Rav Kook's Ein Ayah: Human Dignity

(condensed from Ein Ayah, Berachot 6:47)

Gemara: It is no’ach [literally, comfortable, but in context, preferable – see later on] for a person to throw himself into a furnace than to whiten the face of a person (with embarrassment) in public. From where do we know this? From Tamar [who was willing to be burnt rather than expose Yehuda’s impropriety].

Ein Ayah: Just like pursuing imaginary respect is one of the bad traits that make a person lose his place in the world, so too the true recognition of a life of human dignity and the despising of a life of disgrace is a foundation of the world. This elevates a person’s spirit to recognize the true dignity of shleimut (completeness) and the value of truth in wisdom and knowledge of Hashem. Therefore, a person should realize that the value of life stands on its own only when it is connected to the feeling of human dignity. When a person is missing that feeling of dignity, his life is not considered a human life.

It is true that there are people “of a great heart” who are willing to accept degradation with love because they see it as a preparation for a more complete and greater honor, which is the honor of shleimut. However, this is not a sign that human dignity does not have value, for indeed it is the form of human life.

It is based on the above that the gemara says that it is preferable for a person to give up his physical life, even in an unusual manner that is the opposite of dignity for a moment, than to embarrass his counterpart in public in a manner that shrouds his friend’s dignity over the future in an inerasable cloud. This is because the impact of something done in front of many people is very great, and when one loses his human dignity in that forum, he loses his standing and the value of his life.

Therefore, due to the moral aspirations of a complete person who knows how to value life, it is more fitting to prefer losing his physical life than to cause his friend to lose his dignity, which is like an ongoing, undesirable death. It is possible that based on the rules of the Torah, one should not actually give his life under such circumstances because a full life has a great advantage in that his friend can have his dignity that escaped him healed and restored to him. However from the perspective of what one should feel, he should be willing to give his life. One’s thirst for life should give way, and he should view the temporary pain associated with giving his life as nothing compared to the knowledge that someone’s dignity will be trampled publicly, as the latter’s pain will be ongoing and long-lived. That is why the word no’ach[literally, comfortable, but in context it is more of an emotional preference], as this is not an operative halacha but is the way one should feel.

We need to understand the extent of the “whitening of the face” which is being discussed, as there are different levels of embarrassment. It is apparently talking about a case where the shame lowers the perceived value of the person who is the subject of the embarrassment forever in the eyes of the public in a manner that he cannot easily escape it. Only then does it justify giving one’s life even on a theoretical basis.

Kedusha and Totality

by HaRav Mordechai Greenberg
Nasi HaYeshiva, Kerem B'Yavneh

We would like to focus on two of the many teachings of Chazal on the pasuk, "Be holy" (Vayikra 19:2).

1. "Be holy" – be ascetic.

2. Perhaps like Me? The pasuk teaches, "For I am holy" – My sanctity is above yours.

The Ramban has a well-known comment that the mitzvah of abstaining is even from pleasures and indulgences that are not inherently prohibited, since without this a person can still be vile within the framework of the Torah.

Based on this, the two aforementioned teachings are very difficult! If holiness means separation from physical pleasures, how is it possible to compare our holiness to the Divine holiness? Furthermore, what is the idea that His holiness is above ours?

Rav Shimon Shkopf addresses this at length in the introduction to his work, "Sha'arei Yosher." He explains there that all of a person's actions have to be with a single goal – to help others, and not for his own benefit. In this way, man is similar to the Creator, all of Whose actions were only for the Creation. Even when a person is attending to his own needs, the ultimate goal is the benefit of the community. After all, if he will not care for his health and welfare, he will not be able to function.

Chazal say about this in Pirkei Avot: "If I am not for myself, who is for me? When I am for myself [only], what am I?" In other words, every person is obligated to achieve his personal potential. If he does not do this, no one else will do it in his place. However, the goal of self-fulfillment must be directed to the community, i.e., to consider himself a limb of the general body. Therefore, "when I am for myself" – and only for myself – "what am I," since this has no value.

Thus, there was room to think that man should be holy like G-d, i.e., that he should forego his individuality completely for the benefit of the community. This is what Chazal negated, "My holiness is above your holiness," that a person must care for his needs, and not like G-d, Whose actions are directed just towards others.

This is what the Ramban means, that the idea of holiness is abstinence. Physical pleasures that are not for the purpose of developing the body properly, but for personal pleasure, should be avoided, because this contradicts the Divine holiness, Whose actions are all for the community.

