freemindfade - Lump in my throat !! Great news !!
AFRIKANMAN
JoinedPosts by AFRIKANMAN
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40
Wife is Awake
by freemindfade infollowing the news of stuckinarut2, over the past few months my wife has completely mentally woken up.
i've been meaning to post but haven't had the time.
i saw stuckins post and i figured i'd add my news too.
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AFRIKANMAN
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Moscow City Court JW Restriction Verdict Today - 16-Jan-2017
by Da.Furious inon jw.org this is the first paragraph on the 12 january news on russia:.
on january 16, 2017, jehovah’s witnesses in russia will again seek to counter the decade-long tightening of restrictions on their religious freedom.
they will ask the moscow city court to rule that a warning against their national headquarters be rescinded as unlawful and unfounded.
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AFRIKANMAN
"We have been asked to pray for the Brothers who are bringing the case in front of the judges and that Jehovah may assist his people."
Why should the help always come when the Do-Do has already hit the fan - why couldn't it be prevented prior to escalating to this point? ......................Or will it be spun that this is Jah testing their faith?
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How to reply when someone asks about your spiritual health
by RodrigoGuerreiro infirst of all, sorry if i cannot correctly express the original expression used in my native language to ask for the "spiritual condition".. a few years ago some member of the family asks my wife directly how is her "spiritual health" (for me it's one of the many strange vocabulary used by jw like "the slave says...").
she was catched by surprise with the direct question and says that everything is ok... and luckily someone call them for lunch.. my question is: do you have any good answers for that question?
you can be ironic/use some humor because the question is a little bit anecdotical .
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AFRIKANMAN
"Currently I am suffering from ADD ........Acute Doctrinal Distress .........How do you measure your spiritual health?'"
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Trump names son-in-law as Chief White House advisor.
by AFRIKANMAN indonald trump on monday named son-in-law jared kushner as senior white house advisor, rewarding the man widely credited as the brains behind his election but courting serious legal and ethical concerns..
the baby-faced real estate developer and magazine publisher who turns 36 on tuesday, will be the youngest top member of the administration, working closely with chief of staff reince priebus and chief strategist steve bannon..
"jared has been a tremendous asset and trusted advisor throughout the campaign and transition and i am proud to have him in a key leadership role in my administration," announced the republican president-elect..
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AFRIKANMAN
Donald Trump on Monday named son-in-law Jared Kushner as senior White House advisor, rewarding the man widely credited as the brains behind his election but courting serious legal and ethical concerns.
The baby-faced real estate developer and magazine publisher who turns 36 on Tuesday, will be the youngest top member of the administration, working closely with chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon.
"Jared has been a tremendous asset and trusted advisor throughout the campaign and transition and I am proud to have him in a key leadership role in my administration," announced the Republican president-elect.
The appointment was announced two days before Trump is set to give his first news conference since the November election, in which he will detail plans for his own company and potential conflicts of interest while in the White House.
Kushner, who is married to Trump's eldest daughter Ivanka, was credited with masterminding a data-driven campaign that focused on message tailoring and harnessing social media to an unprecedented extent.
The transition said that Kushner, whom Forbes estimates is worth $1.8 billion with his parents and brother, will forego his salary while serving in the administration.
The announcement made no direct reference to nepotism laws or other potential conflicts of interest for which Kushner has hired a legal team.
A federal law, passed after then-president John F. Kennedy appointed his brother as attorney general, prohibits any president from hiring a relative.
- Will resign as CEO -Given Trump's reliance on Kushner, advisors have already spent weeks saying there could be more leeway for a White House rather than a cabinet job.
But The New York Times at the weekend spotlighted what it called the "ethical thicket" that Kushner would have to navigate while advising his father-in-law on policy that could affect his business holdings.
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How to believe you deserve to relax
by rebel8 ini was brainwashed to believe you generally shouldn't relax much.. demons can enter you if you meditate or even relax your brain too much for one second.
always be on guard.. scriptures criticizing laziness were repeated often.
https://www.openbible.info/topics/laziness "be kind to yourself" and all that.. you need to strenuously exert yourself for jehoopla and you're worthless if you don't.. most forms of fun were extinguished.
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AFRIKANMAN
Lovely topic ..................a massive alternative to some recent postings on the forum !
So in the target rebel8 and the rest of you!
I too have gotten into Meditation and Mindfulness practice - Very necessary post the deep depression I was in for 30 months from 2010 onward.
I am also privileged to be living very near the sea and can go swimming* every morning - "they" say its great for the Vega Nerve system.
Nevertheless I continue fight off a lot of anger toward the movement which I have to work hard at to overcome.
*Dalebrook, Tidal Pool [Cape Town]
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Williams sister got engaged to some guy from Reddit
by wozza inso is he a witness or if not what are gb going to do about it since she identifies with the watchtower society?.
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AFRIKANMAN
Does any of this really matter ................???
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What Was Your Favorite Kingdom Song?
by minimus infunny but for whatever reason, i can't stop singing walking in integrity from the old songbook!
it's in my head and in my opinion it was one of the few songs i really liked..
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AFRIKANMAN
minimus The Integrity song was a favorite too - It always reminded me of this classic :
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Are jehovahs witnesses blood guilty for teaching and preaching false doctrine?
by atomant inlm curious to know how others feel about this subject.for me its blatently obvious the gb make things up as time passes by and the sheep bow down with blind obedience without questioning.lts like the blind leading the blind..
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AFRIKANMAN
Blood Guilty ? .......................according to whose standard of measure?
According to their OWN ! Yes !
