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What's the Message of the Erev Rav for Us on 17 Tammuz?

11/7/2017

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The first tragic event to occur on the 17th of Tammuz was Moshe Rabbeinu breaking the first set of Tablets when he saw the Jewish Nation worshiping the Golden Calf.

(For a synopsis of the tragedy, please see What was the Golden Calf?)

How did the Jewish people go from the Divinely gifted exalted spiritual level necessary to receive the Torah in all its glory to worshiping an idol only 40 days later?

The Original Fake News and It's Twin: Fake Fear

Moshe Rabbeinu promised to be up on the mountain with Hashem for 40 days, after which he would return. The people miscalculated, so when Moshe Rabbeinu didn't come back on the 16th of Tammuz, they got worried.

Or did they?

It was actually the Erev Rav who got worried...but not for the reasons you might think.

Well aware that Hashem objected to their presence and that it was Moshe Rabbeinu who allowed them to join along, the Erev Rav feared that without Moshe Rabbeinu, they'd be kicked out by Hashem (as if Hashem couldn't just kick them out if He chose to).

This is why the Erev Rav felt they needed to create a new leader, and to do it on the double.

So they sounded an alarm of sorts that affected the emuna of the Jews. In addition, the satan (a prosecuting angel) adjusted nature to provide a gloomy atmosphere. And rather than taking an emuna-driven "Let's wait and see" approach of yishuv hadaat, the true Jews of Yisrael got sucked into the Erev Rav fear.

Important Note:
  • The Jews NEVER had anything to fear.
  • They were beloved to Hashem.
  • So even if something had happened to Moshe Rabbeinu, Hashem would still take care of Yisrael as a mother cares for her newborn baby.
  • It was the Erev Rav who stood to lose out if Moshe Rabbeinu didn't return.
  • The Jews would have been fine all along NO MATTER WHAT.

In other words, the Jews panicked for NO REASON WHATSOEVER.
And that was their first mistake.

The Importance of Daat Torah

Before he left, Moshe Rabbeinu told the Elders:
"Wait for us here until we return to you, and here Aharon and Chur are with you; whoever has a case, let him go to them."

So at this point, the Jews consulted with Chur, the son of Miriam Haneviah and Kalev ben Yafuneh.
Apparently, Chur told them in no uncertain terms that they didn't need any new leader and were forbidden from doing so.
So they killed him.

Okay, let's look at this for a minute.

Back then, the Erev Rav was obvious. They even looked different to the point that the Moavites could differentiate between Erev Rav and Yisrael.

Also, these Erev Rav people were NOT descended from the Avot and Imahot. And the Jews KNEW this. So why did they listen to the Erev Rav over their own leader (appointed by Moshe Rabbeinu himself), a leader who had proven himself time and again?
(See here for a brief and impressive bio of Chur.)

Picture the scene for a moment:
  • You've got these clearly non-Jewish-looking people talking to you in either Egyptian-accented Hebrew or in Egyptian itself,
  • people whom you know aren't really a part of you
  • and whom you know aren't even wanted by Hashem
...and you decide to listen to them over the daat Torah approved by the greatest prophet who has ever and would ever live?

What on Earth were the Jews thinking?
(For more details please see the Kli Yakar on Parshat Ki Tisa and scroll down past the chelbana.)

The Original Cult Leader

Okay, remember:
This whole thing started out as a quest to create a leader.
Not an idol and not a cult, but simply a new leader.

And the Erev Rav probably didn't seem so bad.
They probably just seemed pro-active. Take charge!-types. Self-empowering.
Maybe they even seemed caring and inspirational.
Maybe they conducted promotional self-empowerment seminars.

Yet the Erev Rav, being steeped in Egyptian ways, wanted to be led by the stars, which is why a calf representing the Taurus constellation popped out. In fact, they assumed that Moshe Rabbeinu's power derived from some kind of star-image, and not from his own inner work and holiness.

Of course, the Jewish women resisted handing over the jewelry for the dastardly deed, but the men insisted and the calf was made.

Once the idol was created, the Jews should have immediately realized what they were getting into. After all, bovine-shaped idols were all the rage in that part of the world for millennia. It's sort of like if an "Ephraimite" was leading everyone to what he claimed was a Chanukah party and then suddenly whipped out a cross right before the festivities started.

I mean, you know the guy is not Torah-true, and now he's waving this big cross around at the party. And you know that's not just some random giant "T" because Christians have been using that symbol for the past 2000 years.

But what ensued next was a free-for-all that included debauchery, drugs and alcohol, adultery, and blasphemy.

At this point, viewing the scene from above, could you differentiate between the Erev Rav and the Bnei Yisrael?

Not really; they were all acting the same.

Perhaps if you looked carefully, you might notice that only certain people are orchestrating the whole event, and that those people look different than the participants. But overall, you would not be able to specify who was who according to behavior.

And upon seeing this, Moshe Rabbeinu smashed the Tablets.

And this is one of the reasons we mourn today.

Lessons from and about the Erev Rav

So what do we learn from this?
  • The Erev Rav think only about themselves, which also means they are obsessed with aligning themselves to whoever seems most powerful and they are obsessed with materialism.
  • For their own self-interests, they will do whatever they can to get an authentic Yisrael WHO HAS NO REASON TO FEAR all riled up with anxiety and fear over an outcome that affects the Erev Rav ONLY.
  • Erev Rav motivations are very different than Jewish motivations, although Erev Rav will speak to Jews in a "Jewish" language, if you get my drift.
  • This panic discourages authentic Jews from listening to tested-and-true daat Torah.

There are other lessons, but that's all I can think of for now.

Signs that You May be Suffering under the "Erev Rav Effect"

So what can we do about it?
  • Are you Erev Rav?
  • Are you a Yisrael caught up in an Erev Rav fiesta?
  • Are you a Yisrael with Erev Rav sparks pricking about your holy Jewish soul?

You can't really know.

But what you CAN do is take a step back from it all, especially at the following times:
  • Are you feeling panicked?
  • Are you feeling desperate?
  • Are you feeling like "Move, move, move!" or "Do, do, do!"?
  • Are you willing to latch on to anyone or anything who seems to promise security and leadership?
  • Are you listening to the silver-tongued voices of people who obviously aren't the real deal while dismissing authentic daat Torah? (And I mean REAL daat Torah; not every Orthodox rabbi is daat Torah!)
  • Are you blindly assuming the other cares about the same things you do, when much of what they say or do actually points to a completely different motive?
  • Do you want to contemplate issues and situations before acting, but you have people around you (or even a voice within yourself), pressuring you to just jump into the frenzy without another thought?
  • When you want to discuss real issues of emunah and serving Hashem and genuine Torah observance, are you ever waved off, rejected, mocked, or even attacked? (You might even do this to yourself.)
  • Are you tempted to follow people who couldn't possibly have the answers because they don't possess your Jewish tradition and yichus?
  • Do you see people insisting that you follow them when you clearly see they're holding up a well-known and forbidden idol...but you're caught up in your fear and peer pressure, and anyway, they've got such convincing reasons for what they're doing?

Erev Rav Alert! The above is the effect of Erev Rav on a Yisrael.

And it's a sign to take a step back from it all and inquire of Hashem.

How to Deal with the "Erev Rav Effect"

Our times are different and the Erev Rav no longer look they way they once did.

Remember, at the time they were actually worshiping the Golden Calf, the Erev Rav and Bnei Yisrael were behaving exactly the same.

A Reform rabbi holding up a cross at a Chanukah party can still possess a soul of Yisrael.

They only real way to deal with it is via yishuv hadaat - taking a step back and asking:
  • "What's really going on here?"
  • "Is this the Torah way? If so, where is it written?"
  • "Where is Hashem in all this?"
  • "What does He think?"
  • "What does He want?"
  • "Okay, Hashem...tell me what to do!"

Why couldn't Bnei Yisrael have told the Erev Rav, "Wait a minute, Hashem's in charge. Let's give it another day and see"?

Why couldn't they have listened to Chur?

And even at the point that the calf appeared, could they not have said, "Whoa! Wait just one second here! Hmm... I'm going to step out and do some hitbodedut before I do anything else."

They could have taken a step away from everyone and engaged in conversation with Hashem at any point during the ride. Even after they'd killed Chur, they still could've stopped the madness. They still could have turned to Hashem.

And THAT would've saved them.

So don't give up.

Even if you find yourself swept up in a crowd led by Erev Rav after your real leader has been murdered and your other true leader has gone undercover...and even when you're faced with a clear symbol of everything that's wrong with the world and you're all hyped up to worship it with the basest human behaviors...

STEP BACK. And talk to Hashem.

It's not too late. Even if the Erev Rav stuff seems to be a part of you, don't give up.

Just turn to Hashem and don't repeat the mistake of the first Seventeenth of Tammuz.

We mourn it in order to rectify it. And we can!
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A Look at All the Souls Coming Down

10/7/2017

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I was thinking a lot recently about how different people react to different events and circumstances.
 
Two people can have similar personalities and go through the same events and traumas, and one will take the high road while the other will take the low road.
 
It seems that there are differences at the soul level. Obviously, someone like the Arizal was born with a particularly lofty soul while others possess a not-as-lofty soul even though it is still a holy one.
 
Certainly, classic Jewish sources discuss the idea of how the right kavanot pull down holy souls for conception. A Jewish couple who come together in genuine love and respect will pull down a higher soul. There are stories of tzaddikim whose kavanot pulled down very special souls into their children.
 
At the same time, our Sages also discuss how certain states pull down blemished souls. A child conceived while the mother is niddah, with a non-Jewish partner or any other forbidden partner, while either parent is angry or fantasizing about someone else or drunk, or if the woman is coerced…any of these will pull down a blemished soul.
 
And what of cases in which we have several generations of Jews conceived in niddah? What kinds of souls are these? And it doesn’t just affect Jews from secular upbringings. FFBs can make mistakes in taharat hamishpacha, or conceive children in any of the forbidden states mentioned above.
 
In other words, there are no guarantees regardless of yichus.
 
Of course, this doesn’t mean that the soul is condemned to lowliness for life. A blemish can certainly be cleaned and purified.
Such a soul simply has more work to do to get it up to par. Tanach and midrashim contain stories of very great people who were conceived in less than ideal circumstances.

A lot of hard and sincere spiritual work can rectify a soul and bring it to its innate full potential.

(As far as I know, the blemish of the mamzer, a child born of an adulterous union between a married woman and her partner, is one that cannot be rectified within the mamzer's lifetime. The state of mamzerut remains and can be passed on through one's children unless certain measures are taken to prevent this.)

A Convert's Soul

I also wonder about conversion, which pulls down a holy Jewish soul where there was once a non-Jewish soul. How does that work? We see that there are converts with mind-boggling dedication to Torah, far beyond that which most born Jews could withstand, such as written about in The Secret Saga of a Righteous Convert.

Yet there are others who are quite tepid in their observance, seemingly trying to hold on to as much of the non-Jewish stuff as they can, or to revert back to their non-Jewish ways when the going gets rough (though most deal somewhere between these two extremes).
 
Some female converts told me that upon going to the Israeli Rabbanut to sort things out before their upcoming marriage, they are shocked to learn of something possibly amiss in their conversion certificate or experience, and are directed to undergo another immersion in the mikveh just to make sure everything is 100% kosher. As odd as it is to go in for a conversion a week or two before your marriage and after you’ve been fully observant and in a very frum seminary for the past few years, such converts also express a feeling of reassurance.

“Because my child’s Judaism will be defined through me,” say the female converts, “it’s essential that my own status be unquestionable.”

And they also relate that they were able to immerse and say the blessing with even more kavanah now that they had learned and experienced even more about Torah Judaism.

So what’s up with that? Did they receive a whole new soul…again? Or was the Jewish soul they originally received upon the first conversion immersion strengthened or re-purified?

Really, I have no clue and I don’t even know where to start looking. But it is interesting!

A Bit of George, Plus a Bit of Alexis, Plus a Bit of Etta Equals...Chavi!

To make things even more complex and fascinating, parts of more than one soul can bond together to make a new soul comprised of these different souls. (I think this can explain past-life memories that recall copious past lives or remember two different lives occurring within the same time period.)

