The following is a transcript of a question asked to Rav Avigdor Miller ZATZAL regarding the 4th of July – (From tape # 833 – July 1991):
QUESTION: Should a religious Jew hang a flag out on July 4th?
ANSWER: Let me tell you something, Fifty years ago I wouldn’t have spoken about that. I have been speaking more than fifty years in public but I didn’t speak about American flags. We don’t need it. Who needs American flags? It wasn’t necessary. But today I say, if you want to do it today, I say yasher koach.
Do you know why? Because all the reshaim are trampling on the flag, and they’re trying to desecrate America. You know why they’re burning the flag? You know why they’re desecrating the flag? Not because they’re good goyim trying to improve America; it’s because they are reshaim gemurim; the liberals are trying to ruin everything. And when that wicked Supreme Court permitted burning the American flag, and saying that the states cannot make a law against it, it was a desecration of America.
After all, America is a good country. We came from countries where we were persecuted, and this country gave us all the rights. I would say we should kiss the ground of America. I was in Europe for some time; I went to study in the yeshiva in Slobodka. And when came back, I saw even more that this was a blessed country; it’s a gift from Hashem to us. Shouldn’t we appreciate it?!
And therefore I say a Jew should hang out the flag. Yes; today, yes. I won’t say you’re a sinner if you don’t, but I think it’s a good thing to hang out the flag today. It’s not a contradiction, not a contradiction to being a frum Jew by any means. We hang out the flag from this shul on the Fourth of July.
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15 Responses
you need to learn some basic logic. flag burners are reshaim. not all liberals are flag-burners
Beautiful! True daas torah. This was said in 1991. Al achas kama vikama today in 2018! Thank you for sharing.
It’s a shame that most Jews are liberals. The same yetzer hara that causes people to be crooked in their actions causes their thinking to be crooked towards this disease of leftism as well.
DrYidd: Maybe not all liberals have burned flags, but most, if not all, see nothing wrong with doing so, and want to see that right protected. Ergo, they ARE, flag burners; philosophically and theoretically. My flag hangs proudly in front of my house.
Someone once said that we ought to show gratitude to the U.S.A., because without the U.S. we might be speaking German, or might be lampshades …..
american yerushalmi
lampshades for sure
The word liberal stands for Libi arul. No need for any further discussion. Their name tells us who they are.
If was he around now it would be possible he would say STOP flying the flags and take them down.
The recording was from 27 years ago
From Someone who used to visit his shul often
Not getting involved,
America still had some basic minimal values in ’91
He would have been the first to proverbially spit at our present culture,and arguably tell everyone to cut themselves off from it
Burning the flag is the proper thing to do when it is too worn out to be a flag anymore.
Respect for America includes respect for its institution of government. Freedom of expression is enshrined in the constitution. In Texas vs Johnson the Supreme Court found in a 5-4 decision that freedom of expression even applies to burning the flag. The conservative icon Justice Antonin Scalia along with Anthony Kennedy sided with the majority. It was hardly a “liberal” decision. Respecting the constitution and the Judicial branch of government (and not labeling them “wicked”) is just as important, if not more so than respecting the flag.
It is Time for Truth-Please keep your “truth” to yourself. The flag does not stand for the culture of which you speak. That is a world culture. Rav Miller Zt’L was recognizing the malchus shel chesed that the flag represents and the gratitude that we have towards it. If anything that is more pronounced today than it ever was. Did the US ever stand up to the rest of the world in the UN like it does now and defend Israel so strongly? Are there other countries in which ills of the US are better?
It’s important to differentiate between the good that the U.S.A. has showered on Klal Yisroel — and the horrifying cesspool of depravity that nowadays typifies most of American pop-culture. While not attempting to put any kind of spin on Rabbi Miller zt”l’s words, it is, however, possible he would have made such a distinction. While recognizing that the U.S. and its allies saved the world from Nazi tyranny (don’t forget that they did have plans and even maps for world dominion, including the U.S. cv”s), we have to categorically reject the sickening debasement of everything sacred that is leading (to paraphrase Rabbi Miller’s own words) the undermining of the foundations of mankind, and indeed much of human civilization. Acknowledge the good — reject the bad.
it’s time for the truth,
cutting off from the culture should also include cutting off from medicaid, snap, section 8 benefits , voting etc
CTRebbe
“Did the US ever stand up to the rest of the world in the UN like it does now and defend Israel so strongly?”
For Rav Miller that was nice, but not first nor foremost. He held yidden should vote for Bush in ’92 ,even though Clinton was supposedly considered more pro Israel,
Did you know Rav Miller ? I did.l