A person needs to work on this point. True, when a baby is born, all of his concerns are for himself alone, but little by little he should associate himself with the community – first with his family, and, ultimately, with mankind as a whole. Rav Kook zt"l writes in Orot Hakodesh:

§ A person has to free himself from his personal confines that fill his entire essence ... This lowers a person to the depths of small-mindedness, and there is not limit to the physical and spiritual suffering that results from this. Rather, his thought and interest and basic thinking must be given to the total all – to the whole world, mankind, the whole of Israel, to all the universe. Through this, his individuality will also be established in the proper measure. (p. 147)

§ The more a person rises in his spiritual stature, the more he feels the great value of the community. The Divine voice begins to become alive inside him, in his heart and the depths of his desire. (ibid.)

§ The nation's greats cannot be separate from the most encompassing totality, all their want and aspiration is always the good of the entire klal. (p. 444)

One person sings his personal song, and in himself he finds everything. Another sings the song of the nation, and he clings with a gentle love with the wholeness of Knesset Yisrael. Another, his soul expands until it goes out and spreads beyond Israel, to sing the song of mankind ... Yet another spreads even above this until he joins with the entire universe, with all the creatures and all the worlds. He sings with them all. This is the one who is involved in the daily song, who is guaranteed to a place in the world to come. (ibid.)

Rav Kook on Parashat Kedoshim: Holiness in Physical Pleasure

“For three years the fruit shall be Orlah, and may not be eaten. In the fourth year, all of the fruit shall be holy, for praising God.” (Vayikra 19:23-24)

The Talmud in Berachot 35a quotes this verse as the source for reciting a blessing over food: “'Holy, for praising God’ — this teaches that [fruit and other foods] require a blessing before and after eating.”

The key word, Rav Kook noted, is kodesh — holiness. Even when we eat, even as we partake of worldly pleasures, we should be able to uncover holiness.

Holiness from physical pleasure?! How is that possible?

An Opportunity for Holiness
What is a brachah? When we recite a blessing, we express our recognition that God is the ultimate Source of all pleasure. But there is a joy that is far greater than the sensory pleasures experienced when consuming food.

Eating is more than just nourishing our bodies. It is a chance to connect with our Creator and deepen our feelings of gratitude and appreciation. We should feel an inner joy when we realize that every form of physical pleasure provides us with an opportunity to uplift our spirits and bring holiness into our lives. 

A blessing over food is not just about giving thanks for the physical pleasure we are about to enjoy. Each blessing should make us aware of a far greater gift: that even material pleasures can be a source of holiness!

In this way, the piece of fruit that we eat becomes קֹדֶשׁ הִלּוּלִים — “holy, for praising God.”

(Adapted from Ein Eyah vol. II, p. 171 by Rav Chanan Morrison)

To swim against the tide

by Rabbi Dov Berel Wein

The Torah’s definition of holiness and sanctity, of dignity of self and others, of respect to one’s body and that of others, is in the ability to channel and control one’s physical desires. The Torah explicitly does not condone celibacy nor does it demand from human beings any degree of self-mortification or masochism. It does most certainly demand from us responsible and balanced human behavior.

It outlines a necessary and omnipresent nuance in our lives - in our mental and physical behavior. The rabbis have taught us that humans willingly sin only because a manner of distorted thinking -a type of insanity if you will - enters one’s mind and being.

Judaism has always fought the lonely and mainly unpopular battle against sexual immorality and flagrantly wanton behavior. From the Canaanites through the Greeks and the Romans, the debauchery of much of the Medieval Age and the current unchecked and unrestrained attitudes of modern society, traditional Judaism has decried lewdness and wanton self-gratification in sexual matters.

It has demanded that people be kdoshim - separated from immoral behavior and forbidden liaisons. It demands self-control, the avoidance of compromising and dangerous situations and a realization that ultimate good sense should triumph over momentary gratification.

Judaism imposes on us an unpopular stance, especially so in our current modern society. And yet over the long history of human society, it has proven to be the only correct guide for a healthy, happy family life and a more harmonious social compact between people.

Many people, Jews included, mock the protective measures enjoined by Jewish tradition to insure a society that aspires to be one of kdoshim. The mingling of the sexes in synagogue worship in the non-Orthodox world has not brought any great degree of comfort to those people who sit together. It has rather led to a drastic decline in synagogue attendance and participation in those groups.

The whole concept of modesty in dress, speech and behavior is unfortunately completely absent and alien in most of modern society. Not a day passes when we are not made aware of the presence of sexual misconduct among those that seemingly should know better.

Judaism preaches defensive behavior and the avoidance of situations that could lead to problematic circumstances. Such defensive measures are mocked and scorned by the progressives of the current world. Yet we are witness to the tragic personal and national consequences that results in life when such defensive measures are absent or ignored.

Mental health experts have told me that pornography, especially on the internet, is the newest serious addiction in our schools, making drugs old hat and no longer cool. Protected by the noble ideal of free speech, it ravages our society and creates a dangerously dysfunctional generation and society.