Erev Rav Souls vs the Jewish Souls of Yisrael

Furthermore, there are Erev Rav souls and Erev Rav soul-sparks among us.
 
In the Tanya of Lubavitcher chassidus (Igeret Hakodesh, Chapter/Epistle 26), it explains that after Mashiach comes (but before Techiyat Hametim/Resurrection of the Dead), the Jewish souls will merit to taste from the Tree of Life (i.e. the penimiyut of Torah) and thus will automatically know the revealed mitzvot in the same way that Avraham Avinu intuited the revealed mitzvot long before the Torah was actually given on Har Sinai. And because in this state, they will no longer suffer forgetfulness, they’ll have no need to review as we do now. Instead, Jews will occupy themselves with the deeper hidden aspects of Torah.
 
However, the Erev Rav, who will not taste from the Tree of Life, will need to occupy themselves with Mishnah (all the laws deduced from the Torah) in order to weaken the power of the Sitra Achra (the Dark Side, so to speak). Apparently, even after Mashiach comes, the Erev Rav will still be caught up in their inclinations to sin and will need to hold on tight to Torah learning in order to strengthen themselves against the Yetzer Hara—just as regular Jews do now.
 
Rivka Levy’s book Unlocking the Secret of the Erev Rav: The Mixed Multitude in Jewish Kabbalah, goes into this more, but apparently the Erev Rav souls are Jewish, but they’re a few steps behind the souls of a Yisrael—a Jew. So if I understand the Tanya correctly, after Mashiach comes, the Erev Rav will ascend to the level where regular Jews are holding now, and regular Jews will be on the level of Avraham Avinu.
 
May such a time come soon!
 
(You can also find out more about what traditional Jewish sources like the Kli Yakar say about the Erev Rav by clicking on the “Erev Rav” option in the "Categories" section in the sidebar on the mid-to-upper right.)

Different Souls with Different Goals

Anyway, we clearly have a wide variety of souls bobbing around the world right now. Long ago, our Sages predicted that all the souls would need to come down into the world for their final chance at rectification before Mashiach comes and we’re seeing this now.
 
Sometimes, a person’s soul is so lofty, its light shines through all its owner’s grime. You sometimes see secular Jews who behave with greatness and light. You also see struggling or downtrodden frum Jews who seem to have something special to them, like a great soul that hasn’t yet realized its potential.
 
On the other hand, you may also see highly respected Orthodox Jews in important positions, but when you look them in the eye, it’s opaque as if there’s nothing there inside. Or they are surprisingly superficial or shallow (even if they are academically very intelligent or possess sharp administrative skills) or cynical or quarrelsome or snobby.
 
Because of this, we all need to have a lot of patience both with ourselves and others.
 
We don’t know what kind of soul we have and the long road of rectifications necessary for our soul.

We also don’t know what other people are dealing with and what they are meant to be doing.
 
Of course, we know that, for example, every Jew must keep Shabbat. But we don’t know exactly how that is supposed to be expressed for a particular soul.

For example, does this particular soul need:
  • …to take out Shabbat at the regular time or the later Rabbeinu Tam time?
  • …Shabbat meals that consist of lots of divrei Torah or lots of singing zemirot? Or both?
  • Lots of salads or lots of desserts or lots of kugels?
  • Heavy on the meat or heavy or the fish or heavy on Cornish hens?
  • A dignified formal meal served on fine china or a lively meal eaten from disposable dinnerware?
  • Gefilte fish or spicy fish?
  • Going all-out for big melaveh malka bash or taking 10 minutes for a piece of chocolate and a hot freshly made cup of coffee?
 
Furthermore, even if we know where someone is supposed to arrive (at mitzvah observance), we don’t know HOW they’re supposed to get there. For example, I’ve known young women who started off their mitzvah observance with Shabbat and learning the laws of lashon hara while still wearing pants. Others started off with Shabbat and wearing long skirts, but only focused on lashon hara later.

Rectifying Ourselves and Others

This is why it is so important to forge a relationship with Hashem and really discuss your issues with Him in order to get yourself sorted out, and why it is also vitally important to pray for others to do teshuvah from love and to complete their rectifications in this lifetime.

Because there is so much that we just don’t know.

Praying for others works.

If they have souls of Yisrael, then davening for them is a great act of sisterly or brotherly love and helps them to come closer to their soul's potential, which also sweetens harsh judgements and helps bring Mashiach faster.

If they have Erev Rav souls, then davening still helps. The Komarna Rebbe has said that davening for the Erev Rav to do teshuvah actually nullifies their power because the one holy spark that was holding them up gets sucked out (elevated out of them?) and they are rendered totally powerless.
This is described here and more fully in this book You are What You Hate.
(Disclaimer: While I have read many articles on that site, I have not actually read this book, although I would really like to.)

Yet as Unlocking the Secret of the Erev Rav posits, even that's not so simple because the Erev Rav soul-sparks seem to be mixed up within the souls of Yisrael.

So it's best to just use the most powerful weapon we have: heartfelt prayer.
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The Merit-Filled Daughter of Tzaddikim versus Withering Grass

13/9/2016

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Over Shabbat Parshat Shoftim, I was getting all nervous and paranoid about something that had happened toward the end of that week. Strangely, going into Shabbat didn't do much to calm my fears. I could tell I was overreacting and that it was just my imagination going into overdrive, but I still had a very hard time letting go of the whole thing.
 
Finally, I forced myself to sit down and read the Haftarah.
 
(I can't manage to get to shul, so I just read it on my own.)
 
The very first verse (Yeshayah 51:12) knocked me between the eyes:

"I, I am He Who comforts you all. Who are you that you should be afraid of mortals who will die and of men who will be given over as grass?"
אָנֹכִי אָנֹכִי הוּא מְנַחֶמְכֶם מִי אַתְּ וַתִּירְאִי מֵאֱנוֹשׁ יָמוּת וּמִבֶּן אָדָם חָצִיר יִנָּתֵן 
PictureThe REAL you--Full of mitzvot like a pomegranate

[Note: The Malbim defines this specific type of grass (chatzir) as a type of grass that withers and dries up before its time.]
 
In part, it was the sudden switch to feminine form (Mi aht?) that hit me so hard, as if Hashem was sending a personal message.
 

Rashi and Metzudat David both interpret it as saying:
"Who are you? A daughter of tzaddikim, full of merits! Why do you fear a mortal whose end is to die?"
 
Why, indeed?

Not only did I find the verse immediately soothing, but the messages implied were also encouraging and can set you straight if you've veered off.
 
First of all, Rashi and Metzudat David teach us that when someone has lost their emuna to a certain extent and is crying out or otherwise behaving in a fearful or desperate manner, the proper reaction is to build them up--remind them who they are.
 
  • "Hey, you're not some bum off the street, remember--you're the child of tzaddikim! You're inherently special. You're genetically programmed to be more than whatever you feel you are right now. That's right; you can't really do anything to nullify that specialness, regardless of how low you've sunk. It's just an innate part of who you are, no matter what."
 
  • "Also, aside from your lineage and genetics, you yourself are just brimming with zechuyot and all sorts of goodness!"
 
And once you've set things in their proper perspective, then you confront them with pure logic:
  • "Those other guys--the Erev Rav, the Esavniks, the missionaries, the jihadi Yishmaelim, and all the rest? They've got nothing over you. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. You've got the whole package. In fact, not only are they going to just drop dead at some point, but they'll also just dry up before their time. Yeah, they look like lush strong grass, but guess what? They're not. It's all an illusion. Just keep up your courage and bide your time, and you'll see."
____________________________________________________________________
PictureChatzir--Not so scary now, eh?
Interestingly, the Malbim's definition of chatzir implies a process. The chatzir doesn't just go from its peak lushness to dead grass within a moment. 
 
It dries up. (mityavesh--מתיבש—literally means "becomes dry")
 
It starts off all lush and green, but then it gradually yellows and looses its vitality—and it does so before its time.
 
(Sort of like Hillary Clinton is now.)
 
So courage, all you fabulous brothers and sisters—and don't let the baddies get you down.
 
You have the power—because you have Hashem.

Remember who you really are.
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FREE: Unlocking the Secret of the Erev Rav - Available NOW!

29/8/2016

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I just found out that Rivka Levy's newest book Unlocking the Secret of the Erev Rav is available for FREE download from Tuesday August 30 through Motzaei Shabbat September 3 (Pacific Time Zone, which lags 10 hours behind Israel time).
 
Even if you (like me) can't stand reading on the computer, this book is definitely worth your while. If you've followed Rivka's podcasts and posts on Emunaroma, you'll know that she has collected fascinating insights into who the Erev Rav are and what to do about it (including if you've discovered Erev Rav traits within yourself).
 
And no, this notice isn't done as a favor to her or anything like that. She has no idea this post is going up. I've just been following her Torah-based exploration of the subject for a while now, and she puts everything together in a way you can't find anywhere else.
 
Well-written, practical, fascinating, inspiring, and professionally designed for maximum readability, this book is one you don't want to miss!
 
Here's the link to the free ebook:
https://www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Secret-Erev-Rivka-Levy/dp/9657739128/ 
 
You can download a free app to read Kindle books on your mobile or desktop computer.
Click on the image under the image of the book on Amazon to download the app.
_____________________________________________________________________
P.S. To convert a Kindle book to PDF, go to this site:
http://www.epubconverter.com/kindle-to-pdf-converter/ 
You press the "Add File" button and then go through your files until you get to the Kindle book you downloaded. This works for 90% of Amazon ebooks (i.e., the ones that don't have DRM).
To locate your downloaded ebook on your computer, look for a folder called My Kindle Content, and then look for a .azw file downloaded that day. (The ebooks aren't listed by title, but by a jumble of letters or numbers, so you can't know exactly which book you're converting. But go by the date you downloaded the book and you should be fine.)
 
Hatzlacha rabbah!
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The Kli Yakar - Parshat Balak (Or, How History is Still Repeating Itself)

14/7/2016

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  • Why did Moav fear the Erev Rav, yet was disgusted with Bnei Yisrael?
  • And how does Moav's response reflect the world response today? (Hint: Nothing's changed)
 ב וַיַּרְא בָּלָק בֶּן צִפּוֹר אֵת כָּל אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה יִשְׂרָאֵל לָאֱמֹרִי
ג וַיָּגָר מוֹאָב מִפְּנֵי הָעָם מְאֹד כִּי רַב הוּא וַיָּקָץ מוֹאָב מִפְּנֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
Balak the son of Tzipor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. Moav became terrified of the people [Am] for it was massive, and Moav became disgusted because of Bnei Yisrael.  (22:2-3)
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The Kli Yakar notes that the Moavites differentiated between the Erev Rav [the Am] and Bnei Yisrael. Apparently at that time, the Erev Rav had not assimilated enough into the Jewish people, so clear physical differences still existed between the two groups (i.e. the Erev Rav must have still looked obviously Egyptian, but likely dressed as Jews).
 
Why the Moavites Feared the Erev Rav
The Moavites feared the Erev Rav because of their sheer size. Quoting from the Mechilta, the Kli Yakar numbers the Erev Rav population at 1,200,000.
 
We see this kind of fear today in Western countries, who fear the massive influx of people from cultures very different than theirs who won't respect their values.
 
And to digress a bit, it seems both are justified.
While the Erev Rav damages the Jewish people more than any other, they certainly also do great harm to non-Jews--including to themselves, both practically and spiritually.  And just like the Moavites, the Western solution focuses on externals rather than internals, which ultimately will not help them.
 
Why the Moavites Feared Bnei Yisrael

The Moavite fear of Bnei Yisrael was Hashem's backing of Bnei Yisrael. The Hebrew word [v'yakatz] translated as "disgusted" comes from the word kotz [thorn]. The Kli Yakar notes how Bnei Yisrael is likened to the gefen, the grapevine in Tehillim 80:9:
You uprooted a vine from Egypt; You drove out nations and planted it.


The Moavites feared Bnei Yisrael's God-given ability to uproot themselves from Mitzrayim and come to their Homeland and drive out the nations there, casting them (including the Moavites) out by the root.
 
