Internet Flu!

This morning, as I was filling up my car with gas, a beautiful woman got of her car, causing me to take a second look. Now, most of the time when this happens, when an attractive woman enters my line of vision, I am pretty good about looking away. I work hard on this, because it is an important ingredient in maintaining one’s holiness as a Jew. But this morning, the yetzer hara got the best of me, and I did a double take. Immediately, a downpour of bird doo spattered over my head. It must have been a big bird because I got drenched, including my beard. I tried to get a glimpse of the bird, but the sky was empty, as if the bird doo was a sign straight out of Heaven.

"Oh, man, will you look at that!"

When I got home, my wife took one look at me covered with bird doo and angrily yelled, “Have you been looking at women again?!”

Grabbing a hold of an umbrella that we had neglected to put away for next winter, she smashed me over the head with a couple of scolding blows. Deserving the punishment, I didn’t try to defend myself.

“You beast!” she accused. “You dog! You total phony!”

What could I do? She was right. A Jew who looks at women to enjoy their beauty is no better than a dog. He’s worse. A dog isn’t commanded not to look at women. But when a Jew sees a woman, and continues to gaze lustfully at her, rather than averting his gaze, he is violating a commandment of the Torah, “You shall not stray after your heart and your eyes that lead you astray” (Bamidbar, 15:39).

If he fantasizes about her, he is violated another commandment, “You shall guard yourself from every evil thing,” as the Talmud teaches: “This means a man should not gaze on an attractive woman, even an unmarried one, nor upon a married woman, even if she is ugly” (Avodah Zara 20A). This is because “a man shouldn’t have sexual thoughts in the day and come to impurity at night” (Ibid 20B).

Needless to say, these prohibitions apply to internet viewing as well. When a person looks at an erotic photo, he cuts himself off from G-d. Holiness and impurity cannot exist in the same place. He darkens his soul and all of the exalted spiritual worlds to which he is connected.

Viewing porn on the Internet ruins people’s lives. Running a site on the theme, I get emails that are heartbreaking and shocking. Men start out thinking they can control their flirtation with cyberspace lovers, but get hooked beyond their worst dreams. It is a plague that ruins more people than all of the swine and cattle flu’s combined.

Searching for an Internet Flu Vaccine

While I am getting hit on the head with bird doo and umbrellas, I want to thank DACON9 for the dose he gave me in his last talkback. I don’t mean to get down on the Jews who choose to liiiiiinger in the Diaspora instead of hopping on a plane to live in Israel, but rather to criticize the philosophy that maintains that living in the exile is 100% kosher.

One thing should be clear. ALL RABBIS agree that living in Israel is a mitzvah. If he doesn’t, he is not a rabbi. The debate is whether coming on aliyah is a Torah mitzvah at this time, before the Mashiach’s arrival – may he come soon! Beyond this question, a basic tenet of Judaism is that all Jews should WANT to live in Israel. The yearning to live in Israel should pump strongly in every Jewish heart. “Next year in Jerusalem!” has been our national dream and longing for the last 2000 years.

Even the Jews in the Diaspora who find it impossible to move to Israel because of legitimate health, family, or financial problems, each and everyone should WANT to live in Israel and experience daily heartfelt regret that he or she can’t. Certainly all young people should be encouraged by parents and Jewish educators to make aliyah as soon as they can, and they should be taught from the earliest age that the true goal of Judaism is to rebuild our Torah nation in the Land of Israel – not in the exile. It is the “let’s make the exile a better, stronger place” philosophy that must be wiped out, in order to restore G-d’s fallen honor to where it belongs – something that can only be achieved through the establishment of Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel, as we will, G-d willing, endeavor to explain in an upcoming blog.      

The King and I - Peres Meets Obama

"In Israel, we open watermelons with a karate chop down the center."

People often ask me why I don’t write about the political situation? The answer is that most of my readers live in the Diaspora. Outside of those generous souls who donate money to worthwhile Israeli organizations and projects, most Diaspora Jews have absolutely no influence on things in Israel, so what would be the purpose of my writing about politics? As far as my Arutz-7 Israeli readers are concerned, they are wise enough to figure out what’s going on without me telling them. So I try to write about things that can have an influence – like waking Diaspora Jews up to the vapidity of Jewish life in the exile, and to the dangers of imitating the ways of the gentiles, especially in sexual matters.

