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The tragic end of Michael Jackson
The Jerusalem Post ^ | June 26, 2009 | Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Posted on 06/26/2009 4:27:09 AM PDT by kress

I was on vacation with my family in Iceland when my office called and shared the terrible news of Michael Jackson's passing. My wife and children were with me in the van. We could scarcely believe what we had heard. The children all remembered Michael fondly. He had given them their dog Marshmallow who is a member of our family until today. My daughter teared up. And while I was heartsick at the news, especially for his three young children, I was not shocked. I dreaded this day and knew it had to come sooner rather than later.

In the two years that I had attempted, ultimately unsuccessfully, to help Michael repair his life, what most frightened me was not that he would be arrested again for child molestation, although he later was. Rather it was that he would die. As I told CNN on April 22, 2004, "My great fear, and why I felt I had to be distanced from Michael ... was that he would not live long. My fear was that Michael's life would be cut short. When you have no ingredients of a healthy life, when you are totally detached from that which is normal, and when you are a super-celebrity you, God forbid, end up like Janis Joplin like Elvis... Michael is headed in that direction."

I am no prophet and it did not take a rocket scientist to see the impending doom. Michael was a man in tremendous pain and his tragedy was to medicate his pain away rather than addressing its root cause. On many occasions when I visited him he would emerge from his room woozy and clearly sedated. Who were the doctors who were giving him this stuff? Was there no one to save him from himself?

(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...


TOPICS: Music/Entertainment; Society
KEYWORDS: boteach; michaeljackson; rabbi; rabbishmuley; rabbishmuleyboteach; shmuleyboteach; theend
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To: McGruff
This is all about favorably redefining MJs image to “KING of POP”. His estate is apx $500,000,000.00 in debt. It makes good business sense to exploit his royalties.
21 posted on 06/26/2009 7:02:22 AM PDT by Broker (Reward: $100.00 for the lost book of Islamic Praise Songs.)
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To: a real Sheila

“What does KING OBAMA think of MJ’s passing”?

...that idiot won’t comment on North Korea, the Chicoms, Russia or anything else that could blow us to smithereens! He WILL however lament about the unfairness brough to MJ as a result of his being black! It’ll be the same for OJ when he kicks!


22 posted on 06/26/2009 7:23:48 AM PDT by albie
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To: rovenstinez

“Okay, so Michael Jackson died. Now, can we move on”?

...I couldn’t agree more! My secretary had all the details of this BS this morning, and I knew nothing of it until 10am(EST)!! My response to her was, “I think that the country going to hell in a handbasket is a tad more important to me right now”!


23 posted on 06/26/2009 7:25:14 AM PDT by albie
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To: kress

“Drug addicted sex pervert dead at 50.” Any other news about this is a waste of time.


24 posted on 06/26/2009 7:28:29 AM PDT by anton
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To: rovenstinez

Why? Well, he did save humanity and turn aside that asteroid that was headed for earth. All by himself, too.
Didn’t he?


25 posted on 06/26/2009 7:36:04 AM PDT by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: ETL

I like this, found on another FR thread:

“The family has announced that since Michael was already 90 percent plastic, they will be melting him into Legos so little boys can play with him for a change.”

Not sure which thread or which poster.


26 posted on 06/26/2009 7:45:12 AM PDT by Mr Rogers (I loathe the ground he slithers on!)
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To: kress
Michael needed tough love and no one had the balls to give him what he needed most.

May they find comfort in a renewed faith.

27 posted on 06/26/2009 8:05:51 AM PDT by pray4liberty (http://www.foundersvalues.com/)
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To: Mr Rogers; All
Don't know about that, but just about anything is possible in this weird and disturbing saga. BTW, if you didn't see it already, I posted a thread on MJ around an hour ago.

"Living with Michael Jackson" [MJ on sleeping with children: It's very charming. It's very sweet]
(transcipt and youtube video of the Martin Bashir interview)

Posted on Friday, June 26, 2009 10:03:14 AM ET by ETL:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2279938/posts

28 posted on 06/26/2009 8:05:52 AM PDT by ETL (ALL the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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To: pray4liberty

He didn’t need tough love so much as he need real love at the key developmental stages of his life. That is love not for his talent, his fame, his money, what he could do for other people, etc. but for his intrinsic worth — the kind of love that in its purest form comes from Christ, not flawed human beings. Boteach is on to something hear about spiritual lessons of Jacko’s tragic life. I see him as a window into the soul of many abused, exploited and therefore damaged people. He had the means/enablers to physically manifest the warped self-image that many keep inside.


29 posted on 06/26/2009 10:21:35 AM PDT by Callahan
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To: MrLee

I think so.


30 posted on 06/26/2009 11:07:16 AM PDT by Northern Yankee (Freedom Needs A Soldier)
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To: Varda
I don't know if he ever really truly molested those boys..he should never have been in the same bed, I grant you that...That's just my opinion..no need to start a fight..it's all moot now. He was a sad man-child. I heard someone else say that the reason he hung with children is because he believed they were the only ones who were honest with him.

But this article truly made me cry. I wasn't a big Jackson fan, although I appreciated his talent and understood his effect on music and pop culture.

But his story is really the story of America. Opportunity to all, success, fame, extraordinary wealth, betrayal, idol worship, NAIVITE and...and ultimately, an untimely death...when Shmuley says at the end he prays for America, I totally understand what he means.

31 posted on 06/26/2009 11:47:52 AM PDT by Hildy
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To: Callahan
We all need love, whoever we are. Something went very wrong somewhere in his life. His was a believing family at one time.

Prayers for the family. I've been reading reports about foul play.

32 posted on 06/26/2009 2:16:41 PM PDT by pray4liberty (http://www.aroodawakening.tv)
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To: kress



Michael Jackson, June 25, 2009


33 posted on 06/26/2009 2:22:24 PM PDT by Lady Jag (Communism + Hezbollah + Al Qaeda + Obama + StoneAge = CHAOS)
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To: kress

Being in the same place, I hope Tiller somehow manages to give Michael an abortion.


34 posted on 06/26/2009 2:25:23 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by nature, not nurture)
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To: Hildy

Yours and Shmuleys reaction is a good one and very understandable but Shmuley does ask, “Was there no one to save him from himself? Was there no one to intervene?”.
As he says that reaction required real love but what would that love have looked like? I say it wouldn’t have looked soft or comforting. Calling him a pervert wouldn’t have been easy to say but maybe that’s what it would have taken to let him see he couldn’t have his behaviors and real approval too.


35 posted on 06/27/2009 8:08:18 AM PDT by Varda
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