מפי הגוי בעצמו: הערמת מכירת חמץ היא חילול השם

בדומה לדברי הרב יוסף גאון שהבאנו כאן בעבר.

הנה דוגמא לחילול השם שבדבר, מתוך ראיון עם הגוי הקבוע שאעלק “קונה” את החמץ בארץ ישראל דרך ה”רבנות”. החמץ בשווי $240 מליון, ועושים כאילו זקפן עליו במלוה (ואין שום סיכוי שיעשה זאת, כי הוא לא איל הון), ואח”כ הגוי אינו משלים דמיו, ולכן כאילו לא קיים תנאו, וה”מכירה” בטלה. ולוקחים את אותו גוי בכל שנה ושנה, וכדי בזיון וקצף.

הנה מתוך הכתבה באנגלית, מאויבי תחכמני מצותך:

Israel’s trick to bypass ‘chametz’ ban for Passover

Published On 25 Mar 2018

“אכן מצאת מקום חרפתי.”

For the Passover Feast, the Jewish state makes the sale because, during the Passover, Jews may not possess any food containing fermented grains.

So, for about 20 years, the state of Israel has been temporarily selling to Hussein Jabar its prohibited food items, in an annual ritual.

“ריטואל“, או “טקס” או בדיחה.

In supermarkets, shelves containing such foods are usually covered up. Private households may freely decide what they put on their table.

In the Feast of the Passover, Jews worldwide celebrate the departure of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. During the week of Passover, the Torah forbids consuming “chametz” – any food items that contain grains which have fermented. The possession of chametz is also prohibited.

Symbolic purchase

Rabbi Jeffrey Woolf of Bar-Ilan University points out that the sale of chametz to Jabar has high symbolic value. “But it is really so, that under Jewish and civil law, it is the non-Jew who possesses chametz.”

שקר וכזב, כמו שהוכיח הרב ברנד בספרו. וזה דברים שבלבו ובלב כל אדם, זיל קרי בי רב הוא. אין כאן אלא ליצנות גמורה מהקב”ה ומתורתו, כאדם שמוכר נכסיו לבניו להבריח בעלי חובות, שלא חלה המכירה הן בדיננו והן בדיניהם (ומשם העתיקו ל”מכירת” הארץ בשמיטה). רח”ל.

Each year, the 53-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel assumes an important task for the Israeli state: During the period of the Feast of the Passover, he symbolically purchases all leavened bread, as well as cakes, biscuits, noodles and even beer – all on behalf of the Jewish religion.

“If I can help them, then why not?” says Jabar, who is from the village of Abu Gosh, near Jerusalem. “For 10 days, I become a millionaire,” adds the Muslim believer with a laugh.

הצחוק הוא אמתי.

Jabar is clearly pleased by the interest being shown him. Behind the powerfully built man wearing a dark suit, there are pictures on the wall showing him together with previous Israeli prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Olmert, as well as with the current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sitting in his office in a hotel in Jerusalem, Jabar explains how, each year, he pays around $5,600 to Israel’s highest Jewish authority, the Chief Rabbinate. In a ceremonial act, both parties sign an agreement. This year’s ceremony is set to take place on March 29, with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Israel’s two chief rabbis.

The money is a down payment for goods which, by the latest estimates, are valued at more than $240m, Jabar says. For his money, he receives a list of all the pertinent food items, be they from the army, hospitals or schools. He is also given all the necessary keys to the premises involved.

Up until the Middle Ages, Jews would simply consume, give away or throw away their chametz before Passover. But in the late Middle Ages, Jews began brewing beer and became tavern keepers – so they could no longer simply throw away their chametz stores. “Under these circumstances, the rabbis of Eastern and Central Europe came up with the idea of selling chametz,” Woolf said. “We are speaking here of a legal loophole.” The non-Jew temporarily purchases the chametz, and then later on – after Passover – sells it back again.