The entertainment industry in all of its facets has been polluted beyond recognition by its pandering to the basest animalistic desires of humans. Nevertheless, the Torah does not waver in its demand to us to be kdoshim, to swim against the tide and persevere in our age-long quest to be a holy and dedicated people.

Our Repeated Strategic Failures, or How We Never Learn from Experience

by Victor Rosenthal

1. Failure to understand and respect our enemies.

Since before the founding of the State of Israel, Palestinian Arab leaders have been saying that the land between the river and the sea is Arab land, land in which non-Arab (and usually non-Muslim) sovereignty is intolerable. They opposed Jewish immigration from the turn of the 20th century because they correctly saw, even when many Jews did not, that sovereignty was the eventual outcome of Zionism. Leaders from Amin al-Husseini through Yasir Arafat to Mahmoud Abbas made countless statements to this effect, and repeatedly rejected offers of Palestinian statehood because they required the acceptance of a Jewish state as well. Jews and others with a Western outlook were repeatedly surprised when this happened, unable to grasp that the Arab objectives were not a mirror image of those of the Jews, who wanted a peaceful sovereign state and were prepared to compromise on land in order to get or keep it. For both secular and religious Palestinian movements like Fatah and Hamas respectively (although at the grass roots no Palestinian Arab movement is truly secular), the presence of a Jewish entity on what they believe is Arab/Muslim land is a painful violation of honor and doctrine. Over the years their belief in the absolute rightness of their position, their shame of having been victimized by the Jews, and their steadfastness in working toward their goal has only increased.

How many times have we heard that “what they want is to improve their lives and the prospects of their children?” That if only they could see a “horizon” of self-determination and prosperity, they would end their hostility to the Jewish state? Nothing could be more wrong – or more contemptuous of them. We are asking them, in other words, to abandon what they believe is their birthright to the land, to give up their honor (to Jews!), and to violate the principles of their religion, in return for scraps from our table. They would sooner die (and they do, often taking some of us with them).

Perhaps we are misled by the amount of corruption that exists in the political structures of peoples whose loyalties are primarily tribal, and think that the Arabs are weak and can be bought. Perhaps this is the source of the conceptzia that stupidly tried to buy quiet from Hamas with suitcases of dollars from Qatar, or thought that the billions of dollars siphoned off by Yasir Arafat would somehow make a peace partner out of him. Arafat took aid money to pay terrorists and fill his Swiss bank accounts, while Hamas leaders dug attack tunnels and built themselves mansions. But despite their corruption, neither neglected their main goal.

This strategic error has been repeated over and over, and has been responsible for two of Israel’s most painful failures: the Oslo Accords and the Second Intifada that followed, and the 7 October pogrom.

Give the Arabs the respect they deserve. Listen to what they say, and believe them when they say they are our enemies. They aren’t for sale.

2. Failure to Punish Those Who Hurt Us

We live in the Middle East. In the Middle East, when someone murders one of your people, you kill him. When someone invades your land, you take his land and you don’t give it back. Maybe you don’t agree with these principles and think that murderers can be rehabilitated, or that you can settle disputes over land legally or diplomatically; but the Middle East doesn’t care what you think. If you don’t protect your honor when you are victimized, it is a demonstration of weakness, and will be exploited. Recently the Iranian regime launched over 300 weapons including some 120 ballistic missiles at Israel, the largest attack of its kind in military history. The amount of death and destruction that it could have caused was enormous; only luck, the skill of our pilots, $1.35 billion in defensive weapons, and the help of the US (that we will pay for in loss of sovereignty) saved us. We responded by destroying a radar installation, to “send a message” that we could have attacked the nuclear installation it was protecting. Are we joking? They tried to kill us and instead of “rising up to kill them” as the sages of the Talmud recommend (Sanhedrin 72a-b), we send a message that we could have hurt them? That is not a Middle Eastern response, and it will be interpreted to mean that we are too weak or constrained (by the US) to strike back. This will encourage Iran to hit us again.

3. Failure to Maintain Deterrence

Israel’s response to rocket attacks and terrorism has tended to concentrate on parrying the enemy’s strikes rather than retaliating disproportionately (in the Middle East, the “disproportionately” part is important). While a purely defensive strategy (e.g., Iron Dome) results in less disruption to the home front, the enemy is not deterred from trying again and applying lessons learned from previous rounds of fighting. Psychologically, it normalizes the act of trying to kill Jews. A powerful retaliatory strike, on the other hand, makes the enemy pay a high cost for its aggression and deters future attacks. And it transmits the message that Jewish blood isn’t cheap.

