Brooklyn, NY – A Jewish solar-power advocate: Another typical secular Jewish liberal? Hardly. In the 1981 video below, you’ll be positively surprised at who called for American energy independence as part of America’s greater God-given destiny in light of the then-recent Birkas Hachamah blessing—well before alternative energy became the hot liberal cause that it is today.
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Thanks to JEM store for giving us the Video
I didn’t know alternatives to using foreign oil made it liberal.
The Rebbe had an advanced degree in engineering so from that standpoint he actually has something to say.
Raboisay, this is obviously part of the yishivishe liberal agenda. Everyone knows that the heimish velt are really all libs disguised as conservatives….
The rebbe is 100% right from a national security standpoint, but today its also a good investment. The stimulus package gives businesses a 30% grant towards the costs of instaling a solar system, along with state rebates and carbon credits. This allowes one to recoup his inital investment in a few years and from there on its free energy.
mister gold is most offensive. it is this very ignorance that has made environmental awareness and conciousness the politicla issue it is today. its not a cause of liberals and secularists. it is a cause of humans. it was the neo cons who were against any forms of improvement and progress for fear it would hurt their deep pockets and oil money that made it political and demonized all good citizens who cared about pollution and waste as secular liberals. this video comes as no surprise for those of us frumme yidden who have been championing the cause for years, especially since it is fully manddated and supported by the torah and torah judaism. there are few things more religious and torahdik than environmentalist, and the rebbe was not alone in his support, no sir. it is only in the era of limbaugh neo cons did yidden turn away from such a holy mandate.
The Obama wants to have us put “smart meters” in our house to control the electric we use. Let me say that in ENGLISH for you to understand…. THE GOVT WANTS TO COME INTO YOUR HOUSE TO CONTROL HOW YOU LIVE!!
Its not good enough that we PAY for electric so we know if we use it, we pay for it. No! We need Govt interevention, someone coming into our home, and having the govt approve how much electric we need.
This is NOT Liberty and Freedom, THIS IS TYRANNY!
Ronald Reagan spoke about using solar energy at his accepatance speech at the 1980 Republican Convention. Reagan was hardly a liberal.
i work for a solar company, 95% of our customers install solar to SAVE MONEY, not to go green
People are so stupid! This has nothing to do with Liberals or Greenies, its for people who want to save money monthly by not paying their utility company. Would you rather pay Mohamed at the gas station or produce your own energy!? Wake up and smell the coffee
“A Jewish solar-power advocate: Another typical secular Jewish liberal? Hardly.”
WADR, the Rebbe’s reasons for pursuing this policy had little to do with typical liberal environmental concerns. He sought greater energy independence in order to free the USA from the energy blackmail of the prior decade. He very sharply lambastes the anti-drilling AND anti-solar forces as purely self-interested and not concerned with the greater health of the country. These are points that any “card carrying conservative” can agree with today.
I’ve been watching the video a number of times. I think this has been altered to meet the liberal agenda.
if we didnt have this on video people would never believe it. If we had video of Moshe Rabeinu, what would he be saying? what would he be wearing?
Come on — do you want to keep supporting the Saudis, or do you want the government to do the responsible thing and give people a little kick in the tuches to jump start a solution that will eventually save us all tons of money and put our terrorist-supporting enemies into the poorhouse?
excuse my ignorance but how is the energy produced stored? (the rebbe mentioned the potential of an “energy surplus”)
the reason why we need so many state and federal incentive is becuse of the high cost of the solar panels. these incentives and rebates really do take off a lot ot the inital cost. people are not aware that investing in solar gives you a return on investment of 28% a year, find a investment today that gives you a third of that
Chevrei:
Today there are many solar options, including very sophisticated (and elegantly simple!) passive solar architecture.
The Rebbe knew what he spoke of. With passive solar, you can build a home that will retain an indoor temperature of 60-70 degrees F without spending one penny for heat. An entire winter’s heating even the coldest climate (say, in Colorado) can cost less than a cord of firewood (about $240).
If interested, read Natural Solar Architecture, A Primer by David Wright, AIA.
My dream is to build a small Torah community with this type of construction. With this sicha, the Rebbe gave us the kochos to do it.
the surplus energy gets sent back to your utility company, who by law is required to credit you for the retail value of the electricity. when one installs solar the utility company installs a uni-directional meter that literally spins backwards. say for instance you are not home for a month in the summer you still rack up a nice credit on your bill.
Just FYI — this is only part of a 25 MINUTE (!) talk by the Rebbe — the full DVD in the link at the end has the whole version. There the Rebbe addresses nuclear, coal, fuel, and more of the geo-political situation…
Installing Solar on ones home is like buying a car that does’t use any gas. Even though it cost more up front you benifit down the road.
This is one of the few investments that banks in general still finance.
“people dont realize that electricity is produced mainly by gas and oil supplied by our cousins in the middle east”
Electric power generation in the is roughly 50% from coal(all US sourced) , 20% from nuclear, 10% from natural gas(most if not all from US sources), 10% from hydroelectric, less than 5% from oil, and the remainder from solar, geothermal, and wind power. The US has enough coal to supply the country for around 250 years at current consumption levels. Even though the US has not build a nuclear power plant in over 30 years, the US is still the largest producer of electricity from nuclear power.
The US has 104 nuclear reactors for energy production. There are those who want new nuclear reactors built in the US. France gets over 70% of its electric power from nuclear.
I am in awe of the foresight of the Lubavitcher Rebbe (back in the ’80’s) as well as his concern for the greater community extending outside the Jewish world.
Very fascinating video.
For all you people mentioning oil coming from the arabs, keep in mind its your liberal agenda stopping us from drilling here, drilling NOW, so we could save money. We have enough oil in the USA to last us for DECADES. If we were able to use OUR RESOURCES, we could during that time research ways to get away from foreign oil.
BTW, the oil and gas (as in natural) industries are related so we would kill two birds with one stone.
Drill Here!
Drill NOW!!
Save Money!!!
Did the Rebbe tell his chassidim how to build an efficient cost effective solar panel. Currently solar power is many times more expensive than oil and coal power generation. Maybe one day it will be developed….
I dont give a hoot about anything Obama says! I will be running all the lights in my mansions as much as I want even if I am not home!
the Rebbe was obviously addressing the issue of American dependence on Arab oil – and its negative affect on Israeli policy in Washington.
this has nothing to do with enviro-mentalism.
I wish all this hype about “green” power would trnaslate into less profits for Saudis. As The Lubavitch Rabbi said “ungrateful nation”. The Americans built up oil industry and opened up the markets and now this $$ is used against us.