חנניה ווייסמאן Chananya Weissman

The Suffering of the “Progressive” Jew

For all the different categories and stripes of Jews that exist and have existed throughout history, there are really only two that matter when you boil it all down: those who accept the divine origin of the Torah, the divine wisdom of the Sages, and the binding authority of both; and those who don’t. The rest is commentary,

The measure of our commitment to something is what we are willing to sacrifice for its sake. Throughout Jewish history those who belong to the first camp have made every sacrifice imaginable for the sake of Torah-true Judaism. It is their commitment that made it possible not only for the Jewish people to survive, but to flourish throughout thousands of years of exile and persecution.

The primary reason for the existence of the second camp is an unwillingness to commit to life as a Jew. By this I refer not to heroic commitment under the pain of persecution – those who falter under such trials should not be judged – but those who find even the most basic demands of life as a Jew too onerous to accept.

Very few people have studied the Torah thoroughly, compared it to other religions and ways of life, and decided that Judaism is inferior to any of them. It is virtually impossible for someone to study the Torah thoroughly and need any further convincing that God exists and the Torah is His handiwork. Those who draw other conclusions do so almost entirely out of ignorance and personal convenience, often camouflaged by intellectualism.

They want to be free. They want to be up to date. They want to fit in with society’s norms and expectations. They want to “think for themselves”.

They say the Torah is primitive, outdated, no longer relevant. They say the rabbis were power-hungry conspirators who made things up, or at the very least were simply “interpreting” the Torah as they saw fit, with no divine knowledge or authority. We know better now, they say. We have a better way.

Oh, how these people must be suffering right now! Their world is crashing down around them.

They thought that by casting off the Torah they would find freedom, but they have become prisoners of a cruel society that demands more from them with each passing day. They thought they would find acceptance and love, but they are being rejected by their own comrades. They thought they would be safe, but they face the threat of merciless persecution for any word they say, or don’t say, or said decades ago. They cast off religion and mocked believers, but traded it in for a new religion that demands unswerving obedience, unfailing allegiance, and truly perfect faith.

It is true that the Torah is demanding. It holds everyone to high standards and holds us accountable for our actions – no excuses. You traded it in for an ideology in which anything goes and the most barbaric behaviors can always be excused. Now you are reaping what you have sown. Is it better?

You say the Torah has too many laws; it is too burdensome and intrusive. You traded it in for a society that is lawless, yet invents new, mostly unwritten laws so quickly that no one can keep up.

The Torah’s wisdom is infinite, yet its commandments are finite: 613 to be exact. There are many laws that stem from these 613, but they are all clearly derived through a divine process that has held true for thousands of years. In fact, it is explicitly forbidden for anyone, even a prophet, to create a 614^th commandment; this is one of the 613. We have the same 613 commandments our ancestors had from the day they were given. We know there won’t be any new ones. We have a system in place to settle doubts and guide us in all situations, even when we cannot conclusively settle a doubt.

Compare to your new religion. Every day you have new commandments, all of which demand an upheaval of your thinking and lifestyle. What you watched on Netflix today will be declared racist tomorrow, and you will be retroactively guilty. All who came before you are guilty and you must denounce them. You must be ashamed of your ancestors and abhor your elders for being unenlightened.

Your children – if you burden yourself with any and don’t kill them before they are born – will feel the same about you. You will be compelled to teach them that nothing is sacred, that whatever is old is outdated, that they must figure it all out for themselves. Then you are shocked and heartbroken when they scorn you, reject you, rebel against you. If you live long enough to become elderly they will see you as a burden and, if your “quality of life” is not deemed sufficient, facilitate your premature death. You reap what you sow.

In order to appease everyone, you adopted the belief that everything is true, that nothing is true, that people make up their own truths, which much always be respected. This is nothing but a clever way to deny the existence of God, whose seal is Truth, and whose existence mandates objective truth. You thought this would absolve you of the responsibility of seeking objective truth and adhering to it. Instead you must seek endless appeasement of those who make up subjective truths, even when they contradict one another.

