רפי פרבר Rafi Farber

Fiat currency and idolatry are outgrowths of the same error. What is that error? Believing that a substitute for something is the real thing. Idolatry did not begin as someone suddenly believing that a stone statue is actually god. That would be ridiculous. It evolved slowly, through layers of derivative errors. The Rambam explains how this happened in the first two halachos of Hilchos Avoda Zara, the laws surrounding idolatry. He writes:

בימי אנוש טעו בני האדם טעות גדול ונבערה עצת חכמי אותו הדור ואנוש עצמו מן הטועים היה. וזו היתה טעותם. אמרו הואיל והאלהים ברא כוכבים אלו וגלגלים להנהיג את העולם ונתנם במרום וחלק להם כבוד והם שמשים המשמשים לפניו ראויין הם לשבחם ולפארם ולחלוק להם כבוד. וזהו רצון האל ברוך הוא לגדל ולכבד מי שגדלו וכבדו. כמו שהמלך רוצה לכבד העומדים לפניו וזהו כבודו של מלך. כיון שעלה דבר זה על לבם התחילו לבנות לכוכבים היכלות ולהקריב להן קרבנות ולשבחם ולפארם בדברים ולהשתחוות למולם כדי להשיג רצון הבורא בדעתם הרעה. וזה היה עיקר עבודת כוכבים. וכך היו אומרים עובדיה היודעים עיקרה. לא שהן אומרים שאין שם אלוה אלא כוכב זה. הוא שירמיהו אומר מי לא ייראך מלך הגוים כי לך יאתה כי בכל חכמי הגוים ובכל מלכותם מאין כמוך ובאחת יבערו ויכסלו מוסר הבלים עץ הוא. כלומר הכל יודעים שאתה הוא לבדך אבל טעותם וכסילותם שמדמים שזה ההבל רצונך הוא:

In the days of Enosh, mankind committed a big error and the sages of that time and Enosh himself committed this error. This was their error. They said that since God created the stars and the spheres to direct the world from on high, and gave them honor and they, the spheres, served Him, that people should serve them, too. And that this is the will of God to serve and respect those things that serve and respect God, just as any king would want respect for his closest servants. Because this occurred to them, they started building temples and sacrificing to them in order to appease God in their false ideas. This is the essence of idolatry. It’s not that they believed that idols or stars were actually god, but their error was in thinking that God willed that they worship intermediaries.

Exodus, Chapter 1, verses 21 and 22. The context, Pharaoh had just commanded the midwives to kill Israelite boy babies in secret as they were being born. The midwives disobey, and do not kill the babies. Then the verse says:

“And it was that because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. And Pharaoh commanded his people saying, “All boy babies shall be thrown into the Nile, and all girls shall live.”

Who made who houses? The classic explanation is that God made the midwives houses for not murdering the babies. But that makes little sense as a simple explanation. God doesn’t build houses for people, generally speaking. But Abarbanel provides a very different explanation, and a much simpler one. He says:

It can be explained that “he made them houses” does not refer back to God, and has nothing to do with any benefits given to the midwives mentioned above. Rather, it is connected to what is written afterwards, “And Pharaoh commanded his people saying, ‘All boy babies born should be thrown into the Nile.’”

The meaning of the verse then, is this: That when the midwives made excuses as to why they didn’t kill the babies, Pharaoh tried to remedy the problem by building official and recognizable government sponsored birthing centers, so that everyone should know that this is a birthing center, so that every woman in labor could go there and get a midwife. While commanding this, he told his people that when they hear a knock at the birthing center, they should take the baby and throw it in the Nile.

Abarabenel on Shmot

When the government wants to commit atrocities, it uses medical infrastructure to do so. And the reason why Pharaoh built those houses, is that he wanted to thin out the Israelite population.

From The Jewish Libertarian, here.

Another day, another battle. We won at the pool. We won the battle of the Covid tests. We won the Battle of Supersol and Battle of the Maskless Shabbat.

Today, we won the Battle of Preschool.

We have a four year old daughter. When the End of the World as we Know It happened, my son was 5, in kindergarten. He is now in 2^nd grade. I used to play a game with him at kindergarten before leaving him for the day, in the mornings. From March 2020 until today, I didn’t play with my son, nor have I with my daughter in the mornings at preschool.

Today, my wife and I decided to open up another front. We went in to the preschool, without masks, we sat down, and we played with her. For the first time in nearly 2 years, we played with our child in kindergarten.

We were immediately harassed about masks. Told to put one on. We said no, and kept playing. They move all the other kids away from us, as if we’re endangering them. Then another adult comes in and says we’re endangering the children.

