Peres’ hypocrisy
Presidential candidate’s God-fearing statements when addressing religious public seem phony
From: The Section for Enforcing the Ten Commandments, Do not Take the Lord’s Name in Vain Department, Heaven
Dear Mr. Peres,
On the 21st of Sivan, 5767 (June 7, 2007) you gave an interview to our friend Yossi Elituv of the haredi weekly Mishpahah. In the course of the interview you mentioned the name of the Holy One Blessed be He a number of times without his authorization or agreement. You were attempting to create the impression among the religious readers that you and the Holy One are on friendly terms, and that Hashem Himself supports your candidacy for the presidency of the State of Israel.
Needless to say, the Master of the Universe does not express any support for one candidate or another, and the choice is made by human beings. Bringing God’s name into the elections creates a false impression that He prefers a particular candidate, which is liable, Heaven forbid, to harm His Holy Name.
Following are a number of examples and quotations from your interview: Page 4, column 1, line 30: “What I can do with the strength that the Holy One Blessed be He has given me, I do willingly.” Column 2, line 10: “As long as the Holy One Blessed be He gives me the strength, I will continue to serve.” Column 4, line 16: “On the issue of age I can only say that I thank Heaven’s benevolence for giving me long life and health,” and in the same place: “If anyone has complaints about my great age, please refer them to the Master of the Universe, who gives life to every living thing.”
Later, in line 24: “Listen to me: the Holy One Blessed be He grants years, health, and life. I feel well, and I am thankful for that.” In line 36: “I will come with what the Holy One Blessed be He gave me with the purpose of serving my people.” And on page 39, column 1, line 13: “As a Jew I take into account (that I’ll lose) because everything is from Heaven.”
Oh honorable sir, I have been asked by my supervisor, the Supreme King of Kings, to inform you that in spite of your long-time acquaintance, it is not apporpriate to use His name in vain. We have checked with our office whether you have also mentioned the Lord’s name in previous interviews with such great frequency, and we were not surprised to discover that normally, when you aren’t speaking to a haredi audience, you do not mention His name at all. On the contrary: In the past you have even been quoted as saying things that were insulting to religion and to Judaism and to biblical heroes. But this is neither the time nor the place to settle accounts.
During the Mishpahah interview you talked a great deal about unity and faith, and you praised Jewish education and other issues that for lack of space I have not included in this letter. You reached the peak when you told how, as a child, you had received a blessing from the Hafetz Haim (the great Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kahan), you expanded on your “knowledge acquired in childhood,” as you put it, and you finished by speaking excitedly of “all my vows,” from the testament of your grandfather who studied in Volozhin, to all kinds of pastries and confections of praise and glorification for tradition, for the haredim, and as I said, for God Himself.
Without commenting on the accuracy of the details themselves (in our Department of Data Verification we have other evidence), I fear that all these words were spoken hypocritically, and were intended only to be pleasing to the haredi MKs so that they would support you.
Nevertheless, as the person responsible for enforcing the commandment forbidding taking the name of the Lord in vain, I am accustomed to intervening only in issues directly related to the Creator’s name. Although freedom of speech requires that people be allowed to speak as they wish, and we do not scrutinize people who frequently invoke Heaven, nevertheless, I am sending you this warning without a summons. A man of your age with your status who uses the name of God so suddenly and so frequently for earthly, personal needs, would appear to be sinning by taking the name of the Lord in vain.
Dear Shimon, as you know (?!), the Lord sees what is hidden, and only He knows how all the MKs will vote, including those from Shas. Even if the results are already placed before Him, May He be blessed, the Holy One Blessed be He does not intend to deviate from His custom and announce in advance who the next president will be, God willing. I will only hint that it is doubtful that the interview helped you, since the religious MKs are perhaps religious (most of them), but they are not stupid, and as it says in Job 8:13, “the hope of the godless man shall perish.”
For your information, and with wishes for success for all the candidates,
The Director
Do not Take the Lord’s Name in Vain Department