Today was the 27th day of the Omer. I know there are readers who like to believe that Judaism is merely the rote practicing of commandments which lack any inner depth, but the truth is that, just like a Jew has a soul, the Torah has a soul too, and this is its inner dimension, known as the secrets of Torah, or the Kabbalah. In Israel, when you open a prayer book to the pages of Sefirat HaOmer, next to each day of the counting are the names of two Kabbalistic Sefirot, or channels of spiritual expression that bring Hashem’s multi-faceted blessings to the world. Because these heavenly Sefirot parallel our character traits, our Sages teach us that during the 49 days of the counting from Pesach to Shavuot, we are to work on improving and sanctifying each of these traits so that we will be prepared to receive the Torah on the holiday which marks our acceptance of the Torah. Today the Sefirot we are to work on are “Yesod” of “Nezach.” Without going in to detail, “Yesod” is associated with sexual holiness, and “Nezach” is associated with overcoming the evil inclination. So today, we are to concentrate on strengthening ourselves in the battle that has been raging ever since the Snake first tempted Adam and Eve. When they failed the test, the task was given to the Nation of Israel, symbolized by the covenant of circumcision, to teach the world the importance of sexual purity.

At the end of last week’s Torah reading, Achre Mot, the many prohibitions concerning forbidden sexual relationships are enumerated. These include sexual relations with non-Jews and intermarriage, the different incestuous family relations, the prohibition of being with a woman who has not purified herself from the impurity of menstruation (known as “niddah”), adultery, the abomination of homosexuality, and sexual relations with animals. The Torah portion concludes: “Do not make yourselves impure through them; I am Hashem, you G-d” (Vayikra, 18:30). Rashi explains this to mean: “But if you make yourselves impure, then I am not your G-d, and you become unfit to be My followers, for what benefit do I have from you when you deserve annihilation?”

Thus, the Torah and our Sages stress the upmost importance in guarding the laws of sexual purity. The Torah warns that for violating these laws, the Jewish People will be vomited out of the Land of Israel, for the Land of Israel is a Holy Land that will not tolerate transgressors against the Covenant.

The next Torah portion, Kedoshim, commences with this same holy call to the Jews: “The L-rd spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the entire assembly of the Children of Israel and say to them, YOU SHALL BE HOLY, for I, the L-rd your G-d am holy” (Vayikra, 19:1). Rashi explains that the command to be holy means to be removed from sexual sin. The Ramban adds that a Jew should not only guard himself against forbidden sexual relations, he should even sanctify himself in all matters that are permitted to him:

“The Torah has admonished us against immorality and eating forbidden foods, but permitted sexual relations between man and wife, and the eating of kosher meat and wine. If so, a man of desire could consider this to be a permission to be passionately addicted to sexual intercourse with his wife, and be a drunk and gluttonous eater, and thus he will become a sordid individual with the permission of the Torah! Therefore, after having listed the matters which G-d prohibited altogether, the Torah followed them up with the general command (to be holy) that we practice moderation even in matters which are permitted: (for instance) one should minimize sexual relations with one’s wife, as the Rabbis have stated, ‘So that Torah scholars should not be found with their wives like roosters,’ and he should not engage in it except as required in fulfillment of the commandment….” (Ramban, Commentary on the Torah, verse cited.)

This is not Kabbalah. This is straight and simple Torah and the explanation of our Sages. Just like a Jew is different from a gentile in that he has his own Land to live in, apart from the gentiles and their impure, gentile lands – he is to act differently than the gentiles, and not imitate their unholy ways, as it says, “Like the practice of the land of Egypt where you dwelled, do not do; and do not perform the practices of the Canaanites in the land to which I bring you” (Vayikra, 18:3).

We are to be distinguished from the gentiles by where we live, by what we do, by what we eat, by how we dress, by our holidays, by our language, and by our beliefs.

That’s what being a Jew is all about.

Judaism in the Twilight Zone

Remember the old TV show, the “Twilight Zone?” With Rod Serling? Fantastic, wasn’t it? If Rod had done a show on the Diaspora, here’s how he might have begun:

“This is Jeremy Cohen. He’s going to the shul this morning just like he does every day to put on Tefillin and pray, thinking that he is practicing the real Judaism of his forefathers, but he doesn’t know that his prayers are giving strength to his enemies, because Jeremy Cohen is lost in foreign dimension, an unwitting captive in the Diaspora, otherwise known as the Twilight Zone.”

"Welcome to the Diaspora"

To explain this deep conception, we will once again have a look at the Commentary of the Ramban to the Torah portion of Achre Mot. Unlike other lands, the Land of Israel vomits out sinners. The Ramban explains this unique holiness of the Land of Israel by revealing that when G-d  created the world and distributed the different lands to different peoples, he placed Angels, or Celestial Ministers, over the gentile nations to rule over their affairs.

