חנניה ווייסמאן Chananya Weissman

The Secret Behind the Galus Jew

The ability of the Jew to come up with reasons why he will not make aliya is truly incredible. It doesn’t matter if the Jew is religious or secular, conservative or liberal, rich or poor, Sefardic or Ashkenazic. It doesn’t matter what his family situation is, his education, or his background. It doesn’t even matter what’s going on where he currently lives. If there is one issue that cuts across all divides for the millions of Jews outside their homeland, it is “Anywhere but Israel!”

The sheer breadth of reasons Jews give would lead one to believe that Israel is the absolute worst place on earth to live. They make it sound as if the ever-increasing millions of Jews who do live here and don’t wish to leave are crazy (or religious idealists, which to many is the same thing). No one in his right mind would ever want to live in Israel.

At best it’s a lifestyle choice, something a Jew should consider “only if it’s right for him”.

Within the religious world we find intellectual contortions that would be comical if the implications were not tragic. After all, the religious Jew must come to grips with the fact that his daily prayers, his frequent blessings, his religious ceremonies, his holidays, and his holy texts are suffused with love for Israel and the fervent desire to return immediately.

But the religious Jew does not desire this. Not only does he not desire this, he fervently desires the very opposite. His greatest desire is to live anywhere else on earth in a religious cocoon with people who resemble him. His gentile neighbors should think well of Jews, or at least pretend not to mind them, or at the very minimum not persecute them too severely. If things get “too bad” – which is purposely not defined so that the threshold can be repeatedly adjusted as the situation deteriorates – the Jew will dutifully decide that it is time to find another home in the Diaspora.

Nothing inspires a galus Jew more than building a new community somewhere in the Diaspora, while nothing turns him off more than the idea of pioneering a new community in Israel. He wants “Moshiach Now” as much as Peace Now wants peace.

So the religious Jew must use all his hair-splitting abilities to do away with volumes of Torah sources that contradict his attachment to galus, while taking a handful of convenient sources literally and giving them disproportionate weight. He laughs at Christian missionaries who employ the same tricks to rationalize a conclusion that was pre-determined and cannot be altered.

If you call him on this, he will argue that there are many knowledgeable and pious rabbis who take this position, and he is obediently following them. Oh, the self-sacrifice this poor religious Jew makes to follow his rabbi! How it must eat away at him that he cannot move to Israel because his rabbi said so! Such loyal obedience for rabbis one will not find for any commandment other than the commandment to remain in galus.

The religious Jew will not content himself with theological arguments to remain in galus. He will supplement his opposition to living in Israel with every materialistic and practical reason you can imagine, and some that you can’t. If Israel fails the gashmiyus comparison test in any respect, then it would be unreasonable to expect the Jew to move there. Israel must not only be his national homeland and the focal point of his religious practices, but it must pass every gashmiyus comparison test. When Israel passes any such test, the galus Jew responds, “Yes, but…” and finds another.

There are two simple litmus tests to determine whether a Jew who claims he wants to live in Israel “someday” really means it. The first is how he responds when you counter his reason for not coming.

Do his eyes light up with hope that you are right, that living in Israel really IS more feasible than he might have believed? Does he become excited that his dream of living in Israel might be more realistic than he believed? Does he want to know more, explore your suggestion, and see if that kernel of hope can blossom into a new life in Israel? Or does he immediately fire back with another reason why it can’t work?

If he jumps from reason to reason why aliya isn’t for him, inventing new reasons on the spot if necessary, then clearly he has intermarried with galus and does not want to divorce his foreign wife. If he heatedly insists that he just can’t make it in Israel, and is upset when someone evens suggest otherwise, then he is a galus Jew through and through.

The second test is also quite simple. He has given his reason, or litany of reasons, why he cannot make aliya today, even though he supposedly wants nothing more. What is he doing to overcome these obstacles?

