What very great damage is he causing to the world?

Do you not care at all about all the good things Trump did for the benefit of the State of Israel?

If one of them wins, doesn’t that mean that it is the will of God,
in the sense that through him, among other things, He leads the historical process in general? Or do you still call
that intervention, which contradicts free choice?

Ignoramus,
The damage to the environment, unrestricted gun ownership (which of course is not because of him, but he contributes to it), incitement and encouragement of right-wing groups, failed handling of the coronavirus and spreading false information, cooperation with tyrants and corrupt regimes, and the like.

Yishai,
There are a few good things he did for our benefit, and that is indeed relevant. But in my estimation it is not all that significant.

Roni,
His election is a result of the will of the citizens. It has nothing to do with the Holy One, blessed be He, who in my opinion is not involved.

What is wrong with exposing the truth regarding racism? Do you prefer hidden racism?

As for guns, I assume you’re against them. But it seems to me that arms in the hands of citizens prevent scenarios like dictatorship and even a Holocaust, and people tend to ignore that clear advantage.

Biden. It’s pretty clear we’re talking about a corrupt sexual deviant, a professional liar with no views and no mind.
Trump is crude and an idiot; the point is that you can see what he is. He cannot and does not try to hide it. Unlike Biden, whose act many people buy. I didn’t understand how you concluded that Trump is wicked; he is more naive than manipulative.

נייצ’ר: חלק מהנזק שטראמפ גרם למדע בלתי הפיך

I’ve known those claims against him for a long time. Mainly from the pharmaceutical companies, which are making sure the public’s sickness doesn’t stop.

The writers and the outraged people do not represent science but the money industry that can profit thanks to science. They skew or even falsify studies in order to make more money. And they call it science. It’s not science, it’s a racket.
Trump didn’t harm science but its commercial aspect. He cannot really harm science at all. A lying scientist can do harm. Trump is not a scientist.

Things are heating up there. Accusations of cheating and forgery in the election.

Rabbi Michi, your words about Trump are truly ingratitude toward him (and therefore also a lack of judgment). The greatest wicked people in the world today are the Iranians, who have simply decided to destroy an entire country, and the whole world does not care about that at all, only about its own interests (as in the Holocaust), and to do business with them. And then a president arose who from the outset said “America First” and identifies who is wicked and who is not, who is bad and who is good, and actually does something against them (the financial embargo, which apparently works quite well), and you call him wicked? And you further claim that his actions for our benefit are not something significant? And not only is it for our benefit. Identifying good and evil is the world’s greatest interest (see the case of the world in Hitler’s day).

I think Trump’s discernment of good and evil is better than yours. It seems some of the leftist treachery (ingratitude) rubbed off on you too.

No, Immanuel, the Lord did not call your name but Jeremiah; go and be a spirit of rebuke amid noise and anger, and let the branches of the tree tremble, says the Lord of Hosts.

What do people want from them? They’re both excellent fellows.

I’ve known Trump for decades. Whenever the bus is delayed, I wave my hands and Trump comes to drive me to my destination. He did so willingly before he was president and will gladly do so after he retires too.

And the thin Yemeni, Joseph Bidani, and his assistant Carmela Harris, are also worthy of the White House (in Arabic: Dar al-Bayda; and in Spanish: Casa Blanca). There was already a Black president—now there will be a Yemeni one. Long live President Bidani!

Regards, Sleepy Jim-John the Hitchhiker

And a question for Immanuel:

What do you think of Macron?

Regards, Pasta Lukashenko

See here: https://usaelections.walla.co.il/item/3397127
Of course the correlation is the other way around: it’s not those who caught coronavirus who vote Trump, but rather those who support Trump catch it (because they dismiss the virus).

To “And a Question”

In relation to what issue?

