Re'eh
One of the frightening phenomena of civilizations, both ancient and modern,
is discussed in the Torah reading this week. That recurring phenomenon is
the one of the false prophet. The Torah warned the people of Israel that
there would be false prophets in their future. It also warned them how
dangerous and sinister such people are, because for all of their charisma
and attraction, their influence is lethal. Even if the false prophet gives
signs and omens to substantiate the prophecy that he is advancing, and
those signs and omens apparently become actual and real, nevertheless the
Torah admonishes us "do not dare to succumb to listen [and have belief] in
him." The Torah wants us to carefully inspect both the message and the
messenger before investing our behavior and future in the forecasts of
anyone. The Torah especially emphasizes the danger of "dreamers of dreams,"
the purveyors of utopian schemes, unrealistic magic and ideologue nonsense.
Look at what Karl Marx' dreams, theories and ideological certainties have
accomplished for mankind. How about the false prophets of all of the major
idealistic movements of our sad century? Hitler, Mao, Lenin, Stalin,
Trotsky, Pol Pot, etc. all prophesied the emerging "New Order," the "Brave
New World," "Democratic Collectivism," "Redesigning the World," and all of
their prophesies gained millions of believers. But all their dreams,
certainties and bravado ended up as pure nonsense, or better put, impure
bloody nonsense. False prophets are deadly expensive luxuries for human
societies.
How does one spot a false prophet? Again, the Torah is most instructive in
dealing with this problem. If the prophet promotes goals, or means to
achieve those goals, which are contrary to the accepted value norms of
Torah, then he is automatically a false prophet. The promotion of paganism,
the unjustified violence in the supposed cause of good, "moral" political
and intellectual leaders who are personally immoral, radicals who are
determined to destroy everything old to make way for the purportedly
blessed new - none of these scenarios is allowed by the Torah. They should
not be condoned by society, certainly not by Jewish society, either. Our
world is always looking for a new false prophet. The new ideologues such as
the Greens, who are dangerously close to pantheism, if not paganism; the
homosexual lobby, interested in proselytizing others and debasing all
standards of accepted human behavior established over the last two
millennia; and the true believers, both Right and Left, who believe that
coercive social engineering is the panacea for all our inner and communal
ills, are all part of the group of the false prophets of our time. We
should be steadfast in avoiding being swayed by their currently, but only
temporarily, political correct, siren song. Anything that does not conform
to God's natural law of nature and humans, as clearly expressed in the
Torah, is a dangerous delusion and a false and destructive type of prophecy.
The Jewish society, because of its innate, almost naive, search for spirit,
perfection, and a compassionate and just world, is particularly prone to
the disaster of false prophets. The Jewish world in its long history has
been able to identify and reject false prophets and false messiahs. But
that ability has suffered over the past two centuries. Our Jewish world has
embraced many Jewish and non-Jewish false prophets, ideologies, programs
and goals recently. The disastrous consequences of such recklessness in the
Jewish world are by now patently obvious to all unprejudiced observers. The
admonition of the Torah to ignore and reject the false prophets of the
world is as valid today as ever. We disregard it at our extreme peril.
Shabat Shalom.
Rabbi Berel Wein
Text Copyright © 2001 Rabbi Berel Wein and
Project Genesis, Inc.
