ROB -“To answer your assertions- first, health. If I remember correct, your traslation of that maamar chazal (about the finger not doing anything without the direction of heaven) is not correct and it clearly deals with actions, not punishments.”
I don’t understand you -I just told you – you are wrong and you say No without even looking it up. Is it possible that you never think you are wrong -no matter what proof there is against you?
Well I did just look it up in Chulin.
“‘ein odom kofef ezbah ele im ken machrizim olov”
It doesn’t even say your quote. It says “Nokef”. Rashi translates this to mean “Nogef”. Artscroll translates “A person does not stub his toe down below”. So it’s clearly talking about punishment.
“But the main thing is simple.As discussed by many others on this thread, bechirah is individual but does not history make. HKBH dictates history.”
Do you have any proof for this?
“If -chas vecholilo- the establishments of the medinah (note ,I do not excuse the secularism of Zionism) is an aveirah, then why is it thriving? The ‘maaseh egel” brought immediate retribution! To continue saying that the medinah is evil and,although it is thriving now, that sometime in the far distant future, it will (chas vecholilo) be destroyed is just pure sophistry. You can continue doing this forever and never be contradicted because you will always say: just wait till next year!. Indeed, I have said many times that history will decide who is right. If the satmarer rebbe zz’l is (C”V) right, then the medinah will not endure. If, by contrast, we are right, then we will thrive. I, for one, believe that HKBH brought us a brocho.”
Didn’t you learn Parshas Noach -he warned the people for over a hundred years and they never believed him? The Medina isn’t even close to a hundred yet and there are hundreds, if not thousands that share my beliefs about the Medina.