One alert reader wrote in to point out the correlation between the earthquakes Israel received yesterday and this ridiculous tamei event that is occurring at the same time in Eretz HaKodesh.

To make matters worse, there is the usual absurdity of well-intended yet misguided Jews welcoming a performer who led the way in forging the social acceptance of brazenness, rampant pritzut, gender-morphing, and same-gender-attraction.

​In fact, remembering the performer's influence on the society of my youth (and this performer had a MASSIVE influence on American teens and pre-teens), I firmly believe she shares responsibility for the downward spiral of American society and mores today.

Yet she comes off as heroic because she ignores BDS and comes to shmutz up our Land despite their opposition.

This is when I am SO GRATEFUL for a Torah hashkafah and for all the frum Jews who give shiurim and write articles promoting the authentic Torah view.

Simply put: There are some people who make you just want to beg them to boycott you.

"PLEASE capitulate to BDS!" you want to cry out. "Don't have ANYTHING to do with us! PLEASE boycott us! PLEEEEESE!"

We know that this is a Land that vomits out her inhabitants when they get too far from their Torah roots.

We also know that Hashem brings earthquakes for certain sins.

But seeing as no one here is an Israeli government official, what can we do?

​So based on different shiurim I've heard & sources I've read, the following is good advice:

• Let Hashem hear your protest.

​You don't need to take to the streets. Just standing in your kitchen or waiting at the stoplight in your car, you can say:

"Hashem, I protest this tamei event in Your Precious Land! I totally oppose such tumah shmutzing up the beautiful Inherintance You have so generously bequeathed to us! You don't like it, so I don't like it either!"

(I don't mean you should frighten children or other drivers, but it's very beneficial to find the time to offer up your protest.)

This is especially good because while we need to give the benefit of the doubt (i.e., "They don't know this event is wrong and an awful chilul Hashem"), that never means that the forbidden is permitted or okay. We can say, "These people don't understand, but I do understand. And therefore, I protest on Your Behalf, Hashem. I'm on Your Side."

• Say Tehillim.

Any Tehillim. It always sweetens din. The 10 psalms comprising the Tikkun Haklali are wonderful because a tikkun fixes and rectifies things:
Tikkun Haklali in Hebrew

(For an English translation or an English transliteration, press the "abc" at the center-bottom or the "ת-A" at the bottom right.)

• Do teshuvah.

Ask yourself how you might have possibly contributed to this chilul Hashem. Do you need to strengthen yourself in tsniut? Shemirat einayim? Separating yourself from non-Jewish values, beliefs, or entertainment?

Any step you take toward cleansing out your own spiritual gunk is really, really powerful and good.

You can even take on a kabalah of not doing something beneath your Torah-infused dignity for the duration of this event.

Everything helps. Don't think that you or your actions are too small or insignificant to matter.

You matter.

• Learn more Torah.

This is one of the three pillars of the world, along with prayer and acts of loving-kindness.

And again, even a baby-step in this direction is huge.

Even one more word of Torah is significant.

​You and your Torah-learning matter.

• Tzedakah

Giving money to the poor or to causes that actually help people (i.e., not the local art museum) sweetens din and because one of the words for money is "damim," which means "blood" in plural form, giving tzedakah is like giving of your life - a wonderful atonement that doesn't harm you and benefits the other.
​

• Say Pitum Haketoret

Found in any Orthodox prayerbook, reciting the procedure of the Pitum Haketoret (The Incense Offering) is a wonderful segulah.

Back in the time of the Beit Hamikdash, this procedure carried out by the Cohen protected Yerushalayim from very bad things.

It was a primary counter-agent against spiritual tumah/contamination. It literally cleansed the environment, both physically and spiritually.

Nowadays, reciting this with as much kavanah as you can releases its original protection. 

It also has the power to improve marital harmony, health, and livelihood.

Ideally, it's recited at the beginning of Shacharit (Morning Prayer), at the end of Shacharit, and at the beginning of Mincha (Afternoon Prayer).

If you're not saying it at all, try saying it once in the morning. 

If you're already saying it once or twice a day, then for this duration, try saying it 2 or 3 times a day.

If you are already saying it 3 times a day (and if you're a minyan man, then you probably already are), then try adding extra kavanah to it.

For more information (and there is a lot more to know about this), please read:
http://www.jewishmag.co.il/11mag/mystic/mystic.htm

And here you can see a list of the Kli Yakar's symbolism for various aspects & vessels of the Ketoret ceremony (at the beginning of the post):
Parshat Titzaveh

​There are other things I'm forgetting, but this is what I've remembered for now.

May Hashem have mercy on us all & may we all return to Him with teshuvah from love.

This German grandfather spent the Shoah years murdering Jews in cold blood. Babies, children, men, women, elderly…he hunted them down and slaughtered them while proudly wearing the skull-and-crossbones insignia. The Death Head members ran & staffed the death camps & committed other massacres, like the La Paradis massacre in 1940 France. 

Just looking at him in his uniform, you knew exactly who and what he was, and what he did.
 
And this was his day job, so to speak.
 
Think about that for a moment. Think about what an unbelievably heartless & evil person he must have been (and still was--let's be honest).
 
Completely remorseless and unfathomably evil, he felt good about doing such an “important” job for Nazi Germany.

Yet out of all those years of murdering innocents, he unexpectedly pitied 3 Jewish boys in hiding and spared their lives for reasons even he himself could not understand or explain.
 
And it’s impossible to explain it away by explaining that the Jewish boys’ situation was simply the most pitiable he’d seen.

That can’t be.

