By Avrohom Birnbaum
No, this article is not about the new affinity for electric cars that seems to have taken hold in the frum community. Everywhere you go, you see frum Yidden driving electric cars, Telsas or otherwise. In truth, this has nothing to do with Elon Musk nor does it indicate any new “green” environmentalism that has gripped us. It is pure economics. If the government wants to basically give away electric cars for half price, it is worth it.
Exhibit 1: Burn the Teslas
The title of this article, however, is about something much more insidious. Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, has been in the news lately. He has been appointed by President Trump to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and he has set about cutting waste with such gusto that it has sent his detractors into unprecedented paroxysms of anxiety and panic. He has also energized those who see how much taxpayers’ money is not just being wasted but even worse, being used to undermine so much of what America stands for.
Either way, as Musk began gutting out entire government agencies, the left went ballistic. They use the money funneled through these agencies to indoctrinate and influence their woke and leftist policies. They could not let this stand. So, instead of trying to fight Musk in the marketplace of ideas or fight the republicans at the ballot box they have resorted to their age-old anarchist playbook. If you can’t beat them, torch them!
If you are mad at a policy, the way to fight is with violence. Start igniting Tesla dealerships or charging stations. Cause millions of dollars of damage and make sure to not just disagree, argue with or debate Musk but rather cancel him as a subhuman who is not worthy of living. That is what we have seen. No deep debates, no marketplace of ideas… just violence, cancel culture and demonization.
The reaction to the Israeli response to the Hamas massacre on October 7, has been similar. Instead of debating ideas, the left on university campuses have resorted to violence, storming buildings, beating up Jews and ushering in an unprecedented atmosphere of antisemitism and violence against Jews. Again, there’s no need to debate ideas. If you possess certain ideas, you are not considered worthy of living! You need to be beaten and cancelled.
Exhibit 2: Shut Down Yerushalayim and Tel Aviv
Let’s move on to Eretz Yisroel, where we are seeing almost the same script. It started with the judicial review debate in advance of October 7, and has continued with the reaction to the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to fire the Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet.
To back-pedal a bit, anyone observing the Israeli scene knows that over the years the Supreme Court has taken more and more power for itself, basically acting as an unelected body that is there to step in and thwart the rule of the duly elected democratic government of the people, the Israeli’s elected (usually) right wing leaning governments.
Anytime the government wanted to enact laws that the people asked for but that didn’t fit in with the progressive leftist thinking that makes up the majority of the Supreme Court, they just deemed the laws being enacted by the government as against “democracy” or against the (non-existent) constitution of the State and the Supreme Court overturned the law.
When Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a member of the elected government of Israel, tried to enact Judicial Reform all madness broke lose. The left declared that the government led by Netanyahu and Levin was a fascist government, a Hitler incarnate (!) and proclaimed that the government must be stopped by all means. Violent street demonstrations and protests ensued. Lawlessness was condoned by the police in order to achieve the greater good of stopping the evil Netanyahu.
More recently, Netanyahu sought to fire Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet, who is supposed to be serving at the pleasure of the Prime Minister. Again, the shrill warning of the “end of democracy is here,” came forth from the left, people have taken to the streets and are resorting to violence, demonizing and cancel culture. They are engaging in lawless, undemocratic behavior all in order to “save democracy.” Again, there is no debate, no discussion… only violence.
Exhibit 3: Turn Over the Mayor’s Car
Now many might be saying, yes, those things are terrible but we frum people would never engage in such lawless violence. After all, we follow the Torah. We understand that even when you disagree and even strongly or vehemently disagree with someone, even in a religious matter there are redlines that you just don’t cross. Right?
Sadly, it seems that we are much more mushpah, much more influenced by the non-Jewish or secular world than we think. Take for example the recent story that transpired with the Mayor of Beit Shemesh, Mr. Shmuel Greenberg. Mr. Greenberg is the Charedi representative for the Degel HaTorah party in Beit Shemesh, who is the Mayor of Beit Shemesh.
Last week, Greenberg was attending a family simcha. Upon exiting the simcha with his wife and children, a mob of people dressed in Charedi garb set upon him. They were upset with some of his policy decisions and decided that he had to be taught a lesson! As he was sitting in his car with his children, the mob attacked the car and turned it over, terrorizing him and his children. One child was injured and needed to be briefly hospitalized.
Now, let’s think for a second. Was he chayav misah? Let’s say that whatever their disagreement with his policy was legitimate. Does that justify mob violence, trauma, to the extent that the poor man and his family had to be extricated from the mob by a platoon of police officers?!
What has happened to us? Have we now decided that the only way to disagree is by violently setting upon a man and his innocent children? This is a page taken out of the playbook of the Tesla mob and the Hamas sympathizers on campus.
The Time for… Vigilance!
Let’s look back at our history and see if this is how we disagreed in the past. I think it can be agreed upon that perhaps the greatest threat to frum life since the founding of the State of Israel was the gezeirah of giyus banos. In the 1950’s, the anti-religious government of the fledgling State of Israel wanted to enact a law that would make army service compulsory for girls. The Chazon Ish and all the senior gedolim of that time issued a psak that it was “yeharog v’al yaavor,” they could even submit to death before giving in.
At the same time, the gedolei Yisroel agreed that public demonstrations against the gezeirah had to be made. Now, we have filmed footage of those demonstrations. We see gedolim such as Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, the Chebiner Rav and others sitting at those hafganos. What happened at those hafganos? The Yidden davened and raised their voices in tefillah crying to Hashem to rescind the gezeirah. Drashos were also given, calling on the government to desist and declaring that we would never send our daughters to the army even if they put us in jail.
Did the gedolei Yisroel call for torching the city, setting it alight? Did they tell Yidden to turn over cars? To beat up the religious Zionist (Mizrachi) leaders who didn’t come out against the gezeirah? No, no and no. They didn’t. There are ways to vehemently disagree and express opinions without violence as well.
Sadly, today even among frum and Charedi Yidden this attitude adapted from the woke mobs has infiltrated. It is not enough to disagree and explain why you disagree. It seems that some feel the need to “cancel” others with whom they disagree with and there are even those who resort to violence.
We all know that our world is influenced by what goes on in the world around us. Yet, even when we are upset and think we are right, even when we know that the Torah says we are right, there is a way to disagree. It is so easy to cross those red lines when we are not vigilant.
Now is the time for vigilance.
{Matzav.com}The post The Tesla Effect first appeared on Matzav.com.