Resting their faith on the faithless.

I had a dentist in America who builds his practice around what he calls sedation dentistry. He says that people are anxious about visiting the dentist and he doesn't want fear to hold them  back from getting the care that they need. He offers sedation dentistry to improve the experience. Primary among his techniques is the use of nitrous oxide to sedate nervous patients, including those with a gag reflex. He wrote in response to my inquiry, "Yes, we can use a few different techniques for patients who have a strong gag reflex. We have many patients with this issue and we have successfully treated them for over 25 years."

This dentist was my family's dentist in America. We went to him because of his dedication to sensitive care as we have sensitive children.

When we told him that we were moving to Israel, he told us that his brother is a dentist in the city to where we were moving and that we could go to him. However, his brother does not practice sedation density. The brother in Israel does not use nitrous oxide. He does not offer sedatives. He also doesn't tell you that these are options if only offered by other dentists. If you are nervous, too bad. If you are gagging and moistening your mouth, which is a problem for the drying of composite resin fillings, too bad. He just shoves some silver filings in your mouth without telling you that they contain 50% mercury. He doesn't ask if you are allergic to mercury. He doesn't ask if you grind your teeth or have issues with your kidneys, in which case silver mercury amalgam is not recommended by the FDA. 

We sought in Israel to receive the same kind of care we got in America. We found that even paying out of pocket doesn't get you that care. When the dentist in America recommended his brother he forgot about the theme of his practice and opted instead to toss his brother some business which might be understandable with plumbing or house painting but not specialized medicine. If a French teacher in one place recommends his sister who is an Italian teacher in another place he hasn't done you any favors if you are trying to learn French. Of course, when you find out after one lesson, you can always find another teacher. If a dentist plants mercury in your head, and the FDA recommends not removing it once it's in there, you have a big problem if you didn't want it in the first place. 

Does this contrast reflect the contrasting personalities of the brothers or does it reflect the contrast in cultures? Do we see here another reason not to make so-called aliyah. Are we witnessing the contrast between America and Israel, as America has a client centered approach to medicine and Israel is militaristic and coarse. It doesn't help to move to a so-called Anglo community and pay out of pocket for an American trained dentist because the 2nd world atmosphere overtakes him. His standards drop. Or maybe that was his personality to begin with. I have noticed that olim tend to be aggressive types of people and that doesn't lead to sensitive care even if they are American. As for the kupah, the nationalized medicine, my friend has been waiting one year to get his cavity filled.

Welcome Home!

Hershel Schachter of Yeshiva University claims that Israel is "a wonderful place to live" and that it has "all the modern inventions." Rabbi Schachter should not be telling people to live in a place where he does not live because he doesn't know what it's really like. He knows divrei Torah about Eretz Yisrael and he is caught up in sentimentality about the medinah that he tries to convert into Torah. He uses his podium to push people into a life change that he doesn't even make. It's a bad look.

Yitzchok Berkowitz of the Aish Yeshiva also pushes people to live in Israel. At least he lives there, but he pushes baalei teshuvah who are vulnerable to such pressure. He claims that there's no excuse for not living in Israel because there are Anglo communities. I live in a so-called Anglo community where among other things it's difficult to get decent dental care, or medical care or education. It's not really an Anglo community. It's Israel with a few more English speakers. There's not such thing as an Anglo community in Israel. The society swallows you up no matter where you go.

On my pilot trip, I spoke to a dentist who was from my American town. He assured me that medical care in Israel was perfectly wonderful. How could he possibly make such a statement? Anything for the cause. Aliyah pushers will lie to you for sake of promoting aliyah. Anything for the cause.

Sometimes, they know they are lying and sometimes they actually believe their lies because they are so deranged with Israelism, the replacement of God and Torah with Israel, that all of their faith has been switched over to Israeli society. They don't question it and assume it be superior in every way because it's a religion for them. They have faith in it, which is sick, because it's an anti-religious society. They are resting their faith on the faithless.