So you think that, when a Rabi becomes heretic, there is no hope of teshuva for a whole congregation? Why can't they realise that their congregation is being mislead and join another synagogue? I suppose most of them have never engaged in such an outrage or recited that blasphemy. They can change Kehilah.
But even those who did, in fact, sin and blaspheme by publishing or reciting that "blessing" on sin could do Teshuvah. And if they don't, it's up to Hashem to judge them, not good to invoke curses!!!
Hanna,
I admire your compassion and share it. I am not generally one who curses people like that. I am also very compassionate and have had people I know who are gay come over and I extended every hospitality to them. I am not judgmental but I am also very sensitive to people who flaunt their sins in front of Hashem.
If you read this article it mentions a 'gay synagogue'. I live in the San Francisco area and I know how flaming gay the San Francisco crowd is. What really makes my guts burn is how they are writing a Siddur {A Prayer book} which completely whitewashes what Hashem clearly has said about sexual purity, cross dressing, and homosexual sex.
Now I have argued with many people, including Orthodox Rabbis, that the Torah doesnt say that being gay is wrong. Traditionally, I have been taught, that all people have their own personal yetzer haras and attractions and we should not judge them because they really are not so happy about their sexual orientation. I have also heard it said that the reason they are often so flambouyant and in-your-face is because they are insecure and seeking to 'come-out' to feel OK about their sinful behavior. Whatever the story is I dont think that the lifestyle is something which should be condoned. If anything it should be relagated to behind the doors of the pervert.
I will not quote explicitly the sections of the Torah, both oral and written, which assert that the purpose of the sexual organs is not pleasure, but the propagation of the human species. There are many very important concepts regarding the interaction between the male and female aspects of the soul. True completion is not possible between two people of the same sex. Trying to make believe that this is OK is a sin. The obvious sin is called "Placing a Stumbling Block Before the Blind".
So some impressionable San Francisco 'Jewish' freak attends this 'synagogue' and thinks it's "Really Cool" because they are so accepting of his multiple lip rings and the gold nose ring and the Hashem tattoo on his neck and his pink haired butch date. The Rabbi tells him and him that Hashem really thinks it is OK, and there is this Blessing the Jewish people make to sanctify the nightly roll in the hay they and their multiple partner buddies have sleep over for "Shabbat".
Just thinking of this scenario makes my guts ache. Hashem never intended the Jewish faith be used in order to influence young people to have careless sex. If we were living in more righteous times Hashem would make himself known. Often times I have prayed for Hashem to spare San Francisco because I know several righteous people who live there. But when I read this I ask myself is this not Sodom And Gomorrah all over again? And Avraham prayed for the welfare of Sodom, yet there were not 10 righteous people.
Sometimes I feel like I must get far far away from this city of sin by the bay. When the evil is made to look good, and the good is made to look evil. These are the times Hashems prophets spoke of, when Chutzpah of the young will not respect the wisdom of the elders.
I am sorry if my approach is not clear to you. I truely regret having to make such a pronouncement as I made in my posting. I truly wish that all those caught up in the sins of sexual purity should do true Teshuva and merit a complete redemption. Every soul has the opportunity to change the evil decree. But once the people are condemned, there is little which can change it. Remember how Hashem let the generation which journeyed out of Mitzrayim die in the desert, all except for Joshua and Caleb, because of the sin of the spies. And I also remember what we learned about the 10 Plagues in Mitzrayim. How in the plague of darkness all the evil Jews died like the mitzri. Only 1/5 of the Jewish people actually made it out of Egypt.
I will quote a couple of sources for this assertion:
http://www.shemayisrael.co.il/parsha/kahn/archives/bo67.htm
Four-fifths died
No doubt there were different trends within the Jewish people in Egypt as well. As a matter of fact, Rashi in the beginning of Parashas Beshalach (Shemos 13:18) quotes the Midrash Tanchuma that only one-fifth of the total Jewish people merited to be redeemed. The four-fifths, who had no interest in leaving Egypt, especially after the bondage had stopped, died during the Plague of Darkness. Even amongst those who left, many had been idol worshippers. So we can well understand that if the various sources focus on different parts of the Jewish people in Egypt, their descriptions would differ.
http://www.nishmat.net/article.php?id=92&heading=0
The midrash in question is the Mekhilta, commenting on an unusual word at the beginning of Beshalach. The Torah tells us (Shemot 13:17-18) that haShem took the Jews out of Egypt via the scenic route through the desert, instead of the direct route through Philistia, because if the newly-freed slaves were faced with war, they would want to return to Egypt. The next words are "The Children of Israel went up from Egypt chamushim." What does this last word mean, and how does it relate to the context? Rashi, following the Mekhilta, gives two opinions. First, the peshat of chamushim is "armed"<1>. Rav Henkin, Nishmat's posek, points out that according to this approach, the verse is telling us that haShem wanted the Jews to avoid war, even though they were armed when they left Egypt<2>. Second, the more radical opinion in Rashi and the Mekhilta is that chamushim comes from the word for five, chamesh<3>, and that only one in five Jews left Egypt. In Rav Henkin's words, this approach explains the verse to mean that haShem "took into the desert those who did leave, because they were only a fifth: they were demoralized because the majority of their brethren had stayed behind"<4>. Only twenty percent of the Jews left Egypt! Believe it or not, the one-in-five opinion is the most conservative one in the Mekhilta. The full text reads:
Another opinion: "Chamushim went up" means one in five. Some say one in fifty. Some say one in five hundred. Rav Nehorai says: "[I swear by] the Temple Service! It was not one in five hundred that went out [but fewer]. It says, 'I made you into myriads like the grass of the field' (Yechezkel 15:7), and it says, 'The Children of Israel were fruitful and swarmed and multiplied and became huge' (Shemot 1:6) -- a woman would give birth to six at one time. And you say that one in five hundred went out?! [I swear by] the Temple Service! It was not one in five hundred that went out [but fewer]. Rather, many Jews died in Egypt. When did they die?During the three days of darkness, as it says, 'People could not see each other' (Shemot 10:23). They were burying their dead, and they thanked and praised haShem that their enemies could not see and rejoice at their downfall"<5>.
Talk about depressing! This midrash asserts that the vast, vast majority of the Jewish people -- whether 80%, 98%, 99.8%, or even more -- did not leave Egypt. Why not? Shemot Rabba explains that "There were sinners among the Jews who had Egyptian patrons, and they had wealth and honor there, [so] they didn't want to leave"<6>. In Rav Henkin's words, they were "disinclined to trade flesh-pots for freedom"<7>. What happened to this reluctant majority?The first three opinions in the Mekhilta do not elaborate, so it's possible they hold that the majority simply stayed in Egypt and continued assimilating over the years until they lost their Jewish identity completely. {It wouldn't be the last time that happened in Jewish history.} However, Rabbi Nehorai at the end of the Mekhilta argues that haShem killed them all during the Plague of Darkness. This especially bothers Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra (1089-1164), who isn't so happy with the whole thing:
muman613
