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Lenin’s Full Speech on Armed Revolution

On Authority

Works of Frederick Engels 1872

Written: 1872;
Published: 1874 in the Italian, Almanacco Republicano;
Source: Marx-Engels Reader, New York: W. W. Norton and Co., second edition, 1978 (first edition, 1972), pp 730-733.;
Translated: Robert C. Tucker;
Transcribed: by Mike Lepore.

A number of Socialists have latterly launched a regular crusade against what they call the principle of authority. It suffices to tell them that this or that act is authoritarian for it to be condemned. This summary mode of procedure is being abused to such an extent that it has become necessary to look into the matter somewhat more closely.

Authority, in the sense in which the word is used here, means: the imposition of the will of another upon ours; on the other hand, authority presupposes subordination. Now, since these two words sound bad, and the relationship which they represent is disagreeable to the subordinated party, the question is to ascertain whether there is any way of dispensing with it, whether — given the conditions of present-day society — we could not create another social system, in which this authority would be given no scope any longer, and would consequently have to disappear.

On examining the economic, industrial and agricultural conditions which form the basis of present-day bourgeois society, we find that they tend more and more to replace isolated action by combined action of individuals. Modern industry, with its big factories and mills, where hundreds of workers supervise complicated machines driven by steam, has superseded the small workshops of the separate producers; the carriages and wagons of the highways have become substituted by railway trains, just as the small schooners and sailing feluccas have been by steam-boats. Even agriculture falls increasingly under the dominion of the machine and of steam, which slowly but relentlessly put in the place of the small proprietors big capitalists, who with the aid of hired workers cultivate vast stretches of land.

Everywhere combined action, the complication of processes dependent upon each other, displaces independent action by individuals. But whoever mentions combined action speaks of organisation; now, is it possible to have organisation without authority?

Supposing a social revolution dethroned the capitalists, who now exercise their authority over the production and circulation of wealth. Supposing, to adopt entirely the point of view of the anti-authoritarians, that the land and the instruments of labour had become the collective property of the workers who use them. Will authority have disappeared, or will it only have changed its form? Let us see.

Let us take by way if example a cotton spinning mill. The cotton must pass through at least six successive operations before it is reduced to the state of thread, and these operations take place for the most part in different rooms. Furthermore, keeping the machines going requires an engineer to look after the steam engine, mechanics to make the current repairs, and many other labourers whose business it is to transfer the products from one room to another, and so forth. All these workers, men, women and children, are obliged to begin and finish their work at the hours fixed by the authority of the steam, which cares nothing for individual autonomy. The workers must, therefore, first come to an understanding on the hours of work; and these hours, once they are fixed, must be observed by all, without any exception. Thereafter particular questions arise in each room and at every moment concerning the mode of production, distribution of material, etc., which must be settled by decision of a delegate placed at the head of each branch of labour or, if possible, by a majority vote, the will of the single individual will always have to subordinate itself, which means that questions are settled in an authoritarian way. The automatic machinery of the big factory is much more despotic than the small capitalists who employ workers ever have been. At least with regard to the hours of work one may write upon the portals of these factories: Lasciate ogni autonomia, voi che entrate! [Leave, ye that enter in, all autonomy behind!]

If man, by dint of his knowledge and inventive genius, has subdued the forces of nature, the latter avenge themselves upon him by subjecting him, in so far as he employs them, to a veritable despotism independent of all social organisation. Wanting to abolish authority in large-scale industry is tantamount to wanting to abolish industry itself, to destroy the power loom in order to return to the spinning wheel.

Let us take another example — the railway. Here too the co-operation of an infinite number of individuals is absolutely necessary, and this co-operation must be practised during precisely fixed hours so that no accidents may happen. Here, too, the first condition of the job is a dominant will that settles all subordinate questions, whether this will is represented by a single delegate or a committee charged with the execution of the resolutions of the majority of persona interested. In either case there is a very pronounced authority. Moreover, what would happen to the first train dispatched if the authority of the railway employees over the Hon. passengers were abolished?

But the necessity of authority, and of imperious authority at that, will nowhere be found more evident than on board a ship on the high seas. There, in time of danger, the lives of all depend on the instantaneous and absolute obedience of all to the will of one.

