“The secular state is just an instrument, the secular donkey is a tool. We are the donkeys”

A few paragraphs from the interview that I would love to hear your response to:
Q: You claim that the original writings were always intertwined with xenophobia, misogyny, violence, and Jewish supremacy. But the Jews in the Diaspora and at the beginning of the state's existence knew how to treat them with limited liability and metaphorically, not as a plan of action or an ethical code of behavior.

A: “Indeed, the Jews for centuries knew how to imagine and engage in an activity that I call ‘the writings of the crying child into the pillow’ – that is, cursing their enemies while they were lying down to sleep as therapy for their pain, but without resorting to actual violence.

“All the important rabbis of Judaism engaged in this writing. All of them, without exception, expressed their sorrow and revenge in their writings. Because their difficult experience was humiliation. It's like a man in Auschwitz who, just before his death, shouts, "Let us slaughter you Amalekites." He can't do it, but the cry is therapy.

“In this sense, Rabbi Dov Lior is right – perhaps even underestimating. What the halachic sources say about non-Jews is that they have no soul, and therefore it is permissible to kill them. And even Rashi and Yehuda Halevi, those considered the most moderate, write this. ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’? – that's for Jews only!

“But we must understand that a hundred years ago the rabbis would not have referred to these writings on a daily basis. Most people didn't know them, but even those who did did not see them as practical writings, certainly not as a plan of action”.

Q: “You spoke about the equality that existed between women and men in religious Zionism working in the early years of the state. Today we see the younger generation, both Haredi and Haredi, adding more and more prohibitions and instructions to separate the genders. To the point of absurdity.

A: “In the diaspora, the situation of Jewish women was better than that of non-Jews in the areas where they lived. Respect for women was more prominent among the Jews. Today, in Haredi separatist education, schools teach that there are levels: living, growing, inanimate, and then ‘speaking’ – the gentile. Above him is ‘man’, who is a Jewish man. The woman is in the middle between the speaking gentile and the man. And in the pyramid, her image does not even appear.”

“In the Bible, we see very respectful writing for women, and sexuality is described as feminist eroticism that recognizes women as equal. But in the canonical Jewish sources of previous centuries, the writing has always been very harsh against women.”

“In the Life of Sarah’, in the Zohar, a Jewish woman during menstruation is described as more impure than Balaam, who had relations with a donkey, that is, with a representative of Satan. The most serious offense described in the sources is the ejaculating of semen for nothing. More than murder, more than rape.

“And in the literature of Kabbalah, which in recent generations has become the main content of Judaism, semen for nothing refers not only to masturbation but to any sexual act that is not with a person's wife, including infidelity or homosexual relations.

“In the past, these texts were just abstract texts. Among the Haredim, there was always a separation between ‘from the beginning’ and ’afterwards’. The scriptures are ‘from the beginning’, but ’afterwards’ – that is, practical life – is stronger and more important than the texts. Therefore, ‘live in them’ – among the Gentiles.

“In exile, when a woman came to the rabbi with a chicken that had been slaughtered in a non-kosher manner, the rabbi would allow her to eat it. What, would he let her starve? Of course not. The harsh reality caused people in their daily lives not to be extremists, despite the extremist scriptures.”

Look at what is happening today: in the US, the Haredim continue to separate between 'from the beginning' and 'in retrospect'. Life is stronger than the laws. That is why the Haredim there work with women, talk to them, the rabbis give permission for birth control. In Israel, on the other hand, in recent decades the radical 'from the beginning' has become a guide to life.

'We were shocked after the Meron disaster, when the kabbalists said that the disaster occurred because women did not maintain modesty. But even in the Habonim disaster in the 1980s they said that because of one woman with a cleft, everyone died. Immodest women make you ejaculate for nothing, and then a disaster happens because all the demons are released. You have to understand the source of these statements. They are not refugees here.'

Q: “So when a young Israeli demands that an El Al flight attendant seat him somewhere else so that he doesn't have to be close to a woman, is he actually obeying the texts and sources? Isn't this just populist extremism?”

“That's true, but we have to look at it in the mirror of the overall picture. These extreme texts were not born in our time. Kabbalah is a thousand years old. But in the past, these texts were not practical. It's forbidden to approach a woman? Great, how will you make a living in exile? So turn a blind eye to this halacha because you have to live.”

“But here you have a country that has surrendered to religious extremism, so the border has been erased. There is no room for compromise. In separate education there is no longer a place for the ’child who cries into a pillow’. The texts about Balaam and Zera'a Betlah are taught in schools, and this is the reality that rabbis face when their students suddenly confront them. They come to the teacher and declare, "Wait a minute, but it says here that one must hate the stranger!"

"So if once the rabbi had to compromise with reality and give a practical answer that would allow life in the open space, now he has no answer to extremism. The younger generation is like an animal that was locked in a cage, and now it has been released on a safari without borders."

Q: "Some rabbis, certainly in the past, preached moderation. Rabbi Schach supported the return of territories to the Palestinians, and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was moderate both politically and in his interpretation of religious laws. Today, the Haredi and religious have overwhelmingly sided with the political right, and it is almost difficult to imagine cooperation with the left, as Shas had in the Rabin government at the time, with the blessing of Rabbi Yosef.

A: The problem with the moderates was that they were weak and lax. They did not treat the original, they did not reject the extremist canon and adopted an alternative canon. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef also did not dare to change the arguments of the "original" but gave moderate "retrospective" reasoning.

For example, the rule "Pikuach Nefesh Doha Shabbat". For what kind of soul is the law intended? A Jewish soul, of course. Rabbi Yosef determined that religious doctors can treat on Shabbat. But what reasoning did he give? That this is a matter of protecting the life of the Jew abroad.

“That is, if they hear there how we behave here – they will not take care of the Jews there. In other words, the rabbi was concerned about appearances. Even he, the progressive, did not dare to fundamentally change the halacha.

“It's like you say that a person is forbidden to rape, but not because rape is a terrible crime, but because you will get caught. Only Reform and Conservatives came out against the canon for moral reasons. The moderate Orthodox rabbis were content with practical reasoning”.

Is that all? I started to answer briefly, but decided to stop and I won't do so. You can't answer a huge collection of quotes when you don't number them and force me to quote everything and address each point. This is a message the length of an encyclopedia. I suggest that if there is a point you want to ask, post it in a separate thread for each point, and explain what exactly your question is. Otherwise, we won't get out of this.