Week's Roundup - The flood of pornography is a tactic of war

Highlights from this week's learning and events; An eternal message from the Torah about how G-d Al-mighty wants the Torah message of His Divine Wisdom to reach every single man, woman and child.

Aug 25, 2023

Did you know that the Torah has an eternal Divine Message that applies to every single human being? Authentic Torah learning grounds us in reality, both what we can observe and what is beyond our observation, grasp and even understanding, and leads to practical positive action. Positive for us and positive for those around us. Torah reveals our Divine Innate Spiritual Compass and brings our Spiritual Backbone to the forefront of life.
If you have adopted some or all of Enlightenment thinking, learning Torah will challenge everything you believe and hold dear.
In each Week’s Roundup, you will find a special topic, links to this week’s learning, the Torah perspective on current events, upcoming learning and action suggestions. This week we embrace ignoring the military warfare generated temptations that divert us from G-d Al-mighty. Learn, take hope and take action, and share.

Many imagine the flood of pornography and the promotion of activities that cannot possibly fulfill the Blessing and Commandment to Be Fruitful and Multiply are merely the result of a more “open-minded” generation.

But nothing can be further from the truth. We are witnessing the intended end result of the Enlightenment’s assault on man.

2000 years ago Sun-Tzu identified spreading immorality as a cornerstone military tactic to defeat a target nation that would leave the target unable to mount a defense.

And 1,296 years earlier the Torah warned us of this military tactic in this week’s Torah portion.

Here is a summary of the Week’s Torah Portion I prepared called Chapter & Verse based on the simple meaning of the verses. Read below about the military tactic of de-moralization, cross-dressing and the cruel tactics of Amalek.

FYI next week we are launching a Rosh Hashana campaign to reverse the underlying cause of all this. Stay tuned.

