The Heresy of Helping Non-Jews
It gives me great pleasure in one of my first posts since returning to work to join the chorus condemning Daniel “Mobius” Sieradski, of Jewschool and Orthodox Anarchist, for his unforgiveable attitude that a Jew should — cover your eyes if don’t feel you have they koyach to deal with this kefirah — assist non-Jews in need.
Tarfus! Only a shgotz like Sieradski could come up with this.
Of course, Judaism has a long and heralded tradition of not only not assisting non-Jews in need, but in outrightly spitting in their eye. Our stories of Torah sages reveal that a true tzadik is one who doesn’t simply wait for these opportunities to come to him, but aggressively pursues them even among the lower madreigos of the gantze velt. Here in the historic Jewish community of the Lower East Side, we’re regaled with shalosh seudos divrei Torah recounting the greatness of Reb Moshe Feinstein, who not only refused any hungry non-Jew who would come to his house, but would actually roam around the poorer districts to find homeless people too weak and tired to beg, and kick them in the face — repeatedly — while yelling at them “You have no neshama, you star-worshipping pig!” Words of our great sage standing up for the Jewish tradition in so fierce a manner ring out through the night as our holy Shabbos leaves us, giving us chizuk for another week among the truly tamei.
And looking for other Torah sages similarly shtark in the face of the animalistic impulse to help out non-Jews, we’re not disappointed. I still recall how, as a freshman at Yeshiva University, we immature young folk were in horror at learning that the great beacon of Modern Orthodox wisdom in whose path we were meant to walk had actually delivered charity to non-Jews. How were we to remain faithful in the light of such an egregiously anti-Jewish act? Thankfully, we quickly learned the truth: that Rav Soloveitchik had actually thrown his pennies at the corner-dwelling beggars so as to hurt them and make them flee; he’d then send the kids from the local cheder to pick up the pennies, beating them out of any behaimos who had the gall to pick them up.
And this is all the more so when Jews have been the cause of the harm that has befallen the non-Jew. Why, I was once told a story of R’ Shlomo Zalman Auerbach who happened to accidentally knock a parcel out of a priest’s hand while passing by on the street. How did our great Torah sage respond to what a lesser Jew might have considered a personal embarrassment, after which he might normally be expected to help the man regain the parcel from his left hand? Like a malach on Earth, with a mission from the Aibishter, he did what he had to do, and knocked the other parcel out of the priest’s right hand! And there the priest stood, parcel-less, for all to see as a revelation of his obvious unchosen-ness.
The Torah behind these ideas is particularly remarkable, especially in how it’s been revealed to us through the new understandings that the modern era have provided. Woe unto the previous generations, who went through life without this bit of wisdom, and felt that the creation of all humanity b’tzelem Elokim, in the image of God, indicated some notion of equality. It took thousands of years for us to come to the revelations of Rav Yissocher Frand, who recounts in his latest sefer, Al HaShtus L’Beery:
What is tzelem? Behold, it is an image. And what greater image is there than a photograph! In this ideal form of the image, we realize what was truly meant when all of humanity was called tzelem Elokim. Of course, as with a photograph, there are two elements, and to each part of humanity is one assigned: the Jews are the photographic positive, and the goyim are the photographic negative.
Mi k’amcha Yisroel, indeed!
And I must thank some of the Jewish writers who, though not Torah scholars, have brought us to new understandings of these principles in these challenging times, like those Jewlicious amaratzim who nevertheless display their pintele Yid in their ability to break through the fog of misunderstanding and explain clearly:
Jewish preference for the universal over the particular says something not so fabulous about the level of comfort experienced by Jews in America. Acting out of fear, many among us are wary of admitting to any specifically Jewish concerns. Many among us want so desperately to be liked, not out of patheticness, but out of a genuine understanding that we, well, aren’t. Does that excuse Jewish committment to the universal over the particular? Perhaps, but at any rate, it explains it, and reveals that the problem lies both with the Jewish community and with society in general.
Indeed, as we’ve all learned in the great works of musar, the tayvah of wanting to help non-Jews is really nothing more than gaivah that must be stopped at all costs. As we learn from R’ Hadelf Itlerstein, in his seminal work HaNitzachon Sheli, the true Jewish character, when it is not corrupted by fear, disillusionment, or simple misunderstanding, is one that endeavors to help no other. How amazing that this Phoebe character can connect with Itlerstein’s ideas — giving a Roman salute to him, as it were — without even learning his sefer! A greater evidence of the unstoppable march forward of the true Jewish neshama amidst the challenges assimilation, ignorance, and Enlightenment values, I have never seen!
