[net.religion.jewish] Aliyah/Messiah

baral@ihuxu.UUCP (Elliott Baral) (05/16/84)

It was asked,

     "Does waiting for the clear presence of the Messiah before
     making aliyah show any faith or courage?"

Loaded question (particularly in its original context).  Let's take
a specific example - today.  Do today's current events clearly
indicate the presence of the Messiah?  No?  Then it requires
honesty to deny that the Messiah has arrived, it requires faith to
continue to assert that he will despite popular despair, and it
requires courage (i.e., strength of will) to express the truth in
the face of public derision and indifference.

I have heard it said that that the Messiah is present in every
generation, but that he does not reveal himself unless the
generation merits it.  If this is true, then making or not making
aliyah has nothing to do with showing faith or courage.

                    Elliott Baral
                    {ihnp4,pegasus}!ihuxu!baral

martillo@ihuxt.UUCP (Yehoyaqim Martillo) (05/16/84)

I asked the question because most Sefardim I know and because many Sefardi
Hakamim whom I have met or whose works I have read have tended to question
the purity of motive of the rebbes and their congregations who live in New
York.

Life in the USA is a lot easier than in Israel.  There are many more ways
to earn a lot of money.  I personally think these reasons for living in
the USA are perfectly good and understandable but if the Szatmarer Rebbe
had lived in Jerusalem, when he argued against the hastening of the coming
of the Messiah, more Sefardim would tend to believe in the high-mindedness
of his arguments.  (Though I confess most Sefardim consider the neturei
karta' simply assholes.)

Many of these arguments are rather querulous anyway.  Wining rather than
acting and communal infighting were some of the worse characteristics of
Jewish life in Eastern Europe.  The Sefardi solution was much simpler --
just have enough children to dominate the body politic.

Of course, the question of hastening the messiah is irrelevant for most
aliyah from N. America.  Many Ashkenazim historically supported Zionism
because the less assimilable Jews would go there, and then they would be
free to vanish into non-Jewish society.  Such motives were strongly
operative among American Jews after WWII.  After all, all those refugees
might come  to the USA.  Thus a majority of American Jews supported
Zionism with no intention of ever making aliyah.  In fact, if their
children ever should consider making aliyah, the Americanness of that
whole generation would become questionable.  Therefore, the Jews of the
baby boom were given an education to hasten maximally the disappearance of
American Jewry into non-Jewish society.  American Jews according to the
last articles I have read are the most Jewishly-illiterate Jews in the
world today and perhaps that have ever existed.

Not surprisingly, American Jewish leaders are increasingly disturbed at
the behavior of the state of Israel.  They see the purpose of Israel to
make their situation in America more secure.  However, a larger Jewish
population would make the situation of Israel more secure.  If Israeli
foreign policy has a side-effect of making Jews feel a little less secure
in America and if American Jews then were driven to make aliyah, many in
Israel would hardly consider such a side-effect negative.

burton@fortune.UUCP (05/24/84)

#R:ihuxt:-49100:fortune:39800013:000:851
fortune!burton    May 23 12:11:00 1984


I have often disagreed with martillo, in private over the telephone, and
in public in *.religion.jewish.  So I really should state that he is
absolutely correct in describing wining (sic) instead of action as one of
the traits of pre-WW II Eastern European Jewish life.

One of the saddest aspects of the Holocaust was the inactivity of the
local populaces even in the face of ;information about Hitler.  Even in
1935, all you had to do was read "Mein kampf" and know that Hitler was
a madman, and therefore it was time to do something, even get out. Some
of my great uncles did that, but most of the others just sat and waited and
hoped vainly.

  Philip Burton      101 Twin Dolphin Drive-MS 133
  Fortune Systems    Redwood City, CA  94065	     (415) 595-8444 x 526
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{ihnp4 [ucbvax | decvax!decwrl]!amd70 harpo hpda }!fortune!burton