Monday, March 3, 2008

Moral Equivalency

Last night I was reading a book by Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twersky and it reminded me of something that I heard from Rabbi Manis Friedman a couple of weeks ago.
He (R. M. Friedman) was once teaching at Bais Chana and one of the girls, who was a J for J, was arguing with him for hours. Eventually, he disproved everything that she said, and was waiting for her to give in. She didn't. He asked why. (She said he said, right?). She responded that she was afraid, because the people told her that if a Christian-type person ever left the faith then they would burn forever in the fiery pits of hell, or something like that. R. M. Friedman asked her, "Have you ever seen the curses in the Torah?" She hadn't, so he showed them to her. She was shocked. What kind of loving G-d was this? Rabbi Friedman explained, first quoting the the famous story of the Mitteler Rebbe's fainting when he heard the curses read on Shabbos, and later explaining that when his father read the Torah, he didn't hear curses.
What's the reason for this? When a son hears his father speaking negatively, even cursing, he knows that it's really all love. That's why Jews hear all the curses in the Torah, and instead of getting all scared they go and eat by the Kiddush. Why? Because they know that it's their father cursing.
The girl became Frum.
In response to yesterday's response to the shtuff I wrote, I'd like to say that if anyone was hurt then I'm sincerely sorry. All I was trying to say was that the only reason the Israelis have any right to go into Gaza or the West Bank and ethnically cleanse is because G-d gave them that right. Obviously a Muslim or Christian can say the same thing as their excuse for wiping out people. Heck, the Nazis said the same thing. And look, everyone hates them. Is this justified? Probably. But just because we've taken the moral high ground doesn't mean that we are in actuality any more moral than anyone else. We believe we are. But that's only our opinion.
That's all I was trying to say.

Wouldn't it be fun if someone graduate student at Harvard, Yale, Touro, or any other local community college chanced upon this blog and used it as proof that religious Jews are having second thoughts about being racist thugs? Would that not be the height of hilarity? So, in response to this potential (and imagined) charge, I'd just like to say that I fully support the destruction of the Palestinian people. Man, that sounds so evil. Nu Nu.