A Rasha in the Guise of a Tzadik

Mizrachi and his list of 'heretics' (Rationalist Judaism)

I have to disagree with Rabbi Natan Slifkin. Yosef Mizrachi was never a laughing matter. He was not amusing or entertaining. He is and always was every bit as evil and dangerous as Rabbi Slikin now concludes. And probably always will be. He is a Rasha of the worst kind. Because he will likely never do Teshuva - believing that his evil works are actually Mitzvos!  

In that vein he has  condemned some of the finest rabbis in all of Orthodoxy. Including some Charedi rabbis (which he considers himself to be!).

He is and always will be an unrepentant Rasha in the guise of a Tzadik.

Normally I wouldn’t pay much attention to people like this. Fools like him are a dime a dozen. The problem is that Mizrachi has a large following. Mostly of new Baalei Teshuva whose naiveté about Judaism leads them to hang on his every word - believing them to be gospel. And he has a lot of words online.

It isn’t so much his fire and brimstone approach to Judaism that is so troubling. Although I strongly disagree with his almost exclusive focus on ‘crime and punishment’ it does exist. It is his application of it that troubles me. But what troubles me most is how strongly he builds himself up as the savior of Judaism. Comparing himself to Moshe Rabbenu while attacking those that criticize him – calling them heretics! Which is now in the form of a poster with pictures of 16 of them. And now he has a ‘fellow traveler’ by the name of Yaron (Ron) Reuven with a similar following who pretty much does the same thing. And if that isn’t bad enough, there is this: 

Mizrachi and Reuven often not-so-subtly call for violence and even execution of "heretics." Now, I don't think that the two of them would ever actually act on it; Mizrachi wants to do nothing more than speak to his sniggering fans, and "Ron" Reuven already had one run-in with the law and is probably afraid of another one. But their groupies are a different matter.

The most devoted followers of Mizrachi and Reuven are often of poor character – crass people, hateful people, violent people. Mizrachi himself has boasted of criminals and murderers who are followers of his; he once proudly described how he has a devoted follower who wanted to actually murder one of his critics 

This is not the first time I have dealt with Mizrachi.  But Rabbi Slifkin has placed a new urgency on the matter. It is not out of the realm of possibility that one of his ‘fans’  who has a nefarious past might be motivated to actually do ‘Teshuva’ by murdering one of those ‘heretics’!

That Mizrachi and his fellow travelers might actually believe that they are warriors on behalf of God does not make them any less evil. Their good intentions (if that’s what they really are) are so misguided that they cannot be excused or explained away. They are paving the road to hell instead of the road to heaven they claim to be paving.

It is with this in mind that I renew my call for all rabbinic leaders across the entire spectrum of Orthodoxy to issue a signed document of condemnation of Mizrachi and others like him. 

This is one area where there can and should be Achdus. Mizrachi is a dangerous man with many followers and needs to be stopped.  As do others like him. Let him finally be put he belongs - outside the pale of Judaism.

One more thing. There are those that might worry about all the Baalei Teshuva that follow people like this. What will happen to them if he is so strongly condemned! for me the answer is simple. this that adhere to his version of Judiams need to be disabused of that abuse. They need to realize that the man they follow is evil and does not represent Judaism at all. In the event that we might lose some of them by condemning the man they see as Moshe Rabbenu is  costly. But it will be far more costly to allow this preacher of hate with not so veiled threats of violence against his critics to continue his evil ways unabated.