Hating Evil

There is a video of a speech by a politician that has gone positively viral. It has been appearing and reappearing in my inbox. It is hailed as being "brilliant" and that it is "vitally important" to watch this video. A very popular religious blog run by Orthodox Rabbis featured a transcript of the talk. For better or for worse, I read it. My thoughts?

I think people have gone positively BANANAS!

He is a Mechalel Shabbos which means that according to Jewish law he has the status of a GOY. If he moves a bottle of wine I may no longer drink it as if a goy had touched it. He has done many sins for which he is חייב כרת which means that he is cut off from Hashem [a בועל נדה is חייב כרת - you think his wife goes to mikva?]. He is UNQUESTIONABLY a Rasha with a capital R.

How can I judge another human being? Indeed, ultimately it is G-d's job to judge others but in this world we must know who is evil in order to keep a distance. A long distance. So when davening we should ask Hashem to have mercy on him because he never received a Jewish education and he is a complete ignoramous. We can pity him for being a spiritually empty person. But practically speaking, he deserves scorn and  disdain and not the respect of religious people who are so excited that he admitted that the Charedim "won".

Dovid Hamelech said הלא משנאיך השם אשנא - I hate those who hate You. Rabbeinu Yonah writes that one who views others keeping mitzvos in a negative light is classified as a "hater of Hashem". If he could - he would close down every yeshiva in the country. If he could - he would turn this whole country into an assimilated, secular country. A sonei Hashem [if he believes in Him - he certainly doesn't believe in Torah Mi-sinai which means that he has no portion in the world to come] par excellence.

He is a politician and realizes that it is impossible to completely secularize the country so instead he says that he want to build bridges between secular and religious. We ALSO want bridges. We want every Chiloni to cross the bridge and come to our side.

In his speech he told Charedim how they should educate their children and what the curriculum should be. WHAT A CHUTZPAH!!! A complete ignoramus who wantonly tramples on a daily basis upon all that is holy for us is telling us how to teach our children.

His speech was anything but brilliant. I wrote a rebuttal but I will not reprint it here because he doesn't deserve that respect. In all likelihood he didn't write it himself anyway. Maybe he made a valid point or two but that was all part of his insidious plans to undermine the foundations of Torah-true life in Israel. All sheker must contain a grain of truth.

Should Charedim work? CHAZAL in numerous places said that a good Jew goes to work. For that we don't need Yair Lapid שר"י. But who should learn and who should work and how we educate our children and where we live is a question that should be decided by the leaders of our generation, the Tzadikim and Chachmei HaTorah and not by him. I am SHOCKED that he was given a public forum to speak to a Charedi school of higher education in Kiryat Ono [I can't imagine that it is all that Charedi because most Charedim probably never even heard of Kiryat Ono].

May he and we all do Teshuva Shleima and live lives of  dveikus bashem, kedusha, tahara and may our children grow up to be talmidei chachamim, baalei middos tovos, ohavei Hashem vi-sonei ra.  

Love and blessings!!:)