בקולו תשמעון

בקולו תשמעון  That's what the UTJ Gimmel campaign posters quote along with a photo of Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, shlita. The messsage is that you must obey his dictates, literally "listen to his voice". But where are these words from?

כִּ֘י ה֚וּא אֱלֹהֵ֗ינוּ וַֽאֲנַ֚חְנוּ עַ֣ם מַ֖רְעִיתוֹ וְצֹ֣אן יָד֑וֹ הַ֜יּ֗וֹם אִם־בְּקֹל֥וֹ תִשְׁמָֽעוּ

For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the flocks of His hand, today, if you hearken to His voice.

That's Tehillim 95:7. Dovid is telling us to obey Hashem. The Gemara explains further:

אזל לגביה אמר ליה שלום עליך רבי ומורי אמר ליה שלום עליך בר ליואי א"ל לאימת אתי מר א"ל היום אתא לגבי אליהו א"ל מאי אמר לך א"ל שלום עליך בר ליואי א"ל אבטחך לך ולאבוך לעלמא דאתי א"ל שקורי קא שקר בי דאמר לי היום אתינא ולא אתא א"ל הכי אמר לך (תהלים צה, ז) היום אם בקולו תשמעו

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi went to the Messiah. He said to the Messiah: Greetings to you, my rabbi and my teacher. The Messiah said to him: Greetings to you, bar Leva’i. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said to him: When will the Master come? The Messiah said to him: Today. Sometime later, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi came to Elijah. Elijah said to him: What did the Messiah say to you? He said to Elijah that the Messiah said: Greetings [shalom] to you, bar Leva’i. Elijah said to him: He thereby guaranteed that you and your father will enter the World-to-Come, as he greeted you with shalom. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said to Elijah: The Messiah lied to me, as he said to me: I am coming today, and he did not come. Elijah said to him that this is what he said to you: He said that he will come “today, if you will listen to his voice” (Psalms 95:7).

Moshiach will come is you obey Hashem. It can't be that Moshiach will come if you listen to Moshiach's voice, because Moshiach hasn't come. Who would you be listening to? Him means God.

So the Gimmel party under the Manalist influence has switched out God for a man.

I'm not blaming Rabbi Edelstein. He very possibly doesn't know about the poster. The man is 99 years old. He might object if he saw it. But that the Gimmel managers deem this an appropriate message to be sprayed across Charedi neighborhoods in EY is problematic in my view.

It reminds me of this:

So it seems everyone is doing it, swapping out God for men.

I'm sorry, but I object. If I lived in the Northern Kingdom and they told me to worship idols, hopefully I would object even though the they might be scholars - at least on paper. If you openly violate the Torah, I object. Live with it.