When I submitted arguments like these to the most rabid anti-authoritarians, the only answer they were able to give me was the following: Yes, that’s true, but there it is not the case of authority which we confer on our delegates, but of a commission entrusted! These gentlemen think that when they have changed the names of things they have changed the things themselves. This is how these profound thinkers mock at the whole world.

We have thus seen that, on the one hand, a certain authority, no matter how delegated, and, on the other hand, a certain subordination, are things which, independently of all social organisation, are imposed upon us together with the material conditions under which we produce and make products circulate.

We have seen, besides, that the material conditions of production and circulation inevitably develop with large-scale industry and large-scale agriculture, and increasingly tend to enlarge the scope of this authority. Hence it is absurd to speak of the principle of authority as being absolutely evil, and of the principle of autonomy as being absolutely good. Authority and autonomy are relative things whose spheres vary with the various phases of the development of society. If the autonomists confined themselves to saying that the social organisation of the future would restrict authority solely to the limits within which the conditions of production render it inevitable, we could understand each other; but they are blind to all facts that make the thing necessary and they passionately fight the world.

Why do the anti-authoritarians not confine themselves to crying out against political authority, the state? All Socialists are agreed that the political state, and with it political authority, will disappear as a result of the coming social revolution, that is, that public functions will lose their political character and will be transformed into the simple administrative functions of watching over the true interests of society. But the anti-authoritarians demand that the political state be abolished at one stroke, even before the social conditions that gave birth to it have been destroyed. They demand that the first act of the social revolution shall be the abolition of authority. Have these gentlemen ever seen a revolution? A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon — authoritarian means, if such there be at all; and if the victorious party does not want to have fought in vain, it must maintain this rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionists. Would the Paris Commune have lasted a single day if it had not made use of this authority of the armed people against the bourgeois? Should we not, on the contrary, reproach it for not having used it freely enough?

Therefore, either one of two things: either the anti-authoritarians don’t know what they’re talking about, in which case they are creating nothing but confusion; or they do know, and in that case they are betraying the movement of the proletariat. In either case they serve the reaction.

From Marxists.org, here.

Can You Imagine Corona-Scare ‘Rulings’ Studied Seriously in a Future Beit Midrash?!

Can so many rabbis be wrong?

Religious Jews find themselves in a very uncomfortable situation. Many of them are living in terror of covid. Their lives revolve around reducing their chances of getting covid at the expense of all else. It’s a miserable way to live, and very dubious from a Torah standpoint.

Now they are being pressured from all directions to get injected with something that is being touted as a vaccine. They are being told that it is safe and effective, that they shouldn’t believe the “fake news” to the contrary, that the people who suffered horrible “coincidences” and even died shortly after being injected are no cause for concern, covid is far worse anyway, they are endangering others if they don’t get injected, and they simply must get injected as soon as possible. The Torah demands it of them.

Their instincts tell them that the government and drug companies do not have their best interests in mind. When has that ever been the case? They know that drug companies wield enormous leverage over politicians and the medical establishment. Corruption is inevitable; only a naive fool would think otherwise. Why would anyone implicitly trust these people with their health and their lives? What have they ever done to earn that trust, and what more could they possibly do to lose it?

But most people are easily manipulated. It takes a person of very strong character and mind to ignore an endless deluge of propaganda and pressure. Most people do not devote themselves to strengthening their character and mind, and even those who do can be worn down. It is a war of attrition. The other side is much better equipped to fight such a war.

Very few people are getting injected with informed consent. Very few people understand the potential benefits and risks, the different options, and have decided that, from a scientific and medical perspective, this is a drug they want in their body. They are counting on people they hope can be trusted to do the dirty work for them and give them good advice.

For most people, this is the medical establishment, the mainstream media, the groupthink of their peer group, and maybe a doctor they personally know. They figure that all these people can’t possibly be wrong. Very few of these people are truly informed either, or necessarily trustworthy, which would render their “opinions” worthless. But the notion that the medical establishment has been corrupted, the mainstream media is complicit, their friends are fools, and their doctor has violated his oath is just too much to bear. So most people follow along out of comfort and convenience.

