From The Inbox By Moshe Benhar
There is a famous saying about politics "Politics makes strange bedfellows", of course I'm hoping that people won't take the above sentence in it's literal sense – to avoid some serious halachic and moralistic complications.

Many pleasantly surprising alliances are taking place at these times; people who once fought neck-to-neck are now aligning themselves to destroy a common evil.

Do you remember the "Dollars" scene? Who were the main actors in that episode? The answers may be quite surprising. Normal, sensible, and truth-seeking people have finally come to ends with their senses and have awakened to a terrible by-product which was only recently created by themselves.

“Strange Bedfellows” – Part 1

From The Inbox By Moshe Benhar

There is a famous saying about politics “Politics makes strange bedfellows”, of course I’m hoping that people won’t take the above sentence in it’s literal sense – to avoid some serious halachic and moralistic complications.

Many pleasantly surprising alliances are taking place at these times; people who once fought neck-to-neck are now aligning themselves to destroy a common evil.

Do you remember the “Dollars” scene? Who were the main actors in that episode? The answers may be quite surprising. Normal, sensible, and truth-seeking people have finally come to ends with their senses and have awakened to a terrible by-product which was only recently created by themselves.

The Simchas Bais Hashoeiva is just another one of those “Alliances”. It’s not known to me who had initially come with the “Achdus” idea; but both of these people aren’t (only) looking for political gain, but also want to unite the community – the sensible and understanding community – to dance as one.

I’m sure that many of you are aware of this “common evil” which draws people together – they are a quite large group which originated in Safed, Israel – they call themselves the “Rebbe’s Army” or “International Moshiach Campaign”, but to us they are known as “Tzfatim”!

Only recently has the movement emerged in it’s full modern-day form, but it’s been in the making for quite a while, slowly bubbling and boiling underground as if it were a volcano.

Their twisted logic gives way for new customs and rituals, as well as their distorted view on the world; but with an answer for every single thing they do, logic isn’t exactly the way to go in this war.

Why? Logic can only convince a person who already has some common sense in himself, but to the one who doesn’t – can refer to a classic Chassidic phrase “A Naye Kop Ken Men Nit Aroifshtelen” = which roughly translates to: “One cannot replace a new head” and which roughly means that one’s thought process cannot be suddenly changed.

This is the cause for change among so many Lubavitchers and other Jews across the globe, people have finally come to the realization that there is nothing but twisted logic behind every single Tzfati ritual and custom.

Although the whole talk has been about the Tzfatim and their blunders, we can also take some important points and lessons from this continuing saga; we can always look at ourselves in a self-righteous fashion, picture ourselves in a world where only we exist, where the only truth is the actions we do and the emotions we feel, and the gut instincts which we act upon, we can also go on the ways of the Tzfatim – who tend to picture themselves in their own twisted world and don’t believe in the words “I Don’t Know”, people who don’t want to be submissive to a higher power.

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5 Comments

  • curious

    quite interesting. though i am curious to see where he will be going with this further…

  • appaled

    the person hasnt spent much time talking to these "twisted people," which is pretty evident by the way he refers to them. he neither is a very giften writer, so i hope he goes somewhere good with this, because in the mean time he didnt impress me much.

  • M.B.

    to appaled.

    you don’t seem to giften yourself. learn english first and then give your opinions about giftedness, or the lack of.

    iv’e actually spent many hours with these people, and perhaps more than most of you ever have or ever will.

  • a fello

    att appaled: I 100 percent agree with you! I’m normally not on this side but in this case your 100 percent right

  • Emunah

    As chassidim we must do all that we can to avoid more divide in our community of anash. In essence, I believe that every chasid has emunah peshutah that our Rebbe is potentially the Melech HaMoshiach. Some of us have different beliefs on the relevance of promoting this emunah, as it has never been part of the campaigns that our revered Rebbe has bequeathed upon us. But to argue and debate these issue which we essentialy all concur on, is totally wrong as it just divides us a lot more than it unites us.

    Writing articles and essays of this sort, in my humble opinion, will only instigate more fumes of fire to the already contentious machloikes boggling our holy community. Let us not further distance the revelation of our long awaited redeemer, whom ever he may be. As the Rebbe would always say We want Moshiach NOW!!!