I hope this week to see this Mr. Sieradski while he’s in town. And when I do, I only hope that I can find my inner kanoy and run him through with the blade he deserves.
Speaking for true Torah values, I remain, faifthfully yours.
September 13th, 2006 at 10:54 am
Was I just accused of supporting Hitler???
September 13th, 2006 at 11:35 am
Far be it from an am ha-aretz like me to question the obviously extensive, if unfortunately Yiddish-inflected Hebrew knowledge of Herr Journalist, but I think that he, perhaps temporarily blinded by his two-fisted, obsessive-compulsive, needlessly-hyphenated brilliance, confused “nitzachon” with “ma’avak.” It’s a mistake we all could have made, unless of course we knew Hebrew.
September 13th, 2006 at 11:46 am
Oh Steven, you are too kind. Being an admitted Torah ignoramus I can only assume that the term you used to refer to us, amartzim, must mean awesomely righteous Jews or stupendously astute Torah scholars. Sadly, while I thank you for your incredible generosity, I have to admit that we too have succumbed to our yeitser harah and inner yekke and have helped those less fortunate than us who were not of the Mosaic persuasion. A few months back, this is so shameful, we helped raise over $1000 for the Task Force on Human Trafficking, an organization dedicated to lobbying on behalf of sex slaves in Israel - the vast majority of whom aren’t Jewish! For the last 6 months, we’ve been running a free banner ad for the Jewish Coalition for Service, an organization that sends Jewish volunteers all over the world to help in various humanitarian capacities - many of which do not involve Jews as the beneficiaries! I remember too, with great shame, how we rewarded a Jaffa boy with a brand new laptop because he won a history of Zionism contest. That boy, Rami Wated, was an Israeli Arab - for shame! Finally, our most recent post exhorts our readership to attend a rally in support of pressuring the UN to send peace keeping troops to Darfur in order to end the Genocide against the African tribesmen there. Needless to say, these African tribesmen are not fellow yids.
Thank you Steven I. Weiss, godfather of the Jewish blogosphere and Journalist extraordinaire, for giving me this opportunity to unburden myself from my sin. Luckily, I live in Israel and need not fear your wrath - I will just have to take my chances with Hashem, El melech rachamim, during this month of Elul and beg his forgiveness for trying to come off as a righteous … how did you put it? Amartz? while in reality working towards the betterment of the world around me.
And please, be kind and merciful to Dan as well when you run into him. While we sought merely to help goyim in need, Dan went one step further and tried to help goyim who are at war with us and already have hundreds of millions of dollars of international aid pledged towards their assistance. Please Steven I. Weiss, I doubt his $500 will make a dent in the reconstruction of Lebanon, except insofar as it will make those receiving the money, laugh their asses off.
Gmar chatimah tovah Steven I. Weiss. And mazal tov on your recent nuptials!
September 13th, 2006 at 12:08 pm
Amartzim? Is that Internetese for am haaretz? Nice! I’m impressed with your graceful commentary. Your lovely segue into connecting one of our writers with Hitler is also impressive and makes you out to be, well, nothing if not a true mensch. You may as well simply skip Yom Kippur this year because it’s clear that you are such a person of quality, such a tzaddik yourself, that you will have nothing about which to atone.
Anyway, here is a real Jewlicious post about Siedraski: .... You’ll notice that unlike your mistaken points in the first couple of paragraphs, the strongly negative reactions to what he has said have little to do with what he does or doesn’t do for non-Jews but rather what he says and doesn’t say about fellow Jews, about Judaism and about Israel.
I guess if being am haaretz means that I don’t walk around spitting on other Jews because they didn’t give me enough money for my little fundraiser, or because they - God forbid - don’t agree with my mal-formed political views regarding Israel or the Arab-Israeli conflict, then perhaps this is a superior status than being Dan-talmid-chacham-Siedraski or The-lo-mevin-kol-kach-tov-al-ma-medubar-aval-ro’eh-et-atzmo-k’talmid-od-yoter-chacham-Canonist.
By the way, since you are clearly a sage among sages and I, coming from Jewlicious, am a mere am haaretz, perhaps you can enlighten me and expound for your readers about our Jewish traditions and scholarship regarding taking our limited communal resources and even at times of severe communal challenges, relegating those challenges and the needs of those Jews in difficulty to a secondary place while we focus our priorities on the needs of people outside our community or even simply place the needs of those others as equal to ours.
