Intentions Replace Actions

The Rabbi’s Opening Post

Intentions Replace Actions

Posted on 13/8/2013

A point for thought.

We are informed that Rabbi Shteinman has instructed people, during this coming Sabbath’s reading of the portion Ki Tetze, to have Yair Lapid in mind when the section on blotting out Amalek is read:

http://www.bhol.co.il/Article.aspx?id=57952

No, I do not intend to discuss incitement. This does not seem to me to be incitement, but mere chatter. There is no immediate danger here that anyone will do anything, as will become clear.

What we have here is at most another example of Haredi impotence. Nothing is relevant to practical action, and everything is basically slogans, intentions during prayer and the Torah reading, and above all cries of anguish over every mouse as though it were an elephant (“A stone shall cry out from the wall” [Habakkuk 2:11], “whose heart would not be torn apart?”, “the cry of the wretched bride and the groaning orphans”).

After all, in the portion Ki Tetze there is nothing on which to focus one’s intention, since this is not the special reading of Zakhor but merely the regular weekly portion. Moreover, even in Zakhor, what the Haredi public does is nothing but readings and intentions (and sometimes a fiery mystical curse). Ah, I forgot: also a heated argument over whether the key word there should be vocalized with a long e or a short e. That is what the blotting out of Amalek amounts to in the Torah world. They are living in a fantasy world. No one even imagines that this is a commandment that is supposed to be realized in some actual way. Even “When you go out to war against your enemies” (Deuteronomy 21:10) is at most an intention during the Torah reading, and a few sermons at the Sabbath meal. “And the Lord your God delivers them into your hand” (Deuteronomy 21:10) is a hope for the coming of the Messiah. Self-sacrifice and the acceptance of the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven are merely intentions and recitation obligations in the Shema. “The law of the land is the law” becomes a topic for armchair speculation in analytical Talmud study. “What need is there for a verse? It is dictated by reason” is a principle that we study enthusiastically but Heaven forbid actually apply. Every halakhic innovation is stated as law, but not for practice. Tosafot learns about the stars of heaven from a verse instead of going outside to look. The only practical consequence of science is whether it is permitted or forbidden to study it, and whether it is compatible with Torah. The laws of the blue ritual dye or the laws of the Temple Mount will be studied from rabbinic midrashim, but Heaven forbid from observations and archaeological findings. Talk, talk, talk…

In this ridiculous and childish conception, all the intentions are in our hands, but the actions—and indeed all practical reality—are left entirely to God, or to the secularists, His emissaries. We trail behind them, criticize them (or rather the caricature and stereotypes of them produced by our selective consciousness, since direct information is off-limits) for their wickedness, milk them as much as possible, and interpret the meaning of what they do. The Haredim, and really almost all ‘Torah people,’ ply their dubious craft only with their mouths. They talk, talk, talk, and do nothing. As has always been our way.

In truth, it is good that this is so (if they also started doing things, or taking themselves seriously, we would be in real trouble)…

In this picture, pseudo-halakhic slogans become a way of stating opinions or expressing positions. The verses have lost their practical halakhic content and have become intentions and a basis for sermons. Rabbi Shteinman wants to say that Yair Lapid is a menace, so he says it in pseudo-halakhic form: one should have him in mind during the reading of the portion Ki Tetze. It is clear to him that no one will do anything apart from intentions and prayers, so everything is fine. Therefore it seems to me that there really is no incitement here, or even the faintest trace of danger. There is only an expression here of the great degeneration and self-deception in which this society finds itself. “We have no one to rely upon except our Father in Heaven” (Mishnah Sotah 9:15). It is truly pitiable.

If there is nevertheless concern that someone may do something, it would be that child who innocently thinks that the emperor has no clothes—that is, that if Rabbi Shteinman says something, he actually means it. Everyone will laugh at him and condemn him, of course, because he does not understand the rules of the game. He does not understand that “it is all talk” has passed from Shelly Yachimovich to Rabbi Shteinman’s rendition.

Source (the “Stop Here, Think” forum): http://www.bhol.co.il/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=3019704&forum_id=1364