HaKatan

Pashuteh Yid, Nobody in this forum (or elsewhere, as far as I’ve seen) ever said the Israeli goverment wanted to blow up shuls and yeshivas, though if you speak to the administrators there (and listen to the ones who come to collect here), the government seems to be doing whatever it can, financially, to shutter those mekomos hakedoshim.

But that was not really why I labeled Zionists “Macharivei Torah”. A few select reasons might be the following: The early Zionists directly and intentionally stripped their newly acquired citizens of as much Yahadus as they possibly could, using various wicked means. ViRabbim Od KaHeinah ViKaheinah. Those early citizens’ children and grandchildren are so far removed from Judaism, all the while being born and bred in a nominal Jewish State. Is that not enough of a tragedy? Was there not enough of a loss of Torah from that alone?

In any event, a good Zionist was quoted as having said that “Anti-Semitism will become our friend…a useful tool”, meaning, he would hope for Anti-Semitism so he could use the EXPECTED SYMPATHY GAINED AFTER THE SHEDDING OF INNOCENT JEWISH BLOOD, G-D FORBID, to use in creating their State. Another Zionist said, “One cow in Palestine is worth more than all the Jews of Europe.” Yet another prominent Zionist said during WW II, “If I had a choice of saving all the Jews [from the Nazi death camps] and bringing them to another country and saving only half and bringing them to Eretz Israel, I would undoubtedly choose the latter.” That was then, a matter of historical record. And now? The whole suicidal “peace process”, a folly unparalleled in recorded history? And the brutalization and expulsion of its citizens in Gaza, who are still homeless, depressed, jobless and struggling with other assorted related issues years later? Much of that is on YouTube, so you don’t even need to study history to learn about the modern-day atrocities. Does the above not make those responsible for that, “Machrivei Torah”, CH”V?

If, after understanding the above (and more), you’re still able to wax poetic about how the medina is so concerned with each yachid (really? when, as widely reported, it let a Druze soldier guarding Kever Yosef bleed to death on the battlefield when they suddenly and cowardly withdrew and allowed the Arabs to deface and disgrace that holy site) and feel that Israel’s great advances in technology, science and other fields are more important than the above and that the existence of the many Yeshivos and shuls is somehow a great credit to Zionism as opposed to them having their own motivations, then I suppose we are dealing with different morals, or maybe just different ground rules, so to speak.

Of course, as you correctly imply, Jews are free to be religious Jews in Israel, and the Israeli government is certainly not like the communists who outright denied the Jews the opportunity to worship, nor like the others you mentioned that persecuted Jews just because of their religion. Nor does the government love its religious Jews, either, of course. But, again, there is much, much more to the story, so a comparison based on that alone would lie somewhere between simplistic and false.

With all due respect, it is not I who has been force-fed a diet of anything (unless you consider basic historical knowledge and an open mind, to be “force-feeding”). You, however, Pashuteh Yid, as an Israeli, cannot seem to see past whatever lifestyle you maintain there, to the many wrongs that were perpetrated there on our fellow Jews by their fellow Jews, in a nominal Jewish State.

Incidentally, that your fellow citizens are, for the most part, happy, like you claim (despite half of their children living below the poverty line, and in such an advanced country, to boot) is a testament to the gadlus of the Am HaNivchar, not to their Zionist rulers. Since you live there, I am not denying your reason to be makir tov to the Zionists under whose protection you live. But, again, in the balance of things, I would place them, overall, far to the opposing side of machzikei Torah. And nowhere have I called it sinah, and as I mentioned above, it is certainly not for chinam. That’s to set the record straight.

As to your question: aren’t there lots of shuls and yeshivos there? Yes. Does the Israeli government deserve any special credit for that? I don’t think they have done anything particularly praiseworthy, and I do think that the ever-increasing lack of funding is one that raises questions, to say the least.

While, in light of the above and more (like the gedolim’s almost unanimous call against the State’s establishment), I would, therefore, certainly disagree that this “gift” is one worth dancing for joy over (since doing so would be, at best delusional, despite the silver linings in the cloud that undeniably exist), however, I do join with you in hoping that all of our people come together in serving Hashem and bringing the redemption speedily in our time.

The comparison to food is a bit incongruous. Smoking, unlike eating, when performed as directed, is deadly. Eating is healthy and, in fact, vital, when performed as directed.

That doesn’t mean that over-eating is healthy or justifiable. But since, unlike food, even the first cigarette is unhealthy, smoking is, therefore, the clear “bad guy” of the two.

Also, flatulence aside, what you eat will have no effect on anyone else. What you smoke, however, will have an effect, and can even cause physical harm to someone else, aside for making them uncomfortable.

I don’t know what office those girls worked in, but I think the proper reaction is to ask him to stop, and, if he doesn’t, to avoid the steady second-hand smoke exposure by quitting on health grounds (and get unemployment, BTW, presumably, though I am simply guessing since I do not know the laws).

For all the guys who think they’ll stop when they date, once the fantasy wears off and/or any pressures kick in, the smoking will be extremely tempting, and I know of people who try (laughably unsuccessfully, of course) to hide their smoking from their wives, and others whose wives simply have to put up with it (with all the discomfort and dangers to themselves and their kids therein) because their addicted husbands won’t help themselves.

Hashem Yishmor.