He claims he cannot find work in Israel. It’s impossible to make it in Israel! We will all starve in the streets!

Has he even tried? Was it just a casual conversation in passing, or a serious search? Is he actively and continuously trying to find something? Is he connecting with people in his field, exploring different possibilities? If someone offered him a great job in Israel right now, would he pack up and move? If he lost his job in galus and had nothing to left to lose, would he try to start over in Israel? If the answer to these questions is no, then he is not giving a reason, but making a convenient excuse.

He claims there are no schools for his children. They will have no future!

Has he even looked? When he visited Israel, did he visit schools? Has he spoken with other parents? If the answer is no, his reason is a farce.

If he is staying in galus to take care of an elderly family member, will he commit to aliya immediately after his help is no longer needed? If not, he is not staying in galus for family reasons, but for something much deeper.

The same is true for every other “reason” that he simply cannot leave galus. Actions speak louder than words, and actions that contradict the words nullify the words completely. If they are taking no actions towards furthering their ideal of making aliya, and in fact are taking concrete actions to cement their lives in galus indefinitely, then they don’t really want to live in Israel at all. The excuses they give are nothing more than cover for this blasphemous truth, which many galus Jews are still ashamed to admit.

The galus Jew will also latch onto the false piety approach. I am waiting for Moshiach! Sure you are. Do you have your suitcase packed like the Chafetz Chaim? Are you saying Tikkun Chatzos every night with tears streaming down your face begging for Moshiach to come so you can leave galus? Are you truly heartbroken and crestfallen that Israel is right there waiting for you, but you are supposedly denied entry until Moshiach holds your hand? If so, show it once in a while. You say you are too humble to do that, but you’ve already blown your cover as one of the 36 hidden tzaddikim with the line about waiting for Moshiach. Let’s see some emotion – a fraction of the emotion you show when people suggest that you should come now and prepare the land for Moshiach.

The clever galus Jew will come up with reasons not to live in Israel that they would be ashamed to apply to any other place. One woman who left Israel, and felt the obligation to defame it as much as possible to justify her decision, claimed that everyone is rude, and she only had negative experiences with the people. Really, millions of Jews of all kinds, but everyone is rude and she only had negative experiences. One can only surmise that if her interactions with literally everyone she encountered were so negative that perhaps she had something to do with it. I did just that, and she called me a sexist. You play whatever cards you can.

I can see people moving apartments because the neighbors are rude. I can see people moving to another community that might be more friendly and welcoming. People don’t leave countries over this – especially not Jews. Jews have a lot more mental fortitude when it comes to remaining in galus, after all, and the goyim will have to much more than be rude to convince them to leave any country in the Diaspora.

Galus Jews are so brave in the face of anti-Semitism – this is our home and we will fight for it! Yet when it comes to living in Israel they are afraid they will get blown up on every bus, stabbed by every Arab, and have rockets rain from the skies more than rains of blessing. Interesting, no?

They cannot live in Israel because the government is corrupt, inept, wasteful, and otherwise unsatisfactory. Yet they would never leave their galus land for the same reason, nor is satisfaction with the government a serious consideration when they move from place to place within galus. Even Hitler coming to power wasn’t enough to motivate Jews to leave Germany, and today’s Jews are no wiser. So I’m calling bluff on that one.

They are worried about their safety in Israel. Right. Because the first thing galus Jews check when they decide where to live is the crime rate. If safety were their foremost consideration, it’s hard to explain why galus Jews tend to live in cities with high crime rates, and move in groups to rundown inner cities simply because the real estate is cheap. Safety first!

One galus Jew even told me that he believes Jews should stay in galus so that if Iran nukes Israel, the Jews in galus will survive and keep the Jewish people alive. What self-sacrifice! Staying behind in galus just to restart our people when God allows Israel to be nuked! Of course, it makes one wonder why galus Jews live in large clusters in places like New York City and communities near the White House, which would be prime targets for large-scale attacks. If the name of the game is spreading out as much as possible to increase our chances of survival, we can do much better than that.