As the Kli Yakar describes:
As is customary throughout the world, when the owner of the field wants to plant a vineyard in a field full of thorns, he then uproots the thorns by the root and casts them aside in order to plant in their place the grapevine.
PictureA vineyard. Don't mess with the Owner.
Exactly.
 
And who is "the Owner of the field"? And why are they messing with Him, especially in Moav's case, when they saw what He did with the Jews and Mitzrayim?
 
This is the mistake that foreign nations make repeatedly throughout history.
 
They see that the Jews have a special koach. And there are many of them who realize that this koach comes from Hashem. So why do they fight it?

How the World is Repeating Moav's Mistake
The following point has been hammered so many times already, but it bears repeating:
 
How was a decimated nation fresh from years in death camps--or weakened by years of poverty, disease, and persecution in their own Land--able to drive out the British Empire?
How was such a people able to revive their ancient language (and even their original currency?!) and bring forth the agricultural potential of a Land that had lain desolate for millennia under every kind of occupation?
How was it that within fifty years, this nation was able to make itself the hub of the world in the spiritual, medical, technological, and environmental arenas?

Throughout history, many of our enemies have believed in God and even held at least partly with the Torah.
 
Both the Christian bible and the Koran acknowledge the Jewish ownership of Eretz Yisrael and especially of Yerushalayim. And even secular non-Jews often proclaim the Torah as "a great history book!"
 
Yet the Christians and Muslims continue to make their assault on Yerushalayim.

And those same "great history book!" chanters choose to ignore the basic text that clearly shows the Land as belonging to us. 
 
The secular world and the Muslims fight us literally.
 
The Christian world tries to undermine us at the spiritual level via missionizing and replacement theology--though both warped ideologies end up uprooting the very attribute which provides us with our blessing and our right to be in this Land in the first place.
 
What the Moavites should have done and what the other groups should do now is:
 
Step aside.
 
Or support us--according to the Torah definition of support.
 
That way, nobody gets hurt--not them and not us.
On the contrary, such yielding and support brings blessing all around.
 
But it's not going down that way.
 
Yet the Kli Yakar reassures with the idea that Torah sources have always reassured us:
 
This field has an Owner.

Eventually, the grapevine will be planted in its Land.
 
And the thorns will be uprooted and cast away.
 
May we all make choices that cast our lot with the grapevine and not with the thorns.
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Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Luntschitz (1550-1619) lived in Bohemia (which is today Poland and Czechoslovakia).
He served as rabbi and dayan and wrote several books, the most well-known being his commentary on the Chumash known as the Kli Yakar.
This is my own translation and any errors are also mine.  
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How to Avoid Being a Victim of Mind Control

22/6/2016

6 Comments

 
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Note: Some people prefer a beefy topic presented in several short posts split up into multiple parts. And some prefer one long post that is sectioned up for comfortable reading. I don't know the majority preference, so I just organized this long post with lots of headings, bullets, pictures, and section dividers for easier reading. I hope it works for you.

The Importance of Identifying Signs of Mind Control

Is this just another oogey-boogey article on the evils of modern society with no real solutions and no actual result other than to scare or depress people? (Nope!)
 
Awareness helps protect you from falling under mind control and can help you get out of it (by connecting directly to Hashem in your own Divinely imbued unique way).
 
  • We've all see frum people who connect to a frum lifestyle as a cult and not as the beautiful spiritual system that it is—a system which enables you to fulfill the mission Hashem put you here for in the first place.
       (Maybe you've even done it yourself—I know I did at one point.)
  •  The unwavering adherence to obviously irrational, unproven, inconsistent, or just plain wrong beliefs within general Western society can only be the result of mind control.
  • The attraction to avodah zara systems like yoga by otherwise sincere and intelligent frum people or Buddhism by secular Jews indicates the influence of mind control (i.e., people leaving one mind-control system for another).
  • Even positive behaviors, like healthy eating, are often done in a mind-control way as discussed by Rivka Levy here. (But she doesn't use the term mind control; that's my interpretation.)
  • For comparison, the Kli Yakar discusses here about how to give the benefit of the doubt in an authentically Torah way and not the sometimes harmful manner encouraged by frum American idealists.
  • Hava haAharona gives several examples here of individuals searching for an identity in a way that clearly shows people chafing under mind control, but who merely choose another cult to join instead of liberating their minds completely.

When you realize that someone is under mind control, it is easier to relate to them with the necessary combination of compassion, self-protection, and objectivity.
 
It is also a hopeful outlook because you can see how the real person underneath is good and full of wonderful potential, and able to express their true self if they could just free themselves from "the cult"—an outlook which is lacking when you just see someone as mentally ill or Erev Rav or personality disordered or dysfunctional or addicted or bad, etc.

But now for the main question:
Why do so many people—even frum people—behave as if under mind control? 

|You can’t resist (or heal from) what you don’t see.
  • Even among frum communities, you see people getting sucked in by certain aspects of mind control from their surrounding Galut society. Because they are immersed in that society and presented a form of Yiddishkeit based on that society, it's hard to see what's "behind the curtain," so to speak.
  • The other issue is that people who grew up in secular Western society are used to mind control; it feels “right.” And this applies in particular to baalei teshuvah, converts, and bnai Noach, no offense.
       (And since I am not frum from birth, this applies to me as much as it does to you.)

Studies show that people who leave a situation of mind control (whether it be a cult or an abusive relationship or a dysfunctional family) are vulnerable toward falling into another situation of mind control (sources at end of post):
 
  • A person leaving a cult is more likely to end up in an abusive relationship or workplace.
  • A person from a dysfunctional family or after a recent break-up from an abusive relationship is more susceptible to the advances of a cult.
  • Due to having spent an entire life under mind control within Western society (and perhaps within a religious cult), baalei teshuvah, converts, and bnai Noach are very much at risk of choosing an emotionally unhealthy rav or rebbetzin.
        And they often do.

Most people need to learn to relate to God—and if you're Jewish, also to Judaism—in an authentically Jewish way and not in a way based on Western mind control.
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Just as one example:
When Tova Mordechai (To Play with Fire: One Woman's Remarkable Odyssey) describes her move from Raymond Webster's cult to Torah Judaism, this wonderful Jewish woman unconsciously took the cult-instilled habits with her: denying her own needs, pleasing others at all costs, and operating at full-speed all the time.
 
As she herself says:
"I was still running on Raymond Webster's gas." (pg. 429)
Her inner fuel and compass were still being run by the cult from her former life. 

Even the cult's value system unintentionally infiltrated her Jewish values at first.
"I had no idea that having a baby was what God wanted from me....I was ignorant and heavily brainwashed. This was not Raymond Webster's vision. Children were a hindrance to God's call on a person's life. They took up time, energy, and resources and did not give in return. And so, about two weeks after giving birth to our first child, I was back at work....it was simply because I needed to work in order to be acceptable before God." (pg. 424)
This explains why many mind-control systems discourage child-bearing. Communism (after its initial stage), modern Western society, certain aspects of Christianity, Far Eastern religions, etc., all consider parenthood as either a lower form of spiritual service (lower than abstinence) and as something that should be limited in order to better serve their society.  

Later, when she becomes overwhelmed and enraged from the lack of vitality which had been drained by the cult, the grueling transformation from a Christian hyper-zombie to a fully Orthodox Jew, and then the cultural adjustment to Israeli life along with the normal adjustments to marriage and becoming a mother, Tova says:
"I was deeply exhausted: body, soul and mind....I should have spoken up. I should have discussed the situation with my husband. I could have done many things, but I was too well-trained by Raymond Webster. Mine was just to do or die." (pg. 429)
|It’s much easier to judge others favorably and intelligently when you realize you are basically dealing with a victim of some form mind control.
For a long time, I researched personality disorders, mental illness, spiritual disorders (Erev Rav, etc.) etc. in search of the following things:
  • an understanding of what was going around me and also behaviors or hashkafot I myself had gotten sucked into, even though they went against what I knew to be right.
  • something in modern English terms that describes what Chazal has already noted.

Personality disorders or mental illness or bad middot or Erev Rav, for example, did not fully explain what I was seeing. For example:
  • good, intelligent people making consistently bad decisions
  • decent people with sincere intentions deteriorating into dysfunctional states.
  • people who were sincerely struggling and desperately seemed to want help, who also who demonstrated "windows of sanity” (so to speak) and compassion and self-awareness, and couldn't be written off as personality disordered, “just” bipolar, schizophrenic, Erev Rav, addicted, etc. 
  • my own experience of being exploited or manipulated or treated as hopeless or worthless by "rabbis" or "rebbetzins"—and seeing others go through the same thing 

The above really don’t line up with personality disorders or mental illness or Erev Rav, even though such people may otherwise fit most of the checklist temporarily while they remain in a state of mind control.
 
Also, personality disorders are basically impossible to cure. They are people to whom you really can't give the benefit of the doubt as their intentions are always, well, narcissistic (particularly malignant narcissists who know what they are doing).
 
Labels like "personality disorder" or "mentally ill" or "Erev rav" or "nebbuch" ("Just feel sorry for them!") or "addict" also didn’t fit as I saw some seemingly personality disordered people come out of it and even develop into special spiritual people—without therapy, I might add.
 
Furthermore, there was definitely a logic to people's dysfunctional reactions—which again, is much more characteristic of how people respond while oppressed in a cult.
 
|You can deal with people (including doing teshuvah on yourself) more effectively when you relate to them as a victim of some form mind control. 
  • Following mainstream halacha and classic mussar not only prevents mind control, but actually rescues people from a state of mind control. But only by really following it, and not just doing only whatever your community or group gives lip service to or emphasizes.
  • Much of the halachic and mussar literature regarding practical action and one's attitude toward people behaving dysfunctionally (ie. committing transgressions) is excellent guidance on how to deal with someone in a cult or under mind control. 
  • The real person in all their God-given glory is still there underneath the mind control and CAN be accessed, but it takes patience and prayer.
 
|Yes, there ARE Erev Rav, Narcissists, Sociopaths, Mental Illnesses, Addicts, etc. However....
But when I really looked into things, I was seeing very little of what could really be defined that way; such behavior seemed mostly characteristic of mind control—even people who behave in a consistently dysfunctional manner often do so in a way that is similar one under mind control, and not as a classic Narcissist, sociopath, manic-depressive, Erev Rav, addict, etc.

There is no doubt in my mind that Western society has become one big cult.
 
This post will focus on America because:
  1. Being an American, I know the more about it than I do about, say, England or Australia.
  2. American society and culture is so well-known.
  3. Via the entertainment industry in all its forms (books, movies, TV, etc.), America has managed to spread its new cultural mores throughout the world more than any other culture.

And American-style mind control is also evident in all other Western cultures, including Israel (although Israel’s religious population gives some pushback).

Before this post goes into an examination of Western mind control, let’s skip to a glimpse of what it’s like to leave a cult.
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WHAT IS IT LIKE TO LEAVE A CULT?
Psychotherapist Jim Moyers says:
“Ex-believers may feel doubly misunderstood and isolated. Family and friends who remain in the group, even when not overtly rejecting a former member, are likely to have limited tolerance for the views of someone who has repudiated beliefs that they continue to hold sacred.”
 
This very much describes the situation of many baalei teshuvah, converts, and bnai Noach. In fact, regular people who make only one change after becoming fully informed, such as switching from a pro-abortion position to a pro-life position, experience this.

“Authoritarian groups undermine trust in one’s own judgment, and the former member may have a great deal of difficulty in knowing how to regard his/her experience of reality when it is no longer defined and regulated by the group’s teachings. Many feel a sense of despair in being unable to recapture the certainty that came with unquestioning faith in ‘sure and certain’ dogma.”
 
And so, the desperation of many baalei teshuvah to cling to a rav and/or rebbetzin for advice and non-halachic guidance.
(Note: People, especially the newly frum, need basic halachic guidance. But advice-based non-halachic guidance? That is a very tricky and complex minefield.)

“Having been well-trained in meeting demands that s/he conform to group expectations, the former believer may be very adept at unconsciously meeting the perceived expectations of others.”
 
This is where the danger lies.
 