4. Failure to Maintain Independence and Sovereignty

A small country can only control its own destiny by staying independent of any one great power or camp of powers. Such a country must maintain relations with all sides in the great power conflicts and play one side off the other. Israel successfully did this for a time, but by the 1980s, she was entirely dependent on the US, both diplomatically and as a source of military hardware. A key point of inflection was in 1987, when the project to build the Lavie fighter aircraft was cancelled. Today, although Israel’s economy is strong enough that she could pay for her own defense needs without American military aid, her procurement has been skewed for many years to extremely expensive American systems that may not be best suited for her needs (e.g., the F-35). It should have been obvious decades ago, and even more so with the election of Barack Obama in 2016, that American interests may diverge significantly from those of Israel, and that Israel should not put all her eggs in America’s basket. But our government and military took the easy way out, and allowed the addiction to US military aid to grow. Today we have the American Secretary of State sitting in on war cabinet meetings, and fine-tuning our military tactics – and very possibly preventing us from defeating Hamas and removing it from power.

The Consequences

All these failures work together to create disastrous situations for the state. The present situation in Gaza is a direct result of several strategic failures. The failure to understand that Hamas’ top priority was always going to be trying to destroy Israel and kill Jews, and that its leadership could not be sidetracked into providing for the welfare of its population or developing a real economy, led to the policy of allowing large amounts of cash from Qatar to reach the Hamas leadership. But rather than using the money to build civilian infrastructure, it plowed it into rockets and tunnels (after skimming a portion for the personal enrichment of its leaders). The conceptzia contributed to the IDF’s inattention and intelligence failures that allowed 7 October to happen.

Lack of punishment did damage on both an individual and organizational level. The fact that the death penalty (or even permanent imprisonment) for terrorist murderers wasn’t applied led to the release of Yahya Sinwar himself, the architect of 7 October, as part of an exchange of 1026 Palestinian prisoners for one kidnapped Israeli. Sinwar was serving four life sentences for murder. Hamas prisoners developed an autonomy within the Israeli prison system. In a particularly embarrassing affair, some prisoners arranged for attractive female soldiers to be assigned to their areas, exposing them to sexual harassment. Since the Palestinian Authority paid salaries to the families of all prisoners, prison was more like an extended work assignment than a punishment to be feared.

Over the past decade, there have been several limited wars or “operations” in Gaza in response to rocket attacks. In many cases, empty buildings have been hit, sometimes along with a few targeted killings, in order to “mow the grass” for a few years. The government could justify this weak response to attacks that could have been deadly, because most Hamas missiles were intercepted by Iron Dome. But our passive defense did not deter Hamas from trying again, as soon as they were able to do so, often with improved rockets and terror strategies. The 7 October attack was the result of the application of lessons learned from previous rounds.

After 7 October, the government realized that our strategy had to change, and that only a true victory over Hamas would prevent future disasters. But since the beginning of the war, we’ve seen increasingly intrusive interference and micromanagement by the Biden administration, which apparently does not want to see a complete Israeli victory. Because of our absolute dependence on the US for military supplies and protection from Security Council-imposed sanctions, Israel’s freedom of action has been severely limited. Failure to remove Hamas from power will be a victory for Hamas in the war that they started on 7 October.

A similar analysis can be applied to our conflicts with Hezbollah, and of course with Iran. After the war there will be elections, and most Israelis believe that wholesale change is needed. It is to be hoped that the new leadership will learn from our failures and reverse these disastrous policies.

Aftershocks

BS”D
Parashat Kedoshim 5784
By HaRav Nachman Kahana

Remembrance of the Shoah, its atrocities and implication are never far from the Jewish national psyche. Notwithstanding this fact, the Israeli government declared the 28th of Nissan of every year as the memorial day for the millions of murdered Jews when the schools, media etc., focus on every evil detail that the Germans perpetrated against our people.

The Shoah was level 9.5 on the Jewish Richter scale. And like major earthquakes which are followed by unpleasant aftershocks, so too are all the anti-Jewish actions of the last 80 years aftershocks caused by the Shoah. Why?

The Shoah had two messages:The Jewish claim to be the Creators “chosen people” is empirically false, because if it is true then their god would have protected them!
If you wish to protect your religion, then all Jews would have to be destroyed, either in the name of Yishmael or Aisav.

What happened on the Shabbat of last Shemini Atzeret, when the Islamic-Nazis converged on our towns and bases, where they murdered, raped, mutilated the live and the dead, and put children into lit stoves, was an aftershock of what the Germans did.

So, this eve of entering Rafah, “capital” of “Chamastan” in Aza, is an awakening for Jews wherever they are to the fact that Paro, Haman, Hitler, Stalin and all the rest are dead but their intentions are alive and kicking.

Resurrecting the Jewish Defense League
Due to the alarming rise in the number, intensity, and frequency of Judenhass (anti-Jewish) and “itbach al yehud” (murder the Jew – a frequent Arab call for action) in the U.S., there is a growing interest in resurrecting the JDL – Jewish Defense League , which was established by my brother, Rabbi Meir Kahana hy”d, in the late 1960s to protect local Jews.

I have been asked for my opinion on the matter.

