[Avodah] Be among the talmidim of Aharon

Lisa Liel via Avodah avodah at lists.aishdas.org
Sun Jul 5 15:57:04 PDT 2015


In Pirkei Avot, Hillel HaZaken says: "Be among the talmidim of Aharon,
loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and bringing them close
to the Torah."

I don't get it.  I honestly don't.  If we see a bunch of Jews who don't
know anything about Judaism, shouldn't we try and get them to keep the
mitzvot?  If you know that they're more likely to violate the mitzvot
if they don't know, it's it our responsibility to teach them what God
wants of them?

The sheer vitriol I've seen from Orthodox Jews over the past days since
the Supreme Court decision making same-sex civil marriage the law of
the land in the United States has been overwhelming.  And I just don't
get it.  And it's part and parcel of the viciousness I've seen from so
many otherwise loving frum Jews over the years when it comes to this
subject.

I look at gay people and I see them overwhelmingly part of the nihilism
of the left, but I don't think being gay automatically makes people
like that.  But what else are Jews supposed to do when they're being
pushed away from the Torah?  Jews have neshamas that were at Sinai.  A
Jew who was raised without Torah has an empty space inside that's just
*begging* to be filled with Torah.

But because of the wrongheaded idea that gay people have to either
pretend they aren't gay, or they must be ostracized from the Torah
community, they wind up filling that empty space with the even emptier
slogans of the left.  Because of the belief held by so many frum Jews
that gay people who acknowledge themselves to be gay are simply
*incapable* or unwilling to keep mitzvot, we, as a community
*deliberately* withhold the Torah from them.

It makes no sense to me.  I mean, worst case, you tell someone gay,
"There are things you aren't allowed to do according to Jewish law.
Are you willing to abide by that?"  But we aren't even doing that.
We're assuming that the answer is going to be no, and by so assuming,
we're *making that happen*.

At 120, when you're standing before the Kisei HaKavod and you're asked
why you pushed so many Jews away from His Torah, I wonder what you'll
answer.

Lisa



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