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PURIM AND THE NEW REFORM JUDAISM

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muman613:
Virtually every article which you publish from that site seems to take the opinion that everyone else is wrong about Halacha and the Rabbi there is right. The fact of the matter is that there are many great sages who disagree with this rabbi....

The commandment for destroying Amalek has many dimensions. Nobody I have heard has diminished the fact that we are facing a real-live Amalek today. I have on a video I took from our Purim party our Rabbi giving a speech on the topic of Iran and the current Amalek we are facing. This doesn't take away from the concept that Amalek is also the Yetzer Hara... I have heard many Rabbis point to this Gematria, yet your Rabbi mocks it...

I fail to see what this Rabbi is trying to achieve but to create divisions between Orthodox religious Jews...

muman613:
One of the reasons which the gematria of Amalek is 240, which is the same gematria of the word Safek/Doubt is explained by the great Torah sage Rashi... I am sure most are familiar with this concept of Amalek 'Cooling off' the Jewish people...


http://www.sichosinenglish.org/books/days-of-destiny/17.htm


--- Quote ---"Cooling Off" The Jews
The Torah describes Amalek's attack as taking place "on the way as you came out of Egypt...when he met you on the way and cut down all the weak who struggled behind you."[14] "He met you" in the holy tongue is "korcha," which derives from the root "kar," meaning "cool." Amalek's real sin was that "he cooled you off on the way."

G-d had shown tremendous miracles in Egypt and at the splitting of the sea. The surrounding nations were in awe and fear of the Jews, whose G-d had thus demonstrated His overwhelming love and protection of them.

Then came Amalek. In the words of Rashi:[15] "Amalek cooled you off and made you lukewarm after your boiling heat. All the nations feared to engage in battle with you, but he came and made a start - and thereby showed the way to others. It may be likened to a boiling bath into which no creature is able to descend. Then came a reprobate who sprang into it; even though he was burned, he cooled it off for others."

No nation thought to interfere with the children of Israel after the great miracles vouchsafed them. Amalek alone dared. Although he was severely defeated he had made the first crack in Israel's armor. From then on, other nations would not be so hesitant. Amalek had cooled off the fiery flame of the Jews in the eyes of the nations.

That is why Amalek is so scorned, why he has earned the enmity of G-d and His people for all generations. He is the source of all subsequent troubles for the Jews, and the evil he perpetrated then lingers on - until the very existence and name of Amalek will be obliterated from the face of the earth.
--- End quote ---

Tag-MehirTzedek:

--- Quote from: muman613 on March 12, 2012, 08:11:40 PM ---Virtually every article which you publish from that site seems to take the opinion that everyone else is wrong about Halacha and the Rabbi there is right. The fact of the matter is that there are many great sages who disagree with this rabbi....

--- End quote ---

 Which sages and what specifically do they disagree with? Bring the case and argue it.

 

Tag-MehirTzedek:
Bump for first article (in time for Purim)


Also check this article out by the same author.

Sun Tzu, The Art of War and the Jews of Yesha

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/11611#.USFkj6UiGWE

Kahane-Was-Right BT:

--- Quote from: Tag-MehirTzedek on March 12, 2012, 01:07:43 PM ---
by Asher Keren
 
I really do not like what Purim has become, pagan mask parties, people getting drunk to no end and my ear drums exploding every time the evil Haman is mentioned during the reading of the Megilat Ester. So I, as do many others, try as hard as possible to stay focused. When someone greets me with a "Purim Sameach", I simply answer as follows: "Purim Sameach to you as well, and may God protect us from our enemies and may we and God together destroy all of our enemies, all of the modern day Amalek!".
 
Seems to me a reasonable enough response, but more and more the following refrain is thrown back: "First, we must destroy the Amalek within each and every one of us "(funny, I always thought we were the Children of Israel, the exact opposite of Amalek) and then comes the gematria game: "as you know, Amalek and doubt ('safek') are the same number in gematria". I just smile as I do after eating a full plate of cholent, knowing that this too will pass.

Yesterday I read how the venerable rabbi of Tekoa, Menachem Fruman, wrote that there is more than one way to skin a tiger, or an Amalekite, that is; one need not kill him, one need only to cause him to change his colors, give him some flowers, some chocolate, explain to him the evil of his ways and presto chango, we have destroyed his Amalekite tendencies and thus fulfilled the deeper Mitzvah within. After all, as it is shown in the Talmud, even some of the ancestry of the Amalekites ended up as Jews studying in the Beit Midrash.

Nice in theory, Menahem Fruman, but personally I do not plan to wait around until Ahmadinejad sees the light. I expect he will try to turn out the lights on us first. (Besides, oh spiritual Fruman the magic man, wouldn't the sainted Abraham Abulafia – yes, that's right, the one that tried to convert the Pope and almost got butchered in the process – tell you that the name Haman is contained in the name Ahmadinejad - go mediate on that for a few moments!)
 
At any rate, and to the point, well, you get the point. Purim is about being saved and about destroying the enemy. Very spiritual, but also very physical; just as are the commandments of the Torah. It is actually the Reform branch of Judaism that always tries to run away from the physical performance of the commandments by emphasizing the "deeper meaning", where still applicable, and thereby providing the perfect excuse for not taking the commandments literally. Further, as the first Reformer Abraham Geiger stressed, the nationalistic elements of Judaism should be suppressed and give way to the universal tendencies of the tradition. This latter "theology" is what we see when we take the concept of Amalek and channel it into our own selves and further, try to stress the destruction of the Amalekite ideology over that of the Amalekite people.

This is what Orthodox Judaism today is becoming; a "kosher" version of Reform Judaism. Obviously, the search for spirituality in the performance of the physical is an entirely legitimate branch of traditional Jewish experience and thought – but when this tendency sublimates the commandment to the spiritual realm solely, well, let's just say that the Sabbatean Geiger is probably now smiling from his grave, thinking "Purim Sameach", no doubt. As each generation is confronted by its Hitlers, Chmelnikis, Ahmadinejads , Nassers or whomever, let's praise the Israel Defense Forces and pray that they and their soldiers are up to the task of confronting Amalek, the physical Amalek; unless, of course, Menachem Fruman has a breakthrough very quickly.

http://machonshilo.org/en/eng/component/content/article/34-featured/581-some-post-purim-musings

--- End quote ---

Great article.  Keren brings up some very interesting points.

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