Erev Rav Series Post #1
We are starting a series on the topic of Erev Rav as it is a serious concern for those of us who wish to distinguish them in our midst and also to learn how to stay away from their leadership.
Erev Rav in a Nutshell
Traits of the Erev Rav, as described by our holy Sages:
Erev Rav possess some or all of the following traits:
They are brazen – ie, they believe they are perfect and can do no wrong
They are stiff-necked or stubborn; you can’t get them to reverse their opinions or change course
They make themselves leaders by force (ie, they are bullies)
They pursue their physical lusts
They want to ‘make a name for themselves’ and pursue honour, for example by building synagogues and adorning Torah scrolls
They abandon Israel whenever it’s in trouble, preferring to band together with Israel’s enemies
They promote strife and lashon hara
They pretend to be tzadikim, but their hearts are not straight
They run after money and strife
They lie to everyone, and they believe their own lies
They are constantly competing and making comparisons with other people
They are spiteful and vindictive, and constantly plotting how to ‘get’ the righteous people in their lives
They don’t respect agreements, boundaries, or other people’s property and rights
They watch righteous people for two reasons: first, to mimic how ‘righteous people’ behave; and secondly, to identify their insecurities and flaws so that they can use this knowledge to try to ‘kill’ them
They are full of evil ‘judgement calls’ about the people around them, ie, they criticise others harshly and speak a lot of lashon hara about them
You can’t argue with them (or at least, you can never win an argument with them because they won’t acknowledge the truth) – so you just have to wait silently for G-d to rescue you from them
They seem invincible and scary and permanent, but once they’re unmasked for what they really are, and it’s as though they completely vanish from the righteous person’s life
They are angry, stubborn and refuse to mend their ways, even when they are shown what they are doing wrong.
They hide their evil and heresy behind a veneer of ‘good’ and ‘religious’, which confuses us, and makes it very hard for us to know what’s going on, or what to do about it
Their ‘big thing’ is making peace, at any price.
Source: http://www.breslev.co.il/articles/judaism/concepts_in_judaism/todays_erev_rav.aspx?id=25294&language=english