“You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind. You shall fear your G-d. I am the L-rd.” (Leviticus 19:14) (JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh)
It’s bad enough that our leaders refuse to protect the Jewish nation from the genocidal Arabs. Equally grotesque is the reality that the same Israeli leadership allows Christian evangelicals/missionaries to run rampant in Eretz Yisrael, because the Likud desires the cash flow of such undesirables. Yet worst of all in this scandal, is the pernicious role that religious Jews have in selling out the Jewish nation. All for the attraction of free gentile labor in Samaria. The portrait is perverse.
Brother has sold brother’s soul for cash.
That is precisely why Yisrael Medad’s recent article “Let The Foreigner Come” on Arutz Sheva (a reworking of a previous article written in Hebrew) demands a response. Am Yisrael is in spiritual danger in Eretz Yisrael, and religious Jews are aiding these missionaries. I have written about this topic before. I hate to rehash everything, so in lieu of the former, I am posting several links to my previous posts. The articles and links embedded within these articles reference the work of such resources as Jewish Israel, Tomer Devorah, and Esav Exposed. They are excellent starting points for anyone who desires to know what is going on. (The comments are also very telling.) My articles are a humble attempt to process their work and present it to the reader:
Of late, Jewish supporters of evangelical aid have embarked on a campaign to gain rabbinic approval for Tommy Waller’s Hayovel Ministry. Naturally, when they introduce Waller to these rabbonim, they present a doctored history to make him look kosher. Baruch Hashem, the tide is turning. Anti-missionary experts are meeting with some of these rabbis and providing the evidence that was withheld from them. Many rabbonim are now seeing the problem in the right light for the first time, and they are outraged by this deception. With G-d’s help the true nature of “Brother Esau’s” intent will soon become widely known.
Yet for this to happen, it is critical that Torah committed Jews follow up with concrete actions, by apprising their local rabbis and community leaders of this terrible spiritual onslaught, and demanding action. Apathy and laziness are the villains. This cannot be left to the “experts” who are already up to their necks trying to sound the alarm. The message must get out!
A few words on Medad’s recent article:
Fallacy #1: He prefaces his article by noting that Christians are “assisting” Jews.
My Response: Assistance? I categorically reject this term. If one economically “assists” Jewish farmers with free labor, but endangers them spiritually by planting roots in Eretz Yisrael, co-opting our exclusive heritage as part of a new “shared heritage” and by bringing the evangelical belief of “restoration” to Jews, no Torah Jew could honestly argue that this is assistance. One would have to ignore the evidence, including Tommy Waller’s own infamous words about bringing “this Jesus that we know” to Jews, to reach such a conclusion. I don’t see how this qualifies as assistance.
Fallacy #2: The notion that assistance from evangelicals is a fulfillment of Torah prophecies. Medad writes:
“At the present, the help is being expressed at the highest levels in the corridors of governments, foreign ministries, Houses of Parliament and Congresses and on the ground, literally, in acts of voluntary labor in the vineyards and orchards in the hills of Judea and Samaria, and, in the words of Rabbi Eliezer Melamed:
“In modern times, we have witnessed increased support for Israel among evangelical Christians…They see with their own eyes how the Jewish people is returning to its land after its awful, two-thousand-year-long exile, and is creating a prosperous country. They see new settlements and vineyards flowering in the very areas described by the Bible, and they are excited by our miraculous return to Zion. They are overwhelmed by the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies of the prophets of Israel… “Christians fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah,” September 18, 2013.
The following verses are also used as “proof”:
“Do our own Biblical, Talmudic and Rabbinic sources contain relevant material that we can consult to provide us insights? King Solomon was sympathetic and considerate:”
“Moreover concerning the stranger that is not of Thy people Israel, when he shall come out of a far country for Thy name’s sake– for they shall hear of Thy great name, and of Thy mighty hand, and of Thine outstretched arm–when he shall come and pray toward this house; hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the stranger called to Thee for; that all the peoples of the earth may know Thy name, to fear Thee, as doth Thy people Israel, and that they may know that Thy name is called upon this house which I have built.” (I Kings 8:41-43).
My response: The fact that “help is being expressed” among high government officials and entities isn’t surprising, nor should it be seen as a positive development. What can I say? They are sick. In the past, Israeli governments armed and funded Fatah. Today our own government perpetuates the insane path of Oslo, hardly role models for sane behavior.
Regarding the evangelical threat, naturally, there are individuals in governments abroad and at home who desire evangelical aid. The Likud’s Danny Dannon has a vested interest in a close relationship with evangelicals. Netanyahu cultivates and praises the relationship with CUFI (Christians United for Israel) because he has a bankrupt notion of Judaism’s spiritual mission and because they give Israel ridiculous sums of money. When you consider his track record it makes sense. Our Prime Minister refuses to protect the Jewish body, so why should the ephemeral, perplexing “Jewish soul” concern him, when billions of tangible dollars are at stake?
A theme threads throughout the many convoluted attempts to justify working with evangelicals by citing biblical verses and forcing interpretations into the text. It relates to the fundamental Torah understanding of the Written Law through the Oral Law’s interpretation, a fundamental tenet that every Torah Jew believes; since so many concepts in TaNaCh are literally devoid of information in the absence of our divine Oral Code. We could not keep Shabbat or perform ritual shechitah without the Oral Law.Words can often not be defined without the code of the Oral Law.Examples:“An eye for an eye.” The numerous uses of the term “ger” that can be found in the Torah and a host of other Hebrew verses/terms that cannot be understood without the Oral Law.
The Oral Law explains that while there is a philosophical notion of “an eye for an eye” relating to general justice, from a halachic perspective, we Jews never popped out an eye as punishment for the loss of one. Torah committed Jews adhere to the Written and Oral Law. The use of one without the other is foreign to fundamental Torah concepts. Verses and concepts from Tanach without the articulation of the Oral Law, cannot explain the cryptic words of the prophets. This is precisely the tactics missionaries use to convert Jews.
