מדריך קצר: כיצד להכיר ‘צדיקים’ רמאים
Reprinted with assumed permission.
Reprinted with assumed permission.
קובץ אגרות חזו”א ח”ג סי’ ס”א:
I once wrote this:
To quote myself:
Here’s a thought experiment.
Tell me, what scares the “opposition” more: 2,000 people who always vote for Charedi parties or a fraction of that number who never do?
Politics Is Downstream of Culture!
I couldn’t exactly explain why this was so obvious, although I was indeed informed by readers they emphatically didn’t share my intuition. Contra Brisk, a deficiency of explanation does not show a lack of comprehension.
So, now I discovered the “official” name of this argument. It’s called the Madman Theory; read all about it.
Readers: I welcome your thoughts.
Sanhedrin 14a:
Can you imagine what would happen today? I’ll try to summarize the expected storm of fierce pashkevilin against Rabbi Abahu:
Rabbi Steinman = Rabbi Kook = Rabbi Elyashiv = Rabbi Abahu = Rabbi Hertzog=…
Gevald! \ Ho ho, “Ish lefi mehallelo”!
על כן תפוג תורה ולא יצא לנצח משפט כי רשע מכתיר את הצדיק. Ay, as der heileger rebbe Mahari Tav once wrote with such perspicacity…
What’s he even thinking going there? They should visit him!
But of course the royal ladies, etc. He’s “their kind of Gadol”!
Women singing! (Chas veshalom, we didn’t actually hear for ourselves. The vahb [Rebbetzin] told us.)
Nu nu, we always knew. The smart ones always knew Rabbi Abahu was suspect. He knew yevanis… Oh, I could tell you stories (fake, but I can sure tell them)…
What do you think?! All the seforim supposedly mentioning Rabbi Abahu are all forged! Listen to the testimony of Manoach Man, an actual talmid of Rabbi Yochanan, who never even saw R.A. in the beis medrash (because he didn’t know where it was).
We need to mis’chazeik in the ways of our forefathers, and not let the waves of Galus sink us…