Thursday, October 25, 2007

A Potential Underlying Reason


Reb_Baruch commenting on So, What Would You Do?:

I've been taught that there are some things in this world (like pork) where the kedusha lay only in our avoiding them. I don't think that German cars would fall under that category, no matter what that nation perpetrated upon our people. I personally hold with "A Talmid". I think that you are doing far more good by allowing that Jew to support the shul, and possibly be supported by the ad. If it isn't an aveira to sell a German car, then who knows, after Moshiach comes (soon, Hashem, please!) and we get all our answers, we may find out that Hashem only made these cars so that the Jews can earn a parnassah, give more tzedakah, pay for more Shabbos meals, support more shuls...

In other words without excusing one iota of the German people's less than sterling history with our people, even here we can uplift and convert the world into a dwelling place for Hashem. The only caveat would be to find out if there are any members of the community (i.e., holocaust survivors or their families) who would feel genuinely pained, or even betrayed by seeing such an ad in their shul's calendar. If the salesman who placed the ad is a prominent, strongly affiliated member of the shul, then anyone who knows him would probably be okay, or at the very least, the Rabbi might be able to bring the two parties together to work it out somehow.

1 Comments:

At October 25, 2007 at 12:00:00 PM EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"You're right!" replied Rabbi Eliezer. "Now you remind me, once I was walking though Tzipori and I met a heretic leader. He engaged me in conversation and said, "As you know, rabbi, money paid to a prostitute may not be used for a sacrifice, as the Torah clearly says in Devarim 23:19. But tell me, rabbi, can this money be used to build a toilet for the Kohen Gadol? As you know, the Kohen Gadol must separate himself from his house for seven days before Yom Kippur, and must remain in the Temple precincts. There are many things that he needs there, and among them is a good toilet."

"I refused to answer him. But then he said to me, 'I think that it should be permitted. This money comes from a filthy place; let it go to a filthy place.' I liked his answer, and I guess that I enjoyed it. That the reason that I deserved such a punishment."

 

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