Angel of America

The different characteristics of these angels result in the differing cultures and languages and customs of the peoples. The Ramban writes:  

“Now outside the Land of Israel, though every place belongs to His glorious Name, its purity is not perfect because of the celestial servants that hold sway there, and the gentiles go astray after these celestial agents to worship them. This is the reason that Hashem is known as the ‘G-d of gods.’  

Only one land had no Celestial Minister appointed over it – the Land of Israel, which G-d rules over alone. Therefore moral transgression (especially sexual transgression) is much more stringent in the Land of Israel than other lands, and the Holy Land vomits out sinners who pollute the Land through their deeds ( Ramban, Commentary on the Torah, Vayikra, 18:25).

It is G-d’s intention that His Chosen People live in His Chosen Land, and so He rules over Israel alone without any intermediary angel. The Ramban states:

“This is the meaning of the saying of the Rabbis of the Talmud: ‘Whoever lives outside the Land of Israel is as if he has no G-d’ (Ketubot 110B), for it is said, ‘I am the Eternal, your G-d, Who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your G-d’ (Devarim, 25:38).  When you are in the land of Canaan, I am your G-d. When you are not in the land of Canaan, I am not your G-d (Ramban, loc cited).

Now, of course, G-d is everywhere, but because he has appointed angels to rule over other lands, it is as if a Jew in the Diaspora has no G-d. All of his prayers and Torah learning go up to the gentile angel who presides over that land, giving strength to that foreign nation. This is why wherever Jews lived in great numbers, the countries they lived in were superpowers. And this is why when the Jews left those countries, like Spain and Russia, their great empires collapsed.

This is what makes the Diaspora a “Twilight Zone.” The Jew thinks he is worshipping G-d and keeping the Torah as it is meant to be kept, but this isn’t the case at all. Thus, our Rabbis have taught that whoever lives in the Diaspora is like one who worships foreign gods (Ketubot 110B) because of the angels that rule there. Furthermore, they said: “In all times a Jew should live in the Land of Israel, even in a city where the majority of inhabitants are pagans, and not live in the Diaspora, even in a city where the majority of inhabitants are Jews, for everyone who dwells in Eretz Yisrael is like someone who has a G-d, and everyone who dwells outside of the Land is like someone who has no G-d” (Ibid).

G-d created the Jewish People to be His unique treasure: “You shall be my unique treasure from amongst all the peoples” (Shemot, 19:5). “You shall be My people, and I will be your G-d” (Yermiyahu, 11:4). In other words, the Ramban explains, the Jewish People will not be under any lesser Celestial Ministers, so He gave them their own special Land, where He alone is sovereign without His heavenly assistants. “I am the Eternal your G-d who has set you apart from the peoples” (Yermiyahu, 22:20), meaning, in the words of the Ramban: “He has set us apart from the nations over which He has appointed heavenly princes and other celestial powers by giving us the Land of Israel so He, blessed be He, will be our G-d.”    

This isn’t something I just made up to get down on the continuing love affair with the Diaspora. These are the words of our Sages and the Ramban, who was called the “Father of Israel” because of his greatness in Torah.

The Ramban goes on to explain why our Twilight Zone character, Jeremy Cohen, isn’t really performing the mitzvah of Tefillin as it is supposed to be performed when he laces the straps over his forearm before morning prayers. This is because the mitzvot are meant to be performed in the Land of Israel, and not in the Diaspora, where they are like a practice rehearsal until we return to Israel:

“Although I banish you from the Land of Israel to outside of the Land, make your selves distinctive by continuing to keep the commandments, so that when you return they will not be novelties to you” (Ramban, there. Also, Sifre, Ekev, 43). Why? Because, the Ramban answers: “The main fulfillment of the commandments is performing them when dwelling in the Land of Israel. Therefore our Sages have said that dwelling in the Land of Israel is equal in weight to all of the commandments of the Torah” (Sifre, Reih, 80).

Like batting practice - it ain't the real thing

Whether you call the Diaspora the “Twilight Zone” or the “Matrix,” the idea is the same. You might think that it’s the real thing, but it isn’t. You might think it’s the right place to be, but it isn’t. You might think you are leading a full Jewish life, but you’re not. As the theme song sounds, “Dee dee, dee dee, dee dee, dee dee, dee dee….”

Moshe Brown escaped the Matrix - So can you!

Jeremy Cohen may be content putting on his tefillin, but he’s a prisoner of the Twilight Zone. What about you?