Re:
Rabbi: Tsunami punishment for Gaza pullout
stevewonder wrote:Heres a very curious article, i know differen t religous fundamentalists can come out with some strange things but this is abit off the wall?
Quote:Rabbi: Tsunami punishment for Gaza pullout
Monday 31 January 2005,
Last month's Asian tsunami disaster was a form of divine retribution for the world's support of the planned pullout of settlers from the Gaza Strip, a former chief rabbi of Israel has said.
"The all powerful one was angry with the nations that did not help Israel, which wanted an evacuation, a disengagement [from Gaza] ... and this provoked the earth to shake," Mordechai Eliahu said in a religious publication distributed on Monday in thousands of synagogues throughout Israel.
The top-selling Yediot Ahronoth said the rabbi was guilty of "extreme stupidity" with his comments.
Right-wing rabbis have been among the instigators of the opposition to the plan by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to pull troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip by the end of the year.
The number of people presumed dead in last month's tsunamis rose to more than 286,000 on Monday when Indonesian authorities announcing a further increase in the number of dead and missing
any comments?
Having googled and searched the net for the actual quote of what Rav Eliahu actually said and not finding any quote to verify the above inference, I would guess that this article is a case taking something out of context.
I can give you the reference in the gemora (Talmud) where it says that earthquakes are the result of G-d's tears falling into the ocean (because of misdeeds (of Jews)), and I can give you various interpretations of what this might mean, but...
Just because I discussed this passage with my children and friends of mine some of us speculated as to what purpose this might serve does not mean that one of the speculations, for instance to "smite" the largest Muslim population in the world, was accurate, reasonable or even worth mentioning.
I do not believe that Rav Eliahu would make the bold faced attribution stated above - "Last month's Asian tsunami disaster was a form of divine retribution for the world's support of the planned pullout of settlers from the Gaza Strip."
As stated, the actual quote does not say that. Gaza is not mentioned.
Quote:jerusalem (ap) | The tsunami that ravaged southern Asia last month was God's punishment for world support for Israel's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, a former Israeli chief rabbi has been quoted as saying.
"When the Holy One, Blessed be He, is angry with the nations of the world that don't help Israel - but want to evacuate and disengage, and interfere in our affairs and harm us - then the Holy One, Blessed be He, claps his hands in sadness, and this causes the quake," Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu was quoted as telling the ultra-Orthodox Ma'ayanei Hayeshua magazine.
A spokesman for the rabbi wasn't immediately available to confirm the accuracy of the quotation. But the magazine said Eliahu is a regular contributor and reviews his contributions before they are published.
Source
I think their is a danger in condemning religious leaders for what they do not say while ignoring other religious leaders for what they emphatically state.
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