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Are progressive leftists considered converted Jews?

שו”תCategory: HalachaAre progressive leftists considered converted Jews?
asked 2 years ago

As is known, there is a ruling by Rabbi Ovadia that today even someone who publicly desecrates Shabbat (if he is ashamed to do so in the presence of rabbis or something like that) can be brought up to the Torah (and perhaps even included in the minyan. I don’t remember) because in the past, someone who publicly desecrates Shabbat was considered a convert to everything he said because publicly desecrating Shabbat is literally like leaving the Jewish people. He was probably talking about a traditional person from the community he lives in who believes in God and the Torah implicitly but somehow lives comfortably with not observing the observances and commandments.

In relation to the rest of the Jews, their law is like that of infants who were taken captive among the Gentiles, who are obligated to them with the commandments of “your neighbor, your fellow man, your people, etc.” But what can be said today about progressive globalist people who are truly not loyal to the people of Israel (who see their Jewish identity as some garment they wear and not as something important) and who see their leftist globalist friends from other countries of the world as their true “people”? Don’t they have the law of a convert, to whom they are not obligated with the commandments of “your neighbor”?
It should be noted that this question has a huge significance because in my opinion, a very significant portion of the Jews living here in Israel are like that in their hearts – that is, whatever it looks like based on their actions. And of course abroad. Even when there is anti-Semitism and they remember their Jewishness, in my opinion, it is only temporary and they always return to their roots later, which shows that in their hearts they have always been like that.


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0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 2 years ago
This is a complex question. Such people really do not identify with the people of Israel, but they are not necessarily bad people (that is what they believe in). In my opinion, there are all the obligations towards Gentiles that a person has to his fellow man, and this applies to progressive Jews. Joining a minyan does not depend on any of this. Those who do not believe in God or the commandments do not join a minyan. Those who do, do. By the way, I think there are few of them. They have a disproportionate public influence.

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אור חדש על ציון replied 2 years ago

There are Jews with political and ethical views A
And there are people B and there are people C
The strength of the connection to the national part is different for each 1
And the strength of the connection to the religious part is different for each 1
And the strength of the connection to the universal part is different for each 1

How is this relevant to the halakhic fact about someone being Jewish?
If he is Jewish then we are obligated to treat him as a Jew
In the halakhic part there was room to say that someone who the halakhic criterion determines is excommunicated then from the halakhic side he has no guarantee
But in ” God, the halakhic corrected itself in this
So what is there to discuss?

מיכי Staff replied 2 years ago

There is some distinction made by Rabbi Kook between three types in Israel: the religious, the national, and the universal. I don't remember the details and terms.

דוד replied 2 years ago

I don't think Rabbi Kook was referring to those universalists whose loyalty is to fellow Gentiles who are more like them than to the Jewish people (which there is no such thing by definition. As stated, that's racism). He probably assumed that everyone is first and foremost loyal to the Jewish people. He didn't include the communists among them.

יצחק replied 2 years ago

In what delusion does the Rabbi live that he says that the commandment of “love your neighbor”, the prohibition of hatred, charity, rebuke, slander, etc., are also obligatory towards non-Jews? Is this some kind of joke? Is it forbidden to lend to a non-Jew at interest? Some think that one must even lend to a non-Jew at interest (if one lends to him). Did he miss the point that all these commandments belong only to “your fellow-Jew” – a people with whom you have fellowship in the Torah and in the mitzvot? Are non-Jews (who are for the most part either savages or insufferable hypocrites) “in the Torah and in the mitzvot of our people”? They are not even in the “mitzvot of the seven sons of Noah with themselves”.

And beyond the fact that there is no source for this, this explanation is also unfounded. Anyone who has ever studied the Gemara understands that these commandments only apply to those who are themselves obligated to these commandments towards us. This was the meaning of the covenant made on Mount Horeb. Beyond the covenant of protection with the Almighty, there was also a covenant of mutual guarantee, hence the responsibility of the community for the act of one of the individuals in matters of punishment (as with Achan). The Rambam in the Book of Commandments writes this about all these commandments. And the Gentiles are not obligated by these commandments, and in fact they are forbidden to keep them (for the sake of a mitzvah).

The commandments of a man to his fellow man are not moral but religious commandments. Even it is accepted and so it is written in the Rambam that even all the prohibitions of “You shall not murder, you shall not steal, etc.’ ” They were only stated in relation to Jews (this is certainly what Maimonides believes in the Book of Commandments: that we should not murder our fellow man, etc., and also by theft, shame, etc.) and the prohibition to murder and steal from Gentiles (and in light of the discussion in Tractate Sanhedrin there) originates in the Seven Commandments of the Children of Noah and we learn probably from the principle that there cannot be anything that a child of Noah is forbidden from doing and a Jew would be permitted to do because when the people of Israel received the Torah they rose from “light holiness” (? – after all, there is no holiness among Gentiles) to the level of severe holiness.

