Emunah in Higher Mathematics
So you’ll have some naysayers. They’ll say “Paul? That was so long ago. We don’t really know what happened. It’s too ancient to really know.” So let me tell you some recent ‘torah’s from the Pope. Because only recently, about a hundred years ago, the religion was born again. And not just something ‘small’ like moving the Shabbos day. We’re talking here the yesodos ha’emunah, the whole religion itself.
You know, they always worshiped a corporation; the father, the son and the Holy Ghost. Whatever that is, they themselves don’t know how it’s not idolatry. It’s a big problem and they have written books and books on this because they say it’s one but they say it’s also three. And the mathematics involved to show that three is one and one is three, it needs a lot of nimble argumentation. They have books and books on that. But at least it was only three.
Women’s Rights
Not anymore however. About a hundred years ago, a big agitation began to arise in the church for women's rights. And they said, “What about Mary?” So at first, they met a stony wall of opposition. It’s against their religion to worship somebody else. But finally there was so much pressure that they decided to admit Mary into their corporation. Not only as a saint – Mary is worshiped officially as one of the top ones.
Of course you still have to say “trinity”. You can’t change the old words, but there’s some more convoluted logic and books and writing and arguments. Now it’s trinity and shminity. It’s all the same. It all ends up being the same.
Now the Protestants, when they heard that, they came up with a big protest! Apikorsus! Idolatry! There was a wave of indignation all over the world. But after a while, they saw that it’s a good business because you have to get in the ladies too. And so, they soft-pedaled it lately and among the high churchers, there’s a tendency also to look away when somebody does a little worshiping, bootleg worshiping on the side for Mary too.
It’s only religion in the sense of an organization. They don’t have any G-d-given code. Yoshke didn’t say, “Worship just three.” He didn’t say that. There’s no law. There’s no Sinai law. There’s no set principles. It’s only a question of waiting; wait long enough and things will be changed. That’s what it really is. Because it’s a man-made religion. It was made by men and it’s changed by men.
Reformed Religions
Now, Christianity is just one example; it’s the example that teaches the rule. Because it’s the same all over the world and all throughout history. There isn’t a single religion that has persisted, that has stubbornly stuck to its principles. The old name, the old trademark, still continues, but the product is not the same.
If Confucius would come out of wherever he is, he wouldn’t recognize the Chinese religion as his own. If he came back to this world – he’d have to cool off a little while first – he wouldn’t even recognize that these are his people. They’re idol worshippers and he didn’t advocate idolatry; he was a philosopher. And even the images, they’ve been adding and subtracting for centuries.
A historian once said that the Chinese religion honors Confucius only in name, but his teachings are not followed by those who worship that religion. It’s an entirely different religion! It’s been changing all the time!
Ben-Gurion the Bhuddist
And Buddha! Some people think that Buddha is nothing but pure principles. Like that ‘noble’ soul, Ben Gurion, alav hashnubbel, who went for three weeks to study in a Bhuddist monastery. He didn’t spend three weeks in Mirrer Yeshiva or three weeks in Slabodka yeshiva.
But he traveled to the Far East and he entered a Buddhist monastery for three weeks! For three weeks the Prime Minister of Israel studied in a Buddhist monastery. He put on the robes and was ‘mekadesh shem Shomayim’; he ‘raised up the keren haTorah’ and he proved an example for the whole Jewish nation how to be loyal to Judaism.
What he did there I can only imagine but about those three weeks, I can tell you one thing for sure: what he saw there was not what Buddha had dreamed of. It wasn’t the same. It’s been through one reincarnation after the other.
The Mirror and the Moon
Because what does religion mean among the nations? It means a mirror. You know what a mirror is? It depends what kind of a face you make, that’s the face it shows you. It reflects the will of its worshippers. They’re all man-made religions and so they’re spurious, synthetic; they’ve been tailored from generation to generation to suit the desires of their worshippers.
But the Torah is like the sun and like the moon. We don’t change them and we won’t change the Torah. Because we are the az b’umos; we’re loyal like the dog. What kind of a dog? A bulldog. Ask somebody, a gentile, who owns a bulldog, what are its qualities. He’ll tell you. Tenacity, fierce loyalty. That’s what it means az ba’umos.