Moshe Rabbeinu continues his passionate and loving pleading with us to stay on track.
21:13 וְהֵסִ֩ירָה֩ אֶת־שִׂמְלַ֨ת שִׁבְיָ֜הּ מֵעָלֶ֗יהָ And remove the garments of captivity from her. The behavior of the nations can be so crooked and cursed that they adorn their daughters in order to seduce the Jewish soldiers who will pay attention to the beautiful outer clothing and be distracted from their mission. Immorality and pornogarphy is a military tactic to distract the men particularly so that they are chasing after experiences thereby wasting their time and creative energy rendering them neutralized from being productive for their own family, community and nation. When men are taken out of service like this, they and their country is weakened. There are entire foreign military intelligence divisions dedicated to the creation of seductive material as a military tactic to weaken Americans and America and Jews in the Holy Land. Whereas in the Torah verse the distraction could still lead to an actual fruitful relationship with offspring (albeit with its own distortions), allowing the mind to take seriously the pixelated images of pornography tricks the body into a response which cannot bear fruit. It is deception on all levels.
👉This trap of distraction is the intention behind much of the even seemingly “benign” click-bait - for example, “top ten baseball bloopers” - which are intended to get a man to click and be distracted from his real task at hand. It takes 20 minutes to recover from a distraction, to reach the same level of engagement in a relationship or task as before the distraction or interruption. In the American work day there are only 21 20-minute segments. If every American can be distracted for just one of those segments, productivity crashes by 5%. If a man is distracted multiple times throughout the day, the effect on individual, company and national productivity is devastating. In our daily “going out to war” to fight the war of G-d Al-mighty we are required to stay focused and on track.
👉So too, this tactic is advanced when a man dresses like a woman. 22:5. The outer female garment is intended to distract another man and divert him from his true mission. It throws the targeted men into even greater chaos. Men dressing like women is really a military tactic. See Sun Tzu, the Art of War, regarding using immorality as a military tactic to destroy a nation and leave it incapable of sufficient focus or interest to mount a defense, let alone offense. (See Aderes Eliyahu from the Vilna Goan for this explanation of the enemy tactics and connecting the cross-dressing.)
👉The solution to this warfare is to remove the outer attractive garment and see what is really behind it. The captured woman is really mourning her idolatry. She is an enemy agent devoted to an enemy agenda. Once this is exposed, she is repulsive. When the targeted man will realize that what is being presented to attract his eyes is really the invention of an enemy military intelligence team seeking to destroy him physically and spiritually, he will instantaneously be repulsed. The truth destroys the illusion that what is being presented is a sweet fruit that he can indulge his time and energy in. On the contrary, it is no fruit at all but rather a staged act of attack on his existence by his enemy. The solution to the warfare against us is to expose it for what it is - warfare intended to maim and kill. With merely that exposure, the victim of the act leaves his impotence and restores his potency, while the enemy is immediately rendered impotent.
Please take the time to pass on this message to every man you know so that the insight can eliminate once and for all the appeal of this enemy tactic.
(This shows us an example of how important it is to understand the simple meaning of the verses. It becomes obvious that these verses which we might have thought are telling us merely about something that has not happened for thousands of years, but now we realize that is actually relevant to us at this very moment, exposing both the problem and providing the solution. Similarly, if we only engage with the verse on the level of the abstract application for example to the journey of the soul, as in the Ohr HaChaim HaKodesh, we will overlook and lose the practical Divine message as explained here.)
21:14 לֹא־תִתְעַמֵּ֣ר בָּ֔הּ Do not enslave her. Even though she was an enemy agent sent to destroy this very man, and he has now seen through her disguise, he must treat her with respect as she is still created in G-d Al-mighty’s Divine Image.
21:18 כִּֽי־יִהְיֶ֣ה לְאִ֗ישׁ בֵּ֚ן סוֹרֵ֣ר וּמוֹרֶ֔ה אֵינֶ֣נּוּ שֹׁמֵ֔עַ בְּק֥וֹל אָבִ֖יו וּבְק֣וֹל אִמּ֑וֹ When a man will have a son who is wayward and rebellious and does not listen to the voice of his father and the voice of his mother. This person developing into a man is unable to develop delayed gratitude. As a result he puts the entire civilization at risk.
21:23 כִּֽי־קִלְלַ֥ת אֱלֹהִ֖ים תָּל֑וּי Because the displayed executed person is a disgrace to G-d. Since every man is created in G-d Al-mighty’s Divine Image, it reflects poorly on G-d Al-mighty that this “look alike” descended to such a low level that he had to be executed. We who care about G-d Al-mighty’s honor should take this to heart in recognizing that a human being whose behavior descends and is not fitting for the gift of the Divine Image should prompt us to vigorous action to redirect and re-moralize that human being by teaching him the Torah that applies to him to live as befitting the Divine Image.
