I guess the cause - preventing the vaccine reaching the children - took over my Meron-addled brain and I missed the fact that while this "unity rally" does not call us to join together with the gentiles, it does call the gentiles to gather in unity with us, which in my mind is one and the same thing.
WE CAN'T PRAY TOGETHER WITH IDOLATERS NO MATTER HOW COMMON OR WORTHY THE CAUSE!!
Vandana Shiva is a leading Indian activist who is supposedly anti-globalism, anti-GMO and all the other things that can pull in those fighting the tyranny of a New World Order, but if we keep reminding ourselves that the ultimate goal is the destruction of the Jews as a unique and kadosh nation, then we can begin to understand how the forces arrayed against us are playing both sides against the middle.
If Rambam can say it is forbidden to give a gift to an idolater lest he give thanks for it to his false deity, how much more so are we, as faithful, believing Jews, forbidden to pray together with them - us to our God and they to their false gods?
We Jews together can make it better for everybody, but if we pray together "in unity" with gentiles who are at the same time praying each to their own false god, we are just going to bring down God's wrath and judgment on our heads. Instead of fixing the problem at hand, we will create even greater ones.
And this is why I am retracting my endorsement of this event and will no longer be sharing anything from Rabbi Weissman unless or until he corrects this error and rejects these associations.
My sincerest apologies to the readers and my enduring thanks to my daughter who keeps me on track.
____________________
* Excerpted from "Outcry to the World From Israel" - Ilana Rachel Daniel: "...We have a tremendous opportunity to come together as humans - without the questions of religions. They are pushing us so far, they are making this complete reset. We get to actually be just humans, in such a beautiful way. As painful as these divisions that they have made we can actually come together in a way that's how it's meant to be."
Because I have in a sense "promoted" Rabbi Weissman, I feel I owe it to the readers to see all sides of this matter. Therefore, I am going to include here my response to him and his reply.
ReplyDeleteTo Rabbi Weissman:
I'm sorry because I know it will upset you, but I have to remove the blog post about the rally. I hope you will read my explanation on the blog with an open mind and heart and try to understand why. I think your motives are excellent, but I can't condone the methods. Please give it a lot of thought and prayer for direction.
Wishing you nothing but the best,
Devorah Chayah
From Rabbi Weissman:
I completely disagree with your methods and with "pasuling" me as well because I have any modicum of association with someone who doesn't score 100% on your purity test, like it's a virus that condemns everyone who is near someone who doesn't have a perfect score. Aside from the fact that by the time the dominos stop falling there will basically be no one left who passes the purity test except for you, your entire premise is incorrect. No one is condoning idolatry or inviting idolaters to pray with us or for us. When the Beis Hamikdash stood, goyim were allowed to come there and pray to Hashem, and even offer a korban, without having to pass your extreme, impossible spiritual purity test, or even undergo a background check to make sure they didn't have an idol in their closet at home. There is absolutely nothing wrong with standing near the Kotel and davening for the children of Israel being saved from murder, and inviting anyone else who desires for them to be saved to join us in this prayer.
If that makes me a pasul idolatry supporter who isn't worthy of having his material shared on your blog, so be it.
I think your motives are good as well, but you're way off. Honestly, this is why women can't be rabbis or poskim. They think with their emotions and can't contextualize Torah sources properly.
You should also scrub my previous material from your site, lest someone stray after me and be drawn into idolatry.
Chananya
And this will be the end of the matter as far as I am concerned.
Interesting, I would have expected more from a rabbi. Hashem didn't tell us to follow SOME or even MOST of his laws, he told us to follow ALL of the laws...
ReplyDeleteWe are expected and DEMANDED to TRY to score a 100% relating the ALL of the laws of the Torah. Most (probably all) of us will not succeed through compelling desires or ignorance and that is expected as well. That's what teshuva is for. But teshuva is only accepted when gyou REGRET not follow ALL of the laws. But to PURPOSEFULLY not even TRY to follow the laws that you deem incorrect or too harsh... you're just asking for consequences then, because that is exactly what Hashem promised would happen if we chose not to follow the laws.
The birur continues..
- The Original Me
You should have known. He said the same things in comments over here https://palmtreeofdeborah.blogspot.com/2021/03/our-hishtadlut-requires-partnership.html
ReplyDeleteVery well stated, T.O.M. Thank you for your valuable insight.
ReplyDeleteAnd to Anon.@11:06, you're right. Lesson learned.
Quoting Ilana Rachel from her March video "Outcry to the World From Israel":
ReplyDelete...We have a tremendous opportunity to come together as humans - without the questions of religions. They are pushing us so far, they are making this complete reset. We get to actually be just humans, in such a beautiful way. As painful as these divisions that they have made we can actually come together in a way that's how it's meant to be."
And it will come to pass that everyone left of the nations who came up against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to prostrate himself to the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to celebrate the festival of Tabernacles.
ReplyDeleteZacharia 14:16
One day we will pray with the other nations anyway, there is nothing so wrong with that.
Anonymous@12:54PM - The pasuk says nothing at all about praying together. Furthermore, on that day, every living soul will pray to THE ONE TRUE GOD. No more false religions, no more false gods. We aren't there yet.
ReplyDeleteTo anon 12.54, all the nations will come to pray, not all the religions. It's not the same thing. It will be when all the nations renounce their false religions and recognise Hashem and the truth of the Torah, not when they bring their avoda zara to eretz yisrael.
ReplyDeleteSo much self-righteous public lashon hara here. I can't imagine Hashem is happy with this, even though of course it's for a to'eles. It always is.
ReplyDeleteMy email reply was sent privately, not as a public post. So I guess that means the pious proprietor of this blog has now also fallen short of Torah perfection, in a big way. I suppose that means that she too is disqualified from being one the lucky handful of people who will survive. (Do you still have a minyan?)
One final thought. Some people validate themselves by casting aspersions on everyone, while others try to see the good in others and lift them up. The former was the way of Bilam, the latter was the way of Avraham, who even wanted to try to salvage Sodom if there was any good to latch onto. They didn't need to score 100. They just needed to have potential that he could work with. That's my approach. Ilana Rachel is a good person doing good work. She is not a secret idolater, and she does not deserve to be publicly smeared in this way. She's doing a lot more good than those who throw fire and brimstone at everyone and wait for the world to be destroyed. I don't think Hashem is pleased with such people.
So long.
I am amazed and humbled. Your post brought tears to my eyes. Respect.. deep respect. In todays world of sheker someone making a mistake and actually admitting it..and honestly explaining.. I don't know if my tears are of joy or of sorrow for the realization that a simple thing like that has become so rare that I am so deeply touched. Leah R
ReplyDeleteAfter reading all these comments, I am not going to lie.. I am so so desperately shaken. No, I don't want to pray with idol worshippers.. for any reason, but all of this is really harsh... Maybe some subtle "retraction" would have been good here. I am not sure we are holding on a level to condemn other jews when there may be more grey than black and white.. I honestly don't know.. not on the level to know how best to handle such situations..I think we all make mistakes and have good intentions... and I am against sharing private emails (!) or giving another Jew a bad name (!) No one is on that level! Leah R
ReplyDelete