"Frum" Jews driving away Mashiach
I have said it before...Chazal tell us that one of the questions we will be asked after 120 years is, "Have you eagerly anticipated the Mashiach?", and I will have a hard time saying yes.
Most frum Jews believe, based on the Rabbinic interpretation of "b'ita achishena" (Yishayahu 60:22) that, sooner or later (by the year 6000 according to most views), Hashem will send us the Mashiach whether or not we deserve it. I know at least one person, who spends his time trying to calculate Hashem's timetable for this, who says, "It's too late for achishena." In other words, we can never be worthy and we must rely on that time that Hashem has held in reserve since the beginning. (A very Christian attitude which I will try to discuss further in the near future.)
If all of frum Am Yisrael was busting it's collective gut to try to bring the Geula and just couldn't make it, I could believe in b'ita. But when we thumb our collective noses at Hashem, going on destroying the world with our hateful ways, I can't believe or accept it for a minute. It makes all of Torah a sham.
Last night in a chat group of local teenage "frum" girls, of which my daughter was a member (no longer), one of them posted that the murder in 2015 of 2-year old Palestinian Arab Ali Dawabsha was a "mitzva."
This is not the first time, and I'm it sure it won't be the last, that I have heard "frum" Jews advocating hate and genocide. As if (you have heard this from me before, and will again) Hashem will stop punishing us for our sins if we can just get rid of the current instrument of His punishment. It is an insult of the highest order to the intelligence of the God they claim to worship and believe in. The reason this one hits home so hard is because of the impact it has had on a member of my family, who suddenly has been exposed to the hate that can lurk beneath the surface of seemingly good people. Also, it grieves me at the deepest levels that my neighbors are raising their children to be steeped in such hatred.
Murdering children is not Torah. Murdering adults who are not directly implicate in a crime is not Torah. They are the tactics of terrorists; exactly like the Arab suicide bombers who seek out innocents, especially women and children, when they explode their bombs. How can we ask the world to care about attacks against us when we are advocating the exact same behavior?
(There were specific cases...with Hashem's direct judgment that the society was so bankrupt, the evil morals so ingrained, that women and children were to be killed...Amalek is the chief example. But as much as the haters decide that this group or that is a spiritual Amalek, the only one who can make that decision as far as taking any action is a fully constituted Sanhedrin. Without that, if you see an Arab, say "He's Amelek!", pull out your gun and shoot him, you have just committed murder according to Halacha.)
Ironically, in the case of children, the hypocrisy is even stronger. I usually talk mostly about p'shat, but the people we are dealing with are people who believe in the literal truth of Midrash. And the Midrash says they're wrong.
When Avraham sent Hagar and Yishma'el away, Yishma'el was about to die in the desert. The Midrash says the angels begged Hashem to let him die...listing all the horrible things his descendants would to to B'nei Yisrael in the future. (Up to the time the Midrash was written; Rav Ya'akov Love has said that if Chazal knew of all the additional problems we have had up to today it would have been included in the Midrash.)
Hashem asked the angels if at that moment, "ba'asher hu sham" (B'reishit 21:17), Yishma'el was innocent or guilty, and they were forced to answer innocent. (Teasing his brother is not a capital crime.) So Hashem said he couldn't allow someone to die if he was innocent, no matter what may happen in the future.
Most of us, when we think of that story, think of Yishma'el as a baby or toddler at the time. But that's wrong. Yishmae'l was 14 when Yitzhak was born...so he was probably 16 when they had the weaning party, after which he and his mother were sent away. Post-Bar Mitzva age; a fully functional young and responsible adult in that society.
Hashem Himself said it was wrong to even passively allow a young adult to die for crimes he may commit in the future...and the people under discussion here say we should even kill a 2-year old just for belonging to a race some of whose members commit crimes! Something isn't Kosher here.
When the Am HaNivchar, the Goi Kadosh, the Or LaGoyim, sinks to the level of Amalek, there is no way we can expect to be rewarded with Mashiach. All we can expect is more difficult times, more terror attacks, until we wake up and start working in the right direction.
