Turned My Back On The Angel Too
Last night I attended an evening to the memory of Rabbi Raziel Shevach, may Hashem revenge his death. Naturally, he concept of Hester Panim came up, the hiding of the face of G-d. I feel that Hester Panim is partly self-imposed. As we read in Shemot 20:19: "And they said to Moshe: You shall speak with us so we may listen, but let G-d not speak with us or else we will die." We don't want Hashem to speak with us. We are blocking Him from speaking with us.
This is very relevant in our days, when the time has finally come for the truth to be known, through the internet revolution. What is our reply? The reply of Rav Raziel was to be Machmir, it appears. The group to which he seemed to belong, promotes the blocking of free internet access, to avoid temptation. People that go by that Psak, give up on the basic human freedom to decide what is good and what is bad. Moreover, they are blocking the truth.
This is serious stuff. It says in Devarim 31:17-18: Is it not because my G-d is not present in me, that these evils have found me. I will surely hide My face on that day over all the bad that it has done, because it turned to other gods. The poet Leonard Cohen sang prophetically: "Now I'm living in this temple, where they tell you what to do... I was fighting with temptation, but I didn't want to win... I turned my back on the devil. Turned my back on the angel, too."
What makes this more complicated is the power game behind this. Those that rule know that their time, which is the time of falsehood, is up, but they try to hang on. Such is the nature of the Psak. They convince good Jews like Rav Raziel of the nobleness of their cause, and even enlist them as warriors for the system. I turned My back on the devil that is in the system. Turned My Back on the angel, which was captured by the devil, too. May the war on the Truth soon end.
"A man like me don't like to see temptation caving in." (Leonard Cohen)
This is very relevant in our days, when the time has finally come for the truth to be known, through the internet revolution. What is our reply? The reply of Rav Raziel was to be Machmir, it appears. The group to which he seemed to belong, promotes the blocking of free internet access, to avoid temptation. People that go by that Psak, give up on the basic human freedom to decide what is good and what is bad. Moreover, they are blocking the truth.
This is serious stuff. It says in Devarim 31:17-18: Is it not because my G-d is not present in me, that these evils have found me. I will surely hide My face on that day over all the bad that it has done, because it turned to other gods. The poet Leonard Cohen sang prophetically: "Now I'm living in this temple, where they tell you what to do... I was fighting with temptation, but I didn't want to win... I turned my back on the devil. Turned my back on the angel, too."
What makes this more complicated is the power game behind this. Those that rule know that their time, which is the time of falsehood, is up, but they try to hang on. Such is the nature of the Psak. They convince good Jews like Rav Raziel of the nobleness of their cause, and even enlist them as warriors for the system. I turned My back on the devil that is in the system. Turned My Back on the angel, which was captured by the devil, too. May the war on the Truth soon end.
"A man like me don't like to see temptation caving in." (Leonard Cohen)