MY THOUGHTS ON PARSHAT EIKEV

In parshat Eikev we read:

“It was at the end of forty days and forty nights that Hashem gave me the two stone Tablets, the Tablets of the covenant. Then Hashem said to me, “Arise, descend quickly from here, for the people that you took out of Egypt has become corrupt: they have strayed quickly from the way that |I commanded them: they have made themselves a molten image”

Hashem said to me, saying, “I have seen this people, and behold! It is a stiff-necked people. Release Me, and I shall destroy them and erase their name from under the heavens, and I shall make you a mightier, more numerous nation than they!”

Our sages say that it was only the erev rav who committed idolatry with the golden calf and a small percentage of the Jews from the tribe of Shimon. So why was Hashem so angry? Angry enough to wipe out the entire Jewish people. Every single Jew except Moshe! Was no one innocent? No. No one was innocent because even those who didn’t participate stood by did nothing to stop it.

...there were Jews, few though they were, who were guilty of idolatry. The rest of the people did not resist the Eirev Rav or the Jewish worshippers. this constituted either sidlent acquiescence or lack of faith, which was a condemnation of the nation as a whole. (Ki Tisa 32:7-10)

Aharon had exposed the shame of the people, for not only the sinners were at fault, but those whose failure to repond had made it possible. This revealed the ignominy of the nation, for they had been disloyal to God and Moshe. (Commentary on Ki Tisa 32:25)

Only after Moshe completely destroyed the golden calf, as our sages said
For as long as the sin was still in existence, it came under the category of “the warped which cannot be repaired”(Koheles 1:15;seeChaggigah9)

and fasted and prayed for 40 days and 40 nights, did Hashem show mercy and only those who were guilty of outright idolatry died.

We can see how severely Hashem views idolatry or the pretense of it.

Moshe stood at the gateway of the camp, and said, "Whoever is for Hashem, join me!"

Moshe asked the Jews to make a decision and stop straddling the fence. Their response showed the depth of their spiritual fall, for only the Levites stepped forward: though the rest of the people were loyal to G-d, they would not dedicate themselves uncompromisingly to His service.(Commentary on Ki Tisa 32:26)

There are many Jews who do not “cling” to the goyim but they see their neighbors hosting xians, bringing them on tours to their communities and accepting donations (bribes) from them and they disapprove but do nothing and say nothing. There is no sitting on the fence when it comes to Am Yisrael you have to choose a side. If you aren’t on the side of Hashem and Torah you are on the side of evil. When some of Am Yisrael sin we are all held responsible and we are all punished. We have a mitzvah to rebuke our brother and an obligation to remove the evil from within our midst.

From here emerges the fundamental contrast between the thinking of G-d and the alien culture of the nations and the assimilationists among our own people. In G-d's Torah, tolerance toward evil is inappropriate and impossible. There does not exist any concept of coexistence between good and evil. Quite the contrary , an oft repeated decree and command is this: "Destroy the evil from your midst! Destroy evil from Israel!"(Deut. 13:6;17:7,12;19:19;21:21;22:21-22,24;24:7). Time and time again, G-d commands us regarding the need to separate between good and evil, so as to eradicate the evil from our midst.(Or HaRa'ayon)

TORAH TRUE JEWS DO NOT SUPPORT GLENN BECK

No one who supports Glenn Beck and his rallies ever says "the Torah says" or "the halachah says". They all say "I feel" or "I think". Torah true Jews base their thoughts and actions on halachah so here is the halachah.

Lets start with Jews calling Beck a righteous gentile. He is not.

The Rambam says:

Anyone who accepts upon himself the fulfillment of these Seven mitzvoth and is precise in their observance is considered one of the Pious among the Gentiles and will merit a share in the world to Come. This applies only when he accepts them and fulfills them because the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded them in the torah and informed us through Moses, our teacher, that even previously, Noah's descendents were commanded to fulfill them. However, if he fulfills them out of intellectual conviction,he is not a resident alien, nor of the Pious among the Gentiles, nor of their wise men.**(Hilchot Melachim U'Milchamoteihem 8:11)

Any xian will tell you they are not "under the law" meaning Hashem doesn't "command" them to fulfill any mitzvot. Any mitzvah they do, they will tell you, is because their false god yeshu did them or told his followers to do them.

**this principal may be derived from the Mishnah's statement (Sanhedrin 90a) that Bilaam will not receive a share in the world to come.

Bilaam was the prophet of the goyim, he believed in Hashem and Hashem spoke to him. He even "blessed Israel" three times with blessings. Yet according to our Sages he was not a righteous gentile nor does he have a place in the world to come.

Mormon's believe there are many gods and each person can choose which to worship, which is why Beck can say,

"Things will be okay if you live your life in accordance with the God of your understanding".

Mormon's also believe that every human being has the capability to reach godhood. This makes Beck an idolator.

