The world Jewish community has recently been shaken to its core by the tsunami of anti-Semitism that has broken out in the wake of Israel’s third Gaza war. We have been horror-stricken as the world media has condemned the Middle East’s only democracy for the simple act of defending itself against terror rockets and tunnels.
We have watched with mouths agape at the tens of thousands of people marching in the streets of London and Berlin chanting “Hitler should have finished off the Jews” and “Ham-As rhymes with poison gas.” We have been gob-smacked with scenes of pogroms against Jews hiding in synagogues in Paris. Most of all, we have wondered how could a civilized world with liberal humanistic values choose the women-honor-killing, gay-murdering, free-speech-suppressing Hamas terrorist death cult over democratic Israel.
Why isn’t this being effectively combated? Simply stated, there aren’t enough Jews in the world.
The greatest challenge facing the world Jewish community is its puny size. The number of Jews in the world has fallen below a critical mass and our scarcity raises the specter of unpleasant consequences.
Foremost among them is our inability to defend the State of Israel properly.
The point is easily demonstrated. In the United State where nearly 6 million Jews represent about 2 percent of the population, our large size and well-organized numbers enable us to create an effective political lobby that has yielded concrete positive results in the form of American support for Israel. Compare that to the 230,000 Jews of Britain who live in a population of 64 million, a minuscule percentage of the population. Such a paltry number has condemned the supporters of Israel to being virtually overwhelmed by the growing Muslim community of Britain, with support for Israel falling precipitously as a result.
Even in France, where there are 500,000 Jews, they are outnumbered by a Muslim population of 5 to 6 million representing about 10% of the population.
But security issues aside, we Jews, whose biblical mandate is to be a light unto the nations, are meant to leave a mark on the world. Real influence, to be sure, depends more on quality than quantity, but even as the smallest of nations, Jews have arguably been the most influential over the long term.
Yet numbers still matter greatly. Just look at the United Nations as an example of how Israel is treated with contempt mostly because we are too small to influence a world body.
Kicking up Jewish numbers isn’t going to be easy, and vastly increasing the Jewish birthrate, as well as reversing assimilation, is vital. With intermarriage in the United States at 50%, millions of offspring in the world who have a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother are not considered halachically Jewish. But even with one Jewish parent, the connection is strong.
Should we not be approaching these people and inspiring them to connect with their Jewish roots? The same applies to hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions, of Europeans who stem from Jewish ancestry, like the growing community in Spain and Portugal of former Marranos. These people feel themselves to be partially ‘Jewish.’ but we allow them to founder and never connect them with the Jewish people, even though they have Jewish antecedents.
But it is high time we considered actively proselytizing non-Jews to Judaism. The number of people without any religion at all is a group to which we ought to offer Judaism as a monotheistic alternative and actively promote the Torah as the word of God.
Should they resist becoming Jewish because they are reluctant to embrace Judaism’s exacting standards of ritual observance, we can promote a confederation of Noachides, as the Bible calls them, men and women who identify with Jewish spirituality but do not embrace Judaism’s ritual tenets. In effect, these people would be explicitly adopting Jewish values without converting to Judaism.
We should fund billboards with Jewish teachings for non-Jews, offer classes in synagogues where gentiles can discover Jewish spiritual essentials, and engage in social media outreach to those unaffiliated with a faith.
There are likewise millions of Christians today who would be happy to discover the Jewishness of Jesus in order to better understand their own faith.
Two thousands years ago a still-mysterious man named Saul of Tarsus saw that the ideas and values behind Judaism were so rewarding that they could appeal to the entire world, if only they were stripped of Judaism’s tough ritual demands and embodied by a human god who was more comprehensible than Judaism’s invisible God. Thus, Christianity, and later Islam, was founded on Jewish spirituality. It’s time to facilitate access to the original source, not necessarily by converting others to Judaism – although this too must be a possibility – but also by reviving an ancient “associate” status that allows non- Jews to live lives deeply influenced by Jewish spiritually and values while retaining their own identity.
