In a Tisha B'Av email from Artscroll we find "The Antidote to the Destruction" containing the following incredibly crude theological insights (original typos included):...The Ya’aros Devash maintains that jews were indifferent to the spiritual poverty of “outsiders.” Instead of reaching out to the spiritually famished, most Jews tended to “mind their own business” and feel no responsibility to bring Torah and mitzvos to their brethren. That is not what we normally call hatred, but in the truest sense it was extreme hatred, because no nation – especially our nation – can long thrive if it is morally and “culturally” empty. To the Jewish people, “culture” means Torah, and when people ignore the communal responsibility to disseminate its study, they are starving their brethren of spiritual nourishment. It is like feeding an entire nation on a tasty diet on saturated fats, sodium, and sugar.We understand none of these insights, starting from the use of "quotes", then on to the idea that Jews who "mind their own business" caused the destruction of the Temple, continuing with the comparison between "when people ignore the communal responsibility to disseminate its [i.e. Torah] study" and a "diet of saturated fats, sodium, and sugar".
On Tishah B’Av, as we mourn the loss of the Beis Hamikdash and long for the coming of Mashiach, let us also resolve to bring the Torah and the beauty of Jewiish tradition to our brethren wherever they are. Thanks to the generosity of friends and supporters like you, the Mesorah Heritage Foundation is your agent in doing so...
And - oy vavoy - for the Mesorah Heritage Foundation to then to pat themselves on the back, and claim credit as "The Antidote to the Destruction" and as a finale to announce and "Amazing Special on Schottenstein Talmud Bavli, 30% off, Lowest price ever!"
Yes, in concluding the email, signers Rabbi Nosson Scherman and Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz thank us, "...thanks to you, the scholars and editors of the Foundation are making powerful inroads. Many people speak of a Torah revolution. The revolution is yours."
In what we consider the epitome of bad taste, Worst Theology Ever!, the email proposes to know the "causes" of tragedy and then that the Artscroll "revolution" is the remedy to the destruction of the Temple and the Holocaust. Revolution, no. Revolting theology, yes.
But of course in our time and place, bad taste in advertising is not a sin. [hat tip to bernice]
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