​He rounded up for slaughter other Jewish children in similar (if not more pitiable) situations.
 
Did those 3 boys have zechut avot (merits from illustrious ancestors)? Did Hashem have big plans for them or the offspring they would later have? Was someone davening for them? Was it all of these or was it something else entirely?
 
We can’t know.
 
But one thing we do know from exhortations and mussar all through Tanach & Chazal is that Hashem can do ANYTHING He wants.

And Hashem can turn the heart of whomever He wants.
 
And beyond human comprehension, Hashem can even turn the heart of an unfathomably evil blood-thirsty Death Head Jew-hunter—if Hashem wills it.

To me, THAT is the big lesson of the above story.

How can it be that such an evil person, a true Amalekite, someone so consumed with the annihilation of Jews that he continuously & personally perpetrated horrors on innocent people--how can such a person suddenly be "touched" by the "plight" of 3 Jewish boys?

Where could that astounding blip of "sympathy" possibly come from?

​The primary reason why physically intimate relationships between the same gender is wrong is because the Torah clearly states that it’s wrong. Hashem despises such relationships.
 
Furthermore, if you study the deeper significance of a marital relationship between husband & wife (on all levels: spiritual, emotional, physical, etc.), you understand more why a same-gender relationship is so incredibly corruptive and destructive.
 
Such people are seriously hurting themselves, in addition to their society, and cause harm in unseen spiritual realms.
 
One of the strongest weapons used against the proponents of traditional marriage is the idea that same-gender attraction is “normal.” They claim it’s innate and cannot be changed.
 
If you even suggest that one’s orientation can change, you will be subjected to disdain and vitriol.
 
And it has even became a human rights issue.

Human rights usually deal with truly horrific things, like child trafficking, slavery, long-term internment in terrible prisons for non-crimes, torture, concentration camps, genocide, and more.
 
With regard to same-gender attraction—particularly among males—it is all about taavah.

It’s just about being able to act on your taavah.

Sure, some of them will start blabbing on about “love,” but the kind of lifelong monogamous relationship (marriage) that regular men and women seek under the auspice of love does not exist in the male toeva community.

​(Statistics show that they are incapable of both a long-term relationship AND a monogamous one. For example, a fully monogamous 20-year relationship is barely found among these men—yet a fully monogamous 20+-year relationship is the norm among husbands & wives.)
 
So it’s basically as if human rights organizations battled for, say, the right to engage in copious, indiscriminate relationships with redheads—as if NOT being allowed to do that is equal to slaving to death for years in a diamond mine in Africa.
 
Despite the obvious ridiculousness, “expert” sources oppose the very idea of what’s known as “reparative therapy” or “conversion therapy.” One human rights organization defines such therapy as “a range of dangerous and discredited practices.”
 
Dangerous, eh?

This community has an abnormally high rate of violence, disease, criminal activity against children, addiction, and a shorter lifespan…yet trying to re-orient their attraction—THAT’S what’s “dangerous”?

​Seriously?

​The DSM no longer considers same-gender attraction something that needs to be (or can be) re-oriented.

Both the American Psychological Association and the American Counselors Association question the ethics of re-orienting a person’s attraction even if the client requests it.
 
Not only that, these organizations advise therapists to actively inform a client that such therapy has not been shown to work and can even be harmful.
 
It is hard to see how attempted therapy can be MORE harmful than a toeva lifestyle, but there are your “experts” for you.
 
The American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Association of Social Workers, and the American Academy of Pediatrics joined together years ago to oppose reparative therapy.
 
A professor of psychology at the University of California-Davis even stated the following:
“And even if conversion therapies were shown to be successful in more than a relative handful of cases, they would remain ethically questionable.”
 
See? Even if there is a method to successfully change orientation, it is still “ethically questionable,” according to these people.
 
If you read the actual article, it’s full of gobbledygook that you have to sift through to find the actual information.
 
It’s impossible to enter into a rational discussion when the “experts” themselves are so dead-set against the possibility of re-orientation.

Part of the problem is that therapy for anything is overrated.

Most divorced couples participated in marriage therapy, yet divorced anyway.

Child psychologist John Rosemond has claimed many times that talk therapy does not help children, and can even make their behavior worse. He cites decades of observation to back up his opinion.

Also, the people you’ve known who’ve gone through therapy, what are they like?

The ones I’ve known still have problems (sometimes even serious problems) with emotional immaturity (including one who claimed that therapy helped her emotionally mature so much more), narcissism, and general bad middot. 
 
They may not be worse than everyone else, but they don't seem better either.

More significantly, they don't seem better (or much better) than they were before they entered therapy. 

Meaning, whether you compare them to others or to themselves, there is often a lack of notable improvement.

​And despite so many people digging in their heels to say that people can’t change their orientation, the fact is that people definitely do—and some do even without any therapy or treatment whatsoever.

​For example, a 27-year-old British man (who’d “come out” at the age of 14 with his attraction to men, never had a relationship with a woman, had indulged with over 150 partners, and worked in a service catering to male-male taavah) decided to abstain from any physical relationships for a year.
 
Dominic Hilton made this decision after reading accounts of how abstinence helped people increase their self-esteem and energy, lessen anxiety, and generally helped them get to know themselves better.
 
To his shock, he found himself increasingly attracted to women over the course of that year.
 
His final realization hit when, during a vacation in Spain with a male friend, his friend tried to engage Hilton in Hilton’s usual chitchat about what guys around are attractive.  
 
But “I just couldn’t join in,” said Hilton. “…I just don’t find men attractive anymore.”
 