The American religious sociologist Rodney Stark explains in One True God, Historical Consequences of Monotheism that “Jews constituted 10% of the Roman world, and attracted many pagan God-fearers to their synagogues…. Jews in general and the synagogue in particular were attractive to non-Jews. The simplicity of Jewish theology (belief in the one God), the ethical standards (the Ten Commandments), and the many festivals exercised a certain fascination among many in the Greco-Roman world. Some made a full conversion to Judaism. Others remained in a kind of ‘associate’ status – what Luke in Acts refers to as ‘God-fearers’ – perhaps unwilling to take upon themselves the peculiarities of Judaism.
A vast movement existed in Rome before the birth of Christianity, based on an ancient concept called “Judaizers.” It is very likely that many of the non-Jews who embraced Christianity were first exposed to the Jewish scriptures and Judaism through their association with the urban Diaspora synagogues in the Roman Empire.”
Jewish values and spirituality can be integrated into their existing identities of practically all groups. Becoming a Judaizer would entail a seven-step program of living: 1. Observe Friday night as family night by tuning out all electronic interference and focusing on children, friends and community.
2. Eat kosher food (20% of Americans already look for kosher symbols as a symbol of cleanliness and purity) and separate milk from meat as a symbol of the affirmation of life and its negation of all forms of corrosion and death.
3. Celebrate the themes of the Jewish festivals. Passover Seders, which emphasize the human capacity to rise above material enslavement. (President Barack Obama already hosts his own annual Seder at The White House.) Dismissing material comforts by returning to the essentials of nature on Succot. Lighting lamps on Hanukka as a symbol of the human capacity of illuminate a dark earth and heal a painful life, etc.
4. Studying Judaism’s great texts, from the Torah portion of the week to selections of the Talmud to the epistles of Maimonides to mystical and kabbalistic works.
5. Observing the marriage laws, including the monthly barrier to sexual and erotic involvement, thereby enhancing desire and lust.
6. Appreciation of, and respect for, the feminine, including codes of alluring modesty for women and domesticity of men based on reinforcing marital commitment.
7. A commitment to acts of communal kindness like regular visits to hospitals and to homes for the elderly and giving 10% of one’s income to charity.
There is a definite need to offer Judaism as a religion to those who wish to become deeply committed, Torah-observant Jews.
If we could agree on moderate yet essential halachic norms of conversion that focus on observance of Shabbat and festivals, a kosher home, and the laws of Niddah (mikve and sexual purity), we could add millions to the Jewish people and strongly redress depleted Jewish numbers.
I envision a seven-week class offered every Wednesday night at 7 all over the world on the seven essential values and teachings of Judaism, a single curriculum that is promoted to non-Jews. The venues would be synagogues, schools, Jewish Community Centers and other Jewish educational centers.
A massive media campaign would be launched to promote Judaism as a way of life. Imagine billboards throughout the United States with a single teaching in one of four areas: child-rearing, happier marriages, spiritual purpose, and commercial and business ethics. The ads would be changed monthly and would be augmented by TV, radio and social media. People would get the message that Judaism has much wisdom to offer in the area of mastering life and finding purpose.
The campaign would funnel people into the weekly classes. From there people would decide which of the three categories most appeals to them: 1. Living a life of Jewish values as a non- Jew.
2. Being a Judaizer, an “associate Jew,” a practitioner of essential Jewish values and selected Jewish ritual, without becoming legally Jewish.
3. Formal conversion to Judaism.
It’s time for a true, worldwide push to offer the resources of Judaism as a religion to the world’s inhabitants that focuses not on heaven but on earth. Not on salvation but on redemption. Not on perfection but on spiritual struggle.
I believe that through this effort we could, in just 20 years, increase the number of Jews in the world from 14 million to 20 million, and push the number of fans of the Jewish people and Israel into the billions.
With Israel’s survival threatened on all sides, the time has come to promote a global Jewish spiritual effort that shuns Jewish insularity and promotes the Jewish people as a light unto the nations.
@ yamit82:
Maybe so, but you should take it up with HB.
— It was SHE who made the comment. (See post #44, prev pg) I merely blockquoted it to provide continuity when I responded with the NEXT comment.
But you do have a curious way of going off half-cocked (otherwise known as premature exclamajaculation). Gives you something in common with Saeb Erekat.
