Does it Matter what Rabbi Yigal Levinstein Says?

 י״ד לחודש הרביעי תשע״ו

This post was prompted by Tomer Devorah's The Rabid Dogs Have Been Turned Loose. Not only do I read everything she posts, but as you can see, her blog is one of the few I recommend on Esser Agaroth.

Let us set aside what Rabbi Levinstein's words for now, and take a glance at the bigger picture.

Whether Rabbi Yigal Levinstein was right, wrong, or right, but wrong about how he said what he said.any other percent right, or even more wrong than right, why aren't the free speech activists speaking out to protect his rights??

Oh, wait a minute. There isn't any free speech in Israel, unless, of course, your opinion fits in with the Erev Rav's anti-Torah agenda. I know that this may come as a shock to you ardent, Jewish democratists out there, but there just isn't any free speech in Israel. It is against Israeli law to call a government official a name. It is against the law to try to convince someone not to do IDF service. 'Nuff said.

Personally, I believe that Rabbi Shmu'el Eliyahu's words were a bit more balanced, yet also rooted in halakhah (Torah Law). Here are samples from his interview with Army Radio.

Arutz 7: 'I'm not going to apologize for the Torah'
Chief Rabbi of Tzfat defends Rabbi Yigal Levinstein over controversial comments labeling homosexuals 'deviants'.

Ido Ben Porat, 18/07/16

Rabbi Shmu'el Eliyahu
Chief Rabbi of Tzfath

...Rabbi Eliyahu emphasized that while he disagreed with the use of the term “deviants”, he defended Rabbi Levinstein’s right to do so...
“I don’t call gays ‘deviants’,” said Rabbi Eliyahu, “but its Rabbi Levinstein’s right to call them as he believes he should.”

Rabbi Eliyahu added that homosexuals should be shown love, not hatred.

“We embrace them with a great love.”

Distinguishing between the sexual act and people identifying as homosexuals, Rabbi Eliyahu noted the Torah’s condemnation of homosexuality as “an abomination”, but said that was not a reason to spew hatred homosexuals themselves.

“The Torah calls it an ‘abomination’, and I don’t intend to apologize for what’s written in the Torah. If God decided that, then he knows better than anyone else..."

...Nevertheless, he praised Rabbi Levinstein’s forthrightness and rejected attacks on his character....

Certainly, the approach of Rabbi Elkana Sherlo to march in the Jerusalem "Pride" Parade is completely misguided.

But, like I already alluded to, I believe this issue to be only one piece in a much greater puzzle.

Second, the fact that he teaches at THE MOST mamlakhti (diehard State loyalist) yeshivah ever, B'nei David, cannot be ignored. In 2005, Rabbi Eli Sedan, the founder of B'nei David's pre-IDF service "mechinah" program, was so hellbent on IDF soldiers adhering to orders to throw Jews out of their homes, and off of their land, that even the elder mamlakhti Rabbi Tzvi Tau had to call him to tone it down. So, there is definitely some Torah vs. State confusion to be wary of.

In fact, I am quite surprised that he was chosen as the powers' that be patsy he said something, which might be construed as going against the State's democratic deMOCKratic principles.

Likewise, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner has spoken out against coed classrooms and Jews dealing with Christians, more so than many other "Religious Zionist" rabbis. However, so much of anything else he says is... "challenging" to understand as to how it is based in halakhah (Torah Law).

Meanwhile, the ruling of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu's ztz"l Beth HaDin (rabbinical court) against Rabbi Aviner, still remains ignored and gathering dust. Rabbi Eliyahu's Beth HaDin included which included Rabbi Avraham Shapira ztz"l Rabbi Dov Lior (Hevron-Qiriyath Arba) and Rabbi Ya'aqov Yosef ztz"l.