Hilton also described how his fashion and mannerisms have changed. He no longer feels comfortable in “camp” styles and makeup, preferring instead tracksuits and less quasi-feminine expressions and behaviors.
 
Originally, appearing in the UK Mirror, you can find the above article HERE. 

Robert Oscar Lopez opened up on his blog and American Thinker (How to Survive a Character Assassination) regarding his own “conversion.”
 
Raised by a toeva parent & exclusively involved with other males since age 13, Lopez states that he “identified completely” with toeva and sank into a toeva lifestyle that also consisted of self-destructive behavior, abusive relationships, and drugs.
 
Upon intimacy with a woman for the first time at age 28, Lopez woke to the fact that his former lifestyle actually wasn’t okay. (Part of his thunderbolt insight had to do with the fact that the act could lead to fatherhood.) He married that woman, found God (kind of), and went on to lead a fulfilling life.
 
Interestingly, he says that premarital intimacy with a woman, looking at untsnius pictures of women (often part of reparative therapy), and other unwholesome behaviors is actually NOT ultimately helpful to re-orienting one’s attraction.

He regrets that he himself did so and wishes that he’d married his wife straightaway, having relations only after their marriage.
 
(So this might be one problem with conventional reparative therapy, in that it often encourages unwholesome behavior in the opposite direction, rather than healing the person’s soul.)
 
Working as an English instructor at California State University-Northridge, Lopez ended up being viciously & unrelentingly harassed for 7 years by both his prestigious degreed colleagues and his students. Why? Because he came out as a formerly toeva-oriented person who’d changed and was now happily married.
 
Even “worse,” he detailed his childhood suffering as the child of a toeva parent.

Unfortunately, the mere listening to an honest description of his childhood experiences (by those who don't want to hear it) is forbidden under a Californian discrimination law, which seeks to protect ostriches with their head in the sand from hearing things that they don’t want to hear.

The final problem with any discussion of this issue is the non-Jewish attitude toward mistakes, stumbles, fails, and falls.
 
It’s all black-and-white with no acknowledgement of Hashem’s Hand in things.
 
For example, alcoholism is often considered a “disease” that progresses even if you stop drinking. You are supposed to consider yourself an alcoholic for the rest of your life, even if you abstain completely from any alcohol.
 
If, say, you stumble and get drunk once after 10 years of sobriety, that is considered evidence that you are “still” an alcoholic.
 
The same is true with regard to drugs and food and anything else considered an addiction.

In secular society, you are defined by your addictions. You are defined by your negative traits and your taavahs.
 
Likewise, if a man formerly attracted to men ever finds himself looking at unwholesome images of men or even in a fling with another man, then he is considered to still “really” be attracted to men.

​Liberals especially love this black-and-white idea because they feel it “proves” that reparative therapy (or whatever inspired the man to re-orient his attraction) doesn’t really work and it seals in their own mind their mantra that orientation cannot be changed.
 
(Note: All the anti-Torah social science mentioned in this post is highly reminiscent of the fake science characteristic of murderously totalitarian societies. Please see related links below for more.)

As written about on this blog before, this is one of the very damaging beliefs in Western society, that you are defined by your negative qualities rather than your positive ones.

This false belief insists that your negative traits are the “real” you, when in reality, your positive traits are the real you.
 
Judaism informs us that failing challenges or stumbling into sin can actually be a yeridah for the sake of aliyah—sort of like hitting rock bottom in order to bounce back up as far away from rock bottom as possible, which propels you even higher than before.
 
Sometimes, these fails & falls occur to keep you humble.

Though underrated in society, Hashem cannot stand to be with prideful or haughty person. He can actually be closest to you in your remorse and pain over your fall. (Breslov chassidus goes into this whole concept quite a lot.)
 
Anyway, the point is that we all have traits & taavahs with which we were either born or developed from our environment, and we are supposed to work on overcoming these traits and taavahs.
 
We aren’t supposed to indulge them or give up on them.
 
And we certainly aren't supposed to be defined by them.

Related links:
Torah Declaration FAQ
Rav Zamir on the Root of Same-Gender Attraction
Gender Dysphoria & Cancer
Part 6 - America's Scary New Direction: One-Sided Mockery and Pseudoscience 
Why Life is So Hard & the 1 Thing You Can Do About It

On Friday night, a New York Jewish Democrat councilman collapsed in a movie theater. By Sunday, his death was confirmed.
 
As the media swoons over the “loss,” it quickly becomes clear that they cherish him most for his work on behalf of toeva.
 
This councilman served in a district home to a large & thriving frum community, along with other Americans who initially weren’t so gung-ho for toeva rights & acceptance.
 
But this “progressive” councilman propelled that cultural descent before his constituents wanted it. (And many still don’t want it.)  

​Basically, such youth need genuine compassion, focused on treatment and re-orientation, not further indulgence of a damaging lifestyle.

​They don’t need to run away and live on the streets of New York. And they need a lot more than beds in a shelter.
 
Furthermore, males involved with other males, particularly when its many other males (as is common in this community) have a significantly higher rate of an incurable 100% fatal disease—not something you want to encourage in your community.
 
Men attracted to their own gender also abuse children far out of proportion to their numbers. For example, while less than 3% of Americans identify as attracted to their own gender, men attracted to their own gender are 11 times MORE likely to violate a child. (Please see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1556756 and a Harvard study, both of which clearly describe the evidence even as they tell you not to believe it!) 
 
They abuse drugs and alcohol out of proportion to their numbers.
 
Their relationships also tend to be the most violent, surpassing the rate of physical abuse within a relationship for female-female relationships and male-female relationships.