That’s because you’re hateful, Yamit, and most people are (to one degree or another) carbon copies. However, I’m an ORIGINAL, so your hatred is more focused on me than on them. I understand that, so I’m always ready for it.
But you will live under a curse (a very real one, I quite assure you) till you give up your hatred. It will dog your steps (to the grave) till you do.
@ honeybee:
Lots of folks who were born in the breach have learned to spell, HB. I know some personally. They came out feet first, and their English composition (every aspect of it, incl spelling) is quite accomplished.
I seriously doubt that a breach birth had anything to do with your childhood learning problem. MUCH more likely to be a factor of trauma caused by resentment of a cruel or insensitive teacher — or mother (or both).
Now you’re changing the subject away from childhood and to the present day.
In any case, however, the truth is that ANY “fun & artistic endeavor” has a boring side to it. Grownups understand that they have to do a little of the one to enjoy the other. It’s called personal discipline, and you can handle it.
dweller Said:
That’s a logica fallacy if I ever heard one and you are proof of that fallacy.
Would you have brain surgery from a surgeon who learned from reading without teachers? How about airline pilots? Would you fly with a pilot you overheard saying he learned from reading books and with instruction by professional teachers.
All knowledge is transferred from teacher to student,yes some rare individuals can become proficient through being autodidact but even here it’s very limited to very narrow disciplines and in the end most if not all are found wanting.
Maybe you liken yourself to an idiot savant? Before or after your lobotomy?
There are commenters here over the years I agreed with and those I disagreed but I have never hated anyone more than I have you. I consider you the epitome of evil.
dweller Said:
Who me an inercent Cowgirl ????????????????
dweller Said:
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha giggle !!!!!!!!!!!
dweller Said:
Mother was in labor 38 hrs, we almost died, I suffered oxygen deprivation, I am ambidextrous and right brained/
dweller Said:
@ honeybee:
Who in blazes told you THAT had anything to do with the price of onions?
Told you before, HB, you’re a big girl now.
If you can learn to read, and you can learn to cook
— then you can learn to spell.
dweller Said:
Learning disability due to a breach delivery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijsogLJvBB4
@ honeybee:
So then, why can’t you spell, Twinkie?
— I’ve told you the reason. Take it or leave it.
You just get off on being provocative.
Instead of taking the bait, however, I shredded it and handed it back to you.
In any event, I’ve answered your [above] question, HB.
If you reject it because you dislike it, I can’t help that.
— It is what it is.
dweller Said:
Anybody who can read doesn’t need a teacher, Sweetie. You just want to be “THE MAN” !!!!!!!!!!
@ honeybee:
The BABY is the teaching, the knowledge, the significant & legitimate info the teacher was trying to convey.
The BATHWATER is the vehicle; here, the teacher (impatient, corrupt, insensitive, or vile, etc) whom you — a young child lacking, as yet, the emotional wherewithal to separate (in her mind) the impatient teacher from the valid teaching — “pushed away” from your soul, and in the doing, inadvertently pushed away the teaching as well.
For a child, pushing away the knowledge was the only way to survive w/ her own sanity intact
— because at at that age, the only alternative was to let the vile teacher get inside her mind along WITH the teaching.
@ yamit82:
“Massive”? — YOU talk to ME about “massive”??? Amazing.
The only times my posts are long are those instances where I incorporate (via blockquoting) the comments I reply to. My own actual responses are not usually very long at all. Hardly ‘massive.’
You, OTOH, typically copy-&-paste HUMONGOUS amounts of other people’s essays & articles and pass them off as your own. The archives are clear as to whose stuff is a snowjob, and whose is truly massive.
Get a life, Yamit. Nobody rejects ‘everything’ that ANYBODY writes.
Congratulations. Ding ding ding ding ding! (Give that boy a kewpie doll!)
— You now have something in common with both Christians and Muslims. They BOTH use precisely the same lamebrained argument to explain why there are more of THEM than there are of Jews.
“Lies”? — what ‘lies’ — specifically — would those be?
— I haven’t told any lies here.
“Broad is the road and wide the gate. . . .