22:5 לֹא־יִהְיֶ֤ה כְלִי־גֶ֙בֶר֙ עַל־אִשָּׁ֔ה וְלֹא־יִלְבַּ֥שׁ גֶּ֖בֶר שִׂמְלַ֣ת אִשָּׁ֑ה כִּ֧י תוֹעֲבַ֛ת ה׳ אֱ–לֹ׳ כׇּל־עֹ֥שֵׂה אֵֽלֶּה There should not be garments and items of a man on a woman, and a man should not clothe himself in the dress of a woman, because it is reprehensible for the L-rd Your G-d all who do that. The same prohibition applies to a man removing his body hair. The ultimate intent of this confusion of dressing is sexual immorality. The inner intent of idolatry is to permit immorality and the inner driver of immorality is idolatry. The misdirection of the procreative energy away from bringing new Divine Image into the world is an act of attack on G-d Al-mighty. Even where there will be offspring but the lineage is confused, that too is an attack on G-d Al-mighty. As we see through history and now, this is a military tactic against the Jewish People and distraction and immorality is a central tactic in the Art of War.
👉Why would a man dress like a woman? To mix in with the women which leads to immorality. Those who warn of this are mocked by those who seek to distract men from the Torah’s warning.
👉Why would a woman dress like a man? So she can co-mingle with the men which will lead to immorality. We see that with the mixing of men and women in the military services. The women dress and carry the tools of men. Immorality explodes and is rampant. Many will protest in ‘shock’ at the conduct of men in such situations. But by definition, the purpose of allowing and promoting the mixing in the first place was to foster immorality. This creates confusion, animosity and a dissipation of the energy of the fighting men which weakens the armed forces greatly in Western countries and Israel. Nations and groups that are not compromising on their ability to fight their best, such as Russia, China, Iran, the PLO, do not mix their forces. But they are delighted when their opponents do mix their forces. For the well-being of the people in each nation, the forces must be segregated at a minimum and women should not be encouraged to imitate the dress and tools of men.
👉Also, observe that in the disintegration of the distinction between the sexes, mixing the armed forces occurred before the step of people mixing up what sex they are. In other words, when a nation fails to be able to distinguish between a man and a woman, that lack of distinction becomes even more prevalent and pervasive. Once people are no longer clear that the creation of a man is to conquer and a woman is to keep the generations of humanity enduring by creating and raising children, immorality and confusion is rampant. Once women are shamed and pushed economically, through brainwashing and peer pressure out of the home into the battlefront, immorality spreads, the war effort is crippled, the children are left to be tended to by strangers and the population growth rate plummets.
👉We see that the Torah has the Divine Wisdom that is essential for the existence and continuation of civilization. Deviation from it is not a mere eccentricity. It brings chaos and collapse. Therefore it is the obligation of the Jew and student of the Torah to call out to show others what is G-d Al-mighty’s Will. And the earlier the better. If Torah observant Jews excuse silence by reasoning that being that they and their children are not in the United States Armed Forces or not in the Israeli Armed Forces, and therefore, what goes on there is not relevant to them, they are gravely mistaken. It is directly relevant because the deterioration affects everyone, even when for the moment it seems to be limited to one segment. And, this is the role of the Jew in the world, and everyone who learns the Torah, to make clear the correct course of action in every place and time. It’s never too late to speak out. The world is waiting and depending on us.
23:5 עַל־דְּבַ֞ר Because of the behavior. The verse refers to a multi-stage conspiracy. The ultimate goal was to trap the Jews spiritually by leading them to sin. As a preparation, they sought to exhaust and wear down the Jews because a person who is exhausted and drained no longer distinguishes between forbidden and permitted and will in desperation grasp at anything. This was the conspiratorial intention in making access to food and water difficult.
👉The Torah is full of conspiracies. A conspiracy is an attempt to get to an undisclosed outcome, known only to the conspirators, through manipulating people to participate in the steps leading to the desired outcome without the participant knowing where the current step is leading. Often that participation is through an intended reaction that the conspirators aim to use to get the desired behavior. The wise man presumes the likelihood of a conspiracy and whenever presented with a situation or information that provokes a reaction, he asks where is this leading? Who is this serving? Who benefits when I react this way and take this course of action? When he considers an action, he thinks where is this leading? He may not be able to figure out all the details or what the conspirators intend as the outcome. But by making decisions based on Torah and ignoring the stimuli being presented to him, he has an excellent chance of making a decision that will exit him from the plan of the conspirators. Of course, conspirators have many techniques to cajole or demand participation that can frighten a person into doing what they want. Exhaustion and being ‘worn out’ are intermediate steps the conspirators design so that the victim’s ability to make choices deteriorates. The wise man refuses to participate and instead will withdraw from the decision making process until he can regain his composure.
