WE OBJECT
Three years ago this week, I wrote the following paragraphs in the wake of the US Supreme Court decision in Obergefell:
In all matters, whether in our own lives or in affairs of the world at large, it’s important to try to view things from the perspective of the Ribbono shel Olam. Last week, three Jewish justices formed the bulk of the majority that, over the strenuous objections of four Catholic justices, issued a diktat celebrating same-gender coupling and enshrining it as the law of a land where millions of devout Christian citizens consider it anathema.
Can we begin to imagine the depth of the chillul Hashem — meaning, literally, the void of G-d-liness — that has been created? Can we even begin to identify with the tzaar haShechinah, over what has happened?
If a Jew is not viscerally troubled by an event with such grave moral implications as this one, that would seem to bespeak an absence of a kind of kirvas Elokim that ought naturally to lead to a feeling of imo anochi b’tzarah toward our Creator. Perhaps it sounds strange, but a ruling like this one can be an opportunity for drawing nearer to Hashem even as the world pulls away from Him.
As a result of the court’s flagrant rebellion against G-d’s law and the chillul Hashem it engendered, it would seem that from a vantage point of spiritual truth, America is now a more dangerous, or endangered, place than it was just days ago.
But three weeks ago, something happened, not in majority-gentile America, but in Arzteinu Hakedoshah, about which I don’t even have the heart to compose my own words. I’ll just excerpt from news reports:
A quarter of a million people from around the world gathered in Tel Aviv today to march in the largest ever pride parade in the Middle East [the city’s 20th annual one, attracting 50,000 more people than last year’s].
Voted the world’s “Best [***] City” for [attendees of the parade], Tel Aviv’s Pride Parade is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading [***] events [of its kind], attracting thousands of visitors from around the globe. The parade marked the end of a two-week-long festival…. Celebrations are expected to continue throughout the weekend, with massive after-parties attracting tens of thousands of partygoers.
Two days after the parade, Benjamin Netanyahu told a gathering of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) to applause, “There’s only one state in the Middle East that welcomes [these people] … where [they] walk proudly on a Tel Aviv beach and participate here, in our Knesset deliberations, in our government.” Tel Aviv-Yafo Mayor Ron Huldai [whose municipality helped fund the events] said: “Tel Aviv, which has already been acknowledged as the world’s ‘most [***] friendly city’… will continue to… act as a welcoming destination for the International [***] community.” *US ambassador to Israel David Friedman tweeted, “I am proud of everyone who is marching in the Parade in support of diversity and equality.”
Writing a weekly column read by many Jews has its advantages. But it also imposes, at times, a very great responsibility, which I, and anyone similarly situated, dare not shirk.
Hashem is described at times as being the greatest of ilmim, mutes, for He stands silently by, even as the unthinkable takes place, whether during the Churban Beis Hamikdash (Gittin 56b) or during an event like this one. But just as in Nishmas, we say that Hashem is meisiach ilmim, giving verbal expression to those mortals who cannot speak, so too are we given the opportunity and responsibility to say on His behalf that which, given the nature of This World, He does not.
I believe that at this moment in time, this is the responsibility: It cannot be that in all of the vast expanse of the contemporary frum media, not a word is written and not one voice is raised, even softly, even for a fleeting moment, to object in the Name of G-d and His People. For Him, for us, if for no one else.
We object.
Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 716. Eytan Kobre may be contacted directly at kobre@mishpacha.com
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* Did the Ambassador have to be “proud”? Did he have to say anything at all?
Rabbi Mizrachi shlit”a said "those who stood with Korach, went down with Korach" and 'those who stood by and clapped at the incident of the Golden Calf even though they didn’t dance and frolic received what they deserved via the Leviim' (what he said in my words).
4 comments:
I pointed out the exact same thing on June 10th, here:
https://israeltruthtimes.blogspot.com/2018/06/blood-curdling-news-from-gaza-part-iii.html
Was also troubled by that event on Tel Aviv beach, at the same time would like to believe many of the 250k are not necessarily of that persuasion themselves or necessarily supportive of this agenda.
Rather they likely see it as an excuse to party akin to a Rainbow equivalent of saint paddy's day or any other now secularized holiday/festival devoid of all original (religious/political) meaning, funny enough those who engage in that abominable way of life themselves are actually angry that so many normal people are attending such events just as an excuse to have fun.
It is still be condemned for even happening in any part of Eretz HaKodesh, even if many of those who attended were only there to party rather then approve the agenda of the event.
HAVE YOU SEEN THE LATEST, An AD FOR SEMINAR/DISCUSSION PRINTED IN THE JPOST:
LGBT
and the future of
J U D A I S M
It’s About Much More Than S-x.
This groundbreaking discussion will explore how
an ancient religion ultimately responds to the modern world
and we can navigate the conflict between traditional prohibitions
and the reality of people’s personal experience
as well as between loyalty to a way of life
and the question of fairness and equality for
every human being.
Held at the Hartman Institute, Jerusalem
*As one woman told me how her female relative is marrying another female, and they explained to her that NOW we are living NOW in the "modern world" and 50% will be straight and 50% will be gay. This is against the Torah and the laws of G–D, beside being not the natural way how G–D created people. One needs to be careful and select their friends and acquaintances very carefully.
That this is occurring in Eretz Hakodesh is beyond, don't even know what to say!
But what we can be assured of as sure as there's the Heavens Above and the earth below, what awaits these wicked people will outdo the Great Flood and all the punishments that followed. Because the worst part of this is that there are so many flaunting & proud of their evil in H's holy Land; therefore, now at war with the Ribbono Shel Olam!
H' yerachem!
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