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Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden
Psychology, Medicine, Science, Politics, Oppression, Integrity, Philosophy, Jews -- For those who like their news and truths frank and sharp

Jerusalem Pride Parade is coming up. Religious gay-haters jostle for the mike.

Every year, it’s the same thing. The Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade is coming up and religious gay-haters jostle one another to be the one who ventilates the most hurtful, ignorant and suicide-promoting remarks.

If their writings and speeches would not be so dangerous, you’d almost think that they have been bought by gay lobbyists to attack in order to swell the number of fuming Straight Allies to the March in the Capital.

What strikes is their total lack of common sense, common decency, empathy or doubt. With sureness and self-confidence, these rabbis attack and wound as many as they can in the name of goodness, tradition, religion and normalcy (though normalcy is not a Jewish Commandment).

They cite all the quotes everyone knows already (the first sin in any speaker), show that their bigotry is so large that none of their close gay family members has come out to them yet, and pretend as if they are beleaguered (playing victim is a favorite strategy of oppressors).

Meanwhile, every decent person, every person with a little common sense, every person with some measure of empathy and self-worth disagrees in shock. Problem is that those don’t seek publicity. So we should first ask the self-appointed defenders of normalcy how many young people you guess your pronouncements will murder.

Of course, you would react shocked. Heaven forbid — you don’t want anyone to kill themselves. But you also don’t want them to live. Not close to you, not to receive any respect, not be comfortable.

Here’s a list of false evil positions often used as a pretext for your hatred:

  • It says in the Bible that homosexual intercourse is a sin. A homosexual should withhold himself.

Truth: In present Jewish Law, all sexuality of homosexuals is forbidden: alone, not intercourse, yes intercourse, heterosexual (because such a marriage generally does not hold). Most homosexuals need a steady sexual relationship just like everyone else. Judaism promises a good life. Jewish Law does not go by Biblical verses but by exegesis.

People who proudly shove to the fore Leviticus 18:22, 20:13 (but hide Leviticus 19:18) act as despicably as the pig that shows off its split hoofs to say: Look, I’m kosher.

  • Homosexuality is one of the most serious sins.

Truth: Hurting and slandering innocent people is much worse a sin. When you say something that makes people commit suicide you’re a murderer. When you proclaim all sexuality of a million Jews and half a billion Gentiles a sin, you in fact just make fun of yourself, Judaism and G^d — which is the worst sin in Judaism. Go back to the drawing board because you must have made a wrong turn somewhere. (The mistake for me is obvious. Gay intercourse is only forbidden to Straight men. But you get to figure it out all by yourselves.)

  • Coming out is an attack on Judaism.

Truth: Coming out is honesty. Gay couples are often true role models in the community. How could such holiness and happiness be based on sin? How could you advocate hypocrisy in a religion that values honesty?

  • If they’re homosexual, they should understand that there is no place for them in Judaism.

Truth: That is not written anywhere. No one — not even your spouse — is created for the sole purpose of making you comfortable. If you want gays to get lost, you’re no different from bigots who want Jews, feminists, Blacks to get lost. And if you’re a rabbi, you’re less then these haters.

  • It’s wrong to choose to be gay.

Truth: How come millions upon millions understand that gayness is not a choice (though not everyone may know that gays are neurobiologically different) and the rabbis don’t? What’s wrong with you guys? I won’t ask of you to declare a sin not a sin but how could their very being be sinful?

  • Parading one’s sexuality is indecent.

Truth: Being unfriendly is uncouth. You should only be half as friendly as most gay people. They don’t parade their sexuality — only their sexual preference — just like most Straight people do all the time.

  • I refuse to cater to the whole unnecessary Pride thing.

Truth: I’ll make you a deal. If you stop trashing them, they’ll stop being so proud and celebrating what should be taken for granted and natural.

  • Children need to grow up with a father and a mother.

Truth: Being so insensitive makes you a far worse parent than most gay parents even on their own, let alone by the two. Incest predominantly happens in Straight households. Stop being such hetero-supremacists.

  • We rabbis are entrusted with upholding the tradition.