Firstly, at the time when the JDL was being established in the U.S., My wife and I were already living in Israel for 5-6 years; so, I had no part in this initiative other than superficial updates from time to time in our brotherly correspondence. Hence my opinion is no more valid than that of anyone else.

Times have changed radically. The original JDL was created to react to local thugs of many colors and creeds, who would do annoying things, such as breaking car windows or stealing old lady’s handbags.

Today, Islamic Jihad has been brought into the equation. Jihadis, in the spectrum of sadism, will grow more extreme until they reach the level of murdering Jews just for being Jews, as they view themselves as the implementers of their psychotic, lunatic, deranged, demented, obsessed, delusional conception of what their deity desires of its adherents. A god of blood, anger and violence; of mutilation of bodies, rape and sadism, I’ll refrain from detailing the inhuman acts that these Islamic-Nazis did and would do again if the opportunity presents itself. God forbid!

Re-establishing the JDL is important, but one has to take into account, that like Newton’s third law of motion, every force has an equal and opposite reaction force. The JDL will cause the creation of a MDL (Moslem Defense League); and there is already an organization that calls itself the GDL (Goyim Defense League).

The inescapable fact is the inevitable conclusion: aliya to the promised land of Yisrael.

Meanwhile, while packing your bags, it’s good to have a JDL nearby that will be available to accompany your wife to the supermarket and your children to and from their Jewish day-schools.

But the effectiveness of such an organization would depend on the degree to which Ya’akov (Jacob – the Jew) adopts some of his brother Aisav’s characteristics: such as physical strength, determination, toughness, tenaciousness, unyielding strength, and no fear to physically punish.

A World that Disappeared
Several years ago, I received a glossy magazine by the name of “Edim Sheketim” [Silent Witnesses]. The edition was focused on a survey of what became of the sites that served as yeshivot and synagogues in Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Hungary in pre-war Europe; with an announcement that in the future a similar edition would be published regarding Slovakia and Poland.

The publication shows Torah centers from before the outbreak of the World War II, whose names are etched in our memories even more so than the Torah centers of Sura and Nahardara in Babylonia. All have a common denominator: they no longer exist as Torah institutions.

In the building of the Slobodka Yeshiva, “Lithuanian women sew inexpensive jackets”. The building of the former Ponovezh Yeshiva serves as a government school. The Telz Yeshiva lies in ruins. The synagogue of the Holy Ruzhiner Rebbe is a carpentry shop. The Central Synagogue of Brisk is a movie theater, and the Yeshiva of Kaminetz serves as an induction center for the Belarus Army.

The sounds of Torah heard day and night in the yeshivot of Brisk, Navardok, and Baranovitz are nothing but a distant memory. The birds that flew over these holy places and were singed by the Torah learning of Torah scholars now fly without fear.

As things are quickly deteriorating in major Jewish population centers in the States, it is only a matter of time before a similar magazine edition could appear that will feature the buildings of what were once the Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn, the Lakewood Yeshiva, Telz, Ner Israel, and my own Nevardik Yeshiva.

Let’s hope that it will be a painless transition.


Kedoshim
A word on this week’s parasha Kedoshim.

Moshe calls upon the nation to strive to be kedoshim, “holy”.

HaShem instructs Moshe to relate to the nation the message that HaShem expects them to be “kedoshim” – holy.

I understand that this message from HaShem came as a thunderous surprise to the newly freed slaves and even to Moshe himself.

I imagine that the predominant feeling among the Jews was that they were freed in order to perform HaShem’s will through the mitzvot, as was performed by their forefathers and mothers. But for a human being to enter the spiritual realm of Kedusha is beyond the HaShem-Yisrael relationship. A righteous Jew? Yes! But a holy Jew? No! Because a physical entity cannot pass through the impenetrable perimeter that separates it from the spiritual realms.

The message that Hashem sent through Moshe was that a gentile cannot be “kadosh”; however, not only can Jews achieve kedusha, they are commanded and expected to do so.

Torah commentators suggest, each according to his world outlook, how one can achieve kedusha – holiness.

There is little that I can add to their suggestions except for one comment that I can vouch for personally having been born and lived 24 years in galut.

A Jew can achieve Torah erudition through great diligence and inspiration anywhere in the world, but kedusha can be achieved only in Eretz Yisrael.

Shabbat Shalom,
Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5784/2024 Nachman Kahana

Do We Have What it Takes to Live in the Middle East?

by Victor Rosenthal

The struggle to establish and maintain a Jewish sovereign state in Eretz Yisrael has lasted more than one hundred years. Since 1948, the existence of the state has hung in the balance several times. This is one of them.