While emuna-based observance of Torah is NOT like that, it is easy to run into people who relate to Judaism in a cult-like fashion and innocently encourage others to do the same.

Remember: Most cult members are recruited by fellow victims who sincerely believe that they are enlightened—and not brainwashed—and that their cult’s doctrine is The Right Way.
 
Unfortunately, well-meaning kiruv programs and chinuch classes can unintentionally adapt some mind control techniques (without actually fulfilling all cult criteria) in the misguided assumption that this is desired or permitted by halacha. It doesn’t make them an actual cult, but it can lead to effects similar to that of cults, especially on vulnerable people.
 
Yet anyone who makes a sincere and continuous effort to connect with Hashem via speaking to Hashem, making a self-accounting via honest self-introspection, and adherence to halacha will not fall prey to mind control tactics AND if already under mind control, such a person will be able to free him or herself from the mind control.

As you read through this post (organized according to the BITE model), you may notice that cultist mind control is also the same dynamic you’ve seen in abusive relationships, dysfunctional families, personality disorders, and toxic work environments.

Yes, it’s all basically the same.

For example, a cult forces sleep deprivation upon its adherents.

And toxic work environments and abusive spouses do the same.
 
The withdrawal and recovery are also basically the same process.
 
So what are facets of mind control used by cults? 

BEHAVIORAL CONTROL

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To at least some degree, cults control what people eat, watch, spend their money on, what they wear, think, and so forth.
 
|Food
It is very hard to keep genetically modified corn products, hormones, sugar, chemicals, fluoride, and food additives out of your diet. VERY hard. It’s almost impossible. This is despite clear evidence that some of the above is actually harmful and indicative evidence that the rest of it might be harmful to both your physical health and your mental health.
 
|TV and Movies
TV programming and movies are always based on secular liberal, Leftist values.
Always.
Even the occasional piece which seems to present a conservative ideal will still be surrounded by lots of secular Leftist propaganda.
For example, the rare anti-abortion theme will still have a pro-same-gender marriage theme and pro-premarital intimacy theme.
Or a pro-belief-in-God piece will be soaked with rampant violence or licentious behavior.
 
I remember a very popular TV show in which not wanting to drink chocolate milk from a straw covered with the saliva of a boy diagnosed with AIDS was presented as the callous act of an ignorant fraidy cat.
Yet what is wrong with wanting to take extra precautions against a disease that is incurable and 100% fatal? No way! the episode implied. That’s mean!
 
|Books, Newspapers, and Magazines
The same is true of books.
 
And while I have obviously not read every single book published in my lifetime (the Seventies until now), I can say that I have never read a mainstream best seller in any genre that was anti-same-gender marriage or pro-life or anti-premarital intimacy, etc.

Have you?

For example, if atheists are mentioned, it is always in a neutral or positive way. Atheists are never presented the way that say, religious Christians are often presented (i.e. hypocritical buffoons or abusive manipulators in a way that connects to their belief system).
__________________________________________________
In fact, same-gender relationships are the big thing right now.

Even sites and organizations dedicated to children’s literature discuss the importance of writing characters with same-gender parents, pushing books with titles like Lisa has Two Daddies.

Editors and literary agents actively seek such books and the Wix website-builder has a photo of two twentysomething women for their Wedding site template with the blurb: “Zoe and Amelia are getting married!”

Or on their template for wedding invitations, the header “Keith and Aaron” floats above the heads of two geeky-looking guys in tuxedos.

Twitter’s welcome slideshow features one male soccer player cuddling his head against another male soccer player and kissing his cheek. Because, of course, male sports pros tend to be so cuddly and nurturing. It must be all that testosterone!
 
There is an obvious agenda to make same-gender marriage and LGBT families the norm, even though statistics just don’t support that. (If under 3.5% of the population is attracted to its own gender, how many families or weddings do you think they produce? How many children really grow up with two LGBT parents?)
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On the other hand, statistics show that unwed motherhood is extremely common.

(This is despite the fact that while divorce may not be avoidable, unwed motherhood is almost always preventable.)

Really, based on statistical need alone, children’s book publishers should focus on flooding the market with books like, Oliver has One Mommy along with Sporadic Men who Temporarily Come to Live with Mommy or Isabella has One Mommy and Only God Knows Who Her Daddy Is.
 
All joking aside, between divorced parents and unwed parents, many children are not living with both parents and may even have no father-figure at all in their lives. Children's literature only reflects this to a slight extent, and this topic not pursued by publishers nearly as much as LGBT subjects are.

In fact, there are so many other issues that are so much more common for children than LGBT parents: eating disorders, ADHD, taking meds, family members with mental illness or personality disorders, domestic violence, relationship violence, cyberbullying, bullying in general....
 
So why the huge focus on this 3.5% (or less)?
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Or how about newspaper headlines that describe a terror attack as “Israeli gunman shoots Palestinian driver”—remember that one?

I could go on and on, but you probably have your own examples.

|Fashion
Styles come and go and you know what’s in style just by looking at what the masses are wearing. And even people who rebel against the mainstream styles end up conforming to the set styles of the “rebel” group (like Punk and Goth and “grunge”). Depending on your social group, not conforming enough to the latest style can label you as “tacky” “out of it” “a loser” “a throwback” and so on. And that’s not to mention the sarcastic comments and questions thrown your way, either to your face or via Twitter.
 
For around 40 years now, Western fashion has been used to objectify people’s bodies while telling them they are liberating them. Such fashion pressures people—particularly women—to dress in ways which are time-consuming, physically uncomfortable—even painful, emotionally uncomfortable, and demeaning.
 
Some frum communities have been successful in sheltering themselves against the influence of modern styles, but most do imitate the styles to some degree, even if those styles are clearly halachically forbidden.

|Speech
The accent which developed in California’s San Fernando Valley in the Eighties (and became known as “the Valley Girl accent”) has become the de-facto style of speech for most Americans under the age of 50. It is one of the least intelligent-sounding ways of speaking, partly because the voice goes up at the end (including the end of a phrase, and not just the end of a sentence), which makes it sound like the speaker is in a constant state of uncertainty.
 
For example:
“Well, my personal feel-ing? is that a fetus at 8 weeks is just a clump of tis-sue? And you pointing out that, like, it has a heartbeat? And elbows? And a nose that can be seen in an ultrasound? just makes me feel bad? And I just think that you are….like…sooo—well, I don’t know, but that you hold such a crazy opinion? is very disturbing for me personally.”
Its higher pitch also gives it a more feminine inflection, making men sound particularly silly when they speak this way.

|Rewards & Punishments Used to Modify Behavior
Social media has been a powerful tool in this.

I think we all know by now that the label “racist” can end someone’s career, even if they aren’t racist and never said anything racist.

Just disagreeing with any of Obama’s policies is considered racist.
 
Speaking from personal experience, you cannot express (with even the greatest amount of grace and understanding) any opinion that diverges in any way with the standard liberal Western opinion—unless you are willing to suffer scorn, mockery, hostility, and hatred, either passive-aggressively or outright.
 
You must remain silent in the face of all their irrational and immoral comments—or suffer the consequences.
 
And that is just in interpersonal relationships on the individual level, let alone the widespread harassment prominent figures undergo if they dare cross the PC Line.
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On the other hand, if you parrot their garbage, you are considered “intelligent” and “open-minded” and “educated.”
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INFORMATION CONTROL

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Until the advent of the Internet, there was no way for the average person to get enough information to cultivate an informed opinion about any given issue.
 
Yet even now, the mainstream media maintains a chokehold on what they want you to know and what they don’t want you to know.
 
  • With the Obama candidacy, it was blatantly obvious that every news network and every mainstream newspaper desperately wanted Obama in the White House.
  • As blatant as their adoration of Obama was, the media's support of Hillary Clinton is even more appalling. She actually has a well-documented, extremely public, and ugly record that shows her to be a sociopath at worst and a malignant narcissist at best. Yet mainstream media consistently portrays her in the best possible light.
  • Rationally speaking, the fact that either side of the political aisle supports either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, despite the obvious hypocrisy and lying they both consistently engage in, shows how low (and braindead) America has sunk.
  • Generally, interviews and talk shows cherry-pick their guests, then manipulate their discussions and edit their tapes to show Left-leaning views in the best light and Right-leaning views in the worst light.
  • The mainstream coverage of Israel is appalling as endless examples show.

|Lies
They outright lie.
 
One of the most famous lies in recent history is the “Hands up, don’t shoot” lie and the rose-tinted characterization of violent thug Mike Brown, who was thankfully shot to death by a skilled police officer before Mikey could victimize anymore innocent people.
 
They directly lie and misrepresent anything about Israel and often do the same regarding frum Jews.
 
Here are more lies:
  • “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor."
  • "If you like your health plan, you’ll be able to keep your health plan.”
  • “Obama has been the best American president for Israel.”
  • "Employment is up!"
  • "The economy is up!"

|No Forgiveness or Tikkun
  • People’s pasts (or past tweets and emails) are dug up and scrutinized.
  • You aren’t allowed to change.
  • The ugly side of yourself that peeped out during a traumatic incident or while caught up in the immaturity of childhood or adolescence is considered the real you, never to be forgotten.
  • As a white person, you must always be compensating black people for the slavery that ended 151 years ago. Even if no one in your family was ever a slave owner. Even if the black person never had ancestors who were slaves or if they did, they were slaves to other black people or owned slaves themselves (as many black people did back then and in Africa today, still do). 
 
You can never be sorry enough and can never stop atoning for your “sin,” no matter how much you’ve actually changed and what you’ve done to rectify things.
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Thought Control

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The group’s doctrine is truth.

They advocate their own “sacred science.” One of the most obvious and murderous examples of this was eugenics during the Nazi Era.
 
But pseudo-science flourishes in American culture, too.
 
|Sacred Science
The group’s beliefs are the ultimate unquestionable truth, despite clear scientific evidence to the contrary:
 
  • Throughout its first trimester, an unborn baby is “just a clump of tissue,” despite widely available photographs and scientific evidence to the contrary.
  • Global warming is happening right now, is manmade, is a threat, is stoppable, and is reversible.
  • Same-gender attraction is genetically predetermined, and never influenced by one’s environment, and it's also completely irreversible.
  • Mental states like depression, bi-polar disorder, personality disorders, paranoia, and ADD/HD are "just" issues of body chemistry and/or genetic predisposition in which environment, nutrition, upbringing, and traumatic experiences have very little or no influence.
  • All white males possess something called “privilege,” which they must constantly “check” without fail.
  • Hamas is just a group of freedom-fighting idealists.
  • Muslims worldwide either tolerate, support, or actively engage in things like suicide bombings, child “marriage,” genocide, “honor” killings, FGM, domestic violence, the conquering of better nations, hand-amputations for thieves, slavery, Jew-hatred, oppressive fascist regimes, and the like only because they have not received enough compassion, understanding, and education.
  •  If you give the above Muslims compassion, understanding, and education, they will immediately realize the wrong of their ways and become just like you—whoever “you” are.
  • Hillary Clinton is “pro-woman” and cares about anyone other than herself.
  • Donald Trump is pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, and a religious man.
  • Socialism is the answer to society’s ills and a great equalizer.
  • Children don’t need fathers.
  • A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.
  • Women are only good for one thing.
 
|Buzzwords
This is a little bit trickier to define because every society, profession, and culture naturally has its own jargon. But there is a difference between using jargon for convenience (like saying “ICU” instead of “intensive care unit” or “DA” instead of “district attorney”) or because it expresses your thoughts more clearly and accurately than any other term possibly could (like saying “davka” or “stam” or “geshmak” or "gevaldig").
On the other hand, buzzwords whitewash something bad or demonize something good or neutral.
In short, buzzwords are often created with ulterior motives in mind. 
Here are some examples of buzz words:
  • Baby-daddy
  • Carbon footprint
  • The n-word
  • Transgendered male
  • Undocumented immigrants
  • Micro-aggressions
  • Safe spaces
  • Diversity
  • The war on women
  • Islamophobe
 
