July 19, 2023

Understanding the Dangers of Unchecked Religious Influences

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Season 4

How can minor signs trigger a colossal catastrophe, especially regarding our beliefs? Through the profound narrative of Parshas Masai and Periklamid Gimmel, we take you on a journey to when a budding monotheistic society was tasked to cleanse their land of polytheistic influences. A daunting task at its core, it was accentuated with harsh warnings echoing through the words of Imlosayrishu and Ramban. They warned that any residue of foreign gods could implode this society from within, from mere pins in the eyes to thorns in the side and finally manifesting as relentless harassment. 

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There's a time for peace and there's a time for war, and this was not a time to lay down arms and to give hugs and be friends, but Parshas Masai and Periklamid Gimmel was a time to take up arms and to eradicate any of the polytheistic material and propaganda from the land of Qinnah.

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We are commanded, as we are, to cross the Jordan River and before we are to set up our thriving Jewish and monotheistic society in the land, we are to clean it, to rinse it, scrub it and really destroy any sort of asherah, any sort of idolatry, any sort of small hint, shemmets of foreign gods.

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The Imlosayrishu says the Pasek, and if you will not rid the land of its inhabitants that are involved in these polytheistic practices, well then, le-sikim be'enechem, they will be like pins in your eyes, but let's knee nim, and then they will be like thorns in your side.

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B'tzidechem and lastly, v'tsorru eschem al-haaretz, your society will never last, they will harass you and things aren't going to work out.

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And the Remban, in one of his epic comments on Chumish, describes how these are not three separate things, but they all are a sequence of events, that if you are not able to pick up on something being polytheistic and packed with something that isn't from our Jewish beliefs, well then it will start as a small pin, very unnoticeable, and then turn into a thorn and lastly, it will harass us and destroy our society.

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And the idea here being conveyed is that it is our job to understand the root, to be mak'ir where these foreign gods may set up shop in our lives.

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Before we embark on any sort of really real undertaking, doing it should be done le-chath-khila, the best of the best.

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The floor plan must be laid, it should be a charted way towards success, and that means a cleaning of what is previously there, to begin anew and to make sure that a sort of sense of what is not on brand with what God's priorities are is wiped out and destroyed.

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If you catch it while it's still a pin, well then you will save yourself from large levels of harassment.

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And if you follow the Jewish people through our history, you will see how, in different countries, it started as very small levels of pins, it turned quickly into thorns and eventually, nebch, it was total harassment.

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Let us be mak'ir where these polytheistic practices are in our lives, to rid them from the source, to really set up a monotheistic society.