They also claim that there isn’t enough land in Israel, or food, or water, were all Jews to come home. The galus Jew is staying behind just to make it easier for God, who they seem to believe cannot sustain us all in Israel, even though He did just fine when we were in the desert. Okay, maybe God CAN, but how can we rely on that?  We have to do our hishtadlus just to be sure. When God sends the Manna from heaven they will return, so we Jews in Israel won’t have to worry about food shortages.  The religious fervor of these people, their unswerving faith and devotion, is remarkable.

There is only one explanation for the galus Jew. He has been overcome by the yetzer hara.

Chazal teach that a person does not sin unless a spirit of insanity overcomes him. Indeed, no rational person can learn the Torah, witness the rebirth of Israel, and conclude that God wants him to stay in galus. No rational person can see the situation in galus declining day after day and resist the idea of leaving as if his life depended on it, when the very opposite is likely true. No rational person will fight for the honor of his foreign stepmother, who at best is only mildly abusive, while he disgraces the birth mother that is yearning for him.

It is the yetzer hara. The yetzer hara will do anything to get us to commit a sin. He will manipulate us and have our minds play tricks on us to justify wrongdoing. Living in Israel is a transcendent mitzva, and the entire Torah is centered around Israel. Do you think for one moment the yetzer hara would not devote every possible effort to convince Jews not to live there? Convincing a Jew to choose galus over Israel is the greatest coup for the yetzer hara. It is the most logical strategy for the yetzer hara to employ, and the only logical explanation for the twisted logic of the galus Jew.

I daresay the evil temptation to choose galus over Israel is the greatest challenge of our generation. It is irrational, it runs counter to the very essence of the Torah, it requires distorting or ignoring clear divine messages, and it is the greatest impediment to the redemption that is so tantalizingly close. The yetzer hara is fighting desperately to keep us with a galus mentality, and thereby to prolong the galus – a galus that has already ended if only we allowed it to be over.

Enough with the excuses. Come home, help us reclaim our land – all of it! – and end the galus once and for all.

Esav’s Merits Run Out

I do not claim to have met Moshiach in person or to know when he will reveal himself. God has not spoken to me. Angels have not revealed the future to me. The dead have not come to me in dreams with messages. I have no Kabbalah-inspired insights or powers. I can open a Chumash to a random page and point to a pasuk, but I will not declare it a message from heaven.

All that said, I have enough seichel to put two and two together. The Torah is meant to be learned and understood. We are supposed to learn, understand, and make decisions in real life accordingly. I have learned the words of Chazal, I see what is going on in the world, and it doesn’t take prophecy or special powers to connect the dots.

There are numerous indications that the nations of the world are in the process of an epic downfall, which will usher in the redemption of Israel and the Jewish people. In the last few days, I believe a critical line has been crossed, with only mild attention, that spells the doom of Esav.

We have a tradition that Yaakov and Esav have a see-saw relationship. When one is up, the other is down. For thousands of years the descendants of Esav have, for the most part, ruled the world, while the Jewish people were like the dust of the earth. Since the return to Israel our stock has slowly but continuously risen, while Esav has begun to decline.

There are several impediments that have slowed the process of our rise. The main impediment is the utter blindness of the Galus Jews, their stiff-necked unwillingness to recognize the divine call for them to return home en masse. I have written about this extensively, and will continue to do so, but this essay is not the place for it.

One of the other main impediments is Esav’s rightful hold on power. The time must be right not only for our redemption to occur, but for Esav to lose his position on the see-saw. Chazal teach that our initial entry into Israel was delayed in part for the occupying nations to fill their measure of sins until they deserved to be kicked out.

Chazal also teach that Esav excelled at one mitzva for which he merited world domination until this day. Just as we remain exiled until our sins are expiated, Esav stays in power until his merits run out. The mitzva that is the source of Esav’s power is kibbud av v’em, honoring his parents, and I daresay, albeit without any inside information, that his merits are just about finished.

