OUT OF ORDER
by Ze'ev Chafets
Real Torah Judaism
"The Jerusalem Post", International Edition, January 25, 1996, p. 18
When I was but a blushing bar mitzvah boy in Pontiac, Michigan, I asked a kindly Reform rabbi about
the meaning of Judaism. He was a modest man, and he replied by quoting Hillel: "Do not do unto others
what you don't want done to you. The rest is commentary."
This sounded good to me. Fifteen years after the Holocaust I wasn't about to swallow any stories about
an all-powerful God. The way i figured it, if there was a God, He didn't like Jews any better than
anyone else. And if there wasn't, it certainly didn't make any sense to give up cheeseburgers. No, the
Hillel Principle was just the sort of Judaism I could get behind. It wasn't until I moved to Jerusalem in
1967 that I became exposed to The Commentary. Jerusalem then, as now, was awash in holymen --
Talmudic scholars renowned for their genius, kabbalists and hasidic rebbes who knew God's deepest
secrets, rabbinical heroes who, with a shofar and a rifle, were recreating the days of Joshua.
Surrounded by such high-powered sanctity and wisdom I was of course awed. My do-unto-others
Judaism seemed hopelessly basic and insufficient.
And so I tried to learn. I studied Talmudic at the Hebrew University and at a Jerusalem yeshivah (I
withhold the name to protect the innocent), I spent holidays and Shabbat weekends in religious
kibbutzim and hasidic shtiebels. I was positive that I would discover from the authentic Orthodox rabbis
the meaning of Real Torah Judaism.
I stuck to this belief for a long time. When Rabbi Meir Kahane began preaching that Arabs are dogs
and the penalty for a Muslim man marrying a Jewish woman should be death, I said to myself: This guy
is an extremist fringe rabbi from Brooklyn. He doesn't speak for Real Torah Judaism.
Then along came Rabbi Yitzhak Peretz, Shas cabinet minister. He said a schoolbus full of kids was hit
by a train because God was angry that the movie theater in their town was open on Friday nights. I said
to myself: He may be a rabbi, but he's not a major rabbi, he's a politician. He is not speaking for Real
Torah Judaism.
Next came the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He allowed his followers to declare him The Messiah. I said to
myself: He's old and senile, he doesn't know what his disciples are doing. They are not speaking for
Real Torah Judaism.
After that came Rabbi Yitzhak Kadouri, the world's greatest kabbalist. He put a hex on a Jerusalem
office building that blocked his view. I said to myself: The man's a mystic. He's not representative of
Real Torah Judaism. Next, former chief rabbi Shlomo Goren put out a death warrant on Yasser Arafat.
I said to myself: He's so old he doesn't know what he's saying. Surely he doesn't speak for Real Torah
Judaism.
Rabbi Dov Lior, the head of a Kiryat Arba yeshivah, declared IT KOSHER TO KILL GENTILE
WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN WARTIME. I said to myself: He lives in Kiryat Arba. He doesn't
speak in the name of Real Torah Judaism.
Rabbi Nahum Rabinovitch, dean of another major yeshivah, advocated scattering land mines to prevent
Israeli soldiers from carrying out orders in the West Bank. I said to myself: He's just a geek from
Canada. Obviously he doesn't speak for Real Torah Judaism.
Then 20,000 yeshivah boys gathered to stone and threaten Israeli archaeologists. One of their leaders,
Rabbi David Batzri, proclaimed that God had sent an earthquake to punish the scientists. I said to
myself: These are just primitive fools blowing off steam. They don't speak for Real Torah Judaism.
Next, Rabbi Moshe Maya arose in the Knesset and said that the halakhic penalty for homosexuality is
death. He proved it, too, by citing the relevant text. But I said to myself: You can prove anything using
the Bible. Rabbi Maya certainly doesn't represent Real Torah Judaism.
Then, just the other day, a dispute broke out between two of Israel's former chief rabbis. Rabbi
Ovadiah Yosef, universally considered one of the great Torah scholars of the age, was quoted as ruling
that the faithful should refuse transfusions from gentiles and nonobservant Jews because they [we]
have dangerously treif blood which might cause all manner of un-Jewish behavior.
His colleague, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, took issue with this learned opinion. According to him, Jewish
blood is inherently pure and therefore incapable of defiling Jewish recipients. When I heard this, I said
to myself -- well, what could I say? Here are two of the world's leading rabbinical authorities, neither
fringe nor fanatic, at the peak of their intellectual and spiritual powers. And they have a clear answer to
the question that has plagued me since my bar mitzvah-boy days. Real Torah Judaism is found neither
in good deeds nor in humble faith. It certainly has nothing to do with something so simplistic as the
golden rule. No, Real Torah Judaism is a scientifically based doctrine of racial purity. Jews have one,
superior, kind of blood, the rest of humanity has another.
No wonder the rabbi back in Pontiac quoted Hillel. He was probably ashamed to tell the truth.
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