In Sefer HaMitzvot it is written,

It is a negative commandment
213.not to turn astray after idol-worship, neither in thought nor in word, nor even by watching

426.to show no mercy to idol-worshippers
(that we should have no kind feelings for those who worship idols, and nothing about them should be good or pleasing in our eyes; in other words, we should remove far from our mind, and it should not[ever] arise in our speech, that there could be anything of value in one who worships in idolatry, and he should find no grace or favor in our eyes)

436.the precept to destroy an idol and all objects in its service
(at the root of the lies the purpose of eradicating the name of idolatry and every memory of it from the world)

STOP LOOKING TO THE GOYIM FOR PROTECTION AND SALVATION

Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in control of everything and he is perfectly just, so when tragedy strikes Am Yisrael we should look within to see what have we done to cause Hashem to do this. Instead of thinking in this manner, there are those of us who think we are perfect and that the terrible things that happen to us are for no reason and they look to the goyim to save us from an invisible evil force that controls our enemies. There are those who think that if we have more "friends" to speak for us politically or to support us financially we can be saved from our enemies. To believe that someone or something besides Hashem is in control of the terrible things that happen to us is a form of idolatry. My fear is that if Jews put their faith in the goyim then Hashem will have to prove that they cannot save us and we as a people will all suffer.

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WORDS OF WISDOM

"The sum of the matter, when all all has been considered: Fear God and keep his commandments, for that is man's whole duty. For God will judge every deed -even everything hidden- whether good or evil." Kohelet 12:13,14

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COMMENT ON JEWISH ISRAEL POST

The following is my comment on the post "Now there arose new rabbis in Israel who knew not the Rav - Part 2" from JewishIsrael.

This is not a new phenomenon. We learn from Melachim Bet chapter 17 the King of Assyria brought foreigners and settled them in the Shomron. These people were idolators and Hashem sent lions to attack them. When this happened the people told the King that they didn't know the law of the G-d of the land so he sent a Kohen to teach them. It is interesting to note that the Kohen settled in Bet-El. According to the commentary the Kohen realized he couldn't convince the people to give up their idols so he allowed them to continue serving their idols but as intermediaries not deities. They feared Hashem but they continued to worship their own g-ds in addition to Hashem. We see these foreigners later in Ezra chapter 4 when we come back to the land from Bavel to rebuild the Beit HaMikdash.

Ezra 4:1
The enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of the exile were building a Sanctuary for Hashem, God of Israel. They approached Zerubbal and the heads of families and said to them, "Let us build with you, for, like you, we will seek your God; it is to Him that we have been sacrificing since the days of Esar-haddon, king of Assyria, who brought us up here." But Zerubbabel, along with Jeshua and the rest of the family heads of Israel, said to them, "It is not for you together with us to build a Temple for our God; rather we by ourselves will build it, for Hashem, God of Israel, as King Cyrus king of Persia has commanded us."

According to the commentary, these people had adopted a distorted form of the Jewish religion worshiping Hashem along with their gods.

Sound familiar? Is not the slogan of the so-called "xian zionists", "we worship the God of Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov just like you"?

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PREPARING FOR ELUL

"The ways of God are straight.

The tzaddik uses them for progress;

The rebel comes to failure by them."

(Hoshea 14:10)

The ways of God are straight. There should be no possibility of taking the wrong turn. There are no turns. But if one does not want the truth... If one rebels... Even the ways of God, even the precious gifts of God can lead to failure.
When one is making progress in the life of the spirit many doors open before him. But there is no standing still. If one thinks one is standing still, in truth he is falling. This is our situation. We are falling continuously, but we don't know it. There is nothing worse that this.
The very "ways of God" used by the tzaddik as a means of progress lead to failure when used by the rebel. Everything is a test. The very means given by God to achieve aliyah- spiritual ascent -can be used by the yetzer ha-ra for the opposite.
(Michtav Me'Eliyahu, Rabbi Eliyahu E Dessler)

FAST FOOD RELIGION-1,000,000 CONVERTED

There are rabbis among Am Yisrael that believe we should take a "McDonalds" approach to "converting" the goyim. These "rabbis" say we have a mission to be a "light to the nations" and we are following in the footsteps of our father Avraham when we act like "missionaries" and go out to the goyim to forcefeed them Torah. These rabbis want to twist the Torah and even throw out halachah to make it more palatable to the goyim. Well I have three words for them "quality over quantity"!

Bereishis 17:3 Abram fell on his face: Abraham's life goal was to bring all the nations to faith in the Living God. As is known, he would attract passersby by offering them drinks, and then some would heed his call to convert. But when he heard the new condition for conversion, namely circumcision, he was seized with trembling, for henceforth his goal would be beyond reach. What fool would listen to him to undergo an operation on his own flesh? Abraham fell on his face in great anguish, like a man whose ship had sunk at sea. This is what is behind Chazal's statement (Breishit Rabbah Ch.46), "Before I underwent circumcision they would come and join me, but who will come now that I am circumcised?" God answered him:

Bereishis 17:4 As for me this is my covenant with you. I do not need a lot of "converts," who come to "look for God" among the food and drink, and who are unwilling to shed their blood on the altar of faith. It is sufficient for Me that you keep My covenant. I am content to have one believer like you, who goes through fire and water to sanctify My Name.

(Insights in the Torah/Bereishis, Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin)

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