necessary function.
Either - i've got a stomach bug - or somethings really wrong here - someting in the pit of my stomach is uncomfortable with this war, but more importantly with Jewish people defending the actions of an Israeli State, - it's NOT a Jewish state, and that Jews are dying because some stupid, hot-headed Israeli government has decided to go for broke - and declare war on its neighbours.
- Just because it's Israel doesn't mean that it's KOSHER!!!
Not a Jewish State, Max? Too bad that Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, the Al Aksa Brigades, and the rest of those criminal gangs don't realize that, eh?
If you aren't willing to assume the responsibilities of a State, and those responsibilities include war, then you shouldn't have gotten yourself a State.
If you are unwilling to fight to save your own life, you might as well be a good little yiddele and get on line for the gas chambers now. Save Ahmadinezad the trouble later.
Max, is it your arab heritage in your stomack? Can you talk about this?
MaxKohanzad; Your neo-Satmar merchandise is a joke. We have tried the survival without a state strategy and found the costs are too high. Since the setup of the state we have also tried playing your proposed game of pretending not to notice the murderous threats from the Islamonazis of Hezbollah. Now that the Oslo style wishin'-n-hopin' have been proven to be failed strategy and its adherents declared brain dead. Clearly your stomach problems need to be seen in a systemic context.
Actually, Max is expressing am authentic voice from the Jewish tradition. I think it is in Mishnah Masekhes Shabbos, one of the Rabbanim (Yehudah?) opines that a man may go out in his greaves (armor) for they are considered an ornament. But the other Chochomim differ, stating that his armor is a reproach, because "They shall beat their swords & plowshares etc."
On the other hand, Chief Rabbi Goren opined that a pistol is not muktzeh if it is carried for the purpose of protecting life (within an eruv of course),
could someone please clarfify how having a jewish state adds to jewish security iin the diaspora. call me stupid, I just dont see it
It was Rabbi Eliezer, and he wasn't referring to greaves, but to the full panoply/
It is possible to hold a controversial discussion with oneself, you see.
Mendelbomb, if that Jewish state is secure, it provides a haven for the persecuted. In the 1950s the Moroccan, Yemeni, Iraqi, Farsi, and Kurdish Jews, inter alia, certainly benefitted from the Jewish state. As did the Ethiopian Jews in the 1980s and 1990s. As many French Jews are finding today.
If you expect the mere existence of a Jewish state to solve all of Am Yisroel's problems, you will be disappointed.
Only Hashem can do that.
First of all i'm Neo-Chabad! X-Generation Lubavtich, I believe in 'Mach Dor Eretz Yisroel' - Make Here the Land of Israel -
that a state exists with Jews living in it does NOT make it a Jewish state -
that so-called 'Rabbis' in Israel like to control people and are more interested in politics than truth and torah, still doesn't make it a 'Jewish state'.
That this war is stupid and not in the name of Hashem or anything to do with Judaism.
That i'm sick of being associated with an Israeli state which doesn't share any Jewish values.
Does that make me anti-Zionist? NO!
Does it make me a proud Jew who thinks that the people in power in Israel are idiots - YES!
And YES, i'm a Mud-blood a Half-Cast, Half Ashkenazi/Half Sephardi, My dad, converted to Judaism! his mother is a moderate Shiite Moslem- but what the hell has that got to do with anything?
Tzemach - if you are going to start on some weird racial agenda - you are seriously f*cked up.
Max,
Agreed that it would be better if the state would follow the eternal Jewish values.
But-
The fact that the majority of Jews in the Commonwealth of Medinas Yisroel don't consciously or self-consciously follow a Torah lifestyle does not necessarily prove that Israel is not a Jewish state. One might argue that they are merely Amhaaretzim, and that their amhaaretzus is no worse than the amhaaretzus of the Amhaaretzim who surrounded the pious when last a Jewish government governed the land.
There should be nothing racial or genetic against you.
"My father was a wandering Aramean..." after all, and the prophets continually remind us that Jews are not to be defined as a racial stock, but represent a mixture of different elements.
Ruth.
On the other hand, it may well be that your mother's Shiite line are entirely Yiddishe maidelach going all the way back to a forced conversion over 1,000 years ago.
Like Elvis.
As I said, separated at birth...
Without separation there can be no consciousness that there is a self, hence no possibility of recognizing that there is an other, hence no possibility of return . . .
'Mach Dor Eretz Yisroel' is based on a Meiri about Jews could not go to Eretz Yisrael because of danger. The subsequent reinvention of this principle by assorted rabbis who were opposed for secular Zionism should be taken with a very large dose of salt. Only new-age post-modernists and propagandists accept the idea that history can be reinterpreted into any fad. Charedei anti-Zionism should be seen as a fashion accessory that is intended to impress the listener with piety.
I love reading this blog. It's so much more intelligent than reading comments on YouTube. Concerning the video, I don't think it glorifies war. But I do think it shows that we are a strong people who are not afraid to stand up and fight. And, I can see how a soldier can watch this film and derive inspiration from it. It makes me proud to be a Jew. It shows our diversity...our compassion...our courage. And there is a saddness to it. It opens my eyes to the fact that we are a unique people, who always have been (and will always be) alone in this world. No matter what we do, we can't change it. We're blamed for all the world's ills. No other country wanted us. And now that we have a country, the others won't except us. So we have only ourselves, and our belief in God.
BTW, my favorite shot in the film is where the young soldier wraps tefillin.
Shawn
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