Israel - Rabbi Ovadia Yosef: Mitzvah Of 'Love Our Fellow Jew Like We Love Ourselves' Includes Seculars Too |
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News Source: VIN News by Sandy Eller
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Israel - Speaking out tonight on recent events in Israel, particularly in Beit Shemesh, R’ Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of the Shas party, made it clear that the Torah expects all Jews to love each other irrespective of their levels of observance.
“The ways of the Torah are pleasant and peaceful and loving your neighbor is equivalent to the entire Torah,” said R’ Yosef. “We are one people, sons of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov and those who attempt to cause strife between chareidim and those who are not chareidem are causing a great chilul Hashem.”
R’ Yosef called upon the media to do its part to encourage unity between all Jews and to avoid doing anything that would create a rift between different religious groups and expressed his hope that the entire nation could come together saying, “when the nation of Israel is united, there is no one in the world who can have power over them.”
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Read Comments (23) — Post Yours »
1
Dec 31, 2011 at 06:47 PM harryw Says:Report as Inappropriate
All is true. But why dosnt he take the opportunity to speak out about modest dressing for woman? Is there anything in the torah about that as well?
Rabbbi yosef and sons. Please revert to learning and get out of politics. You have not faired well keeping up with both.
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Dec 31, 2011 at 06:51 PM YJay1 Says:Report as Inappropriate
Thank you Hashem for giving us such Gedolim like Harav Ovadia (and more....).
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Dec 31, 2011 at 06:52 PM latka Says:Report as Inappropriate
He is the real rabbi.
4
Dec 31, 2011 at 07:22 PM Knockyankel Says:Report as Inappropriate
What someone will do for little fame ?Why don't you speak to them about Tzenious that's not in the Tora ?
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Dec 31, 2011 at 07:32 PM JustThinking Says:Report as Inappropriate
It is beyond me how previous commentators can lash out against Haham Ovadia when they clearly did not hear the entire Shiur. He did mention the importance of Tzeniut and he discussed the subject thousands of times.
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Dec 31, 2011 at 07:35 PM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
Chazal say the mitzvah of v'ahavta l'reiachah k'mocha only applies to those k'mocha bTorah ubmitzvos. To love secular jews is racism unless you love goyim too. That does not mean you must hate them, it only means there is no special mitzvah to love good secular jews. I love them but i love good goyim too - often I feel I have more in common with a religious goy than with a secular jew.
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Dec 31, 2011 at 07:52 PM YJay1 Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ It is beyond me how previous commentators can lash out against Haham Ovadia when they clearly did not hear the entire Shiur. He did mention the importance of Tzeniut and he discussed the subject thousands of times. ”
Very typical of some commentators here at VIN. They hit they keyboard even before they finished reading the headline, and the real brave ones who manage to complete the whole article believe every word therein as if it where the word of God.
No, not all the commentators are like that, but sadly we have much too many of them.
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Dec 31, 2011 at 08:14 PM DB_from_LI Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ All is true. But why dosnt he take the opportunity to speak out about modest dressing for woman? Is there anything in the torah about that as well?
Rabbbi yosef and sons. Please revert to learning and get out of politics. You have not faired well keeping up with both. ”
Because Tznius is a personal issue that Hashem who is all forgiving can & does forgive. Sinas Chinam and any Bein Adam Le'Chaveiro cannot be forgiven before Mechila is asked...... So yes what is going on here is s much worse than your version of Tznuis.
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Dec 31, 2011 at 09:36 PM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ Chazal say the mitzvah of v'ahavta l'reiachah k'mocha only applies to those k'mocha bTorah ubmitzvos. To love secular jews is racism unless you love goyim too. That does not mean you must hate them, it only means there is no special mitzvah to love good secular jews. I love them but i love good goyim too - often I feel I have more in common with a religious goy than with a secular jew. ”
Interesting. So if c'v your kids go off the derech i will have no mitzvah to love them according to your logic. don't you think that the same Torah that obliges us to return lost objects and be a light to the nations also obliges us to return Hashems not frum children to him and to love them to do so? But maybe the lomdus that you have just used to prove your point (chazal were not talking about the secular people of our generation by the way) will be used by Hashem against those whose kids go off. Maybe that why there is such a problem with this today. if we don't care enough about Hashems children why should he care about ours? obviously Hashem still cares but midda kneged midda applies so be careful with your lomdus reasoning on why we don't have to love not frum Jews. it may come back around to you as well from Above.