Yet narrow is the way and strait the gate. . . .”
yamit82 Said:
dweller Said:
Which is the baby, which is the bathwater. Make yourself clear. Some one over potty trained you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yamit82 Said:
I sent another version that I like much better, however the lyrics ring true: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us6Ex0FHlFE
@ Ted Belman:
Twitter account in name of Israpundit with your picture and the tweets link back to the phony israpundit.com
@ Not Ovenready:
Well said, but too forgiving for Boteach and his like. There are a growing number even here in Israel like Riskin.
My take on this phenomena is that money corrupts and christian evangelicals are dumping millions of dollars into Jewish causes and charities…. Halacha forbids taking money from pagans and christians, who are considered as pagans by most of our poskim.
To Quote “TorasMosheEmess”
See: comment #9
“Various gedolei hador have ruled that christianity is avodah zarah. In 1964, Rav Soleveichik zt”l ruled that, despite Vatican II, it was still forbidden to teach Torah to christians. He further forbade teaching them how to learn Torah or even to teach them lashon hakodesh. As it is prohibitted to teach idolators Torah, This can only mean that he considered them ovdei avodah zara: there is no other reasonable explanation.
Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l ruled at least twice that christians were idolators: he ruled that if one is in the middle of a shiur and a christian walks in, even though it is forbidden to teach them Torah, it is not neccessary to interrupt the shiur. As above, the only reason it would be forbidden to teach christians Torah would be if they were idolators; he also wrote a teshuva to a shailah whether it was permitted to teach a class to a group of reform children (since some of them would obviously be gentiles) that it was permitted because since those children attended a reform “temple” it was unlikely that they were idolators and that the need to teach Jewish children the Emess outweighed the (in this case) unlikely violation of the prohibition against teaching idolators. I can’t imagine that Reb Moshe was concerned about an Indianapolis “temple” being overrun by, say, buddhist or hindu children. Clearly he considered christians to be ovdei avodah zara.
More recently, within the past few years, Maran HaRav Yosef Sholom Eliyashiv zt”l has ruled on at least two seperate occasions, in very clear language, that christianity is avodah zara: A Jew planning a trip to Israel was asked by a christain bussiness associate if he would pray for him in Jeruslam. He wrote a shailah to Rav Eliyashiv to ask if this was permitted. Rav Eliyashiv responded with one sentence: it is prohibited to pray for an idolator. He also ruled that it was forbidden for Mosdot to accept money from the “International Fellowship of christians and Jews” (an organization almost entirely funded by christian churches) under the prohibition of accepting tzedaka from idolators”
@ rongrand:I have a twitter account in my name and one I am about to activate in the name of Israpundit. It used to be active.
Where ever israpundit.com or .net was used, it has now been changed to israpundit.org including in my email address.
Yamit, if Ted is not posting on Twitter then someone is posting under @Israpundit with his picture and the comments are linked back to the old hijacked website .com.
I emailed him and I get the feeling his email was likewise hacked.
It’s Sunday 8 AM and a twitter account in his name continues to post??
dweller Said:
If it is true then explain why same ignorant people reading your massive snow jobs reject everything you write.
Conclusion: My snow job is better than yours and more convincing??? Or is it that mine rings true and your lies and psychobabble are seen by all for what they are…. Rantings of a sicko fool!!!
@ honeybee:
I do neither. I just say what I see — without sugar-coating it.
But you confuse me with those who traumatized a little girl — thereby tempting her to resentment.
So she threw the baby out with the bathwater: pushed the teaching away, because for a child it was the only way to push the teacher away
— so she never learned to spell.
dweller Said:
@ yamit82:
Any time yamit82 wants to inquisit me, he know he just has to say the word. He has, “such a breath of knowledge”.
Shmuely loves the spotlight. And this move, which is a lightning rod for the spotlight, is so off the map it’s laughable. Quality trumps quantity. What we SHOULD be looking at are the Noahides and Christians who -ON THEIR OWN – are becoming disenchanted with Christianity and more interested in Judaism. In Zechariah 8-23, the 10 gentiles clasping the coattails of one Jew are doing so because they are convinced by what they see is going on around them, not because they fall under the spell of a Jewish missionary.
dweller Said:
I meant gnoniff because they take without giving.
dweller Said:
Could very well be Sweetie, but you scold more then teach !!!!!!!!!!
