Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu came under fire from chareidim after making a stunning statement, claiming that “Hakadosh Baruch Hu has not always protected us.”
Netanyahu made the comment while issuing a warning to Jews planning to go to Uman for Rosh Hashana.
“Israeli citizens who are traveling to Ukraine need to act responsibly regarding their trips at this time,” Netanyahu said.
“Hakadosh Baruch Hu has not always protected us, not in Europe nor Ukraine,” he added. “It must be understood that in the State of Israel, when missiles fall on us, citizens enter shelters and there is protection. There, there are no shelters and no protection.”
The Shas party issued a statement condemning Netanyahu’s remark.
“Hashem always protected the Jewish people during persecution, this is the reason that the Jewish nation is the only one which has miraculously survived for thousands of years,” the Shas party said. “Of course, the condition for divine providence is adherence to faith and observance.”
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37 Responses
Obviously Deri as well as many others distorted & took out of context, what Netanyahu said which is:- Do your השתדלות to remain safe and fulfill ונשמרתם מאד לנפשותיכם . Clearly not even 1 iota of כפירה in such a statement.
Omg! The problem is that Bibi got it all wrong.
Hashem has ALWAYS protected us. We don’t understand His ways. We need to act responsibly. Going to Uman or wherever.
The greater problem is that Bibi never believed in G d. He believes in himself. The founders of Zionism never believed in Hashem.
No news at all!
Seriously – you are going into a war zone to daven by a kever and you are so sure that your gonna be protected. When we go to dangerous places the Gemara is clear that you can’t expect protection necessarily even if going for a mitzvah which may or may not be the case here. He is actually correct in all likelihood.
They aren’t gonna let this comment but for the sake of philosophy
What is God protecting and if he is it life there no reason to visit this grave and not on yom kippur
Sure he protects us but not necessarily life if it’s a bad thing
Yesterday’s parsha discussed exactly when & why Hashem deliberately removes his protection.
Bibi will have to answer above for much worse than being a kofer.
Shas claims that it is kefirah say “Hakadosh Baruch Hu has not always protected us”, because Shas says “Hashem always protected the Jewish people during persecution”.
Really?
I better cross out all the psukim of “kefirah” in my Chumash like:
וחרה אפי בו ביום ההוא, ועזבתים, והסתרתי פני מהם והיה לאכול , ומצאוהו רעות רבות וצרות
and
ואנכי הסתר אסתיר פני ביום ההוא
And many other psukim of “kefirah”.
its kefira to say that sometimes hashem chose not to protect us? doesnt moshe rabbeinu tells bnei yisroel that if we sin hashem will not protect us? dont we have a mitzvsh to protect ourselves instead of relying on miracles?
This known felon who leads the SHAS party, knows pretty well that what Bibi said is far from KFIRAH, actually it’s HALACHA.
Putting yourself deliberately in harm’s way especially traveling to a country at war is PROHIBITED, and is tantamount to committing suicide.
If someone is using his free choice to transgress Halacha and tries to commit suicide, God does not interfere.
This felon is a MEGALEH PANIM B’TORAH, who is using and twisting the Torah to further his political agenda.
Shame on him and shame on SHAS.
This whole SHAS party is one big CHILLUL HASHEM, and might be an even a bigger transgression than KFIRAH
I never knew that the Shas chumashim omit most of of Pasrshas B’chukosy and Ki Savo (the Klollos stating when Hashem does not protect Bnei Yisroel and allows them to be destroyed). Shas must not have any “kefira” in their chumashim!
We’re still here thriving so okay clearly Hashem protects us as a nation. But individual protection is a different story. And then picking something random that gives you a spiritual high, which may put you in danger, and then saying Hashem is obligated to protect you when you do it is pretty high on the kefira scale. Keep
Netanyahu could have said it more refined, but he wanted people to hear it clearly.
