‘The People of the Book have become the People of Commerce,’ Tel Aviv’s retiring Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau tells Israeli newspaper
ed note–before launching into a dissection of the ‘good Rabbi’s’ words, let’s take a closer look at a few things first–
‘Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you…Your gates will always stand open, day and night, so that the Gentiles may bring you the wealth of their nations and their kings led in triumphal procession, for the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish; it will be utterly destroyed.’–Isaiah 60:10-12
This one passage (among many, many others) is thousands of years old and clearly denotes and delineates Judaic greed. There is nothing spiritual about it, it is all about material gain.
Where, oh where, is the concern and condemnation of ‘Jewish greed’ when it comes to passages within the Torah such as this from the ‘good Rabbi’?
So let’s be clear here when we examine just what it is that has the ‘good Rabbi’s’ knickers in a knot–it is not ‘Jewish greed’ per se, but rather, ‘Jewish greed’ that impinges on what the whole ‘keep holy the sabbath day’ was/is all about.
Within Judaism, and specifically within the 613 rules collectively referred to as ‘the law’ as laid out in the Torah, the Hebrews/Israelites/Jews–whatever word or letter combination of letters we want to use in describing them–were absolutely FORBIDDEN from doing any kind of work on the sabbath, rules that went so far as to decree that someone caught collecting sticks for him/herself on the sabbath to light a fire either to heat their hut or cook their food was to be stoned to death.
Now, the obvious question that needs to be asked is–was this really a decree from the omnipotent creator of the universe, that to work on a specific day of the week was to defile it, even though work in all its forms is a good thing?
Or, rather, was it–like all things encompassing Judaism–merely an invention by the goombahs making up La Kosher Nostra for their own enrichment?
The way they wrote the ‘legislation’ was the religious class is forbidden from doing any work. Their job is to spend all day studying Torah and to perform the sacrifice (animal slaughter) necessary in sparing the Hebrews/Israelites/Jews–whatever word or letter combination of letters we want to use in describing them–from the imminent doom and destruction that the angry, vindictive god Yahweh was about to unleash upon them. And it was/is specifically laid out within Judaism how the priestly class was to be ‘paid’ for their services–that the people who were being spared the wrath of Yarway were to surrender 1/10 of everything they produced–grain, wine, fruit, and of course–the choicest and best of their herds–specifically for the priests to enjoy.
Kind of hard to do this though however, i.e passing the collection plate at congregation time if everyone is out toiling for their daily bread, and therefore–VOILA–we better understand how/why it became forbidden for anyone to perform any work on ‘the Lord’s day’.
Keep in mind–Judaism, just as its name indicates, exists for one beneficiary only–the Jews–and amongst them, more specifically for the religious class who invented the entire scam for themselves so that they would not have to work, and that therefore the ‘greed’ that is now being condemned by the ‘good Rabbi’ is only construed as such in the sense that he and his fellow goombahs are not getting their proper ‘slice of the pie’ to which they feel entitled (according to the laws laid down by their forebears thousands of years ago) as a result of all the ‘secularization’ of Israeli society.
Haaretz
Former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau told an Israeli newspaper over the weekend that Jews have become “greedy” and that “Americanization” is driving secular Israelis away from religion.
In an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, Lau slammed shops that open on the Sabbath, and was also aggrieved by Tel Aviv’s Gay Pride Parade.
Lau, who served as Ashkenazi chief rabbi from 1993 to 2003, is officially retiring as Tel Aviv’s rabbi this month, but he leaves unhappy with both the state of the city and country.
“At the end of the day, what lies behind the opening of supermarkets on Shabbat? Greed. A few supermarket owners who are chasing money,” Lau told the daily. “The People of the Book have become the People of Commerce, who are running after every penny their entire life.
“Will anything happen if you let go of the money for just one day a week, be with your family, open a book?” he inquired.
Lau blamed the malaise on what he called a “decades-long educational failure, which stops people from understanding the essence and value of Shabbat and what they are missing out on.”
He also saw the failure as indicative of a wider problem in Israel society, leaving him to question what is left of the Jewish state “People are married by an entertainer, they are buried in a kibbutz which is commercializing the whole thing, they open stores on Shabbat, and it’s all OK. So what is left of the Jew here?” he asked.
Lau reserved most scorn for Tel Aviv’s annual Gay Pride Parade. “It doesn’t belong in the city,” he said, adding, “I just don’t know if such a parade solves the problem of people with a certain inclination. What are they solving by raising their problem so high? I can’t see and can’t understand how the publicity helps solve the problem. If there’s a person who has a personal problem, does he help solve it by dancing on a truck on the city’s streets in the middle of the day?”
Lau continued: “This parade doesn’t solve these people’s problem, the issue of how to have children, how to start a family.”
He also rejected interviewer Amira Lam’s assertion that pressure on secular Jews to be more observant was driving them away from religion. “What drives them away is the Americanization, in many areas,” Lau responded. “We are importers of a foreign culture.”
Lau also linked disgraced rabbis such as Yoshiyahu Pinto and Yona Metzger, who have been jailed for corruption, with the nation’s decline. “What happened to the religious public happened to the entire Israeli society,” he said. “The religious public doesn’t live on a different planet. They live in this society, and everything has changed. The corruption outside has somewhat penetrated the religious leadership as well.”