​Why would you want this increased in your community?

​Finally, and most importantly, the Torah categorically forbids toeva relationships, whether for Jews or non-Jews.

Chazal already stated centuries ago that one of the main reasons why Hashem destroyed Sedom was because they enacted marital contracts for toeva.
 
Once toeva becomes officially sanctioned, that signifies the end for such a society. Anyone who cares about the society in which they live must oppose legislation that validates toeva lifestyles and behaviors.
 
Hashem is very Patient and Forebearing with mistakes for all kinds of sins. He gives us a wealth of opportunities to do teshuvah. But once a sin is enacted as a perfectly acceptable norm and protected (or even encouraged) by law—particularly such a severe transgression—then that society is doomed.
 
(Just to contrast: Certain forms of slander are prohibited by American law. If outright baseless character defamation and completely false slander were not only protected by law, but encouraged and celebrated as a “right,” then the culture would become intolerable. And yes, America is heading in that direction too.)
 
Yet this councilman made himself an advocate and activist on behalf of toeva legislation.

Furthermore, his generosity is suspect, as is the case for reshaim.

(We don’t give them the benefit of the doubt; we do the opposite: We suspect their motives even when they do good things.)

​The councilman’s non-profit for the toeva street youth earned nice bonuses for him and his cronies (all of whom were already earning 6-figure salaries), in addition to providing deluxe salaries for the people hired to sit on the board of the non-profit—the cronies’ wives.
 
Coincidence? Hmm…
 
I’ve long noticed that indecent people will do some large act of charity to make themselves look and feel good, plus it’s used a shield against those who see their true colors and wish to unmask them.
 
“But I did this really amazing act of charity, so you can’t say I’m a bad person!” they howl.
 
Yeah, I’ve seen this personally and not just in politics.

​I bet most of us have seen this dynamic.

It's very common for Jews to jump on the bandwagon of a completely repulsive fellow Jew simply because he supports the State of Israel, the IDF, or opposes BDS.

This is a huge mistake.

As someone once explained to me, morally indecent people feel attracted to modern Medinat Yisrael because their moral laxity is acceptable there.

That is not true for anywhere else in the Middle East.

The modern state of Israel would be even more secular had not the religious Jews intervened with all their might.

Also, even the most rebellious Jews are aware that Jew-hatred affects them too, and they relish having a theoretical place to which they can escape, if necessary. (i.e., "If America doesn't work out, I can always go to Israel as my Plan B!")

So their support for Israel tends to be wholly self-serving and based on their perception of Israel as a place where they can indulge their anti-Torah lifestyles.

This is a terrible mistake because as is written, Eretz Yisrael is a Land that "vomits out" those who desecrate her.

Yet the desecration acceptable among secular Leftists in Eretz Yisrael is exactly what these anti-Torah Jews like about it.

​This councilman fought with BDS. So what? BDS flourishes BECAUSE of Jews like this.

(Hashem brings Jew-hatred to the world when Jews hate themselves--meaning, the Torah, which defines Judaism.)

Then, despite all the adulation surrounding the death of this person who, though identifiably Jewish, clearly felt compelled to catch a movie on Lail Shabbat, his behavior toward a fellow (and far better) Jewish competitor crossed the line.

When Russian-born Republican David Storobin chose to run against the recently deceased councilman, it was a breath of fresh air for decent people.
 
As a child, Storobin came with his divorced mother from Belarus. His extended family had been physically decimated by the Nazis, then spiritually attacked by the Communists.

But coming to America, Storobin reconnected with his Jewish heritage and also worked his way up through law school, opening his own firm at the age of 25: a hard-won one-room office.

Actually, that was his second office. His first was not actually even his; a friend allowed him to work out of the friend's office.

But Storobin applied all his grit and became very successful.
 
This is a real self-made man, and not like all the politicians who had tons of help (yet claim to be self-made).
 
I have no clue as to Storobin’s personal observance, but he belonged to an Orthodox shul in Brighton Beach and promoted traditional marriage only, pro-life, the development of small businesses, and school vouchers—all of which benefit both the frum community and the community at large.

But the now-deceased Democrat councilman wasn’t having any of that.

​In a shocking attack, he accused Storobin of “ties to skinheads and neo-Nazi groups and white supremacist groups.”
 
Whoa, quite a mouthful there!
 
It takes quite a lot of ego and callousness to accuse a fellow Jew, whose family was victimized by Nazis, of having ties to Nazis.
 
But anything to take down the competition, eh?
 
Fortunately, people rallied to Storobin’s defense, notably Storobin’s rabbi and the chairman of Agudath Yisrael.
 
Yet the idea had been planted and that district hosts a large minority population for whom “white supremacist” is a high-voltage word, and is anyway associated with “Republican” in the mind of American liberals.
 
Storobin won by a sliver.

​Other evidence exists of the deceased councilman’s greed & cronyism. But he was most known for his advocacy on behalf of toeva.
 
Yet this renegade Jew, known for his chilul Hashem (chilul Shabbat too, apparently) managed to achieve accolades by virtue of a natural charisma (please see Mishlei 11-9: The Absolutely Charming Path to Destruction as to why morally repugnant people are often found attractive) and Liberal politicking gusto.
 
This post came about at the request of a pained reader--who saw this councilman lauded & mourned in a frum newspaper! (He didn’t say which one.)
 
We can’t allow this.
 
Even if we find someone personally appealing, we cannot ignore his trampling of Torah values.
 
And it is wrong to paint a chilul Hashem as a kiddush Hashem. 