This is a wonderful topic, I’m sure you’ll agree. After all, I have been impressed with the generosity of some of the well-to-do Jews who have seen fit to give, say, two or three million dollars in charity to Jewish causes, and have then given tens of millions or even more to general causes that may assist some Jews but provide support mainly for the broader non-Jewish population. These acts of generosity are stunning and will often ensure that the name of the donor will remain affixed to a charity or a building for many years, while politicians and non-profit-directors fall over themselves to give obeisance and thanks to these benefactors.
However, I cannot help but think that the same dollars could have ensured that two or three times as many Jewish children attend local Jewish day schools instead of public school; could have gone to help some impoverished Jews including some new immigrants and elderly without much income; could have made their way to Israel where hundreds of thousands of Jews are living in poverty and cannot afford food for Rosh HaShana (just heard this on the radio). Would that have been less worthy? As worthy? More worthy?
Furthermore, I would be ever so grateful if you would explain to this boor and am haaretz the Jewish ethics involved in the following confusing situation: there are only 2.5% of us in the general US population, but the lead taken in terms of providing charitable funds to general, non-Jewish causes is disproportionally (sometimes vastly disproportionally) taken by Jews, despite the fact that those charities could be supported by the other 97.5% of society that almost never provide any charitable assistance whatsoever to the communal needs of our 2.5%. This is particularly vexing question for me at a time when assimilation and a lack of communal resources to enable Jewish families to provide a reasonably priced Jewish education to ensure Jewish continuity, are causing that 2.5% to become an ever smaller number.
I look forward to your instruction in this matter.
September 13th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
Feel free to adjust the link to my Orthodox Anarchist post so that your readers can actually see it. Thanks.
September 13th, 2006 at 12:50 pm
Wait a cotton pickin’ minute. TM - are you saying that when Steven I. Weiss called us Amartzim he meant that each of us is in fact an Am Ha Aretz? Or that we are all Ammey Ha Artzim (pl.)? That we are unlearned people who are ignorant of higher scholarship and studies? Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to add that to my resumé along with “not pious in his personal life” : ...
Man I feel stupid. I thought he was like, agreeing with us and stuff. So really he was being all ironical? Man, that Steven I. Weiss is one tough customer! We best not mmess with that boy…
September 13th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
Oh and I think he set up his blog so as not to display links TM. I told you man, that boy is crafty!
September 13th, 2006 at 1:11 pm
ck, you boor and simpleton, why do you even bother posting on this great chacham’s site? You think sarcasm works with such fine specimens of our genetic heritage?
I didn’t realize, prior to posting, that Weiss is affiliated with JCampus. I have an idea about this and although it’s still merely at a nascent stage, please bear with me.
I think they should close JCampus.
In fact, they should shut down all Jewish student organizations. Those funds could instead go to American students of any faith who need scholarships to attend college. Why should Jewish students have preference, or Friday night dinners, or Hillels on campus? Are they different from the other students? Is their tzelem adam somehow more worthy of receiving contributions or the advice of rabbis on campus?
At the very least, these organizations should take any funds they do raise and divide them in half and give half to general student charitable organizations while keeping the other half for their own institutions. They should also be sure that any future fundraisers explicitly require that donors allocate half the funds to charities that have nothing to do with Jews or Judaism. It’s only fair - we are all one.
September 13th, 2006 at 1:59 pm
What’s a tzelem adam? Close down Hillels? Close down CampusJ? That’s crazy! We need to keep such organizations open if only to serve as recruiting stations for Habitat for Humanity projects. And maybe then the goyim will like us!
Oh and I totally groove on friday night (I think the Jews call it shabbos) geffilte fish dinners served at most Hillels. CampusJ does not serve friday night dinners. Yet. They have however gotten oodles of new funding though. I expect to see many new interfaith initiatives from them in the very near future!
September 13th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
Awww geez, now I feel really bad. Just think, instead of taking care of the needs of well-off New York Jews who prefer to write and create blog networks to benefit well-off middle class and upper middle class North American Jewish students, that money could be used to help hungry and homeless children - not just Jewish ones - right here in the US as well as abroad. ... is one such organization that does good work. Another worthy organization, one that helps homeless people - not just Jewish ones but of all faiths - is here: .... I think we all agree that in terms of simple humanity - and I mean that in the most menschlekite tzelem adam way you can imagine - contributing and assisting those who are hungry and homeless of any background should take precedence over contributions to the musings of Jewish students online.