You didn’t want rabbis – those supposedly evil, self-centered, power-hungry, racist, sexist, elitist rabbis – telling you what to do. Instead you have truly evil, self-centered, power-hungry, racist, sexist, elitist atheists telling you what to do. Unlike the rabbis, these people have no objective Torah sources on which to base their beliefs. Unlike the rabbis, you cannot question or challenge the legitimacy of their opinions, for there is no basis on which to debate them. Unlike the rabbis, you have no recourse but to blindly accept their authority and obey. Rabbis can teach you, their goal is to make you wiser. The leaders of your new religion have nothing to teach; they can only make demands.

Rabbis consult other scholars and analyze clear legal precedents before issuing rulings. This knowledge is available to everyone, and specious rulings will quickly be challenged by the community. What process did you trade this for in your religion of progress? Activists and social engineers make the rules, in conjunction with the media. There is no debate, no questioning, no analysis of the pros and cons, no comparisons to precedents – and no dissenting opinions. You see which way the wind is blowing, and you follow. Or else.

How open-minded and progressive.

The most devout among us are quiet, private, unassuming, humble, and sacrifice for others. The most devout among your “progressive” religion are loud, brash, arrogant, self-righteous, and only make demands of others.

You must align yourself with extremely bad and scary people if your religion of progress demands it. You must always look the other way and submit in the name of progress.

This just in. It’s not just that Netflix show that now renders you a racist. It’s the Lego set, the joke you told in high school, the children’s show, the movie you watched as a child with your grandparents, the doll you bought for your child, the costume you wore. You protested too much when you were called a racist, or you didn’t protest enough, or you protested too loudly when it was not your place, or you didn’t say anything at all. You thought you understood how someone else felt, or you didn’t try hard enough to understand. Guilty!

You claimed that the Torah is primitive because it has sacrifices, but your new religion has sacrifices, too. Human ones. Constantly. Your mob of moral police hungers for new sacrifices, hoping their frenzied rituals of destroying someone and his family will protect them and their own.

You are horrified by the concept of a death penalty, yet you execute people in so many ways, without even a trial. Do you have trouble sleeping?

You know deep down that one day they will come for you. You are bound to slip eventually, or be turned in by someone seeking approval for finding a villain, or be found retroactively guilty for a sin that has yet to be invented. You must even pay for the crimes of others as if you committed them yourself. You are guilty, always guilty, if not today then tomorrow.

There is no concept of repentance in your “progressive” religion. You will cry, and grovel, and plead for another chance. You will disgrace yourself. No one will have pity on you and no one will come to your defense – the accused stands alone, for he spreads guilt like a virus to all who come near.

The religion you abandoned reaches out to the lowest sinner, embraces him, and raises him up with love. The religion you abandoned does not expect perfect results, only a sincere effort. Look around at your tolerant, loving, slogan-chanting friends, as they look for something and someone to destroy in the name of progress. Will they respect your sincere effort if you stumble? Will they love you when you unwittingly, inevitably sin?

You reap what you sow.

The religion you abandoned will accept you back even now, with true love, despite all the sins you have committed. Your people will embrace you and admire your efforts. They will encourage you when you falter, as inevitably you will, because they have faltered as well in their own way and it’s okay not to be perfect. They will expect great things from you, not because you are fighting for the cause of the day, but because you are fighting for your own greatness.

Your elders know a lot more than you gave them credit for. They have what you need. Knowledge. Wisdom. Character. Morals. Peace. Godliness. Truth. A link to the past and a guide for the future.

Maybe it’s time you humbled yourself, truly opened your mind, listened, and learned.

When you stumble, your repentance will be personal and private. Your dignity is precious to you and to others. What a truly progressive idea.

We won’t get you fired and we won’t boycott your business.

The way of life you embraced has shown you how empty and sinister it is. The religion you abandoned is what you were seeking all along.

It’s time to come home.

____________

www.chananyaweissman.com

www.facebook.com/etm.shabbatons

The author can be contacted at endthemadness@gmail.com

Should you use scare tactics to encourage aliya?

Many advocates for mass aliya, myself among them, have been hammering galus Jews in recent months that life in exile is going to become increasingly inhospitable, to say the least. This prediction has been on the mark, and it takes a dreamer to argue that the situation will reverse itself. The destabilization of America, the epicenter of galus Jewry, is real. It’s not going back to the way it used to be. The good times are over.

