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Mishpacha Magazine arrived this morning. We all look forward to this wonderful magazine...but....
Point of View by Rabbi Moshe Grylak Editor in Chief of Mishpacha Magazine is entitled Barack Obama and the Prophets. page 12
The side bar reads "We also look at our fellow man and see him lonely and isolated, swamped by a sea of media messages, and hear his silent cry for change. "Stand for Change," says Barack Obama, and it's no wonder the American collective is flocking after him.
The other side bar is Food for Thought "Master of the Universe, I ask of You, redeem the Jewish People, And if You won't do that, then redeem the non-Jew (-Rabbi Yisrael, the maggid of Kozhnitz)
The last paragraph of Rabbi Grylak article is
"And this is the focus of our fascination at this moment. For, if the evidence is not deceiving us, and America has freed itself of its mental block against a black man as their leader, that is proof that established norms can change. If this can happen, then we shall surely also see the total change of human consciousness that our Prophets declared would occur, as explained by the author of Michtav Me"Eliyahu, ztz"l
The phenomenon of Barack Hussein Obama serves as a wonderful illustration of this truth."
The article describes Obama as a gifted speaker, maybe the best in the Democratic Party, drawing an ever-increasing following. The article continues to ask Are the American people so inspired by his elegant outward appearance that they aren't bothering to look too deeply at what he actually has to offer his country in terms of policy on the issues?
The article however doesn't bother to address Obama's policy on the issues.
Good Question Rabbi Grylak. Did Rabbi Grylak bother to investigate what Obama's policy might be regarding the establishment of a Palestinian State? How about Obama's inner circle, the ones most likely to define his foreign policy. The advisors that have history of aligning with anti-Semites. I suppose such information was better left unsaid for reasons I can not really figure out. I suppose the establishment of a Palestinian State is no big dea to Rabbi Grylak. Neither was the expulsion from Gush Katif in 2005 prior to the disengagement to Rabbi Grylak. At that time I personally wrote Rabbi Grylak a letter begging the Gedoilim to speak out and he responded that we must follow the guidance of the Gedoilim even if we don't understand the whole picture.
So, in my opinion this portrayal of Barack Obama put him in a very positive light. After all, he's quite a popular guy.
Then on page 21 in Mishpacha magazine there was an article regarding Fidel Castro. It quotes Rabbi Meir Lau. "Fidel Castro is one big riddle to me. He was very opposed to anti-Semitism, but on the other hand, he joined hands with our greatest enemies" Rabbi Yisroel Meir Lau. There is a nice picture of Rabbi Lau viewing a box of Cuban cigars with Castro in their 1994 meeting. The article states, "As dictator of a country noted for atheism, Castro, surprised Rabbi Lau with his grasp of the Bible, displaying curiosity as to how seventy Jews could multiply into a nation of 600,000 in just 210 years in Egypt. "
The article ends with the paragraph
"Castro refused Rabbi Lau's request for permission to import kosher meat because he thought it would be showing favoritism to the Jews, in a country where meat is rationed, but he did permit a shipment of matzos, because matzos are "a religious product and not food."
Rabbi Lau. Is Castro really a big riddle? Was Castro a bad guy or a good guy? The article portrays him as human just like the rest of us. I suppose good and evil is really not that important anymore.
There was no mention in this page of being anti Israel. In fact the article puts Castro in a very human light. There is no indication that he was indeed our enemy. In contrast an article by Hillel Fendel in A7 was much more negative. Please visit
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125304 . Here is an excerpt of the article.
" In October 1973, during the Yom Kippur war, not only did Castro break diplomatic relations with Israel, but he deployed thousands of Cuban soldiers, including helicopter pilots and tank crews to fight alongside the Syrians, The next year, Castro gave the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) an expropriated Jewish community center in Havana - and awarded the visiting Yasser Arafat with Cuba's highest award, the Bay of Pigs Medal. "
This is a red flag regarding Mishpacha Magazine. Editor in Chief, Grylak is involving himself with politics and is not focusing on Torah. Yet he has the title of Rabbi and the backing and support of the Chareidi Rabbanim. He is the number one promoter of listening to Daas Torah. We might get confused that all this politics is actually Daas Torah.
When a chareidi women was asked who she will vote for, she said, whomever I'm told to.
We have been brainwashed not to think for ourselves. Our understanding of Torah is not as clear as our Gedoilim.
So if Rav Perlow and Rav Malkiel Kotler and Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky and Rav Belsky etc. names are on a poster banning an all separate seating concert, a real evil that must be exorcised from our midst, that must take priority on the establishment of a Palestinian State putting the lives of hundreds of thousands of Jews in danger. But what do I know? I'm just a female.
