than thousand ovadias can do . This teacher offers what Israeli children need : KNOWLEDGE , so i hold him , and take your ovadia , we don't need him .

Its ashame that jews realy believe that we came from the monkeys.

actually born as an ass in your next life, but maybe as a proud ass that Mashiach would ride on.

Insulting Rabbi Yosef is foolish & getting down to his level. He probably does know Bialik & Freud's work. Printing this screed shows the bias of the author. Just call him a chauvanist, a bigot, and leave the hatred of the Haredim out of it, OK?

That you descend [ faraway , many generations ago , i don't want to insult your parents , they are already punished enough by having such a son ] from monkeys .

The fact that the author even needed to write this nonsensical article demonstrates his own insecurity A man that believes what he is doing is correct would not even bother to debase himself by responding to such a rant.

"At least kids in a secular school have the opportunity to choose between Darwin and the Tora." Ha ha ha!!!! I haven’t heard such a good joke in a long time! Please explain to me how the secular are given choices between Darwin and Torah. Are they exposed to the Torah or are they exposed to total brainwashing against the Torah and Torah ways up to the point that when a kid comes to school and wants to pray during his own time wearing Tefillin, the school severely punishes him – Heaven forbid if he have the audacity to dream of learning Torah on school premises!!! Who do you think you are kidding anyway? Thanks for the laugh!

"The ass, meanwhile, teaches the fundamentals of logical thinking." Anyone with a modicum of logical thinking abilities would never judge a person without knowing him/her personally. Instead you form your judgment based on what you read/hear through the media, from those who don't approve of him and his kind (too say the least)! And you call yourself a logical thinker? How about adding the title of “illogical moronic” to your official title of “ass”?

Rabbi Joseph does not need my defense however i am offended by Oved Tzur and his likes - representing the arrogant over educated - condescending - inteligentzia that totally disregards and undervalues scholarship except in their narrow fields of expertise I expect that Tzur is not an expert in applied mathematics – I did study that field – but his ignorance of that particular field does not make him a JackAss (Chamor) – it is his hubris and arrogance that makes the likes of him chamorim He owes us all an apology

Lets both take out our personal hats from the equation and consider some facts. The majority of Jews (and overwhelmingly so amongst Sephardim) are at least traditional and we don't believe we evolved from Monkeys. Outside of the political equation Rav Ovadia's halachic authority is second to none and at the very least amongst Sephardim all Rabbis worldwide refer and defer to him. His halachic output is prodigious, most Sephardic Prayer books follow his line. Like it or not from nothing there is now a Shas school network with tens of thousands of students. And you are influenced by him without knowing it. 3 Examples. 1. Preventing Jews from the Temple Mount, that was him against Goren. 2. Ethiopians confirmed as Jews, again that was him. 3. The mass introduction of Kitniyot products on Peasch. Again Rav Ovadia. A legend in his own time is a modest assessment of the Rav.

Just a bit immature really...

We are two sides of the same coin. We should seek balance. If everyone were to be a genius we couldn't really defend Israel with our modern technology. But if everyone were an Ass, we would have no concept of Israel to begin with.

Darwin's Grandson in his book the next Million Years (1952) advocated a New World Order caste system where we are all bred to serve tasks. Does this "ass" think he's special and different from the sheep he's taking to slaughter?

I am a liberal muslim. It feels awkward to see a muslim agrees with rabbi Ovadia who is famous with anti-arab and anti-islam slogans. Evolution is not false. It is a scientific thoery that stands until proven wrong- it is never proven correct. BTW evolution doesn`t say that humans descended from monkeys. It only says that homosapiens and Apes have common ancestry. Get your facts straight. Thank GOD for asses like Darwin, Dawkins, Gould, Hawking...etc.

Oved you are an ASS and he is a Genius , you are just wasting your time teaching in a high school, and can never get to the level of ounderstanding and Kedusha that our Rabbi has.

Read again your comments and you'll understand why so many of us non-US Israelis and Jews in general consider you respectless and cultureless bigots. You insults give a bad-smell breath of the superficial American 'culture', right that one represented by people like John McCain & Sarah Palin (whom you probably voted). Ayatollah Yossif might be a great Torah sgae but he's certainly not the only one, at least not one of those whom I still respect. Think about rav Kadouri z"l, respected and loved by everyone. He wouldn't have dare to become a wannabe-politician in order to gain money for a so-called religious party which has more indicted MK's than any other party in Israel. While I may not agree with Darwin and his theories I will never agree with rav Yossif and his ilk. the most suitable plave fopr him would be Saudi-Arabia.

Don't know if you've noticed, but Israel is NOT in the West. Geography was obvioiusly not your best subject at school. As to the heart of the matter, this is the man who said that Holocaust victims deserved their fate because they'd been sinners and that Palestinians were snakes. And he is the so called spiritual leader of a political party and once head of a faith stream? He gives Sephardim a bad name. Oved, Kol HaKavod.

A real genius has two tablets: torah wisdom and secular wisdom. One who lacks either is incomplete.

If Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was a truly Torah scholar, fiirst he would: Read Chofetz Chaim and be careful with his words Second: Read Pirkei Avot and as Shammai said: speak little, study more and receive everyone with a smile. Third: Be humble as Moshe, who said to HaShem: "who am i?...i have slow speech" Fourth: Read the Talmud, at the Bava Kamma, and know that hatred against other people is more unforgivable than against G'D Fifth: Study Tomer Dvorah and be more G'D like. If the One rises the sun to everybody, well... you know. I'm a Jew, a Masorti, descendant of Marranos, Sefardi who has a Ashkenaz Rabbi, with college degree and speaks five languages. Study and learn from Rabbi Avraham Kook... Why we don't have Rabbis like Kook, Heschel, Chofetz Chaim, Solomon Freehof??? Sigh...

A true secularist should uphold values like freedom of religion, expression and right to free speech. Clearly you have a long way to go.. to be truly enlightened. But the main issue here is as follows: It is not a good idea to disrespect / media bash the Torah's world leading scholar. People who know R. Avodia, and actually listen to his shiurim (and understand them) will clearly see that he is super intelligent and surpasses you and your contribution to mankind many times over. When a secular "teacher" like yourself takes him on, its like a featherweight boxer taking on the worlds mightiest. You may not believe in judaism, but if you are surprised in 120 years and there is a world to come, your public bashing of this holy man.. will not stand in your favor. I feel sorry for you. Shame on you Oved Tzur.

Your hero's Dawkins, Jones, Hawkins don't. That leave you as it does most "Liberals" confused. And "Common ancestry" is a revised theory. And a theory is just that ,a theory. It is unproved and not fact. And Rav Ovadia's so called anti - moslem comments were against terrorists. You should not always believe the secular reporting in Israel on religious matters, They are notoriously and deliberately misleading.

Ovadia can be a great halachic authority , may have done something good [ the Ethiopean Olim , but not everyone agrees ] this all does'nt make him an authority on secular subjects . The evolution theory has some proofs , look only at the different squeletons found where this evolution is clearly shown . What is traditionalist for you ? only going to beth knesseth on yom kippour ?

I'm afraid you're mistaken. The "Western world" includes all the countries whose culture is derived from that of Europe. Thus, Australia is a "Western" nation despite its location in the Far East. It's not just a geographic term. Anyway, thanks for proving my point about Israel's educational system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world

Who said "Thank G-d I 'm an Ass".He didn't know from Darwin or Freud ,but he was never annoyed ,because Rav .Ovadia really Had Class...