ע’ מש”כ בזה כאן. ויש עוד הערמות שלא חלות.

Today, the Israeli state, as well as factories, restaurants and hotels accord the Chief Rabbinate the right to sell their chametz to Jabar in their name. “He is given 10 days’ time to conclude the purchase,” says Rabbi Elieser Simcha Weiss of the Chief Rabbinate, about the previously agreed-on procedure. “If he does not pay the remainder by the end of Passover, then the deal is void.” When that happens, Jabar gets his down payment back – and the chametz items are returned to their original owners.

יתר החילול השם הצועק עד לב השמים ראה כאן…

יה”ר שנחזור בתשובה.

The Importance of Believing True Conspiracies

Some readers don’t seem to understand why conspiracies even matter.

Answer: Ever heard of Tzom Gedaliah?

From Chananya Weissman’s newsletter:

[Yirmiya] Chapters 39 to 41…

Even after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, Hashem in His incredible mercy gave the remaining Jews a lifeline. The Babylonians exiled most of the survivors, but they let the most impoverished Jews remain in Israel to work the land. They appointed Gedalya ben Achikam to govern them, and deferentially gave Yirmiyahu the freedom to go wherever he pleased. He chose to remain in Israel.

Just like that, the Jews had a settlement in Israel, some semblance of autonomy, and a prophet to help them build from the ruins.

The Jewish partisans and their leaders who were in the outlying fields heard about this and returned. Gedalya swore to look after them and invited them to join the nascent settlement wherever they desired. The Jews who were in neighboring lands also heard that the king of Bavel allowed a remnant to remain under a Jewish governor, and they returned as well. They gathered a huge quantity of wine and dates. There was real hope.

Then things took a twist. Yochanan ben Koreach and the other partisan captains warned Gedalya that one of their colleagues, Yishmael ben Nesanya, had gone rogue. Yishmael came from royal stock and prominent men, and he was jealous of Gedalya (41:1). He had defected to the king of Ammon, who was surely none too pleased to see the Jews rebuilding, and planned to assassinate Gedalya (40:13-14).

Gedalya didn’t believe them.

Yochanan then met privately with Gedalya and offered to surreptitiously knock off Yishmael. Otherwise, Yishmael would murder him, the Jews in Israel would scatter, and the last hope of this remnant would be lost.

Gedalya refused. “You are telling lies about Yishmael,” he said (40:16).

Gedalya didn’t even bother to look into the matter.

He didn’t believe in conspiracy theories.

Gedalya was so sure that these warnings were “baseless” that he welcomed Yishmael and ten of his men to have a meal with him. They had some bread, then Yishmael and his gang promptly murdered Gedalya and everyone who was with him (41:2). Yishmael proceeded to go on a killing spree, took the remaining settlers hostage, then set off for Ammon.

…

Gedalya did not have to believe that Yishmael planned to assassinate him. But why, why couldn’t he investigate the matter? Why didn’t he turn to Yirmiyahu for guidance? Why in the world would he be so reckless, so sure of himself, that he would allow Yishmael to bring a small army with him for a meal? Was this really necessary?

Once again, the Torah does not teach us lessons about insane people, and we would not mourn Gedalya’s death if he were wicked. He was a righteous man and a leader who cared about the people.

But he was given a credible warning from credible people, and he dismissed it out of hand as a crazy conspiracy theory. He believed what he wanted to believe, and refused to reexamine his beliefs in light of new information. He refused to even allow for the slightest possibility that these warnings were credible.

He paid with his life and brought destruction on the remnant of Jews who were resettling Israel in spite of everything. For that we mourn to this day.

So many of those who mourn Gedalya’s death are repeating his tragic mistakes. They dismiss credible warnings from honorable people as “baseless”, they dismiss everyone who warns them as lunatics, and they refuse to examine the information behind these warnings. If they look at the information at all, it will be for no purpose other than to discredit it or the people sharing it. They refuse to entertain the slightest possibility that the warnings are indeed credible, even though they are gambling everything in the process. On the contrary, they defiantly rush headlong into the danger, like Gedalya breaking bread with his assassins.