For last few decades, Western society, which comes from Esav, has increasingly been waging war on traditional family values. It began with “women’s liberation”, which has morphed into a feminist movement whose true aim is to demolish God’s definition of Woman as Man’s helpmate and the mother of all life. It continued with the “sexual revolution”, which glorified promiscuity and attacked the very notion of shame.

The next battle was against babies. Contraception became the norm; procreation became an inconvenient byproduct of sex to be “controlled” and “prevented”. The murder of unwanted children received the sanitized term “abortion” to mask the true horror of the act. “Planned Parenthood” is an organization devoted to the planning of un-parenthood, facilitating the death of that which makes one a parent.

Amalek, the grandson of Esav, specializes in euphemisms and clever use of language to promote the abhorrent as sacred in polite company. The most unmotherly act imaginable is celebrated as “a woman’s right to choose”. What decent person could possibly be against a woman having a right to make choices, after all? So yes, a mother may choose to murder her child before birth, or even slightly after, if it comes down to it. In fact, she should be applauded for making this “empowering” choice.

According to the CDC, more than 46 million unborn children were killed by their mothers in the United States as of 2016. This is progress.

The war on tradition and children did not stop even there. Next to fall was the notion of marriage as a holy union specifically between a man and a woman. Esav embraced all manner of “alternative lifestyles” in favor of this lone option mandated by God on Day One of the human race. There is the “single lifestyle”, in which marriage is rejected as a shackle that interferes with one’s “self-actualization”. Becoming a “single mom” is an ideal for many “liberated” women, who may choose to have a child, though the child cannot choose to have a father.

There is the “open relationship”, in which married people commit adultery, but it’s not immoral because they decided that together.

There is “polyamory”, in which adultery is committed with numerous people, but it’s fine because they love each other.

And of course, there is gay marriage, where procreation is biologically impossible, aside from pesky biblical comments. Gay marriage is celebrated by Esav as the new holy of holies, the yardstick by which “moral” societies are now to be judged. Whoever allows gay people to push the envelope the farthest takes the moral lead, those who lag behind are condemned, and the game of “progress” continues from there with no end. Needless to say, those who choose to enter relationships where procreation is biologically impossible must be permitted to obtain children some other way, even renting a woman’s womb for that purpose. The only thing morally superior to a woman’s right to kill a child is the right to sell it.

Now the war has reached what may be its final stage. Not content to kill those who would come after them in the name of progress, now they are killing those who came before them in the name of “mercy”. Europe is increasingly embracing euthanasia of the sick and elderly, and the covid pandemic has accelerated the spread of this court-sanctioned murder of the weak and defenseless. If sick old people will voluntary forfeit their lives, that is most ideal. If not, society and medical practitioners may encourage them. If that fails, and they stubbornly wish to continue living, a termination of their life can be imposed upon them. Mercifully, of course, painlessly if possible, though they may struggle and thrash should they realize what is happening.

We cannot blame elderly people with sickness or dementia for not understanding that their lives are no longer worth living.

Presumably, this mercy is reserved primarily for those without great wealth or high connections. It is hard to imagine, say, the Pope being put to eternal rest should he contract covid. But grandma in the nursing home is no longer needed. She lived her life, she isn’t productive anymore, she isn’t paying taxes, and in fact she is only drawing money out of the system. She can go now.

Really, grandma, it’s about you having mercy on the rest of us, say the Europeans, those enlightened descendants of Esav who are never too busy to lecture Israel on morality.

Whatever starts in Europe eventually finds its way to America, and “physician-assisted death” is gradually catching on there too. Only Amalek could conjure up such a term, as physicians used to exist specifically to assist people in continuing to live. Nowadays, if a person is not murdered by his mother before being born, his own child might give the death sentence.

