THE VICTIM AND HIS CHEERLEADER

“If your brother becomes impoverished and his means falter in your proximity, you shall strengthen him – proselyte or resident – so that he can live with you.” (Vayikrah 25:35)

This verse describes the plight of a person who has fallen on hard times. The unfortunate individual is in financial dire straits and is collapsing. The Torah calls upon those in the vicinity: “you shall strengthen him!”  Don’t allow him to fall any further. Come to his aid, extend to him a loan or give him a gift. Rashi provides a parable for why the Torah selects the verb v’hechezakta, ‘strengthen’ or ‘hold’ him: This is akin to a heavy load on the back of a donkey. While it is still on the animal’s back, one person can adjust it so that it will remain in place. However, once the load has fallen to the ground, even five people cannot lift it back up.  Similarly, while someone is faltering, there is a still a chance of coming to his aid. But once the person has collapsed, it is extremely difficult to put him back on his feet.

In modern parlance we might say that the Torah is describing a victim. He or she is a victim of an unfortunate, dysfunctional childhood or of financial abuse or of the inequity of capitalism or of racial /religious discrimination. Whatever the case, we – those who are more fortunate and ‘privileged’ – must come to the victim’s aid. This concept, in a very extreme and twisted way, is the foundation of woke ideology. Being “woke” means an “active awareness of systemic injustices and prejudices, especially those involving the treatment of ethnic, racial, or sexual minorities”. But it goes much further than that by placing victims on a pedestal and finding enormous fault with anyone who possesses any form of privilege, real or imagined. Thus a white person, simply by virtue of his or her birth into a privileged group, is already an oppressor and should feel guilt. As is the case with many ideologies, wokesim began with noble underpinnings but has now become a radical and extreme movement. In fact the term ‘wokesim’, the “promotion of liberal progressive ideology and policy as an expression of sensitivity to systemic injustices and prejudices”, is often used in a derogatory sense by those on the right to deride their opponents.

Perhaps one of the most glaring proofs that wokeism is a false movement is its relationship to Jews and Israel. It could be argued that a Jew is perhaps the quintessential victim. The Jew has been exiled, murdered, placed in ghettos, blamed for disease, accused of ritual murder, deprived of rights enjoyed by others, marginalised and suffered genocide. And not the type of genocide that is bandied about by so many today.  The Jew has been the ultimate victim for most of his history and yet, in the eyes of the woke left, the Jew is the white privileged oppressor, notwithstanding the fact that many Jews are more oriental than European in appearance and background. He is a coloniser who stole the land of the Palestinians and is currently perpetrating a genocide against the citizens of Gaza. They conveniently forget that Islam is the ultimate colonising religion and that the Palestinians began the current war by committing the most heinous acts of terror against the innocent citizens of Israel on 7 October 2023. But none of this concerns them. In their eyes, the Palestinian is the victim and the Israeli (read: Jew, for them the two are interchangeable) is the oppressor.

One of the capital enclaves of wokeism is Hollywood. Many of the actors, directors and other movie officials have adopted this ideology with gusto. When sitting for interviews, receiving awards or joining protests, these people proudly voice their concern and sympathy for the many victims in America and elsewhere.  One of their big causes is the predicament of the many illegal immigrants in the United States. While the federal government is cracking down on illegals, movie stars are protesting the actions of I.C.E (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and calling for the agency to be defunded or closed down entirely.  At the 2026 Grammy Award Show, singer Billie Eilish used an expletive to describe ICE and said, “No one is illegal on stolen land.” This ridiculous example of virtue signalling posits that the entire population of the United States are illegal immigrants considering that the land was originally stolen from the native people. If such a belief was followed to its logical conclusion, there would be complete anarchy in the country as everyone attempted to evict his neighbour from his property. 

Another one of Hollywood’s pet causes is the Palestinian ‘genocide’. At the 2026 Academy Awards some actors, including Javier Bardem, wore pins and badges demonstrating their solidarity. Bardem used the opportunity to tell his colleagues, “No to War! Free Palestine!” for which he received rousing applause. I am not sure how many of these people could find Gaza and Israel on a map. Some of the attendees wore the red hand pin of the Artists4Ceasfire group. This symbol has a dark origin. In 2000, two Israeli Army reservists were lynched by a mob in Ramallah. Their bodies were mutilated and thrown into the streets. A Palestinian, later identified as Aziz Salha, appeared at the window displaying his blood-soaked hands to the crowd, which erupted into cheers. Hence the red hand of Palestinian resistance.

I have often said that Hollywood is one of the most toxic places in the world. It is a place populated by impossibly good-looking people with ridiculously large bank accounts who spend most of their lives in a fantasy world. Their relationships are dysfunctional, their children are maladjusted and they believe – quite incorrectly – that their fame and fortune grants them the right to express an opinion on important matters in the real world. It doesn’t. They may be talented but they are not smart. They live in ivory towers but think they can lecture to the masses. I take everything they say with a massive packet of salt.

In 1959 Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, of blessed memory, received a question from an actor concerning the use of cosmetics on Shabbat (Igrot Moshe Orach Chaim 2:79). Before addressing the halachic issue, Rabbi Feinstein inserted a fascinating aside. He referred to the actor’s belief that his work in the theatre and film industries was for the “sake of Heaven” because he was of the opinion that by appearing in such media, he would be able to have more of an influence on young Jews and thereby assist them to become observant. Rabbi Feinstein rejected this belief vehemently. He noted that the majority of plays/films were of a frivolous nature and made light of such serious matters as sexual promiscuity and murder. Even if a script that was free of swearing, murder and promiscuity were to be handed to an actor, it would be the exception and not the rule and somebody pursuing such a career would have no choice but to appear in films that did make light of matters that Judaism considers very serious. It is no coincidence that the woke mindset has taken root in that place of madness.

Lee, Chani Merryl & Naomi join me in wishing you Shabbat Shalom! Rabbi Liebenberg.

This week’s YouTube message: https://youtu.be/mZGt7zy5Tns?si=o0VVmfE71Zg7PLuq