He could have said: הירושלמי במסכת יומא למדו מהפסוק “לֹא תְנַסּוּ אֶת ה’ אֱלֹקֵיכֶם”, שאין סומכין על הנס, one cannot rely that Hashem will make a Nes to save the person,
He could have also said: במסכת שבת: לעולם אל יעמוד אדם במקום סכנה לומר שעושין לו נס, שמא אין עושין לו נס. ואם עושין לו נס, מנכין לו מזכיותיו, a person that places himself in danger cannot say that Hashem will protect him from it.
Further, he could have said: עוד אמרו במסכת קידושין שאף על פי ששלוחי מצוה אינם נזוקים, אולם במקום שהסכנה ברורה [“קביע הזיקא”] אין סומכין על הנס , that even the protection while doing a mitzva does not apply when the danger is established.
Indeed, he could have given a shiyur that the poskim discuss the prohibition of entering into a danger zone and relying on a nes to save him, if this prohibition is Biblical or Rabbinical.
Instead, he said in simply and plainly…and this Shas calls “kefirah”.
Agudah’s NK Eichler:
“It’s been more than a century since the G-d of Israel saved the Land of Israel from the idols of power, the bad culture and the assimilation of the secular regime. The Zionists and the partisans did not prevent a holocaust in Europe. The Germans were stopped on the way to occupying the Land of Israel by miracles and not because of the Zionists.
The Zionists alienated the Jews of the Diaspora.
{{Here he cited historians criticism of some if the [secular] Zionists’ attitude during the Holocaust}}
Even after the holocaust, all the Jewish immigrants in the world’s diaspora have since lived in relative peace and quiet. Only in the Land of Israel has Jewish blood been shed like water, from then until now. The danger of nuclear annihilation threatens only the State of Israel.
Recently, the incompetence and vileness of the false idols of power and the failures of the government were revealed, in the Yom Kippur War. The “generals” who were the “rebels” today, are inciting a bloody war inside the Hebrew ghetto in the Land of Israel. When you see who the generals were, you realize that only by the miracles of Hashem, the G-d of Israel, are we surviving.
The leaders of the High Court’s dictatorship war have become whistleblowers against Israel all over the world and accuse it of (do-called) “apartheid” and “war crimes,” as the worst enemies of Islam. Shame on you when you blame the G-d of Israel, for your failures and crimes.
At a time when terrorism is rampant and the streets are burning, we should pray for the Guardian of Israel. If not for the right of Torah keepers, the State of Israel would have been erased from the map of the Middle East a long time ago.
The Keeper of Israel will keep the remnant of Israel, who say Shema Yisrael.
There’s an important point that needs to be made – one can and should be Dan lekaf Zechus a yid (yes even a semi/non religious yid), that perhaps his thought process was: a person shouldn’t put themselves in a makom of sakana, lest he not be saved etc.
This that he wasn’t saved isn’t that ch”v Hashem didn’t protect him, rather his blood is on his own hands.
It was definitely an unfortunate statement from someone who is the PM of a “Jewish State”.
Ksiva vChasima Tova
Does HaShem protect is when we do stupid things like making pilgrimages to war zones or refusing to take precautions during a hurricane or a pandemic?
Perhaps he might have stated the obvious a bit more artfully. Nowhere do we learn that yidden can deliberately expose themselves to high risk travel or activities and presume the Ebeshter will spare them from any consequences. The Breslov have this thing about Uman (which is not m’dorisah) which would be fine if it was in Provence’ or Tuscany.
There are people who say/hold that the “entire state of Israel is based on KEFIRAH”.
So I don’t understand why they go wild about him saying what he said.
Just a thought.
Calm your liver! His message is clear: it is a מצב מסוכן to go into a war zone.
הנה לא ינום ולא ישן שומר ישראל but אין סומכין על נס
The guy is not Torah learned and said it wrong. Bottom line he cares about lives. Gotta slam him for everything. It’s so not Torah’dik.
