I do not like any plan that forces settlers to abandon homes - I think it's clearly violating human decency. There is no Prophet demanding such an action.

Israelis and Iranians are not connected. These issues do not have much if anything at all to do with each other. This is another point. The idea that all issues in the Middle East ar ... Read Moreinterconnected is a terrible fallacy. Israeli concessions in the peace process are part of a series of negotiations between warring parties, something totally separate from Hizbullah's conflict with Israel.

Furthermore, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not impact Iraqis at all. Even more so, it does not impact Iranians. Residents of countries across the Middle East lack democratic expression because their leaders want to hold an autocratic degree of power. Just as it has served in Iran, this issue is used as a diversionary issue, a classic political maneuver.

Flare ups in Iraq have always depended largely on domestic conflicts - and the infiltration by the United States, Iran and Syria.

Leaving Iraq to its own devices is not ideal, nor is it a simple policy to implement. Having a date in mind for withdrawal necessitates empowering a secure head of state with a strong and loyal national police force. ... Read MoreIf not national, one working in federation with regional police, like Kurdish units. The strong diplomacy to avoid more bloodshed is needed there. The convulsions from that country have been more regional in impact than flare ups between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Even further, פרשת שלח culminates in מצות ציצית, a direct consequence of our bowing to temptation - our doubts, our distractions, our reluctance and our fears. As God commands in the second פסוק in the parshah, "שלח לך אנשים ויתורו את ארץ כנען," so does he respond to חטא מרגלים by saying of tzitzit, "ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם ואחרי עיניכם."

We are reminded here that our greatest ventures, most important endeavors and newest steps in our lives can be blocked by our own self-restraint. This story demonstrates the reverberations of such a lapse in moral fiber and self-discipline. God offers his help with a mild reminder, a curious scenery on our own person of royal blue threads. Such a color, so distinct and rare for a camp entrenched in the desert, will demonstrate the value and enrichment such observance offers, and the acquisition of nobility and knighthood, bestowed by מלך מלכות שקי. It truly recasts the revelation to the Children of Israel, who have been hindered by fault after fault up until this point. A subtle hint of royalty with kindle the passions of the new chivalrous army of the upstart King of kings - Hashem.

This is a beneficial attitude when going forward into something new, and especially something uncertain. Naturally, we will have our fears. But רמב''ם points out it is אסור to dwell on one's fears during a time of war, otherwise those natural fears would become debilitating.

It is best and perhaps the only sanctioned course of action, to maintain a focus on the mission, and simultaneously on the positive. The spies should have brought their report back knowing they still had an objective, and their journey was to determine solutions to the obstacles they would face in the land. Do our "tourists" today visit Israel with questions on recognizing the problems in the Land of Israel? On what needs to be fixed? On what could be made better? Our most important objectives must be on our minds, or we will simply lose sight of the entire purpose.

Chukim can arguably be put into the framework of Judaism, which provides an external rationale for following the laws like you said. But, that needn’t provide an inherent rationality to certain precepts. For example, there is no rational, naturally logical reason to avoid eating a pig. But, if someone were to argue that G-d commanded it in the context of being a holy nation, or to try to discipline Am Yisrael, then we can make some logical extensions even if they are not complete:

“There seems to be a connection between a certain type of diet and holiness.” OR “Maintaining these commandments will allow us to remain faithful to the Torah, which enriches our people by giving us values and a spiritual connection that uplifts the collective morale of our people.”

These are not the only, and perhaps not the best, justifications for chukim, but they are examples nonetheless.

I have to disagree with any comment that dismisses rationality, and establishes faith as the litmus test for Judaism's reliability. They key proof for Judaism is the religion's unique claim of mass revelation, which cannot be logically disproven and provides a substantial, arguably concrete argument for the religion's validity. The Torah quotes Moses at Sinai, who reminds the people that they've "all seen it" with their own eyes and, thus, cannot deny what is an undeniable truth.

He then gives them the beginnings of the Torah, which he uses again 40 years later as a proof for G-d's existence and guidance just before Am Yisrael crosses the Jordan:

"This mitzvah that I command to you today, it's no wonder, it's not far from you, and it is not in the Heavens."

It's right in front of you! You don't need meditation or magic potion or witchcraft to try to communicate with G-d and discover his will! He put it in front of you, and he did it before your very eyes! Your parents told you so!

It may seem perfectly legitimate to argue there is circular logic at work, but the argument would not be accurate. This situation demonstrates that a mass of people who rely on another mass of people, back generations upon generations, would have much trouble tracing a reported collective revelation back to one man who converted some apostles and from that point on convinced would be converts. The point is, a mass of people experienced something that they reported to another mass of people, and so forth. One individual who would try to persuade hordes of would-be Jews that he was the sole keeper of a Torah that reported 600,000+ men witnessed the greatest prophecy of all time . . . together.

If someone wants to hit back and say they were all downing 'shrooms, they have a less concrete argument than this one does. The incense wasn't being lit yet and the Hebrews had already seen everything G-d had to throw at the Egyptians.

Logic and rationality are at the core of the religion's credibility. The points in this argument are much better argued by our intellectual titans, but they are not shooting with BB guns. Judaism stands on rationality unlike any other religion in the world, and so we argue that G-d revealed his Torah before all of Am Yisrael to make this prophecy as meaningful and undisputed as possible. Rationality and Torah are not only intimately connected, but they need each other in order to survive a rationalist's polemic against G-d.