Truth: The Jewish tradition is one of compassion and realism. Your inhumane bullying pushes more heterosexuals than homosexuals away from Orthodox Judaism. You’re only upholding you Ego and Coldness.

And if one asks how I can still be an Orthodox Jew when the leaders are such monsters, I’ll tell you. They are not the Boss. There is only One Boss. They don’t own Judaism. He does. And I’m with Him — and with the silent majority that is plain simply decent and humble.

Being Nice to the Rabbis has been Done Plenty

But, one should wonder why I’m so tough, bordering on harsh or hateful, about this. Most rabbis are wonderful people who do lots of good work, no? The short answer is: Yes, most rabbis are wonderful people who do lots of good work but are also complicit (by staying silent) to let hundreds of anti-gay rabbinic bullies (in Israel, in the UK) endanger the lives and the quality of life of so many sweet LGBTQ Jews — and Gentiles.

Most of the former are married to women who are generally much more humane and down-to-earth and they should for starters take G^d’s advice to Abraham: “Listen to whatever Sarah tells you” (Genesis 21:12).

But what about all the Orthodox rabbis who openly “suggest” that gay men’s sex is “possibly” not a sin at all? I applaud all the token 3 of them.

Still, why not just be nice and be milder? Because the Sages warn us that being good to the evil may result in being evil to the good. If I must choose between pursuers and pursued, I’m with the latter — just like G^d.

The rabbis will be held accountable for their lack of interest, for looking the other way and moreover for slandering gays and moreover for every non-straight who committed suicide. Just like the Dutch Gentiles who mostly gave the cold shoulder when the pure innocent Jews were shipped to their collective deaths. (Most resistance only came when the Jews were already gone.) This silence included their government in exile.

“A lack of caring enables all evil, including the Holocaust.” (Eli Wiesel)

“The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.” (Albert Einstein)

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: G-d will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” (Pastor Dietrich Bonhöffer, a rare German church leader who kept speaking out against the Nazi regime.)

“The road to Auschwitz was not built by hate, but paved with indifference.” (Renowned Holocaust scholar Sir Ian Kershaw)

“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transformation was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” (Rev. Martin Luther King Jr)

I wouldn’t be so tough on the Orthodox rabbis if I thought that they couldn’t or shouldn’t change their murderous stand and indifference. If one should be nice to them, it’s been done plenty — also by me. Millions — and counting — of pure young lives have been embittered, ruined (not allowing them to raise or teach children, this way cutting them off from giving their wonderful empathy, character traits and outlooks on life to the next generation, which is extermination too), maimed, cut short and violently ended (without the rabbis’ complicity, the worldwide state, mob or terrorists based execution of gays would not be possible). But the rabbis are not bothered? (Saying that you’re bothered but not doing anything about it, to all intents and purposes, is not being bothered.)

The German nation post-WW II only had one route back into humanity, by admission of failure and from now on, total support for Jews. Also the rabbis have only one way to save their souls. They must admit having been on the wrong side of history, being complicit and indifferent, but now speak out loudly at every turn against any more heaping of suspicion on Gays and praise their innate and obvious innocence for all to see and hear.

A “good person” complicit in mass murder is still a mass murderer until he disavows the past and turns into a loud solid ally to all the persecuted. Just like Judah did when he said: “It [all guilt] is on me” (Genesis 38:26). (For civil law, they’re not guilty but that defense will do pretty little for them in the Heavenly Court.)

* * *

On a related subject, The Jerusalem Municipality has just transferred half a million shekels to the capital’s GLBTQ organization. Not that it want to but it was forced by an earlier verdict from the Supreme Court that it should not discriminate and take care of the needs of all residents equally.

I regret that verdict by Israel’s highest court. It should have given the city an alternative. It should have been left free not to support any gay cause on condition that Jerusalemites would be free from any obligation to pay city tax when they declare to be gay. (That would cost the city, when figuring in close family members of GLBTQs, about a third of their budget.)

About the Author
MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. * This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe too, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. * Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. * He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. * His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. * To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. * His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1
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