I saw this (Satmar Rebbe Blames Cancer on Make-Up) in the Forward the other day. I don't know what's worse, that someone with enough Torah-learning to have acquired the title 'Rabbi" can actually spout such primitive rubbish or that the sheep who follow him actually believe it. Are they the same religion as me? In Deuteronomy 4:6, God bids us adhere to the Torah & its precepts, "for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, that, when they hear all these statutes, shall say: 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'" Only when people see that the Satmar Rebbe blames cancer on cosmetics, they'll say 'Surely this nation is a bunch of fu--ing idiots." I love it (not) when the Torah is made into a thing to be mocked and jeered at. What a terrible desecration of God's Name! Like the Talmud says (Berachot 19b, to be precise), "Wherever the Name [God's] is desecrated, one does not honor the rabbi."
Aside #1: Having proudly served for 11 years in the IDF reserves and being the proud father of a 17-year-old who is in the process of registering for his eventual conscription into the IDF, I have zero sympathy for the Satmars' virulent anti-Zionism and xenophobia toward just about anyone who is not like them or pretty close to being like them. Too many centuries in exile, in the Diaspora, away from the Land of Israel our mother, physically and conceptually, has warped their view of Torah, as it has nearly all o'dox Jews, them worst of all.
Aside #2: The little (110 gram) container of local cottage cheese I had with my fresh fruit & veggy lunch has three kashrut certifications on it!
And o'dox Jews thing the Israelite Samaritans are weird??!!
The books that I ordered are still at my parents' house in the US. Mom is not doing so well & Dad hasn't gotten around to mailing them off. At least I know where they are & that they're not lost in the mail in transit somewhere.
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