Yes, We Care about Other Peoples

Response to the arguments about the previous column, about the national movements in Europe: The struggle of the European right is important, because we desire the existence of nations * Rabbi Kook ztz”l taught us: We hate the evil of the nations, and love the image of God * We should also love the leftwing movements, but this is more difficult because they hate us * The love of man of the leftwing movements is directed toward an abstract person, but once he exhibits an identity, hatred towards him develops *HaGomel: Even if in the past women refrained from doing so, there is no reason for them not to recite the blessing in a minyan

A complaint on What I Wrote

Last week I wrote that it is correct to end the boycott imposed by the State of Israel, together with the Jewish communities in the Diaspora, on the right-wing movements in Europe. This was because these movements denounced anti-Semitic positions, expressed open support for the State of Israel and refined their national positions into a just and moral position demanding the preservation of their national, religious and cultural identity. On the correctness of their position, I wrote: “Just as the property of a private person must not be stolen, as the Communists did in the countries they took over, so it is forbidden to deprive people of their national and religious identity…”

There were those who argued: What do we care about the peoples of Europe, let them all be destroyed after what they did to us. There was a Torah scholar who attacked my words: “It is forbidden to rob European nations of their religious identity?! Forbidden?! Is it a Biblical prohibition? Rabbinic? Minhag? True, there is no obligation to chase after the non-Jews to leave their idols, but to say that it is forbidden to do so? On the contrary, he should be blessed! And that at the time of the redemption, God will not remove the exiles from the land, and there will be a serious faith crisis for all the nations that will remain alive? It seems that the word “forbidden” here is the secular equivalent of the word “forbidden” – that is, according to the democratic Western values of live and let live, each one and his truth, one can understand that one must not deprive anyone of his religious identity. But our position is permitted and desirable. Western values have an impact on our society, even in this case where they clash head-on with the values of the Torah. Though it’s not good, I can understand it, and it’s natural. But a well-known rabbi who writes in such a style seems to me out of place…”

To Benefit all Peoples

I did not write what I wrote accidentally or without thought, but from a well-established Torah position. To those who wonder why we care about the different nations, I will mention the words of Rabbi Kook: “Love of humanity must be alive in the heart and in the soul…to benefit all the nations…this character trait prepares Israel for the spirit of Moshiach. In all references where we find hints of hatred (towards the non-Jews), it is clear that the intention is only on the evil, which seizes the alliance of many nations today, and especially in the past, when the immorality of the world was far more repulsive. However, we must know that the aim of life – light and holiness – never moved from the Divine Image endowed to all of mankind, nation, and language…” (Midot HaRaya, Ahava, paragraph 5). And it is noted in the last chapters of the book of Jeremiah, concerning the nations punished for their wickedness, that Yirmiyahu in his prophecy laments them.

As Rav Kook wrote in relation to the various religions: “Our goal is not to uproot or destroy them, just as we do not aim for the general destruction of the world and all its nations, but rather their correction and elevation, the removal of their dross, and of themselves they will join the source of Israel, where dewdrops of light will flow over them: ‘And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his detestable things from between his teeth, and he, too, shall remain for our God’ (Zechariah 9:7). This applies even to idolatry, and therefore, even more so to religions whose foundations are partly based on the light of Israel’s Torah.” If in regards to absolute idol worshippers the goal is to remove the dross while retaining the general character of their faith and attitude towards good and virtue – all the more so concerning Christianity and Islam. Not their absorption and destruction is the goal of the light of Israel, just as we do not aim for general destruction to the world and all its nations, but to correct them and raise them, (Zechariah 9: 7), and this even applies to idolatry, and certainly to religions that rely on some of their foundations for the light of the Torah of Israel.”(Igrot HaRayeh, I, p. 142). The religions spoken of are religions such as Christianity and Islam, on which he wrote “that they are of great value”. Not only that, but hatred of Israel is a significant part of the evil in Christianity and Islam, and when groups within them change their attitude toward Israel for the better, their better part becomes clearer.

The claims against what I have written are based on a limited and superficial perception that developed abroad, as a defense against the terrible hatred and persecution. But we must return to the entire Torah that deals with the redemption of our people and all peoples, each nation according to its national, moral, spiritual and religious character.

We Love the Left but Receive Hatred

After what I wrote this time, I will probably get questions from the left: Can we also show respect and love for liberal leftist movements?

A: Respect certainly, love a little harder, and yet – yes.

