The Truth

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim

Reader: Hi. I'm and American Jew living near Boston. I appreciate all the work that goes into Mesora.org, and am 100% behind Israel and the elimination of the Arab threats to our homeland. The one thing I have a problem with is in the Mesora Must Reads section of your homepage. Is it really necessary, or helpful to our cause in any way, to have a link to "Jesus cannon be God: Disproving All Other Religions"? That just seems like a ill-conceived notion. Inches below that on the page is a like called "Protest French anti-Semitism". I get a disturbing sense of hypocrisy when I see calls to disprove "all other religions". I thought the point of freedom was to allow people to believe whatever they thought to be true, as long as it didn't hurt others.
We can't defend our land and our people by literally attacking the religion of others'. Judaism and the Jewish people have no need to try to diminish the beliefs of other people. We can easily stand strong on our own beliefs while letting other people enjoy their own.

I urge you to reconsider that article. We can do much more with a teaspoon of honey than a gallon of vinegar. Thank you.

Mesora: I appreciate input as yours. But let me be clear, Mesora's goal - as should be the goal of any person - is to understand absolute truth about reality, by definition meaning truth about God. This truth carries with it a conviction and the defense of such truth, as one who perceives truth is disturbed that another human being is bereft of that knowledge. He desires truth for all mankind. Such were Abraham's goals. Therefore, the platform of allowing others their freedom to practice what they wish, although not practically removed via our position, we must oppose it verbally, so as to teach the truth. There is only one best way for man to live according to a God who doesn't change is mind - according to God who has absolute knowledge of truths - which refers to eternally, unchanging principles. Therefore, tolerance of any system but the one given divinely by God Himself with proofs of that event, must be opposed for the sake of mankind. Opposing other religions is not an attack on people, but on principle. Religion must not be treated different than science - both are based on rational principles, as both, God's natural laws and His philosophical laws emanate from God Himself, the Designer of all sciences, and religion is what I would term, the "science of life".

Freedom is a goal, and I defend it. But would you defend freedom unconditionally? You surely support the US's move to capture bin-Laden and bring him to trial, as should be done with Arafat. So you yourself would not suggest that freedom is an absolute - we do not allow terrorists freedom to express themselves. Now while freedom of religion at least today hurts no one - compared to the crusades - we must not falsely evaluate the death of one's body via homicide explosions as more evil than the death of one's soul through living a life of lies. Certainly the soul's death is far worse, as it is an eternal ruin of man, whereas physical death is not. We do not force others to choose their beliefs, as God's will is that each man retain and express his freewill.

We will continue to speak out against France, the PLO, terrorism, and most importantly, false ideas - be they false religions or false practices - which lead the blind astray, losing for them their one chance of a short life, learning the truth about God's one plan for man.