going home ... to yerushalayim: Rabbi Weissman: Eliyahu Hanavi Hasheker and the Death of Religious Zionism

12 August 2025

Rabbi Weissman: Eliyahu Hanavi Hasheker and the Death of Religious Zionism — Loads of Material

Eliyahu Hanavi Hasheker and the Death of Religious Zionism — Loads of Material

Rav Wasserman #2: The false hopes of the IDF, Zionism, Trump, and much more

Last night was part two in my new series of classes on the prophetic teachings of Rav Elchonon Wasserman. Among the many essential topics we covered:

Why the IDF, the Israeli leadership, and Trump must fail the Jewish people
The Vilna Gaon: A hint in the Torah that the Jewish people will be led by the Erev Rav when they return to Eretz Yisrael, before the redemption
A clear prophecy that sinful Zionist leaders and the rotten fruit they produce prevent redemption, and certainly won’t be the ones responsible for it
Are the leaders of the Jewish people even Jewish?
The war against Torah study and yeshivos

This is straight Torah truth that you won’t get from Arutz Sheva, the Jewish Press, or even the “haredi” media, which is also controlled by the same Erev Rav.

The recording is embedded above and on Rumble here. Make good use of the share button. That’s the minimum hishtadlus

A couple of people informed me that the essay of Rav Wasserman that we are currently studying is actually available in English. It was published in 1968 as a short book called Epoch of the Messiah. Although the book is out of print, it is available for free download here. It is an excellent translation, and I highly recommend you read it and share it widely.

Of course, this does not make my upcoming classes on this essay obsolete. But you don’t have to wait for me to read and translate it over the next few weeks, and you shouldn’t.

Eliyahu Hanavi Hasheker and the Death of Religious Zionism

Religious Zionism is a perverse, diseased cult, rooted in kefira, and it is being decimated before our eyes. Its most idealistic, well-intentioned members are being destroyed mentally, physically, and spiritually. They are performing mass ritual suicide to maintain a delusion about the un-Jewish State of Israel, no matter the cost, on behalf of a regime that treats them and everything they care about with contempt.

All that remains of their ideology is melodramatic rallying cries borrowed from Torah literature and Jewish history as they commit Hara-kiri.

It is hard for me to blame the rank and file Religious Zionists, who are victims more than anything else. I attended some of their finest institutions, and felt a strong affinity for their communities despite never really fitting in or casting my lot with them (cultism of any kind was never for me, no matter the price, which largely explains why I rejected the haredi variety too).

Religious Zionists really want to fight for the Jewish people. The best of them are passionately religious and willing to make extreme sacrifices for their ideals (the median, though, are by now only casually and culturally frum, at best). My contempt for their behavior during Covid and beyond is laced with sadness. I don’t want them to be destroyed.

But they have been marinated in lies and propaganda from the cradle, sold a false bill of goods by an evil regime, taught a distorted Torah by regime-serving rabbis, and kept in check with powerful social pressure. They have sold out everything they ever believed in to serve an Erev Rav regime that has sold them out in return, over and over again.

The evil shepherds bear the greatest responsibility for the straying of the sheep — and their day will come — but the sheep are paying the price for refusing to learn the easy way or even the hard way. Good intentions are not an impenetrable bulwark from consequences, and you only get so many miracles before your merits run out. Upwards of 20,000 maimed and killed IDF Molech sacrifices in less than two years, with nothing by Pyrrhic victories and empty promises to show for it, is more than enough evidence of that, and no amount of rhetoric scapegoating the “haredim” will make the truth go away.

Arutz Sheva is one of the main propaganda organs targeting the Religious Zionist world, a mouthpiece for the enemy from within, disguised as one of us. I used to trust them as a purveyor of news and perspective, and even used to write for them. I could have had a very successful career taking selfies on Har Habayis and writing pro-Israel crap for brainwashed Jews and Evangelical Christians, if only I believed in Religious Zionism or was willing to sell out and pretend.

Instead I unilaterally cut ties with Arutz Sheva and every media outlet I used to write for, choosing independence with integrity, even if it means a smaller reach. I never cared if my outspokenness made me unhireable as a rabbi or virtually unmarriageable in the Orthodox Jewish world (indeed, the only segment of the human population I can halachically marry is the least likely to even consider me). If that isn’t mesiras nefesh and bitachon, tell me what is.

I have made that choice over and over again throughout my life, and you can count on one hand the number of rabbis (or anyone else) you know who are willing to do that even if the stakes are small. So, like it or not, my perspective should not be casually dismissed.

With this in mind, let’s pinch our noses and take a look at Shmuel Eliyahu’s latest shenanigans.

Shmuel Eliyahu is a high priest of the Religious Zionist cult. He has a cushy job for the state, no doubt well-paid, while pretending to be “our guy” standing up to the leadership (somehow without ever losing his cushy state job), all part of the color war theatre in which he plays a leading role. Controlled opposition 101.

Naturally, Eliyahu is a media darling of Arutz Sheva. It is no coincidence that certain rabbis are frequently boosted by the controlled media, to the extent that they are essentially media creations, while other rabbis who are superior to them in scholarship, character, and merit remain largely unknown. That’s what happens when the Erev Rav control the seats of power and the flow of information.

They don’t only choose your political leaders; they choose your spiritual leaders.

That’s why a letter Eliyahu wrote to Hesder students who are enlisting for Molech sacrifice was a featured news item on Arutz Sheva. The letter is neither erudite nor true to the Torah, but it serves the agenda — that is the main criteria for publication.

