What is the message here?

From the Shapell's newsletter. Nearly all of this newsletter consists of letters from students. And every letter is built around Oct 7 and the alleged anti-Semitism that is swarming America. And on top of that there is Torah study-- Gemara for the men and Rashi for the women. 

This one just has to tell us that he is becoming a doctor, something all doctors seem to need to tell everyone, and then it's right to Oct. 7 and defending Israel, the country that is. 

And that leads us to the grand prize, the soldier.

So what's my point here? These are new BTs. Shouldn't they be excited about finding G-d, who barely gets a mention here, as well as a life plan of mitzvos? Why is Oct 7 and defending Israel the main thing and textual studies the next thing after that? This is Modern Orthodoxy today: anti-Semitism, Israel, and Gemara, and by Gemara they always mean a little lomdus. It's not a far cry from the Reform Jewish Hebrew school Holocaust and Israel. It's that with a little Torah study on top. 

For me this is banal. I hesitate to criticize the students. Their accomplishment in becoming frum is monumental, and if this is the way the works for them then they should go for it. But I suspect that the school is shaping their minds, as several of them write here, and to what is it shaping them? Secularity for the most part. 

As for the antisemitism, somebody should tell them that America continues to be the least anti-Semitic country in history. The Congress continuously passes laws criminalizing antisemitism and the administration is instituting policy that denies visas to anybody who criticizes the state of Israel, which is not anti-semitism, particularly given its conduct over the last 20 months. Campus protests and encampments are not anti-Semitic. Half the protestors are Jewish and they are protesting actions of the IDF. So let's drop the crybaby bit. But they can't because Zionism has been fueled by obsession with anti-Semitism since Herzl and even when there isn't any, they imagine it. 

In short, Shapell's is a Zionism training ground, even though most of the rabbis walk around in black suits. How confusing. 

temperaments differ

This is the statute (chok) of the Torah. (19:2)

One of the seemingly irrational aspects of the Poroh Adumoh is the fact that it is metaher

teme’im and metameh tehorim (purifies the impure and makes impure the pure). People’s natures and

temperaments differ from each other, as do their shorshei haneshamos (“sources of the souls” or

inborn spiritual makeup). For this reason, the path adopted by one person in his avodas Hashem may

be perfect for him, but totally inappropriate for another person with a different emotional makeup

and spiritual level.

Each person has to engage in introspection to determine his specific character traits and positive

qualities. This way, he will be in a position to know what his specific duties are in this world, and

what types of avodas Hashem will assist him specifically in fulfilling his purpose in life. Hashem did

not create us to be clones of each other, and the Poroh Adumoh teaches us that what serves as a

source of taharah for one person may potentially be a source of tumah for another, based on each person’s specific circumstances.

פ' חקת תשפ"ה Based on droshos by Maran HaGaon Rav Moshe Sternbuch shlita, Gaavad of Yerushalayim. To receive these weekly divrei Torah email ravsternbuchtorah@gmail.com