Are We Trying to Convince the Atheists?

Atheists and atheist-adjacent

It should be self-evident that you can't be a religious Jew and an atheist at the same time. Nor can you be atheist-adjacent, that is, somebody who believes that even if God exists, He leaves the world to it own devices and doesn't actively intervene. That is a position that is so clearly against the Torah, that it is impossible to mention it and religiosity in the same sentence. Unfortunately, our dear friend Natan never got the message.

Originally, Natan claimed that there is no source that Torah protects (as if it makes a difference to him what the Torah says). In his last post, Mecharker proved beyond a shadow of doubt, from numerous sources, that according to the Torah itself, Torah and Mitzvos definitely protect. Not in some abstract sense, not in a hyper-aggadic sense, but in a very real sense. And not only is this a nice bonus of keeping the Torah, but is something fundamental that the Torah promises many times.

Chastened by this, Natan switched to claiming that even though there are Torah sources to that effect, you can't rely on it practically, and castigated chareidim in general and Rabbi Zilberstein in particular for doing so. He attempted to prove this point from shul attacks (yes, really).

After getting called out on that as well, Natan made a complete about-face and switched to the opposite claim, that chareidim, despite their professed beliefs, don't actually act as if Torah protects. This would be laughable if it wasn't so pathetic. Every indication from chareidi behavior is that they believe it and practice it. His one piece of “evidence” was from some chareidi yeshivos that fled missile attacks (although there were plenty of other chareidi yeshivos that didn't, following the guidance of Rabbi Kanievsky). What happened to Rabbi Zilberstein? I guess Natan forgot all about that.

At this point, Natan had been spinning faster than a Boeing turbine. I doubt even he knows what his issue is anymore. Good thing for a wife that can psychoanalize him. I then came and finished the job by showing that chareidim indeed act that way, relying on Hashem to such an extent, that Natan ceaselessly complains about it.

Natan's latest response was to declare that he doesn't care about all that, he doesn't believe any of this hocus pocus heebie-jeebie supernatural stuff anyway. It doesn't matter what Torah unambiguously, unequivocally says. Torah doesn't protect. Tefilah doesn't do anything. Hashem (if He exists) doesn't reward people who keep the Torah or punish those who abandon it. In a previous post, he made it clear that he considers the whole concept of "relationship with Hashem" to be mere "fluffy spirituality". The only thing that matters to him is physical, material effort. Which the Zionists excelled in (with some very generous help from about a million Palestinian "donors"), but the chareidim didn't.

One thing is certain. We are not dealing with a believer here. If not an atheist, Natan is very close to one, for all practical purposes (the same way he is using “practical" with regard to chareidim).

That's all very well and good. Natan is hardly the first Jewish atheist/atheist adjacent. He is hardly the first Jew to declare he doesn't care one bit what the Torah says. But the trouble is that he claims to be speaking in the name of Judaism. And that is an oxymoron. You can't on the one hand claim to have “evidence” to completely reject some of the most fundamental parts of the Torah (and many other parts of the Torah as well) and on the other hand, identify as a religious Jew. It just doesn't work.

Now, it would be a fool's errand to try to convince people like Natan that Hashem protects His people in the merit of Torah and Mitzvos, or indeed, that He actually does anything at all in any real sense. So what is the point of these arguments, if we are not seeking to convince the atheists? It is for people like you. Faithful Torah Jews who believe in God, who believe in His Torah, but have read too much stuff from the atheists, secularists, or the atheist-adjacent like Natan, that put doubt in your heart. But you don’t share their secularist, materialist attitudes. You believe in the spiritual, you believe in something very exalted beyond our five senses. You believe, very deeply, in all those things that Hashem promises. You know from the Torah and our history that Hashem protects, sustains, assists, and answers prayers, in the merit of Torah and Mitzvos.

But at the same time, you have questions. We all have questions (myself included). It is hard to see the hashgacha of Hashem clearly. Ever since the original galus, we have been in a situation of Hester Panim. We no longer have miracles like Kriyas Yam Suf. Sometimes we are tempted to ask, like Gideon (not Gideon Slifkin, the other Gideon), איה כל נפלאותיו אשר ספרו לנו אבותינו?

But as faithful believers in the Torah, we know that Hashem has helped us openly in the not-so-distant past, and is with us right now. As the Rambam says about Purim, the main lesson is that Hashem saved us in the merit of our teshuva and prayer to fulfill the promise of the Torah אַף־גַּם־זֹ֠את בִּֽהְיוֹתָ֞ם בְּאֶ֣רֶץ אֹֽיְבֵיהֶ֗ם לֹֽא־מְאַסְתִּ֤ים וְלֹֽא־גְעַלְתִּים֙ לְכַלֹּתָ֔ם לְהָפֵ֥ר בְּרִיתִ֖י אִתָּ֑ם כִּ֛י אֲנִ֥י יְהֹוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֵיהֶֽם. And that is the lesson in the Haggadah צריך אדם להראות לעצמו כאילו יצא ממצרים. It is to drive home the idea that even though we may seem very distant in time from that point, in Hashem's eyes, we are still very close. This is also the idea of והיא שעמדה לאבותינו. The promise of Hashem is with us throughout all generations.

And there is nowhere the hashgacha of Hashem is more evident than in Eretz Yisrael, for the chareidim and faithful Shomer Torah DL in particular, and for the rest of the population in general. As I said in my last post 

From way before the State of Israel, to when the State was founded, to current times, Israel has been surrounded by numerous enemies that hate them and pine for their destruction. A sheep among a sea of wolves. The tiny State and the IDF should have been destroyed many times, yet Hashem was always there for them. In whose merit is this? The mechalleli Shabbos? The boalei niddos? The rabbit eaters? The pig eaters? The homosexuals? The homosexual supporters? The Torah corrupters? The Bible critics? The people like Natan, who deliberately spread kefira?

No.

It was the chareidim (and I should have added, the faithful Shomer Torah Zionists as well).

Without them, the secularists in Israel would have been destroyed long ago, as the Torah says they deserve. They have no right of their own to be in the Land at all. You hear that secularists? Next time you see a chareidi in the street, thank him profusely!

As we approach the season of גאולה, may we merit to continue to see ישועות, and the arrival of Moshiach very soon!

Addendum: a note on selfishness.

One common complaint from Natan and the secularists is that chareidim are selfish, they only learn for themselves and do Mitzvos for themselves (as if the Zionists are selflessly bombing Palestinians for the sake of the Palestinians, and not for the Zionists). This complaint was already anticipated in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 99b), and the Talmud's response is exactly the thing that Natan denies, that Torah and Mitzvos protect everybody. But of course, this only works if you accept the basic framework of the Talmud, that Torah and Mitzvos do something. An assumption that Natan and the secularists reject.