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Audio Clips from Online Class - Summer '08
Participants sitting in the Minnesota classroom and watching from around the world submitted their questions during this three-hour Q & A session with Rabbi Manis Friedman. Half-hour segments of the class are posted below, with a list of the questions addressed.
Thank you to Lizzie Shupak for generously sponsoring the broadcast.
To sponsor an upcoming live class, please email
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or call 800.473.4801 (outside US & Canada: 718.604.0088). |
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Part 1 Mashiach, Marriage, Religious Dogma |
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1. If I accept the premise that Mashiach is coming, it feels schizophrenic to think that we’re on the verge of a perfect existence and yet we have to deal with worldly things – some of them quite difficult, even painful. How do I achieve a feeling of normalcy or balance, until we “reach the finish line”?
2. In a marriage, is it better to be opposites and complement each other; or to be similar so that you can see life the same way and react to situations in similar ways?
3. Why am I having such a difficult time relating to the majority of religious Jewish people? – they seem unhappy, not genuine, separatist and caught in superficial religious dogma. How can I reverse the “burden” I feel in my bones about being religious, and just connect with G-d in my own way? |
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Part 2 Honoring Parents, Dreams, Body & Soul, Bashert, Loss
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1. Do the laws of honoring one’s parents apply to a convert and their biological parents?
2. Is there anything to worry about if you have a recurring dream?
3. How can a person determine whether what their partner is expressing is what they need or just what they want?
4. What happens to a soul when a body dies?
5. How can you tell whether or not another person is one’s bashert? What are some of the ways one can ascertain this? How does one choose the right person to marry?
6. How do you cope with grief of a loss that you can’t talk about – like a failed pregnancy or fertility treatment? |
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Part 3 Hair Covering, Health, G-d, Peace, Folk Wisdom, Dating
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1. Covering your hair is supposed to be more modest. What if your wig is more beautiful than your hair and you’re more attractive to men that way? Are you still considered more modest?
2. What are the laws about health in the Mishna Torah? Please describe the guidance offered in the Mishna Torah regarding health? …What is the “Mishna” Torah?
3. I’m struggling with the anthropomorphication/personification of G-d. Speaking about G-d as a person (with personal qualities) has become quite alienating to me. How do I resolve this conflict?
4. How can I improve the shalom bayit in my (parents’) home? How can I help my parents get along?
5. How would you analyze the portrayal of religious thought (analogies, teaching stories, received wisdom) as mere “folk wisdom” vs. a scientific worldview that may accurately describe the world. Very interested to hear your thoughts because as a rabbi you are so highly regarded for both religiosity and wisdom.
6. How can I make sure that when I’m dating I focus on making my decision with my needs in mind, and not on what other people feel or think, or what sounds good or looks good in the eyes of my peers? |
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Part 4 Jewish Conflict, Transplants, Cults, Special Needs, Healing
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1. I’m so distressed by all the conflict among various Jewish communities. What can we do to increase unity? I suspect that this will have to come through Jewish women! So what concrete steps can each of us take to bring all of us closer together in spite of our different observances, opinions, politics, etc.
2. I received a double-lung transplant and I need to know if these days, it’s kosher to donate organs. Something in me is against it and yet I’m alive because of it
3. One of the Islamic men who helped fund the 911 attack on the Twin Towers lives in NY and recently placed advertisements broadcasting Islam’s religious message throughout the entire NY subway system.
4. What’s so wrong with cults? How can we believe that they are wrong if often they indeed bring people closer to a higher power in the world, and move them to feel and believe and act more religious
5. I have a special needs sibling (mentally retarded amongst other things) and it’s hard. I don’t feel inspired that I have a “special soul” in my family. I’m not a parent, that I can tell myself, “this is the soul that was given to me, it’s perfect already, etc.” Any thoughts that can help?
6. What does Judaism say about “time healing” especially after losing a spouse? |
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Part 5 Marriage, Bashert, Parents, Faith, Suffering, Reincarnation, Dating |
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1. How does a couple get closer when one wants to grow Jewishly and the other doesn’t?
2. If a couple gets divorced and is happier in the second marriage,does that the mean the second spouse is their bashert, or was the first marriage (the terrible one) the bashert one?
3. Isn’t the Jewish way of bringing children up a little bit like brain washing or extreme indoctrination like for example singing “Hashem is here Hashem is there?
4. How do you have faith that things will work out in the end when that seems so far away?
5. How do you reconcile the fact that there is suffering in this world with the notion of a benevolent and omnipotent G-d?
6. After someone passes away how long does it take for their soul to go down to another body?
7. Is there something that can speed up the dating process and shrink the amount of men we date? |
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To be notified about the next live class, email
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
To sponsor an upcoming live class, please email
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or call 800.473.4801 (outside US & Canada: 718.604.0088).
Thank you to all who participated in the "Question and Answer" session with Rabbi Manis Friedman broadcast live from Bais Chana at the women's summer retreat in Minnesota. Participants joined from across the US, as well as Canada, Panama, South America, Israel, Australia and the UK.
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