Rinse and repeat.

Here's Manalism in a nutshell. This life is for Torah learning. By Torah they mean Gemara. By Gemara they mean lomdus which is argumentative abstraction on a small portion of the Gemara. Not mesechta Brochos or Moed Katan, not halacha about even the Yeshivishes mesechtas, not aggadatah which comprises 1/6 of the Talmud, not Mishnayos. Well, aggadatah about the importance of Torah learning - that will get some airplay. 

You have children - lots of them - because someday they'll study this Gemara lomdus. Everything is for the god of Gemara lomdus. Since a person can’t eat his argumentative abstractions, he needs lots of money to fund this activity that he’s told to do all day long. He gets this from other people via the employment of guilt. Like Christianity or any idolatry, the Manalist godhead has muliple parts: Gemara, the gelt to pay for it, and the guilt to manipulate others into supplying the money.

Everything else is nourishkite. What about the other mitzvos? You can't totally deny them. They are after all the main topic of the Gemara.

That’s covered with guilt. As one YU Rosh Yeshiva told me when I asked why we do mitzvos. “You gotta do what you gotta do,” he said. I didn't get a warm feeling about mitzvos from that utterance. He made them seem like a nuisance. To the Manalist, mitzvos don’t matter much, but you gotta do some of them, at least superficially. Gemara, gelt, and guilt.

This Manalism in a nutshell. But I’m not simplifying it. This is exactly how they’ll describe it. You can hear 100 speeches on hashkafa from Manalists, and this is all they’ll say, over and over again. 

The main instrument for guilt is threats about eternity. That's where you get schar or onesh forever. What's schar? It's never really explained. It's amorphous. It's a buzz word. "Schar." I think most people think of it as a kind of money. How do you get this schar? Gemara lomdus. If you don't get the schar, you get onesh, which is a mysterious punishment, the worst that you can ever imagine, beyond that even. It's so bad they can't describe it to you. See what a tight little system they have? Once you step inside, you are locked inside forever. You can't get out. 

You are not allowed to question all of this. Who do you think you are? You are a nothing, you are a nobody. Chutzpah!

But this outlook contradicts Koheles which says the sum of the matter is to fear God and keep His commandments.

We listen to the Gadolim in our times.

The Vilna Gaon, who lived in modern times, said the purpose of Torah study is keeping mitzvos. He said the purpose of life is to fix the middos. He said to study all parts of the Torah and put argumentative abstraction last in the sequence, not to replace everything with it. 

We listen to the gadolim of our generation. 

What about Torah scholars who dispute this approach?

They are not gadolim. Our gadolim decide who are gadolim.

So let’s see what happened here. There was a Har Sinai where a Torah was given. But we don’t obey that Torah, we obey the interpretation of some of the contemporary leaders as appointed by power-brokers. And if we don’t follow, we are humiliated, ostracized and sentenced to hell. 

But this is not a cult even though it employs all the tricks of cults, and why not, because unlike cults we have the Mesorah, (actual quote from a rabbi at an American Kollel) which is the instruction of God. This is what they’ll you. 

And cults don’t say that too? 

We are not a cult we have the Mesorah. 

Rinse and repeat.

It's all quite a contrast to what you were told when you were becoming frum. Then, you heard about mitzvos. You were invited for Shabbos. You were told about lashon hara, about family purity. It all sounded so noble, a life of sanctified activity. You were told that in Judaism you can ask questions. You were told that the leaders were so wise and loving. 

And you believed it.

In the cult world, this is called deceptive recruiting. But we can't use those words around here, they have too many syllables. It's goyish.

They promised you a noble life infused with wisdom. Come inside they said. You weren't sure, but you were coaxed into trusting strangers.