Most frum Jews believe, based on the Rabbinic interpretation of "b'ita achishena" (Yishayahu 60:22) that, sooner or later (by the year 6000 according to most views), Hashem will send us the Mashiach whether or not we deserve it. I know at least one person, who spends his time trying to calculate Hashem's timetable for this, who says, "It's too late for achishena." In other words, we can never be worthy and we must rely on that time that Hashem has held in reserve since the beginning. (A very Christian attitude which I will try to discuss further in the near future.)
If all of frum Am Yisrael was busting it's collective gut to try to bring the Geula and just couldn't make it, I could believe in b'ita. But when we thumb our collective noses at Hashem, going on destroying the world with our hateful ways, I can't believe or accept it for a minute. It makes all of Torah a sham.
Last night in a chat group of local teenage "frum" girls, of which my daughter was a member (no longer), one of them posted that the murder in 2015 of 2-year old Palestinian Arab Ali Dawabsha was a "mitzva."
This is not the first time, and I'm it sure it won't be the last, that I have heard "frum" Jews advocating hate and genocide. As if (you have heard this from me before, and will again) Hashem will stop punishing us for our sins if we can just get rid of the current instrument of His punishment. It is an insult of the highest order to the intelligence of the God they claim to worship and believe in. The reason this one hits home so hard is because of the impact it has had on a member of my family, who suddenly has been exposed to the hate that can lurk beneath the surface of seemingly good people. Also, it grieves me at the deepest levels that my neighbors are raising their children to be steeped in such hatred.
Murdering children is not Torah. Murdering adults who are not directly implicate in a crime is not Torah. They are the tactics of terrorists; exactly like the Arab suicide bombers who seek out innocents, especially women and children, when they explode their bombs. How can we ask the world to care about attacks against us when we are advocating the exact same behavior?
(There were specific cases...with Hashem's direct judgment that the society was so bankrupt, the evil morals so ingrained, that women and children were to be killed...Amalek is the chief example. But as much as the haters decide that this group or that is a spiritual Amalek, the only one who can make that decision as far as taking any action is a fully constituted Sanhedrin. Without that, if you see an Arab, say "He's Amelek!", pull out your gun and shoot him, you have just committed murder according to Halacha.)
Ironically, in the case of children, the hypocrisy is even stronger. I usually talk mostly about p'shat, but the people we are dealing with are people who believe in the literal truth of Midrash. And the Midrash says they're wrong.
When Avraham sent Hagar and Yishma'el away, Yishma'el was about to die in the desert. The Midrash says the angels begged Hashem to let him die...listing all the horrible things his descendants would to to B'nei Yisrael in the future. (Up to the time the Midrash was written; Rav Ya'akov Love has said that if Chazal knew of all the additional problems we have had up to today it would have been included in the Midrash.)
Hashem asked the angels if at that moment, "ba'asher hu sham" (B'reishit 21:17), Yishma'el was innocent or guilty, and they were forced to answer innocent. (Teasing his brother is not a capital crime.) So Hashem said he couldn't allow someone to die if he was innocent, no matter what may happen in the future.
Most of us, when we think of that story, think of Yishma'el as a baby or toddler at the time. But that's wrong. Yishmae'l was 14 when Yitzhak was born...so he was probably 16 when they had the weaning party, after which he and his mother were sent away. Post-Bar Mitzva age; a fully functional young and responsible adult in that society.
Hashem Himself said it was wrong to even passively allow a young adult to die for crimes he may commit in the future...and the people under discussion here say we should even kill a 2-year old just for belonging to a race some of whose members commit crimes! Something isn't Kosher here.
When the Am HaNivchar, the Goi Kadosh, the Or LaGoyim, sinks to the level of Amalek, there is no way we can expect to be rewarded with Mashiach. All we can expect is more difficult times, more terror attacks, until we wake up and start working in the right direction.
posted by meturgeman | 5:46 PM