One one hand, rabbis getting some things right, and others way off, may be related to the "truth being spread out," during the generation of Mashi'ah Ben-David, no one possessing all of it, based on an explanation of the following suggiyah:

תלמוד בבלי, מסכת סנהדרין צז,א

תניא ר' יהודה אומר דור שבן דוד בא בו בית הוועד יהיה לזנות והגליל יחרב והגבלן יאשם ואנשי גבול יסובבו מעיר לעיר ולא יחוננו וחכמת הסופרים תסרח ויראי חטא ימאסו ופני הדור כפני כלב והאמת נעדרת שנאמר (ישעיהו נט,טו) ותהי האמת נעדרת וסר מרע משתולל

Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 97a
It was taught, Rabbi Yehudah said: In the generation when the son of David comes, the house of assembly will be for harlots, the Galilee will be in ruins, Gablan will lie desolate, the residents from the border towns will wander about from city to city, receiving no comfort (hospitality), the wisdom of scribes will be in disfavor, God-fearing men will be despised, people will be dog-faced, and the truth will be absent, as it is said, "And the truth is absent, and he who withdraws from evil makes himself prey." (Isaiah 59:15)

On the other hand, this might just be the latest issue in a long history of issues used by the powers that be to keep the religious world divided,...even above and beyond keeping religious Zionist and Haredi communities divided. IDF service, refusing IDF orders which violate the Torah, olive harvesting on unowned land are just a few, such issues of contention.

I, too, differentiate between the LGBTQ leadership and its agenda, and individuals. And, quite frankly, the individuals, blindly following the LGBTQ leadership and its agenda, are just pawns of the assimilationist, Left, whose aims have not changed since they left Egypt with us thousands of years ago: Destruction of Am Yisra'el from within.

And that, readers is the greater issue, from which the news media works to distract us.

On Rabbi Meir Kahane's 25 Yartzeit: Torah vs. State

י״ט לחודש השמיני תשע״ו

Rabbi Meir Kahane hy"d

This Shabboth marked 25 years since the murder of Rabbi Meir David Kahane hy"d, at the hands of the FBI-handled El Sayyid Nosair.

For this year's yartzeit, I will take the opportunity to give you some of my impressions of Rabbi Kahane, based on a prompt from a friend on Facebook.

I love when I hear Israeli activists "talk tough" but stay away from Rav Meir Kahane's words because they view them as extreme. News flash, most of what Kahane said was about core Jewish values from the Torah. I guess all these activists know what is better for Israel.....*sigh*.

During this string, the issue of "coexistence" came up.

Rabbi Kahane’s position against coexistence was not based on emotions, as is so often the case in Western “progressive” culture, in other words the culture of American and European galuth (exile). His position was, and is, based on Torah reasoning, devoid of emotional influence. His emotions expressed in his speeches were due to his passion for the truth, and frustration over the inability of the Jewish People to see it.

Almost no one has been able to refute his halakhic (Torah legal) claims, falling back on name-calling and demonizing instead. Those who have attempted to do so, have done so with questionable arguments, or with arguments which have not held up to halakhic scrutiny.

Rav Kahane’s greatest “crime” was to quote Biblical verses and halakhic statements from the podium in the Knesseth. My favorite was his mention of the Ramba”m’s Laws of Kings and their Wars, chapter 3.

י [ט] ...ואין צריך לומר אם גזר המלך לבטל מצוה, שאין שומעין לו.

10 [9] ...needless to say, if the King rules the cancelling of a mitzvah, one does not heed him.

The mention of this is not just about whether non-Jews may reside in Eretz Yisra'el (Land of Israel), or marry Jews, issues for which Rabbi Kahane was particularly known, but any situation in which a strirah (conflict) exists between Torah Law and State laws, such as the giving away for Land and the throwing of Jews out of their homes. 

Many mamlakhtim (die-hard State loyalists) have been taught that the Knesseth is a stand-in for the King today. So qal we'homer (even more so) does this halakhah apply.

In 2005, even “mainstream” rabbis such as Rabbi Avraham Shapira ztz”l, the late Rosh Yeshivah of Merkaz HaRav told soldiers not only to sit in jail, before throwing Jews out of their homes, but to be proud doing so. But the mamlakhti “rabbis” with the money and powerful publicity machine, not to mention the support from the government, quashed Rabbi Shapira's message, and continue to do the same to any rabbi attempting to point such conflicts between the Torah and the State. Thus most Jews outside of Jerusalem never heard that he said this, and when they finally did, most would not believe it.

It is no wonder that years before, Rabbi Kahane once said that sitting in jail for the sake of Am Yisrael (Torah, Eretz Yisrael, etc.) should be a requirement for being called “rabbi.” Machon HaMiqdash (Temple Institute's) Rabbi Yisra'el Ariel was one who fulfilled this requirement.