It is always funny or ironic that when someone comes up with an out of the box solution to try and help Israel some feel compelled not to evaluate the proposal on its merits but try and destroy the person. Certainly this attempted destruction of person and reputation does not come from the higher values of Judaism. Makes me wonder what possesses people to such destructive behavior! Certainly when it is a consistent pattern.
If one wants to see what Rabbi Boteach is about without reading his 30 books the following quotes from him provide great insight:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-shmuley-boteach/
@ yamit82:
You cannot put Rabbi Daniel Lapin in that category; you’re fullovit, boychik, clear up to your eyeballs.
The only reason you take this snooty view toward Lapin’s ‘level’ is that, unlike you, he maintains a cordial attitude toward self-professed Christians.
If you want the role of Jewish Grand Inquisitor, you clearly have the temperament for it — but you’re most definitely in the wrong faith community for such a position. There is NO “office of the inquisition” among Jews. The very concept is alien.
Perhaps you should check out the RC Church. They always choose old guys for the gig, so they may have an opening for it in a couple of years.
You already hum the melody. All you’d have to do is learn a different set of lyrics.
— Clever boy like you should be able to accomplish that in no time at all.
@ honeybee:
It would appear that the word you want here is shnorrers [“beggars”].
A “goniff” is a thief.
— I assume that that is NOT what you intended to convey (or is it?).
@ honeybee:
It is only your own ignorance that makes you so vulnerable to Yamit’s massive snowjob.
It isn’t merely that he’s so often wrong.
It’s that so much of what he ‘knows’
— isn’t so.
There are ways in which there is, in point of fact, less of the Jew in HIM than there is in YOU.
@ yamit82:
Thank you for your commentary on Torah. For me, the most attractive and beautiul part of Judaism is Torah. In Torah you can find the answer for everything that ails you in life. Spiritual uplifting if you are feeling a bit blue. It is the word of G-d and His prophets. Makes everything very clear to follow. I thank you again. Your comments are always uplifting.
Well, my original (lengthy) post got lost in moderation, so let me repeat it in brief…
Israel can at least re-convert those descended from those who were forcibly converted in the past, be they Anousim in Spain, Portugal and Latin America, the Lemba, the Igbo Jews of Nigeria, and maybe the lost Jews of Kaifeng.
Israel has already gone this route with the Falash Mura and B’nei Menasseh, plus non-Halachic “Jews” who immigrated from the USSR.
yamit82 Said:
That”s too much mustard, Darlin.
broom Said:
What would make them Jews in your opinion? A prick (no pun intended) and a dip?
If the reform and conservatives in America were not born into the tribe they would NOT be allowed in. We have them by default.
In the Book of Genesis (chapter 17) it’s written: “And I [G-d] will establish My covenant between Me and you [the Jewish people] and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.” The willingness of Israel to accept and obey the Torah was the reason for their election – helped maintain loyalty to tradition and to halachah in periods of stress and forced conversion to other religions. The Jewish mission statement is to make G-d known in the world. The world owes to Israel the idea of the one G-d of righteousness and holiness. This is how G-d became known to mankind.
“You alone have I singled out of all the families of the earth. That is why I call you to account for all your iniquities” (Amos 3:2).
Because of the Jews’ small numbers, any success they would have in making G-d known to the world would presumably reflect upon the power of the idea of G-d. Had the Jews been a large nation with an outstanding army, their successes in making G-d known would have been attributed to their might and not to the truth of their ideas. After all, non-Muslims living in the Arab world were hardly impressed by the large numbers of people brought to Islam through the sword.
yamit82 Said:
Its delicious on Russian rye with a little smear of mustard.
yamit82 Said:
For a moment I thought you lost you sense of humor, I love Tom Lehrer.
@ broom:
More than likely, Confucianism, which is a system moderated thought and not a religion at all, could well overtake and swamp all the religions of the West.
When I was a 16-year-old kid in Chicago, in the summer of 1950, I got a job delivering food orders for a Chinese restaurant via bicycle. I must have been the only white kid in Chicago who was employed by Chinese people. It was one of the interesting encounters of my life. They find western religions interesting, in about the same way that people can be captivated by collecting postal stamps.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
@ broom:
More than likely, Confucianism, which is a system moderated thought and not a religion at all, could well overtake and swamp all the religions of the West.
