Thursday, December 14, 2006

An Open Letter

(This is a piece that I wrote a few years ago. I still think it is timely.)
Holy Yidden, I write to warn you of a deadly menace that has arisen within our midsts. A most foul and pernicious book has been circulating within our community, poisoning the unsuspecting Neshomos, of our youth, and even some adults as well. While some might be fooled by the fact that this book is written in lashon hakodesh, be forewarned, this book contains some of the most vile kefira known to mankind. While, as we well know (not from personal experience Chos V’Sholom) that the writings of the goyim, from their novels to their Science books, are merely a catalog of all immorality. This one single book contains within its pages every single one of 365 Lo T’Ashehs that a person can possibly commit. Not only that but within these evil pages you will find detailed descriptions of how to go about committing many of these Avairos, and anger Hakodosh Baruch-Hu; particularly how to go about committing the three most serious Avarios, Idolatry, Murder, and Gilui Ariyus, which we are commanded to give up our lives rather than commit.[1]
This book talks about how to worship all kinds of Avodah-Zora, from idols of wood and stone to idols of gold and silver. This book’s favorite idols are golden calves and another one which the book calls “Master,” Rachmona L’tztlon. This book claims that a golden calf is “your god,” and that it was responsible for your past redemption. Not only that but also that the first High Priest and the first King of Yisroel fashioned such golden calves, which were used by the Jewish people for worship. This is, of course, a lie; it is a well-known fact that before the Reform movement all Jews were frum. This book has the audacity to claim that even prophets of Hashem saw the idol called Master as an acceptable alternative to serving Hashem. A so-called prophet of Hashem is quoted by this book as saying: “If the Lord is G-D, go after him! And if Master go after it.” To help the people decide, this prophet even agreed to have a competition with the priests of Master, in order to see which is the true G-D. This seemingly “orthodox” prophet is portrayed as even agreeing to stand on the same mountain as the priests of Master, implying that there is some parity between two legitimate approaches to Judaism. It is as if to say: “Here, dear Jews are two ways of seeing the world. Feel free to choose as you wish.”
As for immorality, this book is even more enthusiastic in its endorsement of every moral perversity then it is of idolatry. This book is nothing less an endorsement of incest, prostitution, and intermarriage. This book dares to claim that we are all descended from a man and a woman, who ran around, unchaperoned, in a garden to together, with the woman not even bothering to wear long sleeves or cover her hair; this is even worse than the vile theories of Freud and Darwin. This book has the nerve to claim that the ancestors of the Jewish people and their relatives were open polygamists and fathered children with their own daughters. In the tradition of the most immoral goyish Romantic novels, this book even chronicles the escapades of a young woman who dresses up as a prostitute and sleeps with her father-in-law in order to have his child. Do you want your daughters to go off and imitate this?
I am going to quote a particularly not nice passage from this book, just to illustrate my point to you. You really should not actually read this next passage, of course; you should obviously cover it up and go to the next paragraph. The passage goes like this:

Near the corner he strode toward her house, in the twilight, as daylight wanes, in the blackness of night and darkness. Then behold, a woman approached him, bedecked as a harlot and with siege in [her] heart. She coos and she entices, … She sized him and kissed him; she thrust forth her face and said to him: ‘I had vowed to bring peace offerings, and today I have fulfilled my vow.’ … Come let us sate ourselves with love until the morning; let us rejoice with acts of love, for [my] husband is not at home; he has gone on a distant journey.
It is a shanda that people, who are so careful not to allow the TV, with its graphic images of violence, into their homes, allow their children to be exposed to this book. Within the pages of this book, your kinderlach will be introduced to a wide range of creative methods to torture and kill other people. This book gives the message that it is acceptable to kill people by decapitation, strangling, burning and even stoning. In addition to those actions, this book gleefully describes people getting their necks stepped on, getting their thumbs and toes cut off and getting tent pegs knocked into their brains. This book fully endorses rape, especially doing wartime; this book even gives specific instructions on how it should be done.
You may be wondering, how such a dangerous book could have been accepted into our most diligent midsts? As I have said, many have been fooled by the fact that this book is written in lashon haKodesh and that this book talks about Hashem a lot. This just goes to show you how sneaky the Satan can be and to what great lengths he will go in order to ensnare Yidishe Nashamos.
What should be done? We must make sure that children coming from homes that possess this book are not allowed into our Yeshivas. This is best done, in my experience, by surreptitiously making reference to episodes from this book. If the student in question gives a knowing response then we can presume that he comes from a home that has this book and we can therefore in all good conscious throw him out of Yeshiva. Furthermore, we must gather up all copies of this book and burn them within full view of the public. Parents should take their children, from young to old, and tell them; “It is because they kept evil books such as these, that Jews in Europe were burnt alive; it is a fact of Jewish History that in places where books are not burnt, they will eventually come to burn people.”
In the merit of being careful not to soil ourselves with books like this may we merit to see the face of Mashiach Tzdkanu, amen.

[1] I should explain how it is that I was allowed to be M’vatal Torah to read this book. Realizing the grave danger posed by this book, I was given a Heter, by myself, to read this, and other books. In order not be M’vatal any more time than was necessary, I made sure to read just the most inappropriate passages and I did it all while I was using the bathroom anyway.

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