"If there is no flour there is no Torah; if
there is no Torah, there is no flour." - Rabbi Elazar
ben Azariah
An antagonist
asked: Doesn't our Torah have enough commandments concerning helping the poor
and the poor's welfare?
I answered:
You sound as though there are so many that they are a burden to you. You should
cherish those mitzvot above all others and those are
the mitzvot that you should perform most assiduously.
Why do I say
this? Because they are the mitzvot that are the
conditions upon which all of the other mitzvot can be
carried out.
"If there is no flour there is no Torah; if
there is no Torah, there is no flour." –
Rabbi Elazar
ben Azariah
I'll quote
that again: "If there is no flour there is no Torah; if there is no Torah,
there is no flour." - Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah
That statement
does not mean that there is no Torah only for those who have no flour. It means
that there is no Torah for the ones hardening their hearts, or making of
themselves luftmenschen, and not seeing to it that everyone
has flour (and water, clothes, shoes, housing, inoculation, education and the
conditions under which every individual can grow to her or his maximum
Spiritual-Moral, mental, emotional and physical potential).
It is because
I see the poor in this country becoming increasing beggared and more and more
people falling into poverty, that I feel absolutely confident in saying there
is no Torah in Israel. If there was one-third of the children in Israel would
not be under the poverty line and they would not be going to school hiding the
roll the have from others so that no one will see it has nothing on it, the
elderly and infirmed would not be eating out of garbage cans and widows would
not have their electricity turned off in the winter.
You stated:
It seems to me, there are scores of commandments requiring compassion to the
poor; forbidding oppressing the poor.
I responded:
And are they being fulfilled? Are people as careful to do those mitzvot as they are when choosing their "glatt" chickens? No! They (maybe) give their 10% tzeddakah and a few hours of their time to help others,
which only perpetuates the misery. They do not fulfill the commanment:
Unloose the shackles of injustice. They do not go up against the system that
creates and perpetuates poverty.
He went on to
inquire: Why do we need a philosphy that is not
rooted in Torah?
I responded: Do
you not see that what I am saying is pure Torah? Shame on your teachers!
From the day
that Avraham smashed his father's idols Judaism has
been nothing but radical social transformation. Anyone who isn't smashing the
idols that keep us in thrall, poor and subject to corrupt regimes is not of the
covenant of Avraham, has not begun to understand what
that covenant is.
Anarchy is
not a philosophy from outside Torah. Anarchy is the mitzvot
"concerning helping the poor and the poor's
welfare" with the utmost punctiliousness and assiduousness.
Why do you
think the old Jew blessed Rudolph Rocker?
I once took a
course with a rabbi on tzadakah. At one point he
stated that there must always be poor people so that we can do the mitzvah of
giving tzaddakah. I left his course and have not read
a word that he has to say since. He went down to credibility zero with me when
he said that. The cruelty that passes itself off as Torah in this generation is
absolutely astounding.
We may be
sure that even in a society of Anarcho-Communalism,
in which all of our physical needs are provided for; there will be endless
opportunities for us to give emotional tzaddakah; to
help those who need us in numerable ways and to be helped by others in
innumerable ways.
Doreen
Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel