There’s a great wisdom in saying to fear only HaShem. More often than not this simple phrase provides insights into situation. It’s especially useful for my personal growth.
Often with time things change. this happened to our community too. Stories of courage, raw feelings, triumphs and mistakes became just stories… became past.
It’s still shocking how the brightest minds whitewashed biblical characters instead of learning from mistakes… this is much more complicated than fb messages, but the result is obvious.
Chabad stories became legends, existence of Orthodox Judaism is practically neglected & too many people are “leaders”. Forgive me for stating obvious, as it’s painful. There’re a lot of very confronting experiences, which shaped and often changed my views.
None of it tarnished appreciation for deep wisdom of our Sages, our Prophets, our elders and unconditional love for Torah (as 5 books of Moses). My keen interest in Rebe’s teaching limited by my inability to concentrate on lectures for more than an hour and lack of knowledge. However beauty of Rav Kook or Rav Nachman or Baba Sali is shining light for me. And you know that from that point of view, my appreciation for religious Zionism grow.
Growing with time, while strong understanding of stability of my beloved Torah are important. Please understand that, as it’s a strong sense of justice is purely based on it.
So here’s the reality. For generations we lived in the world where knowledge was often basis for wisdom. It’s clear to me that mistakes (and often very costly) were made & nothing changes the reality of it. Yet as we learnt how to whitewash mistakes instead of confronting them, we used similar principles to our everyday lives. It suited us in “free countries”.
This happened as knowledge often replaced with quick glance at articles or Google search (and we know the danger of both). And before we point fingers at each other, let’s be honest that the amount of information exposure is overwhelming otherwise. Therefore it’s reactive.
However this is another reason why many started to rely on media and government websites, trying to sift through fake narrative.
It happened everywhere. Who had time to listen to un or UNESCO or WEF? Dismissed as unimportant, we became ignorant and often careless in voting. How can someone who’s G-d fearing still vote left is the paradox for me, Yet shows our failure. It’s just rubbish bin, it’s just road, it’s just new camera, it’s just cash… It’s just? And now they cannot define a woman.
Coming from former USSR, this was confronting. Leaving liberal or messianic aside, this was borderline shocking. And not only for me. To this day it’s very confronting… Nobody is talking about so many mistakes, very painful mistakes. Like water of Nile river in Egypt, we sacrificed many things. It came gradually, but it became confronting.
Freedom isn’t free, it comes with struggle. Struggle has to start within – within community. This is not unique to our community. Looking outside, see how struggle with fake leadership of Dutch farmers becoming a beautiful story of triumph. It’s a miracle unfolding in front of our eyes. Not many could protest, yet everyone voted. imagine the beginning of it, where they had to work the land, it was expensive to take tractors to towns, and they’re working hard so fatigue was setting… and add other similar situation all over the world – truckers is a shiny example.
Same is happening here. Fear only HaShem is the slogan for us. Freedom will come. We have to stop standing idle by our brothers’ blood and prioritise. This is time to watch out for whitewashing or bashing – both stopped working. It’s time to speak the truth with love and appreciation. Like modern alt left in everywhere, our situation isn’t a unique struggle. Remember, there’s nothing new under the sun. and I know the history, I know we will prevail. That comes with knowledge of the change.
Change is coming and it’s going to be beautiful and liberating. It is coming, regardless of power hungry bureaucracy and idiots following them, regardless of them reshaping our language (post Zionism is a joke like messianic Judaism), it’s coming regardless of censorship.
We learnt in Egypt & following journey that things were not simple. In my opinion, 2-3 years isn’t enough time yet, but the changes are clear. My hope is strong and my strength is coming from the knowledge of fearing HaShem only. It’s a process, a personal journey with stumbles, mistakes and hiccups… Yet beautiful journey called life experience.
Moments of Clarity 