Should Christians Keep The Sabbath?

Luke Ford writes:

In his 1998 lecture on Exodus 30, Dennis Prager says: The Greeks thought the Jews were lazy because of their Sabbath observance.

The Sabbath was the most appealing part of Judaism in the Roman Empire.

The Jews weren’t the first people to say be nice. What distinguished the Jews was the Sabbath.

When a Jew keeps the Sabbath, it is an announcement that God created the world.

When I have raised the question why is there so little Sabbath observance in Christian life, one response I’ve got is that this commandment is the only one of the Ten not reiterated in the New Testament.

 

Dating Girls From Broken Homes

Luke Ford writes:

Pick-up artist and author Neil Strauss told me that he does not date women from broken homes. They don’t know how to love the opposite sex.

I found that a fascinating insight. At the grand old age of 44, I think Neil is generally right.

If you grow up with a messed up relationship with your opposite sex parent, particularly if you don’t have an opposite sex sibling, the opposite sex is not real for you. It quickly becomes an object of contempt.

I’ve found that women who grew up in solid homes are much more solid in their relationships. They’re much more solid in their love.

Now I love crazy chicks as much as the next guy. They tend to be crazy in bed and that’s a lot of fun, but it is a lousy basis for a relationship, let alone a marriage.

 

Overwhelmingly White Glenn Beck Rally

Luke Ford writes:

On his radio show today, Dennis Prager says: Glenn Beck deserves congratulations on pulling off what he did. It was a remarkable and loving and warm event for hundreds of thousands of people. What’s most interesting is the coverage by the American news media.

Every mainstream news report I saw spoke of the overwhelmingly white attenders.

Since when do media offer a racial analysis of crowds? As soon as they started debunking conservatives as racists. They call us sexist, racist, bigoted, homophobic, islamophobic, xenophobic. That way you never have to deal with our arguments. You dismiss us as human beings. You don’t bother arguing with a racist.

How you can be a traitor to a color? Saying someone is a traitor to his race is a racist statement.

 

State Department Attacks Ovadia Yosef

Luke Ford writes:

Who was Rabbi Ovadia Yosef inciting? He was only inciting God. Is the State Department afraid that Rabbi Yosef has pull with the Holy One?

This controversy over the rabbi’s latest sermon is silly. Rabbi Yosef is praying to God that He smite Israel’s enemies. Fine. If Muslim clerics prayed to God that He smite the Jews, fine.

Rabbi Yosef did not call on Jews to murder innocent Palestinians. Rabbi Yosef did not call on Jews to do anything bad to Palestinians.

I don’t think the rabbi’s remarks are a big deal. There is all the difference in the world between calling on God to do something harsh and calling on people to do something harsh.

 

Biblical Ethical Principles

Luke Ford writes:

In a 1997 lecture on Exodus 21: 26-36, Dennis Prager says: It’s easy to give rituals laws. How do you give ethical principles? You would have to have an encyclopedia the size of the Encyclopedia Brittanica on how to behave because on every given moment, there’s an ethical question:

* Do I laugh at the ethnic joke somebody at work told me?

* I’m at a high school party and the fat kid has nobody talking to him. How long do I have to talk to him to be a good person? Five minutes? Just say hi? Don’t make a bad joke about him?

It’s impossible to have an encyclopedia of ethics. You can have an encyclopedia of rituals. But you can’t have one of ethics because every day the nuances change. How many people do I let in in front of me on the freeway? At what point do I block somebody?

 

The Artist As Thinker

Luke Ford writes:

In his 1998 lecture on Exodus 26, Dennis Prager said: The artist is called a thinker in Hebrew. Art without thought is not considered valuable. What great art does not have an intellectual element to it? Breaking your guitars over your knees doesn’t take thought. There’s something in me nervous when such people are described as artists. These people go through the door labeled “Artist’s Entrance” but it is not fair to the term. The greatest art demands the greatest thought.

It is generally perceived that Judaism doesn’t care about art. If Judaism doesn’t care about art details, why does it devote so many chapters in the Torah to artistic details?

The Jewish people traded in the aesthetic for the intellectual and moral. The aesthetic has largely been ignored. With the destruction of the temple, art is no longer necessary. That is why the rabbis banned music in the synagogue. The temple had musical instruments played on the Sabbath.

 

Three Nuns & A Donkey

Luke Ford writes:

In a 1997 lecture on Exodus 22: 18-24, Dennis Prager said: “The pursuit of pleasure for its own sake, unless it has parameters and is deep, it doesn’t give the same thrill as the last time. The first time you kissed a girlfriend, bells were going off and the world was splitting and you were having a Sinaitic experience, but unless you love somebody, kissing loses that power… The human being wants more… If the pursuit is pleasure, then intercourse is not enough. You want three people. That may well be why there is a pursuit of bisexuality. Maybe people will not suffice. There must be a thrill available to [bestiality]. That you can’t relate to it and I can’t relate to it, most perversions I can relate to, this is not one of them, that is irrelevant. Perhaps not doing it, but watching it.