In the Jewish Bible, idolaters are often referred to as worshippers of wood and rock. This is a way to mock the beliefs of pagans, since no intelligent person can actually believe a piece of wood or rock shaped by the hands of man, is in fact a god. Such a belief would have an inherent logical contradiction – it would mean a man could create a god, so how is the god more powerful? More sophisticated pagans obviously don’t actually think of the stone or wood idol as a god, but as a manifestation on which to focus their worship. No doubt less sophisticated pagans do believe the idol is the god itself, which made idol worship an easy target for the authors of the Bible. More than just an object of ridicule, idol worship is considered one of the most morally reprehensible sins in Judaism, one which Jews are enjoined to die rather than commit this sin.
I have often referred to the Orthodox right wing settlers as idol worshipers – they worship the wood of the Shulkhan Arukh (literally the Set Table, the authoritative anthology of Orthodox Jewish law and practice) and the stone of the land of Israel. To see their idol worship in action, one need only read this article from the Washington Post, describing these fools defending Hagee’s words.
First, let’s start with some of the gems the so-called “Reverand” Hagee has spouted over the years:
“All hurricanes are acts of God, because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that. The newspaper carried the story in our local area, that was not carried nationally, that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it would was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other gay pride parades. So I believe that the judgment of God is a very real thing.”
“It was the disobedience and rebellion of the Jews, God’s chosen people, to their covenantal responsibility to serve only the one true God, Jehovah, that gave rise to the opposition and persecution that they experienced beginning in Canaan and continuing to this very day… Their own rebellion had birthed the seed of antisemitism that would arise and bring destruction to them for centuries to come…. it rises from the judgment of God upon his rebellious chosen people.”
“Theodore Herzl is the father of Zionism. He was a Jew who at the turn of the 19th century said, this land is our land, God wants us to live there. So he went to the Jews of Europe and said ‘I want you to come and join me in the land of Israel.’ So few went that Herzl went into depression. Those who came founded Israel; those who did not went through the hell of the holocaust.
‘Then god sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. And the Bible says — Jeremiah writing — ‘They shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the holes of the rocks,’ meaning there’s no place to hide. And that might be offensive to some people but don’t let your heart be offended. I didn’t write it, Jeremiah wrote it. It was the truth and it is the truth. How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel.”
Dennis Prager grew up in my neighborhood. He was a few years older than me. Even then he was a pompous buffoon with a stick up his ass, totally full of himself. Over the years I would occasionally read articles he wrote and they were filled with hot air coming out of who knows what orifice. But seriously, I never would have believed that a day would come where he would defend a man who claims Hitler was an agent of god who killed Jews because they wouldn’t move to Israel! Not just defend him, but compare him to the humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg, who risked his life to save Jews from the Nazis!!!
An insight into why Prager has such a perverse perspective may be found in the words of Rabbi Scheinberg, who claims: “[Hagee] interpreted a biblical verse in a way not very different from several legitimate Jewish authorities. Viewing Hitler as acting completely outside of God’s plan is to suggest that God was powerless to stop the Holocaust, a position quite unacceptable to any religious Jew or Christian.”
Hagee’s words do indeed echo sentiments I have heard more than one Orthodox Rabbi express. “Hitler shaved the heads of Jewish women because they did not use the traditional hair covering for women” was one gem I’ve heard coming out of the mouth of a scion of a prominent Rabbinical family in Cleveland. In another posting I mentioned how a Rabbi in Israel claimed that the rise in automobile deaths during the Rabin era was a direct result of Oslo, because the yearly quote of deaths wasn’t being filled in fighting wars against the Arabs. So instead young people were dying in road accidents. I could go on and on with such quotes, but I’ll spare you the awful details.
Of course Sheinberg’s statement is a distortion of monotheism. All monotheistic religions believe God is omnipotent and therefore everything that happens, whether good or evil, ultimately emanates from God. The distinctive position of people like Hagee, Prager, Sheinberg and the Rabbis I mentioned, is that they believe God wills evil and destruction in the world for specific purposes – either as punishment for disobedience to his will (Katrina) or as a spur to obedience (Hitler). Such a position however, is not a necessary consequence of the belief in God’s omnipotence. One can believe in an omnipotent God and simultaneously believe that the agency for good and evil is a choice God leaves in the hands of individuals.
I would argue that the latter view is more consistent with classic Rabbinic Judaism. There is a famous story from the Talmud tractate Baba Metzia, which I bring an edited version from one of my favorite sites, Torah Tots:
“The Sages were debating whether or not a certain type of oven could become tamay (impure). The majority of the Sages ruled that it could. Rabbi Eliezer ben (son of) Horkenos held that it could not.”
“Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkenos, perhaps the most outstanding Sage of the generation, cited many proofs in favor of his position, but the Sages, who were the majority, would not accept these proofs.”
“Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkenos declared: ‘This carob tree will demonstrate that the Halachah (Torah law) follows my opinion.’ A miracle occurred whereby the carob tree uprooted itself and replanted itself 100 cubits away. (some say, four hundred amot). The Sages replied: ‘Halachah [law] is not established on the basis of a carob tree.’”
“Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkenos declared: ‘This stream of water will demonstrate that the Halachah follows my opinion.’ The stream of water began to flow backwards against the current. The Sages replied: ‘Halachah is not established on the basis of a stream.’”
“Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkenos declared: ‘The walls of the Bait Hamidrash (House of Study) will demonstrate that the Halachah follows my opinion.’ The walls of the Bait Hamidrash began to tremble and fall, and the Sages feared that any moment they would collapse. Rabbi Yehoshua called out to the walls: ‘Why are you interfering in a Halachic debate among Sages?’ Immediately, out of respect for Rabbi Yehoshua, the walls did not collapse, but out of deference to Rabbi Eliezer, they did not return to their original upright position either. They remained slanted.”
“Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkenos declared: ‘The heavens will attest that the Halachah follows my opinion.’ A bat kol (heavenly divine voice) proclaimed: ‘Why do you contest Rabbi Eliezer? The halachah always follows Rabbi Eliezer’s teachings.’ Rabbi Yehoshua rose and declared: It is written[in the Torah]: ‘It [the law] is not in heaven.’ What is meant by; ‘It is not in the heaven’? Rebbi Yirmiah said: It means that we don’t listen to a bat kol in matters of Halachah, for the Torah was already given to man at Mount Sinai.”
“Rabbi Yehoshua continued: ‘We don’t listen to the bat kol because You (God) already wrote in the Torah at Har Sinai (Exodus 23:2) ‘According to the majority (the matter) shall be decided.’”
“Later, one of the Sages, Rabbi Natan met Eliyahu Hanavi (Elijah the prophet). He asked him: ‘What did God say during this argument?’ Eliyahu replied to him: “He was laughing and saying (with satisfaction), ‘My children have defeated me, my children have defeated me’ ”
It is quite clear from this story that the Rabbis believe, that having given the Torah to the Jews, God no longer has any role in determining what is appropriate action. It is for man to debate and decide. Before WWII the vast majority of Rabbinic authorities vehemently opposed Zionism. The idea that God has the “right” to coerce Jews to follow Herzl (a secular, non-believer, and certainly no Rabbi Eliezer) over the majority Rabbinic opinion, would be abhorrent to Rabbi Yehosua (who as the representative of the house of Hillel ultimately defined normative Rabbinic Judaism). Moreover, not only does God not punish the Rabbis for their disobedience (something Rabbi Eliezer attempted to do by having the walls collapse). We hear from none other than Elijah the prophet (who is the precursor for the coming of the Jewish Messiah) that God laughed with joy from his defeat by his “disobedient” children.
In another famous Midrash a Roman matron asks a Rabbi how God has been occupying himself since the creation. The Rabbi replied he has been busy with matchmaking, quite a difficult and time consuming activity. This and other Rabbinic statements express a world view which sees the laws of nature as immutable, set into place by the Creator at the beginning of time, and not to be interfered with, even by God. Natural disasters are just that – random expressions of the laws of nature, not God expressing his will. The Rabbis further claim that miracles such as the splitting of the Red Sea, were pre-created, and that all such miracles have already taken place.
The God of the Rabbis is a very different God than the god of Hagee, and even the god of Prager and Sheinberg. The god of Prager is the rock of the land of Israel, not the Rabbinical God. For him, the most important value is Jewish ownership of the entire land of Israel, not classic Rabbinical Jewish values. Hagee, is a strong supporter of this radical, indeed heretical Jewish viewpoint and for this reason Prager sees him as a hero. For the same reason, Prager can sympathize with his view of Hitler as a tool of God to get Jews to move to Israel. (As an aside, most evangelicals like Hagee want all the jews to move to Israel as that will hasten Jesus’ Second Coming, since the Jews have to be in the land of Israel to either accept Jesus as their Messiah or die).
Sheinberg worships the wood of the Shulkhan Arukh and sees obedience to its strictures as the prime value. Unlike the God of the Rabbis, Sheinberg’s god, like Hagee’s, is a vengeful one who wreaks destruction on anyone who would disobey his law or who sees the law differently. This god will interfere with the laws of nature and use them to punish disobedient people.
The moral universe of Hagee and his Jewish defenders is repugnant. Anyone who worships a god that uses Hitler as a tool to beat his people into submission; any one who worships a god who brings a disastrous hurricane because of a “gay parade” and thereby kills hundreds of innocents who have nothing to do with this parade, is in my view a devil worshiper.
Hagee, Sheinberg and Prager have no problem in seeing the moral repugnancy in the belief that the Palestinian suicide bombers are God’s martyrs. They often proclaim how Muslims and Arabs live in a decadent moral universe. But they inhabit the very same moral universe: a universe where evil is a tool of god’s will, as opposed to man’s inhumanity to man; where a hurricane is a tool of god’s vengeance and not merely a hurricane. Their beliefs are not only foolish and illogical, but repulsive and immoral.