March 21, 2024
אמר רבא מיחייב איניש לבסומי בפוריא עד דלא ידע בין ארור המן לברוך מרדכי
Rava said, a man is obligated to become intoxicated on Purim until he can't distinguish between “Curse Haman” and “Bless Mordechai” (Megilla 7B).
Not surprisingly, much has been written about this famous teaching throughout the ages from both a halachic and homiletic standpoint. Our generation, however, has taken this inability to distinguish between good and evil, truth and fiction, sensible and absurd, and applied it year-round for good measure – with no alcohol required.
A contemporary version of the teaching might read as follows:
One is obligated to believe that Israeli intelligence and the IDF were historically incompetent on October 7...but they are simultaneously the best and brightest in the world.
We are all obligated to criticize people who refrain from joining the IDF, because the army protects us...the same army that stood down on October 7 while thousands of Jews in dozens of communities were being hunted and slaughtered, and everyone knew about it.
We are obligated to believe Israel is doing extremely well in the nearly half-year “war” against Hamas...while the number of maimed and killed Jewish soldiers piles up by the thousands and our “leaders” warn about a desperate “manpower shortage”.
We are obligated to believe sacrificing thousands of lives in the Gaza meat grinder to rescue a few hostages (how many have they rescued?) is the greater good...but when the “experts” declare a “public health emergency” we have to sacrifice your life and liberty for the greater good of everyone else.
We are obligated to believe that the cameras and technology failed on October 7...and we need more cameras surveilling us to keep us safe.
We are obligated to believe that Israel's leaders failed spectacularly on October 7...yet we shouldn't even think about replacing them before the subsequent “war”, only sometime after.
We are obligated to believe that the people who have the most to lose from us asking questions should decide when we should be allowed to ask them.
Even if you believe that these same people planned Covid, sold us out to foreign entities, and deliberately forced the population to take poison shots that maimed and killed so many of us, you must also believe that they would never sell us out to be maimed and killed on October 7 and thereafter in a “war”. That's preposterous! That crosses the line!
We are obligated to be outraged that the government continues to destroy Jewish homes, give away our land, and send truckloads of aid every day to support our enemies in Gaza...but we must keep supporting the government, because they are fighting for us, and we need unity!
We are obligated to believe the Israeli government has no money to provide proper food and gear for our soldiers, and fundraise all over the world to “support our soldiers”...while the Israeli government sends endless food and supplies into Gaza – to the other guys.
We are obligated to believe that the same people who are sending crucial supplies that they know will wind up in the hands of Hamas, and have been doing so for decades, are determined to destroy Hamas once and for all.
We are obligated to believe that Israel's “leaders” allowed a day of Holocaust on October 7 so they would have an excuse to destroy Hamas...because that's a perfectly legitimate excuse to permit genocide against your people, and because decades of Hamas murdering and terrorizing our people wasn't enough of an “excuse”.
We are obligated to believe that pressure from America and the rest of the world is destroying Israel...but we must also believe America is Israel's greatest ally, Israel can't survive without American support, and we should appeal through all channels for America to keep supporting Israel.
We are obligated to believe that Mr. Security, King Bibi, has his hands tied because of American pressure...while we must also rally around Bibi because he is heroically standing up to American pressure.
We must believe Bibi was one of the few people in the whole country who had no idea that a Holocaust was happening on October 7, because left-wing generals kidnapped him and kept him totally in the dark the entire time...and even though he hasn't given that defense for himself or taken any action against them, we must also believe this is true, and Bibi is playing 4D chess (or is it 5D now?). You'll see, one day it will all be clear...any day now.
We must believe that Bibi is really “right wing” because people who come dressed as “left wing” are doing anything possible to bring him down, and we must support him no matter what for that alone.
We must believe that even though Bibi presided over Covid and the poison shots as well, and is a card-carrying member of the World Economic Forum, he's really doing everything with our best interests in mind.
We must believe that the puppets who dress up as more “right wing” are on our side, even though they also supported the Covid agenda, and have nothing to say about us being sold out to the WEF...because they talk tough about the “left” and Hamas!
We must believe that the real problem is that so-called “haredim” aren't sending their sons into the army to be secularized and blown up, while the rest of society is. Well, not really the rest of society, not even close, but still. They should offer their fair share of sacrifices to Molech and the greater good. And they should pay more taxes, not because everyone else will benefit in any tangible way, just so they should be shafted by the government as much as other segments of society are.
We must believe that we should join together in outrage not against “leaders” who shaft the citizens, but against citizens who play along less and get shafted a little less. They are our enemies. They are the greatest threat to us all. We should be preoccupied with them.
We are obligated to be outraged by the IDF's ridiculous “rules of engagement” that severely handicap our ability to fight our enemies and bring horrific casualties upon our people...while we fume at anyone who doesn't send their children to the IDF and subject them to suicidal commands. Shame on them! No punishment is too small for them.
We are obligated to believe the IDF is protecting Jewish lives and is the most moral army in the world, even as it knowingly sacrifices Jewish lives to the gods of world opinion, the greater good, political expediency, 4D chess, and Molech.
We are obligated to believe that people should be prevented from asking critical questions, lest they “harm morale”...and such people are a threat to our soldiers and all of us, and should be dealt with accordingly...and we need to be unified in saying and doing whatever we are told without question or hesitation, because that's what unity really means – following orders – and with unity we will win...and we must also believe that asking questions is a greater threat to morale than October 7 and thousands upon thousands of Jews being maimed and killed in Gaza for no definitive benefit. No, people should shut up and stop asking questions, because that hurts morale.
We are obligated to believe that making barbecues for Jews and singing with them before they are sent into death traps by incompetent people, or sellouts, or worse, is one of the best ways we can support them.
We are obligated to believe that the IDF is historically incompetent and the most brilliant army in the world according to the propaganda of the moment.
We are obligated to believe that rabbis who enjoy prestigious jobs and high salaries working for the state also speak pure Torah, and we must obey them without question.
We are obligated to believe that the media publicizes the edicts of these rabbis, to the exclusion of almost all other rabbis, as part of thoughtful, professional journalism; it has nothing to do with a larger agenda to manipulate the population.
We are obligated to believe that Jews can speak and dress like Germans, but Amalek and Erev Rav would never speak and dress like Jews to destroy us from within.
We are obligated to be so intoxicated by propaganda that we can no longer tell the difference between a milchemes mitzva and a milchemes shmad against our own people...
...between honest reporting and propaganda...
...between sense and nonsense...
...between reality and ridiculous rationalizations...
...between actual Torah and distortions of the Torah...
...between rabbis and Erev Rav...
...between Mordechai and Haman.
It's Purim, every day of the year.
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