Watch the clip about Gvaot Olam oil prospecting partnership's special meeting. I like the part where Luskin (the American investor) calls one the partners "Ben Belial (son of the devil), Amalek (the Biblical enemy of Israel)". This is a company who searches for oil in Israel following the late Lubavitcher Rabbi's directions. Yesterday, its shares lost 25% of their worth. They found oil and much gas, but it is not commercially exploitable.
Bezeq paid out a nice dividend. I am collecting Bank HaPoali, shares hoping for a large dividend in May 2011. The Shekel is strengthening and the dollar inflating rapidly. American real estate is becoming cheap, many Israeli developers are buying in New York. I am doing it through a Discount company - the one that is building in Las Vegas a megalomaniac phantasy hotel.
18 comments:
I thought that they had miraculously found oil due to the predictions of the Rebbe, despite all the experts who said there was none. I guess it wasn't such a miracle after all and that when drilling for oil you should heed the geologists and not the Rebbe. I would not take spiritual advice from a geologist, nor should you do the opposite.
I would avoid investing in Las Vegas - it is highly overbuilt and more and more states are approving their own casinos. They just opened a casino here in Philadelphia. Why would I fly 2,000 miles to lose money when I can lose my money right here in my own backyard?
K
Perhaps the Rebbe's timeframe was different. When the Moshiach comes, those oil fields will be very profitable.
Are you Rashkov kidding? The Rebbe IS the Moshiach. Didnt you know ..?
Ah of course. Well I was under the impression that even Chabadniks are divided on the issue. Thankfully the Rabbis at the Chabad houses I visit never take it to that level of crazy, not in public anyway. It seems like more of a private belief for them.
Hey they asked the Rebbe if there is oil in Israel. Next time ask the Rebbe if the oil found is commercially viable.
It would be hard to receive an answer considering that the Rebbe is dead and there is no successor Rebbe (why that is is another discussion), but then again a lot of Lubavitchers don't accept that he is really dead and not just waiting to reveal himself as Moschiach.
K
but then again a lot of Lubavitchers don't accept that he is really dead and not just waiting to reveal himself as Moschiach.
That sounds somewhat like the story of Zabbatai Zevi and the Donme.
Speaking of the Lubavitchers I just discovered <a href="http://chabadofmesa.com>this</a> in my online journeys.
Rashkov, I take it you don't like to pay to pray.
What the hell? I need to be far more careful in formatting my HTML code.
I can think of another guy whose followers thought was the Messiah with the ability to rise from the dead. His initials were J.C.
Jewish history is not free from heresies - heresies and spinoffs (and one man's cult is another man's religion) are a feature of almost all religions. But it's frightening in that Chabad is the self-appointed guardian of the future of the Jewish religion - I wouldn't want them to drive what's left of religious Judaism off a cliff.
K
That is correct: I do not pay to pray. I am young, broke and not that committed to this whole business. Chabad presents a non-existing barrier to participate. But now I live in New York city, and there are plenty of orthodox shuls I could go to for young people who do not join congregations. I should probably explore a bit.
Rashkov, the thought of paying to ray came to mind after a conversation with my mother. MY mother works at one of the Curves exercise shops and at the Curves she works at a little old Jewish woman comes in who mentions that she is too broke to afford $350 to attend a high holy days ceremony. One major Jewish holiday in a month might be doable on her small income, but two in one month is more than she can afford, and that is in addition to the regular synagogue fees.
K, the Donme came to mind, but I wasn't trying to be insulting. You would be interested to know that Zevi claimed he was fill with the Holy Spirit.
Yeah I guess Chabad can pull it off because they have a lot of wealthy donors.
What was Zvi going to say - that he was forced to convert on threat of death? The human capacity to rationalize is infinite, even to the point of denying something as obvious and irreversible as death (see Monty Python parrot sketch - "the Rebbe ain't dead, 'es just sleepin'"
Long ago I learned "TINSTAAFL" - there is no such thing as a free lunch. Chabad got their hands on my cousin's son who had a normal secular American Jewish upbringing, not a frum family. They offered him a free Shabbat dinner. Now he too is studying to be a rebbe at a Lubavitch yeshiva. They married him off to another baal tshuva girl (they won't give you a girl from a real frum family). His father is a wealthy real estate developer. Surely all his millions are now headed to the coffers of Chabad.
The ironic thing is that my mother's family in Galicia was quite frum before WWI, so in less than a century they have gone full circle from frum to more or less secular to back to frum.
K
Zevi claimed he was filled with the Holy Spirit two years after his conversion to Islam. Zevi's claim is part of his larger wiki article here.
Yeah, I am well aware of how these "kiruv" outreach organizations work. Chabad is not the only one. On my college campus there was a Yeshivish outreach organization that paid students $400 to attend their series of 12 lectures, and several away shabbatons. I actually had them set me up with an Israel trip for $400 with some organization out of California named JAM (Jewish Awareness Movement). This was in 2005, and as of now about 10 of the 50 kids on that trip are frum and married.
Thanks God we have warm Jews with resources to fund these programs. It is money well invested.
You really think it is a good investment to take people who would have been productive citizens and turn them into parasites?
When all the Jewish bochers are davening in the yeshiva, who will provide the money?
K
I'm late to the party, but I will still take the opportunity to second K's last point. J is just delusional about this issue.
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