Part 3: On Democracy and Western Values

18 Menachem Av 5774

(Part 2)

With the help of the Maharal of Prague, we can identify Fourth Exile - Western (Edom/Rome) values as the idealistic enemy of Torah Judaism and the coming Messianic Kingdom.

Right now, the only basis upon which we are enticing gentiles to take our side in the fight with Yishmael ( which is a whole other topic) is an appeal to them based on our "common values" and on the basis of being the "only democracy in the Middle East".

What's wrong with this picture? Well, that's what I'm going to try to explain, but on some level, the truth will either resonate with your pure Jewish soul or it won't and there's really no way to "prove" this to anyone.

As someone said once, our job is to get the information out there for those who are thirsting for the truth. It's not our job to make anyone drink.

With regard to Western values, you can't get a better description than the one offered up in yesterday's news in a dispute between two Jews, Naomi Wolf  and Rabbi Shmuely Boteach.

Naomi Wolfe is a descendant of Holocaust survivors, a feminist and a popular political speaker. She recently called the death of 400+ children in Gaza a "genocide," an assertion refuted by Rabbi Boteach and then vehemently countered by Ms. Wolfe with the following statements...

...Do you think this is what God asks of us, to split rhetorical hairs like this in the face of the murder of children? I could cite you chapter and verse from our scripture warning us that justice, mercy and the saving of human life — not Jewish but human life — is what God demands of us, not nationalism or militarism or fetishizing a state or an ethnicity. Read the Prophets — they are not talking about borders. They are talking about righteousness, and about God being p–d off at us when we deviate from the path of righteousness. Which we formally now are.

Please check the Geneva conventions definitions of genocide — they support my use of ‘genocide’, not yours — but that is not what is most important. The issue here is: do we want to be the people manifesting what should be truly Jewish values — justice, compassion, mercy, kindness — or do we want to be remembered as the people who are equivocating over the bodies of children?

I actually feel that Israel is exhibiting the opposite of real Jewish values. Jewish values as I see and cherish them, as I was raised on them — are — humanism — – valuing all people in a context of diversity — justice (universal Kantian justice, not ‘justice for Jews” or a double standard in the law) — the search for the truth, not ‘hasbarah’ or spin — and the idea of transparent universal ethics. THAT is true Judaism. THAT, not a nation-state, is Judaism’s contribution to the world.

I would say that acting according to those values is ‘inhabiting a Jewish state’ and that Israel’s late embrace of nationalism, fetishizing ethnicity, a judicial double standard, militarism, violence against civilians, and disregard for the rule of law — is the opposite of a truly Jewish state.

I would say Israel has hijacked Judaism and Jewish values and turned them into the opposite of what they are supposed to be, and is holding us all hostage; if we try to reclaim our legacy we are tarred as ‘disloyal.’ Maybe, properly understood, it is Israel that is currently being disloyal to Judaism.

Maybe our mission on earth is not to embrace nationalism and the fetishizing of ethnicity – but to bring the values of cosmopolitanism, humanism, rule of law, and embracing diversity, that we lived for in exile around the world — that protected us in Russia France Italy Spain — and did not protect us when they were weakened — into the universe? Maybe our gift is supposed to be knowing what being an exile, stateless, homeless, feels like — so bringing universal values of justice, liberal humanism, democracy, the search for truth in a context of free speech, and civil society — into every society.

Wouldn’t that be a tradition to be proud of?

What if “the holy land” is not a place on the globe but a way of behaving to one’s fellow man and woman?

I choose that place.

She's just made the case for Jews to be made stateless once again. In fact, according to Naomi, we're better off without a state. Having our own country has turned us into Nazis. Oh no, she didn't use the word, but she leaves no doubt about what she is implying.

Note, please, the reiteration of the word "universal." We've already seen from the Maharal that this describes fourth-empire thinking. It's also what is behind the concept of the New World Order and she has just described for you the new NWO "universal" religion. You'll notice also that Truth doesn't figure in here at all, as she continues to insist that Israel has perpetrated a "genocide."