Others remain skeptical until a trusted rabbi, or a cadre of rabbis, reassures them. Surely the rabbis value truth and human life above all else. Surely the rabbis performed due diligence before speaking on the issue. Surely the rabbis are impervious to outside influences and pressures like other mortals. The rabbis work for God and no one else, and God speaks through them. If the rabbis tell them a drug is safe, then safe it must be, and if the rabbis tell people to take it, then take it they must.

The notion that large numbers of rabbis have been manipulated, or corrupted, or lazy, or derelict in their duties, or might steer Jews to harm is just too much to bear. So most religious Jews as well follow along out of comfort and convenience.

This is how an overwhelming number of people have come to ignore their instincts and knowledge of the past. They have come to trust untrustworthy people, because people they trust tell them the pathological liars can be trusted this time. They run to take a drug that they do not understand and do not even want to understand, because it is the comfortable and convenient choice. A year of masks, lockdowns, fear, misery, propaganda, confusion, bullying, and desperation will do that to people. Very few people have a clear head anymore. They just want it to be over with, and they will inject themselves with anything in exchange for a little hope.

Their minds have been damaged and their spirits have been crushed.

The rabbi is the ultimate bulwark for religious Jews. When the truth is unclear, the rabbi is supposed to show us the light. When we are unsure, the rabbi is supposed to give us confidence. Can it be that so many rabbis, including many prominent rabbis, would get it wrong when the stakes are so high? How could such a thing even be possible?

The answer to the first question is, yes, without a doubt. It’s happened before, and the results were catastrophic. Here are just a few examples.

The Jews in the desert sent twelve spies to Israel. These were the best of the best: heads of tribes, great rabbis, extremely “religious” Jews. Ten of them became corrupted and told the Jews not to enter the land, while only two remained upright and faithful. It was ten experts against two, ten “leading rabbis” against two. The correct choice was clear: the extreme minority. The Jews followed “the majority of experts” and paid the ultimate price. They were expected to know better, to recognize the truth, and not to be swayed by numbers, credentials, or propaganda.

Korach was a massive talmid chacham, a prince among men. He made brilliant Torah-based arguments against Moshe, and attracted an impressive following. The rest of the nation was unsure of who to follow, even after all Moshe had done for them. How could the average person be expected to decide between these two giants, especially when Korach’s movement was sweeping through the masses? The Torah demanded the average person to recognize truth from falsehood, strengthen himself, and separate himself from the trendy new movement. They needed to hear the great rabbis, but then think for themselves and decide for themselves. Those who allowed themselves to get swept up in the hype lost everything.

The vast majority of people who claimed to be prophets were phonies. They misled the Jewish people for hundreds of years, and were one of the main causes of our downfall. These false prophets were not bums on the street. They were knowledgeable, spiritual people who earned a large following and were supported by the establishment. The real prophets struggled mightily to counter their false messages with God’s truth. The people were generally swayed by the false prophets – and were held accountable for failing to tell the difference.

In the tragic story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, the great rabbis of the time did everything wrong from start to finish, despite mostly good intentions. The result was the destruction of Jerusalem and the bitter exile in which we still find ourselves.

The vast majority of the “leading rabbis” of Europe urged the Jews to remain there. America was an impure place, Israel was the last place a Jew should go, and everything would be fine if they stayed behind. That didn’t turn out too well. These “leading rabbis” led their followers to their doom.

Even one with a basic knowledge of Jewish history will be able to add many more examples. The bottom line is that even “leading rabbis” can be terribly wrong, and the average person is responsible to recognize this, uncomfortable as that may be.

The answer to the second question is that there are many ways rabbis can be wrong.

1. Bribery

The Torah warns rabbis not to take bribes of any kind, for it will impair their judgment and corrupt their wisdom. We tend to think of bribes as cash being passed under a table – which happens – but bribery can take many forms. Chazal teach that the spies were corrupted in part because they were afraid of losing their positions when the Jews decentralized in Israel. We must recognize that Diaspora rabbis who discourage aliya have this same conflict of interest, which cannot be underestimated.

Many decades ago my father had a Din Torah. One time as they left the building it was raining, and my father instinctively offered one of the rabbis an umbrella. The rabbi thanked my father and then recused himself from the case.

