Guns are Not Enough: True Protection after Pittsburgh

Very well said. Thank you for shedding light on a very difficult idea I constantly grapple with. I am awaiting more articles from Rabbi Kleinman thank you.

We also reminded. He that keepeth Israel doe not slumbér or sleep. We build and battle.

Kleinman should focus entirely on his social work. We DO grieve the loss of the Temple because Israel didn’t have enough soldiers and arms. Young Jews in the West should learn self- defense when kids. And as one commentary on the Torah said 1500 years ago, “ If a man comes to kill you kill him first. As Jabotinsky pleaded with European Jews around 1930: “ Learn to shoot.”

The Jewish response to Pittsburgh was stupid and wimpy. In general, the blame was placed on Trump. I grew up near Trump and his family had close ties with the Jewish Community. In fact, when his father was terminally ill, he spent his last six weeks in Long Island Jewish Hospital, an institution he had donated to for many years.

Jews at the time of the temple had plenty of arms and people who could use them. Even if they had not, had G-d wanted it, they still would have won - just like today, events would have occurred to ensure it. The temple was destroyed for reasons of spiritual, not military failure.
The article is correct, both "fronts" must be strengthened - with particular emphasis on Jewish unity.

my mind about security.

To reply to a couple of comments here - making aliyah is a lovely idea and it's very important. But it's not a magical cure for everything and it's not always right for everyone. Not everyone is so easily able to make aliyah. If it were that easy, don't you think we would all be living in Israel?! It's very difficult for soooo many reasons. Let me tell you a few you may not have thought of.
1. Not everyone has the money - which even NBN agrees you need your own money and can't rely on NBN forever. Especially for people who are in debt to schools, credit cards, what have you. Debt does not go away when you move to another country, and earning less money (shekel vs dollar) does not make paying off debt any easier.
2. Some people have extreme anxiety and can't just pick up and move to a foreign country where they don't speak the language and don't know the day by day routines and don't know how to get from their apt to the grocery store. It can be a Real struggle for someone with anxiety to make all those changes. (Approximately 30% of north American adults suffer from an anxiety disorder. That's about 1 of every 3 people.)
3. Some people don't have careers that translate over and therefore can't just magically find a job and income. For example, anyone licensed as a Physician's Assistant in the US would have to start school aaaaall over in Israel. That means not working. That means again, no income.
You who are commenting that everyone should make aliyah, you are not anyone else's therapist, accountant, or spouse. You don't know people's stories. So to say to people a blanket statement that they should just make aliyah, like they have a bowl of cereal, is really not fair. I hope you would Never say to a woman to just have babies when you have no idea that she is actually infertile. Please stop preaching to make Aliyah before you get to know a person and are able and prepared to offer them help they need to do so.

Guns may not be enough, but they are clearly where to start. H' only said ONCE in the Torah, "Stand back and watch this" - and that was at Yam Suf. Otherwise, He has always expected us to take up arms b'gashmi (physically) in our own defense. Let's talk about all the ruchniasdik (spiritual) issues AFTER Jews have assured their physical survival!. Our rabbinic leaders must instruct us to stand in our own defense, as H' has always expected us to. "If I am not for myself, who is for me?"

Why not a single word about keeping HaShem''s decree on settling the Land of Israel?? No, guns are not enough. The entire Jewish population of the world must come on aliyah. This is where all of us are supposed to be living. It is hard to have sympathy when Jews do not do what HaShem has told us to do, when this murderer should not have had a single Jew to murder!

I wish it were that simple, but Aliyah is not so easy. My family and I have not given up on Aliyah, but we have no money and even Nefesh B'Nefesh says that you need money. Instead of judging those of us who are still stuck in Chutz La'Aretz, please daven that Hashem should help us all get there soon.

I wonder if the author of this article realizes that he is implying that had the members of the Pittsburgh congregation or some other segment of our population been "better Jews", that this act of senseless hate may not have happened?

I think you've made a great point here, but I do think this line in the article is somewhat telling:

"We do not sit and mourn the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem because we did not have the weapons to protect it."

He does seem to imply here that our actions can have negative consequences for the Jewish people, like what happened with the Temple. Does that mean this is always the case? I personally don't think he implies so (and perhaps even implies that many things cannot be prevented).

I think he is using the idea of the Temple in Jerusalem to show that we do, at least sometimes, have the ability to make things better by bringing God into the world more. We don't know why what happened in Pittsburgh happened, and I don't think the author is claiming we do. I think he is, as noted in a different comment here, just trying to figure out if there is anything we can do to combat anti-semitism from a spiritual perspective (at least to the best of our ability), or if we are "stuck" with it and can't do anything to lessen it.