Our endless war is primarily with the Palestinian Arabs, but other nations join in confrontation from time to time. The war is at bottom a tribal/religious war, between Muslims and Jews over this land. Despite various shifting alliances, and despite the involvement on either side of various non-Muslim powers and their maneuvering for access to the resources and strategic aspects of the Middle East, one single fact is unchanging and underlies the hostility directed at Israel: Muslims cannot tolerate a sovereign Jewish entity in Dar al Islam. It is an affront to Islam and an affront to the honor of the Muslims who have been defeated – to their minds, only temporarily – by Jews.

Although Israel has signed “peace” treaties with some of her Muslim neighbors, Islamic ideology does not admit the possibility of a permanent peace with a non-Muslim tribe. What the West thinks of as a peace treaty is at best an extended hudna, a temporary cease-fire that can be broken when the Muslim side believes that it is strong enough to win, after the model of Muhammad’s CE 628 treaty of al-Hudaybiya – which he broke with devastating effect two years later.

When Israel was attacked on 7 October, a wave of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred was unleashed throughout the world, led everywhere by Muslims for whom the religious importance of the war in Gaza is clear. In American universities, Muslim students have been in the forefront of the demonstrations; and in Europe, Muslims are the main perpetrators of anti-Jewish violence.

There have been “secular” or “Marxist” Arab organizations among our Arab enemies, but they are a minority; and their energy comes ultimately from the religious imperative in Arab culture, and their shock troops from the ranks of the pious.

Religious/tribal wars end when one side is defeated or pause when both sides are exhausted. A defeated tribe is expelled, killed, or absorbed. Partition or compromise solutions have not proven fruitful for this kind of conflict, and certainly not when the land itself is closely tied to religious beliefs or tribal traditions.

In our conflict, land is primary. It is not an accident that our enemies in the north and south have bombarded civilian populations near the borders with intent to force them to flee. Although from a tactical point of view this is not advantageous to them – it will be easier for us to repel an invasion using air power and artillery if it is not occupied by our own people – the result is to weaken our claim on the land, to reduce the area of “Muslim” land inhabited by Jews. The 7 October attack, with its extreme, sadistic brutality targeted primarily at civilians, is characteristic of tribal/religious conflicts; and like the bombardment, incurred a tactical disadvantage: a very destructive counterattack by Israel. But Hamas saw the brutality as essential and so instructed its combatants.

What are the implications of this for Israel’s short- and long-term strategic decisions?

One is the imperative to defeat and destroy Hamas. But even if it is removed from power and its military capabilities destroyed, the population of the Gaza Strip will be fertile ground for its reconstitution or the development of similar movements. If there is no real and permanent change in possession of the land, there will be no perception of defeat from an Islamic perspective. Israel’s victory requires that the land itself must be lost to Islam.

The only way to permanently solve the problem of the Gaza Strip is to replace as much of the Arab population as possible by Jews. Practical steps include taking a decision not to permit Gazans displaced to the southern part of the strip to return to the northern part, to facilitate their emigration to other Arab countries and the West, and to reestablish Jewish settlements in Gaza. Of course Jewish sovereignty, probably by a military government, is essential. The same reasoning applies to Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley.

The US, Europe, the UN, and virtually all international institutions are vehemently opposed to this. Indeed, there is now a rumor that if Israel invades Rafiah – which is necessary in order to defeat Hamas – the UN and various European countries will recognize a “State of Palestine.” At the same time, the US will cut off the delivery of weapons and ammunition to Israel, and may apply sanctions of some kind, either to Israeli leaders or to the state herself. The International Criminal Court may issue warrants to arrest government officials and military officers on war crimes charges.

All these threats are real. Some in Israel say, therefore, that we should follow the instructions coming from Washington, accept a cease-fire that will leave Hamas in existence, although in some (magical!) way, no longer in control of Gaza. That would keep American weapons flowing (although we won’t be allowed to use them). There would be, at least for a time, quiet in the south. And we could, they say, concentrate on the threats from Hezbollah and Iran.

They are wrong. This would be a disaster. It would be perceived and described as a great victory for Sinwar and Hamas, and an encouragement for the terrorists in Judea, Samaria, and Lebanon to win a similar victory in the same way. The civilian population in the Western Negev and the Galilee would not be able to safely return to their homes, essentially shrinking our state. It’s clear that the position of Washington on our conflicts with Hezbollah, Iran, and the PLO is even less in our favor than that on Gaza, and we would not be allowed to win a decisive victory in any of them. Quite likely the US plan to establish a PLO-led Palestinian state that includes Gaza as well as the land east of the Green Line and parts of Jerusalem would go forward despite Israel’s opposition.

We cannot avoid this outcome if we continue to accept our role as an American satellite. We must aggressively move Jewish settlement forward in both Gaza and Judea/Samaria (not to mention the Negev, Galilee, Golan, and Jordan Valley), even if it means a break with the US. In order to do this and survive, Israel has to become a true “nonaligned nation,” maintaining friendly contact with China and Russia as well as the US. This is a difficult balancing act, but the current situation is not sustainable: as it stands, Israel is a punching bag for America’s enemies while receiving bear-hug “support” from the administration in the US that is detrimental to her long-term survival.