Just as an example of how buzzwords work:
“Diversity” technically means “diverse.”
But colloquially, it refers to culture or race (and sometimes to gender or orientation), and not political stance or intellectual opinion or anything else. And it doesn’t mean “diverse” at all since any Liberal who demands diversity only intends to expand the non-white population of a particular campus, company, or city.
For example, no one is anxious about the dearth of straight white males majoring in Women’s Studies.

|Black-and-White Thinking and One Sacred Version of Reality
Similar to sacred science, here are examples of “sacred reality” and black-and-white thinking:
  • Only white people can be racists
  • Anyone who dislikes Obama’s policies, values, or taste in ties is a racist.
  • Claiming that a statistic deemed racist is, in fact, not racist is actually a sign of racism.
  • Any man who finds it difficult to take seriously or to concentrate around a professional woman dressed like a particularly risqué cocktail waitress when all her male colleagues are dressed in 2-piece suits and neck-strangling ties with shirts buttoned up to their chin (even if their neck is too short to carry it off elegantly, making them look like Mr. Potatohead) is a weak-minded pervert and a misogynist who needs to “just get over it” and “get with the times.”
  • Any woman who feels the same as the man in the above example is just being “catty” because she is just “so jealous.”
  • Not believing in evolution is exactly the same as not believing in math. 

|Encouraging only “Proper” Ideas and Positive Thoughts
  • Girls are permitted (or even obligated) to profess a desire to be a member of a certified and paid profession like: nannies, neonatal nurses or doctors, preschool teachers, chefs, hotel housekeeping supervisors, or to earn a degree in Early Childhood Education when they grow up. Yet they may NEVER NEVER EVER declare being a wife and mother as their main career goal. NEVER. That is bad. Such a girl is considered to suffer from a warped and poor self-image, and she probably needs therapy. Only official careers are acceptable goals.
  • From sixth grade and onward, it is okay to engage in physical intimacy of any kind with anyone of any age (even if there is a significant age difference that may indicate exploitation, like a 14-year-old girl with a 22-year-old guy) and with an unlimited number of partners—as long as birth control is used. If either partner is particularly free with themselves or they only just met, then the birth control should be of the kind that lessens the spread of unsavory diseases.
        This is called “being responsible.”
  • However, if anyone under the age of 25 indicates a desire to do something that actually signifies and facilitates genuinely responsible and mature behavior, such as the desire to enter into a monogamous lifelong relationship with only one person (i.e. “marriage”), then that desire is considered irresponsible, rash, and a cause for panic. People who actually want to get married before the age of 25 likely have “issues” and need to examine why they are “in such a rush” to do something that has “permanent consequences” and is “so limiting.”
  • People who seem unhappy or emotionally sensitive (by whose definition?) likely suffer from a chemical imbalance that needs to be medicated.
  • Energetic children—particularly male children who display normal healthy male qualities and tendencies—likely suffer from a chemical imbalance that needs to be medicated.
  • On the other hand, people who seem too happy are kind of weird, too, and need to “calm down.” Medication is also good for that.
  • Positive thinking can enable you to “manifest” whatever you want.
 
|Thought-Stopping Techniques
Such techniques are another way to allow only the “right” kind of thoughts. These techniques include:
  • Denial (“The Marmara flotilla held only peace-loving pacifists; why did the Israelis send armed commandos?”)
  • Rationalization (“She was asking for it.”)
  • Justification (“It’s okay because he had a bad childhood” or "I had a bad day")
  • Wishful thinking (“If we relentlessly police people for ‘micro-aggressions,’ we’ll be able to stamp out racism completely!”)
  • Chanting (“Hope and change!” “Hands up, don’t shoot!” “Just think positive!” “We are the 99%!” “Europe is the cancer, Islam is the answer!” “Just say no!”)
  • Meditation, singing or humming (I had a friend who did consistently this whenever she felt someone was being too "intense" or "negative"—it was really annoying and disorienting), praying (I disagree with this, obviously. I guess it depends how and to Whom), etc.
 
Other thought-stopping techniques forbid rational analysis, critical thinking, or constructive criticism, and forbid questions critical of their leader, policy, or doctrine (“That’s racist!” "That's insensitive!").
 
  • Alternative belief systems are considered evil, illegitimate, or useless.
Think of how people who are pro-capitalism, pro-life, Republican, want excellent screening and high standards applied to potential immigrants, pro-traditional marriage, insist on a God-based view of science and the Universe, and pro-abstinence until marriage are marginalized, denigrated, and mocked.
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EMOTIONAL CONTROL

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There is some overlap with the other categories, but again, specific emotions or needs are deemed bad or wrong as cults seek to narrow the range of acceptable feelings.
 
For example:
  • The idea that a woman needs a husband, or that fathers are actually just as important as mothers in a child’s emotional and spiritual development is considered denigrating toward women and downright insulting toward single mothers.
  • Feeling remorse after an abortion is considered merely a normal albeit unnecessary part of the post-abortion phase. Society will insist that a post-abortion woman plagued with remorse or depression needs meds or therapy—NOT to help her to deal with and rectify what she did—but to simply overcome these feelings, which are actually normal reactions to doing an act that harms both yourself and others.
  • Feeling good about publicly humiliating someone—as long as your comment was truly witty and your target “deserved it”—is perfectly fine.
  • In many circles, wanting to stay home with your baby long-term and not wanting to leave the baby with a babysitter signifies unhealthy attachment.
  • Feeling uncomfortable around vulgar language means you are repressed and uptight.
|It’s Your Fault, Never the Group or Leader’s Fault
 
Poor employment, rampant immorality, increased mental illness, increasing violence, poor health, bad habits, addictions, failing schools….?
  • It has nothing to do with your surrounding culture.
  • It’s just you. (Or the influence of the enemy: the right-wing conservatives.)
  • After 8 years of Obama, America’s problems are still the fault of George Bush. That’s how bad Bush was; even a talented wunderkind like Obama still couldn’t fix things. Or stop them from getting worse. So if you voted for Bush....

|Instill Feelings of Guilt or Unworthiness
Cults want you to feel guilty about your identity, history, family, past, affiliations, and your behaviors. This keeps you dependent on them. Cult members and leaders toss out superficial platitudes (in particular, platitudes that may contain a grain of truth within their one-size-fits-all slop) in place of the kind of self-introspection that can lead to genuine self-discovery and self-transformation.
  • All white males must “check” their “privilege.”
  • You must constantly be on the lookout for racism within yourself.
  • You are from a dysfunctional family and were raised by toxic parents.
  • You are "manspreading." (Another buzzword!)
  • It’s what you’re eating, it’s allergies, it’s chemicals—food is your enemy.
  • If you've got a business—you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.
  • You need to feel ashamed of being wealthy or successful; it's not fair to others who aren't as lucky.
  • Your opinion is worth innately less than that of a college graduate or an individual with a higher degree or a degree from a more prestigious institution, regardless of your actual knowledge and experience. (Usually implied rather than stated outright.)
  • It’s your attitude—you’ve got a bad attitude.
       Or the wrong attitude—whatever that means.
  • You just don’t want it enough.
  • You unconsciously attract losers and kooks.
  • You just need to get over it/him/her/them/yourself.
  • You really need meds.
  • You're just being close-minded. Or intolerant.
  • It's your genetic predisposition.
 
Note: Maybe you are from a dysfunctional family or allergic to certain foods or are close-minded. But is that the only reason why things don't seem right? And can Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump or Prozac or college or socialism really fix those issues?
 
(And just for knowing: Genes can be activated or deactivated, depending on one's behavior.)

|Instill Fear
A very effective way of keeping people trapped in a cult and to keep them from even wanting to leave is to instill fear.

Disapproval, shaming, mocking, and character assassination are all weapons of the Left to maintain control. This is done at a national level through the media, of course, but it is also done at a personal level.

Like some of you, I have been personally mocked or sneered at when "liberal, open-minded" friends or family members discovered appalling things about me like:
  • I see that scientific research clearly indicates a Master Designer.
  • I don’t let my kids use the Internet.
  • I support Efrat, the Israeli pro-life organization that is genuinely pro-woman and does so much to support families long after the baby is born.
  • I have more than three children.

And in case you're wondering, I never went around on a soapbox proclaiming my views. It just came up nonchalantly in conversation at times when I forgot who I was talking to and that I am not “allowed” to express such views (or act in such a way).
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A Typical Example of Auto-Pilot Fear Instillation
Once, a successful secular Jewish female doctor asked me what I wanted to do when I graduated from high school.
 
I immediately felt very apprehensive because I knew my answer was not acceptable to people like her. But I felt even more uncomfortable about lying. So I tentatively said, “Um, well, I’m thinking about being a nurse, I guess.”
 
She recoiled as if I had said, “Um, well, I’m thinking about moving to a gingerbread house to become a cannibalistic witch, like the one in Hansel and Gretel.”
 
After she collected herself, she calmly said, “And why would you want to do that?”
 
“Um, well....I’d like to help people....ease suffering....well, actually, I don’t know for sure that I want to be a nurse. I just feel like it’s a caring profession and I’d like to work in a caring profession.”

Even to my own ears, my words—decent values in my own mind—sounded so nurturing, so feminine....which didn’t bother me at all, but I knew that it bothered other people. Like secular female Jewish doctors who grew up in the Fifties.
 
“So why don’t you be a doctor?” she asked with forced nonchalance.
 
Uh-oh. The dread and apprehension welled up within my teenage self once again. “Well,” I said, “the thing is....I’m not so good in math....”
 
Her jaw hardened and her shoulders stiffened. Steam started coming out of her nostrils. (Well, no, that didn’t happen. But it looked like it might.)
 
Yet I forced myself to continue because I really wanted her to understand that it wasn’t that I merely thought I couldn’t become a doctor due to being a brainwashed victim of wonky gender stereotypes, but that I genuinely couldn’t become a doctor.

“Um, I’m not so good at science, either....” I explained. “And I don’t really want to be in college for eight years.”
 
After a cold pause, she said, “I see.”

Can you imagine the same kind of conversation between two men?
 
Picture a successful male high school English teacher talking to a male teenager:
“What do you want to do when you graduate?”
 
“Well, I’d like to be a PE (physical education) teacher.”

“Oh, yeah? Huh. Why do you want to do that?”

“Well, I like to work with kids. And I’d like to foster good sportsmanship and other important values I feel you can teach kids through baseball.”

“So why don’t you become a high school English teacher?” (The implication being that important values can also be taught through analyzing English literature and class discussion. Plus, students hone important writing skills.)
 
Realizing that teaching baseball isn’t nearly as prestigious as teaching English literature, the teen boy answers, “Well, my verbal ability stinks and I’m not so good with language arts. And as a normal healthy boy misdiagnosed with ADHD, I really don’t want to spend my whole day cooped up in a classroom.”
 
“Yeah, I get that. Cool.” (Meaning, “I understand that teaching English is really not for everyone. It’s good that you’re planning for a career that suits your individual needs and plays your strengths.”)

Or maybe, if he’s a snarky fellow, the English teacher will make a snide comment about thick-headed jocks—but not because he feels the teen boy must break out of gender stereotypes, but because the English teacher was once a socially and athletically inept geek and enjoys the opportunity he now has to take potshots at the athletes he used to envy.
 
What's the difference?
With women, there is a gender-based agenda imposed on society.
 
Note: The female doctor above obviously intended to be helpful. She clearly thought that I was under some kind of mind-programming and genuinely wanted to help me out of it--just like cult members who want to "help" others by "enlightening" them and recruiting them to their cult's ideology. She wasn't thinking; she was making knee-jerk assumptions based on her own brainwashed notions. I experienced her response as disempowering and repressive, even though she clearly meant to empower and "liberate" me. But she couldn't respond appropriately due to living on the auto-pilot induced by mind control.
________________________________
|Confession
This was really common in the Eighties. You had people all over the place proclaiming they were an alcoholic, a pot addict, bulimic, anorexic, had been abused, etc. And this openness was considered something to aspire to. You were supposed to be completely open about all your faults and anything traumatic that had happened to you.

Then people realized this wasn’t so beneficial as they could not rid themselves of that initial impression of them as a recovering alcoholic and no more than that.

