Violence?! G-d forbid! We're Jews!
On the categorically nonsensical and overwhelmingly Xian approach to the use of force.
A blogger with a modicum of followers recently posted an apple so worm-rotted and icky, we just had to respond.
Before anyone, you know... thought to take a bite.
To sum, this blogger's post campaigned against fisticuffs, guns and rebelliousness, in general — unless, of course, the assailant was preparing to plunge the dagger into your carotid conduit and you had no choice.
Kind of like that old joke Rav Kahane wheeled out regarding the difference between Muslims and Jews that we've pictorialized below —
Yes, the Mohammedan invokes his gawd when he endeavors to kill the Jew.
While the Jew, by contrast, invokes his G-d when preparing to die.
It's a bit dark, admittedly, but it speaks directly to the Jewish nonsense spouted by this otherwise spirited and sometimes intrepid and entertaining blogger.
Is the Jew Craven and Wheyfaced by Nature?
Yet it’s not with Rav Kahane that we intend to commence our screed today, but rather with the Chofetz Chaim.
Because, as is widely known, the Chofetz Chaim is considered in orthodox Jewish circles to be a grenade-launching, kung-fu master of low blows and eye-gouging nonpareil.
Right…?
So, what did the Chofetz Chaim say?
Well, in a discussion relating to the Russian-Jewish association of communists known as the yevsektsiya, who were not at all well-disposed towards Judaism and its adherents, but were neither plunging daggers into their necks, he remarked...
“Jews [in the Soviet Union] made a mistake when the edicts of the yevsektsia began. They should have gone right into battle against them, with dedication and self-sacrifice, ready to give their lives.
Many, indeed, would have been killed, but Satan’s power would have been weakened. No one could be found, however, ready to sacrifice himself in battle; and so the yevsektsia grew stronger.”
Wait a minute!
Fight?
Against Jews?
And many would have been killed?
The Chofetz Chaim?
Yup.
Sorry to disappoint you, friends…
Apparently, there’s a time to go stick it to them evil Jews.
Even if it means you have to risk your life.
By the way, the Chofetz Chaim was also a posek of some repute.
Ho-ho! Onward!
Rav Elchanan Wasserman, Hashem Yakom Damo, advised his students in the inter-war years —
“…to physically fight against them [anti-Torah, communist Jews] with arms. To prepare oneself to kill.”
Oh, my…!
And Rav Kook, in between all the luvy-duvy nonsense that his less-than-honest adherents love to quote, wrote:
“All these practical activities, that the esteemed Torah
scholar thinks of, will find their place and at times will be appropriate, to defend by force, against the rubbish of the worst elements of the ”Erev Rav” that have awakened in our days, the days of the footsteps of the messiah”.
Yes: “by force.”
But wait; there’s more!
Again, regarding the Erev Rav…
“One that lacks the feeling of hatred towards the wicked is in a situation where the bad qualities, actions, and the bad ideologies can be attached to oneself and damage oneself. And even though by means of the great sweetening power of kindness, the light goes and is shined also upon the wicked, nevertheless, it is fitting to grab hold of the familiar trait of militancy, that internally recognizes hatred for the extremely wicked individuals, who raise their hands against the Torah”.
Wait a cotton-pickin’ minute!
Rav Kook?
Grab hold of militancy?
Against Jews?
Whoa…
There’s more, friends…
The blogger in question happens to be a chasid of Rav Berland.
So it behooves the blogger to know that Rav Berland was renowned in the early days of Shuvu Banim (the rabbi’s yeshiva, located in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City) for sending his bochurim to beat senseless any Arab they found in close proximity to the premises.
And some who were not so close!
Yes, it was gratuitous.
And it was regular.
And the blogger should inquire with some of the old-timers in the yeshiva if the blogger wants first-hand accounts of the good old days.
Better yet, the blogger might inquire with the Rav himself regarding his position on violence toward Arabs and the Erev Rav scum who rule the medina.
The blogger might be surprised by his response.
And now this —
The mishna (Berachot 9:5) states: ‘Love Hashem your L-rd with all your heart’ (Devarim 6:5) : With your two impulses, good and evil.
And the peirush, according to Rabbeinu Yona, who wrote THE book on teshuva, Shaarei Teshuva, (among other works), is as follows —
We can say that the good impulse is for such traits as mercy and that the evil impulse was created for cruelty. When one shows the evildoers no pity and is cruel to them, he does a great mitzvah, serving G-d with his evil
impulse.
Hoo-hoo!
That’s Judaism, friends!
Cruelty to evildoers.
And that’s also serving G-d.
Unless you or your rav have a problem with the saintly Rabbeinu Yona.
We close again with the Chofetz Chaim, because we believe his mean-spiritedness should always carry the day.
The bullying he-man Kahanist wrote as follows:
But if he is standing in a place that has Apikorsim that rise up against the Torah and wish to enact some regulations in the matters of the city, and by means of this they will bring the people to transgress the will of G-d; and he opened in peace, and his words were not obeyed. In such a situation the Beit Yosef did not speak at all. And it is a mitzvah to hate them and quarrel with them and nullify their plotting with all that he has the ability to do.
You heard right.
All that he has the ability to do.
Would that include…?
Oh my goodness, no.
Heaven forfend!
It couldn’t be.
Get it right, good Jews and Noahides — to everything there is a season.
Even for violence.
Even against the Erev Rav evildoers who currently run the show.
Even if it costs us our lives.
Dean Maughvet