Some people have pushed back that using “scare tactics” to encourage aliya is inappropriate. Purists argue that we should only encourage aliya for idealistic reasons, not to run away from danger. Others claim that this angle is ineffective, because Israelis face their own dangers and difficulties. Still others bristle at being preached to, and believe the only appropriate message for galus Jews in distress is empathy.

All of these arguments have an element of truth, but they are off the mark. Using scare tactics to encourage aliya is entirely appropriate, for the following reasons:

1) It’s pikuach nefesh. Those who have been warning galus Jews cannot be dismissed anymore as fear-mongers. With each passing day they are increasingly being proven to be the voice of reason, while those who pooh-pooh the dangers are demonstrating lack of responsibility. If galus Jews hear more voices of reason from across the spectrum, all coming to the same conclusion independent of one another and without any bias or profit motive, they will start to take the message more seriously. The dangers are real, the warnings are necessary, and lives are at stake. We need to be blunt.

2) Mitoch shelo lishma ba lishma. Of course we should emphasize the idealistic reasons for aliya, independent of what I call the gashmiyus comparison test. Warning about the dangers of remaining in galus is not contradictory to the idealistic reasons, but supplementary. The fact is that the vast majority of Jews who are swayed by the idealistic reasons are already in Israel. The ones who are still in galus, for the most part, think of Israel as “very nice, but not for me.” Continuing to push the idealism button is not going to move them; they are not idealists. It’s time to push different buttons.

3) God is using scare tactics, too. We know this. It is deeply rooted in Torah that when Jews get too comfortable in galus, and thereby lose sight of the big picture, God removes the chesed of sweetening the galus to bring them back to reality. God wants the Jews to pine for Israel and make aliya. He too pushed the idealism button for several generations, and is now turning to other methods to bring out people’s inner Zionist. It’s entirely appropriate to give words to the message God is clearly sending.

4) It doesn’t really matter why they come. Again, in a perfect world, all Jews would pine to make aliya and actively strive to do so regardless of the comforts in galus or lack thereof. So what? The early Zionists did not come with pure Jewish ideals. We’re still glad they came and built the land. The post-Holocaust generation did not come to Israel because the Torah inspired them. We’re still glad they built new lives here while continuing to build the land. If all the Jews in the world decided to come tomorrow to flee danger, we would celebrate the complete return of our people, not mourn their imperfect motives. That’s the bottom line.

For all these reasons, the debate on the merits of scare tactics is not relevant. It might have been relevant before the dangers were clear and present, when it mattered more which buttons we tried to press. Right now, we have to do whatever works. If scare tactics will wake up more Jews who are still in denial, or give that extra push to those who need it, then it behooves us to use them – just as God is using them.

____________

www.chananyaweissman.com

https://www.facebook.com/etm.shabbatons

The author can be contacted at endthemadness@gmail.com

P.S.

“Will I not on that day, says Hashem, wipe out wise people from Edom and understanding from the mountain of Esav?”

The Secret Behind the Galus Jew

The ability of the Jew to come up with reasons why he will not make aliya is truly incredible. It doesn’t matter if the Jew is religious or secular, conservative or liberal, rich or poor, Sefardic or Ashkenazic. It doesn’t matter what his family situation is, his education, or his background. It doesn’t even matter what’s going on where he currently lives. If there is one issue that cuts across all divides for the millions of Jews outside their homeland, it is “Anywhere but Israel!”

The sheer breadth of reasons Jews give would lead one to believe that Israel is the absolute worst place on earth to live. They make it sound as if the ever-increasing millions of Jews who do live here and don’t wish to leave are crazy (or religious idealists, which to many is the same thing). No one in his right mind would ever want to live in Israel.

At best it’s a lifestyle choice, something a Jew should consider “only if it’s right for him”.

Within the religious world we find intellectual contortions that would be comical if the implications were not tragic. After all, the religious Jew must come to grips with the fact that his daily prayers, his frequent blessings, his religious ceremonies, his holidays, and his holy texts are suffused with love for Israel and the fervent desire to return immediately.

But the religious Jew does not desire this. Not only does he not desire this, he fervently desires the very opposite. His greatest desire is to live anywhere else on earth in a religious cocoon with people who resemble him. His gentile neighbors should think well of Jews, or at least pretend not to mind them, or at the very minimum not persecute them too severely. If things get “too bad” – which is purposely not defined so that the threshold can be repeatedly adjusted as the situation deteriorates – the Jew will dutifully decide that it is time to find another home in the Diaspora.

