Posted on 06/16/2006 5:37:47 AM PDT by Alouette
Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak expects thousands from around world to attend Modesty Parade, scheduled for 2 days before WorldPride parade in Jerusalem this summer, to negate ‘abomination and defilement’ of pride march and ‘demonstrate the extraordinariness of the way of the Torah’
Battle against holding the annual gay WorldPride parade in Jerusalem this summer heats up: Repentance Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak announced that he plans to hold a “modesty parade” in response to the gay pride parade scheduled to march through Jerusalem August 11. The event is planned to precede the WorldPride parade by a few days, and expects an attendance of over 20,000 people.
The event is being planned by the “Shofar” group and is being publicized, among other places, on their website. Shofar, founded by Rav Yitzhak, is devoted to promoting the "return to religion" (hazara be’tshuva) amongst secular Jews. According to the site, “Two days before the date on which the vile souls are planning their World ‘March of Abomination,’ thousands of Jews whose souls have been saved and have chosen God’s path will hold a ‘Modesty march’ of incredible proportions. Its very occurrence will denunciate the abomination and defilement, will vomit out its participants from among us and will set fire to their infection. Thousands of Jews from Israel and the world, to whom the purity and sanctity of Jerusalem is important, will demonstrate the extraordinariness of the way of the Torah chosen by thousands.”
The Modesty Parade will also mark 20 years of Shofar’s activities. “It’s time to show the whole world that in the last 20 years we have changed the face of Judaism unrecognizably and those loyal to God and his Torah have become the leaders, against the disseminators of darkness. The fact that the Torah of Israel commands us to act modestly and self-deprecatingly has given this raucous and rebellious minority an opportunity to act out their pride and boastfulness all the way to Jerusalem, the holy city, in order to soil it.”
Rabbi Yitzhak’s website promises that the demonstration will include “pyrotechnics shows with light defeating darkness as never seen before.”
Petition against parade
Meanwhile, objectors to the gay pride parade are threatening to file a petition to the High Court of Justice against it. During a city council meeting this week, National Religious Party Councilwoman Mina Fenton introduced a petition calling for the march to be cancelled. Twenty-three out of the 31 council members signed the petition.
“I am sure that the first 100,000 signatures will prove to the High Court the position of the majority, and the risks and humiliation of letting the parade happen,” Fenton said.
“Holding the gay pride parade, especially in Jerusalem, severely harms the city’s unique Jewish character and constitutes an act of defiance, purposeful disrespect and a challenge to everything holy in the city of Jerusalem in the eyes of the whole world. This will be wept about for generations and we must prevent it now,” the petition read.
A center of tolerance, pluralism and humanity
A member of the city council from the Meretz party, Saar Natanel, said in response to Fenton’s initiative: “The delusional attempts by Mina Fenton and the rest of the Orthodox-Religious coalition members in Jerusalem won’t succeed. Gays and lesbians have a place in Jerusalem too. It is the community’s right to hold the march. This right is legitimate, legal and democratic. The pride parade is important to Jerusalem to show that Israel’s capital has other voices as well that support democracy, pluralism and equality. Jerusalem cannot be represented by religious extremists alone.”
Noa Satat, Chairman of the Jerusalem House for Pride and Tolerance, a gay and lesbian foundation in the capital, explained the importance of holding the pride parade in the city. “The World pride event will take place in Jerusalem because we believe Jerusalem should be a center of tolerance, pluralism and humanity. Unfortunately, there are those who prefer Jerusalem to be fanatical, dark, pursuing strife and hatred. Those same people ignore the Torah’s greatest rule: Love thy brother as thyself.”
“The many participants who will take place in the pride activities – from Israel and the world – will best answer this demonstration of darkness that is shaming Judaism and Jerusalem. We invite Mr.Yitzhak and his disciples to take part in the inter-religious gatherings in the framework of World pride events. Religious figures from gay, Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities will partake in the assembly and will represent a religious voice that respects all mankind created in the image of the lord, and committed to the traditional Jewish values of tolerance and love of humanity,” Satat said.
How interesting! Thanks for the information!
A lot of Jews who care about their faith are picking up a few tricks from fundamentalist and evangelical Christians. And they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Joking aside, it is an established concept in Judaism, but its less clearly defined than in Christianity. A different conception of the afterlife (although Heaven does exist, and, according to certain scripture, a kind of purgatory as well) contributes to this. Add to this that Judaism is not a proselytizing religion; people must obey certain standards (Noahide laws), but only willing Jews must follow the standards of Judaism. Others can, but it's not like they're going to be damned if they don't.
Perhaps I didn't explain that too well, but it's the best I can do on short notice. Ill think more on this later tonight and have a proper answer for you tomorrow, since it's an excellent question and observation.
Just as a matter for information, the Christian belief is that works will not "produce" salvation; rather, that God is able to use the "saved" individual as an instrument of God's own will, as a result of the individual's conversion.
The conversion is when one voluntarily asks the Lord to be saved. If the conversion is sincere, one's behavior will then reflect good works, and the diligent individual will continue to learn to discern God's will through prayer or other communion with the spirit. This increasing ability to yield one's will to God's is sometimes referred to as "death to self," or "not my will, but thine."
By conversion, I am not necessarily speaking of changing from one religion to another; conversion is even for those born in "Christian" homes or cultures -- it is necessary to ask to be saved deeply personally and sincerely, in the faith that God hears our innermost thoughts. We have a saying, "the Christian faith is always one generation from extinction," meaning no person can inherit salvation as a birthright, but must make the commitment personally.
Your response contributes well to this dialogue; however, lest we "highjack the thread", what we should point out is that both religious Jews and Christians are in the minority in today's Israel, which contains a majority of secularists.
The rabbis are struggling there to rededicate the Israeli people's hearts to the practice of the Jewish faith, beyond mere Jewish ethnicity. Hence the struggle over this parade, which may be supported by many ethnic-but-not-religiously-observant Jews in Jerusalem.
An excellent point, which gets right to the heart of the matter.
I wish the rabbis well with their counter-parade, and hope that their petition gets through.
Correction: that is the Protestant belief. Roman Catholicism teaches that "good works" are actually necessary, and the Eastern Orthodox are actually pretty consistent in insisting that one must be one's own "co-savior" along with J*sus (and that the "new law" is actually more rather than less stringent than the Torah.
Thanks very much for the thoughtful response. I didn't intend to start an argument, really :=).
Huh??? That's almost entirely wrong. For a cursory overview of what Christian salvation is, read this.
So Satan isn't "the 'gxd' of this world?" I thought the NT said so.
Besides, chr*stianity isn't a single religion and doesn't have a single doctrine of salvation. Please note the differences among Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox.
Do you really think Wikipedia is a trustworthy source of religious information?
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