Yet today there are still vestiges of that. You are supposed to be really open about if you have a mental illness (well, not any mental illness—just the socially acceptable ones, like depression or an eating disorder, etc.) or ADD/HD or a learning disability or an addiction.
 
A lot of social media has a confession aspect to it as people post so many details of their lives and moods for everyone to see.
 
There are many, many more examples of the above aspects of mind control as you've likely thought of yourself.

THE BENEFITS OF MIND CONTROL

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There aren’t any real benefits to mind control cults.

But temporary comforts and assurances do exist, just like they do in any abusive relationship.

For example:
  • A cult can sporadically provide a warm, accepting atmosphere.
  • A feeling of togetherness and caring also exists in cults.
  • The methods they offer may actually work temporarily.
  • It can be a relief to know exactly what you need to do to earn approval
  • It can be comfortable or reassuring not have to think for yourself.
  • Staying feels safer than leaving.

For example, the cult of Communism provided people with fewer choices, which resulted in less stress during a decision-making process. They never suffered from “information-overload” (although they suffered from other things instead).
 
Russian immigrants who came to America initially had to deal with a “choice-overload,” even in very routine situations such as grocery shopping.

Furthermore, people from Communist countries initially miss the freebies to which they were used—like health care and schooling—even if the freebies were inferior in quality or quantity to non-freebies in a democratic country or came at a much higher emotional price.
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STRIVE TO LIVE ON EMUNA AND AVOID LIVING ON AUTO-PILOT

Again, it’s important to realize the signs of mind control in order to break its power.
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In the above example with the successful female doctor, she was responding to her own upbringing within in America's post-WWII mind control, in which women were supposed to wax their kitchen floor while wearing poofy skirts and pink heels. They were supposed to become nurses, teachers, or secretaries—but never doctors, lawyers, or CEOs.

(Although some women did, anyway, even before the feminist movement came along.)

Forced immersion (via the expanding entertainment media and educational system) in a post-WWII mind control culture made them susceptible to the later cult of feminism (among other forms of mind control), which actually has made things much worse for women (as I’ll explain in a future post), although most women are unable to see this due to the effects of auto-pilot-induced mind control.

In the frum world, many frum women either:
  • intone the benefits feminism brought (despite the fact that these benefits started before the official feminist movement and would've happened anyway without the official feminist movement, albeit possibly at a slower--and likely healthier--pace); this response is short-sighted, but does make a lot of sense on the surface. With a certain amount of discomfort, I used to hold this view myself until I became more educated.
OR
  • verbally disparage the feminist movement while simultaneously living up to a frum version of the feminist ideal; this hypocritical and bizarre response is obviously the result of poor self-awareness and "auto-pilot" mode.
______________________________________________________________________
Unfortunately, some frum communities unknowingly behave in accordance with mind control. Well-meaning community leaders or school principals can also unintentionally encourage a mind-control dynamic simply because they don’t know better.
 
It just feels right.

Note: In my experience, chinuch courses for parents are particularly susceptible to this. So when you, as a parent, are choosing a chinuch consultant or class, please be extra alert.

This also applies to those chinuch hotlines you can call.

|Signs of Mind Control that Affect the Frum Community
Within the frum community, the best way to avoid living on auto-pilot is to look at the attitude toward halacha and Torah hashkafah, both as evidenced by the community leaders and the community members—then make sure that you are not doing the following:
  • Are minhagim emphasized—even subtly—over mainstream halacha? Are Torah-true attitudes dismissed or ignored or even replaced?  (i.e. If the same attitude can be found in most Sagely writings regardless of culture or time period and despite limited exposure to other Sagely works, it is likely a Torah-true attitude.)
  • Can their opinions and methods be backed up by Torah sources?
  • If they do base their methods on a minority opinion, do they have solid mainstream opinions for allowing themselves to go according to the minority opinion?
  • Are they taking texts out of context and twisting things around to support their views?
  • Is what they do what Chazal actually intended? (i.e., When Chazal said that a kosher wife does the will of her husband, did they really mean that she must wear miniskirts and Vegas showgirl sheitels if that’s what her dear husband desires? Or that she most enslave herself to his whims if that's what he wants?) 
  • Are halachically forbidden social mores, behaviors, clothing styles, etc., rationalized to make them seem "okay"?
 
It doesn’t mean you go on the warpath against such individuals or groups (unless they are overtly and severely harmful) because such people are rarely acting with evil intentions (as is true of most cult adherents). In fact, they usually mean well. People often misunderstand a clear halachic directive due to their emotional blocks, and not out of a desire to manipulate or cause harm.

But even if they don't have good intentions, battling them directly usually awakens sympathy in others due to the Flying Monkey syndrome (again, see the Kli Yakar), which is also the result of mind control. 

And anyway, it is nearly impossible to wake them up until they start waking up themselves.
 
Davening is the best solution to helping others.
 
This is more of a clean-up-your-own-backyard-first issue.

You can't really know someone else's mission and their journey to get there.

Just as one example, there are Tribal tendencies and we do not know what Tribe we descend from. We know that Asher is occupied with the olive industry, Yissachar with Torah-learning, Levi with musical service to Hashem, Zevulun with sea-based mercantilism and supporting Yissachar, and so on.

Should, for example, Yissachar be imposing his Tribal tendency onto Asher?
Or vice-versa?

No, of course that's wrong.
______________________

|Freeing Yourself from Mind Control

  • Recite Pitum Haketoret daily. (See this article for more information on its power)
  • Recite Tehillim 15 (to destroy a demon), 80 (to be saved from worshiping false gods), 135 (to be saved from thoughts of avodah zara), and 5, 29, 40, 86, 91, 101 (all these protect against "ruach ra'ah"—an evil spirit) 
  • Talk to Hashem daily.
  • Do a regular self-accounting using genuine self-introspection.
  • Investigate what the halacha really says and really means.
  • Recognize that it's hard enough figuring out your own journey, let alone knowing exactly what others need to do (or how they need to do it).
  • Respond to all events with emuna as much as you can (i.e. look for the message in hardships while expressing gratitude for the good things).
  • Accept that you can't always have full knowledge or closure immediately, but that these things do come with time (although some issues will only receive full understanding in the World of Truth, and not in This World).
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When you close your mind to mind control,
you automatically open it to God.
 
And when you open your mind to God,
you automatically close it to mind control.

Resources

You are happily encouraged to do your own research.

Here are some sources to start off with:
http://www.carolgiambalvo.com/what-is-a-cult.html
This site is particularly valuable as she cites the differences between a healthy religious value system and a cult.
 
http://www.exitsupportnetwork.com/recovery/leave.htm
This describes the different reasons people a cult and the 10 stages of the withdrawal process. Based on my own experience and conversations with others, this process describes a lot of what baalei teshuvah, converts, and bnai Noach undergo when adapting a Torah-true outlook and lifestyle. This seems particularly true of gerim and bnai Noach who withdraw from Christianity.

Unfortunately, this list refers to Christian-based cults and considers Christianity as the ideal non-cult state. (Ha!) But I couldn’t find an unbiased list of stages. So as you read through the stages, you can just mentally replace “scripture” with “CNN” or “college class” or “Liberal.” And you can replace “church” with “political party.” And replace any reference to Christianity with “God” or “monotheism” or “Torah,” and you have something that describes the process of leaving Esav or Yishmael and embracing Torah Judaism.  
 
https://freedomofmind.com/Info/BITE/bitemodel.php
This post relied heavily on the structure of the BITE model, but didn’t include everything. So this is the BITE model in its entirety.
 
http://www.cultwatch.com/howcultswork.html
https://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/secul/landmark/forum.html
These are helpful because they also focus on secular cults (like a self-help cult), while most cult awareness articles focus on religious cults.
 
My disclaimer on the above sources is that anything they say that conflicts with halacha, I obviously do not support.  
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The Kli Yakar - Parshat Baha'alotcha

16/6/2016

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This Week's Topics:
  • Torah as Your Dictionary
  • How to Shorten the Galut (Hint: It is has to do with the Erev Rav.)
  • Why Did Moshe Rabbeinu Address Hashem as a Female? 
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First of all, here is a little bit of Torah vocabulary from the Kli Yakar in 10:29:
What is the difference between the words halicha/הליכה and nesiah/נסיעה ?

הליכה 
You journey forth in body only, but your mind is left behind.
As the Kli Yakar explains: "The term halicha falls upon the movement of the legs alone that transfer a person from place to place, but it's possible that even as he goes to another place, nonetheless, his mind is still connected to the place he went from."

נסיעה 
You transfer both your mind and your body from one place to another.
The Kli Yakar goes on to say: "But [regarding] the term nesiah, the transfer includes one's body and one's thought in every way."
 
So this is good to keep in mind when reading the Torah and understanding what is meant when each term is being used.
______________________________________________________________________
וַיִּסְעוּ מֵהַר יְ' דֶּרֶךְ שְׁלשֶׁת יָמִים וַאֲרוֹן בְּרִית יְ' נֹסֵעַ לִפְנֵיהֶם 
They traveled a distance of three days from the mountain of Hashem, and the Ark of Hashem's Covenant traveled three days before them.... (10:33)
Next, the Kli Yakar comments on how we sometimes turn our back on Hashem, giving Him the back of our stiff neck as we turn our face toward the adulation and approval we receive from "the Nation/ha'Am" - which is the code word for Erev Rav. Referring to the nun in this verse, he explains:
It is symbolic of the time when Yisrael backs away from the Aron Brit Hashem [Ark of Hashem's Covenant] and their faces are toward the Camp, meaning toward the Am, toward the love of the matters of This World, toward which those of the Camp are inclined. And in order to find favor in the eyes of the Camp, one turns the back of the neck to the Shechinah and turns every aim of his deeds toward being an important person in the camp or an agent or a prince over them. And this is the main sin among us, which causes the lengthiness of the Galut. For most of them do turn their face from the Aron Brit Hashem to the Camp until any skillfully [carried-out] deed from Torah and mitzvot is not done for its own sake, but instead to bring glory to they themselves before others, to find favor in their eyes.
And the guardians of the wall themselves are as if they are destroyers of the wall.
That last sentence rhymes in Aramaic:

V'neturei karta k'ilu hem hem charuvei karta.
 
ונטורי קרתא כאילו הם הם חרובי קרתא 
 
It means something to us nowadays for reasons that didn't even exist in the Kli Yakar's time, doesn't it?
Food for thought.... 
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וְאִם כָּכָה | אַתְּ עֹשֶׂה לִּי 
And if this is how You treat me.... (11:15)
Here, we have the famous verse in which Moshe Rabbeinu addresses Hashem in feminine form - meaning as if Hashem is female.
As is well-known, Rashi says this is because Moshe Rabbeinu's strength weakened when he heard what Hashem intended to do to His people, just like women are physically weaker than men.
But the Kli Yakar disagrees.
After all, he notes, it is Hashem being referred to as feminine, not Moshe Rabbeinu.
Mahari Abarbanel explains: "You make me as male caretaker who holds the nursing baby although he has no breasts with which to nurse the child when he cries. Likewise, it is not in my hands to fulfill Your request."

And regarding this, it says, " 'And if this is how You treat me' because this likeness of a female is found in You as it is in Your Hands to quench their thirst. And You guide a man, so how can You cast upon me the concept of a female when I am a male who has no breasts with which to nurse?' "

And this concept of [the feminine form of] "You" is directed Above and does not refer to a weakening of strength, God forbid, but it teaches about His Ability, which resembles that of a female who possesses breasts with which to nurse.
Basically, the Kli Yakar explains that Moshe Rabbeinu addresses Hashem as a Mother who possesses the innate capability to supply her children with unending nourishment, as is the general idea of nursing:
The supply goes according to the demands of the baby.

May we always merit to have both our bodies and our minds in the right place.
May we always merit to please Hashem over anyone else.
And may we always merit that Hashem supplies us with unending nourishment.
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Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Luntschitz (1550-1619) lived in Bohemia (which is today Poland and Czechoslovakia). He served as rabbi and dayan and wrote several books, the most well-known being his commentary on the Chumash known as the Kli Yakar.
This is my translation and any errors are also mine. 
The Hebrew and English verses were taken from this wonderful site:
The Complete Tanach at Chabad.org  
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The Kli Yakar - Ki Tisa

25/2/2016

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Believing in the Sinner's Sweet Potential

"Take for you spices...." (Shemot 30:34)

Most of us are familiar with the reason why chelbana (galbanum), a notoriously malodorous spice, is included in the Ketoret (Incense Offering): to teach us to include the sinners.