To everyone else,

After I calmed down a bit from my great anger at Rabbi Michi (he sometimes breaks records in lack of self-awareness. A week earlier he was, in the end, actually in favor of Trump being elected. Then he was only disgraceful and loathsome, and now he has also managed to become wicked. Interesting how his opinions changed within a week). The Rabbi was so loathsome in my eyes (I’ll explain below why) that until now I didn’t even want to come onto the site at all. I will continue adding to my words, because the discussion is a principled one.

Before the substantive discussion of Rabbi Michi’s claims against Trump, I will preface by saying that it is quite clear to me that Rabbi Michi here suffers from the disease of trying to come out looking good with everyone (the sacred balance). Slandering Trump is this kind of fashion, a ticket of entry into the club of the “self-styled intelligentsia with round glasses” (certified infantilists). Rabbi Michi must preserve his access to them. After all, his livelihood depends on it (spiritually). This is a disease among the global left. The truth is that the global left really is breaking records of hypocrisy and falsehood. They are people of tongue and dispute. When their ideology does not succeed they begin to slander the one at the head of the opposing camp. And if there is nothing to slander, they’ll invent something. Such has always been their foolish way. Begin was a murderer. Sharon was a gorilla. Shamir was a dwarf. Whoever joins that chorus of theirs (including slandering Trump) is disgraceful and loathsome in my eyes. It is a kind of record-breaking lack of self-awareness. That is why he became repulsive in my eyes (together with all the slanderers of Bibi and Trump). Or perhaps Rabbi Michi is beginning to grow senile, in which case I wish him a full recovery (truly, not sarcastically—and that too is not sarcastic, and so on).

As for the matter itself, regarding the evaluation of a person’s character, the main thing is proportion: giving the right weight to the right things. All the other things Rabbi Michi mentioned pale beside the fact that a non-Jew arose who knows how to distinguish between good and evil and between the wicked and the righteous, and is not part of the global postmodern fashion. Besides, even regarding the things Rabbi Michi mentioned, they should be judged very favorably:

As for me, I am personally very strict in matters of health in general and coronavirus in particular. And I was very, very sorry about Trump’s dismissiveness toward coronavirus (if only because I knew he would lose because of it). He clearly chose the economy over coronavirus, but it is not at all certain there was much he could do about it. The main victory over coronavirus, or not, depends on the responsibility people take upon themselves. And that is true here in our country too and throughout the world. Strangely, the left, which always preaches individual independence, specifically in matters of individual obligations neglects everything (as with the communists) and dumps it all on the government. Americans in general are a somewhat rebellious and undisciplined people (the French even more so). I don’t see how it could have been handled otherwise. Besides, responsibility for health belongs to each individual state in the U.S., and each state has a different policy.

Likewise regarding environmental quality and climate. This too is a field close to my heart, and unfortunately it is indeed a characteristic of the Republican side. But the global left also contributes to it, because it appropriates concern for climate issues to itself in a highly religious manner and creates a rejection effect on the other side, something like the rejection created among secular people in Israel because of religious coercion. That is true also regarding gun ownership (which is a more complicated issue in America than here in our tiny country). Also, the left does not understand that tens of thousands if not thousands of people make a living in the oil industry, and you can’t solve this problem all at once, in one fell swoop, the way the left likes to: “We shall destroy the world to its foundations…” until nothing is left in order to rebuild. And we have seen it with our own eyes among the communists.

As for cooperation with tyrants—when the left does it, it gets a Nobel Peace Prize for it (North Korea). One can see the great affection our left lavished on Saeb Erekat, may his memory rot. I actually suspect the Russians and the North Koreans are not interested in democracy and like a strong leader. Only Arabs are allowed?

