Professor your on the right track please Bibi is Jewish. In a possitive sense how do we encourage our fellow to reconnect to his source and confront his resposibilities and place this in context his responsilities that we all undertake at thirteen and thereafter. As a leader how do we bridge the gap. Livni has a disconnect as well and leadership focus and we have a need for direction and searching our souls do the right Jewish thing A leader is a servant of the people as well as HKB"Hu and carrie a great responsibility. How are disconnected souls to be guided to be responsible their fellow Jews. This is the real problem needing a quick fix. Lot else to deal with but lets look at the source of our difficulty and make it our challenge. Let now pursue solutions not only the ploblem. Thats what we need now. We need to find the melech in us and our leadership, the middos tovos and respect for the leadership and in particular the self repect for all of us as a nation. We need a kosher approach and kosher solution. Hundred of thousand of connected fellow Jews I would suggest need to prey with beseeching as poor and bereft in our tachanunim We need the innerstrenghth to be kingly and say tehillim with fervour again focus on achieving a despately needed spiritual Yeshuah gedollah and HKB"Hu should be merachem us in our time of trouble. Am Yisroel Chai.

well, this proffessor in particular is an idiot.

What is the university doing about these statements? Ignoring them? This horrible man and his ugly statements reflect on the university.

Technically he is Jewish, halachikaly he is "erev rav". All the Jews who betray klal Israel are "erev rav"

Painful as it may be to the Leftists, Professor Weiss is right on target. Netanyahu should not repeat the mistakes made by Barak and Sharon of giving away part of the Land of Israel-Israel's liberated historic homeland to the Islamist-Jihadist belligerents and usurpers. Nor could he argue Begin did it. Begin did not give away any part of the historic Land of Israel. Judea and Samaria are Israel's LIBERATED HISTORIC HOMELAND-LAND OF ISRAEL THAT IS GOD-GIVEN AND GOD-RESTORED TO THE JEWISH NATION. Humans cannot tamper with Divine Provision with impunity.

The Prof. is an Extremist FACIST and the like of him are DESTROYING ISRAEL! its time some normal people in Israel open their mouth and react! to these crazies.

The professor has got Netanyahu's number, that is to say a total sell out.

These are exactly the type of words and incitement that led to the murder of PM Rabin by a Jew.

The following bill just passed its second reading in the Knesset: "1) If a Palestinian State is created, and said State attacks the State of Israel, all supporters of the peace process shall be drafted to serve in the frontlines to repel the attack. "i) The army shall have at its head Shimon Peres riding a white donkey with PM Netanyahu leading the donkey with a rope. Knesset members and the cabinet who supported the Palestinian State shall be in the chorus to the rear of the donkey serenading the troops. "ii) The troops shall not be armed with anything save a copy of the defunct peace treaty with the Palestinian State to fold into an origami sword or shield and double as toilet paper, and any real weapons they can beg America for. "2) If a Palestinian State is created, and said State attacks the State of Israel, all political parties that supported the peace process shall be permanently barred from the Knesset. "3) If a Palestinian State is created, and said State attacks the State of Israel, the money of all supporters of the peace process shall be expropriated and given to the widows and orphans of terrorism. "4) If a Palestinian State is created, and said State attacks the State of Israel, all NGO and other organizations who supported the peace process shall be shut down, and media organizations who did shall have their licenses revoked and be forced to broadcast from a peace boat in the Mediterranean outside of Israeli territorial waters,"

There's something I don't get it,professor Hillel Weiss said,(according published it by Yair Altman) "Perhaps PM was never a Jew" okey ,let's say I got a question :what means to be a Jew? or "you were never even a Jewish?there's anyone can explain me that? Jew =Hebrew= Israeli,I don't think so,In my humble opinion a big difference,the chosen people???? probably professor Weiss is right,shalom Mike from phoenix

You would have to ask Prof. Weiss what he meant about PM Netanyahu never being Jewish. Rambam states there is nothing intrinsic in Judaism. Holiness is only scriptural. Jewish chosen-ness does not mean intrinsic merit. When a Jew marries outside of the Jewish faith, there is a custom to light a yahrzeit candle. Jews who commit suicide are likewise not buried among other Jews. The Mishnah states that sinners are always dead while the righteous live forever. Halachically a Jew can never cease being a Jew, perhaps because of the nature of the vow taken at Sinai or perhaps G-d made this regulation because it had a utilitarian purpose since a person can return to the correct path to the day of death. That is why suicide is such a grave sin. The term "Israel" used in the Mishnah does not refer to all Jews, rather those who have not utterly divorced themselves from Israel's lofty spiritual and ethical destiny according to Rabbi Nosson Scherman. Hence the maxim appended to each chapter of Pirkei Avot. When Prof. Hillel Weiss stated: "Perhaps PM was never a Jew," he might have meant PM Netanyahu perhaps always was divorced from Israel, that perhaps all the good deeds PM Netanyahu did in his life he did for ulterior motives and for self-interested.