This brings us back to Esav’s hold on power. His sole merit was kibud av v’em. Now the descendants of Esav are increasingly killing their parents, deciding on their behalf that their lives are no longer worth living or fighting for. It is inconceivable that they will continue to enjoy reward for the kibud av v’em of their forefather when they have completely severed themselves from his example.

Esav’s father, Yitzchak, was blind. Esav served him and provided for him with the greatest of respect. Today, his descendants might simply have whacked him. For his own sake, of course, to put him out of his suffering. Clean and relatively swift, of course, by cutting off his oxygen or injecting him with poison. But a whacking all the same.

Esav’s two-millennium hold on power has been hanging by a single thread. That thread has frayed and may well have finally snapped.

Israel’s side of the see-saw has been steadily rising. The other side may be about to finally crash.

Kiruv for the distant kiruv workers

I’ve always been uncomfortable with the relatively new phenomenon of people leaving Israel to begin kollels or perform kiruv in galus. Many organizations are devoted to this. It is a noble purpose in principle – those who sacrifice of themselves to do outreach are kindred spirits – but I have serious doubts about this from a Torah standpoint.

The Gemara at the end of Kesubos has very harsh words for those who leave Israel for virtually any reason. I am well aware that nowadays people leave Israel temporarily for many reasons, and they have halachic authorities upon which they can rely in most cases. I am not here to argue that anyone who leaves Israel except for extenuating reasons should be condemned, and I am not a posek besides.

At the same time, we have to acknowledge that leaving Israel is not a simple matter, heterim to do so are not automatic, and even if a heter can be found it does not mean it should be exercised. The default rule that one should generally not leave Israel must not be cavalierly disregarded in favor of every whim that can be rationalized. That is neither the way of the frum Jew nor intellectually honest.

Many rabbis and educators justify remaining in galus today on the basis of their community work. They are teaching Torah, they claim. They must stay behind for the sake of their flock. Not only that, but young Torah scholars often uproot their families from Israel to go on kiruv missions in galus or strengthen Torah in various communities. Again, these goals are noble and I strongly identify with them, but it is very dubious from a Torah perspective.

One of the heterim to leave Israel is to learn Torah (Avoda Zara 13A). (This is written specifically in reference to a kohen becoming tamei by leaving Israel, and does not necessarily imply that it is prohibited for other Jews to leave Israel. Nevertheless, the general position of Chazal throughout the Gemara and Midrashim is strongly against Jews leaving Israel, not just Kohanim. Again, I will leave it to poskim to determine halacha, but from a philosophical standpoint the position of Chazal is clear.) The Gemara qualifies this heter to apply only when the individual in question will have particular benefit from a teacher who is outside of Israel.

On the basis of this heter, many people today remain in galus or leave Israel to teach Torah. There are two serious problems with this. First of all, it is a heter; it is by no means an obligation. Just because something is permitted does not mean it is desirable or the best decision in all cases.

Second of all, the heter is specifically to leave Israel so that one can learn Torah and then return. Learning Torah is a vital personal need as are the other heterim (earning a livelihood and getting married, after which one is expected to return as well). Nowhere does the Gemara provide a heter for someone to move away from Israel for extended periods of time to teach Torah.

In fact, we find quite the contrary. As I noted in a previous article, Mordechai left a position of great influence in Persia at an advanced age to return to Israel. There was perhaps no one in the exile with his level of importance on the educational and political level – he had every excuse in the book to stay put – yet he jumped at the opportunity to return home. The Jews in exile could join him, or fend for themselves if not.

