Henny Youngman Quotes
Why do Jewish divorces cost so much? They're worth it.
Youngman, Henny. Henny Youngman's 500 All-Time Greatest One-Liners. Pinnacle Books, 1981.
The Shas Party is an ultra-orthodox religious minor political party in Israel. Although the Israeli Supreme Court always voted to uphold the rights of the Orthodox Jews, it also protected the rights of Jews who were not orthodox and of non-Jews. This infuriated the Shas party who wanted their interpretation of traditional Jewish religious law to be imposed on all citizens of Israel. Reform Conversion is the right of a reformed Jewish Rabbi to perform a conversion to Judaism. Shas wanted only their orthodox rabbis to have that prerogative. Only a minority of Israeli citizens follow the Jewish Dietary Laws, and many Jews want to buy and eat pork. The Supreme Court upheld the right of a private store to sell pork products if it wished to, despite the distress of Shas and other fundamentalist Jews.
The reference to sex with Niddot refers to having sex with a menstruating woman which the ultra-Orthodox see as a serious sin. Few modern people the world over obey this biblical injunction. The Israeli Supreme court has constantly invalidated laws and government regulations that require other Jews and non-Jews in Israel to obey all the Sabbath laws of the Bible. That in the view of Ovadia is “desecrating” the Sabbath.
Joseph ben Matthias. There a different kinds of theocracy, There can be a Pope, a King, or a Supreme Leader who acts as the chief magistrate using a religious tract as the law of the land. The Ancient Jews had a Republican Theocracy were the leaders were chosen by the people but they did not promulgate any laws. The Torah—the first 5 books of the Old Testament—was the law of the land. In comparison. 21st century Iran recognized the Koran as the source of Laws. However, their chief magistrate was a cleric—the supreme leader who is not elected but appointed by a few other clerics. None of the other Iranian leaders are chosen by the people because all candidates must be approved by the Supreme Leader in order to even stand for election. So the ancient Jews had a republican theocracy, while Iran was an autocratic theocracy.
This is one of the characteristics of a theocracy—that all law comes from the Deity and religious law is civil law and vica versa. This is similar to the modern views held by the extreme conservative Muslims regarding their Islamic law, Sharia.
Muslims were in the majority and there was a sizable Jewish Community in Libya. Ironically, the objection to religious law having any jurisdiction has usually been that civil rights were denied. However, the same was true (in different ways) with Fascist law.
Henry "Henny" Youngman was an English-American comedian and musician famous for his mastery of the "one-liner"; his best known one-liner being "Take my wife ... please".
