Pinchas

6/27/2013

"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he does not exist"- Kizer Sosa

A dystopia is a nightmare society. It is the opposite of a utopia, which is similar to paradise. Such societies appear in many works of fiction, particularly in stories set in a speculative future. Dystopias are often characterized by dehumanization, totalitarian governments, or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society. There are several methods for creating a dystopia or nightmare society.

The Matrix, Brave New World,The Terminator and 1984 are a few dystopian stories. In 1984 fear, poverty and oppression are used by the government to manipulate the masses beliefs, the pain route. In Brave New world on the other hand entertainment and fun are used to distract the masses from caring about anything relevant, the pleasure route.

In the past few Parshot the Jews have faced both forms of manipulation. At the end of Parshat Balak carrying over in to this week's Parsha Pinchas we see Billam advise Balak to attack the Jews using the pleasure route, not thru resistance but acceptance can the Jews be destroyed. Balak uses non-Jewish women to lure the Jews in to sining, causing them to die in a plague essentially destroying themselves.

When the nations of the world welcome the Jews and want to marry us, that is a danger to Jewish survival. Thank God America today is a great country to be Jewish in, however Jewish survival faces its greatest challenge, assimilation and acceptance threaten the Jews very existence.

Pinchas saw the route Balak was trying to take and that is why he acted so quickly when he publicly executed a leader. When it is clear you are in a struggle you will not give in an inch, when Amalak attacked the Jews or the Spanish tried to forcibly convert the Jews during the inquisition, the enemy was clear and the Jewish people fought against it.

However when the enemy uses the pleasure route, (not intentionally in America ) this is the greatest challenge to Jewish survival. America today contains a different type of challenge to Jewish survival then was faced only 75 years ago. Its no longer about fighting for your life, it is about who you choose for a wife. Awareness of the struggle is half the battle.

4 Comments

Esther

6/28/2013 06:16:09 am

B"H Ever notice how at present there are so many people all over the world trying to convert? Wanting to come home to Torah? Perhaps as never before in history have so many people been trying to return to Torah, embrace it and observe it. There is something happening in the universe that these souls are stirred and moved towards Torah. This happens, at the moment that intermarriage is at an all time high. Through intermarriage, fewer and fewer Jewish babies are born, and the possibility of more Jewish Neshamas is lost. You have on one hand legions of would be converts, these souls asking to be able to observe Torah as Jews. And on the other hand you have Jewish souls that cannot come to the world as such, because of what Dan mentions as the pleasure route.

A cosmic confrontation of sorts is being played out right before our very eyes.

We have never been closer to the Geulah. The Geulah cannot come unless every last soul and its mission, is allowed to carry out such. The evil inclination disguises itself as the pleasure route and robs us of Jewish families, and thus, ensuing Jewish souls. The pleasure route postpones the inevitable.

The souls of would be converts sense that Redemption is close by, thus their rush to get home.

Emet is revealed at every instant, and also never before as now, are children showning their Parents what observance is all about. The children are leading...

May we win over the pleasure route, for the sake of all Neshamas, and for the world itself. A time when it will all be as Shabbat, so I say, Shabbat Shalom.

Samuel Lakrez

7/1/2013 03:52:42 am

There is a third "menace" to Jewish survival not mentioned in your article: freedom to choose your own destiny -- the faith you adopt as yours. This is neither "pleasure" nor "pain" but I do believe that unlike the latter two, freedom -- a brand new phenomenon in human history -- is inherintly a good thing. That a good thing can be so threatening to Jewish survival deserves some thought.

Dan link

7/1/2013 09:41:16 pm

Thanks for the comment . You make an intresting point, I wrote about it in my Dvar on Parshat Yitro. Let me know what you think.

http://www.danstorah.com/yitro.html

bob

7/2/2013 12:51:03 am

only you can prevent forrest fires... having a mascot and repeating a line is what works. our inquisition is not a physical tourture it is a mental ramming. good stuff Dans Torah!

Pinchas

Leave a Reply.