There is indeed morality, but it is not Torah and certainly we are not obligated by the Torah commandments that a person owes to his fellow man towards Gentiles.
Furthermore, it is not logical at all that we would be obligated by these commandments towards them without any reciprocal demand from Gentiles (even though, as stated, they are inherently religious and not moral commandments). Although the Torah does not derive from our logic, it is probably not supposed to contradict it head-on. And they are not allowed to keep these commandments at all, just as they are not allowed to keep any commandment from the Torah (for the sake of a commandment). A genie that has been broken must die, etc.; and so the Maimonides writes that in all commandments
In relation to progressives – the fact that they believe in this is even worse. So they are like Hitler who really believed that we are rats that spread diseases. Maybe they are not evil, but they are fools and a fool is worse than a fool (who can still repent because he distinguishes between good and evil). A fool is like a harmful animal that can be killed without trial. Progressives are the enemies of humanity. Not necessarily the people of Israel

In the S”d Z”ch B”shvat p”d

To David – Shalom Rav,

Rabbi Kook instructed R’ Dov Milstein to patiently bring his sons who had entered Polish national-socialist activity closer, completely ‘universalists’. See Rabbi Ari Shevat's article, Clarifying Rabbi Kook's View of the Limits of Love of Israel and Tolerance – The Background Behind Rabbi Dov Milstein's Letters to His Rebellious Sons’, on the ‘Asif’ website.

His son Naftali, who was a senior economist in the Polish government, returned respectful treatment to his family and people and fought anti-Semitism. When he was exiled from Poland to France, he even married Rothschild's daughter and was involved in the activities of the Jewish Community. His "universality" apparently remained intact, but his attitude towards Judaism was respectful and later became closer.

The principles outlined by Rabbi Kook in the "Letter of Regulation" sent to Ridviz (on the "Da'at" website), he saw in particular in the book. He speaks of souls who are corrupted on the side of choice but the light of virtue shines in them with love for all Israel, love of the land and good qualities. Such people can bring together great Torah and wisdom who know how to distinguish between the corruptions of choice and the light of virtue that remains shining, and this is not given to everyone. Let us discuss them in detail.

However, even towards those whom the Rabbi took a more approachable right-wing approach, Rabbi Kook did not spare the repulsive left-wing approach, and knew how to respond to them even harshly when necessary.

Best regards, Fishel

מיכי Staff replied 2 years ago

See here:
https://www.google.com/url?client=internal-element-cse&cx=f18e4f052adde49eb&q=https://mikyab.net/%25D7%259B%25D7%25AA%25D7%2591%25D7%2599%25D7%259D/ %25D7%259E%25D7%2590%25D7%259E%25D7%25A8%25D7%2599%25D7%259D/%25D7%2594%25D7%259 0%25D7%259D-%25D7%2599%25D7%25A9-%25D7%25A2%25D7%2591%25D7%2595%25D7%2593%25D7%2 594-%25D7%2596%25D7%25A8%25D7%2594-%25D7%25A0%25D7%2590%25D7%2595%25D7%25A8%25D7 %2594-%25D7%25A2%25D7%259C-%25D7%2594%25D7%2599%25D7%2597%25D7%25A1-%25D7%259C%2 5D7%2592%25D7%2595%25D7%2599%25D7%2599%25D7%259D-%25D7%2595/&sa=U&ved= 2ahUKEwiSzOSl55aEAxU8TKQEHRawBJIQFnoECAEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw101GPBDjtJOXIjlrSmuVC0

דוד replied 2 years ago

To Fishel

I know this letter. With all this, it has nothing to do with the issue of defining them as converted Jews or not. You can treat them with respect and even love them from a purely etiquette or tactic for distant relatives, but this is a purely halakhic question of whether I must love him, etc. About every convert since time immemorial, etc., you can say that there is a purple light in him that illuminates, etc., and the abrogation of the law of a convert. And besides, communism was founded on a very strong point of truth (each one gives according to his ability and receives according to his needs, and a few more principles of Marx - such as the inseparability between the creator and the product, etc.) and Rabbi Kook built his answer on the fact that they work for the improvement of the world. But Progress is built on the lie in its embodiment - on the void and the vacuum, and in practice we also see that these people are evil or crazy on the verge of evil. I have not seen any progressive that I can say is a good person. In practice, at any stage of their lives, progressives work against the Jewish people. Especially the Jews among them. Don't forget that nationalism, especially Jewish nationalism, is a direct contradiction of progress. This was not the case with communism, which in practice constantly preached to its people to give to ”Mother Russia” (although theoretically it denied any collectivity not built on the communist identity. But this is true of any ideology that is jealous of itself). I don't think that in the case of progressives, whose ideology itself is a lack of ideology (in the name of equality), he would speak like this. They are not working to fix the world, but to destroy it.