Despite her dysfunctional political system and the elements within the country that are cooperating with truly antisemitic forces in the international arena to destabilize the nation, Israel nevertheless maintains a relatively high degree of social cohesion. The Jewish birthrate remains high and her young people still compete to join the elite units in the IDF. The IDF is the strongest force in the region when it is allowed to fight.

7 October was a terrible blow, perhaps the single worst event in the history of the state (far exceeding the Yom Kippur war). In addition to the loss of life and (de facto) territory, it was a humiliation for the IDF and other security agencies. The invasion of homes and the kidnappings and torture of hostages has torn a hole in our heart that will not be easily mended. The attack encouraged all our enemies and triggered a worldwide explosion of Jew-hatred unprecedented since the Nazi era.

In the short term, only a true Middle Eastern response will suffice: a massively disproportional one that leaves everyone who had a part in planning or executing 7 October dead, and which severely punishes the culture that gave rise to it. Only that will restore our deterrence in the region, and the perception outside of it that Jews are natural victims. And in the long term, Jewish settlement and full sovereignty between the river and the sea is absolutely necessary to provide physical and spiritual security to the Jewish people.

Do we have what it takes to live in the Middle East? I believe that the people of Israel do. It’s only their leadership that has me worried.

The 'Palestinian State': Hamas Plays Westerners for Fools - Again

by Bassam Tawil

• [T]he Iran-backed Hamas terror group is again trying to dupe gullible Westerners, including the Biden administration and the European Union, into believing that it has accepted the "two-state solution."
• The Hamas official would not have dared to utter similar nonsense to an Arab media outlet. He knows that here his lies are directed at English-speaking audiences, who tend to swallow whole the baloney spouted by Israel's enemies.
• The Hamas official wants everyone to believe that his group is ready to stop killing Jews for a period of five years "or more" if it gets the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. He just forgot to mention that there was an official truce between Israel and Hamas until October 7, when the terror group Hamas initiated the current war.
• The Hamas official also forgot to mention that Hamas has repeatedly violated several truces and ceasefire agreements reached with Israel over the past 17 years. The truces and ceasefires were always used by Hamas to regroup and rearm in preparation for the next round of attacking Israel.
• Hamas will never abandon its weapons or dismantle its armed group, especially after the establishment of a Palestinian state.
• The mere talk about a Palestinian state these days is regarded as a reward for Hamas's genocidal assault on Israel. It sends the message to Hamas that after you murdered so many Jews, the international community will reward you by giving you a state. It reaffirms that terrorism works. Where do we sign up?
• The secret that the AP and the US administration do not want you to know is that Hamas does not actually want the Gaza Strip or the West Bank or east Jerusalem. Hamas wants to eliminate Israel and replace it with an Iran-backed Islamist terror state.
• If Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are given a state next to Israel, they will absolutely continue to pursue their goal of killing Jews and obliterating Israel. Hamas official Ghazi Hamad has clearly said that the terror group will repeat the October 7 attack, time and again, until Israel is annihilated.
• Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal has repeatedly clarified that his group's acceptance of a Palestinian state does not mean that it will abandon its goal of destroying Israel.
• "The lines below are for the next person who comes to me with 'Hamas agreed to two state solution.' It DID NOT! Hamas outlines this scenario fully in its Charter as amended in 2017.... Hamas will likely then stock as much rockets and drones possible for the next round of war to destroy Israel.... Prophet Muhammad is said to have entered into a 10-year truce with the infidels. He conquered them a few years into the truce. Hamas imagines a similar scenario with Israel." — Hussain Abdul-Hussain, X, April 25, 2024.

Hamas is well aware of the credulity of the international community. It knows that it can engage in all forms of propaganda and win friends in the West. It also knows that the best vehicle to advance its goal of killing Jews and destroying Israel is a "two-state solution."

If Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are given a state next to Israel, they will absolutely continue to pursue their goal of killing Jews and obliterating Israel. Hamas official Ghazi Hamad has clearly said that the terror group will repeat the October 7 attack, time and again, until Israel is annihilated. Pictured: Hamad is interviewed on October 24, 2023 on LBC TV (Lebanon). (Image source: MEMRI)


After slaughtering 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping 240 others on October 7, 2023, the Iran-backed Hamas terror group is again trying to dupe gullible Westerners, including the Biden administration and the European Union, into believing that it has accepted the "two-state solution." The solution envisages the creation of a sovereign and independent Palestinian state next to Israel, on the entire lands of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.

The latest Hamas deception came in the form of statements made by Khalil al-Hayya, a senior official of the group, in an interview with Associated Press (AP).