The very popular mamlakhti rabbi, Shlomo Aviner, who helped to throw Jews out of their homes in Azza (Gaza/Gush Qatif), referred to Rabbi Kahane as a “walking Sefer Torah.” I guess he was right about something.

Rabbi Kahane attempted to work within the system to facilitate the process of infusing Torah into the State of Israel, already in existence. In the end, he discovered that this was not going to work. Play by the rules, make gains, and the those in control simply change the rules.

Years later Moshe Feiglin (Likud), would also find this out the hard way. In the last election, MK's Eli Yishai and Yoni Chetboun (Yachad) were prevented from re-entering the Knesseth, because of thousands of fake balloting cards being smuggled into polling booths to replace the real ones. And so all of these votes, 12,000 of them were disqualified,…by the Arab judge, supervising the "fairness" of the elections.

Israeli democracy, or rather deMOCKracy, was time and again revealed to be nothing more than a hypocritical instrument in the maintenance of the citizens' loyalty to the State, above all other loyalties.

The Arab who killed Rabbi Meir Kahane may have done so, because of how he felt. The Arabs who killed Rabbi Binyamin Kahane may have done so for the same reasons. And the same could be said about the Arabs now threatening Rabbi Kahane's imprisoned grandson, Meir Ettinger. But in actuality, these Arabs are not trying to kill Jews, they particularly hate. Rather, they are attempting to kill the truth.

As the Ramba"m states...

הל׳ תשובה ג,יז
שלושה הן הכופרים בתורה: ...(3) והאומר שהבורא החליף מצוה זו במצוה אחרת, וכבר בטלה תורה זו, אף על פי שהיא הייתה מעם ה', כגון הנוצריים וההגריים...

Laws of Repentance 3:17
These three are deniers of the Torah: ...(3) and the one who says that the Creator has changed this mitzvah for another mitzvah, and has already cancelled this Torah, even though was from HaShem, such as the Christians and the Muslims, each of these denies the Torah.

Rabbi Kahane also warned Christian missionaries to stay away from Eretz Yisra'el.

The basis for the negative mitzvah of לא ישבו בארצך ("they will not settle in your Land") is to prevent kefirah (denial) of the truth from being present in the Land and influencing us negatively.

But, Rabbi Kahane's message was not just about about the dangers of coexistence with goyim, how it would not only not work, but how it would be the end of us. Rabbi Kahane's message went even further, and concerned the importance of Jews living according to Jewish principles (ie. Torah), and not the Western/non-Jewish principles we picked up over the last 1,700 years in the golah (exile).

As I write this, I wonder when Jews will realize the dangers of further attempts at coexistence between Torah and State.

With the Israeli Supreme Court calling the shots on one hand, and the Israeli Government using them as an excuse, if not overtly battling against Torah principles themselves, and the mamlakhti "rabbis" standing by to keep the wool pulled over our eyes, defending of their holy State, it seems to be a fairly futile cause, attempting to combine the two.

Unfortunately this is the state (and the State) in which we are currently living.

There is a conflict, and we are all going to have to choose.

Meir (ben Tovah) Ettinger, is sitting in administrative detention, without being charged, let alone having been indicted or convicted of any crime, because he has chosen loyalty to HaShem and His Holy Torah, rather than the State.

Haredi Bashers Need to Look in Their Own Backyards

ו' לחודש העשירי תשע"ד

Kippah via Life In Israel: People studying Torah must take parnassa from the public
March 12, 2013

Rabbi Zvi Tau
Rosh Yeshivath Har HaMor

...Rav Tau paskened that a talmid chochom who took upon himself to study Torah is like a soldier fulfilling his duty for the nation, and such a person has the right to take his parnassa from the general public. Rav Tao says people who learn Torah and get supported by the public must fulfill their duties faithfully, learning Torah l'shma and by giving up of themselves and in holiness, and not take advantage of the arrangement to receive pleasure or to get rich. But when he does, he is serving the entire nation, and if he should have to give up his toil in Torah in order to work to support his family, the entire public is hurt by it. Taking money for his livelihood by learning is part of taking responsibility for establishing the Torah in the nation. He should receive his parnassa from the nation...

He is like a soldier fulfilling his duty and it is upon the nation to support him.

Esser Agaroth (2¢):
How I could have missed this from last spring, I have no idea. Could it be that it just slipped by?

