A graceful smackdown

Courtesy of RenReb. Apparently she also isn't a big fan of Lazer Brody's idol worship fawning sycophancy over every last scrap of "wisdom" that drops out of the Melitzer Rebbe's... um... mouth.

From RenReb's fingers to our eyes:

This post, you see, indicates that the Melitzer Rebbe knows the mind of God. According to the post, the Melitzer Rebbe is able to know - on a cosmic level - precisely what world events are predicated by what human behavior, and he is able to know exactly who is at fault - again, on a cosmic level - when unfortunate things happen.

In other words, the Melitzer Rebbe knows exactly which sins by which people are responsible for which punishments that appear to have been inflicted upon us by God.

So, for those who are interested, it so happens that I find this suggestion to be ridiculous, absurd, silly, and quite, quite thoroughly anti-Torah.

In other words, in the opinion of this humble blogger, the Melitzer Rebbe does not know the mind of God. The Melitzer Rebbe is not a prophet. The Melitzer Rebbe does not know, with scientific certainty, which precise behaviors by humans cause which precise responses from Hashem.

RenReb's being too nice here, actually. Yes, the Melitzer and Lazer (and anybody, really,) obviously have the right to emphasize their own pet issues, AND to call the attention of Klal Israel (the Jewish people) to important problems facing them, both existential as well as moral and spiritual. (From my POV, an ideal situation would be to have introspection and teshuva (repentance) would be regular and common practices, not just belated hand-wringing responses to disasters.) But Lazer and the Melitzer making such an outrageous claim as ""The Hamas and the rockets are the physical manifestations of the spiritual imurity [sic] created by Israel's immodest women" verges on the obscene. Period. It's the worst kind of abusive (and absurd) exercise in blaming-the-victims. "Secular Jews (specifically secular women) caused the destruction going on in Israel." Nice. The Melitzer would have gotten along really well with the Satmar and Chabad rebbes, both of whom blamed secular Jews and Zionists for causing the Holocaust. (Schneerson phrased it particularly poetically, comparing his opponents to "a cancer on the Jewish people", and referring to God as a "divine surgeon". Classy, M&M.)

More from the post that broke my brain:

The Melitzer Rebbe's face turned a bright crimson then paled. With a trembling voice, he quoted the Torah's curse in Parshas Bechukosai of the licentious who break the holy covenant with lewdness and lack of modesty, "I will bring upon you an avenging sword, vengeance of the covenant (Lev. 26:25)". The Rebbe then told me with fire in his voice, "The immodest and unclad women are bringing this catastrophe on our heads. A woman should know that every tephach (approx. 4 inches - LB) of insufficiently clad flesh creates an angel of destruction. The Hamas and the rockets are the physical manifestations of the spiritual imurity created by Israel's immodest women."

The Rebbe then quoted the Code of Jewish Law (Shulchan Oruch, Orach Chaim 75:A) that's based on the Gemorra (tractate Berachos 24a) that tephach b'isha erva, or a tephach of unclad flesh is considered nakedness and therefore strictly forbidden. With fire in his eyes the Rebbe said that tephach - spelled in Hebrew טפח - stands for טילים פיגועים חרבות - the three Hebrew letters of tephach stand for "t'illim, p'iguim, charavot", in other words rockets, terrorist attacks, and swords (of vengeance). The Rebbe then said that no army in the world can stop Qassam rockets as long as Israeli women continue to disdain the laws of modesty.

The recent upgraded Qassam rockets have been fired from the North of Gaza, despite the fact that thousands of Israeli troops and tanks have poured into Gaza, showing just how correct the Melitzer Rebbe is. If the Israeli government would listen to the Melitzer Rebbe, they could save a lot of time, trouble, and tens of millions of dollars.

Although I periodically update the Rebbe on what I write on Lazer Beams, the Rebbe never tells me what to write; this time is an exception - the Rebbe shlit'a said that people must know the root cause of the Qassam rockets.

Lazer, I have to say, folks like you are the reason why it's so hard for people like me to put Ahavat Israel (unconditional love of the Jewish people) into practice. Hey, I know, why don't we have the Chief Rabbis pass out burqas? Even better, you can start your own "Army of Hashem" modesty squad that goes around beating up Hellenists, jailing men who don't grow their beards, and telling women that they'll be stoned if they don't cover up. It's only fair, since they're causing such damage to the state. It's treason, really.

Come on, Lazer, when do we get to see you whip out some authentic old-school Taliban Maccabee shit? We want Melitzer now!