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Dec 31, 2011 at 10:03 PM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ All is true. But why dosnt he take the opportunity to speak out about modest dressing for woman? Is there anything in the torah about that as well?
Rabbbi yosef and sons. Please revert to learning and get out of politics. You have not faired well keeping up with both. ”
What a stupid comment. EY is a democracy and women are legally entitled to dress as they wish. He certainly has the right to offer musar to his own followers, but its none of his business how secular women dress. Thats the problem. The Chareidim wish to impose their values on all Israelis, but as we have seen over the past 2 weeks, they have finally risen up and said "NO....you will not impose your values on us. We can decide how frum or "unfrum" we wish to live our lives"
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Dec 31, 2011 at 10:09 PM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
I appreciate this speech by Rav Ovadia, I'm just curious, does a secular yid also have to love the charedim or the seculars may continue to hate frum yidden, since the seculars don't abide by Torah, and all his nice talk only obligates charedim?
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Dec 31, 2011 at 10:11 PM Shmuli Says:Report as Inappropriate
If only we would have listened to the chabad rebbe, he was saying this years ago...
to number 6:
The Baal Hatanya differs, in chapter 32 of Tanya (you can look this up for yourself) he writes that the only time you can hate the evil in another is if the other person is on your level.
But if the other was brought up differently then you etc. you can only love him (and teach him with love/ never rebuke).
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Dec 31, 2011 at 10:30 PM 5towns Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ All is true. But why dosnt he take the opportunity to speak out about modest dressing for woman? Is there anything in the torah about that as well?
Rabbbi yosef and sons. Please revert to learning and get out of politics. You have not faired well keeping up with both. ”
Actually the laws of tznuis are not defined in the Torah, at least not as practiced by most frum women today. Some sort of hair covering (not necessarily the whole head), some sort of sleeve (not necessarily covering the elbow) etc is in the gemara, but no it is not black and white at all.
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Dec 31, 2011 at 11:06 PM lazerx Says:Report as Inappropriate
Hurray for Rav Ovadia. The biggest problem in our generation is the hatred between Jews. "V'ohavta l'reyacha" is for all Jews. Let's get on it and exemplify it.
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Jan 01, 2012 at 02:13 AM 5towns Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ Chazal say the mitzvah of v'ahavta l'reiachah k'mocha only applies to those k'mocha bTorah ubmitzvos. To love secular jews is racism unless you love goyim too. That does not mean you must hate them, it only means there is no special mitzvah to love good secular jews. I love them but i love good goyim too - often I feel I have more in common with a religious goy than with a secular jew. ”
If the secular jews are tinokos shenishbu - that they were not brought up to be observant but rather were raised to be secular, then the mitzvah applies to them too, it only doesn't apply to someone who has the knowledge and purposely turned his or her back on Yiddishkeit
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Jan 01, 2012 at 02:34 AM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ If the secular jews are tinokos shenishbu - that they were not brought up to be observant but rather were raised to be secular, then the mitzvah applies to them too, it only doesn't apply to someone who has the knowledge and purposely turned his or her back on Yiddishkeit ”
They are the same as goyim - a goy can also become a ger - why is so much money wasted by racist chabad and aish etc. to bring back frei yidden and when a goy wants to become a ger they insult them? There is more of a mekor in chazal to be mekarev gerim than frei yidden. My own sisters are frei - most of my family is frei - I accept like Rav Yitzchak D'M'Acco zya taught that not everyone born Jewish has a Jewish soul - it is not our job to twist Yiddishkeit to try to "make people frum" we see a whole Crown Heights filled with people with kapotes and long beards who know nothing about yiddishkeit and have very krum shittos (i am not even talking about the Rebbe being Moshiach - I am talking about tznius and zionism and racism) a lot of erlicher lubavitcher chassidim I know have told me that the new chabad approach to "kiruv" has ruined a once very chashuver chassidus and turned it into a joke. Again I am not saying to hate frei yidden - also it depends what u mean by frei - if someone is a devout atheist, they are not Jewish - even with a jewish mother. If someone tries their best to follow the Jewish religion but dont know any better that Reform or Conservative is not kosher we must for sure love such a yid because that is a real tinok shenishba - but reform or conserv. is not "secular" - secular is a problem because that is racism