Rabbis with such integrity are in extremely short supply, and they are not the ones with cushy establishment positions. To believe that rabbis are otherworldly beings who are not susceptible to influences which can corrupt their thinking is a foolish, un-Torah position. The establishment is ruthlessly promoting an experimental vaccine, with unfathomable sums of money at stake, not to mention the sort of power and control we can hardly imagine. How can anyone believe that doctors and rabbis wouldn’t be “influenced” in a variety of ways to arrive at a desired conclusion? That is pure madness. This is specifically what the Torah is warning us about.

Even rabbis who do not have an establishment position can be bribed in a variety of ways. They can be promised support for their institutions. They can be promised that the government will give them and their followers special treatment in other areas. They can be threatened as well. The political and medical establishment is not run by God-fearing people. They will do whatever it takes to achieve their goals, and they will get influential rabbis on board however they can.

2. Taking shortcuts

The great Poskim of the previous generation, such as Rav Moshe Feinstein and Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, were asked to give rulings on many advances in technology and medicine. These true Gedolim would first become experts on the matter better than the experts. They would examine every angle and know the matter backwards and forwards. They would then apply the appropriate Torah sources (not just pick something out of a hat, as we often see today) and present a clear, logical train of thought to arrive at their conclusion.

Their responsa would become part of the corpus of genuine Torah, which would be studied and analyzed by scholar and layman alike. We would be able to retrace their steps, see how the dots connect, understand their thought process from start to finish, and appreciate the veracity of their conclusion. We would also understand the other sides to the issue and why these poskim decided against other plausible conclusions. When two poskim disagreed we would be able to understand why, and it could be argued in the Beit Midrash in the traditional way. It wasn’t dogma; it was real Torah, a living Torah.

Today’s “leading rabbis” are providing no such Torah. The typical “analysis” they provide can be distilled to the following:

“Smallpox was very bad and deadly. Smallpox vaccine is very good. Covid is very bad and scary. Therefore covid vaccine is also very good. The only choice is to take the covid vaccine or get covid and die, and kill others as well. Saving lives is good. So take the vaccine, which is also good.

“Let’s review: Covid bad. Saving lives good. Listen to doctors. Vaccine good. Everything else bad.”

I have written extensively about this in other articles in response to some of their “rulings”, which have no value from a Torah or scientific perspective. None of these “rulings” will be seriously studied and debated in the Beit Midrash. They will not become part of the corpus of Torah. They will not age well, and in fact will be a permanent source of shame and infamy for the rabbis who issued these “rulings”. Hence, their words carry no weight, and the credibility of these rabbis must be called into question, regardless of their prior credentials.

An expert in any field who makes fundamental errors, or violates the basic principles of his profession, must have his credibility questioned. Rabbis are no different. Even lesser qualified people must recognize these errors and violations, and not be swayed by wayward pronouncements.

Unless someone’s list of credentials includes “God Almighty”, his words may be challenged, and must stand up to inquiry.

3. Manipulation

Rabbis often depend on trusted individuals to provide them accurate information on which their rulings will be based. Elderly rabbis in particular tend to rely on a small number of “gatekeepers” to ensure that they are not overwhelmed by the public. Unfortunately, these gatekeepers wield disproportionate control over who is granted access to the rabbis and what information reaches their ears. Needless to say, this power can easily be abused.

We wish to believe that everyone involved has integrity, and that the holiness of the rabbis will prevent any evil from being perpetrated in their name, but that is a fantasy. Videos have shown the handlers of elderly rabbis feeding them entirely one-sided information, asking them leading questions, and prompting the desired “Yes” to their leading question. This is not Torah, yet these videos immediately go viral and are presumed to be unimpeachable.

It is outrageous that this sort of propaganda can be referred to as a Halachic ruling on a life and death matter, which millions of Jews must follow. If rabbis are unable to perform due diligence before issuing a ruling, they should recuse themselves from the matter.

Those who manipulate rabbis in this way are guilty of elder abuse. Most likely someone is greasing their palms as well. Only a fool who doesn’t wish to face an ugly reality will deny that this is a real problem.

4. Human nature

Many people tend to forget this, but rabbis are human beings. They are susceptible to the same temptations and shortcomings of everyone else. In fact, Chazal teach us that the greater the man, the greater the temptation. The fact that rabbis have greater knowledge than the average person does not cancel their human nature; it only makes them more dangerous if they fall prey to it.

