going home ... to yerushalayim

24 August 2026

TO LISTEN TO THIS! Feistyness

Series on Efforts to Abolish Charedim, the Torah Kedosha, and Deny God

Publisher's Perspective: Eli Paley, Don't Start with the Solution

[me: the very last segment on page 48 is the "historical perspective and purpose"]

Read the original article on Mishpacha Magazine website, https://mishpacha.com/dont-start-with-the-solution/

Reprinted with permission of Mishpacha Magazine, not authorized to grant reprint rights to any third party before consulting with Mishpacha, https://mishpacha.com

Rabbi Weissman: Tzohar ......

Tzohar: The New Reform Movement

The fig leaf covering their apikorsus comes off

I promise you, I really don’t want to keep writing about Tzohar and their Mickey Mouse rabbis, but what they published in last week’s issue of The Kiddush Kefira Times must be spread far and wide as a warning and a call to action. It is outright apikorsus, a war against the Torah in the name of the Torah, and they are pumping this apikorsus to hundreds of Jewish communities in Eretz Yisrael and beyond.

I am not going to explain in great detail why what I am about to share is apikorsus. It is self-evident to religious, G–D-fearing Jews with an elementary level of education. I am writing for people who already get it so they can be aware of this outrage in our midst and hopefully do something about it.

Last week I wrote about how the editor of The Kefira Times, a “religious” Zionist media mogul by the name of Shlomo Ben-Zvi (bio here), fabricated the notion that membership in the Jewish people is dependent not on being shomer Torah u’mitzvos, but on participating in the IDF, and had the gall to attribute this to Moshe Rabbeinu. If you missed it, you can read it here.

This week he dropped the fig leaf covering up the apikorsus, writing as follows:

Law and religion should come home, to be discussed, debated, and decided locally, municipally…The idea of minhag, custom that crystallizes into law, was the backbone of Jewish legal thinking throughout history. We need to bring it back.

Let each city hold autonomous jurisdiction over personal status, over most of the issues discussed between the covers of the Shulchan Aruch. How would that work? Take a hotly disputed issue: should same-sex marriage be condoned of condemned? Different tribes give different answers, and many feel passionately about it. Decide it locally. Tel Aviv will condone it, Bnei Brak will condemn it, and Ra’anana will argue the matter until some compromise emerges, one that satisfies no one completely but ensures that everyone is heard and no one is ignored…

…The Torah opens the parashah with this idea…Let us be free to decide, for ourselves, our own liberties, our own expression of who we really are.

According to the editor of The Kefira Times, distributed to tens of thousands of Jews every week, the entire corpus of halacha is up for public debate and public vote. So the Torah itself teaches.

Ben-Zvi also returns to distorting the notion of Jewish tribes by making reference to “the chiloni tribe” and “the charedi tribe”. In actual Judaism, of course, there are twelve tribes that all stood at Har Sinai and said “Na’aseh v’nishma”, accepting the Torah in its entirety (written and oral alike), and entering into an everlasting covenant with Hashem. Each tribe has particular characteristics, just as every child has a unique personality, but on the fundamentals there is no difference.

According to Ben-Zvi, however, a tattooed bum who rejects the Torah and even G–D Himself, or otherwise does whatever he wants and reinterprets the Torah however he sees fit, can claim membership in a perfectly authentic Jewish “tribe”, the chiloni tribe.

Judaism is a welcoming club that accepts everyone! They can reject the entire Shulchan Aruch if they wish! The only things they can’t reject are Zionism and the IDF…

Why not an avoda zara tribe, a Molech tribe, and a Sodom tribe?

Here’s something the Mickey Mouse rabbis at Tzohar won’t tell you. The actual meaning of the word “chiloni” isn’t “secular” or “non-religious”. The Yerushalmi in Maaser Sheni 31a (53b in the Oz Vehadar edition) states the following:

רִבִּי יַנַּאי מְפַקֵּד לִקְרִיבוֹי כַּד תְּהֵיוִיָין חַכְרָן אֲרָע לָא תַחְכְּרוּן אֶלָּא מִן דְּחֵלוֹנַיָיא

Rabbi Yannai would instruct his relatives that when they become tenant-farmers they should only do so on land belonging to chilonim.

Without getting into the details of the related laws, Rabbi Shlomo Sirilio defines chilonim as יראי שמים, people who fear heaven. The Pnei Moshe writes “תרגום זר חילוני”, the Arameic translation of zar, a foreigner (in this context someone who is not a Kohen or a Levi), is chiloni (see Vayikra 22:10).

Every Jew is expected to be fully Torah-observant and G–D-fearing! The Torah does not recognize secular people or atheists as Jews in good standing, let alone as chilonim. Chilonim take halacha very seriously! The proper terms for Jews who lack yiras shamayim, reject the Torah, or falsify the Torah like Tzohar’s missionaries, are reshaim, kofrim, minim, and apikorsim.

The same issue of The Kefira Times has an article by “Rabbi” Joshua Amaru, the assistant editor. He has an impressive-sounding bio (see it here), which only underscores how deeply the apikorsim have infiltrated the Orthodox world and how insidious their kefira can be.