As for encouraging right-wing groups—I did not know that right-wing groups are bad. If the intention is white supremacy, he never encouraged that. He simply did not condemn it. I also would not condemn those who support me when all the media and the public discourse come to slander me disproportionately. It is like the situation with Netanyahu here in Israel. And truly, this hypocrisy is unbearable. The left incites against Netanyahu in the media and in the Knesset nonstop for 25 years, and then they come to him with complaints that he is setting one group against another and dividing the nation because he does not condemn those who come to defend him when they call them traitors. Well then, Netanyahu is also a human being, and he too has limits. If he were to do that, it would itself be a betrayal of his supporters. And in general Netanyahu barely speaks. He is the most statesmanlike person currently in politics. Well, maybe that’s because he doesn’t have time to read the news.

And last but not least, regarding spreading false information: here the lack of self-awareness of the left and Rabbi Michi reaches the skies. After all, the left has been doing all this through the press from the moment it was invented. Framing. Consciousness engineering. Shaping public opinion. I heard that in some journalism course the lecturer claimed that a journalist’s role is not to report reality but to produce it. Only they do it in a far subtler way, and even in a way they themselves are unaware of, which makes their lies much bigger and much more effective (they slip them in incidentally as assumptions that no one may dispute, without even writing them explicitly). They do not write blatant lies, but simply use correct facts to create a false overall picture of reality (by omitting relevant facts that would change the face of the overall picture). So beyond the fact that this itself (the spreading of false information) could be a lie of the media—who can check it? They are a closed clique, and even the right-wing media try to curry favor with them. See the case of Fox News or Kalman Liebskind and Amit Segal—they are the ones who come with such complaints against Trump?!?!?! Incredible. In practice, even if it is true, his only sin is that he does it blatantly. Which of course connects to the claim of his crudeness (which is trendy and fashionable to agree on). Trump is blunt. That is true. He says what he thinks without caring about the listeners, and he is a breath of fresh air in a world of politicians who are hypocrites and liars from birth (who know how to lie subtly). And from their perspective, after all, there is no truth; there are narratives (I am generalizing about the entire left here, and it is a very strong generalization). Does the right no longer have the right to its own narrative? It is permissible to fight liars with lies (in such a case it is no longer called a lie).

On the other hand, I do not recall a president who really troubled himself to fulfill or try to fulfill every one of his campaign promises. I did not believe it when he actually tried to build the wall with Mexico (whether that idea was successful or not). He simply was not a politician, just an ordinary man. And even when he withdrew from the climate agreement, it was because, in his claim, it was not fair to Americans. Likewise in his trade war with China (which in my opinion was not wise, though entirely justified. In fact, in that case he really had no choice. The trade agreements were plainly unfair).

In short, about Trump it may be said: alas for those who are gone and cannot be replaced. When again will there be a president who is not a politician? And Rabbi Michi still bothers to slander him here. It is simply unbearable. Simply unbearable.

And the truth is that these things I wrote do not require much thought in order to see them. One needs a kind of chosen blindness, or a built-in lack of backbone, in order not to see them. Rabbi Michi needs to examine his ways so as not to be with that unbearable crowd of the left. As far as I am concerned, there is no talking with them and one cannot talk with them; better simply to separate from them.

To Ahijah the Shilonite,

Actually, I’d prefer to be Elijah… he also didn’t die, also didn’t grow old, also on the highest level aside from Moses our teacher, also didn’t suffer like Jeremiah. It’s possible he even had a family. And even when angry, he’s not angry like some journalist from Haaretz (Jeremiahs in their own eyes). Wish me good things.

Correction to the long comment, as long as the exile: in the oil industry there are tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of workers.

In any case, one needs to know how to change the world through quiet revolutions and not through typical left-wing anarchism. By the way, Rabbi Ashlag wrote that the people most harmful to the world are all those “fixers of the world.” And now we got them in charge of the U.S.

Go and say to the craftsman who sent me: whatever the blessed Lord places in my mouth, that I will be careful to speak.