It's important to identify Jew-hatred for 2 reasons:

1. To avoid going overboard in self-blame and self-hatred.
2. Jew-hatred is ALWAYS a wake-up call from Hashem.

If Jew-hatred is on the rise for any reason it hides behind, it means that we Jews are supposed to take stock of ourselves and see what non-Jewish attitudes and values we've adopted in place of the beautiful & holy Jewish attitudes & values.

Looking at the whole picture, it really seems like the spotlight on Orthodox Jews for a measles outbreak has more to do with attacking Orthodox Jews rather than a real concern about measles.

​And this post addresses the reasons why that's the likely motivation...

​WITHOUT getting into a vaccine debate, I want to address SPECIFICALLY the attitude toward Jews, particularly Orthodox Jews, with regard to the recent outbreak of measles in New York.
 
Currently, Orthodox Jewish cases of measles have been in the media, both Jewish and not, along with the usual accompanying hysteria and consternation.
 
Traditionally, measles has appeared as a normal childhood disease (like chicken pox).
 
Yes, it can be very uncomfortable.
 
Yes, it can even be deadly.
 
Yes, a measles outbreak must be taken seriously.
 
But if you speak with people old enough to have actually suffered through a bout of measles before the vaccine, it sounds a lot like chicken pox bouts of my childhood: Some kids got it bad, some average, some just suffered a runny nose and slight fever with a dot or two.
 
Yes, both chicken pox and measles can turn deadly.
 
So can the flu.
 
So can the common cold. (One stat said that 4500 people die of rhinovirus, the most common strain of the common cold, each year in the US, but I could not find a source for that.)
 
For every 1000 infected with measles, 1-2 die. The last confirmed measles death in the USA was in 2015, and before that, in 2003.
 
And it’s entirely possible that the current common strain of measles is more virulent than that of 60 years ago.
 
But measles is NOT, say, in the realm of polio, smallpox, tuberculosis, leprosy, HIV, or malaria.
 
It just isn’t.

​And yet, you have headlines about it in both the non-Jewish and Jewish media.
 
The frum media has wholeheartedly embraced the “Vaccinate against measles, you dangerous loons!” side.
 
Cries of “Chilul Hashem!” rise up from all frum sides.
 
Fellow frum Jews want to dox the 1 or 2 rabbis who aren’t pro-vaccination.
 
At least one yeshivah has been closed down because of measles and a new discrimination against Orthodox Jews has developed based on the measles issue—such as a New York bus driver refusing to allow an Orthodox passenger on board, screaming something about measles at the hapless Jew.
 
I’d say the frum community has firmly hopped on board (maybe even overboard) the pro-vaccine side of the whole measles issue.
 
The frum community has gone overboard in taking responsibility.
 
This is so typical because the frum community is the most self-critical community in the world.
 
Yes, we have our deluded self-righteous narcissists. But in general, we are always ready to rip ourselves apart, self-castigating ourselves even for things we personally have NOT done and would NEVER do—simply because another Jew (or 10) who looks frum has done it.

​When people take responsibility for their problems, there is no need to pursue and harass them about it. They are willing to take care of it themselves, even without all sorts of harassment.
 
Yet if you point out that all this response to measles in the frum community smacks of Jew-hatred, you will be charged by fellow frummies who accuse you have burying your head in the sand, not taking responsibility, passing the buck, and one of the worst accusations in frum society today: IGNORING THE REAL PROBLEM.
 
Whew! Pretty heavy stuff.

​But I’ll tell you why it indeed smacks of Jew-hatred and why the widespread acceptability of blaring about Orthodox Jews with measles (even if it’s true) is not a good sign.
 
Here is the golden rule of thumb:
If it’s only a problem when JEWS do it—and other groups get a free pass when doing the exact same thing or WORSE—then Jew-hatred is at its root.
 
So let’s look at other groups.

​First of all, as of September 2018, the vast majority of measles in the US came from Venezuela. (Not Orthodox Jews, but Venezuela.)

​Because of a measles epidemic there (4605 cases, 62 deaths), the CDC issued a Level 3 Travel Alert, discouraging Americans from going to Venezuela.
 
In 2014, Ohio experienced an outbreak of 383 cases of measles, the majority appearing among the unvaccinated Amish.
 
In 2014, Minnesota experienced a measles outbreak (78 cases) that originated among unvaccinated Somalis.
 
Did these cases make headlines? Did you hear about these at all?

Did you know that one is far more likely to catch measles from someone recently from Venezuela than from an Orthodox Jew?
 
No, of course not. It’s only when (over 120) Orthodox Jews have measles that measles is a widely publicized problem.
 
And did you see any Venezuelans or American tourists from Venezuela self-flagellating about their part in spreading measles? What about the Somalis? The Amish?

Neither did I.

​Nobody feels bad about these things as a group—except the noble Orthodox Jew.

​While the initial development of AIDS is murky, the spread of this disease came about through debauched behavior, particularly on the part of men involved with their own gender.
 
And it continues to be a problem in that community and communities in the Third World in which debauched behavior between men and women is rampant.
 
Unlike measles, HIV/AIDS is 100% fatal and has no cure.
 
Furthermore, unless a person is tested, one can flit gaily through life for 10 years, infecting others, before symptoms appear.
 
And there are other populations with very high rates of it.
 
For example:

• 53% of Eastern & Southern Africans have HIV.
• 16% of Western & Central Africans have HIV.
• 14% of Asians and Pacific Islanders have HIV.
• 10% of LA males involved with other males is HIV-positive (Los Angeles Times, Feb. 17, 2001).
• 1%-4%, depending which country in Central & South American, the Caribbeans.
• 0.3% of North Americans have HIV.