Let’s dissect and dismantle it.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/413101

Safed Chief Rabbi publishes letter to dozens of yeshiva students from the Hesder yeshivas who are currently enlisting in combat service. 'You are part of the army of David, of Mattathias, and Bar Kochba!.'

"Hear O Israel!" Rabbi Eliyahu opens the letter with the eternal call of the anointed priest of war. "Even if you have no merit other than the recitation of the Shema — it is enough to save you. All this is because you are enlisting with responsibility, courage, self-sacrifice, and mutual responsibility."

Eliyahu is referring to a Gemara in Sotah 42a, which indeed states that the merit of saying Shema in the morning and evening is enough to protect Jewish soldiers from falling into the hands of their enemies.

The problem is that upwards of 20,000 Jewish soldiers in less than two years, many of whom were surely punctilious about reciting Shema, demonstrate that it is not nearly so simple. As with many teachings of Chazal of this nature, it is not an ironclad guarantee, nor a promise with no strings attached.

Indeed, just a page later on 43a the Gemara teaches that soldiers would be sent home from the camp if they were afraid of their own sins (and who among us can honestly say they aren’t?) On 44b the Gemara adds that even if one spoke out while putting on his tefillin — which would seem like a trivial matter in the grand scheme of things — it is a sin in his hands, and he would go back from the military camp because of it.

[Of course, the brainwashed mob screeching for everyone (that is, haredim) to be forced into the IDF by whatever means necessary, the more draconian and cruel the better, ignore the fact that the Torah makes it so easy in so many ways for so many people to be sent home from the army — even our best soldiers — without anyone being entitled to bear so much as a grudge against them.]

Now, it is certain that these Jews who are disqualified from military participation (I won’t call it “service”) said Shema twice a day. So why are they sent home for their sins? Isn’t Shema a guarantee all by itself that they will be protected? Clearly not. Shema provides a very strong merit all by itself, but this merit can be neutralized by sins and other factors.

Shmuel Eliyahu deceitfully hijacked one source while omitting a neighboring source that provides critical context, so Hesder students who don’t know any better will believe they are invincible.

Arutz Sheva / Eliyahu continues: Rabbi Eliyahu reminds the young recruits of their place in the chain of generations. "Today, you are part of the army of Israel for all generations! All the armies of previous generations, from the times of Moses and Joshua, are with you.

What a bunch of nonsense. What does that even mean? Are the dead soldiers fighting with the living soldiers?

You are part of the army of David, of Mattathias, and Bar Kochba! It is you whom the prophet Michah prophesied about, saying, 'And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep.'"

Fun fact #1: The army of David was one minute away from mutiny after a general sent a single soldier into a death trap under the guise of an “operational failure”. I wrote about it here. Can we get a comment from Shmuel Eliyahu?

Fun fact #2: The army of Mattathias fought primarily against JEWISH HELLENISTS who were collaborating with the Greeks to wage war on Torah-observant Jews from within. Who would they be fighting today?

Fun fact #3: The army of Bar Kochba was annihilated for being confident in their own might, and turning away from Hashem (despite surely saying Shema every day). Not exactly role models a true Torah leader would be invoking.

"Do not have mercy on the cruel enemy," he cautioned. "Before you stands a cruel enemy, and if you fall into their hands, they will not have mercy on you. Do not have mercy on him, have mercy on your brothers!" He further quotes the stern warning of the Talmudic sages: "Whoever is merciful to the cruel, in the end, becomes cruel to the merciful."

Fun fact: Hesder cannon fodder have no say in the matter. If, despite all the handicaps imposed upon them by internal enemies, they miraculously overcome their external enemies, they better be careful not to take out too many valuable executioners for the next October 7, or they might be prosecuted by the state.

The Rabbi assures the recruits that the Divine Presence is with them. "The Lord is within the camp of Israel... the Lord is within every soldier and fighter. Therefore, it will be fulfilled in you: 'And all the peoples of the earth will see that the name of the Lord is called upon you, and they will fear you.'"

Once again Eliyahu engages in one his trademark half-citations and distortions. “The Lord is within the camp of Israel” comes from Devarim 23:15. It’s the first half of the pasuk. Eliyahu conveniently forgot to quote the second half:

“And your camp shall be holy; there shall not be seen among you a vulgar matter, whereby He will turn away from you.”

Anything vulgar going on in the IDF? Is the IDF a comfortable dwelling place for the Shechina? Do I need to elaborate?

Again, upwards of 20,000 maimed and killed Jewish soldiers in less than two years are evidence enough that Hashem is clearly unhappy with something going on inside the camp (and it’s not a “manpower shortage”). Eliyahu’s assurances of divine protection ring hollow, and are most irresponsible.

The Rabbi also reminds them of Abigail’s words to King David, promising the recruits: "Whoever fights the wars of the Lord will merit to build a proper house in Israel, he and his children for eternity, and he will merit the life of the world to come. His soul will be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord your G–D."

Another promise that clearly has strings attached, that snake-oil salesmen forget to mention.

"You are called 'Israel,'" Rabbi Eliyahu writes to them — "because when you wear the IDF uniform, you set aside your personal needs. You give up comfort, studies, family, and friends — and place before you the needs of the people of Israel."

Lovely little pep talk, but clearly false on every level.

You know what the people of Israel really need? A massive bi’ur chametz and return to Hashem.

For more on Eliyahu’s history of distorting Torah sources, and even fabricating them, in service of those who butter his bread, see the following articles:

going home ... to yerushalayim

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12 August 2025

Rabbi Weissman: Eliyahu Hanavi Hasheker and the Death of Religious Zionism — Loads of Material

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