By the way, I never understood why the Hasidim specifically spread the story that the Baal Shem Tov learned from Ahijah the Shilonite. Ahijah the Shilonite? What was wrong with a respectable prophet like Elijah? And if not him, then maybe Moses our teacher? Rather, there is another famous story going around that the Ari learned from Elijah the Prophet, and therefore for the sake of the Baal Shem Tov brand they needed to take someone earlier than Elijah and supposedly on an even higher spiritual level, and so they came דווקא to me. It’s like in Islam, where they tell that Muhammad was the prayer leader in a prayer that included all the other prophets like Moses and Jesus, in order to show that the new one walks at the head and the old ones answer and say “holy, holy.”

With God’s help, 9 Kislev 5781

Ahijah expresses in his prophecies the conditioning of the realization of the divine destiny on good choice. He is the one who stipulates with Solomon: “If you walk in My statutes and do My ordinances, and keep all My commandments to walk in them, then I will establish My word with you…” (I Kings 6).

But when Solomon sins, Ahijah tears most of the kingdom away from him and gives it to Jeroboam, also on that same condition: “If you listen to all that I command you, and walk in My ways and do what is right in My eyes, keeping My statutes and My commandments as David My servant did—then I will be with you and build you a sure house…” (I Kings 11). And when Jeroboam does not fulfill his destiny and sins, Ahijah prophesies to him the prophecy of destruction (I Kings 14).

Ahijah is the link between the great servants of God who cleaved to Him even before the command at the giving of the Torah, and the “mighty in strength, who do His word,” who devote themselves completely to the commandments. He is, in the words of the Talmud (Bava Batra 121), the one who links Amram, who lived before the giving of the Torah, to Elijah the Prophet, zealous for the word of God. And he is also (in the words of Bereshit Rabbah 35) the one who links Abraham to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, and together they bring the Messiah closer.

Perhaps because of his ability to connect to the early generations who served God out of love even before the command—Ahijah the Shilonite was the teacher of the Baal Shem Tov, who emphasized, even within the world of Jewish law Judaism, the vitality of cleaving to it also with heartfelt emotion.

In contrast to Ahijah, who emphasizes the power of choice required of a person—Immanuel was already born into a reality of salvation, and even before the boy knew to reject evil and choose good, Immanuel grew into a reality in which there is no longer separation between Judah and Israel, into a generation that serves God with modesty and contentment with little, into a state of natural cleaving to God and His Torah.

May it be His will that both these motivations stand us in good stead—the power of choice by virtue of Ahijah, and the healthy natural quality expressed in the figure of Immanuel—to guide us on the true path toward the good.

Regards, Yaron Fishel Guryon-Werckheimer

To Ahijah,

The Hasidic claim (of Hasidism) is connected to matters of spiritual attainment and revelation, not prestige. I don’t think the Hasidim thought the Baal Shem Tov was greater than the Ari. They thought he was his continuation. And the fact that Ahijah the Shilonite was Elijah’s teacher does not mean he was greater than him. This is a claim related to the teachings of Kabbalah and not to branding. There is such a thing as the soul of righteous people being clothed within a person (it is a kind of spiritual attainment, like divine inspiration or prophecy, only smaller. In more popular language they would say that he learned from him, like a student from a rabbi).

Yaron Fishel the creative and Immanuel, both of you think there is something serious in the Hasidic choice of myths. I prefer a more lowly and cynical explanation (which, if successful, also provides a reasonable idea for why they chose Ahijah the Shilonite in particular).

I don’t know about the Hasidim, but I believe in the teachings of Kabbalah. In any case, there were Hasidim who were great and profound people (the Kotzker Rebbe, Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, and also Rabbi Ashlag. I studied some of their books). So my claim is that there is an internal logic to this claim. It is not a successful coincidence. It is not a coincidence at all. They certainly saw a connection between the Ari and the Baal Shem Tov. And that was the connection. By the way, the idea of the Baal Shem Tov’s connection to the heart, as opposed to the Ari’s connection to the intellect (this language makes me squirm a bit in my chair), appears in the writings of Rabbi Ashlag, who is the second-to-last person of whom one could say that his words are myths. Go and learn. (The last is the Ramchal.)

