The Parable of the Drowning Man
Who was he?
A man was trapped in his house during a flood. He began praying to God to rescue him. He had a vision in his head of God’s hand reaching down from heaven and lifting him to safety. The water started to rise in his house. His neighbor urged him to leave and offered him a ride to safety. The man yelled back, “I am waiting for God to save me.” The neighbor then drove off in his pick-up truck. The man continued to pray and hold on to his vision. As the water began rising in his house, he had to climb up to the roof. A boat came by with some people heading for safe ground. They yelled at the man to grab a rope they were ready to throw and take him to safety. He told them that he was waiting for God to save him. They shook their heads and moved on. The man continued to pray, believing with all his heart that he would be saved by God. The floodwaters continued to rise. A helicopter flew by and a voice came over a loudspeaker offering to lower a ladder and take him off the roof. The man waved the helicopter away, shouting back that he was waiting for God to save him. The helicopter left. The flooding water came over the roof and caught him up and swept him away. He drowned. When he reached heaven and asked, “God, why did you not save me? I believed in you with all my heart. Why did you let me drown?” God replied, “I sent you a pick-up truck, a boat, and a helicopter and you refused all of them. What else could I possibly do for you?
When I first heard this parable, I thought there is a good reason why this is only a parable. Nobody in the world could be so idiotic. Well, that was until yesterday.
Let me back up. On Tuesday, Mecharker posted a rebuttal of Natan's claim that Torah does not protect. Mecharker brought copious and overwhelming sources from the Torah itself that Torah does indeed protect. When faced with this deluge of evidence, Natan changed his claim to (paraphrase) "Yes, the sources may say Torah protects, but it doesn't practically protect". Uh huh. All of the sources are saying it actually, practically protects. Like, it really prevents people who would have otherwise been killed/maimed/hurt from suffering these fates. What's not to understand?
Natan then switched to a completely different objection(paraphrase) "Chareidim don't treat it like it practically protects. There are no examples of chareidim relying on the supernatural power of the Torah for protection. They are protected by soldiers just like everybody else."
At this point, I was astonished. Can this be the same guy who constantly whines that chareidim rely on the supernatural, don't do enough physical hishtadlus, don't join the army, aren't careful about Covid, about their personal finances, their safety, and in the very last post complained about a chareidi rav who discouraged a kollel man from procuring a gun? And now he's claiming the chareidim do the same physical hishtadlus as everyone else, and don't practically rely on the power of Torah and mitzvos? If so, what is his constant whining and complaining about? What was the last post about?
Well, I will explain what Natan is thinking, even if he is unable to articulate it himself.
You see, he admits that chareidim indeed practically do less hishtadlus than everyone else. Thus his incessant complaints about them. But he doesn't consider that lack of hishtadlus to be a manifestation of reliance on Hashem’s protection, because it is not openly miraculous enough for him. They are still protected by Zionist soldiers. Zionist soldier cannot be the agents of Hashem (He’s sounding a little Satmarish. I wonder when he’s going to start wearing the socks.)
So what should "Torah protects" look like, according to Natan? He makes it pretty clear in several comments.
1. There should never be attacks on shuls. Any attack on any shul is evidence that Torah doesn't protect (Yes, he really believes this. Like every traffic fatality proves airbags don’t work. So much for being the science guy.)
2. Yeshiva students shouldn't flee a dangerous war zone where rockets are landing. Hashem Himself should stop rockets from landing wherever a yeshiva student steps.
3. Chareidi towns shouldn't need soldiers for protection. Hashem Himself should prevent attacks on chareidi towns, and make sure only secularist towns are attacked.
Yup. 100% miraculous. No soldiers, no safety measures, and no exceptions. That is the only thing that would satisfy Natan’s demand for practical evidence.
You see, Natan doesn't do nuance, even in this case, when such nuance is absolutely bog-standard Jewish theology about hashgachas Hashem. For him, it's either 100% physical effort, no God involved at all (this is the side he takes), or 100% miracles, no hishtadlus at all on the part of anybody. So if Hashem decides to protect using soldiers, Iron Dome, bunkers, etc, that can't be Hashem (more Satmar stuff). As Natan says "There were no examples of them relying on Hashem. Only of them relying on Zionists."
At last I understood the parable of the drowning man. There really are people like that out there. Natan is literally that guy.
So again, what does "Torah protects" really look like if we don't rely on miracles?
It looks exactly like what I described before. An entire population of people who do less than maximal hishtadlus (much less!) and yet they are protected by Hashem. In what way are they protected by Hashem? In many ways. By the army, by Iron Dome, by Hashem giving them much more control of the government than their population warrants, by Hashem preventing wars from happening in the first place. By the majority secularist population, which hates their guts (a hatred which Natan happily defends, and I have no doubt, shares), agreeing to send soldiers to protect them. Seems like a pretty clear case of the hand of Hashem protecting, and the chareidim relying on Him!
But there is more. Not only does the merit of the chareidim protect them, but it protects the secularists, such as Natan, as well! See this graphical evidence. 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.
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!
What's so bizarre about Natan being the guy in the drowning man story is that he is the one who originally claimed to see Hashem in nature. He even devoted a whole chapter in his book, "The Challenge of Creation", arguing that natural evolution is actually the hand of Hashem, going so far as to compare it to the Purim story (which he was obviously wrong about). But many years later, when it comes to Hashem using Zionist soldiers to protect chareidim, or by preventing wars in the first place, the concept of which is bog-standard hashgacha pratis, he doesn't see it anymore. The drowning man indeed, drowning in a sea of secularism and materialism.
There is one other thing that bothers me. Yes, Natan doesn't know much Torah. Certainly not Torah Hashkafah. But he shows a great affinity for Christians, devoting three posts so far to their great museum in Kentucky. You would think he at least has familiarity with the parable of the drowning man, which has Christian origins?
HGL, you've done it again. Thanks for the incredible post!
Update!
Nathan responded with his own parable, here
https://irrationalistmodoxism.substack.com/p/the-parable-of-the-drowning-man/comment/13680028
Now, even though Nathan reveals in his parable that he believes Tefilah is useless (surprise, surprise), I think we can modify his parable to make it historically accurate.
1. The irreligious workers, after many fruitless searches, had not yet found the power saw or materials.
2. Meanwhile, they repeatedly tried interrupting the religious man's prayers.
3. Furthermore, the religious man had several sons and daughters. The irreligious workers constantly tried to influence them to abandon the religion, and constantly tried to seduce the daughters. Unfortunately, they were successful with some of the children.
4. Eventually, in the merit of the religious man's prayers, they found the power saw and materials.
5. Once they found the materials, they asked the man to send the rest of his sons and daughters to live with them so that they could help with the labor. Meanwhile, they became even more audacious in their attempts to interrupt his prayer and get the remaining children to abandon religion. He refused, and he and his family kept praying.
6. After the boat was built, it was found that the irreligious workers had actually STOLEN many of the materials. The workers, who were ethnically Jewish, begged the judge to be able to keep the boat, on the grounds that Jews had historically been discriminated against. They originally were not going to let the useless religious man on the boat, but now, in desperation, they begged him to join in order to bolster their case.
7. He agreed, and thanked God that his prayers had been answered.