RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:ZEALOTS,SACARII,IN ISRAEL AND TALMUD CLASS
The below was written by Marty, a Talmid, a student, in our Jewish Spiritual Renewal Class, at Hebrew College, MA, USA, via Shamash Org on-line class, also taking an on- line class in the Talmud elsewhere. There appears to be some ego at play with some of the students and even the teacher, showing jealousy at two others posting wonderful responsa , quite academic, and researched. The rabbi (teacher) appeared to get quite intimidated and actually banned a rabbi from participating in her class and told him and another student, a pre-rabbinic student from South America, to ''go blog somewhere else.''
Marty , tired of this Korach behavior, and tired of Jew vs Jew, like a Mad Magazine version of Spy Vs Spy, except without the humor, wrote a heart felt post to his class mates and Rabbi-teacher asking for an end to this silly egotistically pettiness, and asking them to make teshuvah. Basically he is calling on them, the Haredi, etc to practice what we preach, and for all Jews to behave as Jews.
Shalom v' Shlema , peace and wholeness, my dear chaverim and my dear Rabbi XXXXXX:
I write this with sadness in my heart, but with love for all of you, with ahavath israel, and with understand the edict that all Jews are responsible for each other.
If there seems to be any ongoing theme of this class, at least for the past months, it is that our members clearly see what the rabbis are telling us...that we cause our own problems....both individually and as a people, when we are not integrated.
This is why the sages did not damn the Babylonians but laid the blame of the first Temple's destruction and the first exile in the laps of the Hebrews who not only worshiped Ba'al. but politically did not get along and split Solomon's strong untied kingdom into fractions.
And why, the sages, put the blame on the Second Temple's destruction and the Diaspora itself on Jews not getting along with Jews and living by the letter of the Hebraic law and not by the spirit of Talmudic law.
We learned about Tammuz 17 where our own King Menashe brought idols into the Temple, long before the Syrian-Greeks or the Romans wanted to do so. We learned about Lag B'omer when the plaque stopped that killed 24,000 of Rabbis Akiva's rabbinic students and rabbis who followed him because they did not respect each other.
Now whether these stories are accurate or parables, the lessons are clear. When we inflight amongst ourselves, as individual v individual, as rabbi v rabbi, as temple v shul, as moment v moment, a talmud student v talmud student, we are being like Korach, and we are told both biblically and talmudically not to be fighting amongst ourselves because it will cause hell for us, a living hell...as Korach's and his sons, were heard buried in the dessert sands years later, saying ''Moses was right.''
The below article is about a hareidi Jew, from the word being to be in AWE of God, killing another Jew, who offered protection, to arabs being killed by a mob of crazed hareidim.
While the Talmudic law of the rodef allows us to protect our lives if attacked, to even kill, it specifically says that the attack must end if the assailant runs away. Further, if we see another being attacked, even if they did a crime, like fighting with a store owner, which was not a fatal fight, but that others then escalated to try to kill him, we have an obligation to protect him, even if he is our enemy and his pursuers are our friends.
In what yeshiva are these Hareidi studying? What books are they reading?
And yet in this very Talmud class, where we quote about love you fellow from both Hillel and Avika, I have seen two folks flamed on line publicly, and one, a rabbi, with a brilliant mind, and whom I and others enjoyed reading, told to blog elsewhere, and he was tossed from the class. He never wrote anything but the truth and about God's love for us, and the way we should treat others. And while we talk of teshuvah, no teshuvah has been made to this rabbi, nor to the other fellow, who still posts, Baruch Ha Shem.
When our limbs (our fingers on the keyboards) say one thing, and our hearts say another, and our minds something else entirely, we are not integrated, we are not whole, we are not shlema, and we are never going to know shalom. We cannot be consciously connected to God, as we are in bits and pieces. We can not have Baruch Ha Shem on our letter heads, and end our letters in Shalom, and then toss folks from Torah class because they post wisely.
Our Jewish nation is once again under attack. The Pew report says the number of Jews we loose each year is higher than what the Catholics loose, but they loose them to other Christian sects. We loose ours to Christian sects. Regardless of what interfaith couples promise rabbis who marry them, their kids are not being raised Jewish statistically, and if they are, when investigated, they are being raised with a watered down Judaism.
