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December 02, 2008
That One Cruse of Oil
Last Sunday morning I attended a bris, a circumcision, at my shul The Young Israel of Century City . Sitting next to me during Shachris, morning prayers, was my friend Rabbi Marvin Hier, Founder and Dean of The Simon Wiesenthal Center, here in Los Angeles. After davening, prayers, I said to Rabbi Hier:
“Hey, did you look out your window this morning and see all the moderate Muslims protesting the Mumbai massacre?”
Rabbi Hier chuckled and said:
“Robert, lemme tell you a story. There's a Sheikh who actually issued a fatwa against homicide bombers. Finally! This made us very happy. But recently he withdrew the fatwa and gave his seal of approval to homicide missions.”
“What happened?”
“Wait, I'm telling you. So we investigate. What's going on, why did Sheikh change his ruling? And soon enough we discover that the terrorists have threatened to kill the Sheikh's entire family if he doesn't withdraw the fatwa.”
Rabbi Hier and I gazed at each other and we just smiled, kind of knowingly, kind of helplessly, because we both know that when you are dealing with a genocidal Caliphite Islamic culture, unless you are willing to take off the gloves and get serious about fighting transnational terrorism, well, the terrorists are going to gain critical mass. Meanwhile, the West keeps itself busy self-righteously handing them habeas corpus, closing Gitmo, giving legitimacy to the Jew-hating U.N., treating Islamo Nazis like common criminals, and planning how to win the next elections. Sure-fire strategies for national suicide.
Anyway, Rabbi Hier went straight from the bris—the baby was named Daniel, Mazal Tov!—to the memorial service at the L.A. Chabad House for the victims of the Mumbai massacre. Rabbi Hier spoke powerfully and eloquently about the urgent need to confront Islamic terrorism.
Rabbi Hier ends his hesped, eulogy, noting that Judaism has survived Inquisitions, pogroms, the Holocaust, and we will also survive the Islamic threat because we are like that one cruse of oil that burned miraculously for eight days, and which we celebrate during the upcoming holiday of Chanukah. No matter what happens the Jewish people live—forever. And the Islamo Nazis will end on the ash heap of history.
Do read The Lessons of Mumbai—Too Long for a Bumper Sticker by the always eloquent Breath of the Beast.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at December 2, 2008 08:53 AM
Comments
Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.
1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
Apparently Rabbi Hier asked rhetorically, during his speech, why the UN didn't have any commissions investigating terrorism. I can see it now - the UN Commission on Terrorism, headed by Iran and Syria.
Posted by: ralphie at December 2, 2008 12:42 PM
I, like you Robert, believe we will survive. But (in my opinion) the setup does not look good for us. The world is tired of being accountable. It wants to impose and to conquer and to be free to pervert without restraint. That there is G-d constrains the world - restrains the world - imposes accountability on the world. That there are Jews means there is G-d.
Posted by: Kae Gregory at December 2, 2008 04:16 PM