Amaru writes:

I am proud that The Kiddush Times publishes articles by a range of authors [excluding Charedim, of course]. That being said, I found last week’s article by Rabbi Cherki disturbing.

Amaru was not disturbed by the wide range of kefira appearing under his editorial watch, including the chief editor’s call for same-sex marriage to be up to local public vote, in the name of the Torah. Amaru was disturbed that his colleague understood a prophecy from Yeshaya about the redemption as referring to current events.

Before we continue, it should be noted that many contemporary pundits get totally carried away, attempting to shtup every media headline into a prophecy, especially in connecting Zionist “achievements” to redemption. But Amaru goes so far to the other extreme that he exits Judaism completely:

Yeshayahu was certainly not thinking about our present reality — living 2700 years ago, he could not possibly have imagined it.

This is outright kefira. The prophecies in Tanach are not written records of great people thinking about the future. They were describing it — granted, often in terms that are difficult for us to fully comprehend, but objectively true, divine descriptions. Furthermore, stating that because Yeshayahu lived 2700 years he could not have imagined the reality of the present is a denial of prophecy itself — one of the foundations on which Judaism stands.

The rabbi kofer further writes:

I believe that prophecies should be read and studied and that they can provide comfort, hope, and wisdom. However, they do not provide specific guidance to our current problems…

You might as well just read secular poetry.

The assault on prophecy continues with an article by “Rabbanit” Batya Hefter. From her bio:

Batya Hefter is founder and director of The Women's Beit Midrash of Efrat and Gush Etzion. She holds an MA in Rabbinic Thought from the Hebrew University, (BA in Jewish Thought and Philosophy SUNY) Batya taught at Pardes, Midreshet Lindenbaum, MaTaN, Nishmat and at the Women's Beit Midrash of Cleveland which she founded.

She writes about Yirmiyahu 32 (which, ironically, is what we will be learning in this week’s Torah class):

Just before the Destruction, Yirmeyahu, imprisoned at the time, had a prophetic vision to purchase his cousin Chanamel’s field in Anatot Such a concrete act would surely bring the people great consolation: a declaration of faith that Jerusalem would one day be rebuilt, that houses, fields, and vineyards shall again be purchased in this land (Yirmeyahu 32:15).

But even Yirmeyahu was uncertain. Was this truly G-d’s will, or only his own imagination, his wishful thinking? Birur is generally accomplished by deep inner work. But in Yirmeyahu’s unique situation, birur meant the humility to know that his own inner vision cannot verify itself.

And it came: Chanamel arrives and asked him to buy the field. “Then I knew,” Yirmeyahu says, “that this was indeed the word of G-d (Yirmeyahu 32:8). Not before. Only then.

The only imagination at work is that of these distorters of the Torah, who carefully select rabbinic sources as a springboard for the missionary activity that follows — in total defiance of the actual intention of the sages they cite — while pointedly ignoring the traditional understanding of Tanach in favor of their own creative falsifications.

None of the classical commentaries entertain the notion that Yirmiya doubted the authenticity of his prophecy. In fact, they specifically emphasize that Hefter’s reading of the text is completely outside the pale. Abarbanel writes (essential translation follows):

ואמנם אומרו ואדע כי דבר ה’ הוא אין ענינו שבא דבר ה’ אל חנמאל לעשות זה כי חנמאל לא היה נביא השם ולא גם כן שהיה ירמיהו בראשונה מסופק בנבואה שבאתהו על זה אם היתה נבואה אם לא ושעתה נתאמת אצלו כי דבר ה’ הוא כי הנה הנביאים לא היו מסופקים בנבואתם והנבואה תודיעם שהיא נבואה בחוזק הרגשה כמו שכתבתי בפירוש הנביא אשר אתו חלום

It doesn’t mean…that Yirmiyahu was initially in doubt about the prophecy that came to him, as to whether it was a prophecy or not, and that now it became verified for him that it was the word of Hashem, for behold the prophets were not in doubt regarding their prophecies…

The only thing that Yirmiya wasn’t sure of at first was whether or not Hashem intended for him to purchase the field, because he did not receive a specific instruction to that effect. He later understood that this was, indeed, what Hashem wanted him to do.

Malbim writes:

אין הפירוש שירמיה היה מסתפק בנבואתו עד עתה, ולא ידע שהוא דבר ה’ עד שראה שבא אליו חנמאל, כי הנביאים לא היה אצלם שום ספק בעת הנבואה וידעו בבירור שה’ מדבר עמם, וזה עיקר גדול בנבואה, רק שירמיה היה עד עתה מסתפק בפירוש דברי השם

The meaning is not that Yirmiya was in doubt about his prophecy until now, and did not know that this was the word of Hashem until he saw that Chanamel came to him, for the prophets had no doubt at all at the time of their prophecy, and they knew with clarity that Hashem was speaking with them, and this is a great fundamental principle of prophecy. Yirmiya was only unsure until now about the meaning of the words of Hashem.