We also have the striking example of Baruch ben Nerya, the scribe and disciple of Yirmiyah the prophet, and a prophet in his own right. The Midrash questions why Ezra and his colleagues did not go up to Israel with the first wave of Jews – it is taken for granted that they should have. The Midrash answers that he needed to clarify his learning before Baruch ben Nerya, his teacher. (This was particularly important, because Ezra was compared to Moshe for restoring the Torah in his generation.) The Midrash then asks why Baruch did not go up. Chazal explain that Baruch was both elderly and a large man, and it was not physically feasible for him to travel even in a carriage. (Shir Hashirim Rabba 5:1:5)

Baruch was the teacher of the greatest teacher of his generation, one of the foremost teachers in our history, and were it not for physical limitations, the Midrash takes for granted that he would have gone up to Israel. The message is clear: building Israel is more important than staying behind in galus to teach the exiles Torah.

Again, I am sure there is room for this to be allowed depending on the situation, but today it has become a cottage industry for cementing life in exile when we should be encouraging these communities to transplant themselves back to Israel.

Furthermore, for better or for worse, there is enormous opportunity for outreach within Israel. There is no compelling reason for talented educators to leave Israel to inspire people who live in distant lands when the need is so great right in their backyard. Perhaps they have mistakenly understood the phrase kiruv rechokim as a call to perform outreach on those who are physically far away? Perhaps there is something exotic and glamorous about traveling to a distant land to save Jewish souls? Whatever the case may be, the justifications for leaving Israel to do this are dubious, despite the need for inspiration abroad.

The best way to strengthen the Jewish people is to strengthen the resettlement of our land, physically and spiritually. The best Torah lesson our teachers can provide is not to enable never-ending life in exile, but to lead the way home by example. Let the message be unequivocal that the Torah and Jewish life in all its fullness is in Israel, and only in Israel.

The time for planting seeds of Torah in exile is thankfully behind us. The time has come to transplant our existing trees back home where they belong.

P.S.

The Lesson Israel Must Learn From Coronavirus

Reclaiming a stolen mitzvah

One of the most fundamental tenets of Judaism is the mitzvah to love your fellow like yourself. Rabbi Akiva referred to it as a “great rule” in the Torah. When Hillel was asked to distill the entire Torah to a single “sound bite”, he cited this mitzvah, and said everything else is commentary.

It is therefore especially tragic that we have allowed this mitzvah to be hijacked, twisted, abused, and corrupted to the point where it has lost all meaning in our time. We have allowed those who are most far removed from the Torah, who in fact wage war against the Torah, to pervert this mitzvah into an empty slogan with which to bludgeon its true practitioners.

For years we have allowed the Torah to be desecrated in our streets – with pride! – with nary a peep of protest. We have allowed ourselves to be convinced that it is pointless to object, even counterproductive, whereby we cleverly turn our unwillingness to stand up for the Torah into a mitzvah for having chosen the prudent course of inaction. Really, we are heroic for doing nothing and saying nothing while everything that is dear to us is desecrated. If we protested for the sake of what is most dear to us we might only legitimize our enemies, or provoke them even further, or make fools of ourselves, so best to look the other way. We believe this because it is convenient, not because it is correct.

We live in a society in which terrorists who make the ultimate sacrifice are referred to as cowards, while those who refrain from fighting back lest they further upset their enemies are called brave, and no one laughs out loud. Declarations of war are now referred to as peace treaties, and casualties of war are referred to as painful sacrifices for the sake of peace. This is the best option, the only option, we are relentlessly told until people believe it or wear down. We allow ourselves to tolerate all manner of hypocrisies and absurdities, for tolerance is the new religion, and everything must be tolerated except what God demands of us. That is what God wants most, we are lectured, to tolerate everyone and everything except for God Himself.

In light of this, it is no wonder that we have allowed the mitzvah to love one’s fellow like yourself to become just another painful sacrifice on the altar of tolerance and obfuscation. In the grand scheme of things, this sacrifice doesn’t seem to have been all that painful, either. What does it matter anymore? Let it be their mantra.