The Kli Yakar concurs, of course, emphasizing a statement from Kritot 6b, which says that we must fast for our sinners.

The Kli Yakar explains:
"If there are sinners of Yisrael among us, then anyway, we must fast for their sake because every Jew is responsible for one another."
Reading the entire commentary regarding this subject indicates that, upon learning of another Jew's spiritual failings, our job is to invest body and soul (fasting and prayer) toward that same Jew's teshuvah and spiritual elevation.

The Kli Yakar goes on to describe the great spiritual potential lying dormant in any Jewish sinner. Then he professes his belief in the ability of the sinner to repent, as represented by the chelbana.

After the person spiritually elevates himself through repentance, the Kli Yakar states:
"The transgression will also be elevated as a pleasing fragrance (rei'ach nicho'ach), like that of the mitzvot, as exemplified by the chelbana, which rose with a pleasing fragrance like the rest of the spices."
Just as the malodorous chelbana becomes a precious part of the Ketoret, its very nature changing from foul to sweet, so, too, a sinner can transform his or her nature from foul to sweet.

He concludes by saying that this particular section of the parsha symbolically alludes to fasting and teshuvah (repentance).
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Chelbana -- a lot prettier than it smells! (Photo courtesy of Goli Lo)

The Corrupt and Bizarre Mind of the Erev Rav

"The nation (ha'am) saw that Moshe tarried..." (32:1)

Before the Kli Yakar interprets the whole episode of the golden calf, he makes a declaration of intent:
"Therefore, for the honor of the entire House of Yisrael, I have seen fit to write in a brief way the main point as understood by the majority of the commentators. I have no intent other than to clarify the content of the matter, to publicize the purity of Yisrael...."
(Thanks for always sticking up for us, Kli Yakar!)
Then he proceeds to heap blame upon the Erev Rav, whom he portrays as engaging in bizarre and self-obsessed thinking.

  • Because Moshe Rabbeinu - rather than God Himself - insisted on their inclusion into the Jewish people, the Erev Rav feared that if Moshe wouldn't return, then God would just kick them out.
 
  • So in desperation, they decided to seek out another leader.

As irrational as that response was, they now get even stranger (and more corrupt).
 
According to the Kli Yakar, despite everything they had seen and heard, including the Ten Commandments, the Erev Rav believed that Moshe Rabbeinu's power derived from the "image of some kind of star" they were sure he possessed.

So they asked Aharon Hacohen to produce "some kind of image" that could serve as an intermediary between them and the stars (I guess the astrological constellations, specifically).

The Kli Yakar then references Sanhedrin 63, which describes the Erev Rav as "craving many gods," because they had no idea (and apparently didn't care) what kind of image would be chosen.

Aharon Hacohen agreed to this on the assumption that it would take a goldsmith a couple of days to hammer out an image and by that time Moshe Rabbeinu would certainly return (as he ultimately did). But via the occult powers of witches, the Erev Rav caused the calf to emerge on its own. (Aharon Hacohen had the best of intentions all this time, which the Kli Yakar and all other commentaries describe at length.)
PictureTHIS did all that?! Oh, sure. That makes perfect sense, Erev Rav. (Photo courtesy of Till Credner)
This calf satisfied their desire for "the image of some kind of star" because they saw the golden calf as representing the Taurus (bull) constellation. Despite everything that happened at Mount Sinai, the Parting of the Sea, the Exodus, and the 10 Plagues, and more, the Erev Rav still believed they were all brought out of Egypt by the power of Taurus.

(Riiiiiiight, Erev Rav....Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket....)

The Kli Yakar observes that the Erev Rav "could not uphold their emuna for even one or two days."

  • After describing at length the Erev Rav's history of and tendency toward corruption, the Kli Yakar quotes Hashem as saying to Moshe Rabbeinu about the Erev Rav:
"Leave Me be as I will no longer deal with them Myself." Hashem goes on to say that in place of Himself, so to speak, He will appoint two evil angels as emissaries named: Af (Anger) and Chamah (Seething Hatred).
[Note: The Malbim defines af as "expressed anger" and chamah as "hidden, raging anger accompanied by hatred and enmity."]

Yet Moshe pleaded on behalf of the Erev Rav, providing many reasons why Hashem should not carry out this intention.
 
So Hashem withdraws that plan and decides that it is for everyone's benefit for everyone (Jew and Erev Rav) to experience negative consequences a little at a time, rather than one colossal whack.
_________________

Innate Characteristics of the Erev Rav

From all this, it is possible to deduce some innate characteristics of the Erev Rav (and why they should be avoided at all costs):
  1. No matter how dedicated and self-sacrificing you are for them, they will still drop you like a hot potato at the first sign that you may no longer serve their self-interest.
  2. They are only interested in power, associating themselves with anything as long as it appears to be the biggest bully on the block.
  3. (See more in The Erev Rav Strategy: Following the Biggest Bully on the Block.)
  4. Even when genuinely inspired, their emuna is still mind-bogglingly short-lived.
  5. They can't quite grasp the concept of Hashem's Total Omnipotence and even the most obvious displays of Hashem's Mastery and Involvement will still have them frantically searching for "natural" causes, no matter how bizarre and unlikely.
  6. Hashem doesn't really like them so much.
  7. They are willing to use absolutely any means necessary to get what they want.
  8. Even when things are their fault to the point that God Himself lays the blame at their feet, you will still suffer the consequences for going along with them, so it's best to just stay within your own dalet amot as far as they are concerned.
  9. They are really manipulative and evil, yet kind of dumb and gullible at the same time.
  10. They are the biggest kvetches.

While we can't always know who is Erev Rav, if you see people displaying the above traits, it's best to avoid them. Even though a true-blue Jew can, under the influence of Erev Rav, behave just like Erev Rav, it's still best to keep your distance so as not to be influenced by them or to incite any Heavenly Judgement against the Jewish people.
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The Malbim (1809-1879) was Rabbi Meir Leibush ben Yechiel Michel who was born in Russia and served as a rabbi all over Eastern Europe. He was bitterly fought by the Reform Movement for most of his adult life, even suffering brief imprisonment over a false accusation in Rumania by wealthy German Reformers. Fortunately, he left us an amazing commentary on the entire Torah among other valuable works he composed. 
Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Luntschitz (1550-1619) lived in Bohemia (which is today Poland and Czechoslovakia). He served as rabbi and dayan and wrote several books, the most well-known being his commentary on the Chumash known as the Kli Yakar.
Although I did borrow a few terms here and there from Rabbi Elihu Levine's translation, this is primarily my own translation and any errors are also mine. 
For a wonderful rendering of the Kli Yakar into English, including helpful footnotes, please see Rabbi Elihu Levine's translation.
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The Kli Yakar - Parshat Beshalach

21/1/2016

1 Comment

 
This week's Kli Yakar expounds on:
  • the Erev Rav
  • the role of Jewish women at the Sea and with the manna
  • the woman’s role in the future
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The Essential Link between Desire and Emuna

“And it was one Pharoah sent out the nation….” (13:17)

“And Hashem took the nation around through the Wilderness, the Reed Sea, and Bnei Yisrael went up armed from the land of Egypt.” (13:18)
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The Kli Yakar does not interpret “armed” as bearing physical weapons.

He notes that Jewish wars are not dependent on the strength and quantity of weapons. After all, he says, it doesn’t exactly demonstrate Hashem’s Glory if they march out armed to the teeth (as the word chamush [armed] implies five weapons per man), as opposed to marching out courageously unarmed and relying solely on Hashem.

Furthermore, he notes that at that point, the Jews could not have been skilled at using weapons because they’d been overwhelmed with performing slave labor.

So the Kli Yakar concludes that chamushim [armed] alludes to the Torah, which is called the Chumash because it contains 5 books. (In Hebrew, the number five is chamesh.) And because chamushim is synonymous with mezuyanim (armed), the number seven also means something (due to its root, zayin, the 7th letter of the Alef-Bet). And because Tehillim 119:164 states: "Seven times each day have I praised You," the Kli Yakar concludes that the Jewish nation’s true weapons are Torah and prayer.

Thus, the Kli Yakar states:
Immediately upon wanting to go to the Midbar (Wilderness/Desert)—and they didn’t say, "How can we go to the Midbar, an unsown land?"—they acquired emuna. And with this first acquisition, they were considered as if they were rooted in it [emuna]. Therefore, it says, "And they went up armed (chamushim)"—meaning that at that time, when they went up from the land of Egypt to the Midbar. And their process of acquiring emuna was finalized at the Reed Sea."
Why was this act of desire, this act of "wanting" so powerful?

Well, in the above verses, the Torah uses the word Am, generally translated as "nation." But Am is also a metaphor for different groups of people and therefore contains different meanings. This post will discuss only two of those.

Meaning  #1 (which explains why the very act of wanting and then actually going meant so much for their acquirement of emuna): The Jewish people were not yet any different than the other nations. Practically speaking, they did not even have their own weapons or any way to defend themselves as normal nations do.
Spiritually speaking, they had not yet officially received the Torah and they did not have their unique status as God’s Chosen People, accompanied by their distinctive potential for the perfection unique to those who uphold the Torah’s commandments.

So on all levels, they were totally defenseless.

Yet they still followed Hashem out of Egypt.
Picture
The Sinai Desert
Meaning #2: The Erev Rav.
While the regular Jews would not return to Egypt under any circumstances, Hashem knew that the Erev Rav would run back the moment they faced battle. The circuitous route to the Promised Land was necessary solely because of them.
.…for Bnei Yisrael, this whole circuitous route was not necessary because Bnei Yisrael went up armed with weapons because they are believing sons, the sons of believers and people who trust in Hashem’s Salvation—and that is their weapon. And they would be trustworthy in war. But any decrease of trust (bitachon) comes from the Erev Rav….

The Erev Rav

“And the king of Egypt was told that the people (the Am) had escaped….” (14:5)
Here, Pharaoh’s use of Am refers to the Erev Rav again.

Now, contrary to popular belief, Pharaoh did not chase down the nascent Jewish nation with a huge army. According to the Kli Yakar, he didn’t have time to get all the equipment together from all over Egypt. Furthermore, after the 10 Plagues, there were hardly any animals left with which to equip an army. So he just took what there was from his nation’s capital and set out after the Jewish people.

Why was Pharaoh so confident about recapturing millions of people with such a small army?

Because he relied on the innate faithlessness and cowardice of the Erev Rav.

He was sure that the Erev Rav, upon realizing they were trapped between a wasteland, a sea, and the Egyptian army, would say, "Hashem has turned away from Yisrael" and want to come back to Egypt.
The Kli Yakar quotes Pharaoh as saying, 
"….it is certainly the will of the Erev Rav to return Egyptward, except that Yisrael doesn’t allow them to do so. And when they’ll see that we are coming to their aid (l’ezratam), they will rebel against Yisrael and will return to us…." ….And now, the heart of Pharaoh and his servants turned toward the Am [the Erev Rav] and his heart turned from hatred to love, as he said, "Now I need them because without a doubt, they will be a help for me when they see that Hashem has turned away from Yisrael."
(More about the origins of the hatred of the Egyptians for the Erev Rav can be found in Who were The Original Erev Rav?)

Of course, this holds several parallels with the Jewish situation today:
  • The fact that Pharaoh was so certain in his belief that Hashem had abandoned the Jewish people and that the Erev Rav would interpret the situation in that way, too.
  • The fact that Pharaoh saw his pursuit, accompanied by the intent to re-enslave them, as "coming to their aid"—or, in the words of Ronald Reagan: "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I’m from the government and I’m here to help!' "
  • And see how Pharaoh hated the Erev Rav, but in their moment of seeming helplessness, he suddenly loved them.
"Aw, look at that," you can imagine the Erev Rav saying. "Pharaoh loves us!"

How touching.