“I don’t want to fight with you,” she says, “but you’re endangering us all.”

“Then stop fighting with me and be quiet,” I say.

There was a back and forth for a while, something about obedience versus rationality, we finished a puzzle with my daughter while being attacked. It was very unpleasant.

“There are rules,” says the adult. Not sure if she was staff or not. Uh huh.

We walk out, my wife not feeling well emotionally about this. Neither am I. I don’t want to attack anyone.

We get home, and there is city security at our gate. He used to be my neighbor. He asks if we had problems at the kindergarten this morning. I say no. He says something about masks, I say we are exempt. He asks if we have an exemption in writing, I say you’re not allowed to even ask that.

He says he wants to talk to me for my own good, as a friend. I say I don’t see you as a friend. I see you as an enemy. Then he gets mad and says, “OK, now I’m changing my tone with you!”

“Oh no, what do I do now? You’re changing your tone!”

“Look,” he says, “You come into the kindergarten again without a mask, and you’re going to get a really big fine!”

“Good,” I say. “Go ahead. Fine me. I’ll fight it in court.”

He turns his back, and starts to walk away. As he’s walking out, he says, “You’ve always been a couple of idiots!”

Heh, he couldn’t resist a childish swipe after a smushed his ego.

Hours later, I go to pick up my daughter. As I get close to the kindergarten, there are three cops waiting for me. I know these cops. One of them is the Chief. They booked me back in December for bareface and never gave me a ticket for it though. He knows me. The basic points of the conversation, skipping the dumber portions of the back and forth. It took about 3-4 minutes I think.

“What’s your name?” he says.

“Did I do something?”

“You’re talking to a cop. Tell me your name.”

“Do I have to answer that? Tell me what I did. Can I pick up my daughter?”

“I know you. We’ve met before. You can’t come into a Kindergarten and yell at people. It’s bad for the children.”

“I came in to play with my daughter and they told me I was endangering children.”

“Look, next time you just say you have an exemption from masks and that’s it. You can’t just go in to a kindergarten, disrespect the teacher in front of kids, because later the kids grow up and think they can stab policemen.” (Yes, he actually said this.)

“I’m against violence. But I’ve said I am exempt many times before and they still bother me.”

“I will tell the teacher that you have an exemption and not to bother you then.”

“So I can come in tomorrow, to the kindergarten, without a mask?”

“Yes, just be respectful.”

“Of course. Thank you for your help. I really appreciate this conversation and I respect you.” I say. I’m serious. This cop is sort of reasonable. Still trying to intimidate me, but sort of reasonable.

I pick up my daughter and go home.

There are no Covid rules. It’s all a sham. Just keep acting as if they do not exist. Because they don’t. I wonder what I’m going to fight next.

Kindergarten conquered. כיבוש ארץ ישראל.

From The Jewish Libertarian, here.

I danced and won at the Street Battle of the Maskless Shabbat. My wife won the Battle of Supersol. Our whole family fought and won the Green Pass Battle at the Pool. September 30, 2021, we fought and won the three-front battle of the Covid Testing at the Schools and Kindergartens.

This battle was a crazy one, and it was the scariest one. It was the only one we announced our attack in advance. We were told that in order to send our kids to school and kindergarten, we would have to show them a negative Covid test, or our kids would not be allowed in. So we called both the principal and the kindergarten teacher, and we announced in advance that we were going to fight them. That we were not going to back down. We were going to send our children to the school and kindergarten they are registered for, without a Covid test, against the tyrannical mandates of the Israel Ministry of Health, and the next move is up to them.

If you do not understand why it is such a crime against humanity to require disease testing on healthy children in order to get into school, then stop reading this article. It is not aimed at you. I am only speaking to those who understand the importance and sanctity of human liberty and of the principle of innocence until proven guilty, and of the holiness of one’s ownership over his own God-given body. If you don’t get that, then you are not worth talking to, so leave.

For those who understand, let me put it simply. Last year it was forced “declarations of health” on a piece of paper. This year it’s Covid testing and nasal rape. Next year it’ll be forced injections for babies toddlers and children. We made a big mistake last year not fighting the health declarations. We just filled them out. That made this last battle that much harder. We still won, but it was not easy. Had we refused the health declarations, the path would have been much easier to winning this battle. But for those who do not fight nasal rape of children now, you are going to have a very hard time fighting forced “vaccinations”. But for us, I hope it will be easier, because now they know where we stand, and they know we know they are cowards and backed down.

Just like my kids are no longer bothered about masks because they refuse to wear them, all you have to do is win once and it gets easier.