 
Now, legal immigrants are screened for such things, so we don’t need to worry about them.
 
However, illegal immigrants are not.

​And in fact, a free clinic in California has said that 100% of their female patients tested positive and most are immigrants (legal? illegal?) from Central America.
 
Should we not allow, say, LA men attracted to their own gender into our schools and universities?

And why aren't clubs catering to toeva shut down if schools with measles are shut down?
 
And before you say, “Well, it’s not an airborne disease, so it’s okay,” there have been rare cases of HIV being contracted through being kissed or bitten by an HIV-positive person.
 
Regardless, you’d think that with an INCURABLE 100% FATAL and common disease, people might be more cautious and also forgiven for discriminating against populations in which HIV is common, but I would like to see the popular response to any southern Californian university or public place that would deny entry to a toeva male or a Latina woman based on their much higher likelihood of carrying an incurable 100% fatal disease.

(Actually, I wouldn't like to see the popular response. They'd be screaming about discrimination.)
 
And would newspapers blare such headlines?
 
And finally, I’d like to see toeva publications and representatives lambaste themselves (just like Orthodox Jews are) for this crisis and very real health hazard.
 
I would like to see toeva men and southern Californian Central Americans ban each other from parties, simchas, and other get-togethers (just like some Orthodox Jews do) in which this disease might be spread further.

Let them admit only those who’ve been tested and tested negative for this incurable 100% fatal disease.
 
(And if you think that because it’s not airborne, then it can’t be spread at group functions—especially those where there is likely to be drinking, etc.—then you aren’t aware of what can go on at these functions.)
 
If frummies can do all that for measles, then why can’t these groups do it for an incurable 100% fatal disease?

And why can't these groups do all the above for the following disease, which IS airborne...

​So...what do you think of tuberculosis?
 
The US has one of the lowest rates of TB in the world.

​In contrast, Mexico has 10 times the rate and much of Africa and other countries have 100-150 times the rate.
 
Again, legal immigrants are tested for TB. We don't need to worry about them.
 
Illegal immigrants are not tested.
 
In California, 84% of TB patients are foreign-born.
 
TB is a real concern because it is potentially fatal and highly contagious as an airborne disease. One person with active TB will infect 10-15 others over the course of a year. Furthermore, a recent strain of TB resists all the standard anti-TB drugs. And another strain is impossible to cure at any cost, making certain strains of TB incurable.
 
This is obviously much more serious than measles, yet the groups infected with TB (especially the most dangerous strains) are not being highlighted in any way.

We do not see bus drivers refusing to stop for members of these groups or any other form of group discrimination based on this very real and dangerous disease-risk.

​And any discrimination against such groups because of disease is severely castigated in Western society.
 
(This is despite the fact that such strains of TB are almost exclusively found among specific groups from specific regions, something which is not true about Orthodox Jews & measles.)

​Other infectious diseases, like dengue from Asia and chagas from Central & South America, were unknown in the United States until recently.
 
Dengue is spread by mosquitoes and there is no medication for it, although as of 2016, the FDA approved a vaccine for it.
 
(Actually, information regarding dengue is contradictory. Some say dengue isn’t so bad and people recover after a few days with a lifelong immunity to it, while others say it’s pretty bad and that re-infection IS possible, with a serious increase in complications and fatalities from a 2nd-time infection. So there you go.)
 
Chagas is still not recognized by most US doctors (meaning, even if someone has it, the doctor won’t think to check for it & therefore cannot treat it) and it entered the American blood supply because blood banks did not think to check for it until 2006 (because it was unknown in the US).

​Leprosy used to be extremely rare in the US (900 cases between 1962-2002), but now it has doubled.

Leprosy passes from mouth/nose droplets and is curable.

But it takes anywhere from a few weeks to many years for symptoms to appear and the vast majority of cases are found in people from India and anywhere south of the US.

The rate of leprosy has doubled and increased in the US. And while considered curable, the strain has been mutating.
 
Furthermore, due to their unfamiliarity with leprosy, many American doctors aren’t quick to diagnose it. This means that 25% of lepers end up with disfigurement and disabilities impossible to remedy even after the disease is finally diagnosed and cured.
 
Finally, until 1997, the only Americans with leprosy were those who’d been infected while abroad.

​But in 1997, the first diagnosis appeared in a man who’d never left the US.

​This made leprosy endemic to the US for the first time.

This is all clearly as bad as or even worse than measles among Orthodox Jews.
 
Yet are any of these groups self-flagellating because of it?
Are there headlines about it?
Are people discriminating against them because of it?
 
As is well known, it is considered racist to even mention the bare fact that infectious diseases have been brought into America by certain groups—unless, apparently, the group is Jewish.

This is true even when the only source for a disease is from this particular group (which is not true for Orthodox Jews & measles).
 
So to sum-up:

• Orthodox Jews are not the prime carriers or sport the largest outbreaks of measles or other infectious diseases in the US, but they are the only group being spotlighted.

 

• No other group is displaying nearly the same level of shame, concern, or responsibility for their group’s tendency toward a particular outbreak.

 

• No other group is facing discrimination (including among its own members) for its infectious diseases—including those suffering fatal incurable diseases.

 
Yes, I feel measles should be taken seriously. But I think ALL infectious diseases should be taken seriously—especially untreatable & easily transferable diseases.

