On Jews and Judaism
1961-1990
The Seal of the Almighty
“The seal of the Almighty is truth.” (Shabbat
55a).
A few years ago, I was walking in Jerusalem
when I saw an angry crowd shouting and condemning a speaker who was, himself,
attacking Judaism and religion. A I
approached, I recognized the speaker as being the yetzer hara (the evil
inclination himself! Dressed as a member
of the anti-religious Ratz party, he was haranguing Judaism and the crowd was
replying with angry taunts. As I watched, the yetzer hara continued his
futile efforts and then, after a while, gave up and slipped away.
Last week, I was walking in Jerusalem and saw a
large crowd gathered around a speaker wearing a knitted yarmulka, a
model of modern enlightened Orthodox, who was loudly condemning racism,
fanaticism and extremism, and proudly extoling Judaism as calling for equality
with Arabs, love of enemies and the paragon of democracy. As I approached, I was startled to see that
the speaker was none other than the same yetzer hara whom I had last
seen ignominiously retreating before an angry crowd! I waited until the end of the rally, that was
not only greeted with warm applause, but was also attended by a whole host of
dignitaries including rabbis from Gush Etzion and professors from Bar Ilan
University, as well
as the President of Israel himself! Then, I walked over to the yetzer hara and
said:
“What are you doing here? And what is this yarmulka? And Torah teachings?”
The yetzer hara, who
incidentally looked fat and exceedingly prosperous, beamed at me and
replied: My friend, did you ever see me
get more applause than today? I realized
long ago that if you want to seduce the religious Jew the way is not to attack
Judaism, but to pervert it. I find that
if I put on a yarmulka, praise Torah and then
counterfeit what it says by making it sound palatable and all pleasant things to
all men that is the surest way to destroy it.
Now, while all the above never really
happened to me, there is not the slightest doubt that the essence of the story
is true. The destruction of Judaism, the
greatest threat to it, never comes from those who oppose it, but from those on
the inside who – for a myriad of objective and subjective reasons alike –
pervert, corrupt and counterfeit it.
This Passover, a writer for the newspaper Maariv
in Israel wrote an article that is
classic in its perversion of Torah. His
name is Avraham Tirosh; he is a member of Mafdal (the NRP-Mizrachi) and
he is that ideal example of shatnez ( admixture) of Jew and western
culture, whose background compels him not only to reject the bitter (for him)
truth of Judaism’s concepts but also drives him to twist and pervert G-d’s
law. In Tirosh’s case, of course, there
is a mitigating factor: He is an ignoramus. In the case of others, there is not
even that as an excuse.
Tirosh- obsessed as are so many others of the
Moderdox in Israel and the Exile- with the terribly painful issues raised by
“Kahanism” – and desperate – for his own agonized reasons – to prove to all and
to himself that Judaism is sheer love to all – writes a long column that is
given prominent space by the editors of the secular paper (who are only too
glad to believe that Judaism is not incompatible with all their gentilized
Hellenism). His basic theme is love of
all people, even enemies; equality of all people, and the sin of rejoicing over
the death of our enemies. He begins, of
course, with the usual partial quote of the Talmud (Megila 10) that when the angles
sought to sing a song of praise as the Egyptians were drowning, G-d said: “The
work of My hands is drowning in the sea and you want to sing?”
Says Tirosh:
All who are created in the image of G-d even the Egyptian are G-d’s
works and thus we must relate to them.
When a disaster occurs to anyone, even if he is your enemy, even if he
seeks to destroy you – do not sing praise.
Or, in the words of King Solomon (Proverbs 24:17): “When your enemy
falls, do not rejoice, and when he stumbles, let your heart not be glad.”
