K A H A
N E
The
magazine of the Authentic Jewish Idea
March-April
1989 Adar-Nissan 5749
Arrogance
of Ignorance
In day days when men were humble enough to know what they were –
and what they were not; what they knew – and what they did not, the ignoramus
knew his place. Whatever arrogance existed
was the province of those who were, at least, nominally scholars. And so, while ignorance and arrogance are
both attributes to be shunned, their separation was at least a small favor for
which to be grateful. But, times have
changed and we are today, victims of the ultimate curse – the arrogance of
ignorance. The unabashed and haughty
readiness to display one’s abysmal and absurd ignorance before people and
congregation is the symbol of our wretched times.
The latest exhibitionist of sheer nescience is one Yitzhak Ro’eh, a
leftist writer for the Histadrut Daily Davar. What prompted his latest outburst of
superficiality was anger. Mr. Ro’eh is
angry.
And why is Mr. Ro’eh angry?
Because, following an attempt by four Arab terrorists to infiltrate into
Israel and murder Jews, the Israeli Army superbly met them and eliminated all
of them. And then – and this is what causes the blood to rise in Mr. Ro’eh’s
head – and then, photographers were allowed to snap photos of the dead
terrorists who had sought to murder Jews.
“Gevald!” shouts Mr. Ro’eh who – as we will soon see, is a very moral
person. What an outrage against decency
and morality to rejoice and exhibit the bodies of four people who attempted to
murder Jews and were killed by the Jewish army.
Or in his words:
“Every person and his own associations. When I saw the large color photos of the four
terrorists who were eliminated in Lebanon, the following line from the Passover
Hagada, began to ring in my ear: ‘The work of my hands are drowning in the
sea and you sing?’”
And Mr. Ro’eh then spends the next four paragraphs detailing all
the things that were outrageous about those photographs, and concludes: “All this adds up to a growing
insensitivity, a deepening dulling of the senses… The one who wrote ‘do not
rejoice when your enemy falls,’ would, probably, agree with me: When your enemy falls do not be photographed
with him.
One hardly knows where to begin to plough through this trash heap
of utterly foul ignorance and arrogance.
But we shall try. To begin with,
the words, “the work of My hands are drowning in the sea…” do not appear
anywhere in the Hagada but are to be found in the Babylonian Talmud (Megila
10b and Sanhedrin 39b), an area of Jewish knowledge that remains for Ro’eh the
ignoramus, a dark, exotic, virgin area, untouched by him or his study. Indeed the utter superficiality of the man
leads one to wonder whether, when he writes “the one who wrote ‘do not
rejoice,’ etc…,” does he really know who
did write it.
In any event, one more thought before disposing of the arrogant
ignoramus. I am always impressed by the
intellectual fraud that is an inevitable part of all the secular haters of
Judaism of observant Jews. They are
blessed with an amazing ability to selectively choose what they wish from the
very same books of Judaism that are filled with verses, sayings, concepts and
laws that run counter to the most basic things in which they believe. The very same religious books they despise
for “racism,” “cruelty,” “barbarity” and “obscurantism,” suddenly become proper
repositories of truth when they spy in them a thing that apparently
agrees with their own warped concepts.
Intellectual honesty was never the strong suit of the schizophrenic
secularists, leftists and Hellenists who lack the courage to entirely drop the
Jewishness they so desperately despise.
In any event, back to Mr. Ro’eh, so that we can dispose of him
before the same people and congregation in whose presence he so arrogantly
displayed his naked ignorance. The need
to do this is compounded a thousand times over by the fact that the ignoramus
Ro’eh is joined not only by so many semi-ignorant others, but worst of
all – by so many tortured Moderdox types who cannot bear to accept the stark
truth of authentic Jewish values
As always, the Ro’ehs (and others) of the world selectively and
very partially quote the Talmud. The
selection they bring down really begins with R. Yeshoshua 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). 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 Ro’eh, the ignoramus,
stops. But there is more. The Talmud continues with 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 Moses and
the children of Israel sing this song unto the L-rd…?” (Shmot15)
And a clear answer to why the rabbis say: (Mechilta, B’shalach, II): “The L-rd shall perform for you miracles and
glories and you will stand 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, though He 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 the image of good, were so evil. And so, He grieves for the perversion of His
purpose in making the world, for His works that 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 in the world, the Holy One Blessed be He,
so to speak, cannot sit on His throne.” (Yalkut 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): “The L-rd is known by the judgment He
executes.” This speaks of Egypt whom G-d
smote at the Red Sea.”
The seal of the Almighty is truth and only that truth will emerge
from His lips and His teachings. One
imagines the agony of the soul that Ro’eh must endure every Purim as all the
misguided and insensitive and sense-dulled Jews celebrate, rejoice and drink to
the death of their enemy, Haman. One
sees the lonely Ro’eh the lost of the Just sitting gloomily alone in his
apartment, bemoaning the spiritual fall of the Jew and the spread of Kahanism
among us all. Even as the Jewish people
rejoice on Purim. Mr. Roe’h sits with the following ringing through his
ear: “The work of My hand…”
Donkey, Immoral Moralist,
Arrogant Ignoramus. He opposes rejoicing
over the death of those who would destroy us.
The Donkey of Morality – Yitzhak Ro’e
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