👉Sleep is the most important asset. The vast majority of our spiritual, relationship, and monetary problems would be solved simply from adequate sleep.
23:6 וַיַּהֲפֹךְ֩ ה׳ אֱלֹ׳ לְּךָ֛ אֶת־הַקְּלָלָ֖ה לִבְרָכָ֑ה כִּ֥י אֲהֵֽבְךָ֖ ה׳ אֱלֹ׳ And the L-rd, Your G-d inverted the curses to blessing, because the L-rd Your G-d loves you. Notwithstanding the tremendous sophistication of the conspiracy, and the great apparent stature of the conspirators, and even what appears to be some ground gained by the conspiracy, there is nothing to fear since G-d Al-mighty will intercept their plans and actually invert the energy of the conspiracy fighting G-d Al-mighty and doing harm so that it is transformed into energy advancing G-d Al-mighty’s Vision and blessing the Jewish People.
23:9 בָּנִ֛ים אֲשֶׁר־יִוָּלְד֥וּ לָהֶ֖ם Sons that are born to them. Descendants of nations that sought to destroy the Jewish People spiritually are rejected while the descendants of nations that harmed the Jewish People physically are admitted as righteous converts after only three generations. Causing a person to sin is even worse than killing him physically, because killing him physically only ends his life in this physical world, but causing a person to sin ends his life in this world and the spiritual world to come. Great attention is given to murderers, in, for example school killings, but completely ignored are the school boards, administrators, teachers, advocacy groups, lawyers and judges who destroy the children spiritually by removing G-d Al-mighty from the schools and leaving the children completely rudderless. Although unprosecuted the latter sin is even greater. Similarly many Jews refuse to buy German products because of the murders by the Nazis, yet will clamor to send their children to the schools and universities that will inculcate their children into German philosophies that lead a person away from a connection to his own soul and to G-d Al-mighty. What a tragedy!
25:13 לֹֽא־יִהְיֶ֥ה לְךָ֛ בְּכִֽיסְךָ֖ אֶ֣בֶן וָאָ֑בֶן גְּדוֹלָ֖ה וּקְטַנָּֽה Do not have in your pocket two sets of weights one heavier and one lighter. Deception in business transactions is a result of a thought that G-d Al-mighty is not an absolute power that is capable of providing for everyone of His Creatures. From that thought is created fear, and from that emotion is the action to be deceptive to try to get enough income. This lack of awareness of his connection to G-d Al-mighty, leads a man and a community to be susceptible to Amalek.
25:17 War of Amalek
25:18 אֲשֶׁ֨ר קָֽרְךָ֜ בַּדֶּ֗רֶךְ וַיְזַנֵּ֤ב בְּךָ֙ כׇּל־הַנֶּחֱשָׁלִ֣ים אַֽחֲרֶ֔יךָ וְאַתָּ֖ה עָיֵ֣ף וְיָגֵ֑עַ וְלֹ֥א יָרֵ֖א אֱלֹ That came upon you on the way, disfigured the stragglers who were exhausted and worn out, and Amalek did not fear G-d so as to restrain itself from harming the Jewish People. Amalek attacks making it appear like happenstance, disguising the long multi-generational planning and conniving against G-d Al-mighty, the Torah, the Jewish People and all humanity.
👉The same word means a misuse of the male procreative energy, the misuse being impure, and Amalek seduced some of the Jewish People into male/male forbidden actions and then killed them. These actions divert G-d Al-mighty’s Divine Procreative energy into a black hole. Amalek’s war against G-d Al-mighty is to remove the knowledge of G-d Al-mighty from the world and to remove that which represents G-d Al-mighty from the world. Since every man is created in G-d Al-mighty’s Divine Image, every man represents the presence of G-d Al-mighty in the world. Therefore, Amalek seeks to eradicate every human being, down to the last one, including himself. Therefore, in Amalek’s conspiracy, the goal is to divert people from the First Commandment and Blessing, to Be Fruitful and Multiply. (See https://rabbismith.substack.com/p/a-first-commandment-and-blessing and additional articles in that series.)
👉Amalek attacks the Jewish People to cool off the other nations enthusiasm for the Jewish People and the Torah. In this way, Amalek seeks to block the influence of the Jewish People and the Torah. Absent this influence, the non-Jews become susceptible to participating in Amalek’s conspiracy.
👉Amalek goes all out to attack procreation, going so far as to cut off the circumcised member of their now dead victim, after seducing him into misusing that organ, and to throws it towards G-d Al-mighty mockingly saying what good did the Jewish fulfillment of the Divine Commandment to circumcise help them.