Let me explain further: the basic position of the liberal left, according to which every person has absolute value, and therefore we must have respect for his personal rights to freedom, property and dignity, is a position that deserves great esteem. It is a great improvement to the situation in which tyrants and powerful individuals oppressed all types of people. And it must be supported as long as it does not trample on other important values, as the extreme left movements have done from their outset.

But loving those who completely hate us is hard. For love is mutual, and it is hard to love those who call us Nazis and curse us with baseless blood libels. Even if there is a grain of truth in their principled positions, their appearance in practice is evil, violent, and incites war.

If we delve deeper, leftist movements have no human love. Leftist movements love man as an abstract concept, lonely and naked from any gender, family, national and religious definition. But in practice, they tend to hate people – for people are expressed through their identities, and these identities the left movements criticize sharply out of contempt and hatred. This is because they believe that these identities are the root of all evil, which harms equality, which is the goal to which they must aspire, for in it the redemption of man depends.

This creates the internal contradiction known to the left: on the one hand talk about the love of man, and in fact, hostility and hatred towards the vast majority of people, except those who share their fight for absolute equality, and against identities that they believe is false consciousness that leads to discrimination and damage to human dignity and liberty.

The person whom the leftists love the most is the weakened person, but there really is no such person, because every person is expressed through his identities, and the identities they treat with hatred or contempt. It is only because of his weakness that they can ignore his identity and define his identity as “weakened,” that when he has his full rights, the desired correction will come to the world. In practice, ignoring the identity of the weakened is one of the most severe injuries to it.

Nevertheless, as those with a Jewish identity who tend to believe and love the image of God in man, we also have a natural love for leftists, and naturally, when they do not directly harm us, we seek the points of good and truth in them and their opinions.

‘HaGomel’ for a Woman who Gave Birth

A woman who gives birth is considered as one who was dangerously ill and she must recite ‘HaGomel’. Seemingly, one could question: After all, a patient with pneumonia does not recite the Gomel when he recovers because today he has a treatment that eliminates the danger, and if so, a woman who gives birth should not have to recite HaGomel, since through the care she receives in the hospital, there is no danger in her giving birth. However, there is a difference between them that a patient with pneumonia does not desecrate the Sabbath, since there is no need to treat him urgently, but a woman who gives birth must be urgently taken to the hospital, and even on Shabbat. Therefore, she is considered a dangerously ill person who should recite the blessing.

Usually after seven days, the mother is already strengthened from birth and can recite the blessing. Sometimes the weakness of the birth lasts thirty days, and in any case, such a woman should recite HaGomel after thirty days.

The Gomel Blessing for Women

In the past, many women were not meticulous to recite the Gomel blessing. Many poskim were astonished at this, and explained that apparently because the blessing of HaGomel should be said before a minyan, out of modesty, many women felt uncomfortable standing in front of ten men and blessing the Gomel.  Some poskim suggested that the woman should stand in the ezrat nashim, and her husband should recite the blessing for her, and she would answer amen, and thus fulfill her obligation in his blessing. However, some say that a husband should not recite the blessing in his wife’s place, and therefore this advice should not be used, but rather a woman obligated in the blessing of HaGomel should recite the berakha herself in a minyan.

Therefore, a woman who is required to bless HaGomel should come to the synagogue for prayers, and inform the gabbai that she needs to recite HaGomel. Before or after prayers the gabbai should signal to the audience that they should wait in silence, and the woman from the women’s section will bless HaGomel, and the congregation will answer amen. If convenient for her, it is preferable to come to prayers that have the reading of the Torah, and bless after the reading of the Torah. If by chance she has another opportunity to have a minyan in another place, such as a women who gave birth to a baby boy at the brit milah of her son, she can recite the blessing in front of them and need not to come to synagogue.

HaGomel after a Miscarriage

However, after a miscarriage and gerida (scraping), even though the gerida is performed under full anesthesia, many women are customary not to bless HaGomel, so as not to reveal that they had a miscarriage, and they have what to rely on, for we have learned that ‘Great is human dignity, since it overrides a negative precept of the Torah’, i.e. the negative precept of “lo tasor” from the enactments established by the Sages, and the blessing of HaGomel is of rabbinic status. Perhaps this is the reason why many women did not bless HaGomel in the past, because of modesty they were ashamed to bless in front of men. But today it is not customary to be so ashamed, and the claim of shame does not exempt women from the blessing of HaGomel, except in special cases such as abortion or miscarriage.

This article appears in the ‘Besheva’ newspaper, and was translated from Hebrew.

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