The National Relilgious must stop hating themselves
The National Relilgious must stop hating themselves

I used to wonder how Christianity could have derived from Judaism. How could something so morally distorted have originated in something so pure? Turning the other cheek. Passivity in the face of evil. But when I see the ridiculous conduct of some of the religious leadership it all makes sense.

  • How could so many rabbis and national religious politicians have given their tacit agreement to the torture of religious youth?

  • Why are they silent about the seemingly obvious discrimination against religious IDF officers (50% of the junior officers – just about 0% of the senior officers)?

  • Why don’t they speak out more against secular coercion?

  • And why is every criticism of radical secularism accompanied by claims of baseless hatred?

The truth is the opposite – he who truly loves his fellow will not remain silent when he falls - even if it means suffering discomfort. It’s always easier to be quiet and let things pass. But those who are silent in the face of evil don’t love their fellow man, they care only about themselves!

Why are so many religious Jews willing to abandon their own values just so they don’t clash with the outrageous demands of the Far Left?
Recently we marked the 9th of Av – the annual reminder of the destruction of the two Jewish Temples. Everyone remembered the reason for the destruction of the Second Temple – needless, baseless hatred. Few if any remembered the reason for the destruction of the First Temple – idol worship, sexual depravity and murderous violence.  Why are we only willing to see half the story?

A recent Channel 2 poll found that 58% of the national religious support surrogacy for homosexual couples! It would be hard to tally up all the forbidden injunctions in this ridiculous suggestion. Even if you didn’t care about the Torah’s laws against homosexuality, how can anyone be so vicious and heartless as to deny a child a connection to their own mother? Why are so many religious Jews willing to abandon their own values just so they don’t clash with the outrageous demands of the Far Left? How could we have distorted love of our fellow man so much?

Loving those who are different requires two things – love and people who are different. If we change ourselves to become the same as the other we have accomplished nothing and certainly have not fulfilled Hashem’s wishes. Abandoning the Torah (G-d forbid) is not the way to deal with the Torah’s admonition against baseless hatred.

Rabbi Akiva taught “Love your neighbor as you love yourself”. Those who do not love themselves are incapable of loving others – no matter how righteous they think they are. Self-hate is not the way to gratuitous love.

And real courage is not going along with the flow, no matter how popular it is in the media. Real courage is standing up for your beliefs even when it is unpopular to do so. Instead of always trying to get others to like us – the national religious public should concentrate on doing the right thing. When others see we respect ourselves they will begin to respect us too.