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Let us remember that the Evangelicals are much worse for the Jewish people than we think.
Although they advocate for the PHYSICAL safety of the Jews, what about spiritual safety?
Evangelical Christians believe in and support evangelizing to Jews and converting them to Christianity. Jews for Jesus, which is funded by the evangelicals, has an annual budget of 15 million dollars!
Remember, millions of Jews have accepted death instead of accepting Christianity. If conversion is worse than death, then people who aim to convert are worse than Nazis. It doesn’t make a difference if they support Israel or not.
@Kuvult: At the same time, we must learn to separate the Jew from his ideology. Just because we love and accept the Jew himself, that does not mean that we agree with him whatsoever.
There are times when children must go to separate schools because of different chinuch standards. This does not mean that the Chasidish Jew looks at the MO Jew as any less Jewish, yet he doesn’t want the MO education and values to be imparted to his son.
Moshiach will come no matter what, but we will definitely bring him faster through:
1) holding on to our own derech without bending one iota, and 2) overlooking the differences between Jews, and loving every Jew as a true brother (the fact that you don’t agree with your brother doesn’t mean you love him any less).This is indeed a very important improvement, after all, one of the four reasons why the Yidden were redeemed from מצרים was because “לא שינו שמם (ויק”ר)”.
Let’s hope that we are redeemed from this golus as well in this zechus!
@yungerman:
Which tefillos do YOU think are more powerful:
Personal words from the heart, or prearranged words made in a centuries-old nusach?
Words said from the peace and calm of your home, or in public in shul?
Davening alone at your own pace, or davening with a minyan?
Davening at any moment that you feel inspired, or at 3 set times every day?We believe that the Torah give us the path to connecting to Hashem. We don’t just follow what “feels more powerful.”
Why were we עולה לרגל three times a year if one is supposed to daven directly to Hashem from the corner of his home? Why do we go to shul? etc.
The Gemara says חייב אדם להקביל רבו ברגל – now that there is no Beis Hamikdash, one is obligated to visit his teacher. The mifarshim point out that this is not for the sake of Torah study because women are obligated to go as well. It is because the way to be closest to Hashem nowadays is to be near a tzaddik that one is connected to. This is not chassidus, it is pure halacha. (See Sukkah 27b and Pnei Yehoshua)
[I am obviously not advocating for going this year. I am discussing in general.]
כבר הבטיחה תורה שסוף ישראל לעשות תשובה בסוף גלותן, ומיד הן נגאלין (רמב”ם הל’ תשובה פ”ז ה”ה)
On the contrary, specifically in these last days of golus, the ס”מ tries its hardest to infiltrate our hearts and arouse שנאת חנם. Now we have the greatest נסיון, and we must each try to overcome it in our own life.
Regarding everyone else who we can’t control, let’s just daven that Hashem remove the שנאה from their hearts. Eliyahu Hanovi’s job is לעשות שלום בעולם (see רבמ”ם הלכות מלכים פי”ב ה”ב).Unfortunately, we are learning from the goyim to look at everything externally. We decide if we should love other Yidden based on their opinions, who they vote for, how up to par they are in avodas Hashem, etc.
If we start looking at everything from a Torah point of view, we will only see other Yidden as pure neshamos whom we must love as true brothers.
At the same time, Hashem doesn’t need us to defend Him for not sending Moshiach. If we try to do everything we can to add in ahavas yisroel, we can demand from Hashem that enough is enough. (מדרש תהלים פי”ז. חפץ חיים על הסידור סי’ קסח. ועוד )@Rava: If someone is pumping lethal gases into the air in your city and people are dying left and right, I assume you agree that it is the responsibility of the tzibur to shut it down.
Will you say, “If you’re scared of lethal gas, go buy yourself a gas mask and wear it constantly”?
I don’t think so.Now, I’m not sure if guns are the same. Is owning a gun a definite prevention of gun violence? That is up for debate. I don’t know the answer.
But you can’t make a blanket statement that any time a person could theoretically help himself (especially if much effort, money, skill and inconvenience are involved), the tzibur is not obligated to get rid of the danger.@mentsch1:
Even without a sanhedrin, Jews always believed that the community has a responsibility to care for each other.
You are obviously correct that there must be a balance. Therefore I stressed that Judaism doesn’t believe in PURE republicanism.
There are aspects of republicanism which we accept and aspects of democracy which we accept. Possibly even some aspects of socialism and communism. That doesn’t mean that any of them are the right way (especially the last two, obviously), but no single package perfectly adapts Torah’s view.
For that we’ll have to wait till Moshiach comes.Unlike pure republicanism, Judaism believes that the establishment must care for the individual. Including mandatory tzedaka donations (maaser, gabbai tzedaka, etc.) and safety measures (even banning certain animals).
Frum Yidden should definitely support the giving up of private rights for the greater good. (This is NOT to say that gun control is necessarily the greater good. That is up for debate.)
[Think about this example: The town elders were responsible that every visitor would be given food and escort, and if they neglected this responsibility and the visitor died – it was as if THEY KILLED HIM (רש”י דברים כא, ז). That doesn’t sound very republican to me…]
It seems that whether gun control is right or wrong, neither way is the perfect answer. I don’t think that these shootings will stop whether we outlaw guns or give everyone guns.
There is an underlying issue with the education and value system of this country which neither political party wants to address. Instead, when we demand of our politicians to do something about the violence, they say, “Oh, we’re trying to ban guns” or “Oh, we’re trying to get rid of gun control”.
Through turning this into a shallow partisan issue, they try to distract us from the heart of the problem which they are to lazy to deal with.
Are multiple Yetzer Tovs able to team up together through the cr?
Interestingly, the Lubavitcher Rebbe was initially opposed to people taking pictures of him. There are several pics of the Rebbe blocking his face from cameras in the 1940s.
At the same time, he spoke strongly of the importance of “tziyur pnei horav” – looking and thinking of a tzaddik’s image as an important method to yiras shamayim.
In later years, he allowed pictures, but even then he only allowed the official photographers, and many times he stopped others from taking pictures, especially bochurim. A relative of mine was once taking a picture of the Rebbe, and he accidently forgot to turn of the flash. The Rebbe confiscated his camera, and later returned it on condition that he would focus on his learning instead of photography.
Rashi says that Yosef overcame his desire to sin when he envisioned the image of his father in his mind (דמות דיוקנו של אביו).
As well as the Gemara that Reb Little Frogie mentioned about looking at a the teacher while learning Torah.
There is also the Gemara in Bava Metziya (84a) how R’ Yochanan would have the women gaze at him when exiting the mikveh so that their children would be beautiful and talmidei chachamim.There is also the Yerushalmi which Rabbi Hoffman wrote was often quoted by Rav Shneur Kotler that when saying over a teaching of a Rebbe, one should envision him standing before him.
(147 wrote a beautiful suggestion in the comments)