Animal Sacrifice Was Good

Luke Ford writes:

In a lecture on Deuteronomy 12 delivered in 2004, Dennis Prager says: “I was in my twenties on an airplane. I was sitting next to a woman who had a vegetarian meal. I asked her if she was a vegetarian. I asked why. She said, we humans have no right to kill animals to eat them. After all, who are we humans to think we are more valuable than animals?

“That shook me to the core. That’s when I came up with the question I thought was rhetorical. I said, You don’t really mean that. If a dog and a human were drowning, which would you save first?

“And she thought.

“I’ll never forget the silence. I said, I’m sorry, did you hear my question?

“She said, I’m thinking.

“When she said, I’m thinking, I concluded at that moment, either I’m sitting next to a nutty woman, which I did not believe, or she reflects what is happening in our secular age.”

Don't Let Yourself Go

Luke Ford writes:

I enjoy beauty and when I have to look at a fat slob, it bums me out.

So ladies, shape up!

Guys, shape up!

We can’t take others for granted. We owe them our best.

On his radio show today, Dennis Prager relays a story about hanging out at Juniors deli in Westwood. He saw a sign advertising Playboy’s Miss May. So Dennis wanders over to meet her. There are three women sitting at the table. There are big posters featuring Miss May.

Dennis stares at the women and then asks a bloke, “Which one is Miss May?”

When actresses and models don’t have make-up on, most of the time they look ordinary.

“It is a woman’s obligation to her husband, just as men have obligations to their wives, to keep yourself as attractive as you can.”

“It is one of the ways you say to your husband, I love you and I don’t take you for granted. If you let yourself go, it’s a statement to most men that I take you for granted.”

“I will point out to my wife a woman in an ad or even in a restaurant who I think is attractive, or one of the waitresses, and my wife will be stunned because she’s so normal looking.

“A man’s freedom to say this to his wife is a blessing. The definition of friend is someone you can say everything to. If a man has to bottle that up…”

Dennis Prager Alone

Luke Ford writes:

Dennis Prager says in his 15th lecture on Deuteronomy (2003) that he teaches to no particular group.

“Most people who take positions have a specific group they appeal to. My appeal is to people individually than groupwise. Most people teaching Torah would teach only to Jews… It doesn’t work that way in my life. The reason is that I don’t follow any line. I teach it in a way that is universally true…without following any doctrinal positions.”

“I don’t think there is another Torah class with as mixed an audience as you are.”

New Testament Is Feelings Oriented

Luke Ford writes:

There’s plenty about action in the New Testament and plenty about feeling in the Hebrew Bible but the stereotype in my headline is generally true.

When the Hebrew Bible talks about loving God, it refers primarily to action, not feelings and theology.

My mischievous side just took over and I made this Facebook update: “Luke Ford got up in shul today and talked about what God had done in his life.”

I have never heard a Jew speak this way. We don’t speak about God acting in our lives. Our religion is not feelings oriented, it is law oriented. We don’t trust feelings and we don’t trust the heart and we don’t trust people to intuit what God wants and we don’t trust people to feel their way to God and goodness.

If I did get up in shul and speak about what God had done in my life nobody would notice because I would have nothing to say. I can’t get my head around talking with assurance about God acting in your life. How do you know? How do you know it’s not just your feelings acting in you? How do you know it is not a delusion?

Married People Talk Differently

Luke Ford writes:

In his 13th lecture on Deuteronomy, Dennis Prager says: “I play a game on the radio. When a person calls, and starts talking, and all I have is a name and the city, I know nothing else about the person, I wonder if this person is married and does this person have children. Every so often, out of nowhere, I will say, are you married? I’m verifying for myself if I guessed right. I guess right about 85% of the time.

“Married people talk different. Parents talk different. I talk different since I got married and became a father. Everyone who’s gotten married knows that. You can’t even remember what it was like to be single just a year into marriage because it is so different. Especially for men. And you grow from it.”

“The Torah is profoundly opposed to incest. It disrupts the family. The family must be the one asexual place on earth. Every parent knows how uncomfortable your children are with any mention of your sex life and how uncomfortable you are as a child with any mention of your parent’s sex life. Your parents are asexual beings in your eyes. If they are sexual beings in your eyes, that is not a good sign.”

“It is not healthy to have sexual tension between family members.”

Dennis says his favorite translation of the Bible is the NIV.

Newsweek's List Of Top 50 Rabbis

Luke Ford writes:

Here you go.

The list seems silly to me. The leader of the Reform movement, Eric Yoffie, at number two? He’s retiring.

“5.David Saperstein—Having just completed his term as the only rabbi serving on President Obama’s White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Saperstein continues to act as a major influence in Washington in his role as director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.”

Yes, but who follows him?

“7.Irwin Kula—Kula, a bestselling author who serves as co-president of CLAL (the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership), is nationally known for his commitment to reshaping America’s spiritual landscape.”

Irwin Kula is an atheist and a chillul HaShem, taking to the media to proclaim his belief in the absence of God. I’ve never heard of anyone saying he was influenced by Irwin Kula.

If a Jew wants to be an atheist or a sodomite, that’s one thing, but stay out of the rabbinate.

“9.Robert Wexler—Wexler continues influencing generations of Jewish students and scholars as president of American Jewish University.”

Married People Talk Differently

Luke Ford writes:

I could not put down this new book from author Lori Gottlieb.

I read it straight through Shabbos afternoon.

What made it particularly appealing is revenge.

As a guy, I have to go through life making the first move on a girl, asking a girl out, leaning in to kiss her for the first time, and then trying to develop a relationship.

This becomes wearing. Rejection wears one down. I’ve dated at least two dozen women in my life who I would’ve married, but none of them wanted to marry me.

Now I see some of them and they’ve hit the wall. They’re not married. They’re not cute. They’re bitter. And I’m glad. I’m glad to see the destruction of the haughty. I’m glad to see the humbling of all these chicks who thought they were so much better than me.

I’m 44. I have more choices now than ever. I date 18-year olds. I date 40-year olds. The world is my oyster.

Vengeance is mine, says the Count of Pico-Robertson.