The Magnes Hypocrite

Fellow blogger The Magnes Zionist describes himself as:

Jeremiah (Jerry) Haber is the nom de plume of an orthodox Jewish studies professor.

This anonymous writer has taken upon himself to deride the leader of the Efrat community in Israel-Rabbi Shlomo Riskin.

Well, it is not exactly the bad moral luck of Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Rabbi of the West Bank settlement of Efrat, to be deeply implicated in the immorality of the settlement enterprise. After all, he chose to leave the United States to lead Efrat – arguably one of the most harmful, and certainly the most hypocritical, of the West Bank settlements.

Wow-this is a guy who supposedly an immigrant to Israel and lives in Jerusalem (which is the center of “the settler world”). Immorality of the settler movement? Israel itself is a settler movement. Now, the same European Jews who establish Tel Aviv University upon an Arab settlement are playing holier-than-thou humanists! Another major error is in thinking that Rabbi Riskin is some kind of extremist-ever heard of Hebron, Maggie? I had the opportunity to meet a younger relative of the Rabbi at Bar-Ilan University in 2000, and she was very bright and related to me how he had brought back several members of his own family to Torah observance. Does that bother Maggie, the supposed Orthodox Jew?
Maggie continues:

Riskin was never an intellectual or for that matter, much of a talmid hakham.

Here is a man who is maligning a Jew who brought his entire congregation from New York to Israel. Meanwhile Maggie blog friends like Silverstein are sitting back in the US playing armchair Zionist! It’s not clear Maggie is here either because he refuses to tell us who he really is! How is that for a coward taking pot-shots in anonymity! Perhaps Maggie is actually Barnaby? Hmmm…
Now, Maggie shows his hypocrisy:

But seduced by the dark side of religious Zionism, and driven by the dream of empire-building on cheap land, he emigrated to Israel and founded (with Moshe Moshkowitz) the town of Efrat, a sprawling settlement built entirely on Palestinian private and public land that never ceases to expand into, and pollute, the surrounding region. Through this his life-project, Riskin has caused more tragedy and pain to more Palestinians than any other rabbi of modern times, certainly more than Meir Kahane and his ilk.

If you are an Orthodox Jewish professor having moved to Israel then you are also a “religious Zionist” by definition-especially if you are living in “controversial” Jerusalem. Maggie has to be a bigger fool than Silver-rat because at least Richie barks from his Seattle backyard and doesn’t actually get involved in the “Zionist enterprise” (even though he likes to think of himself as a Zionist!) Who do you think was controlling Jerusalem before Israel re-conquered it? Arabs! Does that cause them inconvenience? Jews have an ancient claim to the land of Israel. David was King of Israel in both Hebron and Jerusalem-do you not read Jewish scriptures, Maggie?
Next, Maggie uses a ploy that Newman, Lebovich, and others use:

You see, it hurts me, as an orthodox Jew, when an ethnic chauvinist like Meir Kahane spouts racist pap in the name of traditional Judaism.

So “Jeremiah Haber” is not a hypocrite for using “traditional Judaism,” or his claim to be Orthodox, as a way to justify his unfair critique of Rabbi Riskin and the settler movement as a whole? As, with this chauvinist business-go and read my interaction with Silverstein and the other liberal bullies I brawl with online. The first thing you do is tell everyone you are a professor. Now, everyone knows that people like you and Newman and all the European intelligentsia at Tel Aviv University are the most arrogant, snotty, elitist jerks on the planet. None of you want anything to do with Arabs in your daily lives-that is why Tel Aviv has 5% Arabs-this is the open-minded city. Meanwhile, Jerusalem takes a rap for being a hot-bed of “Zionist extremism” and it has over 30% Arabs! Do any of you ego-maniacal Western hypocrites want to explain that? The world has to answer to you but you all answer to no one, eh?
Next Maggie moves on, in the same fashion as the Spies from the Torah, to condemn the settling of the Land of Israel by Jews:

The availability of West Bank land a stone’s throw from Bethlehem, and government subsidies for building in the territories, were too much of a temptation. The yetzer ha-tov bowed to the realities of the yetzer ha-ra’ (evil inclination) eased by the aforementioned moral rationalizations.

This must have been what the Spies said to the Jews when reporting on what they saw in the Land. In fact, it is the יצר הרע-the Inclination Towards Evil which makes “Haber” make these wildly self-incriminating statements! The sin of rationalizing is at the feet of Maggie here and it’s amazing to watch him slither his way around this subject and attempt to turn the guilt onto the settlers!
Finally The Magnes Hypocrite hangs himself on this very unprofessional gaff:

Although Efrat was built entirely on Palestinian land…

How many times in the Torah, and other places in Judaism does it say that the Land of Israel is the inheritance of the Jewish people? You are an Orthodox Jew-you can’t claim ignorance like your fellow Ashkenazic counterparts who are not observant! The Talmud in the Passover tractate states:

R. Johanan said: Three are of those who will inherit the world to come, viz.: he who dwells in Eretz Yisrael; and he who brings up his sons to the Study of the Torah; and he who recites havdalah over wine at the termination of the Sabbath.

פסחים קיג-א

I hope “Jeremiah” is saving wine for havdala because he is trying to convince Jews that it’s wrong to settle their own Land:

The city of Efrat was illegal under international law, but not under the law of the occupier.

Wow! In the past 2,000 if Jews had blindly followed the laws of other people and not their own, they wouldn’t have returned to Israel!

Leviticus 20:23
And you shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you; for they committed all these things, and therefore I loathed them.

Jews cannot follow gentile laws that conflict with the Torah, as you see above.
Moving on with the editing of Maggie’s mistakes:

By the way, anybody familiar with Jewish writings on ethics know that “turning the other cheek” is a Jewish ideal.

Not quite-the Talmud (Berachot or “Blessings”):

He noticed that the man was about to inform them that he had called them asses. He said: This man is a persecutor, and the Torah has said: If a man comes to kill you, rise early and kill him first.18 So he struck him with the staff and killed him.
(18) This lesson is derived by the Rabbis from Ex. XXII, 1 which declares it legitimate to kill a burglar who is prepared to commit murder.

אם בא להרגך-השכם להרגו

ברכות נ”ח-א

How’s that for turning the other cheek? What you are talking about is the religion of “Pirkei Avot” which is a cult that was apparently founded by a silver-haired fundraiser in Seattle, Washington! This is not to be confused with Judaism! But, I have a feeling you will continue to anyhow, Maggie.
As his mistakes increase with intensity, he finally summarizes the Tikkun Olam pagan’s rallying cry-that Jews outside of Israel are the smooth skinned, cutely neurotic, Seinfeld-watching, bubba-loving, Yiddish-dabbling, Ivy League-conquering, politely spoiled, overachieving, ever Holocaust conscious, liberal-minded, sports-challenged, hipness-chasing, and ever aware that they are not Israelis. Meanwhile, Israelis are just dying to be the subject of the next Adam Sandler movie:

the voice of a liberal Jacob, but wears the garb of an Uzi-wielding Esau

Here Maggie is just the Ashkenazi David Shasha. Now we see that Maggie has incriminated himself as another white collar gypsy of the exile.
For his closing Maggie comments on the “morality of their founder,” an attempt to malign the theology of Rabbi Riskin. However, above in his article Maggie desbribes “moral luck.” Let’s look at his morality! This describes Haman’s philosophy-that the world is not run by an Almighty G-d, but that all is “luck.” That is what Purim means-”lots”…randomness. This is from the Amalek textbook-Haman was descended from Amalek. Now, perhaps we see why “Jeremiah Haber” is so against the Torah and the settlement of the Land of Israel by Jews.