So now we are lectured relentlessly that those who would make the citizens of Sodom blush and Noach’s townsfolk cringe must be loved, as much as we love ourselves. The Torah demands it! It is God’s will! If we even harbor a negative thought toward them we are hypocrites, and if we utter it we are criminals, extremists, terrorists who should be locked up before we can strike. Love your fellow like yourself! If you trampled on the Torah, desecrated its very essence, and waged war on God, wouldn’t YOU want people to love you and accept you? Of course, you would. So you must love others who do the same.

We have even been admonished that this mitzvah extends to actual terrorists, to children of Yishmael who have murdered our people. Those who call for these people to be summarily executed and for the blood of our brothers and sisters to be avenged are silenced with calls to love our fellow like yourself. These murderers were created in the image of God, we are told, just like us, and we must love them, just like ourselves, even if they’ve been a bit naughty. The Torah demands it. It is God’s will. It is a mitzvah.

So preach those who couldn’t tell you where this mitzvah appears in the Torah, who couldn’t tell you what this mitzvah actually means according to the Sages who transmitted it to us from the day it was given, and who believe all the mitzvos are merely suggestions that can be reinterpreted or done away with according to the needs and desires of the time. This mitzvah, however, is binding on us, it supersedes all others, and it must be taken literally to the most absurd, even suicidal extremes. We must be willing to sacrifice for the Torah, after all, preach those who sacrifice nothing but the Torah.

It is with this lengthy introduction in mind that we must reclaim this mitzvah as our own. We must reaffirm its true meaning and context, both its broad applications and its inviolable boundaries – boundaries which exist for every mitzvah. Those who wage war on the very notion of boundaries shall no longer be permitted to deny the existence of boundaries for this mitzvah too, and in so doing hijack it for their nefarious purposes.

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The mitzvah to love one’s fellow like yourself appears in the beginning of Parshas Kedoshim (19:18), which not coincidentally is preceded by the prohibitions on sexual immorality. The same Torah that commands us to love our fellow also commands us that we are not permitted to express our love – or act out our desires – however we please. One cannot claim one mitzvah is binding, authentic, or otherwise relevant without accepting all the others. The Torah is a package deal.

One who wishes to convert to Judaism and accept upon himself everything except for a single letter of the Torah is denied. A Jew who accepts the divine origin of the entire Torah except for a single letter is a blasphemer. If you want “love your fellow”, you must accept every “thou shalt not” as well. If you deny a single “thou shalt not”, you have no claim to “love your fellow”. If you claim that God wasn’t really serious about a single “thou shalt not”, then you have no right to impose your strict interpretation of “love your fellow” on anyone else.

If you claim the rabbis made up the laws, it is these same rabbis who emphasized “love your fellow”. One cannot cite a rabbinic teaching as support for his lifestyle if he denies the divine authority of these same rabbis and all their other teachings.

Indeed, the next words after “love your fellow like yourself” are “I am Hashem”, to teach that we are only commanded to love those who conduct themselves with righteousness and bring honor to Hashem, not those who do the reverse (Torah Temima, Avos D’Rabbi Nasan Chapter 26). Rashbam explains that this mitzvah is limited by the word “your fellow”; we are not commanded to love our enemies or the wicked, only our fellows in goodness and Godliness.

Those who claim that certain mitzvos do not apply to them – nay, that only this mitzvah does apply to them – must be informed that we are only commanded to love our fellows in Torah and fear of Heaven. To the extent that they believe “thou shalt nots” do not apply to them, the mitzvah to love them does not apply to us. Quite the contrary. And we must keep this mitzvah not to love them even though it is extremely difficult for us, and we were born with the gene to love all people no matter what…

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Considering the importance our rabbis attached to the mitzvah to love one’s fellow, it’s interesting how little attention is devoted to it in the Gemara and Midrash. We would expect a huge tractate filled with rabbinic teachings on “love your fellow”, yet citations of this mitzvah are sparse and appear in the most unlikely of places. This only underscores how the mitzvah is indeed fundamental and the rest of the Torah is commentary, yet it is also just one mitzvah of 613, and it must be compatible with the other 612.