And don’t we see those in our nation today who hanker after the "love" of our enemies?
 
Today, our enemies rely on the disloyalty of the Erev Rav—and with good reason.

Despite claims to the contrary, Israel does not actually need the world’s approval as much as everyone claims. Israel is a nuclear power and one of the prime innovators in a variety of necessary fields: the USB flash drive, micro-irrigation, e-reader technology, weapons technology, intelligence, Intel technology, medical clowns, surgical techniques, and much, much more. While some wring their hands about the Swedes (or anyone else) boycotting our products, it would be so easy—and much more distressing—for Israel to boycott them or anyone else in the world.
(Or at least sell to them at wildly inflated prices.)

And we have seen many times how alleged Jews—even externally frum ones—are willing to not only abandon the Jewish people, but in the words of the Kli Yakar, actually rebel against them—just as Pharaoh expected the Erev Rav to do against Bnei Yisrael. Heartbreakingly, there are many present-day examples of this.

At the time of this writing, the assault on Amona is the only the most recent example.
________________________________

The Jewish Women at the Crossing of the Sea

“Then Moshe and Bnei Yisrael sang this song (shira) to Hashem….” (15:1)
This blog already discussed the Kli Yakar’s differentiation between the masculine shir (song) and the feminine shira (song) in relation to the suffering inherent in childbirth in Parshat V’zoht Habracha.

Basically, all the songs of This World are called shira because suffering continues even after people are done singing a joyous song.

But in our glorious future, we will all sing shir—because there will be no more suffering after the song is over.

Here, the Kli Yakar explains that not only do women suffer a lot from childbirth—while men don’t—but that a woman only inherits a tenth of her father’s estate "in This World"—while a man inherits it all.
In parallel, he writes, Yisrael currently "inherits" from Hashem the territory of only 10% of the nations in This World (7 out of a total of 70 nations).

Yet regarding our glorious future, Tehillim 33:3 says, “Sing to Him a new shir.”

Furthermore, the term used in this verse--yashir—actually means "will sing"—a hint at the Resurrection of the Dead, according to the Kli Yakar.

And then Yisrael will inherit everything, like men do now.
Because in the World to Come, everyone will be shed from the physical, and then males and females will be equal. 
The Kli Yakar sees yet another hint of this future in the Mechilta’s well-known statement: "A maidservant saw at the Sea what Yechezekel never saw" and Yirmeyahu 31:21: "A female tisovev a man."

This word lisovev (its infinitive form) seems open to different interpretations.

Literally, it clearly means "to encircle" or "to go around."

Rashi interprets it as "will go after," as in "to return after the male to request of him that he’ll marry her" (and most of the commentators follow this interpretation), while at the same time acknowledging that Rebbi Yehudah Hadarshan interpreted it as "a woman will go around to become a man."

Rabbi Elihu Levine (who produced the fabulous English rendering of the Kli Yakar) translates it as "should surpass" while acknowledging Rashi's interpretation as "will court" (as in courting someone for marriage).

Yet when our Sages speak of how Hashem is misavev something, it generally means "orchestrates" or "arranges."

The commentaries interpret this verse in a wholly metaphorical manner, while the Kli Yakar (apparently following Rebbi Yehudah Hadarshan) takes it literally.

So I’m not going to translate because I’m not sure how.

(But I’m open to suggestions.)

Furthermore, the Kli Yakar notes that in another 20 verses, it says, "And Miriam replied to them/lahem," which is the masculine form, as opposed to lahen, the feminine form of "to them."

So let’s go there now.
 
“And Miriam the Prophetess, the sister of Aharon, took the drum in her hand and all the women went out after her with drums and dancing. And Miriam replied to them (lahem), ‘Sing to Hashem for He is the Most Exalted'….” (15:20-21)
….because the prophecy started within Miriam and all the women went out following in her footsteps here because they all merited prophecy. And because the Divine Presence cannot rest on anyone unless they are in a state of joy, and because women experience the suffering of childbirth, so she [Miriam] took the drum in her hand and all the women went out after her with drums and dancing so that the holy spirit (ruach hakodesh) would come upon them amidst joy.
PictureThe Reed Sea at the coast of the Sinai Desert
The Kli Yakar notes that Miriam Haneviah addressed the women in masculine form because at the Sea, they merited the same level of prophecy as the men. 

Reading his entire commentary on this event, the Kli Yakar automatically assumes the men’s attainment of this high level of prophecy, while he considers the fact that the women received the same level to be a wondrous thing.

And no, I don’t know why he differentiates in this way when he clearly acknowledges a woman’s ability to attain prophecy on her own, as is seen in his commentary regarding other prophetesses like Sara Imeinu, Rivka Imeinu, Miriam Haneviah, etc.
 
Later, the Kli Yakar explains that macholot (dancing) is related to the word for forgiveness (mechilah). He says that we also learn from Miriam’s dancing that anyone who "utters a song" after a miracle was done for him, "it is known that he [or she!] is forgiven for all their sins."

(This is great advice, by the way.)
_______________________________

Jewish Women and the Manna from Heaven

“And each man said to his brother, ‘What is it?’…..”(16:15)
 
The Kli Yakar notes that in verse 16:31, it says, "the house of Yisrael (beit Yisrael) called it manna."
Why doesn’t it say "Bnei Yisrael [children of Israel]"?
….Because “beit Yisrael” means “the women”….the women were the most fond of the manna, so they named it….they wanted its existence because it made the righteousness of the women known….it told who sinned against whom—the husband against his wife or his wife against him.
If the manna was found by her father’s house then certainly, her husband sinned against her and vice versa, etc. Therefore, the women were fond of it because it made their righteousness known because the majority of women are wronged (menutzachim) by the men….
(Linguistic note: The word menutzachim comes from the word l'natzeach, which means to conquer or be victorious over. I'm not sure whether "wronged" is the best translation here, but I'm open to suggestions.)

Well, that’s all I can fit in this week. There is a lot more to the Kli Yakar’s commentary on this week’s parsha (regarding physical and spiritual healing, etc.), but this will have to do for now.
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The Real Legacy of Yitzchak Rabin

28/10/2015

1 Comment

 
Picture
Okay, this is a bit belated, but still….
 
Yitzchak Rabin’s legacy actually starts with his mother’s legacy. A few months ago, my son attended a lecture by Ezra Yachin who, at the age of 94, as one of the last remaining members of the Stern Gang, feels duty-bound to write and speak about those times and those people. He told of a friend who just arrived in Israel illegally from Europe. He participated in an Irgun demonstration against the British. A group of secular Leftists came and beat the demonstrators with sticks, including Yachin’s friend.
One of them was Yitzchak Rabin’s mother.
 
Little Yitzchak
I can’t remember much about the biography I only started reading but never finished, but I do remember the description of Yitzchak Rabin as a 5-year-old coming home to….nothing. His mother was home, but she was busy holding Communist meetings with her colleagues. Communism values workers, not little Jewish children in need of maternal nurturing. Despite the heartless steam roller he later became, it’s hard to forget the image of little solitary unloved Yitzchak and so many neglected children of the Leftist kibbutzim of that time.
 
The Battle of Nebi Samwil, June 1948
In April 1948, Rabin was supposed to command an attack on the enemy village of Nebi Samwil (Shmuel Hanavi) in a self-defense effort to stop the Arabs from attacking Yerushalayim. Unfortunately, Rabin went to sleep in a hotel and never showed up. His abandonment of his troops, along with the disorganized communication and poor management by his fellow commanders, led to a harmful retreat and a great loss of Jewish life. To the horror of the remaining soldiers, orders were given to abandon the wounded. The Arab fighters desecrated the Jewish dead and tortured the helpless wounded to death.
 
The Altalena, April 1948
It isn’t known whether Rabin gave the order or was actually the one who actually fired on the Altalena in June 1948, but it was another act typical of extreme Leftists – they didn’t want the Irgun to have guns. Ben-Gurion (Haganah) got Begin (Irgun) to agree to take only 20% of the weapons delivered on the ship with the fledgling Israeli army (Haganah) taking the other 80%. But Ben-Gurion back-paddled at the last minute and sent the arriving ship a threatening message: They needed to turn over ALL their arms "to me." The passengers waved white flags and the Irgun arranged a ceasefire with Haganah – a ceasefire which Rabin and his crew refused to honor. (Perhaps this is why he and his fellow Leftists weren't bothered by the Arabs breaking their agreements and ceasefires with Israel.) They even shot fellow Jews in the water.
 
The “Piece” Process
During his second term as Prime Minister, the suicide bombings reached their peak. Dati-leumi rabbanim spoke out against Rabin – not threats, but merely expressing an opposing opinion – and they would be arrested soon after. A Russian staff member at Neve Yerushalayim College for Women exclaimed, “This is just what it was like in Russia! No freedom of speech! Rabbis arrested!”
Not surprising, considering Rabin’s Communist upbringing.
And Rabin kept making concessions even as each bow to the Arab demands meant another flood of glass shards, blood, scattered body parts, and internal organs scarred with bolts and screws.
 
I felt like Rabin was driving a steam roller down a road full of precious Jews who were trying to flee out of the way, but not everyone could escape in time. People were screaming, “Stop! Stop!” But Rabin didn’t even slow down. He just kept steam-rolling forward while robotically chanting, “Sacrifices for peace, sacrifices for peace.”
Words can’t describe how horrible it was.
I remember skimming along Neve’s pretty campus one day, when I something felt "off" and I stopped, waiting. I’d always heard of tension being described as so thick, you could cut it with a knife, but I’d never felt such a thing before. I always thought it was just a colorful description. But now, on the top of a hill far from the terror attacks, I could actually feel the tension, almost like a tangible thing.
 
Rabin’s Assassination  
A friend and I were at Kever Rachel for the first time in our lives when a woman went running through the crowd crying, “They shot him! They killed him!”
Oy, I thought, the poor woman must be remembering some huge trauma she went through. I started davening harder for an end to all suffering.
Walking back to the bus, we overheard people talking about someone shot, someone killed. I heard Rabin’s name. Finally, we passed by some dati-leumi girls and one said soberly to the others, “Rabin is dead.”
I stopped and one of the girl's gasped, "He's dead?!" And a crazy laugh burst from her. The solemn girl looked at her and said, “It’s not funny.” The second girl immediately clapped her hands over her mouth, but a strangled giggle still escaped.
I understood her. She wasn’t amused or happy, it was a burst of relief. Many of us felt the same way.
It was over. The heartless giant steam roller had finally been stopped.
Sitting at a bus stop in Geula on the way back, a man in a white van stopped in front of us and declared, "Rejoice! He's dead." Then he sped off.
The chareidi woman sitting next to me exploded. "How can he talk like that?! It's wrong, it's so wrong!" And so on. Her friend murmured soothingly, "Nu, nu, you know how he feels. It's been hard for all of us. And now it's finally over."
"Of course I've been just as upset as everyone else, but to rejoice over the death of a fellow Jew?!"
 
When we got back to the dorm, a group of us got together to say Tehillim. We'd learned that Gehinnom was worse than anything we could ever imagine. Even without knowing his past crimes, we figured that Rabin was now in a lot of trouble with the Heavenly Beit Din and we would do our part by saying a few prayers on his behalf.
The next day, we heard more about what happened: the 45-minute drive to a hospital 10 minutes away, the cries of “Empty bullets!”, and so on.
 
Rabin’s True Legacy
Years later, Rebbetzin Heller told of the time she spoke to a group of women during which she mentioned her opinion about Rabin.
Suddenly, an older lady cried out, “WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE?”
“Excuse me?” said Rebbetzin Heller.
“Who are you to judge?” repeated the lady. “I was there. I grew up in his kibbutz. You have no idea what it was like. If you’d been there, you would have turned out no different than him.”
The thing is, despite this lady having grown up on that kibbutz, she still found herself in a Torah class. Rabin never did.
 
Rabin’s real legacy is his demonstration of the depths to which a Jew can sink if he commits himself to any “ism” other than Judaism.
 
Some of Dr. Uri Milstein’s writings have been translated into English and he is a great resource for understanding the truth behind many of modern Israel's so-called “heroic leaders.”
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