The greatest gift God has given us, according to Rabbi Ibn Packuda of 1050 CE Spain, is the ability to think, and wisdom. As Jews we are not supposed to accept things on blind faith, even the existence of God, but to see His glory and Abundance for ourselves. Judaism recognized there are many paths to God. We are pluralistic. But we must learn tolerance and ahavah Israel again, and a good start would be in this very Talmud class.
If we do not, we are no better than the majority Jews today , who don;t understand the laws of Talmud, or the essence of Torah, which is about chesed and ahavah, or Jews from 1930 years ago, running around with sica under our robes, stabbing each other.
A wound of a knife, we must do close up, and it may heal. Wounds made by our keyboard, get spread all over, and published, and never can be erased, and continue to hurt and hurt and hurt. Who do they hurt? The one who is the object of the snub? No. The person who did the flaming or did the tossing. They are the ones with the averah and chet, and they are the ones who need to do teshuvah. The rest of us stand idly by and that is our sin. I now have spoken from my heart, and have done my best to fulfill the mitzvah of not standing idly by.
May God bless you all and my prayers for you all to do what is good and right and just in Ha Shem's eyes. Remember, the Talmud says that God says: there is no room in this world for Me and an egotist. Ego Edges God Out. We are to pray each day for God to negate our will to do His will.
Shalom in the world, and in our hearts, and for Ahavath Israel, Amen.
From my Heart,
Marty
Jewish Hariedi Sicarii Stabs Jew who is doing mitzvoth of 'not standing idly by'
''Arabs and Jews Clash, Jew Stabs Jew
by Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel
Arab attackers ran Tuesday from a clash with Orthodox Jews into the home of a Jew, who protected them. He claims that the Orthodox Jews then turned on him.
The conflict broke out when an Arab, in a dispute with a Jewish store owner, began to attack him as well as other Jews nearby. Ynet reported that a yeshiva student said he saw parts of the confrontation. "As far as we know, one of the Arabs had a dispute with the store owner and started beating up people," the student said. "When [Jewish] people who arrived at the site fought [that Arab], more Arabs joined in and assaulted Jews."
Jews in the area quickly responded, and began to retaliate against the Arab attackers. Two Arabs fled, followed by the mob, and burst into the home of the Jew, who was sitting Shiva along with relatives. The man described himself as strong, and physically interposed himself between the Jews and the pair of Arabs. He turned on the Jews chasing them to defend the Arabs.
"Suddenly, while we were sitting shiva because my father-in-law passed away, two Palestinians stormed into the house bleeding and bruised…," said the Jewish man. "Dozens of ultra-Orthodox from the nearby yeshiva entered the backyard and severely beat up the two Palestinians, while we, still shocked, were trying to break it up and protect the Palestinians."
"We waited a few minutes for things to relax, and then my son and I took them out to a nearby alley, so they could go home." Then, according to the man, "two ultra-Orthodox guys from the yeshiva's balcony and yelled: 'Murder the Jews who protect Arabs.'"
The Jewish defenders then came through the yeshiva building and resumed their pursuit of the Arabs.
"They caught them and beat them up terribly," continued the Jewish man. "My son and I were quick to protect them with our bodies…then, two Orthodox men arrived and one told us: 'You're saving Arabs?' They pulled out knives. I managed to grab the arm of one of them, but the second one cut my stomach."
When the Jews saw blood drawn from a fellow Jew, the yeshiva mob began to flee in panic, said the man. A large police force was called to the scene.
The yeshiva student witnessing the event said: "We saw the incident and some of the people chanted against the Jewish guy, who instead of helping the Jews being beaten up helped the Arabs, and even beat up Jews…instead of helping us, he helped them."
Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri, head of the nearby yeshiva, said that the Jews involved in the conflict were not students at his institute, "because there are no young guys here, only older people. It is possible that some of the [Jews] entered our yeshiva compound during the riot, because it is open to anyone."
The rabbi condemned the Jews for retaliating against the Arabs, although he said that he doesn't know exactly how the confrontation began. He suspects, however, that "it wasn't Jews who started it."
"This is a very grave incident. No man must hurt innocents, either Arabs or Jews," said Batzri. "This is against Jewish law. I really hope that they find those who took part in the brawl and bring the attackers to justice."
A hareidi female resident of the neighborhood lamented to Ladaat.Net, "I have heard a few times already about certain boys who give a bad name to both the hareidi public and this specific yeshiva." ''
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