Here is a sampling of some of the links to the information in this post:
http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/showthread.php?2097-Cases-of-leprosy-on-the-rise-in-U-S
https://sma.org/illegal-immigration-and-the-threat-of-infectious-disease/
http://www.usillegalaliens.com/impacts_of_illegal_immigration_diseases.html
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2018/08/29/immigrants-and-disease-n2513341
https://www.amfar.org/worldwide-aids-stats/
https://www.precisionvaccinations.com/international-travelers-bring-measles-usa
https://www.cdc.gov/measles/downloads/measlesdataandstatsslideset.pdf
 
These are not even all the sources. As you can see, I chose a variety of sources. Not all sources share the same politics and attitudes regarding the issues mentioned in the post.

Please note:
I do NOT want the comments section to turn into a vaccine debate. The subject of the post is discrimination (and our need to embrace our authentic Torah Judaism more fully), not vaccine effectiveness or lack thereof. Thank you.

Let's start giving our neshamahs, our God, and our Torah more love.

Here is one of many very encouraging verses in Mishlei/Proverbs, Mishlei 17:23:

At first glance, it looks like it's commenting on the kind of degenerate person who thinks nothing of bribing officials and anyone else who can help him avoid justice.

Or the kind of degenerate person who will accept the bribe of a wicked person in order to do that wicked person's bidding.

And commentaries like Metzudat David definitely interpret it that way. And certainly Shlomo Hamelech/King Solomon intended that interpretation.

But Shlomo Hamelech also had Rashi's interpretation in mind.

​Rashi interprets it as an interaction between Hashem and someone who knows he is evil...and wants to change.

​Here's Rashi:

This is tremendously encouraging.

Malbim and others define rasha as an intentional sinner.

A rasha KNOWS he is doing the wrong thing. He KNOWS.

Yet if he (or she!) quietly turns to Hashem with sincere contrition and promises to change, asks for help to change...then Hashem overturns the original din from bad to good.

Once again, Hashem doesn't necessarily demand grand gestures from us.

Okay, yes, sometimes grand gestures are exactly what's needed.

But here, Rashi (and really, Shlomo Hamelech) is saying that even if you are a wicked person and you are WILLINGLY & KNOWINGLY being awful...you can simply turn to Hashem in a private moment (as signified by "from the bosom"), humbly submit to Him (by confessing your awfulness) and promise to be better, tell Hashem how much you'd like to be better, and ask Him to help you.

And voilà! The negative consequences in store for you transform into positive consequences.

And probably most of you aren't even intentional sinners, but accidental & occasional ones—which means that you have even more to be optimistic about.

So there we go.

Happy teshuvah to us all!

A while back, a friend of mine mentioned that if a nisayon isn’t painful, then it’s not really a nisayon.

And if we shut down or run away so as not to feel the pain, then it doesn't move us forward.
 
And she’s right.

(Actually, she said she got the idea from hearing classes on Rav Chaim Volozhin's book, Nefesh HaChaim.)
 
And so, how many times is physical or emotional pain a wake-up call?
 
Yes, we should strive to be happy & content with our lot at all times, knowing that Hashem is Personally involved in our lives and soul-rectifications until the finest detail.
 
But the only way to really never feel pain is to disassociate.

And that’s not what Hashem wants.
 
We’ve all met people for whom life is one big blur. They never fully engage. Even when their life starts falling apart, they merely struggle to disengage further, even taking sedatives if necessary.
 
In Tova Mordechai’s book, To Play with Fire, she describes her parents’ bizarre reaction to the funeral of their oldest daughter, Esther, after she’d died young from a ravaging disease. Their non-Jewish evangelical father put his arm around Tova and commented, “It was nice, wasn’t it?”

Oh, yes! The funeral of your beloved daughter was so "nice"!

Understandably, Tova found such callous behavior profoundly hurtful and infuriating.
 
Her Jewish mother, who’d long ago gone over to the side of the evangelicals, remarked that for them — meaning Tova, the Jews who’d loved Esther, and Esther's widowed husband and orphaned child — it was a tragedy, but “for us”— meaning, the Yoshke-worshipers — it was a victory.
 
Being a fully-committed Jew by that time, Tova allowed herself to grieve for her sister, which is the most natural and healthiest response to such a loss.
 
How disturbing that the parents were such Moonies that they could not even allow themselves to feel pain at the untimely loss of their own child — let alone compassion for the young son (their grandchild) who would grow up with no mother.
 
So pain doesn’t mean we should kick into Moonie-mode. That’s not emuna.
 
It means we need to dig around to see what needs rectifying, fixing, fine-tuning.
 
Something’s missing. What is it?
 
Maybe it’s as simple — and as sometimes excruciating — as saying, “Gam zeh l’tovah—This too is for the best.”
 
That's because some pain is a tikkun and an atonement beyond any understanding or anything we can do.
 
But many other times, it’s a nudge to get us going up to the next level in our spiritual development.
 
We don’t need to pretend the pain is not there.
 
At some point, we need to face it head-on.

And when we deal with it, we need to know that we're not dealing with it alone. Not really.

​Hashem is right there with us.

Experiencing an insult, embarrassment, or criticism is always some kind of atonement.

And that's a good thing (even though it really burns).

But it's also often a hint for your own behavior.

And while it's very good to remain silent in the face of critics and slave-drivers, and accept your kaparah with good grace, it's even better to use the offensive behavior as a springboard for your own self-improvement.

For example, many people have someone in their life whom they can never please.

It could be a family member, a neighbor, a boss, a co-worker...and no matter how much you contort yourself into a pretzel to cater to their desires, your efforts are never good enough.

