Judaism's existence, there
have been those committed
millions who resisted because
they were taught when they
were first able to speak
"Torah tzivah lanu Moshe"
(The Torah was commanded
to us [by God] through Moses)
and then Shema Yisrael.
When a child grows with the
identity that his role in the
world is to sanctify God's
name through his behavior,
he is imbued with an
idealism which time and
history have shown have not
let our people be extinguish-
ed into oblivion.
Anything short of emunah
can have no lasting effect.
Every opposing sect or
theology that has developed
within Judaism has gained
only momentary attention.
Witness the Saducees,
Essenes (who?), etc. Those of
the Jewish people who have
drifted to the theologies of the
last 200 years are the ones
that are now unfortunately
endangered and disrupted by
the fundamental problem of
intermarriage.
Jews who have followed the
path of emunah are, to be
frank, not entirely immune to
the problem of intermarriage
(there are no guarantees
because people are born with
urges), but are certainly not
suffering in any sense of the
word, from the contemporary
plague of our people.
So the question, "How to
prevent an intermarriage"
really has to be rephrased,
"How do we develop emunah,
faith in God and His Torah."
More specifically, how can
this be done for children by
parents who do not yet have
this emunah?
These are serious questions
which can only be addressed
adequately at length and are
far beyond the limits of this
response. But, in brief, I
might suggest that emunah
can only be found in a faith
community. Visit people,
synagogues and houses of
Torah study where this
emunah is nurtured and
manifest. Observe what
transpires, ask all you want
to know and then make your
determination. (Caution: this
can only be accomplished by
individuals who are able to
subject all their presumptions
and axioms about life to
scrutiny.)
Rabbi Reuven Drucker
Southfield
Jews Don't Belong
In The New Age
I was shocked and dismayed
by Elizabeth Applebaum's ar-
ticle, "Psyched Up For the
New Age" (April 13). Her por-
trayal of the Theosophical
Society as a benign study
group for those with a serious
interest in esoteric Eastern
philosophies is very far off the
mark. Actually, Madame
Blavatsky, founder of this
movement, was exposed as a
charlatan and a plagiarist by
her contemporaries more
than a century ago.
Theosophy's core theology in-
cludes a doctrine of evolving
"root races" that lends itself
not only to an anti-Semitic in-
terpretation but also to a
Nazi one. Indeed, a number of
scholars have traced the roots
of Nazism to Theosophical
Society doctrines.
The article also fails to in-
form readers of the anti-
Semitic and anti-Zionist
statements made by the late
Alice Bailey — probably the
most important Theosophical
writer of the 20th Century
and a leading light of the New
Age movement.
For example, from The Rays
and the Initiations as cited
in Carl Raschke's The New
Age Movement and Anti-
Semitism:
". .. the Jews have . . . open-
ed the door to the forces of
Evil . . . These forces of Evil
work through a triangle of
evil, one point of which is to
be found in the Zionist Move-
ment in the United States,
another in central Europe,
and the third in Palestine."
Let us also not forget Nor-
man Cohen's research
reported in Warrant for
Genocide implicating a
Theosophist in the movement
of the infamous Protocols of
the Elders of Zion from Russia
to Western Europe.
Clearly, Jews are woefully
ignorant of the anti-Semitic
aspects of the New Age move-
ment. With the New Agers
now speaking openly of a
desperate need for a "cleans-
ing action" to rid the world of
"the ego-driven godless one-
fourth (of humanity)" stan-
ding in the way of a radical
transformation in human
spiritual consciousness, it is
incumbent upon the leader-
ship of the Jewish communi-
ty — including the editors of
The Jewish News — to sound
the alarm.
Richard Gilman
Ann Arbor
Let Us Know
Letters must be concise,
typewritten and double-
spaced. Correspondence
must include the signa-
ture, home address and
daytime phone number of
the writer.
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