Am sorry with excuse me, Ami, I think we are in different page,to be honest I don't understand your point of view,who is your mastermind? you got confused, Rabbi Scherman?,well, there's a lot others scolars that think in different ways, the same do I,you may agree o disagree,what I meant to say: whom really deserve the Land of Isarel or a jewish state or the wellknown, "The promise Land?,theres a bunch of information related besdide Mishnah,I noticed the Ynet article:"Israeli scholar complete translation of Talmud",after 45 years,Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz of work-16 hour work days,publishes translation of entire Talmud from Aramaic to Hebrew, kind of good news,45 years-16 hour a days!!!, and you trying to explain something with a scarse knowledge,no way,shalom,Mike from Phoenix

I studied the Rambam's philosophical works under a competent Rabbi who I will not mention. Rabbi Nosson Scherman analogized commentary for the ArtScroll siddur. The proof that Israel does not equal all Jews seems straightforward and does not require a Talmudist to understand. The Talmud gives various categories of Jews that do not have a share in the world to come. It then sets out the statement that all of Israel have a share in the world to come. It follows that the term "Israel" (kol Yisrael) in the Mishnah does not include all Jews. If this is a misunderstanding, then please exposit for me the true meaning. You took umbrage at me for making a comment in a parched desert but do not fault Ynet for pulling out a partial statement by Prof. Hillel Weiss and making that the centerpiece of their story to provoke controversy. Instead I wanted to defuse the controversy by pointing out that Prof. Hillel Weiss' comment is not so cut and dry.

Prof. Hillel Weiss: "perhaps you were never even Jewish" = Talmud Masechet Betza 32b "whoever is not compassionate towards others, it is obvious that he is not a descendant of Avraham”

My dear Ami, it has been a pleasure to exchange different point of view with you.I respect yours,believe me,Im not questioning you,you go Israel statewide north,south,west and east and you'll find a diversities of opinion,of course,respectable all of them,lately I'd the chance to watch the Bill Maher's documental "Religulous" (2008) where display a sort of controversies with the "most religion" around the world,everyone got a point, but,but in "state of denial",everyone's "religion"are right the others are wrong,everyone talk about , what the Scriptures "could meant to say",everyone got theirs own conclusions,if you have chance to watchi it ,is really a thrill,but no matter what, once again, really a pleasure Ami,shalom,Mike from Phoenix

No hard feelings about our exchange. I was going to add to that what I said reflects my personal undestanding and a Rabbi should be consulted. I agree one should not do what seems good in one's eyes but rather not veer from the Torah to the right or to the left. And without ethics there is no Torah.

Solomon made many serious mistakes. The fact is that Halacha is consistent with common sense: the Land cannot be given away to goyim. Your claim that giving parts of the Land to goyim is "the background of judaism" is astonishing.

And Peres was the first to popularize this distinction, which relates to one's identity in the Land.

Yours are the words that brought us Oslo and so many other catastrophes.

if i said that "giving parts of the Land to goyim is "the background of judaism"", it would certainly be astonishing. but i didn't and didn't even imply it. reread.

If I misunderstood you, that is because you did not write clearly. Clarity is enhanced by beginning sentences with capital letters and avoiding stream-of-consciousness writing. Anyway, your #25 mentions Solomon as one who gave away land, and you seemed to mention him with praise.

Toda raba.Yishar koach!!! Kol tuv,shalom,Mike from phoenix

i mention solomon because people claim, without any shred of proof, that giving away the land is a transgression. i merely point out that it was done in the bible, a book that usually never hesitates to highlight national/leadership sins and their inevitable consequences. point being that it was clearly recorded that solomon gave land away and there is never a negative word or inference given about that action. based on that, i do not believe one can claim that giving land away will result in divine judgment or that it is a sin to do so. i have mentioned this point frequently and challenged anyone to prove me wrong or give some evidence to the contrary and, so far, none have been able. if there is something i have missed, i'll be glad to hear it and change my view accordingly. personally, i do not recommend the state give away land to terrorists unless it is for militarily strategic reasons. but there definitely is precedent for doing so if it is deemed that israel will benefit from the transaction.

It seems that links in a TB cause it to be rejected. You say, "i have mentioned this point frequently and challenged anyone to prove me wrong or give some evidence to the contrary and, so far, none have been able." Frankly, I don't see how this could be. You are referencing 1 Kings 9:11. King Solomon was in fact transgressing repeatedly. If you Google "These lines constitute a surprising and disturbing end" you will find a discussion in the Virtual Beit Midrash.

A post-canonical text supports that Yishuv Eretz Israel was always considered binding. Here is a quote from From 1 Maccabees 15, 32-35: 'So Athenobius, the friend of the king, came to Jerusalem, and when he saw the splendor of Simon, and the sideboard with its gold and silver plate, and his great magnificence, he was amazed. He reported to him the words of the king, but Simon gave him this reply: "We have neither taken foreign land nor seized foreign property, but only the inheritance of our fathers, which at one time had been unjustly taken by our enemies. NOW THAT WE HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY, WE ARE FIRMLY HOLDING THE INHERITANCE OF OUR FATHERS. As for Joppa and Gazara, which you demand, they were causing great damage among the people and to our land; for them we will give you a hundred talents." '