In Sanhedrin we are taught that certain methods of execution in Jewish courts were favored over others that would be even slightly more painful or disgraceful than necessary, due to the mitzvah to “love your fellow like yourself”.

An “enlightened” skeptic would scoff that truly loving one’s fellow would be not to execute him altogether, no matter what the crime, for we wouldn’t want to be executed no matter what we did. This is nonsense, of course. Loving one’s fellow does not mean allowing an entire breakdown of law and justice, especially since that would have devastating consequences for all our other, innocent fellows. It means meting out justice with compassion and empathy even for the lowest of criminals – but meting out justice all the same. Indeed, no system of law in the world demonstrates the degree of compassion and empathy for criminals and sinners to the extent that our Torah does, all while protecting the need for civilization to remain civilized.

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The truth is that the commandment to love another person just as one loves himself, taken literally, is absurd. Not only is it absurd, it goes against the Torah. If one is traveling in the desert with a fellow Jew, and he has only enough food and water for one person to survive, he must keep it for himself. It is also prohibited for a person to give away too much of his own money to charity lest he become destitute in his own right. Self-sacrifice has its limits, and a literal interpretation of “love your fellow like yourself” is incompatible with the Torah’s actual position. But of course.

That said, we also know that the most basic meaning of a pasuk, the peshat, cannot be disregarded. The Ramban explains that the mitzvah to love one’s fellow equally to himself refers to the obligation to desire only the very best for one’s fellow Jew in all matters, just as one wishes for himself. This mitzvah single-handedly drives away petty competition, ayin hara, jealousy, the begrudging reactions people often have when others find success, especially in areas where one is lacking. Why him and not me? The mitzvah to love one’s fellow like himself urges us to wish only good things for our fellow Jews and to be genuinely happy for them when they find success. To truly love someone is to view their success with satisfaction, as if it were your own.

Needless to say, nowhere in Torah literature will one find in this mitzvah a license to condone evildoing or pardon willful, unrepentant sinners. To do so demonstrates neither love for the other person, nor for yourself, nor for society, nor for the Torah, nor for God. If one is struggling with a particular commandment and truly wishes to perform God’s will, he will receive boundless love and support from His people. Even if he stumbles along the way, he remains “our fellow” so long as he accepts the commandment as binding and wishes to fulfill it. Such a person is truly “our fellow”, for he is all of us, and we shall love such a person just as we love ourselves.

If, however, someone claims that a commandment is not binding, or not relevant, or fabricated by corrupt Talmudic personalities, or simply doesn’t apply to him, then he has excused himself from the fellowship, and is no longer entitled to the privileges of membership. The very preceding pasuk to “love your fellow” is the commandment to rebuke a fellow Jew – which, like every other mitzvah, must be done within proper parameters, but which is a mitzvah just the same.

Even before we are commanded to love a fellow Jew, and immediately after we are commanded not to hate a fellow Jew, we are commanded to rebuke a sinner. This is part and parcel of the loving relationship we are supposed to share with one another. A relationship in which “love” means a blank check to do whatever one desires and receive only approval in return is neither a loving relationship nor a healthy relationship. It is certainly not mandated by the Torah.

The first pasuk of Shema, the most basic of Jewish prayers, commands us to love Hashem with all our hearts, all our souls, and all that we possess. Let us love Hashem, let us love those who serve Him, and let us love those who wish to serve Him even if they are still on the beginning of the road. But they must be on that road, not seeking to blow it up. They must be our fellows.

None of what I have written here is novel. Unfortunately, due to the onslaught of “love your fellow” by those who make a farce of this and all other mitzvos, we need to review that which we already know and strengthen our commitment to it. Let us reclaim this mitzvah as the exclusive inheritance of those who accept the Torah – the entire Torah – and let us proclaim its true meaning with pride.

True Jewish pride.

Chananya Weissman