Thanks, Canonist, for opening my eyes. I hope that your readers and benefactors too have had their eyes opened.
ck, gefilte fish sucks. On the other hand, fish cooked hrieme style rocks. You know, it’s the spicy North African tomato sauce and you baste the fish inside it until flaky. You can eat it cold or warm, but the best part is sopping up the sauce with challah. You think they would serve that at Hillels if we gave them some money? Oh wait…that money is now going elsewhere…
September 13th, 2006 at 4:38 pm
Don’t forget to add carrots, garlic and hot peppers to that fish. The carrots get really soft and absorb the combined falvors of the fish, garlic and peppers. Parsley on top is good too. And you’re right, it is good both cold and hot.
But now really. Is this an apppropriate conversation? Remember how at Jewlicious @ The Beach 2 Rabbi Yonah took all the substantial leftovers to homeless shelters (yes, where there were non-Jewish homeless people)? Well, clearly we need to take that example one step further and send them the food first. Then afterwards they can send us the leftovers. That’s the way to do it!
September 13th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
You add veggies to the hrieme?!
September 13th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
Yeah man, carrots. Sometimes potatos too. It’s hella yummy. But I prefer the carrots. It’s like the best way to eat carrots too. I don’t usually like carrots… maybe I can get my Mom to cough up the recipe. Michael would love that if he wasn’t such a total vegetarian. But this is getting off topic. And the topic is… well, did Steven I. Weiss really associate Phoebe with Hitler? R’ Hadelf Itlerstein and Hanitzachon Sheli… heh. Except Mein Kampf means My Struggle, so in Hebrew that would be, as Michael so kindly noted, Ma’avaki. But I guess they don’t teach that stuff at YU maybe? Too busy with the Torah learnin’ to focus on things like history and language and research. That sort of thing is for amartzim like us I guess.
But I do love them carrots…
September 13th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
I like it here. It’s better than Jewlicious cuz we get to hang out with the smart kids.
September 13th, 2006 at 8:39 pm
All right, everyone. You’ve made your respective points. This just in: none of us are Hitlers. Back to your corners.
September 14th, 2006 at 12:36 am
OK Esther. But why is it that the doyen of the Jewish blogosphere hasn’t seen fit to issue any sort of response at all? For the record I just love hangin’ out with Esther and TM! Phoebe too!
September 14th, 2006 at 8:44 am
So, speaking of Moroccan food, did I tell you guys I made some wicked awesome shakshuka while I was in Modi’in last week? May the Aibeshter bestow his brachos on that Bracha for her maskon shakshuka. It was mamish tasty. I bet even Mr. I. Weiss would like it if he wasn’t such a sharmusa.
September 14th, 2006 at 9:24 am
You’re too kind Michaeleh. I almost made matbuchah last shabbos for that 12 person lunch but it was too much for me. I barely had time to make all the lasagna and cous cous. Of course Mama Bracha would laugh at my cous cous but I’m pretty sure she’d approve of my matbuchah. The damn stuff is so good it never makes it to Sunday for shakshuka purposes.
Uh… are we a little OT here? Uh… ok so how do we feel about inappropriate Hitler analogies? Surely if it’s unkosher for Football coaches it ought to be unkosher for all of us, no? Maybe there’s a heter for uncommonly brilliant journalists and Torah scholars?
September 14th, 2006 at 9:50 am
Wow. And Mobius said such nice things about you all when we spoke yesterday. I think I’ll go find hiim and give him a hug.
September 14th, 2006 at 10:30 am
ck, you glutton, you made lasagna and couscous for a Shabbos lunch? I won’t even mention your frankly heretical disregard for traditional Aibeshter-approved Shabbos lunch fare, such as cholent, cold kugel, dry sponge cake and other food fit for a doyen, but I am concerned that you prepared such a massive amount of food for a lunch that was attended chiefly by Jews. I hope and pray that you at least invited one of your many exploited Filipino foreign workers and Ukrainian whores to partake in your particularist Jewish bounty - anything less would, well, prove Hitler right (in thought, word and deed).
And when was the last time you sent some matbucha to your suffering brothers in Southern Lebanon? Maybe if you would just care long enough about your fellow man to send Nasrallah a fruit basket, we could all get along and, in a spirit of newfound ecumenism, bask in the warm rays of Rov I. Weiss’ profound Torah learning.
