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29 October 2020

A partial answer to a fascinating question

light of 12 Heshvan 5781


This is the picture on the "Fourth Revolution in Torah Learning" article.


 The question, on the Tomer Devorah blog in her article "'Fourth Industrial Revolution' or Fourth Reich?" was:

I know this question will be off-putting to many people, but my inquiring mind needs to know, is the The Fourth Revolution in Torah Learning somehow part of all this, too?  If anyone has a serious answer to this, please respond in the comments section below.  Thanks!

I ended up with a post-sized reply, so I got permission to put it here instead. I don't actually think I can answer it; but I am pointing out some signposts I found along the way. 

Whether she finds something here or not, I pray that Devash will find what she is looking for. After all, I believe she is asking whether the Jewish People (or people who are perceived to be Jews and may or may not be) are contributing to the world's domination and demise by evil people who wish to be worshiped and obeyed as god, when our mission is the repair of the earth and all who live on it, when HaShem is openly King of the domain He created and made. It's a really important question!

You might want to read the articles linked to above before coming back to read mine. Or read them in reverse order. Whatever will help you understand better and help answer her question.

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To attempt even a l-i-t-t-l-e bit to answer your question, Devash: First of all I probably had this question too, but in a different form. I have a post coming up that takes on at least part of what it will take to bring us back from the brink of utter submission to the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" — or Fourth Reich.

 I think we have to examine each "revolution" along with the path all of them take, and ask ourselves whether we'd arrived at the place we were meant to. Or were we deviated just a little bit each time? Maybe a lot?

The justification for each one of them is "The time has come “to act for God [by their] transgressing Your Torah." I think a hint to the answer to your question is found in this sentence. What kind of statement is this? Can we really act for the One who defined transgression (averáh) by transgressing? Is this a challenge, to see how far H' can push us away and still have us struggling to find our way back, or praying for help to find the way? 

Or, maybe it's an opportunity for others to try to pick off the ones who have deviated from the path. And this is where the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" may come in, if it does. If we have deviated too far, or our goals meshed sufficiently with theirs, even accidentally, it might be easier for the NWO people to demand of those among us what they want from the rest of the world. And what if they are really among us, living where we live and so on? I shudder to think about it.

Back to the path our revolutions took. It seems that each revolution was an answer to an exigency:

1. Transcribing the Oral Torah: We're about to lose our land and be scattered all over the world. How are we going to cling to our oral understanding of Torah without ending up completely different from where we started? Like the author of the article, I'm not sure we had a choice in the matter. And it may have contributed to a certain lack of ease in how we understand Torah from the Talmud that was created. The "Jewish Body of Knowledge" does keep getting bigger and bigger...and bigger...I'm wondering who the next contemporary sage is, to have his interpretations considered like part of the Talmud, after R' Moshe Feinstein, or maybe after R' Ovadia Yosef.

2. "His Torah is his Trade": We're in a dilemma: Can we balance Torah study with a profession in our country of exile and still do both well enough to keep each one, and still teach our children and otherwise engage with our family? And where are we now? In the end some of us were shamed into giving up Torah study and working harder (I'm looking at you, Christian Europe.). Some of us were ashamed to even go out at all because of all the humiliations (I'm looking at you, Muslim countries, mostly in the Middle East and North Africa.). Some of us may not have had enough Jewish women to marry, the exile we were in loved us so much (I'm looking at you, Kaifeng, China.). All these took place over vast periods of time. And earning money for teaching Torah was eventually permitted, as the article states. 

Someone has to teach the children...if Abba can't do it, he has to hire someone. The more Abbas that can't, the more the moréh can make while charging each one less.

3. Torah Study for Women: A very real issue: With non-Jewish girls getting education around them, were Jewish girls expected to continue to receive almost none, and meanwhile have the strength to withstand the temptations to go outside our boundaries? Has it turned out to be good for the Jewish people until now? (Please take this in the best sense: I do wish that the sages responsible hadn't been so quick to lower us in their opinion. If we weren't smart enough to avoid belittling important Torah teachings, then HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO TRUST US TO RAISE YOUR (really OUR) CHILDREN??? After all, it takes intelligence to prioritize according to importance. And our children are really our most important priority when it comes to the future.)

I don't think that is really why women weren't educated: It costs money. The more school education the girl receives, the less children the grown woman ends up bearing. (Bill Gates pointed that out when speaking of the poor women of Africa (and India?), but I don't have time to find where he said it right now. It applies to all of us.) We kept needing to make up for all the slaughters and still maintain a holy people while we were in exile (and for many, while we ARE in exile)! But the real question here is whether the quality of Jewish education, both for boys and for girls, is better today or worse, is more appropriate or less so, and is even available or not (you'd be surprised at how many Jewish children have no opportunity for Jewish education! Chabad to the rescue — in many places.). 

And there are other reasons I can't think of right now. But this has proved to be an open door for sneaky organizations with a hidden motive to steal away Jewish women from true Judaism! I'm looking at you, Open Orthodoxy, Tikkun Olam and others as well.

Now, to bring up the theoretical revolution, #4, Torah Study for Gentiles — which hasn't really arrived yet in the manner our author (whoever he may be) seems to be writing about. He acknowledges "...modern Judaism is suffering from a deep crisis. Many individuals (and even groups) have distanced themselves from Torah study and even from their Jewish identity." Maybe it's because they were taught by the Gentiles, or even the Jews, who secretly want to further divert their path?