One of the best historical examples of this is Yochanan Kohen Gadol, who served as the highest spiritual leader of the Jewish people for 80 years before becoming a Sadducee! Surely he took many followers astray with him, who continued to blindly trust him based on his credentials.

This is not an anomaly, but a warning that it can happen to anyone, even the best among us. Yochanan was greater than any man alive today. If he could go bad, it should not surprise us if rabbis today can go bad, too. Knowledge and a past track record guarantee nothing.

5. Following the trend

Just as most people wish to be in the majority and on the “right side” of things, rabbis are susceptible to the same pressure. This is especially true when being on the “wrong side” of public opinion means jeopardizing their position, reputation, livelihood, and more. It is not for nothing that the Torah adjures judges to fear no man, and to recuse themselves from judgment if they are unable to overcome their natural fears.

Cancel culture always existed, but today it is a clear and present danger for all people, every single moment. The overwhelming majority of rabbis who have come out in favor of the “vaccine” have not armed their statements with much substance. They have simply followed the tide and “ruled” that we must do whatever other people tell us. These rabbis have absconded their responsibility to others and used the Torah as a fig leaf, instead of rolling up their sleeves and doing their job.

(On a related note, these cowardly rabbis proclaim that we must “follow the majority of doctors”. This is not only incorrect on multiple levels, it is patently absurd. The majority of doctors tell us a man can become a woman any time he feels like it. Must we follow them? If not, why not? They don’t tell us.)

They tell us to follow “the majority” of doctors because this is the safest thing for them to say. If they are right, wonderful. If not, the rabbis can later excuse themselves by claiming that they were only following the accepted science of the time. Either way, they’re covered.

Why delve into it? Why learn too much and risk having your conscience nag you to take the “wrong” position? Who needs the tzorus? Just trust the doctors. And ignore the fact that most doctors are behaving exactly the same way. They don’t need tzorus, either.

6. Erev Rav

This will disturb people more than the previous explanations for why prominent rabbis can mislead the people, but I believe it is very prevalent in our time. Millions of erev rav joined our people when we left Egypt; they significantly outnumbered us, by as many as five to one according to one Midrashic opinion (see Mechilta Chapter 14). These people caused us no shortage of grief, dragging us down from within.

These erev rav procreated as well, and infiltrated our nation. Many of them grew beards and studied Torah, too.

The last Mishna in Sotah teaches that before Moshiach comes, the meeting house of rabbis will become one of prostitution. This is a frequent biblical metaphor for idol worship or otherwise straying from God. There is no doubt that this prediction has come true in our day, as we anticipate the imminent coming of Moshiach.

Therefore, it should not surprise us or even disturb us to see many rabbis, including prominent figures, leading our people astray. It may be due to any of the reasons mentioned previously, and it may well be because the rabbis are actually erev rav. Chazal told us in plain language that this would happen. It is happening now. The level of rabbinic malpractice in our time is so widespread, so extreme, and so clear that this must be it.

We should be grateful to Chazal for warning us about this phenomenon so long ago, allowing us to anticipate it and steel ourselves against it.

May God grant us the wisdom to tell truth from falsehood, and may He destroy the erev rav once and for all.

__________________________

www.chananyaweissman.com

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‘Try It, Kid. You’ll Like It’. The First One’s Free!’

THE QUIET ASSASSIN

 By Rabbi Avrohom Neuberger | NOVEMBER 25, 2020

Marijuana means no pain, no gain, and no growth

You know the well-worn joke: My wife and I have an arrangement. She decides the small, trivial things, like where we live, which schools my children attend, and who they marry. I decided the big things, like whether the US should leave NATO, how the world should address global warming, and the pros and cons of space exploration.

In a sense, I feel the same applies to these elections. While everyone is handwringing over the “big issue” — picking a president — a smaller, yet much more consequential change has happened under our collective noses, garnering hardly any attention. For while the presidential vote certainly has great impact on our communities, it really is impossible at this point to assess the particulars. As per the saying, “Leiv melachim v’sarim b’yad Hashem” (by the way, there is no such precise pasuk), it is difficult to predict with any degree of certainty how a given president will affect our lives.

