An article on DesertPeace’s blog has inspired me to write something beyond a reply. What started as a short comment, well, as you can see, an article was born and it all began with a Gay march scheduled to be taking place in Jerusalem this day. This will be the third year in a row for the parade in the Jerusalem, and, as in the history of the parade in many cities around the world, there has been a tremendous amount of acrimony from the community. Public demonstrations have been numerous and nearly convinced the local government to cancel the parade, but it seems to have survived the religious fanatics best attempts at thwarting their efforts to kill it.DesertPeace posted an article by Efrat Weiss discussing the actions being taken by followers of the late Meir Kahane (referred to by some as a Rabbi). You may read the Weiss article, and DesertPeace’s full post (a post well worth perusing) here. Weiss wrote another article that pointed out the true insanity of the hatred being spread by some people in the name of God: they have gone so far as to say that the police who will be guarding the parade are being sinful.
After the Kahaneites celebrating the actions of Yishai Schlissel, who was sentenced to 12 years in jail after stabbing a man at the gay pride parade in Jerusalem last year, of course they don’t want the police at the parade, it will stop them from being able to attack anyone else with impunity.Once again, this is the bastardisation of religion; the attempt at the usurpation of power through intimidation and what should be considered a reckless misinterpretation of scripture. To read without comprehending is a mirror of the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.” (Isaiah, 6:9b, NKJV)
The followers of Kahane (I will not defile the honorific “Rabbi” by attaching it to a man who stood for hatred and everything contrary to the beauty of the teaching of YHWH) have demonstrated why Israel has been experiencing the issues that they have been since the nation was reborn (unjustly) in 1947: disobedience breeds contempt. Contempt for the law, both of man and of God has shaped every aspect of the society that has been built in that land. You cannot reconcile your nation to the “laws of God” through the violence that was proscribed centuries ago – millennia ago. Those instructions were, as the Word says, for a time, or, more precisely, a season. That season has passed.
The opportunity to cleanse the Promised Land of all the inhabitants that were considered undesirable came and went when the Israelites decided to disobey the command of YHWH to do so before taking possession of the land that they had been lead to after their time in the desert. That decision may be seen as some as a decision that should be lauded as merciful: the Israelites showed mercy on the inhabitants of the land that were there before them and decided to live amongst them instead of committing an act of genocide.
Now it is too late to go back and change their minds. Genocide is no longer an option. Cleansing the land of the “unwanted”, the “unclean”, or the “undesirables” is no longer something that any true Rabbi would ever support. An enlightened student of the teachings of YHWH should recognize that there was a time, and is now a time, and the two are far from being the same.Zionist fascism has become the oppression mirroring the experience that was visited upon the Jews barely a few generations ago. I have met survivors of the holocaust, have seen the tattoos on arms that have been wrinkled with old age and have heard stories from those who managed – above all odds – to escape with their lives (and nothing else) from such places as Dachau, Treblinka and, once, even Auschwitz.
Not one of these survivors, I believe, would have been able to stomach the violence that is being perpetrated against another innocent civilian population. Before you cry about “self defence” and the “terrorists” firing their rockets I will concede that there is a problem with terrorists, but not ALL Palestinians are terrorists harbouring portable missile sites in their dwellings (as seen when the rubble is dug out and, as in Iraq, no weapons – or WMD’s – are found … big surprise).
There is one sure fire way to guarantee that there will be more Palestinian terrorists in a few years: if Israel keeps on their present course of attacking and killing innocents, the resentment that this foments amongst the young people who are seeing their family and friends being slaughtered around them will make them far more vulnerable to the seductive call of terrorists recruiting new members. Remember, when these terrorists recruit the young and indoctrinate them into their organization it is the kids who are used (by kids I mean younger members of the organization) for the suicide missions.
As usual, the young are expendable.
Kahane was neither a Rabbi, nor was he a Jew. If being born of a Jewish mother is what makes one Jewish is what qualifies you, sure, he was Jewish, but what of the heart? What of the compassion for one’s neighbour and community that the Torah teaches we are supposed to show?
“You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the LORD.” (Leviticus, 19:18, NKJV)Of course, that must have caused much confusion as it came immediately after, “You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbour, and not bear sin because of him.” (Leviticus, 19:17, NKJV)
To understand where the Kahaneites have taken their warped theology from it is critical to understand where they make their error. The first thing that they do is they only read the first of the two verses that I have presented (the second one quoted, verse seventeen). The second thing they do is haul out the two scriptures relating to homosexuality in the entire Torah. It is written: “you shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.” (Lev. 18:22, NKJV) This is repeated, slightly elaborated, in verse 13 of the twentieth chapter of Leviticus, the book in which the law was given. I find it fascinating that the most significant portion of the Law, that part “written in stone” does not include this most grievous abomination, yet it does include adultery (comes in at #7, right after murder), bearing false witness – otherwise known as perjury – and, of all things, coveting your neighbours wife, or their property (neighbours again … I’m sensing a pattern here …).
Could this mean that the Lord God Almighty places more emphasis on us living together, in peace, without judging but rather loving our neighbours, and focusing on our own problems instead of worrying about what our neighbours are doing when we go to bed at night? In the end, if someone is going to experience the wrath of the Lord for their actions, I don’t want it to be me because I turned my heart into a piece of hardened stone as a result of my judgements of others. Is it not better to try to live in peace with others now and worry about such things as the ultimate judgement for the time when it is really relevant (that would be a few milliseconds after your last heartbeat)? If not, prepare for another generation of war, and many, many more dead … and the cycle will continue.Tags:
