| Submit your comments on this article |
| Olde Tyme Religion |
| Don't distort Judaism in Uman during the coronavirus crisis |
| 2020-08-29 |
| I believe I posted before that 60% of Israel's Covid infections are among the ultra- orthodox "Hassidim" community. And the principal reason is that some of their top rabbis (there are a lot of sects who consider each other infidels, probably because their leadership is hereditary) ordered the adherents not to wear masks or maintain distancing - doctors being apostates etc... Strangely enough, when they do get sick they go to a hospital and expect the apostate doctors to save them. IMO, Hassidism is outside classical Judaism: in both it's worship of dead rabbis & it's Dionysian rituals. The article below analyses the problem - and expresses my feelings better than I can. [JPost] - The controversy surrounding traveling to Uman or being able to pray in a synagogue on Rosh Hashanah has led to a misrepresentation of classical Jewish law on the importance of health and saving lives, and it is important to teach those basic sources in order to disprove the distortion of religious Judaism being touted by extremists and fanatics. The Torah makes clear that one is obligated to stay healthy, commanding twice in the same chapter: "Be cautions and guard yourself very well.... Guard yourselves very well" (Deuteronomy 4:9 and 15). Maimonides explains these words in "Laws of a Murderer and Saving Lives" (Mishneh Torah, 14:11,4) saying, "There is a positive commandment to remove, guard oneself, protect oneself, and guard oneself very well from any obstacle that includes a risk to one’s life." He continues, "The Sages prohibited many things because they endanger lives." There are specific commandments related to protecting lives. For example, "When you build a new house, make a guardrail for your roof so that you don’t cause blood in your house, lest someone fall from there" (Deuteronomy 22:8). The Babylonian Talmud is replete with rules meant to protect one’s health, such as: 1) parents are obligated to teach their children how to swim (Kiddushin 29a); 2) one may not cut a slice of bread from a loaf sitting in one’s hand (Berachot 8a); 3) one may not cross a shaky or unstable bridge (Rosh Hashanah 16b); and 4) one cannot enter rushing water that is higher than your waist (Yoma 87b). The message is clear: Anything that is a danger to one’s health and a risk to one’s life is absolutely prohibited according to Torah law. The Torah not only commands one to guard his or her own life but even commands violating prohibitions in order to save others’ lives. The Torah states (Leviticus 18:5): "Keep my decrees and laws; the person who obeys them will live by them." The Babylonian Talmud (Yoma 85a) explains that the last words of that verse, "V’chai bahem," teach that one must violate the Sabbath in order to save a life. ...But the command to transgress the rules of the Torah to save a life is not limited to the Sabbath. The Talmud rules (Yoma 82b) that all laws of the Torah must be violated to save a life, with the exception of three cardinal sins: murder, idolatry and adultery. This means that in a hypothetical scenario whereby any Jew violating every transgression other than those three would keep someone alive for an extra minute, they would be obligated to do so. ...This means that we are not only commanded to transgress Torah laws to save a life, but that "sinning" and saving the life is the greatest sanctification of God’s name possible. We sanctify God’s name when we demonstrate and show the world that life is His highest value. Which brings us to 2020 and COVID-19. It doesn’t really matter how badly one wants to travel to Uman to be near the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in Ukraine, IMO, a clear example of idolatry or wants to sit in synagogue for the High Holy Days. The message from the above sources makes it clear: While praying in synagogue is important (though it is not a Torah commandment), and specific groups see great spiritual value in going to Uman (it is most certainly not a commandment of any kind!), if a determination is made that doing so could endanger one’s health or endanger the health of others, then not going to Uman and not going to synagogue is what the Torah requires, and is the way to sanctify God’s name. So if specific groups and political parties want to go against the opinion of health officials, and want to lobby hard and pressure the prime minister for permission to go to Uman, or for more people to be allowed to pray in synagogues, it is their right to do so. But they should do so in their own names and not in the name of God. They should do so in the name of their own new religion, and not in the name of Judaism. Because what they are creating is a hilul Hashem, a desecration of God’s name, and an absolute distortion of Judaism. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #1 Two Jews, new Raccoons, join the lodge. Then Kramden get hit by that Dodge. A year in a coma. Awakening, trauma: The bylaws, once plain, Are immensely arcane, and, "Oy, Norton, it looks like the Taj!" |
| Posted by: Cremp the Obscure2766 2020-08-29 23:58 |