Nothing inspires a galus Jew more than building a new community somewhere in the Diaspora, while nothing turns him off more than the idea of pioneering a new community in Israel. He wants “Moshiach Now” as much as Peace Now wants peace.

So the religious Jew must use all his hair-splitting abilities to do away with volumes of Torah sources that contradict his attachment to galus, while taking a handful of convenient sources literally and giving them disproportionate weight. He laughs at Christian missionaries who employ the same tricks to rationalize a conclusion that was pre-determined and cannot be altered.

If you call him on this, he will argue that there are many knowledgeable and pious rabbis who take this position, and he is obediently following them. Oh, the self-sacrifice this poor religious Jew makes to follow his rabbi! How it must eat away at him that he cannot move to Israel because his rabbi said so! Such loyal obedience for rabbis one will not find for any commandment other than the commandment to remain in galus.

The religious Jew will not content himself with theological arguments to remain in galus. He will supplement his opposition to living in Israel with every materialistic and practical reason you can imagine, and some that you can’t. If Israel fails the gashmiyus comparison test in any respect, then it would be unreasonable to expect the Jew to move there. Israel must not only be his national homeland and the focal point of his religious practices, but it must pass every gashmiyus comparison test. When Israel passes any such test, the galus Jew responds, “Yes, but…” and finds another.

There are two simple litmus tests to determine whether a Jew who claims he wants to live in Israel “someday” really means it. The first is how he responds when you counter his reason for not coming.

Do his eyes light up with hope that you are right, that living in Israel really IS more feasible than he might have believed? Does he become excited that his dream of living in Israel might be more realistic than he believed? Does he want to know more, explore your suggestion, and see if that kernel of hope can blossom into a new life in Israel? Or does he immediately fire back with another reason why it can’t work?

If he jumps from reason to reason why aliya isn’t for him, inventing new reasons on the spot if necessary, then clearly he has intermarried with galus and does not want to divorce his foreign wife. If he heatedly insists that he just can’t make it in Israel, and is upset when someone evens suggest otherwise, then he is a galus Jew through and through.

The second test is also quite simple. He has given his reason, or litany of reasons, why he cannot make aliya today, even though he supposedly wants nothing more. What is he doing to overcome these obstacles?

He claims he cannot find work in Israel. It’s impossible to make it in Israel! We will all starve in the streets!

Has he even tried? Was it just a casual conversation in passing, or a serious search? Is he actively and continuously trying to find something? Is he connecting with people in his field, exploring different possibilities? If someone offered him a great job in Israel right now, would he pack up and move? If he lost his job in galus and had nothing to left to lose, would he try to start over in Israel? If the answer to these questions is no, then he is not giving a reason, but making a convenient excuse.

He claims there are no schools for his children. They will have no future!

Has he even looked? When he visited Israel, did he visit schools? Has he spoken with other parents? If the answer is no, his reason is a farce.

If he is staying in galus to take care of an elderly family member, will he commit to aliya immediately after his help is no longer needed? If not, he is not staying in galus for family reasons, but for something much deeper.

The same is true for every other “reason” that he simply cannot leave galus. Actions speak louder than words, and actions that contradict the words nullify the words completely. If they are taking no actions towards furthering their ideal of making aliya, and in fact are taking concrete actions to cement their lives in galus indefinitely, then they don’t really want to live in Israel at all. The excuses they give are nothing more than cover for this blasphemous truth, which many galus Jews are still ashamed to admit.

The galus Jew will also latch onto the false piety approach. I am waiting for Moshiach! Sure you are. Do you have your suitcase packed like the Chafetz Chaim? Are you saying Tikkun Chatzos every night with tears streaming down your face begging for Moshiach to come so you can leave galus? Are you truly heartbroken and crestfallen that Israel is right there waiting for you, but you are supposedly denied entry until Moshiach holds your hand? If so, show it once in a while. You say you are too humble to do that, but you’ve already blown your cover as one of the 36 hidden tzaddikim with the line about waiting for Moshiach. Let’s see some emotion – a fraction of the emotion you show when people suggest that you should come now and prepare the land for Moshiach.

