PARSHA INSIGHTS

Banned By YouTube

“You shall observe My commandments and perform them; I am Hashem. You shall not desecrate My holy Name; rather I should be sanctified among the Children of Yisrael; I am Hashem Who sanctifies you.” (22:31-2)

In the middle of Chol HaMoed, I received the following email from YouTube:

“Hi Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair, it looks like “The Jews Run the World!” - Parshat Va'etchanan didn’t follow Community Guidelines. To help keep our community safe, we removed it from YouTube… Warning… We think your content didn’t follow our hate speech policy. Content that incites hatred against individuals or groups based on their protected group status isn’t allowed on YouTube. This may include dehumanization, using slurs and stereotypes, inferiority claims, and/or conspiracy theories…”

What was it that provoked the electronic ire of YouTube? Clearly the title, “The Jews Run the World!” was provocative, but a title that doesn’t provoke isn’t worth its title. Every title cries out “Read Me!” and it’s competing against an ever-swelling glut of on-line ‘content’.

If YouTube would take more than a cursory look at the video, they would see that I have done no more than paraphrase Rabbi Chaim Velozhin’s seminal work, “Nefesh HaChaim.” In Nefesh HaChaim, the author explains that Hashem runs the world in accordance with the actions, words and thoughts of the Jewish People. When the Jews do what they are supposed to, i.e., when we keep the mitzvot, Hashem rains down on the world His bounty and blessing, and, G-d forbid, when we transgress the Will of Hashem, the world at large suffers from our lack of performance. This is what I meant by “The Jews Run the World.”

An anti-Semitic American Protestant pastor quoted my video on his website in an article entitled: “We Are All Amelekites.”

This is a quotation from his article:

Don’t believe me?

Listen to what this very influential Jewish rabbi recently said:

“It really doesn’t matter if Donald Trump or Donald Duck wins the elections. It really doesn’t matter if Kamala Harris or Kermit the Frog wins. When it comes to international affairs, anything that impinges on the future of this world, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris have no freedom of choice. They become like puppets. And who pulls the strings of those puppets? We do. The Jewish People.”

Of course, what I was saying was none other than what Chazal say, that ‘the heart of kings and ministers is in the Hand of Hashem’ (based on Proverbs 21:1).

I was troubled by the thought that I was giving ammunition to those who hate us, and so I sent an email to HaRav Yitzchok Breitowitz, shilta, asking whether I should remove the video.

This was his reply:“This is very regrettable, but I am inclined not to remove it. Torah is Torah and we should not allow ourselves to be censored because Jew-haters distort our words.”

The prophet Chavakuk writes: “For the earth shall be filled to know the glory of Hashem as the waters cover the sea.”

There’s something unusual about this verse. How can the waters cover the sea? The sea is water.

Maybe we can understand this with the explanation of Rabbi Shimon Schwab. Rav Schwab said thatin the days of the Mashiach, everyone will have some knowledge of Hashem, but it won’t be uniform. Just as some areas of the sea are shallow and others are deep, so too will people experience the Divine revelation on different levels, depending on their preparation, merit, and spiritual development.

In the days of Mashiach, those whose knowledge of Hashem is shallow and use the Torah to fan the flames of hatred and antisemitism will have enough knowledge to understand where their punishment is coming from.

But those who spent their days diving in the sea of Torah will be as close as a human can be to the Divine.May that day come, speedily in our days!