Two “Religious” Zionist missionaries in the same issue, a highly influential “rabbi” and “rabbanit”, spread actual apikorsus about a great fundamental principle of prophecy. Maybe they can just get together and vote on it, like halacha itself?

There’s more in this issue of The Kefira Times, but what we already saw is more than enough. The religion of Tzohar and the smoldering husk of “Religious” Zionism is clear for all to see: a perverse blend of kefira, secularism, and humanism wrapped in Torah slogans, a double-pyramid flag, and an IDF uniform. It is decidedly un-Jewish and anti-Jewish.

Here are two interesting sources that describe what we are seeing from so many contemporary Reformists disguised as Orthodox Jews.

The Chovos Halevavos has a lengthy essay called Cheshbon Hanefesh, outlining thirty ways people should examine themselves. In #24 he warns us to judge the words of Chazal and our tradition favorably even when we don’t fully understand them, and to seek clarification from the sages of our time instead of relying on our own understanding. After that we will (hopefully) see secrets of the Torah and Chazal that we are incapable of discerning with amateurish study.

The Marpeh Lanefesh writes:

ותדינם לזכות כי לא דבר רק הוא ומכם הוא ריק שתחשוב שלא ירדת לסוף דעתם ואז טוב לך אבל אם עולה בדעתו לסתור ח”ו דבריהם הרי הוא יוצא לאפיקורסות ואין לו תקנה

And you should judge them favorably, for the words [of Chazal] are not empty, and from you they are empty [if you don’t understand them]. You should think that you did not get to the bottom of their knowledge, and then it will be good for you. But if one entertains the notion of contradicting their words, G–D forbid, he goes out to apikorsus [heresy], and he cannot be fixed.

Finally, consider the words of the Bartenura on Yadayim 4:6 regarding the Tzadokim (Sadducees), who caused tremendous destruction during Bayis Sheni, leading to the present galus:

וְעַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה נִשְׁאֲרוּ מֵהֶם פְּלִיטִים בְּמִצְרַיִם בְּדַמֶּשֶׂק וּבְקוֹסְטַאנְטִינָ”א, וְהֵם לְשִׂכִּים בְּעֵינֵינוּ וְלִצְנִינִים בְּצִדֵּנוּ, וְאָנוּ קוֹרִים לָהֶם קָרָאִים, לְפִי שֶׁאֵין לָהֶם אֶלָּא הַמִּקְרָא בִּלְבַד

Until this day there are remnants of them in Egypt, Damascus, and Constantinople, and they are pricks in our eyes and thorns in our sides, and we call them Karaites, because for them there is only the written Torah.

The Bartenura lived only 500 years ago. Since then these same thorns in our side, these enemies from within, the Erev Rav, morphed into Sabbateans, Frankists, maskilim, Yevsektsiya, Zionists . . . and now this.

The missionaries of Tzohar, The Kefira Times, and so many other entities may cite a Talmudic source when it suits them, but make no mistake about it: they are kofrim and apikorsim. And they are teaching their perverse “Torah” to countless thousands of Jews in yeshivas and shuls all over the world.

Here’s a scary thought: Tzohar conducts weddings for secular Jews and Religious Zionists (but I repeat myself) all over Israel. Can we be confident these are kosher weddings? Considering the apikorsus they so confidently publish, can we even count their “rabbis” for a minyan anymore, let alone trust them in matters of kashrus and kedusha?

I am not here to argue with the kofrim and apikorsim or entertain the Internet trolls with their witty “rebuttals”. I am here to awaken decent, G–D-fearing people about the widespread Reform movement among us today, deep inside hundreds of yeshivas, shuls, and communities in Eretz Yisrael and beyond.

We need to take this very seriously and do something about it. Spread this message to those you know. Wake them up and urge them to take action. Urge your local rabbi to warn his community about the kefira all around us, to separate from it — הבדלו מתוך העדה הזאת — and to drive it out of our midst — ובערת הרע מקרבך. There is no excuse to stay silent!

Every week I deposit about 50 copies of The Kefira Times in the appropriate receptacle. If this apikorsus is being delivered to your shul, speak up about it and urge them to ban it from the premises. If they refuse, move to an Orthodox shul. I’m serious.

Indeed, will even one Religious Zionist rabbi protest this apikorsus?

The original Reformers, the maskilim, devastated European Jewry and brought a Holocaust upon us, because far too many Jews looked the other way instead of opposing them. Do we need another churban? Do we need to learn the hard way again?

going home ... to yerushalayim

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24 August 2026

שאגת התורה של אלפי בחורים באם הישיבות פוניבז' | הקליפ הרשמי: שוקי לרר

בסוף יבטלו לנו את זכות ההצבעה!": התחזית המצמררת של מנהיג הדור הגרמ"ה הירש על גזרת הגיוס

Feisty For Torah

Series on Efforts to Abolish Charedim, the Torah Kedosha, and Deny God

Rabbi Weissman: Tzohar ......

שאגת התורה של אלפי בחורים באם הישיבות פוניבז' | הקליפ הרשמי: שוקי לרר