‘Shavuot 2011: obscenities as words of Torah’

‘Shavuot 2011: obscenities as words of Torah’

A number of us have taken notice of a disturbing YouTube video (click below, on this page) that Haaretz columnist, Yossi Sarid (leader of the Meretz party from ’97 until 2003) writes about:

‘This isn’t the Torah we received. Since that time, Israel has been swallowed up by the Land of Israel and disappeared inside its maw.’

Go to your computer right now and watch the frightening video clip posted on YouTube as a memento of Jerusalem Day (it’s called “Yom Yeru 2011” ). Not a handful, but hundreds of young people high on hard-core nationalism wave blue-and-white flags….

“Death to the Arabs, death to the leftists,” they chanted. “The Temple will be rebuilt, the mosque will be destroyed.” “Kahane lives, Mohammed is dead.” “Itbach al-Arab” (“Death to the Arabs” in Arabic ). …

While I was roaming Jerusalem’s streets, another mob was gathering at the city’s Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, with rabbis Shmuel Eliyahu of Safed and Dov Lior of Hebron among the guests. The former demands Israel be purged of Arabs, while the latter endorses a book that justifies killing gentiles, urges soldiers to disobey orders and refuses to show up for questioning by the police.

Nowadays, every obscenity is treated as ‘words of Torah.’ A bill was even submitted for discussion to the cabinet that would permit incitement by rabbis, and rabbis only. …

Jerusalem Day ends, and Shavuot arrives — the holiday I once loved above all others for its graciousness and compassion. …

Our education minister, Gideon Sa’ar, is also living in the Book of Joshua, as if the Torah had no other books…. Of all the possible nationwide school trips, he chose to join the first visit by students to the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, to support his new program, “Visits to the Land of Our Fathers.” A few months ago, he threatened a principal with dismissal because he proposed teachers take a tour of army checkpoints. …

… Sa’ar surely explained to the visiting students how the Jewish settlement was established in “Kiryat Arba, which is Hebron” as a plot against the government; how the settlers there beat up soldiers and policemen and spat on their neighbors; how the people who dwell by the Cave of the Patriarchs make pilgrimages to the grave of the Jewish murderer Baruch Goldstein, and sanctify his name in public; how the Torah handed down at Sinai authorized us to dispossess, deport and seal houses; and why a Hebron market street stands empty.

Shavuot is blessed with a beautiful megillah, the Book of Ruth. I sometimes wonder how Ruth managed to worm her way into the Book of Books; perhaps the Song of Songs paved the way for her. It could never happen today. The Education Ministry and Mercaz Harav would never consent. … [This links to Sarid’s entire column, “Shavuot 2011: obscenities as words of Torah.”]

By | 2011-06-08T18:50:00-04:00 June 8th, 2011|Blog|0 Comments

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