Missionary Sex

There was to will be an assembly of the faithful yesterday on Wednesday in Ariel to raise consciousness about a supposed problem of missionary activity here in Judea and Samaria.  I say "supposed" because as far as I know, this is no missionary activity being undertaken by the HaYovel people, those accused of such a 'crime', most recently here (and my reply here).

Here's the poster, under the headline "Jews for Sale?  Jewish Souls in a Final Sale":

A bit to the hysterical to my taste.  And there are those that go after people like Mike Huckabee.  And on and on.

My own thinking was published last year in Hebrew (i am polishing an English version).

Of course, there real, and not imagined problems in the field of inter-religious relations or relationships. yes, there is the Messianic Jews for Jesus groups and others.  But I am now referring to illicit ones by Jews.  As reported:

Israeli police say they have broken a prostitution ring where Jewish women were brainwashed into having sex with non-Jewish men as a path to religious redemption...the prime suspect was an eccentric 60-year-old man from Kiryat Arba, a hardline settlement in the southern West Bank.

Police say they arrested a group of eight "messianic" men and women who targeted vulnerable women and "prostituted them under the influence of drugs and alcohol."   They told them that having sex specifically with non-Jews would "save the Jewish people and bring about redemption."

...some 15 women had been recruited, some of whom were believed to be minors.  Their "clients" included Palestinians from the West Bank and foreign workers from Tel Aviv, the newspaper said.

The affair was brought to the attention of police by Lehava [which claimed] the prostitution ring was operational for six to seven years and involved "four or five women."

As in point 1 here and on page 37 of this book, it is quite possible to understand that sexual relations with non-Jews are not considered to have any validity in a Halachic sense.  The conclusion that the women should have drawn is that how, then, can sex with non-Jews assist the coming of a redemption era?  How can their souls be saved?  The sex doesn't count.

One response could be that these girls' Rabbis never dwelt on this subjects. And that is connected to a problem I have with the claims that Christians will snatch Jewish souls amongst the vineyards.  Do they educate their pupils?  Do they instruct them how to counter the arguments that might be used to sway them?

Just like in this case of sacrified prostitution, use sex to missionize for Jewish purposes, so, too, in the matter of fear of possible missionary activity by Christians (again, of which there is no credible evidence but suspicions that feed and fund activity that is detrimental to the settling of the Land of Israel, the key is pre-education.

And that is the responsibilities of the Rabbis and educators.

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