To the Rabbi
I did not understand the connection between this article that I read a few years ago and what I asked and also what Yitzhak described very beautifully. The entire discussion in the article is in relation to all sorts of rabbinic laws of exclusiveness with Gentiles or things related to the Gez. But what about the specific “your neighbor” commandments that relate to the Jewish people as a group with mutual guarantee? Do you think it is forbidden to lend to a Gentile at usury from the Torah? That sounds completely ridiculous. I am obligated by my parents to repay the loss of a Gentile on account of the loss of your brother? He suddenly becomes my brother? Reason cannot bear it.

מיכי Staff replied 2 years ago

You should read it again. You don't remember.

דוד replied 2 years ago

*** Deleted ***

Even my patience has its limits. You continue to not read and confuse my mind over and over again with the same nonsense. So I deleted your words.

דוד replied 2 years ago

I'm sorry, but if you think this is clear, then it's still not clear from your article: Is it forbidden to lend to a Gentile at interest? Is there a prohibition against hating a Gentile in your heart that is taught from the verse “You shall not hate your brother in your heart”?

On the 2nd of Shvat, P.D.

To David, a big hello

Regarding fanatical ideologies that strongly oppose Judaism, there is room for distinction between the extremist instigators and the "people" who follow them out of ignorance and misunderstanding of Judaism. The extremists are very difficult to "move", but the followers can be convinced, with the understanding that the true "progress" that truly cares for the weak is found in Judaism. And caring for the weak is what requires firmness against cruel tyrants. There is room for patience and correct explanation towards the "people" who follow, and of course not everyone can do this.

Even the pioneers of the time of the rabbinic era were under the strong influence of anti-religion. Over time, when many of them saw that it was possible to be strict in both Torah and mitzvot and in settling the land and defending it, the resistance of many became blunted and the approach to tradition increased. Today, the Jewish people are much more religious and traditional, and the sharp resistance today comes from the fear that the secular will become a minority. And so perhaps many of the progressives will also approach when they see that the people of Torah are diligent in helping and honoring the weak.

Best regards, Fishel

מיכי Staff replied 2 years ago

I will clarify once and for all. There is a humane attitude towards every Tadem and this is binding towards Gentiles as well as towards Jews. There are commandments that go beyond basic human norms and these can be towards Jews only. Gentiles must not be harmed but they are not our people and therefore preferential treatment intended for our people is given only to Jews and is not binding towards Gentiles (although it is certainly desirable as much as possible). A loan at interest is not a moral injustice and therefore there is no prohibition on lending at interest to Gentiles. But there is an obligation to restore what was lost, prohibitions on damage and harm, confiscation of the loan, etc. This is parallel to the distinction between civil rights that a country grants only to its citizens (education, health, security) and human rights (such as not stealing or murdering) which are also binding towards foreign citizens. Every person.
In the article I argued for equality between treatment of Jews and Gentiles on the level of human rights and not civil rights. On this level, everything is equal, from Orchita to Drebnane, as is well explained there for anyone who bothers to read.
All the sources you hysterically shouted in their name are not related to the discussion, either because they do not deal with human rights but civil rights or because they only talk about the ancient nations (as the Meiri said).

Regarding the personal attitude towards someone with a fanatical anti-Jewish opinion, one must also take into account the degree of delusion in that opinion. Someone who is almost “brainwashed” by hearing the glories of “progress” from all media outlets and all academic scholars, while at the same time knowing nothing about Judaism from books and authors – is at a very high level of delusion. And there is a good chance that with proper explanation – his eyes will begin to open. And the main thing is not to despair.

Best regards, Fishel

דוד replied 2 years ago

But that's exactly what I asked: Do progressives have civil rights? It is accepted that converts to anger or the entire Torah, even to appetite, do not have civil rights. And it is not clear from your answer what the ruling is for progressives on this matter.

דוד replied 2 years ago

For Fishel

No. It's no longer related to the matter of a baby who was captured or miscarried. Even for a secular person, he can be liberal, conservative or traditional. A progressive, as far as I'm concerned, is stupid and foolish even as a person, and it's not clear to me whether this still excludes him from the Jewish people in terms of the commandment of "your fellow man", etc., like a real convert.

דוד replied 2 years ago

For Fishel

That is, we are not talking about an oversight because he did not study Judaism, etc., but about negligence, that is, a crime. And at the very least, rape (if you consider academic and media brainwashing to be rape) that begins with a crime. Progressives have a view of something worse than wickedness, and it is the denial of the reality of an objective truth that does not allow them to repent (it is a type of mental illness). And it is not clear to me whether in the Jews where this excludes them from the Jewish people or whether they are mentally ill, ordinary Jews.

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