Interesting that (thief and criminal) Deri expresses such emunah that HASHEM protected the 6 million kedoshim who died during the holocaust, considering that his mentor, Rav Ovadia Yosef, said that HASHEM did not protect them!
Rav Ovadia said they were NOT protected, but killed as punishment for cheit haEigel.
המנהיג הרוחני של ש”ס הרב עובדיה יוסף שוב אומר דברים מעוררי מחלוקת. בדרשה שנשא אתמול בערב (שבת) התבטא הרב באופן יוצא דופן בנושא השואה ואמר: “אין לך פורענות שבאה לישראל, אלא אם כן יש בה מאותו החלק של העוון של העגל. כל הצרות שיש לנו מדורי דורות האינקוויזיציה, השואה וכל הדברים האלה יש בהם חלק מהעוון של העגל”.
לדברי הרב, “אנחנו מאמינים בגלגול נשמות. למה היתה השואה… אוי לנו כי חטאנו, זה בגלל גלגול נשמות שחטאו. אין בדורנו נשמה חדשה. כל אלו המסכנים שהיו בשואה אנו שואלים מדוע נענשו ככה”. התשובה שנותן הרב לשאלה: “נשמות של הדורות
Perhaps I’m obtuse, but what is Kefira in what he said? There are many places in Chazal where we are warned against going into a Makom Sakana or about a Makom haMuchan l’Puranos – and there’s little question that Ukraine, with it’s ongoing war and bloody history with respect to Jews there (Tach v’Tat, innumerable pogroms, and the local enthusiastic cooperation with the Nazis) meets the definitions of both.
Certain Chasidim may feel that the zechus of being with Rav Nachman on Rosh haShana is enough of a reason to go anyway, but calling what Netanyahu said “Kefira” is just not accurate.
an Israeli Yid
Nice for them to wake up now.
This is, and has always been, the very essence of Zionism.
(P.S. I do not promote the abolishment of the current government that rules in Eretz Yisroel (until Moshiach comes), and I am greatly appreciative of the IDF for being moser nefesh to do hishtadlus and be keilim for Hashem’s protection of the Yidden.
However, these are the facts)
So if we didn’t adhere to observance and faith, Hashem still protected us? Or not? And when 6 million Jews died, Hashem was protecting them, or just protecting the ones who lived? I don’t understand this at all.
Why should HaKadosh Baruch Hu protect someone who knowingly puts themselves in a makom sakuneh?
If someone puts a loaded gun to his own head and pulls the trigger, Rachmuneh litslan, the Aibishter is going make a nes for him?
Ukraine is a warzone, pashut a makom sakuneh.
I really hope everyone makes it back safe but I’m not holding my breath.
Maybe Bibi means the soton is mekatreg beshaas sakonoh and there is no Divine protection when you voluntarily go into a war zone? I’m not saying whether he is correct or not -but it is something that should be considered…
And what the worst about this whole episode is that a guy like Netenyahu, who is hardly religious himself, is saying the truth about the dangers of going to Ukraine while the supposedly frum politicians are pandering to the Breslevers just for votes.
Kefirah?! It says clearly one shouldn’t put himself in a dangerous situation, as we are not allowed to rely on miracles.
Stating facts is not kfira.
HKBH has his reasons for everything he does, but arguing that He saw it fit to protect is in Europe is no different than denying gravity as one of His rules.
As far as going to Uman for Rosh Hashana this year, one needs to ask a sheila from someone who is qualified, that knows the Breslever Mesorah, for example, Reb Yaacov Meir Schachter.
As far as Netanyahu’s statement about the fact that Hashem doesn’t always protect from danger, well, He doesn’t always protect and it is absolutely wrong to call the statement kfira. So many good Jews that were shomrei Torah umitzvos, even great Tzadikim throughout the ages, found themselves in danger, and Hashem did not always protect them for whatever reason that is only known to Hashem. For example, in the holocaust, etc., etc., etc.