First, let’s go into the completely asinine nature of the “mandatory Covid testing”. It is only once a week, and those that don’t go to school on the day it is required, do not have to submit one on any other day. So it is very easy to avoid, and it won’t prevent the spread of anything. We could have easily just not sent our kids on September 30 as so many parents refused, and rightly. But this was about taking a stand, and letting them know we will not submit nor will we run away anymore. Come get us, you empty cowards. You are all empty, none of you believe in what you are doing. As Worf said of the Borg, “The Borg have no honor nor courage. And that is our greatest advantage.” Hollow automaton obedient shells.

Continue reading…

From The Jewish Libertarian, here.

Today, August 11, 2021. I went to the gym this morning. I live in Israel. I do not have a green pass. Technically, I am not allowed in to the gym. As I walk there, I’m thinking what to do if police prevent me from going. Do I go in anyway or back out, jump the fence and work out?

It turned out not to be an issue. Nobody was at the front desk so I just walked in, did my work out, and left.

I walk home, and when I turn the corner to my street, I’m reading The Tower of Basel so I’m not looking up. I hear my wife scream my name and immediately my blood pressure shoots up. She’s unloading groceries with my two oldest daughters, 11 and 9.

Apparently, as I was working out at the gym, my wife was having a workout of the mind and soul at the supermarket.

“Rafi, they called the police on me!”

“What, is everything OK? Does this have a happy ending?”

I immediately want to know if this is a good or bad story. I have been constantly on edge for about 18 months now, and I am in no condition to handle any sort of suspense at all.

“Everything’s fine,” says my wife. I breathe a sigh of relief.

“So what happened?!”

A bit of background. My wife and I made a pact a while back. We would not put on masks anymore for any reason. Not to keep a job, not to placate the police, nothing. (The last time I put one on was for an interview to get a weapons license 3 months ago, and I had to annul vows for that.) Why are we so adamant? Because it is time to set an example, and so we are. Neither I nor my wife have ever gotten a ticket for not wearing a mask. I’ve been threatened, even booked and detained by police, but never ticketed.

She begins the story. She’s heading into the grocery store with our two oldest daughters. The guard stops her at the entrance and tells her she can’t come in without a mask. She says yes, she can, and that she does not have to wear a mask. She simply walks past the guard. The guard follows her inside and continues to harass her. She just continues shopping, with an asinine back-and-forth about what the “law is”.

“Show me your exemption,” says the guard.

“I don’t have to show you anything,” she insists. And keeps shopping. My daughters are witnessing all of this, also unmasked.

As this is going on, the manager of the store comes out and takes my wife’s side, which was nice. “If she says she doesn’t have to wear a mask, then she doesn’t have to wear a mask! Enough already!”

The guard slinks off. Meanwhile, random masked grocery shoppers continue to harass my wife in front of my kids. She ignores them all and keeps shopping.

Then, she gets to the self-checkout counter and starts scanning her stuff. She swipes her credit card, the machine says there’s a problem (what a coincidence) and to call a clerk to help. A clerk comes, and she says, “Sorry, this checkout isn’t working. You’ll have to start over. And the police are coming. You have to put on a mask.”

“No, I don’t,” says my wife.

Then the store intercom starts blaring. “The police are on their way. Everyone must make sure their mask covers both nose and mouth.”

My wife just stands there, with my daughters. She can’t leave, because payment hasn’t gone through. She suspects someone shut down the machine to pin her there as the police were coming. Plus, my oldest just happened to have a bee sting on her foot from the day before that was swelling up again and needed to be iced, but my wife did not want to use that excuse to leave, because it would look cowardly. It is time to stand up. So she just stood there calmly, unmasked.

Police arrive outside the supermarket, taking pictures. They do not come in.

Still waiting, she’s the only person unmasked in the entire store. The checkout machine comes back to life. A new screen pops up on for a manager to swipe a card again. My wife calls the manager over, she swipes the card. The machine now says to swipe the credit card again. She does. Receipt comes out this time, finished.

She’s now walking out of the store, my oldest’s foot in a lot of pain. She gets past the guard again, and she simply walks past three policemen standing there. As she passes them, the guard says, “That’s her that’s her!” to the cops. But my wife just keeps walking to the car, two daughters in tow. They help her load the car, and she drives off home.

That’s it. That’s the whole story. This is all one big bluff. Our enemies are empty shells. Evil is emptiness.

Show no fear. Stare the bastards down. Keep your calm. They’re nothing.

I would bet that nobody in my entire city has the sheer courage of my wife. I am blessed with the most amazing woman in the world.

From The Jewish Libertarian, here.