New Article: Rabbi Marc Angel and Rabbi Meir Soloveichik: Religious Hypocrites in Trumpworld
David Shasha
Rabbi Marc Angel and Rabbi Meir Soloveichik: Religious Hypocrites in Trumpworld
On the morning prior to the first night of Hanukkah we got the following post from our dear friend Rabbi Angel, “Resisting Religious Corruption”:
https://www.jewishideas.org/resisting-religious-corruption-thoughts-shabbat-hanukkah
Here is the complete article:
After their glorious victory and rededication of the Temple, the Hasmoneans established the holiday of Hanukkah to be celebrated by Jews for all future generations. The festival of lights is an occasion for thanksgiving to God, celebration of Jewish pride, remembrance of the importance of religious freedom.
It wasn't too long, though, before this great spiritual and military victory lost its luster. The Hasmoneans--a priestly family--set themselves up as kings. Once they centralized so much power in themselves, corruption soon set in. Their "kings" became ruthless despots; the high priesthood became a political prize going to the highest bidder. Although the original spirit of Hanukkah managed to survive, the actual state of Jewish religion and spirituality was severely compromised under Hasmonean rule.
There is an ongoing lesson in this story. When authority is centralized in a few hands, this often results in corruption and spiritual deterioration. The few in power become arrogant and greedy. They feel that they can do what they want, and force others to comply. They come to think that they are above the law.
This lesson applies not merely to the world of politics, but to the world of religion. It is especially poisonous when religious and political power become intertwined. How painful it is to read of the ugly political maneuvering of "religious" parties in Israel. How frustrating it is to read of "religious" authorities--who are quick to assert their own power and who delegitimize others--who betray the ideas and ideals of Torah through their perverse, illegal and immoral behavior. How unfortunate it is that the Orthodox "rabbinic establishment" in Israel and the diaspora is viewed by so many as being insensitive, obscurantist and even hypocritical and dishonest.
The lesson of Hanukkah is that religion and spirituality need to rise above petty politics. The light of Torah is not spread through arrogant, self-righteous authoritarianism; it is not spread by those who usurp power and who think they are above the law. As the prophet Zechariah taught (and as we read in the haftarah last Shabbat): "Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts."
We need to re-focus on the spirit and righteousness of Torah, on the light of Torah that enhances life and reflects love and compassion to all. We need to resist religious coercion and authoritarianism, and to understand that the power of Torah is in its wisdom and mitzvoth. As we conclude the observance of Hanukkah, let us remember that true religion is not found among those who seek might and power; but in those who sincerely seek the Spirit of the Lord. Let us be sure that we are among the latter.
Here is the article’s key take-away from the Hanukkah story:
There is an ongoing lesson in this story. When authority is centralized in a few hands, this often results in corruption and spiritual deterioration. The few in power become arrogant and greedy. They feel that they can do what they want, and force others to comply. They come to think that they are above the law.
This lesson applies not merely to the world of politics, but to the world of religion. It is especially poisonous when religious and political power become intertwined. How painful it is to read of the ugly political maneuvering of "religious" parties in Israel. How frustrating it is to read of "religious" authorities--who are quick to assert their own power and who delegitimize others--who betray the ideas and ideals of Torah through their perverse, illegal and immoral behavior. How unfortunate it is that the Orthodox "rabbinic establishment" in Israel and the diaspora is viewed by so many as being insensitive, obscurantist and even hypocritical and dishonest.
Please keep in mind Angel’s deeply offensive hypocritical assertion of Haredi religious hypocrisy when pondering another current post from his Jewish Ideas website:
This is how we get from the Maccabees to Donald Trump!
We can see the old story of the Maccabees as foreshadowing the corruption of the Ashkenazi Zionists who have also put politics above morality, victory over justice, expediency over truth, and who have sought to usurp all Jewish power in their hands as they cut the rest of us off from the means of Jewish representation.
Zionism is predicated on a Hebrew Monolingualism which reflects the values of 19th century European Nationalism as understood in the Hegelian philosophical tradition with its Romantic Geist, the “essential” spirit of a people.
It was this state-system that exploded in the bloody 20th century, as Europe nearly destroyed the world with its violence and genocidal impulses.
