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• Friday, June 26, 2009

  bclark_63

  I read the Rabbi’s comments in the Jerusalem Post regarding Michael Jackson.  It was a very thoughtful and soulfull meditation on the tragic life and death of the pop star.  One comment the Rabbi made caused me to reflect.  Rabbi Shmuley commented how at one point it seemed Michael had committed to changing his life and was achieving some contentment and a better outlook by following the Rabbi’s instructions.  But in the end, Rabbi noted, Michael could not maintain the “spiritual effort”.

  Perhaps that’s the problem.  Can anyone exert sufficient “spiritual effort” to successfully correct humanitie’s root problem -alienation from God?  When one is alienated from his/her Creator in whose image he/she was created it necessarily causes alienation from others and self.  This is why the foundation of the law is love and devotion to God first then all other obedience and relationships flow from that (Ex 20:1-7, Deut 6:4ff).  Until one is reconciled to God he cannot be reconciled to himself or others.  No amount of spiritual effort can fix it until that ultimate and primary relationship with God is fixed.  From that reconciled communion with God comes grace and spiritual power needed to reconcile to ones self and others.  Superstar or common folk, rich man or poor, all that we have to offer (our spiritual efforts) is as filthy rags to the Holy One (Isa 64:6).  So how do we “lay hold of God” (Isa 64:7) if all our righteous acts are as filthy rags?  Praise His name that He has done the righteous acts for us (Isa 53)!

• Friday, September 11, 2009

  jesterka

  Many greatings from Prag - Europe.

  My thoughts on this, dear rabbi,

  Spiritual advisors should be always the ones who keep most quiet about personal information intrusted to them - you called yourself MJ`s rabbi as well as friend - MJ was always most afraid of being exploited, afraid that anythig personal he shared with people could be misused - and see….

  In my church - catholic - it would be unacceptable for a priest to leak information that was gained during a process of spiritual guidance of a client - even if that was a friend at the same time, even if the information was not harmfull or sensational - YOU ARE JUST SUPPOSED TO KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT.

  YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF, RABBI.

  Sadly, rabbi, you are the one who is confused on this matter. You are well aware of some vices in our society - like the role the media plays in shaping - or rather disfiguring - reality, the celebrity and its substitutional role in peoples lives etc. And you are right.

  BUT - you are no better than the rest of us. What you SHOULD HAVE DONE is KEEP QUIET ABOUT MJ`s PERSONAL ISSUES, that would be the only fair way to stay true to your feelings about the celebrity frenzy - and that is the way TRUe CLOSE FRIENDS of MJ decided to handle his death. I have not seen Elisabeth Taylor, Diana Ross, Liza Minelli, Lisa Marie or Janet Jackson spill the beans.

  You have a desire to be heard and make a name of yourself too - doing TV-shows, talking to the world via media etc. And you have no right to criticize others for wanting to be heard or acknowledged for what they do.

  As a matter of fact -  MJ DID NOT BECOME CELEBRITY in the same way as PARIS HILTON and her like,

  HE BECAME CELEBRITY BECAUSE HE HAD THE MOST MAGICAL CHARISMA ON STAGE THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN, BECAUSE HE WAS AN EXCePTIONALLY GIFTED DANCER AND SINGER, A HARD WORKER, AND HAD A VERY SWEET SPIRIT THAT COULD BE FELT IN HIS VOICE to top it all of.

  That he was tastelessly exploited by media, sued hundreds of times by greedy people, deceived by almost everybody, particularly by people in his bussiness, that he was mobbed wherever he went etc. etc. - EVEN IF HE WANTED THE FAME - that does not mean that he was responsible for the nasty behaviour he had to deal with. Provoking a reaction does not make us responsible for the reaction itself - he just was able to bring out the worst in people with his uniqness - including You, rabbi - you could not resist sharing your story about this one of a kind person with the world.

  MJ did not ask for the publicity about his personal matters. HE BECAME FAMOUS FOR HIS ART, his work, and that should be discussed - not his tormented soul.

  One more thing. I AM APPALED BY THE WAY YOU COMMENT ON THE CRIMINAL CHARGES THAT WERE BROUGHT AGAINST MJ. HE WAS AQUITTED IN ONE OF THE MOST EXPESIVE, MOST THOROUGH CRIMINAL TRIALS IN HISTORY. Even if you knew from personal conversations with him as his spiritual advisor about some sins he commited - there is no way you disclose such things in your blog. NO WAY. How dare you write - he may have been guilty of serious crimes - it is truly disgusting and I would not trust you as a rabbi one bit after reading what you wrote.
  SHAME ON YOU RABBI SHMULEY, SHAME ON YOU.

  Regards

  Zuzana

• Thursday, September 24, 2009

  cookie

  Oh please. Why don’t you tell everyone the real reason why Michael Jackson dumped you? It’s because you stole money from the Heal the Kids Foundation. Just look on the internet.