When the Israelites were at Kadesh-Barnea, Moses selected leaders of the Twelve Tribes as scouts, to go in advance into the Promised Land, and report back what they found. The people remained behind to await their return.
Upon returning, ten of twelve scouts gave grave reports of terrifying foes. Despite the people having been witness to unparalleled miracles wrought on their behalf, again-and-again… they lost their nerve, and recoiled from entering the Land, preferring to stay in the Wilderness.
G-d responded by declaring that with two exceptions, the entire generation would be accommodated in their insistent lack of Emuna. They would live out their lives wandering the Wilderness; their people’s destiny held in abeyance until they were gone.
The Sages tell us that The People had been refined to the point where their destiny was at hand. Still, at the very moment when they were to enter the Land, to follow the Torah, and make their home a beacon for the Nations, they succumbed to fear. So, G-d provided them, during their wanderings, even more support and instruction, such that their children would persevere. The first lesson was at the hands of Amalek.
Elie Wiesel has passed away. A survivor of the Holocaust. Prolific author. Compelling witness to mindless atrocity. A giant in our time. Gone. But his legacy lives on. Many words have and will be written about this man and the values he fought for. Raised in the traditions of the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, and learned in both religious and secular worlds, he dedicated his life to the good of mankind.
Sadly, there was one shortcoming. He allied himself often (undoubtedly to spread his message as wide and as deep as possible) with some less than savory people, including many of the so-called “Leaders” of major “Jewish” organizations. Many of these “Leaders” supported policies that were little more than western liberal political, social, and cultural mores, slicked up with Jewish trappings.
Hekshered treif, one might say.
Perhaps the worst, most Anti-Semitic, policy these “Leaders” embraced, was Victim Disarmament. They are always at the forefront of this suicidal movement. You would think that in the wake of the Nazi Holocaust, there would be some second thoughts on this, since the actors were the victims very own governments…
You would be wrong. Dead wrong.
Research established that the Gun Control Act of 1968 was directly modeled after the Nuremburg Laws, and that true-to form, every genocide in recent history had as a necessary precursor, the systematic disarming of the intended victims.
These “Leaders”, presented with the evidence, clamped their eyes shut, clamped their hands over their ears, and refused to examine it. Aaron Zelman offered it to Mr. Wiesel. He likewise would not look at it.
So, while recognizing the heroic stature, and magnificent legacy, of Elie Wiesel, and (confident that his time before the heavenly tribunal is very brief) we pray for his soul.
But, we must leave it to those who follow in this World, to open their eyes to this truth, and thereby stand better armed against evil. Join us, won’t you?
