QUESTION:
1) How can we tell if someone is from the Erev Rav? What is the meaning of the words of the Vilna Gaon that “leaders” of the Jewish people in the final generations in Eretz Yisrael are really the Erev Rav? Does this mean that any of the known Gedolim or any Rav can be from the Erev Rav?!
ANSWER:
Our Sages said that even people who look pious and dressed completely in white garments can be from the Erev Rav. Rav Elchonon Wasserman authored Kovetz Hearos, and collected different teachings of the Sages, about this topic.
QUESTION 2) The Gra said that there are five kinds of Erev Rav: People who run after honor, money, and various lusts, people who cause strife amongst others, and people who are fakers who are not the same on the inside as they act on the outside. Doesn’t this describe a lot of people? Does that mean that anyone who does any of the above is from the Erev Rav?
ANSWER Only if a person acts this way (running after honor, lusts, money, strife, etc.) out of being truly bad on his inside, with intentions to hurt another Jew, is he from the Erev Rav. The Erev Rav souls have no compassion on a Jewish soul, unlike the souls of the Jewish people, who have a primary trait of compassion on others.
QUESTION 3) What should you do if you suspect that another person might be from the Erev Rav? Should you daven for him that he should do teshuvah? Or should you not be concerned about him at all?
ANSWER The Erev Rav mixes with everything in Creation, including the souls of the Jewish people, and therefore there are traces of Erev Rav in every Jewish soul. You need to daven for the “Jewish” part of a Jew’s soul.
QUESTION 4) How can you love every Jew with ahavas Yisrael, maybe he’s from the Erev Rav?
ANSWER Ahavas Yisrael is to love the “Jewish” part of a Jew’s soul, and there is also a concept of loving even the non-Jewish part of the Jew’s soul - just not the “Erev Rav” part of the Jew’s soul.
QUESTION 2) The Gra said that there are five kinds of Erev Rav: People who run after honor, money, and various lusts, people who cause strife amongst others, and people who are fakers who are not the same on the inside as they act on the outside. Doesn’t this describe a lot of people? Does that mean that anyone who does any of the above is from the Erev Rav?
ANSWER Only if a person acts this way (running after honor, lusts, money, strife, etc.) out of being truly bad on his inside, with intentions to hurt another Jew, is he from the Erev Rav. The Erev Rav souls have no compassion on a Jewish soul, unlike the souls of the Jewish people, who have a primary trait of compassion on others.
QUESTION 3) What should you do if you suspect that another person might be from the Erev Rav? Should you daven for him that he should do teshuvah? Or should you not be concerned about him at all?
ANSWER The Erev Rav mixes with everything in Creation, including the souls of the Jewish people, and therefore there are traces of Erev Rav in every Jewish soul. You need to daven for the “Jewish” part of a Jew’s soul.
QUESTION 4) How can you love every Jew with ahavas Yisrael, maybe he’s from the Erev Rav?
ANSWER Ahavas Yisrael is to love the “Jewish” part of a Jew’s soul, and there is also a concept of loving even the non-Jewish part of the Jew’s soul - just not the “Erev Rav” part of the Jew’s soul.
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