The clever galus Jew will come up with reasons not to live in Israel that they would be ashamed to apply to any other place. One woman who left Israel, and felt the obligation to defame it as much as possible to justify her decision, claimed that everyone is rude, and she only had negative experiences with the people. Really, millions of Jews of all kinds, but everyone is rude and she only had negative experiences. One can only surmise that if her interactions with literally everyone she encountered were so negative that perhaps she had something to do with it. I did just that, and she called me a sexist. You play whatever cards you can.

I can see people moving apartments because the neighbors are rude. I can see people moving to another community that might be more friendly and welcoming. People don’t leave countries over this – especially not Jews. Jews have a lot more mental fortitude when it comes to remaining in galus, after all, and the goyim will have to much more than be rude to convince them to leave any country in the Diaspora.

Galus Jews are so brave in the face of anti-Semitism – this is our home and we will fight for it! Yet when it comes to living in Israel they are afraid they will get blown up on every bus, stabbed by every Arab, and have rockets rain from the skies more than rains of blessing. Interesting, no?

They cannot live in Israel because the government is corrupt, inept, wasteful, and otherwise unsatisfactory. Yet they would never leave their galus land for the same reason, nor is satisfaction with the government a serious consideration when they move from place to place within galus. Even Hitler coming to power wasn’t enough to motivate Jews to leave Germany, and today’s Jews are no wiser. So I’m calling bluff on that one.

They are worried about their safety in Israel. Right. Because the first thing galus Jews check when they decide where to live is the crime rate. If safety were their foremost consideration, it’s hard to explain why galus Jews tend to live in cities with high crime rates, and move in groups to rundown inner cities simply because the real estate is cheap. Safety first!

One galus Jew even told me that he believes Jews should stay in galus so that if Iran nukes Israel, the Jews in galus will survive and keep the Jewish people alive. What self-sacrifice! Staying behind in galus just to restart our people when God allows Israel to be nuked! Of course, it makes one wonder why galus Jews live in large clusters in places like New York City and communities near the White House, which would be prime targets for large-scale attacks. If the name of the game is spreading out as much as possible to increase our chances of survival, we can do much better than that.

They also claim that there isn’t enough land in Israel, or food, or water, were all Jews to come home. The galus Jew is staying behind just to make it easier for God, who they seem to believe cannot sustain us all in Israel, even though He did just fine when we were in the desert. Okay, maybe God CAN, but how can we rely on that?  We have to do our hishtadlus just to be sure. When God sends the Manna from heaven they will return, so we Jews in Israel won’t have to worry about food shortages.  The religious fervor of these people, their unswerving faith and devotion, is remarkable.

There is only one explanation for the galus Jew. He has been overcome by the yetzer hara.

Chazal teach that a person does not sin unless a spirit of insanity overcomes him. Indeed, no rational person can learn the Torah, witness the rebirth of Israel, and conclude that God wants him to stay in galus. No rational person can see the situation in galus declining day after day and resist the idea of leaving as if his life depended on it, when the very opposite is likely true. No rational person will fight for the honor of his foreign stepmother, who at best is only mildly abusive, while he disgraces the birth mother that is yearning for him.

It is the yetzer hara. The yetzer hara will do anything to get us to commit a sin. He will manipulate us and have our minds play tricks on us to justify wrongdoing. Living in Israel is a transcendent mitzva, and the entire Torah is centered around Israel. Do you think for one moment the yetzer hara would not devote every possible effort to convince Jews not to live there? Convincing a Jew to choose galus over Israel is the greatest coup for the yetzer hara. It is the most logical strategy for the yetzer hara to employ, and the only logical explanation for the twisted logic of the galus Jew.

I daresay the evil temptation to choose galus over Israel is the greatest challenge of our generation. It is irrational, it runs counter to the very essence of the Torah, it requires distorting or ignoring clear divine messages, and it is the greatest impediment to the redemption that is so tantalizingly close. The yetzer hara is fighting desperately to keep us with a galus mentality, and thereby to prolong the galus – a galus that has already ended if only we allowed it to be over.

Enough with the excuses. Come home, help us reclaim our land – all of it! – and end the galus once and for all.