👉Once again we see how being exhausted and worn out, leads a person to fall into despair and then falls out of the Camp of G-d Al-mighty and then be subjugated to Amalek. Amalek does not fear G-d any time but what does constrain its actions is when the people, Jews and non-Jews fear G-d Al-mighty. Then, Amalek’s actions are evidently not proper and people reject Amalek’s advances. Once G-d Al-mighty is taken out of the awareness of the people, then Amalek can expand its activities with greater and greater boldness until it is openly making war on the G-d Al-mighty, the Torah and the Jewish People and the rest of the nations either stand by or join in. Thus the Torah instructs us to make sure that all the nations fear G-d Al-mighty and then Amalek will have no impact and will wither away until there is no trace of it remaining in the world.
👉The “קָֽרְךָ֜” is the same letters that means cooling off. While this teaching has many important lessons, and Amalek does seek to cool us off from our enthusiasm for G-d Al-mighty and His Vision and His Will, the actual simple meaning of the verse is referring to the diversion of procreative energy into non-creative diversions. Once a person realizes this he will realize that all the sex education and teaching, entertainment, etc., is designed and promoted by Amalek to divert men and women from procreation.
👉From this we can see that by losing sight of the plain meaning of the verse, a person can be guided into being hyper focused on but one additional level, hint (remez), of understanding. Such a person is very focussed on his own service of G-d Al-mighty and making sure he is not cooled off, all the while Amalek is gaining ground around him, even into his own community and home, may G-d Al-mighty save us. As a matter of fact, that is Amalek’s very intent - focus on understandings that limit your impact on the world. The person may even be a Chasid all focussed on his own service but then fails to follow G-d Al-mighty’s command to change the world around him. Even as his neighbors are recruited into the behaviors promoted by Amalek, he barely raises an eyebrow - because he lost sight of the simple meaning of the verse, he cannot even see what is going on around him as having to do with Amalek. He can even become so distracted that when presented with a clear sicha of the Rebbe emphasizing Amalek’s campaign according to the simple meaning of the verse, he finds it difficult to understand and fails to take action on it. This person who is all heated up in his own thinking about his own service in Judaism, but ignores the world around him and denies the non-Jews his spiritual influence, actually exhibits the greatest coldness of all to G-d Al-mighty and Moses Our Teacher and his extension in every generation.
👉Thus this publication, to answer the call of the hour to get the Jewish People and the world back on track to the simple meaning of the verses, thus defeating Amalek’s scheme to keep us focussed elsewhere. Once we know the simple meaning of the verse, the action is obvious - we must immediately and unceasingly inform everyone that they are being recruited by Amalek into thinking about and acting on thoughts that cannot lead to procreation. We must inspire everyone that the highest form of human occupation is procreating and creating and building a family to serve G-d Al-mighty. As noted at the beginning of this parsha, even merely exposing the enemy's conspiracy is enough to weaken its hold on people. Then teaching the Torah that applies to each individual completes uncoupling from Amalek’s agenda and re-connecting to G-d Al-mighty and His plan for the individual, his family and the world.
👉Amalek also has the same numerical equivalent (Gematria) as Sofek, doubt. Amalek promotes doubt so as to distract us from staying true to the Divine Drive to increase the great human enterprise.
25:19 תִּמְחֶה֙ אֶת־זֵ֣כֶר עֲמָלֵ֔ק מִתַּ֖חַת הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם לֹ֖א תִּשְׁכָּֽח Eradicate the memory of Amalek from under the Heavens, do not forget. When one by one, each man, woman and child, uncouples themselves from the Amalek thinking and agenda and connects to G-d Al-mighty, there will be no one left interested in or affected by Amalek’s message. The libraries full of books advocating for and developing Amalek’s agenda will be left unused and the books will disintegrate from disuse. The few actual die-hard members of Amalek will be left with no one to listen to them, no one to manipulate and no one to control. They too will disappear. There will be no memory of Amalek left. At the same time, even then we are cautioned to remember how allowing and tolerating even the slightest disconnect from G-d Al-mighty has the potential to spiral down into the thinking and then behavior of Amalek. Aware of this, men will strengthen each other to stay on track with G-d Al-mighty permanently.

Here is a PDF version:

5 6 5782 Ki Seitzei Chapter & Verse Vol

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Sunday Learning
👉 2023-08-13 Mitzvos Hashem Rabbi Steif #72: Forbidden to make treaties with idolaters
👉 2023-08-20 Mitzvos Hashem Rabbi Steif #73: What happens with idolatrous cities?
Wednesday Learning
👉 Zecharia 8:23: Elul - a time of focused Teshuva - accounting and strengthening - HaYom Yom
(Zecharia 8:23 Playlist).
Thursday Learning
👉 Emunah (Faith) in Action - Summary Points
👉 Emunah (Faith) in Action - Debrief on what we have learned and accomplished in this Emunah learning
(Emunah (Faith) in Action Playlist)
👉 Ask the Rabbi - What should women do for Rosh Chodesh?
(Torah Learning Playlist)
Additional Learning
🔥Hot Topic🔥- Is Conversion necessary for spiritual fulfillment?

On Substack this week:

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