The events preceding Gedalya’s murder are not recorded in the book of Yirmiya as a matter of historical interest. There is a great deal of historical information that the prophets did not record, and every word is measured. This story is recorded in detail because it is a timeless prophetic teaching, just like the actual prophecies that surround it.

I would add Wikipedia on the Chevron Massacre:

Former Haganah member Baruch Katinka recalled that he had been informed by his superiors that 10–12 fighters were needed to protect the Jews in Hebron. On August 20, a group travelled to Hebron in the middle of the night and met with a Jewish community leader, Eliezer Dan Slonim. Katinka said that Slonim was adamant that no protection was needed as he was on good terms with the local Arabs and he trusted the a’yan (Arab notables) to protect the Jews. According to Katinka, Slonim postulated that the sight of the Haganah might instead cause a provocation. The group was soon discovered and Police Superintendent Raymond Cafferata, an officer recruited from the Black and Tans, ordered them to return to Jerusalem. Two others remained in Slonim’s house, but the day after, they too returned to Jerusalem as requested by Slonim.

Holocaust:

Too many examples to cite.

Shabbos 82b:

אמר ליה רב הונא לרבה בריה מאי טעמא לא שכיחת קמיה דרב חסדא דמחדדן שמעתיה אמר ליה מאי איזיל לגביה דכי אזילנא לגביה מותיב לי במילי דעלמא א”ל מאן דעייל לבית הכסא לא ליתיב בהדיא ולא ליטרח טפי דהאי כרכשתא אתלת שיני יתיב דילמא משתמטא שיני דכרכשתא ואתי לידי סכנה א”ל הוא עסיק בחיי דברייתא ואת אמרת במילי דעלמא, כ”ש זיל לגביה.

Gemara Claims Going To War Is Always Good for the Economy? NO!

Avoda Zara 2b:

אמר להם הקב”ה במה עסקתם אומרים לו הרבה גשרים גשרנו הרבה כרכים כבשנו הרבה מלחמות עשינו וכולם לא עשינו אלא בשביל ישראל שיתעסקו בתורה. אמר להם הקב”ה כל מה שעשיתם לצורך עצמכם עשיתם. תקנתם גשרים ליטול מהם מכס, כרכים לעשות בהם אנגריא, מלחמות אני עשיתי שנאמר ה’ איש מלחמה.

Some “rabbi\teacher” once claimed this Gemara negates the “alleged” Broken Window Fallacy, since instead of answering as before, that the Persians waged war for their own benefit, the Gemara brings a passuk to prove the benefits of war are supernatural. So he claimed.

Well, they must be supernatural because this is completely illogical! Or, to paraphrase Sagan, “extraordinary claims about the Gemara require extraordinary evidence from the Gemara”.

Now, obviously, war is occasionally beneficial for one side if victorious, and the victors take spoils. And trade isn’t harmed on balance. And you didn’t lose too many “good men”. And nothing goes wrong…

As the expression goes, “No plan survives contact with the enemy”.

Ra’avad explains:

כיון שהיוצא למלחמה אינו יודע אם ינצח או לא והניצחון הוא רק מאתו יתברך, על כן אמר מלחמות אני עשיתי.

War is a horrifically risky gamble, or “adventure“, not a straightforward “venture”. (Though even wealth is a gift from God, as the Gemara says earlier regarding Rome’s gold and silver.) This wariness of war, even apart from morals, used to be common wisdom before the modern era of government maleducation facilities for the masses.

Presumably, the difference between “כרכים כבשנו” and “מלחמות עשינו” here is cities are too weak to mount effective resistance or later take revenge.

If anything, this Gemara disproves the “Broken Window Fallacy” (but no need).