Tuesday, July 19, 2016

dear Ramaz graduates...

From a petition:


Rabbi Lookstein, all the good work you’ve done in your life – everything you’ve done for your community, for the plight of Soviet Jews – will be flushed down the toilet for ten minutes on stage in Cleveland. This is the single action history will remember you by, and history will not be kind.

Dear Ramaz Graduates,
 
I originally was going to begin this post by saying that this single petition, which a few hundred misguided souls put your signatures on, is the action history will remember you by, and history will not be kind.  However, I think that is as wrong as saying that Rabbi Lookstein's speech would have defined his career. 
 
You espouse the rhetoric of tolerance, protesting for the Mexicans and Muslims who you claim Trump will harm, but in truth, you stand for intolerance.   You stand against the right of free speech, the right of Rabbi Lookstein to simply to deliver an invocation at a political gathering. You speak of celebrating diversity, but want to silence views that you disagree with.
 
You stand against giving the leader of your community the benefit of the doubt, something he undoubtedly has earned through decades of service to the Jewish community, and instead would judge and condemn him for taking a position at odds with your own.  
 
If you reject Trump, with whom do you stand?
 
Do you support the Democrat party, which considered labeling Israel an "occupying force" and whose committee charged with formulating policy includes BDS supporters like Cornell West?
 
Perhaps you forgot this scene from the last DNC convention?
 
 
Or perhaps you forgot the DNC and Hillary Clinton's support of eliminating sanctions on Iran, allowing them to develop weapons that can be used against Israel and giving them access to funds that are used to support terrorism?

You seem to confuse bombastic rhetoric, which Mr. Trump is perhaps guilty of, with bombastic policy and actions that have led to the death of your fellow Jews, and indeed, to the death of thousands the world over. 

5 comments:

  1. you are right, but sometimes I can't resist.

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  2. I heard in the name of the Brisker Rov, that there is an apparent problem in
    "שלושה היו באותה עצה – בלעם, יתרו ואיוב. בלעם שיעץ נהרג, איוב ששתק התיסר, יתרו שברח בניו מיושבי לשכת הגזית"

    Bila'am suffered death [without getting into kabbala] 250 years later for advising Par'oh how to destroy the Jews,
    But Iyov, who was silent, suffered such terrible pain, physically and emotionally, that without HaShem keeping him alive he would not have survived. How is this fair?

    Says the Brisker Rov: Iyov justified himself by saying that he was absolutely against Par'oh's plans, but he felt that objecting would not accomplish anything. So, he didn't support Bil'am, but didn't object either.
    When he was screaming in agony in his year of suffering, HaShem asked him, "Why are you screaming? It doesn't accomplish anything." Replied Iyov, "Because it hurts!"

    Said HaShem, "You see, when something hurts, you scream." It doesn't have to accomplish anything, but when you're in pain, you scream.

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  3. Chaim posted that vort several years ago here http://divreichaim.blogspot.com/2010/12/time-to-cry-out.html

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    Replies
    1. Sadly, I wasn't really following this blog that long ago.

      I must say, he is a na'eh doresh and na'eh mekayem.

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