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My support of traditional American values can be illustrated by the following story:

In 1812 Napoleon invaded Russia. The Jewish leader known as the Ba'al HaTanya (Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi), who had twice been accused of high treason by the Czar's government, turned out to be a loyal Russian patriot.

He saw that if the secular Napoleon would conquer Russia, the economic and civic position of the Jews might improve, but their spiritual status would suffer.

So important was a government that promoted 'fear of G-d' among its citizens that the Ba'al HaTanya thought it worth a real risk to Jewish lives and fortunes.

He therefore opposed Napoleon and urged his numerous followers to give their all-out support to the Russian war effort against the invaders.

Wheat & Dates
If the world did not need you and you did not need this world, you would never have come here. G-d does not cast His precious child into the pain of this journey without purpose.
It may be that you cannot see a reason. That should come as no surprise--that a creature cannot fathom the plan of its Creator. Nevertheless, eventually the fruits of your labor will blossom for all to see.
Some grow as wheat of the field, in a single season breaking through the ground and ripening. But their produce is such that it must be shelled and ground and refined and kneaded and baked before providing good to the world--and much must be cast aside.
Others grow as the date palm, which may weather seventy years before its first fruit arrives. But it is fruit that is sweet and satisfying to the hand that picks it, and every part of the palm and its fruit have something of value to provide.
Plow and sow. The fruits will come.

Fiftyish observant Jewish male, resident in S. Paul, Minnesota and travels frequently to Iowa.

People often ask why Jews with small "c" conservative values would continue to side with the Democrat Party. The answer, briefly, is the fear that Christians see contemporary Jews through the prism of The New Testament's John 8:44. It probably is that simple.

Historically, Jews have needed a strong central government to protect them from their anti-semitic neighbors.

In other words, Jews feel such an animus from traditional Christianity and from unrestrained political 'democracy' that a majority of Jews will NEVER vote conservative until a majority of Jews become religious!

There is a Jewish saying:

Israel, Torah, and G-d are One.

What a person feels for any one willl inevitably be felt for the other two.

Christianity claims to love Torah and G-d, but its historical persecution of the people of Israel has degraded it to the point of collapse.

Islam claims to love G-d, but hates Torah and Israel.

Socialism at the outset proclaimed its hate for Torah and G-d, and inevitably hates Jews as well.

"If a Jew doesn't make Kiddush, then the non-Jew will make Havdalah." - R' Chaim of Volozhin

" Halachah he beyaduah, Esav sonei es Yaakov "

Are Jews Normal?
by Rabbi Manis Friedman

If you ask someone coming out of a church “Do you believe in G-d?” the worshiper is shocked. “What type of question is that? Of course I do, that’s why I’m here.”

But when you walk into a synagogue on Yom Kippur and ask a Jew, “Do you believe in G-d?” the Jew is quiet. “I don’t know, I’m not a rabbi.” “Do you consider yourself religious?” They break into laughter and assure you that they’re the furthest thing from religious. “Are you kidding? Do you know what I eat for breakfast?”

So you ask the logical question. “What are you doing in a synagogue?” But the Jew is shocked. “What type of question is that? It's Yom Kippur!"

To be sure, the worshiper and the Jew are shocked for very different reasons. The worshiper is shocked that you question his belief. The Jew is shocked that you question his Jewishness. Judaism is not a religion that we practice, nor a belief that we prescribe to - it's who we are and what we are.

While the Jew may insist “I don't want to be religious, I don't want to believe in G-d,” on Yom Kippur he’s in a synagogue. Why? G-d wants me here, so here I am.

But isn’t this hypocrisy? On the contrary, Torah views this very irrationality as the essence of the Jew. It is this insanity that makes us Jewish.

Subjective opinions to an objective truth; I am a Jew even if I’m not religious, and G-d is G-d even when I don’t believe.

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