A very profound saying from our sages. Throughout the years I have been given various interpretations for this, you all Know, five Jews, seven opinions. The one I go with is this, Man is just another product of nature and in order to understand our behaviour we must observe and understand the behaviour of other species, plant and animal. For instance, just as a tree will not give up when it is deprived of water, so a person will not give up. The tree will do all in its power to search for water, by extending and deepening its roots, just as a person will search high and low before giving up, there is no easy surrender, not for the tree and not for Man. Man is able to go further than others, Man can kill for the sake of his own survival. Religion, throughout the history of Mankind and in all its manifestations, was born out of a sense of desperation and fear, fear of the unknown and the inexplicable. Today, in the modern world, all failed societies, where people have little food and little hope for advancement, religion dominates their life, the priests and the "magicians" make good use of this to control the flock. It has been scientifically proven through modern brain scanning that the section of the human brain activated by sexual arousal, acts or thoughts, is the exact same section activated by religious acts or thoughts. I put it to all intelligent people, it is unfortunately a fact that people can lose control over their emotions because of the sexual drive, this can and does lead to illogical behaviour at times, criminal behaviour at others. Religion has the same effect. This is not an opinion, history is replete with examples of totally irrational behaviour both by individuals and institutions, denominations, countries and empires, all based on beliefs and tenets which are inventions of Man's prolific imagination but in essence are spurious. More suffering, death and destruction have been caused by religion than any other factor in human history. Why should I believe that extreme Judaism can be different. When an idea or an "ism" is expounded, the first rule is to pronounce all the other "isms" as false and misleading. This has been true for Judaism just as for all the others.

Heredis withe their new invented cult, are much, much worse!

The world is crumbeling , all the evolution of society reach the point of autodestruction, the values of ethics, moral , social order promoted by Torah are universal and relevant up to day. Mr. Yaron pull out your had frm sand!

smarter exploration than offered here. where do you find these writers? to many times they are wrong or ignorant. not wise and insightful.

I can say the same about the traitorous leftists in Israel.If you can't see the difference between the muslim terrorists in Egypt and the ultra orthodox who i disagree with.It's you London and you're hatred of religious Jews that blinds you.

1, Define "Secular Leftists" 2. Does this include Yaron London? If so you're nuts. If not, name ONE Secular Leftist in Israel ! 3. We all know that the day after Haredim become a majority in the the Knesset, Israel will begin to change and will resemble Iran, Afganistan and Pakistan.

How exactly are you correcting me ? On the tank situation you stated exactly the same thing as I did. I did not make any comment as to the cause, although I agree with you. I just wanted to explain to Miron that the Merkava was not designed by Haredim and did not save the day in 1973.

Things do tend to get out of hand, especially when emotions run high. I am no leftist and no great fan of Yaron but I am a very practical and pragmatic person. It starts with attacks on women for "modest" and shops for being open on Shabbat, it continues with the "back of the bus" nonsense and shops for women only and then, like all other things in life, and in accordance with human nature, someone ups the ante, you know, give a finger and they want the whole hand. I strongly suggest both prudence and caution. Religious fanatacism is a very dangerous thing and can sow destruction as it has donwe in the past.

Crummy writing, crummy analysis, done weakly. Ynet would do well to put some effort into improving their English language edition. It seems that any feather-brain can vomit up an op-ed.

Must be nuts and out of this world to compare both - even if you agree that Haredim don't take up the arms. Thanks G'd for that!

Daniel Freedman, you for examples as if they are beyond the limits of reason. To a lesser degree there are (more than) a few U. Orthodox that do the very kinds of acts that you question. Stoning women: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4245127,00.html Assault on 'infidel': http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4393301,00.html Mosque and church arson: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4277043,00.html And, while not a child, there was the mass murderer Baruch Goldstein, and all of his devotees.

That most Israeli Jews want to be free of Halachic Laws which will prevent them from eating what they want, going where they want on Shabbat and attending services in Conservative or Reform synagogues. Halachic laws will end equal rights for women and destroy the legal system. We do not believe that Jews will go back to killing by stoning, but the removal of "rights" mentioned above is enough to make comparisons with Iran and other "enlightened" Muslim states.

Baruch Goldstein is a prime example of what I stated in # 31.

It is comments such as this article does that inflames one Jew against another. It is most appropriate that it appears during the none days before Tisha B'Av.

A voice of reason In an otherwise emotionally charged forum.

I was there and the Merkava wasn't. Design work started in 1973. It didn't enter service until 1979

Well said! Please space more between lines, paras for ease of reading. Thanks.

The Merkava tank was the concept of one man and one man only, General Tal (Talik), who was an amazing human being as well as an outstanding commander. The development took place between 1968 and 1974. The first production,Mark 1, was in 1974 and the first full scale unit to become operative was in 1979. You really should get your facts right before stating ridiculous claims such as Haredim designed the Merkava that saved the day in 1973.

you are above all totally ignorant. we jews, haredi or secular, do not believe that all "infidels" must submit or die. we do not believe in forced conversions, or in forcing our religion on others. we do not murder the apostate. we do not murder our daughters for our honour. we do not even proselytize. we are a very small nation surrounded by a sea of vicious murdering terrorists. we have been persecuted for over two thousand years, and to this day, jews cannot walk the streets in most of europe. most of the haredim don't even want to serve in the army and many do not even recognize the state. all they want is to be left alone to lead a life of torah study.

The Islamists, Hamas, the MB, regard everyone who doesn't worship with them as worthless. They have no qualms about beheading or defenestrating them, in fact Mohammed beheaded 400 in his lifetime and the din is 'go thou and do likewise', Haredim will stone you and that's vile. But Islamists will do a great deal worse.

The Haredim speak Yiddish and the groups you mentioned speak Arabic. The only reason the Haredim don't go to the same extremes is because they are in check by the other layers of our society. As has been said in other TBs, extremism is extremism, and it's dangerous.

are not ready for a theocracy. It could blow the Jewish people apart. Besides that the Rabbis are not ready to lead a country that some do not even accept because they are not united. Better wait until the machiah comes for that

that's the difference. The Rabbis disbanded the Sanhedrin 2000 years ago when the second temple was destroyed. The Moslems will get elected with a hidden agenda to force an Islamic State. By the way, watch out Europe. Its coming your way.

I am not an anti-Semite. My kids are frum, both serve or have served in the IDF. In general the frum on a person to person basis are nice people, however as a group they are obnoxious to the point that people despise them. They despise me for I won't toe their line. I on the other hand look at them as martians. They will not be there to admit me to the heavens. They are not my controllers in life. I wish they would learn to do their thing and stop harassing those of us who simply couldn't care less about it. As long as they refuse to participate in protecting Israel I will refuse to give them any support whatsoever.

You're right Muslims do pay for their bus fare ;) ,... Google 'Israeli Bus Company Ad Warns Haredim That Stealing Rides Is Wrong' - This people dare to lecture others ,...

It's not that . it's religious fanatism and intolerance on both sides . They , in Egypt , came to power after "democratic" [ ? ] elections . Here the charedi try the same , come to power thanks to democratic elections , and then , when in power , impose their lifestyle on everyone . I'll make another comparison . The nazis also came to power after democratic elections

are not ready for a theocracy. It could blow the Jewish people apart. Besides that the Rabbis are not ready to lead a country that some do not even accept because they are not united. Better wait until the machiah comes for that

Hitler did not come to power through elections or any democratic process. A common fallacy. Try and learn history and the facts