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"It is the victims right to approach authorities" The weak excuse used by the society
by stuckinarut2 inwe have seen that the society falls back on the line "it is the victims right to approach the authorities" during all the abuse claims.. they use this excuse to try and defend the passive lack of action in failing to report suspected cases of abuse.. a comparison came to mind:.
if we came across a person lying in the street who says they were hit by a car, would we say "it is your absolute right to call the paramedics and police"?.
or would we take the initiative and call those authorities ourselves to help the person?.
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AFRIKANMAN
Great Points here all of you ! -
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Does the Torah endorse genocide?
by AFRIKANMAN inhttp://www.jpost.com/not-just-news/ask-the-rabbi-does-the-torah-endorse-genocide-473646.
this obligation not only demands to “never forget” amalek’s crime but also requires that the israelites “expunge amalek’s remembrance from under heaven.” .
if, after the holocaust, jews adopted a mandate to never forget, then perhaps no biblical commandment discomfits modern jews more than the decree to exterminate the nation of amalek.this obligation not only demands to “never forget” amalek’s crime – a ruthless attack on the weary israelites following the exodus – but also requires that the israelites “expunge amalek’s remembrance from under heaven.”.
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AFRIKANMAN
http://www.jpost.com/Not-Just-News/Ask-the-Rabbi-Does-the-Torah-endorse-genocide-473646
This obligation not only demands to “never forget” Amalek’s crime but also requires that the Israelites “expunge Amalek’s remembrance from under heaven.”
If, after the Holocaust, Jews adopted a mandate to never forget, then perhaps no biblical commandment discomfits modern Jews more than the decree to exterminate the nation of Amalek.
This obligation not only demands to “never forget” Amalek’s crime – a ruthless attack on the weary Israelites following the Exodus – but also requires that the Israelites “expunge Amalek’s remembrance from under heaven.”The Bible takes this imperative quite seriously, as evidenced by King Saul losing his throne for warring with Amalek yet sparing their king and animals. The Talmud asserts that Saul had ethical misgivings in fulfilling the commandment: “Did their children and animals also sin?” he wondered. Yet the Sages dismissed his claim because of his own shortcoming, noting that Saul would later not hesitate to kill the women, children and animals of Nob because the city had aided his rival, David.
Nonetheless, the qualms articulated in the Talmud prove that moderns are not the first to have misgivings over the biblical imperative.
In fact, Louis Feldman has shown that similar qualms are displayed in the first-century writings of Philo and Josephus.
Feldman accentuates the challenge by noting that while there are several parallel quests in other ancient cultures to exterminate enemies of a given time, not one of them demands the destruction of a people and their descendants for eternity. This eternal vengeance seemingly goes against the notion of biblical justice. As the halachist Rabbi Avraham Bornstein asked, “The seed of Amalek is punished for the sins of their fathers. But the Torah itself writes, ‘Fathers shall not be put to death for children, neither shall children be killed for their fathers.’” Many commentators throughout the centuries have sought to provide apologetic yet genuinely held explanations for this commandment. As Prof. Avi Sagi has documented, Jewish exegetes never relied on divine fiat as a moral validation for this command. They believed this commandment could stand on moral grounds and therefore tried to explain God’s decree.
Many commentators, such as Abravanel, sought to justify Amalek’s destruction because of its historical wickedness in utterly violating just war standards. They pointed to Amalek’s vicious attack on the weak Israelites who, after the Exodus, posed no threat to it. Accordingly, the harshness of its punishment would serve as a moral protest and deterrent to such evil deeds.
Others, like Nahmanides, asserted that Amalek poses a constant challenge to God’s dominion over this world, following in the footsteps of its ancestor Esau.
A different strand of interpreters, including rabbis Samson Raphael Hirsch and Tzadok of Lublin, understood the passages more symbolically. They perceived the Amalekite-Israelite battle as a figurative representation of the eternal struggle between good and evil. Yet as Rabbi Ya’acov Medan has noted, these interpretations justify the eternal commandment by neutralizing the moral qualms of the bloodshed it would entail.
Some contemporary writers, however, have noted that the threat of actual warfare has long been defused in the halachic tradition. For starters, some commentators believe that the commandment is applicable only in the messianic era. More significantly, many point to the tradition that Sennacherib mixed various peoples and thereby eternally prevented any ability to identify an ethnic Amalekite.
Some ultra-nationalists have countered that in a tribute to Jewish sovereignty delivered 11 years after the Holocaust, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik applied the Amalek decree to any nation, such as Nazi Germany, which sets out to eliminate the Jewish people. Yet in an overlooked interview with Stanley Boylan, Soloveitchik clarified that this was inapplicable to innocent offspring or spouses. This approach draws from the writings of Maimonides, who suggested that the commandment to kill Amalek was contingent on their refusal to repent. Maimonides drew from certain midrashim that indicated that an ethnic Amalekite could even convert. Indeed, the Talmud asserts that descendants of Haman studied Torah in Bnei Brak! The moral apologetics and halachic argumentation go a long way in neutralizing the fundamentalism that might grow from this commandment. Nonetheless, it still presents ethical challenges to even the greatest of sages. Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein once recalled how in a stage of adolescent doubt regarding these types of moral challenges, he gained strength from reading that the great talmudist Reb Chaim Soloveitchik would regularly arise early to see if a woman had abandoned her unwanted child on his doorstep. Lichtenstein concluded that if Reb Chaim, with his deep moral care for a baby, managed to “live deeply with the totality of Halacha,” including that of killing Amalekite children, then so could he. Not through less ethical sensitivity, but through an even greater faith in a beneficent God.■ The author directs the Tikvah Overseas Students Institute and is a presidential doctoral fellow at Bar-Ilan University Law School. Facebook.com/RabbiShlomoBrody