For someone who does not have the Brelever Mesora, like Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, it is understandable that he should be concerned this year. I believe that Netanyahu only meant well and that he cares about the safety of his fellow Jews. Again, as far as what people should do, they will or have already consulted with their mashpi’im and will act accordingly. May Hashem protect all of us!
Shas are of course correct. However, though his choice of words was poor, Netanyahu’s point is correct as well.
(1) ספר דברים פרק כח
(סג) וְהָיָה כַּאֲשֶׁר שָׂשׂ יְדֹוָד עֲלֵיכֶם לְהֵיטִיב אֶתְכֶם וּלְהַרְבּוֹת אֶתְכֶם *כֵּן* *יָשִׂישׂ* יְדֹוָד עֲלֵיכֶם לְהַאֲבִיד אֶתְכֶם וּלְהַשְׁמִיד אֶתְכֶם וְנִסַּחְתֶּם מֵעַל הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה בָא שָׁמָּה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ:
he is right and wrong.
the absurdity of thinking that a bomb shelter is what protects is ridiculous.
What are these people talking about? What drugs are they on? OF COURSE Hashem has not always protected us. It is not only stupid and ignorant, but also outright Kefira to claim that He has always protected us, or that we can depend on Him always protecting us. The Torah says explicitly that He will NOT always protect us, and everything we know about our history confirms what the Torah tells us. It’s even more ignorant to make such a claim at this time of year, when we are in the middle of learning those very parshios that tell us this, in no uncertain terms!
It sounds like they’re taking his words out of context. He was warning people not to be complacent and trust in miracles even when doing a crazy thing like going to Ukraine in the middle of a war. If “protect us” means that people will not die, I don’t understand how anyone can disagree with what he said since many religious people clearly died during the Holocaust.
You make it look as if Deri slammed Netanyahu. The only ones slamming Netanyahu are the leftist erev rav. Stop it with your sensational headlines!
He is saying exactly what the Gemara teaches.
It is forbidden to go into a dangerous place and expect Hashem’s protection.
Ukraine is a war zone and no one should be going into a war zone, who’s not a soldier, thinking Hashem will protect them.
Stop being so quick to criticize him and others, and instead judge favorably, and do it for your sake, because it’s 6 days before Rosh Hashanah.
Netanyahu is a treif-fressing Mechallel Shabbos. Did anyone really think he wasn’t an apikorus too?
Whata tragicomedy!! The כופר himself said words of כפירה.
Only his cohorts, the religious Zionists Hava problem with him.
To all erlicha yiddn, he is the same atheist.
Laughable yet still very sad.
Dan The Kapo,
You dare to mention the Holocaust? After posting that calling someone a Nazi is Holocaust denial, then ignoring the numerous times when your vile, woke coreligionists did so? Go away, you sick, mah-yafis petzl!
No Haredi leader or community ever too Medinat Israel as a Lekatchilah or even approval after the fact. But the struggle is, after the fact, how to behavevas citizens.
All that does not excuse the confict, which is based on Arab racism, often mixed with jihadism, ever since the 8-Chesvan-5674 – (8.Nov.1913) Antisemitic poem in the Falastin paper by that Sheikh (Suleiman al-Taji al-Faruqi). Then 7 years later by al-Husseini ym”s (the inventor of genocidal: “Adbach al Yahud”) and his ilk, followers whose first slaughter were (mainly) on non Zionist pipus religious Jews.. 5680/1/9 (1920/1/9) especially in Jerusalem and in Hebron, then, the najority of Arabs in E.Y. “Palestine” supported the Nazis (as, for example were: Sakakini’s 1941 poll, statement by Templars’s paper in 1935; German consul in 1937; CIA report in Aug 1942 and Shukeiri’s statement in his 1969 book), orball major Arab newspapers glorifying A.H. ym”s. And after WW2 trained by / working with Nazis against the Jews in 5708/9 (1947/9).