And this “lesson” of loving your enemy, the
Egyptian, who not only enslaved Jews and murdered them but was in the proves of
pursuing them to destroy them (and thus, presumably, teaching us similar
tolerance and morality for the PLO and Adolph Hitler) is underlined yet by
another “lesson” by the scholar from Maariv:
“This is what the Torah commands us in Mishpatim
(Shmot 23:4): ‘If you meet thine enemy’ ox or donkey gone astray, thou
shalt surely bring it back to him.’ “This lesson” is also clear. Your “enemy” must be helped, we must be moral
and ethical to the Arab, the PLO, those who hate us, those who are our “enemy.”
Not only should we not rejoice in their death or disaster; we should not
cause it. If Tirosh, suffering from
his own psychological problem, would sit quietly in his own little world, his
own corner, creating his own private perversion, it would not be cause for
concern. But Tirosh, as so many other
Moderdox is driven not only to sin but to pervert others, to cause them to
sin. And, worse, how many Tiroshes there
are in the marketplace! And not all are
ignoramuses; indeed, some are learned, hence, far more guilty, far more
dangerous. Let us, therefore, destroy
the absurd and dangerous article as a step to destroying the absurd and false
neo-Toraism, Moderdoxism, that perverts and counterfeits the word of G-d.
As always, the Tiroshes of the world selectively
and very partially quote the Talmud. The
selection he brings down really begins with R. Yehoshua ben Levi starting his
lecture on Megilat Esther with the verse: “as the L-rd rejoiced over you
(“sas”) to do you good, so the L-rd will rejoice over you (yasis”)
to cause you to perish.” (Dvarim 28:63).
And the Talmud asks: Does the Almighty then rejoice over the fall of the
wicked? And to prove that He does not
rejoice, the story of the angels asking to sing praise is brought. And this is where Tirosh (either the
ignoramus or the knave) stops. But there
is more. The Talmud continues and
answers as follows:
“Rabbi Elazar said: It is true that HE does not rejoice but He
causes others to rejoice.”
Ah, what a difference. And a clear answer to the obvious
question: If G-d does not want us to
rejoice and praise Him when our enemy falls, why in the world does it say:
“Then sang Moses and the Children of Israel this song unto the L-rd…”? (Shmot
15). And a clear answer to why the
rabbis say (Mchilta, B’shalach, 11):
“The L-rd shall perform for you miracles and glories and you will stand
there and do nothing? Said Israel unto
Moses: what are we to do? Said he unto them: You will glorify and praise and give song and
glory and greatness to the One to whom wars belong.”
Of course the Almighty, the totality of
compassion, the Father of all, grieves for His children – all of them. HE does not sing. His angels, who are not of this world, do not
sing. But, the Jews do. Not only are they allowed to, they are
commanded to. For the very same reason
that the very same Almighty who does not sing, does destroy the work of His
hands because they are evil.
Yes, of course He grieves. He grieves that those who were made in His
Image have so perverted and destroyed the greatness of that Image. That those who were made in their image of
good were so evil. And so, He
grieves. He grieves for the perversion
of His purpose in making the world, for His works who have so gone astray. And
in His grief, He does not have pity. He
destroys them. He knows that evil
and He cannot share the same world, as our rabbis say: “As long as the wicked
rule the world, the Holy One, Blessed be He, so to speak, cannot sit on His
throne.” (Yaklut, Tehilim Chapter 47).
And so, because the arrogance of the enemy of
the Jewish people, their brazen persecution of the people of G-d with no fear
of G-d is the very essence of Hillul Hashem, the Almighty in wrath
destroys them and the Children of Israel must sing and glorify G-d. And thus do the rabbis declare (Shmot Raba
23): “‘Then did Moses and the Children of Israel sing,’ this is what is meant
by the verse (Psalms 9:17): ‘The L-rd is known by the judgment He executes.’ This
speaks of Egypt whom G-d smote by the Red Sea.”
And Shmot Raba 23: “’Then did Moses and the Children of Israel sing.’
This is the meaning of the verse (Psalms 93:2):
Your throne was firm from then.’