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Jan 01, 2012 at 03:01 AM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ Interesting. So if c'v your kids go off the derech i will have no mitzvah to love them according to your logic. don't you think that the same Torah that obliges us to return lost objects and be a light to the nations also obliges us to return Hashems not frum children to him and to love them to do so? But maybe the lomdus that you have just used to prove your point (chazal were not talking about the secular people of our generation by the way) will be used by Hashem against those whose kids go off. Maybe that why there is such a problem with this today. if we don't care enough about Hashems children why should he care about ours? obviously Hashem still cares but midda kneged midda applies so be careful with your lomdus reasoning on why we don't have to love not frum Jews. it may come back around to you as well from Above. ”
I am not saying one should not love them, but it is not a mitzvah. There is a mitzvah to teach Torah. Also, not everyone who is "off the derech" is secular. "secular" is a strong word, it means without G-d. Most of the so-called "off the derech" kids I know are more religious than a lot of the "frum" chevrah. They might do a lot of aveiros, but so do we all - they are mostly people who think a lot and have a strong relationship with Hashem - even if it is not a perfect relationship, they are often more aware of Hashem than many people who just do their Yiddishkeit by rote. Such people we are obligated to love and to rebuke. Someone who is totally secular -i.e. Atheist, and if his Jewish identity matters to him as an atheist that also makes him a racist. Such people it is hard to make a case to love them, but one should rebuke them if possible and if you are successful they may become someone who it is a mitzvah to love. However, we can say the same about a goy, who if he becomes a ger we would have a double mitzvah to love him. Essentially, a secular jew is only a potential jew, like any goy is a potential jew as he could become a ger
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Jan 01, 2012 at 04:24 AM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ Actually the laws of tznuis are not defined in the Torah, at least not as practiced by most frum women today. Some sort of hair covering (not necessarily the whole head), some sort of sleeve (not necessarily covering the elbow) etc is in the gemara, but no it is not black and white at all. ”
Look up Soteh. The Kohein removes her had covering. The hair of married woman is ervah
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Jan 01, 2012 at 07:22 AM Reb Yid Says:Report as Inappropriate
Anyone who doesn't think Rav Yosef is chareidi enough doesn't know the first thing about him. He has been criticized left and right for saying exactly the same things chareidim say, and even more. Even now, he criticizes the media fanning the flames of hatred against chareidim. But sprinkle in a little "ve'ohavto lereacho komocho" and a bunch of internet morons assume he's modernish.
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Jan 01, 2012 at 09:19 AM PeaceNow Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ Thank you Hashem for giving us such Gedolim like Harav Ovadia (and more....). ”
Well said. This great man has spoken about dressing modestly many times. In all those occasions he spoke well and he speaks well now about this issue.
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Jan 01, 2012 at 11:03 AM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ Chazal say the mitzvah of v'ahavta l'reiachah k'mocha only applies to those k'mocha bTorah ubmitzvos. To love secular jews is racism unless you love goyim too. That does not mean you must hate them, it only means there is no special mitzvah to love good secular jews. I love them but i love good goyim too - often I feel I have more in common with a religious goy than with a secular jew. ”
Please tell us the source of this maamar chazal. Based on your quote you claim to be at a high level of Torah observance, you must be content with your lot, I envy you, I am always trying to better myself, and until I reach the epitome of what hashem wants of me, I don't rush to judge other people. There another quote by chazal, אפילו פושעי ישראל מלאיים מצוות כרימון. That sort of attitude toward non-forum people will surely bring the closer to hakb"h.
Having said that, the mitzvah of הוכח תוכיח את עמיתך ולא יהי׳ה בך חטא applies even toward someone who is not yet frum
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Jan 02, 2012 at 12:35 AM Ben_Kol Says:Report as Inappropriate
The Chafetz Chayim (Margenisa Tava, end of Ahavas Yisrael) says that it is forbidden to hate even a Jew who is "completely wicked" (רשע גמור). The reason is that he does not have the status (din) of "wicked" unless he was rebuked and no one nowadays knows how to give rebuke properly.
Citing this reason, the Chazon Ish (Yoreh Deah, Hil. Shechitah 2:28) says that nowadays it is a mitzvah to love even the wicked (מצוה לאהוב את הרשעים)