Tragedy in Haiti - Idiocy in Brooklyn
In an earlier post I stated that Orthodox figures hadn't yet blamed the earthquake in Haiti on our sins. It had to happen and now it did. Rabbi Yehuda Levin, in a video conference and press release carried on the Christian Newswire, stated that homosexuality is partly responsible for the earthquake. Homosexuality here in the U.S.A. mind you, and particularly in the American military, not homosexuality in Haiti, or even voodoo in Haiti. Why homosexuality in America would cause an earthquake in Haiti and kill 200,000 Haitians, while San Francisco, that mecca of sodomites, was spared, he doesn't clue us in. Nor does he tell us that homosexual soldiers serve openly in Israel's military, as they do in many countries all over the world, and Zahal's effectiveness as a fighting force apparently has not been degraded.
Why homosexuality, and not lashon hara, stealing from the government, laxity in kashrut, ad infinitum? Simple. Homosexuality happens to be Yehuda Levin's pet peeve, and has been for some 30 years. He has been spewing vicious, vitriolic hatred of homosexuals for at least that long. Not just hatred of a specific act that the Torah labels toeivah [abomination], as it labels dishonesty in business, but hatred of people. People who to all accounts have little or no control over their sexual proclivities. Even as a candidate for public office, he spewed his vitriol from every soapbox he can stand on, and it is telling that the only soapbox available to him now was of non-Jewish provenance. One wonders how many Haitian-Americans were listening to his rant, or became aware of it later on, and how they reacted to the news that God killed their loved ones to punish others for some real or imagined sins. If I was Haitian I'd be sorely tempted to take a swing at the good rabbi - beard, black hat and all.
Rabbi Levin has a synagogue not far from where I live. He calls it Mevakshei Hashem, Seekers of God. I have news for him; God is not to be found in hatred and bigotry.
Hat Tip: Failed Messiah
Why homosexuality, and not lashon hara, stealing from the government, laxity in kashrut, ad infinitum? Simple. Homosexuality happens to be Yehuda Levin's pet peeve, and has been for some 30 years. He has been spewing vicious, vitriolic hatred of homosexuals for at least that long. Not just hatred of a specific act that the Torah labels toeivah [abomination], as it labels dishonesty in business, but hatred of people. People who to all accounts have little or no control over their sexual proclivities. Even as a candidate for public office, he spewed his vitriol from every soapbox he can stand on, and it is telling that the only soapbox available to him now was of non-Jewish provenance. One wonders how many Haitian-Americans were listening to his rant, or became aware of it later on, and how they reacted to the news that God killed their loved ones to punish others for some real or imagined sins. If I was Haitian I'd be sorely tempted to take a swing at the good rabbi - beard, black hat and all.
Rabbi Levin has a synagogue not far from where I live. He calls it Mevakshei Hashem, Seekers of God. I have news for him; God is not to be found in hatred and bigotry.
Hat Tip: Failed Messiah
Labels: America, haredim, homosexuality
posted by Zev Stern at 8:49 AM
4 Comments:
He has a website and a YouTube channel as well, on which he advocates "reclaiming America from the godless". He's a real piece of work.
Apparently, child molestation doesn't bother him as much as consensual same-gender relationships do - or perhaps he thinks the rabbis have a heter.
He also doesn't appear to be particularly bright. The far right frum rail against the liberal denominations and refuse to recognize their rabbis, but it seems that today, in Black Hat Land, they'll give smicha to any fool who can memorize a few passages of Talmud. The only real requirement is that he be on board with the party line.
Rabbi Levin has a synagogue not far from where I live.
This is what bothers me the most about these people - they always manage to find sycophants.
Some scary stuff there. It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic.
Another in the same vein:
http://forward.com/articles/126453/
I read the article and I'll probably leave a comment there when I get a chance to watch the accompanying video. But Rabbi Friedman's clumsily translated quote from an authentic source is not a call for mass murder, only for pre-emptive self-defense. In a country as small as Israel, that's the only kind that has any chance of working.
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