And the author of the article you asked about really believes that by teaching Gentiles our Torah beyond the laws of Noah it's going to help Jews who are far from HQB"H? We have to take a few steps before going there:

1. Make sure we start that only when non-Jews in general have the proper respect for the people who have been carrying Torah and living by it as best we can for close to 3,500 years, despite all their machinations and conspiracies — from Ephron the Hittite until this very day. 

Hidden antisemitism will come out if it's there. It shouldn't embarrass us to expose them, no matter how much a fuss they make of it, once we decide they have crossed a line they shouldn't have.

2. Are they firmly grounded in Noah's Laws? They should be. The Seven are the basis of ALL LAW on the earth, as we both, and our readers, know well. 

Further, it is dangerous for them to learn Torah before derekh eretz, the basis of Noahide law. It is poison to the person who lacks it, whether s/he be Jew or not. We all needed to learn to say "please" and "thank you" before we reached the age when we would learn any Torah precept.

There may be more steps. If I think of any more, I may update them here in the body of the post. Take this as a call for comment on the part of others who think of more!



26 October 2020

A mixed message: Miracle above, and what's going on below

 Light of 9 Heshvan 5781

 

Dedicated to the neshama of Yehuda Leab ben Aharon Yitzhak uShifra, whose petirah and levaya were today.

 

Several days ago in mid-afternoon (Tuesday, 20 October / 2 Heshvan) it rained pretty heavily in my Yerushalayim neighborhood for about an hour, then moved on elsewhere in the Holy City. I heard the rain before looking out the window, but I was way too slow. No pics of mine here. But you can see some here, thanks to Neshama, who also lives in Yerushalayim.

Consider this picture, taken for the Times of Israel (first link above). How many times has anyone seen a solitary cloud hanging over Jerusalem at the beginning of the rainy season? (I was hoping that the north of the country would also benefit; but, alas, it seems that no other part of our ancestral homeland did. I'd like to know if other parts of Israel got some precious rain as well.)


I don't know where it went from there, or if it just dispersed. 

Meanwhile, on the same day, while the ground was still drying from the rain and surfaces were still dripping, a Jerusalem neighborhood saw a young girl arrested and her face pepper-sprayed because she wasn't wearing a mask, in front of the apartment building where she lives. It's not in a strict haredi neighborhood, either. If you examine the video carefully (3rd tweet down; it's 1 minute, 36 seconds long), you'll see that her feet are bare. I think that means she wasn't going anywhere. 

We don't know how it ends because someone came home in a car and wanted to park in the parking lot out of our view; that's where the video stops.

Abba sheh'baShamayim, what's the message here, besides that we have a way to go yet before we can have an unmitigated redemption?



06 October 2020

"19 Reasons to Thank Hashem for Covid-19": One that stands out

 18 Tishrei 5781


Shmuel Sackett, known as Moshe Feiglin's sidekick assistant since long before I left the USA for my ancestral homeland, sometimes writes divre Torah and sends them by email (which is how I got the material for this post). Within them he often comes up with thought-provoking points. I present to my readers an especially good one to ponder, that he included in honor of this past Yom haKippurim. Shmuel explains:

My outlook on this – and things like it – is simple. While I do not ignore the sadness, tragedies, and danger, I try – as best as I can – to see the positive as well. Unfortunately, I am far from being a “Gam Zu Le’Tova” (this too is for the best) guy, but I do try to see the good and focus on it. During this past Shabbat Shuva I pushed myself to see the good in the Covid-19 challenge that Hashem has sent our way… and then I went one step further. I not only want to see the good, I want to thank Hashem for the good!

Therefore, even though we are still extremely far from this being over – and many challenges still lie ahead – I plan on thanking Hashem, on Yom Kippur, for the following 19 things. When a daughter of mine asked me what the connection was to Yom Kippur, I answered the following: Maybe we have to do teshuva for not recognizing these good, positive things. Obviously, Hashem has sent this pandemic for a reason and it will continue until we learn these lessons. Everything our King does has a purpose and a message and if we don’t understand that message… the lesson may still continue. So, dearest friends, let’s stop complaining and start focusing. I don’t have all the answers – and I struggle with many of these things myself – but after 7 months of living with the Covid-19 pandemic, let’s do our best to see the good that has come out of this and ask forgiveness from Hashem for only seeing the bad.

And I've picked out the best one, in my humble opinion:

18. Less people dying – Although many have died from Covid, the overall death rate in Israel in the last 7 months is lower than ever! I checked the numbers myself with several “Chevra Kadisha” workers who have told me that it’s 100% true… less people have died in Mar-Sept 2020 than in the same period in the last 10 years!

Can you believe that?! It even lends itself to analysis, and could lead to more with some hard numbers from his cited source and from elsewhere. I attempted a synopsis in the next two paragraphs:

  • Any Israeli Jew who knows what the Hevra Kadishah is, knows that these are the "boots on the ground" here, and that they ought to know what they're talking about! 
  • That fewer Israelis have died from all causes in the seven whole months between March and September 2020, during the period of coronavirus contagion in Israel up until now, than in the same period since 2010 without the magefah, is highly significant and noteworthy for the Qiddush haShem  (sanctification of G-d's Holy Name and Reputation) it represents!

Here's how the חֶבְרָה קַדִישָא operates in Israel under Bituah Leumi (National Insurance Institute). (CAVEAT: This page does not specify the rules for handling those who passed due to Covid-19. I searched, and found none, not even links.)

Read the entire Shmuel Sackett article here. (Yes, he posted as well as emailed. But I had to search for this link! Could he have sent the email before posting it? -HDG)

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