Koreans and the Talmud, הקוריאנים והתלמוד

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The hype about Koreans learning Talmud must not be taken as a positive thing. I believe they are learning it not l'shem shamayim, although they are not obligated to.  The Oral Torah is a possession of the Jews and the Jews are obligated to learn it, otherwise, the whole world will cease to exist. Anyway, the Koreans are learning some aggadic and mussar lessons, from the personalities of the Talmud, because they believe that they will become economically successful like the Jews. Well, not all Jews who are successful economically became successful because they learn Torah. Every Jew is born with a different mazal. Many are born with a mazal for business and economic success, whether or not they are religious. Many of our Sages owned businesses and operated them in order to make ends meet, that's all.  The Chofetz Chaim and his wife operated a grocery store, Rashi owned a winery, and so forth.

Back to the Koreans. The Koreans are descendants of the barbaric Mongolians, which at one time in history, conquered much of the European empire, including Hungary. Today, they are barbaric in different ways.  Their favorite delicacies are live octopus, eels, rabbits, cats and dogs. There are bloggers on the Web from foreigners having their first taste of live (sea) animals in Korea. I'm not sure if eating live octopus are against one of the seven Noahide negative commandments. I think the negative commandment of tearing a limb from a live animal refers to בהמה (four-legged mammal) and not including שרץ (swarming creeping things).  Nevertheless, it's still "barbaric" in my mind for people to have a taste for such foods. There are cultures in the Far East and South America which consume scorpions and other creepy crawlers as delicacies. South Korea has been labelled as one of those countries (including China and other Asian nations) which abuse dogs, cats, rabbits (and what else?) as well.  See video below (GRAPHIC!!!).

As you can see in the video above, the rabbits were placed in the steamers *live* and one rabbit was banged and still alive. It's just too *barbaric* IMHO. I think the nations should first become more aware of their obligations to Hashem, i.e. through the seven mitzvos of Noach, before they try to delve into Jewish inheritance and territory. A nation that learns Talmud and behaves in such manner is no nation to be proud of.  The same goes for the Jewish people, of course!!!