Q:
There has been pressure put on the Rabbinate in Medinas Yisroel by secular politicians to permit mamzerim to marry into Jewish people. They don’t understand why it should be otherwise.
A:
So what’s your question?
Q:
The question is should we try to present it in such a way to make it acceptable or understandable to these secularists?
A:
So here is what my rejoinder is. A man married a woman who was famous as a girl of rare beauty and she was famous also for her good sense and good character. All the maalos she had and now that he married her, she lives in his house; she’s the matron of the house, and he is happy. He is a fortunate man. יקרה היא מפנינים – A good wife is better than pearls.
Now the Torah is called our good wife. That’s what it’s talking about. The Torah is better than pearls. The Torah is married to us and we’re happy with her. Very happy, very satisfied.
Along comes a guttersnipe, a drunk, a bowery bum and he’s standing outside and he’s calling names against this matron. He says, “You ugly thing! You stupid woman!”
So the husband is thinking, “Should I go out and persuade him to understand that my wife is a beautiful woman? I’ll open the door and let her stick her face out? I’m satisfied with her, so what will I do with this guttersnipe? I’ll pick up a piece of mud and throw it in his face. That’s the only answer I could give him. There may be other answers, but that’s one answer.
We married the Torah. The Torah is a beautiful Torah. Just because some low characters, some, some—I’m looking for a better name than that; I’ll tell you what they are: Masturbators. Masturbators. That’s all they are. Homosexualists. These low characters, they’re not satisfied with our Torah so it’s our duty to go and present the Torah to them in such a way that will be palatable?
You know what Torah is palatable to them? What’s his name? It’s too much honor to mention his name here. I’ll mention his foul name. Jean Sartre. That’s the Torah they want. They want somebody who comes from the gutter. That’s all they want. That’s the only rabbi they’ll want. So once you start telling them that this is the Torah and this is that, you’ll never please them. It’s a waste of time.
It’s a waste of time. We have one campaign. We have our dignity. We have a Torah that’s tried and proven. We’ve lived by it. And for thousands of years nobody ever brought up the question why the Torah forbids mamzerim until low characters in the State of Israel, and you have plenty of them there. You know they’re exporting pornography from Israel today that can compete with the worst in the world? And the man got up in the Jewish parliament and proposed a law to permit homosexualism in Israel.
So we don’t feel any compulsion all of a sudden to justify ourselves to them. We have the dignity of our Torah. They’re upstarts. What do we do? We spit in their eyes and that’s all.
September 30, 1971