And yes, that feeling of never, ever being good enough no matter how hard you try (and especially if you do actually try) is soul-destroying.

At the same time, it's good to take a step back into Hashem's Great Love for you and in that warm, secure place of His Love, examine your own behavior for bursts of criticism, insults, and other stumbling blocks...and also maybe an atom of truth packed deep inside the other's complaints, mockery, or demands. 

It's important to note that you aren't necessarily looking for behavior as appalling and hurtful as what you might be experiencing or accused of.

​Many times, Hashem supercharges the hint/atonement just so you don't miss it.

So you might be looking at very occasional behavior on your part or a very small or side way in which you are kind of doing what you are accused of.

Or you might be looking at very quiet critical comments you've made or barbs you've said in jest.

You might be looking at behavior you only act out with one person. (For example, sometimes we fall into less-than-ideal patterns within long-term relationships, especially those formed when we were younger and more self-absorbed.) 

​But what if you just don't see it?

Let's say that you are one of these people who is always very careful with your speech.

And you're very careful with how you treat others in general.

You are a naturally sensitive and thoughtful person who has worked hard at being even more sensitive and thoughtful toward others.

In fact, you rarely even feel the urge to take someone to task. You don't offer constructively intended criticism disguised as "loving advice" and you honestly don't understand the desire to shoot barbs or hurtful "jokes" at others. 

Or, let's say that you are the least lazy person you've ever heard of, yet the other person keeps insisting you ARE lazy. (Maybe it's a spiritual indolence rather than a physical or behavioral indolence?)

Or, let's say that you did discover some ugly warts of tactlessness or hostility -- but you went to work on them and behave much better now.

Yet your nemesis (or series of nemeses) just isn't letting up on you.

So what gives? (This is what I asked myself as I rolled some paint on a wall in a futile attempt to cover up some toddler art...yes, it was a housepainting hitbodedut & self-accounting!)

Anyway...what about one's attitude toward Hashem?

This can be a struggle because maybe things are truly wrong and harsh in your life.

But do you thank Hashem enough for the things that do go right?

Do you tell Hashem how Great He is and how much You love Him, even if you don't always show it?

Or is it that no matter how much Hashem does for you, it's never, ever good enough?

And yes, of course there are always things we need and Hashem grants us losses and disadvantages in life specifically so that we will ASK HIM to remedy these and grant our requests.

So we can request the fulfillment of our desires AND also profoundly appreciate Hashem.

On page 220 of the first volume of Words of Faith, we encounter Rav Levi Yitzchak Bender’s Talk #17: Pe-sach — Only Tefillah!
 
Pe: peh—mouth
Sach: sach—to channel in another direction (when spelled with a samech), to converse (when spelled with a sin)
​
So we see from this that Pesach is about a personal & verbal relationship with Hashem.
 
This makes sense because in the Torah's whole saga of slavery and redemption, Am Yisrael rouse Divine Mercy whenever they cried out to Hashem.
 
Rav Bender recalls the Ari’s promise that whoever is careful from a little bit of chametz on Pesach is guaranteed not to sin the whole year.
 
And Rav Bender stresses that if we really want to achieve this, it can only happen through tefillah.
 
There are 2 advantages to doing this:

• Via tefillah, we are saved from mistakes—unintentional chametz. (For example, after davening to be saved from chametz, you find yourself cleaning something you’d overlooked in years past and seeing chametz or possible chametz.)

 

• You merit to be saved from chametz by attaining it through the highest means possible: tefillah.

 
Like Elul, Nissan is a month of teshuvah.

• Elul is teshuvah from reverence. 

 

• Nissan is teshuvah from love.

 
I’m not the only one to notice that a lot of kaparahs happen during Nissan leading up to Pesach.
 
Sometimes, it’s hard to see them because it looks like part of Pesach stress, but closer introspection often reveals something similar to what happens to you in Elul. 

Rav Bender quotes Rebbe Baruch of Medzibuz, an uncle of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, by comparing Elul preparations to Nissan preparations.
 
In Elul & the 10 Days of Repentance, Jews are busy with fasting and repentance.
 
In Nissan, says Rebbe Baruch, Jews are “busy with preparing geese and fat ducks, fish, and eggs for the sake of the festive banquet” (Leil HaSeder).
 
If only we would switch the order, says Rebbe Baruch, and do in Nissan what we do in Elul, and repent and pray to be saved from a little bit of chametz on Pesach, then we would be sure not to sin the entire year, and THEN we wouldn’t need the fasts and mortification of Elul & the 10 Days of Repentance because we never sinned. (Yay!)
 
Rav Bender emphasizes the importance of tefillah in Nissan, especially in the days leading up to Pesach when it is hardest to find extra time for prayer.
 
“All beginnings are difficult,” he acknowledges as he encourages us to do our best.
 
You can also talk to Hashem while you’re scrubbing or sweeping or making charoset.
 
You can thank Hashem and force yourself to smile at least for a millisecond even when you’re stressed out.

Let's finish off with Rav Bender's final words on the topic on page 223:

An inspiring & insightful reader wrote in to note that many gratitude lists focus on the material goodness of our lives.

And what about the non-material riches Hashem bequeathed us?

She makes an excellent point. (Thank you, inspiring & insightful reader!)

So without further ado, here is a list of 25 non-material gifts (whether they feel like gifts or not because everything Hashem does is for the best, whether it feels that way or not) from our Loving Creator:

Note: You can also find an English translation of a popular tefillah of gratitude at:
A Prayer of Thanks to the Creator of the World

And if you're suffering a lot, there's this:
What to Say To God in the Toughest Times