The Orthodox Jew today puts on tefillin that they put on thousands of years ago. The same tefillin could have been worn a thousand years ago. We do mitzvos today like our forefathers did. The same Shabbos, same davening, same mezuzos. There hasn’t been a change! We live among all the other cultures, all the other religions, and yet we hold on for dear life.
Haman Testifies
If you don’t believe me, then ask the most reliable witness – Haman! You remember what Haman said to Achashveirosh? “There’s one nation, scattered, dispersed among the peoples ... , and their laws are different from all the nations (Esther 3:8).” These words of Haman are very important to us because we have here a testimony of one who was least interested in praising the Am Yisroel and therefore it’s reliable testimony. And we should be proud of that.
It’s like the man who was accused by someone of being too frum, too pious. So the accused one says, “Please, when you come to the Next World, I want you to testify to that. Accuse me of being too pious in the Next World.”
If your wife says, “You’re too busy learning all the time,” so tell her, “My dear, please don’t forget that complaint. Just wait 120 years and in the Next World, you should remember to say these words. It’s an accusation that will come in handy for me.”
Haman Accuses
And so if Haman makes this accusation, we can appreciate it as a magnificent testimony about our forefathers. He testified that the Jewish nation, dispersed as they were – you know, if you live among 127 different cultures it’s very hard to cling to one set of principles – but Haman said that they stubbornly clung to the Torah, the same Torah, wherever they were. No matter what, they refuse to adopt the principles and the practices and the attitudes of the people around them!
In 127 different environments, they all kept one Torah! Their laws are different from all the nations. If it was up to me, I would say this is the most important sentence in the whole megillah. Not only now that I’m thinking about it, I’m saying it. A long time ago already I’ve written this in one of my books. If you live in 127 different cultures and you cling to your particular set of laws then you don’t need any better recommendation.
From Hodu to Kush
When the Megillah says from India to Ethiopia; it means that the Jewish women in India, all of them had long dresses, just like they had back in Yerushalayim. They didn’t put on the Indian sari or whatever they wore back then. No; their laws are different from all the nations means they refused to change. They refused to adopt anything of India.
And the Jews who lived in Ethiopia, in Kush, they didn’t put bones through their nostrils. And they didn’t wear grass skirts and they didn’t eat anybody. They remained Jews, authentic Jews, they remained perfectly loyal to Judaism. That’s why they are compared to the boldness of a dog. They never give up their loyalty to their master.
On Har Sinai, when the Jewish people said, “We will do and we will hear” they weren’t joking. They weren’t being polite. They meant it from the bottom of their hearts. And they meant it not for now, not for the next hundred years. They meant from now until the end of time.
How do we know? Because our people never let up; they kept everything! And with an azus! And that’s why all over the world, Jews have always provided scenes of the greatest heroism, living their lives under circumstances that we couldn’t picture.
The Stubborn Ghetto
And in the ghettos in medieval Europe when they were crowded into stinking little streets and they were forbidden to make a decent living; they had to sell old rags. And they couldn’t move out; you couldn’t even walk outside a ghetto without permission. And if they did sometimes go outside, they had to get off the sidewalk for the gentile boys. A gentile boy would drive you off the sidewalk.
Any gentile could set his dog on a Jew and laugh at the Jew running with his trousers torn. There was no redress. You were lucky if the judge would let you go home alive.
And every one, if he would have said one word, “I accept baptism,” he could have gained honor and wealth! But they didn’t. They chose the ghetto.
Every Jew would let himself be skinned alive in order to remain in the ghetto among the Jews. He was screaming from pain, but he wouldn’t say yes.
The Stiff-Backboned Nation
Not only great Sages and tzaddikim. Women, boys and girls. Not rabbis. Not world scholars. Plain people. I say ‘plain’. It’s impossible for us to assess the nobility of these ‘plain’ people! But these idealists, that’s the Jewish nation.
And it was in very great numbers. How do we know? We don’t have to believe our sources because the Gentiles have made these statements again and again. Josephus quotes the ancient Greek writers, a whole list who describe how Jews went to death by torture rather than to say one word against their Torah. And Josephus adds that among the Greeks there’s not one who would suffer the least pain for such a thing. If you tell a Greek to curse Homer or else you’ll take a quarter out of his pocket, among the Greeks, not one would suffer the least loss on that account.