Even though You exist from time immemorial, Your throne was not made
firm and You were not made known in the world until your children sang. When You stood at the sea and we sang before
You, with that, “Az” (then) was Your kingdom and throne made firm.”
This is the essence of Judaism – a world made
for good and that cannot abide evil. A
world that, when the works of G-d’s hand pervert His purpose and when the
wicked rules and mocks G-d – as Pharaoh declaring: “Who is the L-rd, I know not the L-rd,” the
Almighty destroys them, no matter how sad He feels and the Jew is ordered to
sing the song of the Red Sea not only on Passover but each and every day of the
year in his morning service!
And that is why King David sings (Psalms
58:11): “Let the righteous rejoice when
he seeth vengeance, he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.” Why? Because only when we see the wicked punished,
only when we see vengeance for their sins, do we have proof that G-d really
does exist and rules. And David
continues by saying: “And men shall say: Verily there is a reward for the
righteous; truly there is a G-d that judgeth in the earth.”
And that is why the rabbis tell us that “Moses
yearned to see vengeance against the Midianites.” Moses. Yearned. To see vengeance on the wicked. What shall we do with the fanatic Moses…
The incredible perversion of Judaism by
confused and guilt-ridden Moderdox, ignoramuses and learned alike! Our rabbis tell us (Midrash Avkir): ‘And
Israel saw the great hand of G-d’ – When the Almighty wished to drown the Egyptians? At that moment Gabriel rose and took a brick
and said: Sovereign of the Universe!
These who enslaved your children such a terrible slavery as this, shall
You have mercy on them? Immediately, the
Almighty drowned them.”
And allow me to introduce two other Talmudic
sayings: “That generation was one of
tiny faith, saying: Just as we rose from
the sea on this side, perhaps the Egyptians rose from the other side. The Almighty ordered that the bodies be
washed up and Israel saw them” (Psachim
118b) And Midrash Tehillim 22:1 adds: “Each
Jew took his dog and put his foot on the throat of a dead Egyptian and said to
his dog: Eat of the hand that enslaved
me; eat of the heart that showed me no pit.”
Poor Tirosh. Poor Moderdox.
As for the tiresome perversion of the verse “when
your enemy falls do not rejoice,” it is time that Tirosh went beyond a Biblical
verse and learned that G-d gave us an Oral Law, a Talmud that explains
verses. Let him open the Talmud (Megila
16a) which tells of Mordechai kicking Haman as the latter bent over to help him
climb on the horse. Haman, too, in a
startling echo of Tirosh, wails: “Does it not say in your Torah, when your
enemy falls, etc.? And Mordechai answers
Haman and Tirosh: “That speaks about
a Jew (an enemy who is a Jew) but with you it declares, ‘And you shall trod on
their high places.’ (Dvarim 33:29)”
Haman heard the worlds of Judaism; Tirosh, not yet.
And the ignorance knows no bounds, the pity
being that some Jews stand before the entire country and expose their nakedness
with shouts of triumph. “Thine enemy’s ox
or donkey.” This, in the narrow, empty
head of an ignorant Moderdox, proves how much we have pity even on our enemy.
The Talmud (Bava Metzia 32b), aside from making
it clear that, at best, the reason for the law is tzaar
baalei chaim (suffering of the animal and not pity on the
enemy), makes it as clear as is humanly possible that “The ‘enemy’ that is mentioned here is a Jew who
is your enemy and not a gentile.” And Maimonides,
the idol of the great progressives, says (Hilchot Rotzeach 13:14): “The ‘enemy’ mentioned in the Torah is a Jew
and not one of the nations of the world.”
I really could go on and on and on, but the
lesson is clear. Tirosh is the lesson
of Passover and of every day of the year.
Tirosh and the Moderdox, puffed up by their own personal and egotistical
refusal to accept Torah concepts and destroy their own gentilized and
westernized ones, deliberately pervert and counterfeit Torah.
The seal of the Almighty is truth and only that
truth will emerge from His lips and His teachings.
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