QUESTION
How can we tell if someone is from the Erev Rav?
What is the meaning of the words of the Vilna Gaon that “leaders” of the Jewish people in the final generations in Eretz Yisrael are really the Erev Rav?
Does this mean that any of the known Gedolim or any Rav can be from the Erev Rav?!
ANSWER
Our Sages said that even people who look pious and dressed completely in white garments can be from the Erev Rav. Rav Elchonon Wasserman authored Kovetz Hearos, and collected different teachings of the Sages, about this topic.
QUESTION
The Gra said that there are 5 kinds of Erev Rav: People who run after honor, money, and various lusts, people who cause strife amongst others, and people who are fakers who are not the same on the inside as they act on the outside. Doesn’t this describe a lot of people? Does that mean that anyone who does any of the above is from the Erev Rav?
ANSWER
Only if a person acts this way (running after honor, lusts, money, strife, etc.) out of being truly bad on his inside, with intentions to hurt another Jew, is he from the Erev Rav. The Erev Rav souls have no compassion on a Jewish soul, unlike the souls of the Jewish people, who have a primary trait of compassion on others.
