Immorality Is Not Something To Dismiss
Yasher ko’ach for publishing the open letter to the OU asking it to remove its hashgacha from Big Gay Ice Cream. The Jewish Press is just about the only safeguard left preventing Jewish liberalism from drowning out Orthodoxy in America.
One reader online said, “The Jewish Press should focus on more severe issues.” The acceptance of sexual transgression, however, is no small issue. Our Sages teach us that sexual transgression brings exile and destruction to the world, and the Almighty abhors pritzut more than anything else.
Time and again, the holy Zohar explains that in committing sexual transgressions, the Jewish people violate the brit between Avraham Avinu and G-d. As the Zohar makes clear, this brit is also the channel that brings the flow of Hashem’s blessings to the Jewish People in Eretz Yisrael.
Furthermore, by engaging in forbidden conduct in this area, we give strength to the sitra achra (the realm of evil). According to the inner understandings of Torah, this gives the nations of the world the power to dominate over the Jewish people and to establish their sovereignty over the Land of Israel, G-d forbid.
The holy Kabbalist, Rabbi Yaacov Abuchatzera, zt”l, explains that all the terrible tribulations that fall upon the Jewish People, as set forth in the Torah portion of Bechukotai, stem from sexual transgressions (see Abir Yaakov, Pitochei Chotam).
That’s nothing to make light of.
Tzvi Fishman
Jerusalem, Israel
Was Baruch Goldstein Right?
Last week, Rachel Bergman argued that Baruch Goldstein should not be vilified since he arguably saved the Jewish community in Chevron from a pogrom the Arabs were preparing to perpetrate.
I appreciate her defense of Dr. Goldstein, but I’m not sure why it was necessary. Dr. Goldstein’s actions are more than justified even had the Arabs not been preparing a pogrom. Why? Because in war time, both civilians and soldiers are legitimate targets.
After all, whom did Shimshon Hagibbor target? Soldiers? No. Sefer Shoftim tells us very clearly that the crowd of 3,000 he killed when he pulled the two pillars holding up the building he was in included women.
Whom did Shimon and Levi kill in Shechem? Soldiers? No. Citizens.
Whom did America kill in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II? Soldiers? No. Citizens.
Whom did the English kill when it bombed Berlin during that same war? Soldiers? No. Citizens.
The Arabs have been fighting a 100-year-old war against Jews in Israel. Sometimes this war is cold, but other times it is very hot. In 1994, the Arabs were killing Jews and blowing up busses left and right. The war was hot and the murderous Arab population was hardly innocent.
Whether Baruch Goldstein’s deed was wise is debatable (Baruch Marzel has said that Chevron experienced zero terrorism for the next four years because of what Goldstein did). But whether it was moral is not even a question. It most certainly was.
May we soon see the day when the Israeli government will destroy our enemies so that private citizens do not even have to consider taking the law into their hands.
Joshua Benstein
Brooklyn, NY
Anti-Israel Democrats
The Combating BDS Act passed the Senate by a vote of 77-23. That’s the good news. The bad news is that 21 of the 23 Senate votes opposing the bill came from Democrats. More significant is that the bill is unlikely to pass in the Democratic-majority House of Representatives.
A very clear pattern is developing. Republicans consistently support Israel while Democrats become more and more partial to the Palestinian Arab point of view – despite its support of terrorism and refusal to negotiate.
Nelson Marans
New York, NY
Get a Grip
Last week, Bracha Henoch decried the practice of girls feeling pressured to provide pictures on their resumes. That surely is a problem, but an even bigger problem is the tendency of men to reject girl after girl with the excuse, “I’m just not feeling it.”
There are so many wonderful girls in their late 20s and early 30s on the Upper West Side who would love to get married. I’m sure the vast majority of them would make wonderful wives. And yet, men are just not “ready” or don’t want to “commit.”
I can only imagine what these girls’ mothers think. It must break their hearts when their daughters call crying after several dates with the same person, totally broken-hearted, telling their mother that the guy just texted saying, “I’m not feeling it.”
Why don’t you guys take a moment and put yourselves in these mothers’ shoes? One day, you may be a parent with a daughter looking for a decent, non-superficial man. Think of the intensity of that heartbreaking phone conversation.
All you guys ages 29 and older out there: What are you waiting for? Open your eyes! If you believed in Hashem with full emunah, you would be a lot more open minded and flexible. If you were set up with someone, that means Hashem put that person in your life for a reason. Don’t mindlessly say no.
You sell yourself as frum, maybe even “machmir.” Why bother?
If you consider yourself a yirei shamayim, you have to take a hard second look at that wonderful girl Hashem set you up with. Stop shopping around and mentally get yourself to commit and build a proper Jewish family I guarantee: You will never find that fantasy girl. So date with a proper attitude – before it’s too late.
Anonymous