Strong responses continue to be received about the Maccabeans persistence in publishing the Did you Know column when it contains innaccurate and offensive statements.
Last week, in an attempt to discredit the process of Sefirat Haomer, the article makes the claim that the Rabbis of the Talmud disregarded and corrupted the Torah text. Commenting on the interpretation of the item the comment is made “all the above shows that the simple Torah requirement that Jews should thank G-d for a good harvest has been perverted by the Rabbis into a complex religious ritual”. The article has a subheading “when in Rome, do as the Romans do!” and then advocates with dispensing with Sefirat Haomer.
I was recently admonished for persistently picking on this column though the blog. Some people feel its not important; “after all noone reads this rubbish and why draw attention to it.” Others feel that it is just a writing style and its not intended to be offensive. Yet another person says, move on, nothing will change.
In response to this, I would like to place on record that I think these matters are very serious, and that the credibility of the Perth Jewish community is put on the line if such vitriol and distortion against the Jewish faith is allowed to be carried through the communities main line of communication. It is intolerable that such insults are published. If they were carried in an outside media people would cry anti-semitism, but if its the Maccabean then we only have to understand that it is another perspective, and we are welcoming of diversity.
Each and every time I see my religion abused and insulted, I will stand up to that.  I don’t wish to attack the people, but I do wish to attack the ideas. As you can see from the quotes above, the tone and inference of such reformist ideas are a destructive force to Judaism.  The interpretations that accompany the position are way out of context. I checked the talmudic source, and I can vouch for the misinterpretation of the sources quoted. I’m willing to bet that if I placed a Gemara in front of the author and asked him to read the meforshim he is quoting he wouldn’t be able to read it. Yet its quite OK to requote and reframe according to a position that dismisses and mocks the very inyun of the text.
Come on Maccabean! Enough is enough. Start controlling your content and stop being an irresponsible and anti-Jewish medium for the expression of ideas that destroy the very being of our people.Â