Ethics Bytes:
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Views of the War in Gaza
Most Israelis blame the war in Gaza squarely on Hamas, though there are plenty who fault the Israeli government for not pursuing peace more aggressively.
In the haredi Orthodox community, however, where practically everything is ascribed to the omnipresent hand of God in one form or another, the true cause of Israel’s troubles is seen as something else: sin, with the troubles Israel’s punishment. Which sin? Take your pick.
One haredi rabbi thinks a gay pride parade in Tel Aviv is to blame for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens in the West Bank. Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, a Sephardic rabbinic leader, said “God brought Hamas because ‘the world has filled with hamas’ now,” according to the haredi blog Vos Iz Neias. The Hebrew word “hamas” means evil or corruption.
Rabbi Aron Teitelbaum, one of the Satmar rebbes and a vocal anti-Zionist, blamed the kidnapped boys’ parents and the “desire for Jews to inhabit the entire State of Israel.” He told his yeshiva in Kiryas Joel, a Satmar community north of New York City, “(It) is incumbent upon us to say that these parents are guilty…They caused the deaths of their sons and they must do t’shuva [repent] for their actions.”
Rabbi Shalom Cohen of the Sephardic Orthodox Shas party said Israel doesn’t need an army because “It is God almighty who fights for Israel.”
While many haredim avoid guessing at the Divine reasons for catastrophe in Israel (at least publicly), there is universal consensus that prayer and the performance of mitzvot (fulfilling the Torah’s commandments) constitute the best ways to ward off further disasters.
In a statement issued by Agudath Israel, Rabbi Avi Shafran wrote: “We must remember that… it is therefore to Hashem that we must focus our entreaties with special intensity at this critical time. Our prayers should include entreaties for the wellbeing of our fellow Jews under attack, as well as for those who are risking their lives to defend them and defeat those who wish us harm.”
One of the more unusual initiatives to bring peace to Israel through the performance of mitzvot is Chabad’s Project EDEN (Eat ice cream Defend Eretz Yisroel Now), which rewards modestly attired female Chabad campers with ice cream. Organizers believe that having women dress modestly will bring Israel Divine protection.
Source: Miriam Moster at http://www.jta.org/2014/07/23/news-opinion/the-telegraph/the-israelhamas-war-through-haredi-orthodox-eyes#ixzz39dl62ppW
Ethics Bytes:
“We ought to say to these children, ‘Welcome to America, you’re going to go to school and get a job and become Americans’. We have 3,141 counties in this country. That would be 20 (children) per county. The idea that we can’t assimilate these 8-year-old ‘criminals’ with their teddy bears is preposterous.”
Fox News Contributor, George Will, on Fox News Sunday.
Ethics Bytes:
Who are the Yazidis?
40,000 Yazidis were trapped on a mountain top in Iraq after a militant army of Sunnis called ISIS, seeking to establish an Islamic State, destroyed their village. President Obama ordered bombs from planes and drones to stop the ISIS from further genocide. But who are the Yazidis?
Yazidis are a small monotheistic religious minority, living primarily in northern Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia…right where much of the world’s ethnic trouble is today. They speak Kurdish but consider themselves separate from Kurds ethnically. Their religion is considered pre-Islamic and contains parts of Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism. They reject the idea of sin, the devil, and hell but worship one God and honor seven angels. Many Muslims consider them devil-worshipers and Yazidis have been targets of persecution throughout history, and now, along with Christians.
Source: Joshua Berlinger, CNN, 8/8/14
Ethics Bytes:
NPR’s Fresh Air, host Terry Gross asked how Stephen Colbert explained complicated issues like God and hell to his own children.
“I think the answer, ‘God is love’ is pretty good for a child. Because children understand love … My son asked me one day, ‘Dad, what’s hell?’ … So, I said, ‘Well, if God is love, then hell is the absence of God’s love. And, can you imagine how great it is to be loved? Can you imagine how great it is to be loved fully? To be loved totally? To be loved, you know, beyond your ability to imagine? And imagine if you knew that was a possibility, and then that was taken from you, and you knew that you would never be loved. Well that’s hell—to be alone, and know what you’ve lost.’”
Source: www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/6-times-stephen-colbert-got-serious-aboutfaith#TvOfBDTmqK954Qge.99
Ethics Bytes:
News Service. This post appeared 8-22-
2014 on God’s Politics, A Blog of Jim Wallis and Friends and is used with permission.
At the end of the day, the President mused, the biggest threat to America—the only force that can really weaken us—is us…we will never realize our full potential unless our two parties adopt the same outlook that we’re asking of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds or Israelis and Palestinians: No victor, no vanquished and work together…”societies don’t work if political factions take maximalist positions. And the more diverse the country is, the less it can afford to take maximalist positions.”
Interview with President Obama by NYT columnist, Thomas Friedman, 8/8/14.
Ethics Bytes:
When Jesus disarmed Peter in the Garden, he disarmed all Christians. Tertullian (c. 160-225)
Ethics Bytes:
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)