When I was a 16-year-old kid in Chicago, in the summer of 1950, I got a job delivering food orders for a Chinese restaurant via bicycle. I must have been the only white kid in Chicago who was employed by Chinese people. It was one of the interesting encounters of my life. They find western religions interesting, in about the same way that people can be captivated by collecting postal stamps. Han Buddhism is about as close and any large numbers of them get to formalized religion.
Yes indeed. They taught me how to eat correctly with chopsticks.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
If you want to proselytize Judaism and get more Jews in the world, the #1 place to do it is China. The Chinese have no history of anti-Semitism and they really need a new and improved moral compass. They would be prime fodder for Judaism. And if just 2% of the Chinese converted, we would have an additional 30 million Jews in the world.
The perfect Jews among us are always making sure that the rest of us with flaws are judged by them and excluded from the tribe.
Bear Klein Said:
With many more defenders like him we will soon have to close up shop.
With Boteach, it is difficult to know if he wrote this provocative book and articles because he’s genuinely passionate about the scholarly discussion it has generated or if he just lusts after the spotlight. Still, playing up his friendship with the late Michael Jackson and very passively campaigning to be the next Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth???? Boteach knows that every Orthodox rabbi and scholar — from Chabad Lubavitch to the haredim – who attack “Kosher Jesus” as blasphemous, and its author as a heretic, are only helping his book sales and lots of invitations to speak before christian groups for a hefty fee.
“Kosher Jesus” – A Book Review By Eli Cohen
A Must Read!!!!!
Kosher Jesus: judging a book by its cover
Boteach is a great defender of Israel!
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183787#.VAoPq2Pp-oM
This rabbi does not represent the majority of Orthodox Jews. I read his book. He believes that Jesus was a failed Messiah. I don’t think he was the Messiah – or even tried to be the Messiah. I believe he knew he was not. This rabbi suggests to use christian methods by evangelizing – WRONG THING TO DO. THAT GOES AGAINST THE CORE OF JUDAISM.
Rabbi’s are panicking. They feel responsible for the plight of the Jewish people. They are trying to find any ‘attractive’ way to bring Jews back to shul.
honeybee Said:
You can’t re-judaize what was never Jewish in the first place.
The idea is not to make them good Jews but good non christian gentiles who leave the Jews alone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6RbfaoX5Hw
Most of all, we have wondered how could a civilized world with liberal humanistic values choose the women-honor-killing, gay-murdering, free-speech-suppressing Hamas terrorist death cult over democratic Israel.
I had never before heard of this fellow. But he caused me to lose all interest in him the moment I read the crap cited above.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
@ honeybee:
As per our discussion on ISIS: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/waiting-for-the-barbarians/
yamit82 Said:
I told you, Sugar Darlin, it is my mission on earth to Re-Judaize Christians. Know your enemies!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or as TX is fond of say, ” what the h-ll are you up to now, woman”, as I watch. You would think he doesn’t trust me.
honeybee Said:
Most of those messianic rabbis are not only not rabbis they aren’t even Jews, just posing as Jews and changing their names from Jones or some other gentile name to to Cohen etc.
From an ex christian missionary minister who converted to Judaism and is now an orthodox rabbi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NUylyDsE-c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPJzV0fVS70
There is a short-to medium term middleground, which is to convert the Anousim, and the other groups which have been forcibly converted from Judaism over the centuries.
Israel has already conceded this point – notice how people who are not Halachically Jewish from the former USSR were absorbed, as well as the Falash Mura and the B’nei Menasseh.
There are tens of thousands of people in Africa – Lembas and Igbo Jews come to mind – whose customs and DNA/RNA clearly show ancient links to Judaism. My guess is that there are tens or even hundreds of thousands more in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America, who could show similar linkage. This might get you 500,000 more Jews.
The one problem with converting 10+ million people to Judaism (apart from the Halachic issues) is the possibility that so many might want to end up in Israel.
