The interviewer repeatedly and aggressively demanded that Minister Yuval Steinitz apologize for the statement made by Deputy Minister of the Interior, MK Yaron Mazuz, towards Arab Knesset members.
The interviewer, Ayala Hasson, had a hard time understanding how such a sentence would sound in our region. "Sit quietly, be grateful that you're here at all," is a sentence that is forbidden to be said to Arabs.
If you are Arab, then this is a racist statement. But if you are Haredi, it is permissible and even desirable to say these kinds of statements to you.
How many times have we heard phrases like "Be grateful that we support you." "We founded the country, who are you anyway?", and so on and so forth. Enough! Enough!
Tired of the double standards. Tired of the here and there. Tired of racist expressions against Haredim not receiving any condemnation. Tired of the media thinking it has the right to continue to manage the people who support it.
Just tired!
Judaism won
""America is no different" – America is no different. This sentence launched the Jewish conquest campaign of the Rebbe of the Rayatz, the previous Rebbe of the Chabad Hasidim in America.
When Jews were ashamed to walk with an beard in America in the early 1940s, when Jews had difficulty keeping the Sabbath and refraining from work and commerce in the capitalist environment, the Rebbe - who managed to escape by the skin of his teeth from the Nazi beast - declared that the "new world" was no different from the one left in Europe.
What is forbidden in Europe is also forbidden in America.
Who would have believed that seventy years later, there would be observant Jews, some of whom would have beards and Haredi attire, all over the United States of America? Who would have believed in those distant days that there would be bearded Orthodox Jewish doctors in large, leading medical centers.
In those days when a bearded Jew in Haredi attire was a symbol of backwardness, poverty, and failure, no one could have imagined the enormous spiritual revolution led by the Rayatz and followed by the Rebbe in progressive and enlightened America.
True. Even today, the Rebbe's emissaries continue to fight the scourge of assimilation. True. Even today, the war between the Haredi public and the Reform and Conservatives continues.
But its very existence confirms the victory of the Jewish spirit over the American permissiveness that made the "I" the center of the world.
This week I stayed in New York at the Rebbe's house, and at the holy Zions of the Rebbe and his father-in-law, the previous Rebbe.
I saw a different America.
I saw Judaism flourishing. I saw Torah classes in the heart of Manhattan's office towers. I saw Jews who gave up on a conservative wedding and chose to marry according to the law of Moses and Israel. I saw women who are not yet observant of Torah and mitzvot, but who are careful to light candles every Sabbath evening. I saw a Jewish awakening among young people on campuses, in shopping malls, in hospitals, and in general.
Momentum War
The Rebbe explained in the past that there are two types of wars.
There is a war of defense and there is a war of offense. In the past, the Jews were required to wage a war of defense. They were forced to defend themselves against the evil spirits that were blowing around them. They were forced to defend themselves against the "educated," the communists, and the other ideologies of the early last century. Jews apologized for their very existence and their faith.
Today, the Rebbe believed, we must move to an offensive war. We must be proud to be Jews and publicly present the Torah and the commandments we received at Mount Sinai. The best defense is an attack.
When Jews who have not yet received the taste of the Torah are attacked through mitzvot and offered a share of the "spoils," they shed their Gentile symbols and want to draw closer to the warm light of authentic Judaism. A Jew is a believer by nature and cannot be separated from his Judaism.
And in the same vein, when observant Jews apologize for their very existence, bowing down to the Gentiles and trying to please them, they lose Jewish superiority and become a poor imitation of Western culture, pathetic, miserable, unable to stand up to unholy Muslim wrath.
Why? Like this!
Our parsha begins with the words "This is the law of the Torah." A law I have enacted and a decree I have decreed, and you have no right to ponder it. This is the will of God.
That's what I said and that's it!
When I was a child and I would cry to my father for denying me a popsicle or even the annual trip, I would lament and ask: "But Dad, why?",
And my father replied naturally: "Because that's what Dad said!""
I didn't understand what I understand today. I didn't understand the meaning of education in the past. Education that unfortunately no longer exists today.
Clear education. Unambiguous. Unapologetic. Not trying to please the child. That's what we have to learn from this episode - the Hokat episode.
Dad doesn't need to apologize and explain. He needs to determine. To chart the path.
Father tells you what to do. Because Father wants what is best for you. Sometimes he explains why and sometimes he commands without any explanation.
When we fulfill the will of God, even when it is above reason and knowledge, we testify to ourselves that we have an innocent and pure faith, as Jews should be. We need nothing more than that!
• Part of the column is based on the talks of the Lubavitcher Rebbe | The writer is the owner of "My Choice", an event host, lecturer, and radio broadcaster. | For comments: [email protected]
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