THE DIASPORA DIATRIBES
CELEBRITY VIRTUE SIGNALING IS NO VIRTURE
I'll just come right out and say it. This ongoing rash - and rash is the correct word for it - of celebrity virtue signaling is anything but virtuous. It's little more than moral masturbation, the real purpose of which is to make whoever is engaging in it feel good about themselves.
And worse, in many, many cases it's a sign, if not and outright expression, of anti-Jew sentiment, at least to one degree or another depending on who's saying it.
It would be unfair to say that in all cases such virtue signaling has no other intended purpose. But it is fair to say that when it comes to celebrities declaring solidarity with the Palestinians - often with props like keffiyehs (a favorite of Javier Bardem) or with strike-the-pose raised fist (a favorite of Mark Ruffalo) it's a performative act meant to garner press attention and to signal fellow left-leaning Hollywood and entertainment industry folks that the sayer has the right stuff lest they be drummed out or excluded, something happening to Jewish writers, entertainers, teachers, librarians, politicians and other descendants of the Levant as well as everyday supporters of Israel and the Jewish cause.
MUST WE ALL BE BAD FOR THINGS TO BE GOOD?
I'm beginning to think that one of the old Hasidic teachings from the Talmud generally attributed to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak is unfolding before me and certainly not in the way I would prefer.
At the heart of this teaching is the concept extolled in the Sanhedrin 98a, which in a nutshell advances the notion that the Moshiach will arrive either when mankind, or more specifically the Jewish People, have become entirely righteous or entirely guilty, in the latter case meaning all have turned away from G-d.
For most of my life I believed the battle between these two opposite poles would remain intractably caught somewhere in the middle, like a sporting match in which neither team can manage to put the other away in a game that would go on forever without a winner if not for the fact that time would eventually expire.
Now I believe that G-d might have asked of us an impossible task. Is the Yetzer Hara/Yetzer Hatov part of our DNA? Because if it is than this characteristic will forever lock us in a battle that neither side can win, which seems cruel, even by Talmudic standards.
Or is this characteristic one big test in disguise? If so, the events of my lifetime that have brought about a place in which division, greed, distrust, secularism, downright meanness, avarice, cruelty and hatred - not to mention rising and rampant antisemitism, always a bad sign as we Jews have always been the canaries in the coal mine - clearly indicates we're headed toward a horizon where the "all bad" scenario awaits and with it the coming of the Messiah. It's a helluva price to pay, pun intended.
I'm not entirely ready to place my bet on the malevolent forces winning (or should I say losing) the day. Let's just say I'm seriously debating whether or not I should bother to renew my Costco membership.
