There is an old joke about the Baal Koreh who made 8 mistakes when reading the word "נח".
I thought of that when I read this passage about Shmuel Hugo Bergman [1883-1975], a famous Israel philosopher.
לקראת סופו של משפט אייכמן ב-1961, ארגן ברגמן עצומה הקוראת שלא להטיל על אדולף אייכמן עונש מוות. ברגמן התנגד באופן עקרוני "לעונש מוות בכל צורה שהיא". לפני כן רשם ביומנו בגרמנית:
”יש ביהדות מאז ומעולם שני זרמים המתמודדים זה בזה בדו־קרב: זרם אחד הוא בדלני. הוא שונא את הגוי, מטפח את תסביך עמלק ובכל הזדמנות הוא מדגיש: 'זכור את אשר עשה לך'. ויש יהדות אחרת, שהייתי מאפיין אותה אולי בפסוק 'ואהבת לרעך כמוך'. זוהי יהדות שתפילתה היא – תן לנו לשכוח את עמלק, יהדות של אהבה ושל מחילה”.
This really bright guy was wrong on everything.
1] If there is a beast on earth who deserved the death penalty - it was Eichmann ימ"ש שר"י. I can even see bleeding heart liberals agreeing with that one. I mean, Eichmann for crying out loud!!! The Satan is a pleasant fellow in comparison. I would rather have Yassir Arafat over for dinner than him [especially given the fact that Arafat's body has long since decomposed. Get out the air freshener!!]. And to actively circulate a petition for his benefit?? Befuddles the mind.
2] There is no stream of Judaism that hates every Goy [as part of their core philosophy - there are individual Jews who hate Goyim on principal]. There is nobody [healthy] who "cultivates an Amalek complex" [his words in translation] and every chance he gets he emphasizes "remember what Amalek did to you". That is a mitzva but there are 612 others. There is no stream of Judaism with one mitzva.
Well - maybe except for the Judaism of "Tikkun Olam". But that isn't Judaism - is it? Just poor, sad, misguided Jews.
3] There is no stream of Judaism of "ואהבת לרעך כמוך" that says to love and forgive Nazis and just wants to forget Amalek [i.e. against the command of the Torah]. I think he confused us with another [fake] religion, that has a [often fake-contrived-artificial] concept of loving everyone regardless.
4] There are no two such streams and hence there can't be a battle between two streams that don't exist.
To his credit I will say that Prof. Bergman used to daven. We have a letter that Ben Gurion wrote to him, "giving him the business" for davening. In other words - he was too frum for BG's taste. If BG doesn't like you b/c you are too frum, then you are my guy!! 😊😊
So our judgment will be "well meaning but very misguided".
"ראשית חכמה - יראת השם"
