America is an AMAZING place. So much freedom!!! We Jews LOVE freedom!! We have an entire holiday celebrating it!!!! :-) A country where all people's rights are closely guarded and preserved. There is no country like it on earth [although we must remember that the USA still lacks קדושת ארץ ישראל...] .
But there is another side. Unbridled freedom and "bills of rights" often give people a sense of entitlement.
In a normal world, a world of morality, a world where people practice self-control, it would be beyond absurd to suggest that money should be forcibly taken from people in order to facilitate an active sex life for single people. A guy meets a girl in a bar and they decide to spend the night together and everyone else has to foot the bill. Insane.
That is EXACTLY what has been demanded. 8 years ago, Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke came before the House Democrats to lobby for the rights of women to receive money - our money, taxpayer money - in order to have relations whenever they feel like it. [The whole thing was a FLUKE!!] This is part of what she said [with my small addendums:-)]:
"Without insurance coverage, contraception, as you know [I DON'T KNOW!!!], can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school [being a בעל תאוה is an EXPENSIVE proposition!!!]. For a lot of students who, like me, are on public interest scholarships, that's practically an entire summer's salary [so you go to school for free and want yet more!!!]. Forty percent of the female students at Georgetown Law reported to us that they've struggled financially as a result of this policy [that means that there is a LOT of גילוי עריות at Georgetown. What would GEORGE Washington say??]
One told us of how embarrassed and just powerless she felt when she was standing at the pharmacy counter and learned for the first time that contraception was not covered on her insurance, and she had to turn and walk away because she couldn't afford that prescription [rough but not as bad as being told you have pancreatic cancer or lukemia]. Women like her have no choice but to go without contraception [and THAT is unacceptable!!!]."
No, actually they HAVE a choice. Control yourselves. But that is not part of the conversation. The narrative is that we are all doing it with random men with whom we have no interest in building a family and we demand money to pay for this.
Rush Limbaugh called her some choice names [none of them being "צנועה" or "טהורה"] on his radio show and created quite a scandal. Even then-President Baruch Obama got into the fray and denounced Reb Rush.
I am not going to call her names [except maybe "Sandra"]. I don't want to get Baruch or anyone else mad:-). But she does highlight an important point:
We are JEWS!! YIDDIN!!!!!!!!!!!! We treasure FAMILY!!! Intimacy is ONLY in the context of building a FAMILY and solidifying a LONG TERM, COMMITTED RELATIONSHIP!!!!
In עלינו we thank Hashem שלא שמנו כמשפחות האדמה. We are not like the rest of the world. Our FAMILIES are fundamentally different. When we have children - we take RESPONSIBILITY for them for LIFE. In
some other communities, men sire children and then take off. We don't do that. We also don't believe in randomly sleeping with strangers as our hormones dictate.
Chazal say that Hashem's only places his Holy Presence on families of pure lineage. Explains the Maharal:
אין הקב"ה משרה שכינתו אלא על משפחות מיוחסות שבישראל, הדבר הזה הוא, כי השכינה אינה שורה רק על הנבדלים מן העריות, וכל שאר דבר שהוא זנות אין השכינה שורה שם, לכך אין השכינה שורה רק על משפחות מיוחסות שנולדו בקדושה ולא באו מן הערוה, אז הם ראויים לשריות השכינה. ועוד יש טעם אחר, והוא עיקר, כי השי"ת משרה שכינה על אשר הם משתלשלים ממנו, ועליהם משרה השי"ת השכינה, אבל אשר נולדו בפסול לא נקרא שהם משתלשלים מן השי"ת מקדושתו, שהרי נולדו בפסול והם זרים, ולכך אין משרה שכינתו עליהם. וכן זה עצמו שאין השי"ת מעיד עליהם כאשר תבין, כי העיקר מתייחס אל הענפים היוצאים ממנו בלא עירוב, רק בסדר השתלשלות... וכאשר יש דבר זר שהורכב באילן אין העיקר מתייחס אליו, ולכך אין משרה
שכינתו עליהם גם כן ואין מעיד עליהם. (חידושי אגדות קידושין ע ב)
DEEEEP KABBALAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
We celebrate Pesach with our FAMILIES.
דַּבְּרוּ אֶל כָּל עֲדַת יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר בֶּעָשֹׂר לַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה וְיִקְחוּ לָהֶם אִישׁ שֶׂה לְבֵית אָבֹת שֶׂה לַבָּיִת.
We eat the Korban Pesach with our FAMILIES!!!
TRUE FREEDOM is having solid, pure families. Not unbridled expressions of our most base desires. The latter is actually a type of slavery. Slavery to one's passions. This slavery compels modern man [and woman] to demand payment for his/her illicit desires.
We BARUCH HASHEM know better.
MUSSAR HASKEL: Let us work hard Pesach and ALL YEAR ROUND in solidifying our familial relationships.