For the Zionists, like the Greeks and Romans before them and Modern Europe in our era, it is always Might That Makes Right!
Indeed, Zionism has always been a rebellion against the normative Jewish tradition and over time has perfectly embodied the corruption, factionalism, and dysfunction that characterized the Second Temple period and the eventual destruction of the last Jewish Commonwealth.
It is therefore critical for us to see how Angel is completely oblivious to the way in which ancient Jewish History applies to the present, and how the Religious Zionist “Redemption” is a mere chimera which is fueled by those who think that they are “Above the Law,” and who have aggressively determined how the rest of us should think and act.
So, we can add the Self-Hating Sephardi Angel to the long list of Orthodox Jews who are effusively praising the degenerate Donald Trump for his dangerous Jerusalem PR stunt in the name of the Jewish Apocalypse.
Angel is in good company, as his Shearith Israel colleague Rabbi Meir Soloveichik did him one better and made a big splash at the White House Hanukkah party:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/Davidshasha/maLNfGyQ2Jc
Indeed, a picture is worth a thousand words:
https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2017/12/AP17342065547859.jpg
What a repugnant image to process as we embark on the annual Hanukkah celebration.
This was the very morning that we faced the prospect that a Trump-approved Child Molester could be elected to the US Senate. That was a bullet that we thankfully dodged when Roy Moore lost the special Alabama election to Civil Rights hero Doug Jones.
It was a morning when we were still reeling from the continuing Sex Assault charges being levied against the admitted “Grab Them By The Pussy” Molester Trump, a very loyal friend to the Anti-Semitic Alt-Right led by Steve Bannon and his Breitbart cabal:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/Davidshasha/3I-A91L09PY
It was a morning when the Mad Tweeter in the Oval Office dared, in the words of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, to “Slut-Shame” New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/12/politics/democratic-senators-defend-kirsten-gillibrand/index.html
Those who stand proudly with Trump must own the moral degeneracy and political corruption that has so completely permeated his administration.
It can rightly be said that both Angel and Soloveichik are the most dangerous Religious Hypocrites in our Sephardic community; men who have thrown Jewish moral values into the garbage in order to support their Messianic Religious Zionism, as they proudly embrace the moral decay of Trumpworld and its barbarism.
Let’s again read Angel’s main assertion from the article:
How frustrating it is to read of "religious" authorities--who are quick to assert their own power and who delegitimize others--who betray the ideas and ideals of Torah through their perverse, illegal and immoral behavior.
How “frustrating” indeed!
You can cut the bitter irony with a knife.
Speaking of the vile Soloveichik, Mosaic magazine proudly alerted us to his on-line course, “The Jewish Influence on America’s Founding”:
Here are the details:
https://tikvahfund.org/course/jewish-ideas-american-founders/
Looking at the course outline we see that it affirms Soloveichik’s doctrinaire Right Wing Conservative views and cleverly suppresses the Sephardic element in American History.
The first class, naturally, is called “The Yiddish Letter and the Declaration” which features Jonas Phillips, a figure I have discussed in the Soloveichik context before:
Soloveichik is a disgusting Ashkenazi ethnocentrist who, like his friend Jonathan Sarna, aims to infuse American Jewish History with the radical values of the Jewish Messianists and reject the values of Sephardic Jewish Humanism.
The Tikvah Fund course does eventually get around to mentioning Gershom Mendes Seixas and the famous George Washington Letter on Religious Tolerance by the sixth class, but the overall impression confirms the Right Wing Republican values of Donald Trump and Commentary magazine and The Tikvah Fund that Soloveichik so proudly represents.
As the classical Sephardic heritage continues to evaporate into the ether, Angel and Soloveichik are aggressively giving over Congregation Shearith Israel to the most cravenly disgusting political values, and in the process thrusting the dagger even further into our noble tradition.
We can only hope that the Trumpjews will go down with their leader, as the president continues to move inexorably towards his inevitable removal from office with the much-deserved disgrace and opprobrium that will accompany that legal process.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. rightly said:
The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, But It Bends Towards Justice.
Indeed, we should never lose faith in supporting Truth and Justice, and never tire of doing the right thing, in spite of the huge difficulties that job entails.
David Shasha