Beware Of Levity

One of the ways that the proponents of "disengagement" deal with the great injustice done to those that were expelled from their homes is levity. Before the expulsion someone sent me an email with a wmv file version of Channel 10's parody "Nechama Bat Yefune." I do not have a television at home and this is one of the reasons why. The portrayal of the settler woman as a scatterbrained idiot was just one of the devices to desensitize the nation to the great sin that it was about to commit. Let's laugh about kicking these scatterbrained idiots out of their homes!

Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato, in his book The Path Of The Just, warns us about the effect that levity can have on our spiritual growth:

Consider the great severity and destructive power of levity. Like a shield smeared with oil, which wards off arrows and causes them to fall to the ground, not permitting them to reach the bearer's body, is levity in the face of reproof and rebuke. For with one bit of levity and with a little laughter a person can cast from himself the great majority of the awakenings and impressions that a man's heart stimulates and effects within itself upon his seeing or hearing things which arouse him to an acconting and an examination of his deeds. The force of levity flings everything to the ground so that no impression whatsoever is made upon Him. This is due not to the weakness of the forces playing upon him, nor to any lack of understanding on his part, but to the power of levity, which obliterates all facets of moral evaluation and fear of God.

As we search our souls this Elul, levity is one of the things that must be done away with.