The much more salient vote took place on the same day, and will likely have significant consequences for our community. Recreational marijuana was legalized in New Jersey — and it is likely that New York will be pressured to follow suit. But even if New York does not fold, the effect on the bochurim living in the Tristate area may be devastating. A strong, concerted, unified response and policy is critical… and it has to be implemented soon.

The problem with marijuana use is not health per se. Cannabis may or may not be a gateway to much more dangerous drug abuse. But the more pressing problem is that pot kills motivation. It absolutely destroys it.

Speak to the many rebbeim who have worked in the past with bochurim who need “space”; they know this from firsthand experience. The modus operandi of such yeshivos would be to cut the bochurim slack when they arrived for first-year beis medrash. In general, by Chanukah the boys would get bored with doing nothing and start working.

Bochurim have a natural drive to make something of themselves that kicks in about this age. This drive is harnessed toward self-improvement. It is a well-known and effective formula that has been employed in many of the “chilled out” yeshivos in Eretz Yisrael and elsewhere.

Two things have undermined the approach, however. The first has been the rapid spread in the use of smartphones. The bochurim could dull their senses by being constantly entertained on their phones with the latest meshugas or worse — and the lingering feeling of “what am I doing with my life?” was anesthetized.

But even more pernicious was what happened to the bochurim who came from the parts of the country, and from Canada, where marijuana use was legalized or decriminalized. The effect on them was nothing short of devastating, and it was simply impossible to “get through” to them. There was nobody home.

Now, I am reporting how things worked some ten years ago. Marijuana use has become much more widespread over time. And readers shouldn’t delude themselves into thinking that this applies only to “troubled” bochurim. It does not. Ask around and you’ll see… and this was before New Jersey’s legalization.

The term “crisis” has lost its power from overuse, and it was never more applicable than now. This issue has to be addressed head-on. How? Firstly, by acknowledging the problem. Burying one’s head in the sand or looking away will only exacerbate the issue. It won’t make it go away.

Continue reading…

From Mishpacha Magazine, here.

How Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski zatzal CHASTENED His Fellow Jew

Rabbi Abraham Twerski’s Copious Blessings

Feb 1, 2021  |  by 

The trailblazing rabbi died at the age of 90, a week after publishing his 90th book.

Several months after becoming director of the department of psychiatry at Pittsburgh’s St. Francis hospital, founded and run by the Sisters of St. Francis, Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski was summoned to meet the bishop. Bishop Wright wanted Rabbi Twerski (whom he would always call Rabbi despite his medical credentials) to counsel the nuns who were having trouble adjusting to the liberalization of the convent by Vatican II.

After a long conversation discussing the project, Rabbi Twerski could no longer contain himself. He said to the bishop, “You know, the historical relationship between the Church and the Jews has not always been pleasant. Isn’t it a bit ironic that when the Church is in trouble, you have recourse to a rabbi?”

To that the bishop rejoined with a smile, “My dear rabbi, even in the worst of times, the popes’ personal physicians were Jewish.”

“Well, then,” Rabbi Twerski said with his signature humor, “if you should make it to the papacy, you already have your personal Jewish doctor. The only problem is that you chose a psychiatrist, and that might cause some people to raise their eyebrows.”

The bishop laughed heartily and gave Rabbi Twerski a bear hug. When the young rabbi was ready to depart, the bishop bowed his head and asked, “Bless me, rabbi.”1

The story is epigrammatic of his life. His professional accomplishments were monumental. After twenty years at St. Francis Hospital, Rabbi Twerski founded the Gateway Rehabilitation Center for alcoholics and drug addicts, which Forbes magazine designated as one of America’s “top twelve rehabilitation programs.” He oversaw Gateway’s expansion to a network of facilities throughout Pennsylvania and Ohio that treat over 1500 clients daily. He founded the Sha’ar Hatikvah rehabilitation center for prisoners in Israel. He authored ninety books on psychology and Jewish spirituality. He lectured internationally and was featured in hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles. Yet he did it all as a blessing.

Becoming a Psychiatrist

The scion of an esteemed Chasidic dynasty, the young Rabbi Twerski longed to counsel people. For a few years he served as an assistant to his father, the Hornsteipler Rebbe of Milwaukee, but the duties of a congregational rabbi, performing weddings, funerals, unveilings, and Bar Mitzvahs, did not appeal to him. His decision to become a doctor was clinched one day when he visited a congregation member in the hospital. The patient told him, “Your father was here yesterday. It was so remarkable, because ever since my operation, I was not free of pain. Nothing the doctors prescribed seemed to help. But yesterday, when your father walked in, I felt the pain lift off, as if by magic.”

