Rabbi Shmuley Unleashed

By
now we’ve all heard the criticisms of President Obama receiving the
Nobel Peace Prize just a little too early. But Judaism and Jewish
values offer a unique perspective on the controversy that others have
missed. Let me explain by first prefacing with my own grave
disappointment in the steady decline of a once mighty prize.

I
grew up in awe of the Nobel peace prize and its noble recipients. This
award was simply amazing, an acknowledgement on the part of our
civilization that peace is life’s highest end, fraternity humanity’s
greatest goal. I read books on the prize and its recipients. I gave my
kids quizzes on the winners and the year in which they received the
prize. I went so far as to establish at Oxford University an annual
lecture that could only be delivered by winners of the prize. Endowed
during the 1990′s by philanthropist Edmund Safra, the lecture was
delivered to capacity audiences by such luminaries as Elie Wiesel,
winner in 1986, Joseph Rotblat, winner in 1995, Shimon Peres &
Yitzhak Rabin, winners in 1994, and most significantly Mikhail
Gorbachev, winner in 1990.

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America
continues to be gripped by Jon and Kate Gosselin whose marriage has now
gone belly up and whose TV show seems to be following suit. After TLC
informed Jon that he will no longer play a significant role in the
show, he informed TLC that he is pulling the plug on his children’s
participation. Many cried foul. Was this a form of perverse payback?
Was he pulling his kids from the show for the right reasons or was it a
selfish comeuppance?

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Rabbi Shmuley Boteach was online with WashingtonPost.com readers on Friday, Oct. 2, at 1 p.m. ET to
discuss his book, The Michael Jackson Tapes, which is an account of his
recorded conversations with the pop star as his spiritual advisor that
took place in 2000 and 2001 and explore Jackson’s feelings about fame,
family and relationships. In addition, Boteach will address the latest
news about the leaked L.A. coroner’s autopsy report which states that
Jackson was a “fairly healthy” 50-year-old before he died of an
overdose.

____________________

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: Hi. It’s Rabbi Shmuley. Thank you all for
joining us this afternoon. It’s the eve of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot
and I wish everyone a very joyous holiday. I look forward to your
questions and comments.

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You’ve
got to admire Jimmy Carter. No matter how wrong he is, no matter how
many times he is refuted, no matter how inane his ramblings, he just
keeps on coming back for more. Forget the fact that he was eviscerated
in a landslide election where the American people overwhelmingly voted
to shoo him from the presidency. And forget the fact that historians
and the public rate him as arguably the worst president of all time.
Carter doesn’t seem to have gotten the message. We’re stuck with him
forever. He just won’t go away.

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