The gentiles have a responsibility also and that is our commitment to Hashem and our covenant with Him by the Seven Noahide laws he gave to us that was restated at Mt Saini. One of those laws being not to murder. If we gentiles would abide by them we would have a world where Jew and every Gentile would live together in piece with each working toward united goal to make His name known. Hatred and jelousy would cease. May this happen soon in our day.

How interesting. When even the most Torah-observant and knowledgable Jews in America declare that our response to anti-semitism must be spiritual, strengthening our commitment to the commandments, they neglect to mention the one equivalent to all the rest [yes, one of the seven]. The Rambam in Mishneh Torah (Hilchos Melachim, 5) says that a Jew should always live in Eretz Yisrael, even in a city with a majority of gentiles(!), and never outside the Land, even in a city whose majority is Jews! And he wrote in a time when conditions in the Land were nearly impossible. Now, when our cities are filled with Jews, and all manner of comfort, one would hope that somebody would take the hint that IT IS TIME TO COME HOME to where all the mitzvos are meant to be kept, where a Jew can, indeed be the best Jew he can be.

I wish it were that simple. My family and I want to make Aliyah very badly, but we don't have money and even Nefesh B'Nefesh says that you need money. Please daven that Hashem should help all of us get there soon.

I'm a fairly religious Jew who fully agrees that we should live so as to embody the Torah ideal of love and sanctity.

Having affirmed that, I submit to your readers the sobering thought that Jews (many thousands of them) have lived by that code for 3,000 years. I don't see that it has done much to eliminate or even dampen anti-Semitism. I knew five of the Jews massacred in Pittsburgh. They were righteous souls! But their sweetness and innocence did nothing to stop the outburst of murderous anti-Semitism that took their lives.

Should Jews live up to the best of their Jewishness? Yes, I think that's a fine idea. Does such a posture reduce anti-Semitism? Your writer hasn't convinced me.

I think the author is trying to convey the idea that when Jews do Jewish things (his prime example is embodying love), God's presence is stronger in the world and it becomes a better place. If it's a better place, that means less anti-semitism and less hate overall. I think his point is just that hateful acts could be diminished if God's presence is more prominent, but not that they necessarily will be all the time (he does seem to acknowledge that "there will always be those who hate us").

I think he is just trying to figure out if there is any way to combat anti-semitism, or if we are stuck with it and can't do anything about it. It seems this is his attempt to answer that question.

I agree with Tovah. It's super important to be the light in this dark world, but unfortunately, only Mashiach will end anti-Semitism. Haters gonna hate. That's just the way of the sad world we live in.

One of the best articles written on the subject! "Wake Up My People" said/says it all and simply!

I remember when Yosef and Netanel Littman were murdered in a terrorist attack. Their daughter and sister Sarah was supposed to get married that week, but the wedding was postponed for shiva. Then they moved the wedding to Binyanei HaUmah and invited all Jews to dance with them. Thousands of Jews did exactly that. THAT was revenge.
My son is becoming bar-mitzvah soon. One week after the massacre in Pittsburgh, he had his Hanachat Tefillin. THAT too is revenge.
Every time we do a mitzvah, we're sending a message. To our enemies, the message is that they will never succeed. Am Yisrael Chai V'Kayam.

About Kiddush HaShem, sanctifying G-d's name, for
G-d, to Honor G-d, to bring light, in all of our actions and words. To celebrate our Souls, and live from Joy.

Revenge is the wrong energy and motivation, in my opinion. I refuse to see it, that way.

Who cares if it's the "wrong" motivation? Doing mitzvot is a form of revenge that is allowed. It helps all Jews and hurts no one except our enemies. And there are a lot of people who want revenge no matter how wrong it may be otherwise. If revenge is the motivation for them to do mitzvot, then YEAH revenge!

"Direction of the Heart," is important, for a Mitzvah.

There is a teaching, the Baal Shem Tov was with his disciples. Upon entering a Temple, they observed Prayers all on the floor.

They lacked the Soul, the Heart, to lift them, to the Heavens.

Revenge, has heart, but I think actions from that place, hurt us, as well.

Just my opinion, on it.

"MiToch Shelo Lishma, Ba Lishma." So what if people are doing mitzvot for the "wrong" reasons? Eventually, they'll get to the point where they're doing mitzvot for the right reasons, but until then, whatever motivates people to do mitzvot is fine by me.

Mazel tov on your son's Bar Mitzvah! May you experience many more simchas. I agree with your sentiments completely. I was raised in a VERY secular background and my parents a"h were probably frightened of anti Semitism. I refuse to give in to any such fear.

Kol HaKavod to you. Remember that every mitzvah that you do is good for you and for Klal Yisrael.