The young Rabbi Twerski realized that he could not help people by wielding the spiritual powers in which Chasidic rebbes like his father were adept. He would have to find another way, by becoming a psychiatrist.

Still, he was reluctant to break the chain of rabbis that went back many generations in his family. He consulted Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, known as the Steipler, the foremost Torah authority in the Jewish world. Much to his surprise, the Steipler approved Rabbi Twerski’s going to medical school. At the same time, he suggested safeguards that would prevent him from deviating from Torah principles: to study Torah every day, to honor the sanctity of Shabbos by not studying secular subjects or even reading a newspaper on Shabbos, and to pray fervently for Divine guidance. Rabbi Twerski held to these practices throughout his ninety years of life.

While always loyal to Jewish tradition, Rabbi Twerski had the courage to explode taboos. His book The Shame Borne in Silence on spousal abuse in the Jewish community met with bitter opposition, but eventually a chastened community owned up to the problem and set up organizations to deal with it. His book on gambling addiction, Compulsive Gambling: More than Dreidel likewise brought gambling addiction in the Jewish community out of the closet.

Guard Your Eyes

At the age of 79, Rabbi Twerski was retired when two young men approached him. They had an innovative idea of an internet site to deal with Jewish men trapped by pornography. They were providing a free, anonymous site for those ranging from occasional viewers to addicts, with three levels of cutting-edge programs, and a world-wide support group.

By this time in his life Rabbi Twerski had received numerous awards as well as three honorary degrees. He could have looked down on these young whipper-snappers as quixotic idealists compared to his lengthy record of solid achievement. He could have chosen to rest on his laurels instead of plunging into a pioneering effort. He could have written a few lines of endorsement and sent them away. Instead, Rabbi Twerski joined forces with them to promote Guardyoureyes.com, which has helped more than 40,000 Jews struggling against pornography addiction. In addition to his public support of GYE in videos and live lectures, Rabbi Twerski accompanied GYE founders Yaakov Nadel and Yechezkel Stelzer on fundraising trips. He traipsed through the snow with them in Toronto, knocking on doors to ask for donations.

In November, 2018, at the age of 88, Rabbi Twerski ignited a firestorm by writing in Hamodia newspaper an article he called, “My Well Has Run Dry.” In it he lamented that he no longer had the creativity to write and to offer new pearls of inspiration. His pain at no longer being able to help—and to bless—was palpable. The letters of protest from his legions of admirers came flooding in. They refused to accept his resignation. And, as always, he bowed to the will of those eager to receive from him.

Just last week, his 90th book, Tallis & Tefillin, Bagels & Lox: Two Components to Living a Spiritual Life was published by Menucha Publishers. The day before he took ill with Covid-19, just a week before he died, he was still in email correspondence with his publisher. And he had already submitted a couple of chapters for his 91st book.

Continue reading…

From Aish.com, here.

Corona Restrictions and Pikuach Nefesh

a cure worse than the disease

Thursday, January 28, 2021

Scott Atlas writes (emphasis added by me):

Here’s the reality — almost all states and major cities, with a handful of exceptions, have implemented severe restrictions for many months, including closures of businesses and in-person school, mobility restrictions and curfews, quarantines, limits on group gatherings, and mask mandates dating back to at least the summer. These measures did not significantly change the typical pattern or damage from the SARS2 virus.

He goes on to cite statistics to convey the extent of the damage caused by the restrictions and policies put in place, e.g. increases in domestic abuse, child abuse, thousands of cancer cases that went undetected and untreated, estimates of decreased life expectancy caused by the stress of unemployment, etc.  He concludes:

We know we have not yet seen the full extent of the damage from lockdowns, because it will last for decades. Perhaps that is why lockdowns were not recommended in previous pandemic analyses, even for infections with far higher death rates.

The lockdown fanatics keep screaming about pikuach nefesh.  I agree 100%  that it’s pikuach nefesh — lockdowns literally kill people.

From Divrei Chaim, here.