September 14th, 2006 at 11:52 am
Don’t get me wrong Harley. We actually like Mobius. He’s definitely one of my top 5 people to have a beer with in Jerusalem. His passion is admirable and his intentions are good. He has many struggles and that’s in part what makes him so interesting. Does that stop me from disagreeing with him? No. But I still have great respect for him. He is a force to be reckoned with, no doubt.
September 14th, 2006 at 11:54 am
michael: the cous cous was for dinner, the lasagna was for lunch. And just so you know, there was a non-domestic goy at the table who partook of our bounty. So there. To hell with Hitler!
September 14th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
Wow Steven, you managed to miss all of the forest and all of the trees, all to write a piece in defense of a person and not an idea.
How did you manage to do that?
September 14th, 2006 at 8:36 pm
Yeah Harley, poor Mobius, he’s such a big victim and definitely needs a hug. Better yet, why not give one to the person likened to a Nazi?
Weiss, I have no idea who you are but you’ve had enough time to respond and have elected not to do so…and therefore it’s time to offer some words of advice.
It’s laudable to be loyal and protective of friends. Unfortunately, in your energetic but misguided defense of your friend - who does happen to have his own bully pulpit and unlike you does not have the balls to publish comments that confront him - you directly insulted a person who had not insulted anybody and who had not meant to cause offense to anybody. Phoebe merely expressed a position regarding some of the ideas raised by Beery and Siedraski’s petulant, childish, hateful responses to Beery’s article.
Perhaps you were unaware that Phoebe has only joined Jewlicious very recently and therefore has little to do with Siedraski’s anger at some of us (namely, yours truly), and therefore decided that she’s fair game. Unfortunately, your insult to Phoebe includes a comparison to Hitler or at least to his ideas although you attempt to camouflage this frontal assault with semi-clever writing. This is shameful behavior, nothing less. If you had wanted to put up a red flag to Jewlicious, the amartzim comment or others like it could have signaled your intent just as well.
The fact that you haven’t shown up in this discussion indicates you recognize you are entirely in the wrong and your humility and embarrassment prevent you from coming forth with an apology. Then again, ignoring the discussion you created may be an attempt to indicate that you are above it. In case it is the latter option, I’m glad to report that on the contrary, your absence does not point to you holding any moral high ground or to having a solid argument in your post above. It actually points to your inability to admit that you have committed unnecessary and unfortunate offense to a person who attacked no-one and meant only to explore an idea. You would do well to contrast her approach with your friend Siedraski’s two nasty posts about this topic. My link in the 4th comment above provides a link you to one of them.
Moreover, your silence also indicates that you cannot admit to the paucity of your thesis and ideas with respect to this topic. This happens to the best of us - sometimes we make mistakes. In this case it happened to you while you falsely attacked a Jewish person with a Hitler analogy. Your positions and your tone with respect to Phoebe, not to mention Siedraski and even the larger points at play here are simply off the mark. You owe Phoebe an apology. She doesn’t need one, I’m sure, and probably won’t care if she doesn’t receive one, but at least you won’t come off looking like Siedraski’s court jester.
Overall, you’ve been mightily unimpressive in this first visit of mine to Canonist. You have my permission to add that line to your “Others on Steven I. Weiss” section.
September 14th, 2006 at 10:40 pm
Bummer, I’m told I don’t even know Mobi’s name.
September 15th, 2006 at 9:27 am
It’s Sieradski you shmendrick. Do your research!
September 15th, 2006 at 10:30 am
Lighten up, Beery.
September 15th, 2006 at 10:54 am
Just goes to show us that the best of ideas can be corrupted by a twisted mind.
September 15th, 2006 at 11:46 am
What research? I know him primarily as Mobius. He’s your buddy, remember? I’m the guy he threatened with kicks from his boots in the shins. Yikes, he’s scary.
September 18th, 2006 at 12:56 am
Cous cous rocks.
Some day I hope to open a cous cous franchise. We’d only sell it in places like Baden-Baden, Pango-Pango and New York, New York.
Maybe we could get testimonials from Martin Marty, Pete Peterson and Boutros Boutros Ghali.
The jukebox would feature tunes by Duran Duran, The The, Lisa Lisa and the Go-Gos.
When customers left, of course, we’d either bid them bye-bye or ta-ta.