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Dear Mr. Mayor: Please Don’t Give Us Another Holiday

by Chani Vogel

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

I am a lifetime resident of this great city of New York. I have grown up with all the mayors in NY starting with Lindsay, going on to Beame, Koch, Dinkins, Giuliani, and now you. I want to explain something to you. I know that politicians have an unusually strong sense of determination, which gives them the drive to forge ahead of typical people and place themselves into positions of power. I get it. I really do.

I am also an orthodox Jewish girl who understands that Hashem runs the world. Throughout history, there have been people of power who have tried to take down the Jewish people. I think in particular they tried to take down the orthodox Jews, as we are the ones who continue the tradition, and therefore it is our children who will ultimately grow up and elect to marry one of our own, continuing the unbroken chain that make us the “Chosen People.”

By you attacking metzitzah b’peh, you are making history. There have been many governments who have come to attack the Orthodox Jewish foundations by which we live, Mr. Mayor. But every time we were attacked, the Jewish people showed those governments who we really are, by banding together and emerging victorious. Those who have tried to break us as the orthodox enclave that we are, ended up going down in history as failures, and as has beens. Take a look at our first exile.

Pharaoh was the strongest king in the world. He along with his nation were forever destroyed. It says that Hashem hardened his heart, and he refused to allow the Jews to leave, so that the glory of Hashem would be world renown. Was it fiscally responsible for him to bankrupt his entire empire just to keep enslaving Jews? Clearly it was the hand of Hashem that pushed him to his irrational decisions.

Continuing on, with the story of Purim, did it make sense that Achashverosh married a girl who looked bad, when there were so many gorgeous girls fawning over him? Hashem decided that this is how he would bring about the miracles of Purim, and he did. Children continued to learn Torah despite Haman, and Achashverosh.

The list goes on, the Romans, and the story of Chanukah, the story of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and even later on, the Crusaders, and the Czars, Stalin, and Hitler, there is nothing left of any of them – superpowers, and fundamental extremists alike. (Before the days of the internet, many of the holidays that small communities celebrated were not universal, simply because the word didnt get out in the same way. Today my friend we have the internet, and the publicity that will come of this will spread like nerve gas.)

Mayor Bloomberg, do you realize that you are just a pawn in Hashem’s plan? The difference between you and those of the past, is that you are a Jew. As such, though you can be your (and our) own worst enemy, by contrast, you also have what is known as Bechirah Chofshis.

Attacking metzitzah is wrong. The Torah was given to us, as humans. Hashem would not ask from us that which would kill us, or harm us in any way. Halacha says one should do metzitzah b’peh. For almost three thousand years we have been doing the bris a certain way. To say that the health department wants to protect us from our Torah is ludicrous. Sure, the vote could get passed and it would be signed into law, but that will only serve to show how Jews keep their Torah, and the laws enacted to try to stop the very heart of our religious belief system will prove just how might Hashem really is.

Let’s continue on to this issue. The hypocrisy is unbelieveable! After every challenge to our mesorah (traditions) gets done away with, we have a new holiday. It goes down in history, they tried to fight us, we said no and prayed to Hashem, he intervened, we fought back, we won, NOW LET’S EAT. You know this as well as I do. What happens afterwards? We end up making fattening meals, having big parties, with 64 oz bottles of soft drinks on the table. (I wont go into how much salt gets used in a typical holiday meal.)

Take your anti Torah thoughts, and rechannel them. It is not too late. We dont wish bad on fellow Jews. I for one, certainly hope you go on to live a wonderful and fulfilling life. Please, have mercy on me! I definitely don’t need an extra holiday to cook for, between my family simchos and the Yomim Tovim, I have enough soft drinks in my house to make your head spin!

Now before Rosh Hashanah, do the right thing! May we all merit a sweet and happy new year culminating with the ultimate blessing of a world filled with peace and harmony with the coming of Moshiach!

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12 Comments

  • Menachem

    He isn’t ATTACKING metzitzeh bipeh, the government wants to bring to light it’s dangers simply because babies DIED!!!

    I think it’s time to revamp our whole victim mentality outlook.

    Nicely written though, Chaim Tashkunteh would’ve been so proud!!

  • Milhouse

    Forging someone else’s name reeks of inferiority complex. Not to mention that it invalidates everything you have to say.

  • No name

    This letter is one of those things that makes me really nervous about raising my children in CH.

  • Great Article!

    Menachem check your facts. The DOH manipulated the statistics. Not enough that these poor neshamas were injured, the DOH went after their greiving parents and skewed the statistics to further their antisemetic agenda.

  • Why not stop AIDS producing behaviour!?

    1. Great article!
    Furthermore, Certain sexual immoral behavior produces AIDS and other killer diseases. MILLIONS die worldwide. So many sicknesses are produced by the gay community, yet in the name of freedom [!!] they do not make it illegal. They try to ‘solve the problem’ but millions of people still get sick.
    Where is the health department? (I can go on and on, but it’s erev Shabbos.)
    Having said that, after all this is a gezeiroh min hasomayim. Hashem wants us to become elevated these days. The last days before Moshiach!

  • Eliezer

    No one is out to “get the Jews”. The approach is too rough and unintelligent. There’s an issue here, the lives of babies have been, and continue to be in danger. The government is trying to rectify the matter. Imagine it was your child that died from it, would you still feel this way?