Truth Over Tyranny: Biblical wisdom for defeating the Technocrats.
These are my insights for defeating the Transhumanist Technocracy movement, based on the teachings of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, on the weekly Bible portion.
Of the many sources of heartache plaguing us in today’s turbulent times, it is perhaps the “generation gap” that hurts the most. So many of our families are being pushed to the limits by seemingly irreconcilable differences between parents and children.
Here are but a few examples:
Politics: if you support a candidate with an America First platform, you promote “white supremacy.”
Education: if you are opposed to schools selecting students on the basis of skin color,” you are “racist.”
Biology: if you believe in binary biology sex, you are “transphobic.”
Health: if you don’t get “vaccinated,” you are a danger to society.
It often seems to me that our children have adopted a “moral code” that is so drastically different from the Judeo-Christian heritage of the West, that they are basically following a new religion. Those of us who have looked behind the scenes, realize that this “religion” is fake, and based on the secular and exploitative ideals of the Technocracy. And they have very successfully suckered many people into their cult.
So what are we supposed to do? Do we just hope and pray that our children will eventually “wake up” from being “woke?” There actually might be something to the idea that ultimately, faith and love will prevail and reunite parents and children. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks gives us encouragement in this regard, in his commentary on Parashat Pinchas called “Moshe’s Disappointment.”
Yes: believe it or not, Moses – the greatest prophet, and first leader of the Jewish nation – had a problem child; a grandchild, to be exact. Rabbi Sacks explains:
“…In the book of Judges we read of a man named Micah who established an idolatrous cult in the territory of Ephraim and hired a Levite to officiate in the shrine. Some men from the tribe of Dan, moving north to find more suitable land for themselves, came upon Micah’s house and seized both the idolatrous artefacts and the Levite, whom they persuaded to become their priest, saying, ‘Come with us, and be our father and priest. Isn’t it better that you serve a tribe and clan in Israel as priest rather than just one man’s household?’ (Judges 18:19).
“Only at the end of the story (v. 30) are we told the name of the idolatrous priest: Jonathan son of Gershom son of Moses. In our texts the letter nun has been inserted into the last of these names, so that it can be read as Menasheh rather than Moses. However, the letter, unusually, is written above the line, as a superscription. The Talmud says that the nun was added to avoid besmirching the name of Moses himself, by disclosing that his grandson had become an idolatrous priest.”
Rabbi Sacks offers five possible reasons for why Moshe’s progeny “went off the path.” One has to do with the influences on his own life:
“How are we to explain Moses’ apparent failure with his own children and grandchildren? One suggestion made by the Sages was that it had to do with the fact that for years he lived in Midian with his father-in-law Jethro, who was at the time an idolatrous priest. Something of the Midianite influence re-appeared in Jonathan three generations later.”
Perhaps he neglected his family to prioritize his life work:
“Alternatively there are hints here and there that Moses himself was so preoccupied with leading the people that he simply did not have time to attend to the spiritual needs of his children. For instance, when Jethro came to visit his son-in-law after the division of the Red Sea, he brought with him Moses’ wife Tzipporah and their two sons. They had not been with him until then.”
It could have been genetics:
“A third explanation has to do with the nature of leadership itself. Bureaucratic authority – authority in virtue of office – can be passed down from parent to child. Monarchy is like that. So is aristocracy. So are some forms of religious leadership, like the priesthood. But charismatic authority – in virtue of personal qualities – is never automatically handed on across the generations. Moses was a prophet, and prophecy depends almost entirely on personal qualities. That, incidentally, is why, though kingship and priesthood in Judaism were male prerogatives, prophecy was not. There were prophetesses as well as prophets. In this respect Moses was not unusual. Few charismatic leaders have children who are also charismatic leaders.”
Then again, God apparently wants merit to be earned, not inherited:
“A fourth explanation offered by the Sages was quite different. On principle, God did not want the crown of Torah to pass from parent to child in dynastic succession. Kingship and priesthood did. But the crown of Torah, they said, belongs to anyone who chooses to take hold of it and bear its responsibilities. ‘Moses commanded us the Torah as an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob,’ meaning that it belongs to all of us, not just an elite…
“In other words, the ‘crown of Torah’ was deliberately not hereditary because it might become the prerogative of the rich. Or because children of great scholars might take their inheritance for granted. Or because it could lead to arrogance and contempt for others. Or because learning itself might become a mere intellectual pursuit rather than a spiritual exercise…”
And we have to face the fact that sometimes, parents fail. Many Biblical heroes fell short in raising their children:
“However, there is a fifth factor worthy of consideration. Some of the greatest figures in Jewish history did not succeed with all their children. Abraham fathered Ishmael. Isaac and Rebecca gave birth to Esau. All twelve of Jacob’s children stayed within the fold, but three of them – Reuben, Shimon and Levi – disappointed their father. Of Shimon and Levi he said, ‘Let my soul not enter their plot; let my spirit not unite with their meeting’ (Gen. 49:6)…
“Solomon gave birth to Rehoboam, whose disastrous leadership divided the kingdom. Hezekiah, one of Judah’s greatest kings, was the father of Menasseh, one of the worst. Not all parents succeed with all their children all the time. How could it be otherwise? We each possess freedom. We are each, to some extent, who we chose to become. Neither genes nor upbringing can guarantee that we become the person our parents want us to be. Nor is it right that parents should over-impose their will on children who have reached the age of maturity.”
The good news is that not all is lost. Children do come back to the fold:
“The book of Chronicles (1 Chron. 23:16, 24:20) refers to Gershom’s son not as Jonathan but as Shevual or Shuvael, which the rabbis translated as ‘return to God’. In other words, Jonathan eventually repented of his idolatry and became again a faithful Jew. However far a child has drifted, he or she may in the course of time come back.”
And, in general, the entire next generation can become our “children:”
“(Numbers 3)…begins with the words, ‘These are the children of Aaron and Moses,’ but goes on to list only Aaron’s children. On this the rabbis say that because Moses taught Aaron’s children they were regarded as his own. In general, ‘disciples’ are called ‘children’.
“We may not all have children. Even if we do, we may, despite our best endeavours, find them at least temporarily following a different path. But we can all leave something behind us that will live on. Some do so by following Moses’ example: teaching, facilitating, or encouraging the next generation. Some do so in line with the rabbinic statement that ‘the real offspring of the righteous are good deeds.'”
Rabbi Sacks provides hope that there will be a time when families are reunited:
“When our children follow our path we should be grateful. When they go beyond us, we should give special thanks to God. And when they choose another way, we must be patient, knowing that the greatest Jew of all time had the same experience with one of his grandchildren. And we must never give up hope. Moses’ grandson returned. In almost the last words of the last of the prophets, Malachi foresaw a time when God ‘will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers’ (Mal. 3:24). The estranged will be reunited in faith and love.”
I would add this: many people characterize today’s War as one of “opposing spiritual forces;” of good vs evil. If that is the case, then the main “spiritual battles” will be fought in the home.
In the public arena, and on the World Stage, the fights will be over laws and law enforcement. Governments, judges, police forces, and armies will determine whether people with good intentions or bad intentions assume power. But in the home, in the lives of families, the battles will be over whether each family member lets feelings of despair, animosity and even hatred prevail; or lets hope, love and trust guide them.
That is the true spiritual battle.