Betrayal
After all these years, I finally understand our Sages’ teaching in Sotah 22a:
What is the meaning of the verse: “For she felled many corpses; and a huge host are all her slain” (Proverbs 7:26)? “For she felled many corpses”; this refers to a Torah scholar who's not worthy of issuing halachic rulings yet does so. “And a huge host are all her slain”; this refers to a Torah scholar who's capable of issuing halachic rulings but refrains from doing so.
This teaching is codified by the Rambam in Hilchot Talmud Torah 5:4.
For years I've been amazed by his rather extreme pronouncement that appears to be grossly exaggerated.
I get it that a scholar who's not worthy of issuing halachic rulings yet does so is “foolish, wicked, and arrogant” (Rambam ibid) and has led people astray, but he hasn't killed anyone! Why would our sages invoke the scripture “she felled many corpses?”
Alas, in our times this teaching has become painfully understood.
All the rabbis who instructed their communities to take the covid vaccine demonstrated gross rabbinic incompetence, “scholars who weren't worthy of issuing halachic rulings,” at least not with regard to this particular ruling. Not only did they recklessly rely on false testimonies of compromised doctors and doctored data, but much worse than that — they expressed an opinion in an area that's completely outside their jurisdiction and area of expertise. By doing so, they abused their authority in grave betrayal of their communities. This is evinced a gross unworthiness to issue such a halachic ruling, yet they issued it anyway, to the great peril of their communities and the Jewish people worldwide.
Not only did they mislead their flock with a misinformed and errant ruling, but they “felled many corpses” quite literally, i.e. all the innumerable corpses of Jews who innocently heeded their rabbis’ bidding and were killed by this deadly bioweapon. ה’ ינקום דמם.
And now, over three years later, after everyone knows the truth about these lethal injections, we have not heard a single apology from any of these vax-pushing rabbis who betrayed their communities so egregiously.
Moreover, they persist with insolence and continue to endorse establishment policies against the population. Hashem yishmor.
And now we also understand the second part of this teaching:
The vast majority of rabbis who remained silent and wisely refrained from pushing the shot yet didn't protest it either, concerning them the verse continues: “How huge is the host of her slain.”
Not only did they transgress the commandment “Stand not over your brother's blood” [Lev. 19:16] and failed to act in defense of yidden targeted by an insidious campaign of misinformation concerning a lethal bioweapon, but it's much worse than that: their silence — that allowed the vax-pushing rabbis to be the sole rabbinic voice in an echo chamber of unanimity — was construed and perceived as tacit approval. “Look!” cried the establishment, “no rabbis oppose the vaccine. Judaism supports the vaccine!”
When I and a few others spoke out against this deadly shot, hecklers countered: “Rabbis So-and-So endorsed the vaccine and ordered us to take it, and no other rabbis dissented. You're fringe.” Others dismissed me as an “extreme antivaxxer.”
The silent majority of rabbis who knew the truth — who were “capable of issuing competent halachic ruling yet refrained from doing so” — concerning them the verse concludes: “And huge is the host of all her slain.” Huge indeed. How many were senselessly slain because of their silence?
And now we understand the continuation of the Rambam's words [ibid]:
These underdeveloped scholars who have not gathered enough Torah knowledge, seek to gain prestige in the eyes of the common folk and the inhabitants of their city [by] jumping to sit at the head of all questions of law and halachic judgments in Israel. They sow much division, destroy the world, extinguish the light of Torah, and wreak havoc in the vineyard of the God of Hosts. In his wisdom, Solomon alluded to them [as follows, (Song of Songs 2:15)]: "Take for us foxes, little foxes that wreak havoc in the vineyards…”
To our dismay, in our orphaned generation, those rabbis who endorsed wicked policies in suppression of body autonomy, free choice, Jewish communal life, public worship, etc… they “sowed much division” by enforcing diabolical decrees that threatened to “destroy the world and extinguish the light of Torah,” rachmono litzlan.
Solomon alluded to vax-pushing rabbis as “those who wreak havoc,” מְחַבְּלִים (mechablim) in Hebrew. In modern Hebrew, this term refers to terrorists. Mechablim indeed. Shomu shomayim. There are no words to describe the appalling lack of leadership in the Jewish world. It is truly terrifying.
Let us hope and pray — nay, demand — that rabbis will begin to take responsibility for this epic failure. Let them beg forgiveness of the community at large, but most importantly, from all the orphans and widows, and from all families who lost loved ones to this deadly injection. Hashem yeracheim.
Note:
Another aspect of this teaching also struck me as odd. The literal meaning of the verse in Proverbs 7:26, “She felled many corpses…,” refers to a prostitute or adulteress. How does this relate to a “Torah scholar unworthy of issuing halachic rulings yet does so?” Now, after the covid vax fiasco, we can easily see the connection. Tragically, too many rabbis and lay leaders prostituted themselves to the unholy alliance of state and pharma. Hence their endorsement of everything covid. May Hashem save His people Israel from all mechablim and may true Torah leadership emerge.
The photos below serve as visual examples of reckless rabbinic endorsements of the covid vaccine (“Get shot!”). No disrespect is intended toward any one rabbi or community. This was tragically a worldwide problem. I share these public images here in hope that these rabbis will come clean and attempt to make amends. במקום חילול ה’ אין חולקין כבוד לרב — where there is public desecration of Hashem's Name, we don't accord honor to the rav. Sanhedrin 82a.
Just as our doctors betrayed us, so also many of our Rebba betrayed us. But not Rabbi Michoel Green, an upright brave man of good character and courageous integrity.
I believe that the optics early on in the “pandemic” in Brooklyn, where Hasidic children were attending school, actually playing outside, and where funerals and weddings were taking place, etc., the resultant vicious anti-Semitism seemed to push the rest of the Jewish leaders into a corner. They had to prove that they and their communities were not deserving of this thrashing out at Jews. They were falling over each other to distance themselves from those “bad” Jews. They had to prove they were not like those Jews who did not follow the rules. They were the good Jews who did what they were told. Gee, where did we witness this before? Just follow the rules and you will be okay. Just get this government issued paper and you will be saved. How did this work out for us before? All of the Jews should have stood up together with the Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn who were the real heroes (before their rabbis went over to the dark side) instead of casting them aside as if they were a disposable sacrifice to the gods to make the rest of us look good, a sacrifice to the fear of death sooner if we angered the gods of medical correctness. We threw aside the funny looking, odd ones who stick out with strange customs, all too quick to distance ourselves from them. Did we not learn that it doesn’t matter how much of a Jew you look like…the end result is the same? Rabbi Green was inspirational among all of this. He doesn’t know me, but he shone a light into my being and helped me to cope and stand firm to my values based on my knowledge of our history.