Hi, my name is Yehoishophot Oliver.
I’m an Orthodox Jew affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. I’m also a rabbi. This is my blog commenting on current events.
The explanation for my site name: I believe that our society is in the throes of a weltanschauung kampf, a “worldview struggle”. This is a titanic struggle of worldviews between a secularist, hedonistic, neo-pagan culture associated with leftist, liberal, feminist ideological influences and biblical and faith-based conservative, traditionalist, pro-chastity, pro-marriage, pro-family forces on the other. Obviously, I identify with the latter.
Yes, the situation is in many ways far more complex, and there is much overlap and nuance between these two extremes. For instance, some people are traditional but secular, while others are in some ways religious but very liberal. Some apparently secular folks are advancing some genuinely worthy agendas, while other ostensibly religious folk are advocating for fundamentally secularist causes. So to say there’s a clear-cut, black-and-white situation of “us versus them” is an oversimplification.
Still, society is struggling mightily between these conflicting and polarizing influences:
- Even many strong traditionalists feel the tempting pull of the siren song of the new atheism and are often left with their mouths hanging open when it comes to defending their faith against very aggressive ideological attacks.
- Conversely, many secularists sense the vain emptiness in modern pop culture and seek roots, purpose, and Absolute Truth.
In this blog, I hope to explore these issues while drawing on the wisdom of Orthodox Judaism, presenting its timeless teachings as a source for moral guidance in our turbulent times.
Some posts will focus on the Orthodox Jewish community in particular, some on the general Jewish community, and some on society at large. Some posts will address world events, while others will focus specifically on events in the Holy Land.
Polite comments, including critiques, are welcome. Personal attacks are not.
Weltanschauung Kampf 
B”H Please don’t support conversion therapy. I think the perversions employed there, in coercion done upon them, may be worse than the most-often unintended perversions committed by those who engage in LBGT behavior. Understand the etiology of this deviant behavior, in ecah individual instance, and allow them to rise to the occasion of being challenged to change… seek to remove the stresses that drove them there; if they have to be separated out from some venues, make it clear why, in each instance, and allow them to raise their bechira points. We also have to raise our bechira point by preventing situations in society that force b people into the mold of deviant sexuality. Better than therapy that coerces or manipulates a person to a behavioral change is the method of ‘pulling their strings’ from above, not the ‘above’ of any human or organizational authority but the ‘above’ of each one’s newly discovered own better self, with their own heartfelt choice to cooperate. Help them make that discovery. Through messages that tell them that the Higher Power does not want this, whomever they may consider their higher power to be, challenge them to choose to modify their own behavior. Once the behavior is changed, the appetites that are inappropriate may decrease and disappear. Their personalities will remain scarred and unaffected people in service professions should make new specialties to help remove those scars. Make substitutes abundant… music, natural health modalities, even economic assistance, if this is clearly the source of the problem for any given individual. But they do not have to join us at restaurant seating areas for non-deviant individuals, or at our places of worship, etc. We do not have to ruin our own experience. Just being left out should be enough incentive to get them on the way, if they can look to whatever metaphysical Firmament they conceive of as being above them, each one to his own, and motivate, each one, himself or herself, to climb out of the egregious morass of abomination or immodesty that he/she has fallen into, for his/her own sake.
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B”H Thanks for asking to see our site. My purpose in putting it up was to make information on various homeopathic remedies (as supplements only, in compliance with the limitations currently maintained by the FDA for such information) available so that many people can become more healthy even if they do not use our service. We deliberately do not disclose any similar text on our site as our company name nor do we show contact info on our site because we are not advertising, but I feel at this point it would be wrong to withhold general and non-advertising knowledge of all that homeopathy has to offer. However, I did not yet have time to get very far, as I have prior responsibilities and am constantly dealing with premature aging… thought I would, did not realize i I would be ‘spinning my wheels’ day to day trying to keep my health under control… homeopathy has the answers, and I will have to master this well enough to get myself going in focused thinking, reading the pieces from which the information will come, and putting up typing and graphics, b.e.H., before I can share those answers… but the answers that homeopathy has are not helpful without being channeled by the directives of Torah, and no one says it better than the Lubavitcher Rebbe. This site is not to mekarev people; it is just to assist with health, but, for you, I cannot help but add, HE has all the answers, so, tamu u’re’u, ki tov Hashem, and I think that one very good answer is to peruse the seforim again and see what else you can find, and always stay in touch with what is new at Kehot, walk-in, on the phone, and at kehot.com. Best wishes. Pertinent to the importance of emphasizing that heterosexuality is important to maintain, it is known in medical fields that nature has, built into it, incentives for a woman to give birth before the age of 30, not just because she will play more nicely with the babies if she can still remember being small, but it will protect her bone health, save her from reproductive yenneh (lo alenu), and from heart problems and the attendant difficulties in lower abdominal organs. But, that is really not the reason to have a baby. The real reason is that the parents are ready to love him or her. They are not expecting the baby to provide love. Most of us know, babies are meivinim in providing love… but this only works if all their needs are met, and if they themselves were conceived in and provided ongoing with love! The Chassidic way is that we don’t plan families; we believe the Aibishter will send the brocho with the baby… but if everyone lived that way… ???? We are looking nowadays at dwindling and endangered natural resources. Is there enough to go around? the first way for there to be enough to go around is for all people to reduce and have dominion over their own egos and acquisitiveness. They need to know and care, each one, the impact they are having on society. Then, we will share what we have, and based on that, we will be less likely to want to spoil it for someone else. My attention has been consumed with current events since late winter 2016, concern with candidates, issues, the election. and its aftermath. We, in this USA, need to balance and blend our values. Every voice needs to be heard. Then, natural offspring in a natural family will become an option we can believe can really happen, for those of us who tend to e get mowed under by others’ ambition and acquisitiveness. Sometimes, homosexuality develops a result of despair when facing the natural and instinctive task of bringing into physical existence an inheritor or inheritress who is younger and will remain alive and healthy throughout the next generation. Once that despair is removed, I think, we will see a massive return to non-kinky pathways in sexual preferences. When one knows one can’t have something, one just shuts down from wanting it, and impulses that were created for the sake of achieving that goal are easily channeled into unnatural pathways. in my case, academic and social achievement were emphasized by by elders to the total deficit of any thought to the next generation for my own genetic line, and then, I found, this situation also harmed my own health and possibility of longevity, so, regardless of one’s social or economic standing, Hashem has truly built into human health=ways the incentive to have at least one child and to have him or her timely. I would ask that the other post not be kept public as it was meant for you to think about, if you do influence any public policy, and that this should remain not-posted as it contains personal information, which, nevertheless, had to be given, so that you may understand that I know, from experience, what I am entering text about. Hindsight is 20-20. Thank you.
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B”H …wondering what you are thinking at this time when rewards for violating the Sheva Mitzvot are being written into our USA laws and practiced by our appointed administrations, here in the USA… you have a platform, smicha, an excellent point of view and Torah background, and the community standing needed, to be listened to… I can’t fight this battle alone… seems nowadays that only evil is glorified in the USA under the current regime. Any thoughts?
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