Israel and New Jersey are the same size, and have similar populations (and for those who do not know, I live in New Jersey). Ultimately, how many people can an Israel of 20,000 sq. km support – or even 30,000 sq. km. if you absorb all of Judea and Samaria (when much of the country is the Negev)?
Best guess is 2,500 people/sq. mile., or about 1,000/sq. km. So if you assume 1967 lines plus the nearby settlements (to be conservative), you are talking maybe 22 million people. Israel, at present demographic growth rates and the present (limited) immigration, will reach that by about 2080. If you assume that most of Europe’s 1 million Jews end up in Israel, it will reach it much sooner.
As for the world Jewish population reaching 20 million, it should reach 16 million by 2035 just from Israeli Jewish growth alone. As the number of Orthodox and Hasidim grow, their high birthrates will also compensate for losses from secular and non-Orthodox Jews, and cause growth elsewhere. In fact, the Jewish population of the UK is estimated to have grown from 270,000 up to 290,000 (his figure is wrong) due to this demographic phenomenon.
@ yamit82:
Can I compliment you without having my stinger yanked out. You have the most amazing ” breath of knowledge”, when it comes to the Torah. Do you teach ?? Now all you need to do is make chili properly.
PS I can mince an egg!!!!!!!!! Who loves ya baby !!!!!!!!!!!!
@ mar55:
He is one of themost popular rabbis in America. The christians love him and the Jooos don’t know any better he is on the level of Lappin. making money and shmoozing with Obama and the rich and famous is their game. 🙁
What Boteach forgot to mention: Maybe he never learned this part of the Torah?
Boteach seems to have not processed: ‘our Sages’ “understanding of G-d is based exclusively on His Words and Actions, as related in its pages alone. If we were to accept that the G-d of Israel subsequently bestowed upon the Gentile nations Revelation concerning His Nature, His Message and His Expectations, as expressed through the Christian New Testament and/or the Islamic Koran, each of which seek to annul, modify and add neologisms to the passages of the Hebrew Bible, then we would be transgressing yet another Commandment of the Torah. For, as the G-d of History, in anticipation of this Day, long ago warned His people:”
“The Entire Word that I command you: that shall you observe to do; you shall not add to it and you shall not subtract from it.” (Deuteronomy 13:1).
christians love to quote (out of context) Isiah 53 as a proof text but are ignorant of the rest of Isiah, I wonder if Boteach understands Isiah like:
If he wants more Jews stop assimilation and intermarriage and encourage Aliyah. That seems like a more practical solution to what’s bothering him. Knowing his Jews in the Galut I can see why he has not considered it seriously and not for himself as well…
Real Rabbis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlJtjIjpeEs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZW-NKGXFGg
@ yamit82:
Another long story in the adventures of honeybee. I can’t get TV here, so have subscribed to Direct TV. One can program the TV to turn on to a specific channel. And I, like the dolt I am, miss programed the TV. So first thing in the morning, instead of FX 360, I receive Messianic TV at 363. I have tried everything I know to un program the TV, but 363 always returns. So ,out of curiosity, I watch. Oy vey those “rabbis” what a group of gonoffs and always passing the hat.
@ yamit82:
yamit: Where did you find this “evangelical” preacher? Listening to him twist judaism in anyway he wants. If he is Jewish I’m the Mona Lisa.
When challenged he sounds like a flip-floper.
Send him to the evangelicals ant tell him to stay with them. What a disgrace!
He probably makes money talking …
Boteach is an atheist hiding behind the title of rabbi. He is a christianized American fool and a ‘rabbi’ (sic,) of little faith displaying weak scholarship. He may sound authoritative only to the uninitiated and ignorant Jews and gentiles.
Long ago he decided making money at the expense of his Jewishness was most important. In other words he sold out. With rabbis like him what can one expect from ignorant Jews? Hari Krishna must seem pretty enticing to stupid Jews when they hear Boteach and read his crap in print.
It’s never been numbers that counted with Jews but their zealousness in practicing authentic Judaism and that does not include fools and charlatans like Boteach who’s motives I sincerely question along whit his scholarship and devotion to traditional Judaism as handed down to us by Chazal.
Tovia Singer debates Shmuley Boteach: Is Jesus Kosher?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV8vWxXC5gU