Now, let's look at democracy - that "ideal" government that all "freedom-lovers" pay lip-service to. Why is it bad for the Jews? For this, I turn to Rabbi Meir Kahane and his book Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews...

JUDAISM VERSUS WESTERN DEMOCRACY

...before we can even consider the relationship between Judaism and liberal democracy, it is imperative to define what we mean by "Judaism."

...for the sake of the Jewish people, it is time to speak about the ignorance, the perversion, the corruption, the counterfeiting of Judaism. It is more than time to bring down what Judaism really says about Jews and non-Jews, about the status of both in the world, about the concept of Israel as a special chosen people and the place of a non-Jew within the Jewish State, about the contradictions between basic Judaism and basic western democracy and liberalism.

...The liberal west speaks of the rule of democracy, of the authority of the majority, while Judaism speaks of the Divine truth that is immutable and not subject to the ballot box, or to majority error.

The liberal west speaks of the absolute equality of all peoples while Judaism speaks of spiritual status of the chosenness of the Jew from and above all other people, of the special and exclusive relationship between G-d and Israel.

The liberal west speaks of subjective truth, of no one being able to claim or to know what is absolute truth, while Judaism speaks of objective, eternal truth that is known, having been given by G-d at Sinai.

The liberal west speaks of freedom and the right of all people to live their lives as they see fit as long as they do not harm others, while Judaism declares that there is no such thing as "victimless crime," since the sinner becomes, himself, a victim and the very act of not following G-d's law will bring down punishment and harm to all.

The liberal west speaks of tolerance and the obligation to respect all views regardless of their rightness or wrongness. while Judaism demands that the Jew choose truth and the path of right and not tolerate evil in his midst. And so the homosexual, the prostitute, the abortionist, the addict are not permitted the tolerance of living their own lives as they see fit, for Judaism is not a certificate of license, but of obligation.

The liberal west speaks of the purpose of life in the attainment of joy, happiness, and man's desires and fulfillment as he sees it, while Judaism sets down for man what his fulfillment is and what his goal in life should be.

The liberal west categorically negates certain concepts — i.e., vengeance, hate and violence — almost a priori while Judaism speaks of "a lime to love and a lime to hate, a time for war and a time for peace," with the need and commandment lo love the good and hate evil, to seek peace but to go to war against the wicked, with vengeance, at the proper time, an obligation, in order to show that there is a Judge and there is justice in the world.

The liberal west speaks of the most important thing being life itself and thus moves easily into a concept of better anything than dead, while Judaism speaks of the quality of life, with the yardstick being the doing of G-d's will in life and the commandment being to give up one's life if necessary in order to obey certain of C-d's laws.

The liberal west speaks of the pragmatic and practical, with reality being that which we can see and touch and feel, while Judaism rests on a foundation of faith and belief in a G-d who is Omnipotent and who is the G-d of history.

But above all. Judaism differs from liberal and non-liberal western values in that the foundation upon which it rests is that of "the yoke of Heaven," the acceptance of G-d's law and values and concepts as truth, without testing them in the fires of ones own knowledge, choice, desires, and acceptance. One does not weigh and mull over Jewish values as presented in Torah authority. One does not test them to see if they are acceptable to the taste, sweet to the palate. One does not test them by his own standards to see if he believes them to be just or decent or merciful or good. It is the Almighty who created the world and the word, who created finite and stumbling man, who created justice and decency and mercy and good. That which He created is just and decent and merciful and good, and we accept it because of that. It is this yoke of Heaven, the setting aside of our will before His because He is truth and His Torah is truth, that is the fundamental of Judaism.

He goes on quite a bit more, but this should be enough to give you a good idea. Western-style democracy is what allows for Gay Pride parades, an influx of African "refugees", human trafficking for prostitution, Diversity Week in the IDF, and more horrors. 

It is LIE versus TRUTH and it's intention is to destroy us as a holy and unique and separated people and it will unless we do our part to stop it. 

(Part 4)