THE RAINBOW SWASTIKA - Scattered Seed Ministries

obedience to Divine commands. As for the Torah, its purpose is to "completely fulfill all our
needs" - and the _Zohar_ is its magic charm. Berg dismisses out of hand the Torah references
to G-d rewarding those who do good and punishing those who do evil: "We are taught from
childhood [this idea]. Never believe it." (_The Wheels of the Soul_, p.46) [Compare this
with Bailey's call to rid the world of this and other "primitive" ideas, as well as the call by NA
educators to shed our poisonous childhood teachings.] Freed from the Torah prohibitions
against divination and communing with the dead, Berg is accustomed to using astrology and
seances as often as Torah and _Zohar_ to "counsel" his disciples.
5. Undermining Orthodox Judaism From Within
In contrast to the above mutants of Judaism which are self-proclaimed breakers and re-makers
of Torah, this segment deals with leaders and groups who claim (and are believed by many) to
be working for change within the parameters of Torah. While Jewish Renewal rabbis will
identify themselves as "post-denominational" or "flexidox", this group will unflinchingly say
"orthodox Jew". It takes patient probing to peel off the public image and the "kosher"
teachings, revealing where their inner loyalties lie.
[Separating the Baby from the Bathwater: Under these conditions, misjudgments are easy in
either direction: to mistake fifth columns for pillars of the community - or the opposite. The
key is to make a distinction between legitimate protest and covert sabotage. It's entirely
proper to say that Judaism can benefit from changes in ways permitted by Jewish law, and to
point out the many options which are not being utilized. It's also right and necessary to
criticize areas of Judaism which have deviated from Torah, with the intent of bringing Jewish
practice more in line with both the letter and spirit of the commandments. But it's quite
another thing to say that Judaism can benefit by "freeing itself" from the Torah.]
[Some orthodox factions view any criticism of today's orthodox Judaism as subversive - any
demand for change is a sinister plot, and any exposure of corrupt leadership is a betrayal.
This attitude ignores both the message of the entire Tenach (which obligates small and great
to the same standards of righteousness) and the historical development of Judaism itself
(which has periodically changed to reflect new situations and disagreements among the
sages). In fact, I submit that it is this orthodox refusal to clean house which has alienated so
many Jews from the Torah community, and has allowed NA to become so overpopulated with
Jewish disciples. Leaders who deny real sins in the orthodox world think they are protecting
the reputation of Torah Judaism, but they are actually harming it. Not only are they failing to
deal with malpractice of Torah which is to blame for those sins, but pretending that the
community's Torah-keeping is above reproach gives credibility to the NA claim that it is
Torah itself which is to blame for those sins. They are driving honest, disillusioned Jews into
the arms of the NA infiltrators named below, for example in dealing with the "orthodox
feminist movement". Perhaps some of the NA infiltrators themselves have embraced NA
transformation in reaction to the see-no-evil attitude of orthodox leadership. If so, they are
Jews who can perhaps be brought to repentance, but only after orthodox Judaism repents and
stops excusing its own Torah-breakers.]
Following are some influential leaders and organizations identifying with orthodox Judaism,
who are actually working for the "liberation" of Judaism from the confines of the Torah. [The
real tip-off is when the supposedly "kosher" names keep turning up in organizations
diametrically opposed to what orthodox Judaism stands for. Another tip-off is the recurrence
of well-known NA phrases repeated by ostensibly orthodox Jews. This throwing about of
phrases is a recognized method of "networking" and "code-signaling" among NA "change
agents" who are trying to avoid public detection while communicating with one another. If