`165 One Year Fighting the Erev Rav
Chananya Weissman
December 12, 2021

On December 10, 2020 I published the following thought:

As the last Mishna in Sotah teaches, we are living in the time of האמת נעדרת (the truth is hidden), when it is almost impossible to know what is true and who to trust. At the very least, anyone who has an agenda or a vested interest in something should not be trusted.

I am very skeptical of these vaccines, brought to us by greedy, corrupt companies, endorsed by a corrupt media, pushed upon us by corrupt politicians who have failed us over and over again. I wouldn't be surprised if the "brave leaders" who promise to be the first to take a vaccine will take a placebo, and in any case I don't trust them to make life-altering decisions for me.

I don't know if these vaccines will work or not, or be safe or not, or cause more good than harm. But I am convinced that there were much better options available, and these were censored in favor of corporate greed and political power in bed together. I don't want them injecting me with anything.

That was the first time I publicly expressed concern about the much-touted crapcines. This was a responsible position at the time, and it proved well-founded. As I continued to learn more, those concerns evolved into total opposition to the shots.

These comments coincided with the first “vaccine mandates”. These mandates did not come from the puppets in power – that would take another year – but from “rabbis”. I believe it is high time we stopped referring to these people as rabbis, since it is abundantly clear that they are not behaving as rabbis, but as influencers for a sophisticated propaganda campaign, whose role it was to create a “religious narrative”. This is not a theory; it's a fact.

In the following days there was a cascade of “halachic rulings” from well-known Erev Rav and “religious organizations”, all of whom were working religiously only for their anti-religion sponsors. Over the next week I wrote responses to rabbinic malpractice, as I referred to it, from the OU, the RCA, and Asher Weiss (who should perhaps be known as “Acher” Weiss).

Looking back, a few thoughts struck me:

1. It's only been a year since I first wrote against the crapcine mania? It feels like forever.

2. A tremendous amount of information has become available in the last year. Just as my opinions evolved as I learned more, one would have expected the rabbis who rushed to order the masses to get injected (as irresponsible and against halacha as that was) to learn more and update their stance accordingly. Surely as the number of mysterious “coincidences” piled up, along with testimonies from victims, expert doctors, and whistleblowers, these rabbis would retract their position, or at least provide overwhelming support for maintaining it.

As far as I know, exactly ONE rabbi did just that. Rav Ovadia Yosef of Jerusalem, grandson of the towering Sefardic rabbi with the same name, initially supported the shots, and publicly retracted his position.

What about all the others who initially supported it? Many of them issued increasingly shrill orders for people to take the shots, heaping libel and invectives on all who resisted, without an ounce of nuance or compassion for those whose lives they would destroy. They urged people to throw their fellow Jews out of shul and expel children from school, stopping just short of calling for violence against these “murderers”.

Such concern for human life. Such tzaddikim.

Many others, like Weiss, went into hiding. This is remarkable. They did not respond to questions and Torah-based challenges to their orders. They ignored requests to clarify their position in light of voluminous Torah sources and mounting scientific evidence. They dismissed the concerns of ordinary people who managed to approach them. They refused to publicly debate or even discuss the matter with anyone who didn't fully support their position. They didn't even want people to send them information. They ducked, and evaded, and stonewalled, and demanded obedience.

They abused their rabbinic titles and desecrated the Torah.

Meanwhile, increasing numbers of rabbis who truly uphold the Torah began producing detailed rulings that made people smarter and more informed. They did not cherry-pick and contort Torah sources to promote a “religious narrative”, because they didn't have to, and real rabbis don't do such things, besides. They welcomed information, testimonies, questions, and discussion. They studied, they taught, then they studied more. They were accessible and responsive.

They brought honor to their rabbinic titles and restored honor to the Torah.

The Achers of the world have exposed themselves as traitors to the Torah, megaleh panim she'lo k'halacha, in the tradition of Doeg, Achitofel, Yochanan Kohen Gadol, and other infamous scholars who went rogue. They have made it clear that their initial rulings – really, orders – stemmed from orders they received. They did their job, they were rewarded however they were rewarded, and they have nothing more to say on the subject.

They ruled. Everyone must follow. End of discussion.

There is no justifiable explanation for their silence after a year.

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3. In the last year I wrote over 120 articles. That's more than I wrote from 2004 through 2019 – combined!

That is not humanly possible.

I'm sharing this not to toot my own horn, but precisely to acknowledge that this is not humanly possible, and that Hashem gave me the inspiration and strength to accomplish this, without sacrificing sleep or anything else from my life. Many people all over the world are performing superhuman acts of heroism. They are filling roles that they never imagined they would fill, exceeding their limitations, and receiving energy that can only be divine.

Hashem has infinite such support for each and every one of us. If you don't think you can make a difference, you are terribly mistaken. Whatever God-given abilities you have, you can take them to new heights, right now, and bring the redemption closer.

You don't have to be anyone special to be someone special.