[Avodah] Must we agree with the Torah?

[T613K at aol.com]

From: cantorwolberg at cox.net


On Aug 9, 2013, at 1:43 PM,  avodah-request at lists.aishdas.org wrote:

> one could also suppose that  He warned us off it and not them, because He 
loves us more.

>>  That's the kind of comment that incites anti-Semitism.
It's also the type of  statement that fundamentalists of other religions 
articulate.
To say He loves  us more is an insult to all non Jews.
One has to be careful about comments  that initiate negativity.<<
ri






>>>>>
 
You may be saying:
 
[1] Don't say "G-d loves us more," because it's not true.
 
 
Or you may be saying:
 
[2] Don't say "G-d loves us more" in public because it makes other people  
hate us, so let's keep it quiet, just among ourselves.
 
If your issue is [1] then you are just wrong.  Hashem tells us over  and 
over in the Torah that He loves us more.  It also says in Pirkei Avos  that 
Hashem loves us more. "Ratzah Hakodosh Baruch Hu LEZAKOS ES YISRAEL  lefichach 
hirbah lahem Torah umitzvos."  Also, "Hu (R' Akiva) haya omer,  Chavivin 
Yisrael shenikra'u vanim laMakom....shene'emar 'Banim atem laShem  
Elokeichem.'"  (Although I must point out that Hashem loves all of mankind,  as it also 
says in Pirkei Avos "chaviv Adam shenivra beTzelem.")
 
If your issue is [2] then the answer is, there is no reason to hate us (and 
 btw anti-Semites need no excuse, they hate us for breathing, for occupying 
space  on Planet Earth).  Anyone who wants to can join the Jewish people, 
if he is  willing to accept all the extra mitzvos he will have to keep and if 
he is  willing to share our fate, which may c'v include wars, terror 
attacks,  pogroms, expulsions, massacres, fulminating New York Times editorials 
and  UN anti-Israel votes -- which have been aptly characterized as  "Seventy 
wolves voting on the fate of one sheep."  If he is willing to  be the sheep 
and not one of the wolves, we not only welcome  the convert but we teach our 
children that the Torah says many, many  times that we must love converts, 
must not oppress them with even mild words  that might hurt their feelings, 
etc etc.
 
As for the claim of other nations, "G-d loves us and has rejected you" --  
why yes, of course they make that claim.  Does that mean our claim is  
false?  Remember the two women who came to Shlomo Hamelech and each said,  "The 
living baby is mine, the dead baby is hers."  Does the fact that they  both 
laid claim to the same baby somehow prove that they were /both/  wrong?!
 
There is a beautiful Shabbos zemer, "Tzama nafshi" (with the refrain "libi  
uvesari yeranenu leKel chai") which poetically interweaves the story of the 
two  mothers claiming the same baby with the story of the shifcha (Hagar,  
mother of the Arabs but here also metaphorically the mother of Christendom)  
who claims she's the real wife and her children are the true heirs of  
Avraham.  "'Re'eh ligeveres emes, shifcha no'emes, lo ki venech hameis  uveni 
hachai."
 
"Look at us, Hashem, see us and show us favor, we who are the true Wife to  
You -- see how the concubine mocks us and says, 'No, your son is dead and 
mine  is alive.'  See how our enemies claim that our religion is dead and 
theirs  is alive, and answer them."
 
I would like to add that in some huge cosmic sense, the very universality,  
irrationality and persistence of anti-Semitism shows that the whole world  
believes, deep-down, that the Jews really are the most important people in 
the  world and Israel really is the most important country in the world.  Why 
 else would the 70 wolves be so incredibly obsessed with the lone sheep?   
Every time the UN votes yet again to condemn Israel, it is all the  
countries in the world getting together to declare, once again, that Israel  is the 
most important country in the world.
 
 


--Toby Katz
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