Baruch HaShem!! Been a little under the weather all week, so not so much cigar smoking. I have been making some contacts for fundraising for my new project, so that is good.
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Then, yes, there can be to quote you: "the spirit of a dead person, especially one believed to appear in bodily likeness to living persons...", many very righteous people see their ancestors in this way and this is deemed positive, while it can be frightening/awe inspiring.

Everything except for the 'haunt' part. That is more like the aforementioned 'dybukk', which is much different, where a soul would possess a person, G-d forbid. This rarely happens.
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Yes. They usually have a hecksher (a Jewish symbol of Kosher certification), so if they have that, it is okay.
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So more on possession--Do you have a ritual for exorcisms?
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Firstly, let us not confuse human rationalization for the existance of Kosher dietary laws (or any other G-d given Law in the Torah), with the true reason the law was given. The Laws of the Torah were given by G-d to the Jewish people to observe because they are His Will, certain laws we can understand perfectly (aka "Don't Steal", "Don't Kill" etc.), others we can kinda understand (keep Shabbos - a day of rest), still others we have no logistical explanation according to human logic, we only know the spiritual ramifications. Kosher laws really fall into the last category. So we need to be careful when trying to come up with human rationalizations for Divine commandments. So there might not be a "Why?"...

ahhhhhhhhh... that being said a good place to start is probably here:http://http://www.chabad.org/generic...ish/Kosher.htm and this book might be the best in english for Kosher laws
The Laws Of Kashrus
A comprehensive exposition of their underlying concepts and application
By Rabbi Binyomin Forst

and the best Kosher cookbook is

Spice and Spirit: The Complete Kosher Jewish Cookbook (A Kosher living classic) Esther Blau

Hope this helps.
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No. Only truly righteous Rabbi's - Tzaddikim have healed those afflicted with a dybukk. Since the learning of the Chassidus of the Baal Shem Tov has truly permeated the world, many negative forces have been nullified, so these instances rarely, if ever, occur anymore.
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I would like to post an anonymous question...

Rabbi -

I have seen you have been extremely busy answering everyone's questions and you do a great job of answering every single one so here is mine:

What is your address?

I would like to send you a special bomb of my favorite cigar that tastes like 7-year old Madagascar vanilla and some ol' Cuban Davidoff I just happen to have lying around...

j/k:-)
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we are on page 6 with 100 plus posts already...

:-)

keep 'em comin'
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Ahem...I have it.... :-) Only in the interest of showing our appreciation to a fabulous teacher!!!

:-)
This is great! I know we have more questions to ask!!!
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I got a question Rabbi, "How far is heaven"
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in the words of the hairband Warrant:

"Heaven isn't too far away, it gets closer to me every day, no matter what your friends might say, we'll find our way"

or

500 spiritual years to the first firmament
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Do the Jewish have an eschatology similar to Christian eschatology?
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Maybe the Los lonely boys need to read the words of the wise Rabbi>:-)
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Who/what was Moloch?
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First, this is a great thread Rabbi! I have been gone for a week; this is the first thread I've caught up on.

I was reading an interview and the interviewee is Jewish. They kept referring to zedeka (sp?). I'm sure that I didn't spell that right, and I think that there was a "T" in there somewhere. From the context, it sounded like the word refers to charity or PIF. Is this correct? Sorry again for the spelling errors.
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Question sent via pm
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Perhaps.
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Yes there is phrophesy about the ''end of days", and No it is not similiar.
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A Moloch is the term in hebrew for an Angel. yet, the common concept of Angel is not the same as the Jewish concept of a Moloch (or Malach) angel.
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How do the concepts differ?


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