Merkaz HaRav Kook Yeshivah
Qiriyath Moshe, Jerusalem

As pointed out by Life In Israel, The Har HaMor Yeshivah was a break off from the Merkaz HaRav Kook Yeshivah.

Rabbi Zvi Tau is part of the Triumvirate of Mamlakhi (Undying State Loyalists) rabbis, which also includes Rabbi Hayim Drukman and Shlomo Aviner. The mamlakhti school of thought refuses to acknowledge the increasing number of conflicts between halakhah (Torah Law) and Israeli Law.

On the other end of the Religious Zionist spectrum is Merkaz HaRav, the very yeshivah from with Har HaMor broke away.

Rabbi Avraham 
Shapira ztz"l

Before and during the 2005/תשס"ה expulsion of Jews from Azza (Gaza) Rabbi Avraham Shapira ztz"l, Rosh Yeshivah of Merkaz HaRav at the time, instructed soldiers to refuse orders to throw Jews out of their homes and lands. And if that meant sitting in jail, as a result, then these soldiers should be proud to sit in jail.

This was a far crying from the undying State-loyalists, telling soldiers to faint, or pretend to be sick, or even to cry, and then carry out the orders.

This report was no surprise to me. I had already heard of the discrepancy between these two yeshivas in regard to the numbers of students who serve in the army.

I certainly agree with Rabbi Tau's belief that learning of Torah is a service to Israel, above and beyond a protection of Israel.

My point here is that some of the harshest critics of the Haredi Kollel mentality and model are the same mamlakhti "sheeple" whom hang every word spouting from their rabbis' mouths, including Rabbi Tau.

And so, I will ask the same question of Rabbi Tau, which mamlakhtim put to those Haredim requesting exemptions from army service:

Why should some of our children, Merkaz HaRav students for example, have to risk their lives defending our country, while others do not?

Will Rabbis Finally Say "No" to the Continued de-Judaising of the IDF?

ט"ו לחודש התשיעי תשע"ד

YWN: The IDF May Lose its Finest Combatants
November 11, 2013

Prominent rabbonim shlita in the dati leumi community recently spoken out against new policies in the IDF, primarily, the changing tide towards accommodating females in the military at the expense of religious soldiers and officers. Rabbi Chaim Druckman, who played a pivotal role in establishing today’s military guidelines regarding religious soldiers, is among the more vocal rabbonim, concerned the IDF is rapidly becoming an environment that is incompatible for religious soldiers and officers. For the dati leumi community this would spell disaster as military service is not viewed as a responsibility, but a privilege, at the core of the dati leumi hashkafa.

If Chief of Personnel Branch Major-General Orna Barvibai continues as planned, some prominent religiously right-wing dati leumi rabbonim may instruct their talmidim not to serve while the more liberal dati leumi community will find a way to make it work. This will result in the IDF losing some of its finest combat soldiers and officers as well as causing a major split in the dati leumi community.

The recent liberal dress code for females during phys-ed is one of the red lines along with increased integration of the genders.

(Tip Credit: Tomer Devorah)

Esser Agaroth (2¢):
I appreciate YWN reporting on this, but what they do not realize is that a split in the so called Religious Zionist (datti leumi) movement or "camp" has existed already for quite some time now.

There are the Mamlakhtim, the undying State loyalists like MK Elazar Stern, who had previously served in Gen. Barvibai's current position, and is known for engineering the demise of the Hesdar Yeshivah programs. Barvibai seems to have been handed the baton, to continue the de-Judaising of the Israeli Defense Forces [IDF], apparently taking up the gender-bending, feminist agenda. Mamlakhti rabbis include Shlomo Aviner, Tzvi Tau, Yuval Cherlow, Eli Sedan, and, none other than Chaim Druckman.

Then, there are there are those who are neither blind nor in deep denial regarding the flaws in the Israeli government, and the increasing number of stiroth (conflicts) between its laws and Torah law. Rabbis in this camp are considered to include Dov Lior, the late Avraham Shapira ztz"l, and the late Ya'aqov Yosef ztz"l, among others.

I was pleasantly surprised to read Rabbi Druckmans' concerns here. So, perhaps YWN was correct in pointing out this "split," after all.

We'll see just how far Rabbi Druckman can be pushed.

No doubt this "rift" will be used against those who follow Torah over Israeli, which is often its antithesis. Perhaps this will be a positive thing, bringing the Torah Zionists and the Haredim closer together,...as it should be.