The gravest sin for a Jew is to forget Whom he represents (1)
There is a high price to pay for living as a Jew. One must be holy so as to be acceptable. One is commanded to surpass civilization so as to be adequate. Our existence is neither desired nor easily accepted. God has positioned us in history in a most curious way. To be a Jew is either utterly inconvenient or the most exalted merit man can ever attain. There is no middle road. Our choice is either our undoing or our blessing. We are the most challenged people on earth. We are superfluous, or we are indispensable. It is either extremely tragic or exceptionally joyous to be a Jew. There is no in-between.
We have recently entered an age in which we convince ourselves that we should be average and that holiness is no longer to be our trademark. We are obsessed with the dream to “normalize” ourselves so as to obtain a ticket into the world community. And now that we have “arrived” and got our way, there are far too many times when we embarrass ourselves in the eyes of the world and our own people. Of late, an Israeli, ultra-Orthodox former government minister and Knesset member has decided to run again for office after having been imprisoned on charges of financial corruption. That a very influential former Chief Rabbi of Israel, one of the greatest halachic authorities, has not only given his approval to this move but has encouraged it is extremely painful. We had hoped that this Chief Rabbi—who in the past had the courage to free many agunoth (2) whose husbands went to war and were later reported missing in action, and who has shown great independence in his decisions—would have the moral fiber to stop this politician from running for any office and tell him to go home and live with his shame. Alas, the reverse has happened. In addition to so many other aberrations within some divisions of the religious community, Judaism’s integrity has lately been violated in the eyes of many Israelis and in front of the world community. This is nothing less than a global desecration of God’s name. With it we have sold out on our most sacred commodity: being a light unto the nations. We were summoned to be God’s witness in the world, and we have made ourselves trivial.
True, it is only a few religious Jews who are the perpetrators. But we are all guilty, especially we who call ourselves religious. We forgot to fight for righteousness, for justice, for holiness in the name of the Torah; and now we must fight against sacrilege, against injustice and against evil.
This is a time when our leaders, rabbis and heads of yeshivoth are challenged as never before. They will have to instill in the hearts of their students and followers one overwhelming and all-encompassing mission: to clear God’s name, fortify the great ethical message of Judaism, and inspire Jews to make a lifelong commitment to the sanctification of His name. We must convince them and ourselves to live a life of holiness in which even the trivial becomes sanctified. This is now the most important task of every yeshivah and Jewish day school. If we do not fulfill this duty, our teaching Torah and Talmud becomes a farce.
We have to learn that it is an embarrassment to perpetrate even the lowest level of corruption while living in the presence of God. Without this awareness, we can no longer call ourselves Jews, the children of Avraham, Yitschak and Ya’acov. We have no right to serve God, pray, or study Torah, when our integrity is no longer our trademark, our passion for Him no longer our ultimate goal. We Jews are messengers, but we have forgotten the message. It is our obligation to rediscover it and advance it into eternity. We should not betray our pledge. Our task is to be more than human, more than good, and more than pious. Our task is to surpass all these and once more become God’s stake in the future.
Let us go to our homes, families, schools, businesses, yeshivoth, and look for every opportunity to sanctify God’s name, apply the highest standards of Judaism and radiate holiness. On land, at sea, and in the air, we should protest the corrupt politician’s comeback as a leader of a religious party, object to so many other indiscretions, and convince our people that we have not forgotten our holy mission. We must win this war; otherwise we lose our right to call ourselves Jews and instead become redundant.
The gravest sin for a Jew is to forget Whom he represents.
*****
(1) A paraphrase of Abraham Joshua Heschel’s “The gravest sin for a Jew is to forget what he represents.” The Earth Is the Lord’s: The Inner World of the Jew in Eastern Europe (Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 1995 edition) p. 109.
(2) The plural of agunah (chained, or anchored) – a halachic term for a Jewish woman who is “chained” to her marriage, either because her husband has deserted her or has disappeared, or because her husband refuses, or is unable, to grant her a get (official Jewish bill of divorce).
Dear Rabbi,
Thank you for this article and for speaking out against the travesty of ‘men of god’ behaving in this manner.
But there is a much more heinous crime which some ‘men of god’ commit and is often swept under the carpet and that is the crime of pederasty.
I have been trying for some long time to further bring this awful crime to centre stage but it seems that the religious hierarchy does not want recognise that it exists.
I have written several times to various publications, including the Jerusalem Post which does often publish my letters but they don’t seem to want to enter into the subject probably due to my suggestion that those ‘men of god’, who take advantage of young boys coming to them for religious instruction and are instead initiated into an awful never forgotten experience which sours their lives forever, should be chemically castrated.
These ungodly clergy should be happy to go through the castration process and thank god that they can return to the religious life that they wish to lead.
Michael Schneider
Ra’anana
Dear Rav Lopes Cardozo:
I do not know the details of the case, but in general may I respectfully ask you:
If a person goes to jail. Does not he pay for his crime?
After a period of jail. Should the person try to find a job that is
suitable for him? Is he rehabilitated or not. Has he paid off his debt
or not?
Let us say the person did bad acts. Should we not assume that he has done teshuva? Particularly in jail he had a chance to really think what he did.
The question is: if he paid off his debt, and did his teshuva.
Why not let him do a job at his ability? What is the halachah in this respect?
Thank you, Hayim
Also, are there any leaders that are doing something right in this wide world?
Could you tell us about a shiny example of such a leader. Why only
on the negative people and examples.
What I get from you is something like: this is bad, this is bad.
Where is the good?? Where is the light?? Where is the wonderful program that is having success that we should emulate.
In this weeks Torah Tidbits (Jerusalem) No. 1019, p.28 I found a phrase that says exactly what I mean:
From Ein Ayah, Vol II, p.250:
… … “This is an important lesson for us. Our rejection of ideologies that contradict the Torah’s ethical ideas should NOT BE LIMITED TO NEGATIVE CRITICISM…we need to open an offensive front by presenting a positive outlook based on true values – just as Avraham and his vision of chesed stood in direct opposition to the Sodomitess’ philosophy of egocentric cruelty.”…
I believe that a person who is convicted by an official Israeli court should no longer run for office even when he is not guilty. Reason is that when the court is an official court, people will believe the court that this man is guilty. There is a stain on his personality even when it is unjustified. This is in the case of a person who wants to run for office. In a private case where somebody did teshuva you are right.
We neither say that if somebody who is liable of death penalty and did teshuva, will go free. See Drashoth HaRan, Rabenu Nissim in the 8th chapter.
Have a look in many Thoughts to Ponder and you will see how often I praise great people!
My husband is under the impression that this particular politician was framed for committing the crime and not truly guilty.
There is also the general assumption that all politicians are corrupt. Maybe no jews should be in politics at all since no one can be a perfect example. Where do you draw the line? It is nice to write a philosophical opinion but what about the practical recommendation. Jews should never stand up for their rights in a political arena?
Even when somebody was tried unjustly by an official Israel court, he should no longer run for office. There is a stain on him since most people will believe the court to be in the right. The only exception is when there is blatant anti-Semitism at play like it used to be in cases like the Dreifus affair in France.