By the way, Yaron Fishel is our friend may he live long—you were supposed to recognize his style.

To Ahijah the Shilonite—greetings,

As I showed, already in the words of the Sages Ahijah the Shilonite serves as the connecting link between the servants of God from before the giving of the Torah and the pioneers of redemption. In Bava Batra 121—between Amram and Elijah the Prophet; and in Bereshit Rabbah 35—between Abraham and Rashbi, with whom Ahijah together brings the Messiah closer.

The prophet Ahijah the Shilonite established the kingdom of Israel as a legitimate “sure house” correcting the corruptions that had attached themselves to the kingdom of the house of David. He created competition, which was supposed to be a factor for a healthy “envy among scholars” that would improve the kingdom of the house of David. A plan that did not succeed. Jeroboam’s kingdom brought an even greater corruption that influenced the kingdom of Judah negatively, especially in the days of Ahab, in a drastic way.

Hasidism, too, created a way different from the traditional path of rabbinic Jewish law Judaism. But unlike Jeroboam, who came to abolish the centrality of the Temple in Jerusalem, Hasidism did not abolish the centrality of the Talmud and Jewish law, and among the great figures of Hasidism were geniuses and scholars who intensified the world of Torah study and Jewish law.

Hasidism maintained the centrality of the Talmud and Jewish law, but built an additional level of emphasizing service of the heart and strengthening emotion, and in so doing created a blessed “envy among scholars” that also brought the Ashkenazic-Lithuanian scholarly world to intensify the side of serving God in awe and love. Thus arose the Vilna Gaon and his student Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, who in his book Nefesh HaChaim built a path in the service of God that parallels the Hasidic path in many respects, though differing from it in many other respects.

And thus later in the Lithuanian world there arose the masters of musar, with their different approaches, who strengthened the service of God—whether through awe and humility or through emphasizing the “greatness of man.” Thus stood the Chafetz Chaim, who turned musar into codified Jewish law, and thus arose the Netziv and the Malbim, who placed emphasis on the study of the Bible.

The opening toward the world of awe and love that Hasidism brought, and later the opening toward biblical study that the Enlightenment brought, also compelled the Ashkenazic and Lithuanian scholars to create and develop these areas in their own way.

What Ahijah the Shilonite did not succeed in doing in Solomon’s days—establishing the kingdom of Israel as a fruitful alternative to the kingdom of Judah—he did succeed in doing by establishing the “kingdom of Israel,” namely Hasidism, as a fruitful and corrective alternative to the rabbinic world.

Regards, Y.F.V. Guryon

“Fishel Guryon” is simply “Shatz Levinger” (F.Y. = Tz.)
“Yaron Werckheimer” = “Shimshon Zvi Levi”

Regards, Otiphron Nefishtim HaLevi

And in short:

If Ahijah the Shilonite tried to repair the monarchy by means of “privatization,” a blessed competition between two kingdoms faithful to the Torah, and did not succeed—Hasidism carried out a “privatization” of Torah leadership.

If previously there had been the exclusive Torah authority of the local mara de-atra in every town and village—Hasidism created extraterritorial Torah leaderships, with each person choosing his own “rebbe,” and later a similar process emerged in the Lithuanian world as well—where everyone maintains an attachment to the yeshiva head under whom he studied.

There was blessing in this process, as I mentioned. The Hasidim needed to prove themselves and their ability to produce great Torah and Jewish law authorities, while the “opponents” needed to prove themselves also in cultivating service of God and cultivating character traits.

On the other hand, this process of “privatizing Torah leadership” also had a considerable price, in the weakening of the authority of the local rabbinate and in fragmentation into groups and subgroups between which peace does not always reign. And it still seems to me that we have not yet found the “golden path” that balances between the blessing of the personal bond of rabbi and student and the problematic nature of separation and fragmentation.

Regards, Yaron Fishel Guryon-Werckheimer