"A top Hamas political official told The Associated Press the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders," AP reported on April 25, 2024.

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Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook: Update to a Brother – part II

#208 – part II

Date and Place: 19 Tamuz 5669, Rechovot

Recipient: Rav Dov Ber Hakohen Kook, Rav Kook’s brother. He would later be the first rabbi of Afula and start the Harry Fischel Institute, but at this point, he was still in Eastern Europe.

Body: [The letter begins with Rav Kook’s request of forgiveness for not writing as much as he wanted to. Then Rav Kook describes the beauty of and positive changes at the moshava of Rechovot, where he was visiting.]

Of course, here too I do not have free time. Even when I am far away from the great activity of the city, I am surrounded by very overwhelming responsibilities. This is especially true this year, as the very impactful preparations for Shemitta are upon us. They are challenging in practice, but much more than that, in the thought of the heart and of the spirit, in the need to delve deeply into the halachic details, and to elevate the thought to the principles of the matter. After all, on the one hand, our eyes see and our ears hear with great intention, the great desire of the soul to adorn the mitzva with all its many halachot. On the other hand, we see the weakness of the situation and how unprepared we are for it, to the extent that we are compelled into adopting severe leniencies based on great need and the obviation of the mitzva.

Nevertheless, the rest of the Land is coming and spreading its wings on the holy soil. It approaches the heart of the nation of Hashem, which lives in the Land with a silent wind. On the one hand, we are dealing with the authorization forms that are needed to obviate Shemitta. On the other hand, we are leaving many areas of work that are performed most years, because the world is ready for it. We are being careful to ask about the most minute details from the many good, hard-working farmers who work our Land with an idealism and the pleasure of internal sanctity that is unprecedented in the world. They are all proclaiming: “The holy year is coming!” The holy feelings of the holy nation on holy soil are taking form silently, even among souls that have not revealed their own depths. Fortunate is the nation that Hashem is their G-d!

I will not keep from you, dear brother, that I have recently begun to put into actions my plans for a “Central Yeshiva for the New Yishuv.” I cannot succinctly explain the great necessity and the expected benefit from bringing such a holy, lofty undertaking to fruition. The goal and spiritual form of such a yeshiva is loftier and much more distant than the humble practical form it will be forced to adopt at its inception. We will place our trust in He Who bequeaths Israel with power, that He will provide the blossoming of righteousness. We shall start with a few good young men, with reasonable abilities, whom I have taken from Yerushalayim, and I have found another few to join them from Yafo. I hope that we will establish proper and good study systems, and that they will include my heart’s desire, to educate Torah scholars, who will be outstanding students on the spiritual side of the Torah of truth, as I have always desired from the time I was young. By expanding and developing this nucleus, and establishing it with a good form, with wisdom and a pure spirit, there will be much blossoming of salvation and redemption.

The hard work in this matter is the practical side, including the financial elements, which I am totally not an expert in. On the spiritual side, it requires order, which is also against my nature. After all, I love to influence and inculcate every youngster in the marketplace and young man on the street, if it were possible. Still, I hope to succeed with the help of a group of friends and supporters, although it is difficult for me to find people to whom I can hand over the thoughts of my spirit in their full purity. After all, we are living in the air that is full of the sound of hope and beams of light of the life of loftiness. I hope that the merit of Eretz Yisrael will enable us to set a strong base for this project, which is one of the major, practical, spiritual foundations of my life plan.

“Turn Away From Evil and Do Good”

by HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

G-d commanded Moshe to speak to the Israelites, admonishing and directing them before their entrance into the Land: “Do not follow the ways of Egypt where you once lived, nor of Cana'an, where I will be bringing you. Do not follow [any] of their customs” (Vayikra 18:3). Rashi explains that the deeds of the Egyptians and the Cana'anites were more corrupt than those of all the other nations. He comments on the expression, “Do not follow any of their customs”: “What did Scripture leave [unsaid] which was not previously stated? Rather, this verse refers to their customs, matters which are [social] obligations for them, such as [attending] theaters and stadiums.” These activities are in the class of “the seat of scoffers” (Tehillim 1:1), activities that lead one to neglect Torah learning. Well-known is the Rabbinic rule that whoever scoffs will be visited by suffering (Avodah Zarah 18b).

What precedes, is the category of “avoiding evil” (Tehillim 34:15). As far as the obligation to “do good” (ibid.), it says, “Follow My laws and be careful to keep My decrees, [for] I am the L-rd your G-d. Keep My decrees and laws, since it is only by keeping them that a person can [truly] live. I am the L-rd” (Vayikra 18:4-5). Rashi explains “Be careful to keep My decrees” as follows: “Don’t dispense with your obligation. Don’t say, ‘I’ve finished learning Jewish wisdom. Now I shall go and learn the wisdom of the nation.’” Quite the contrary, we have to learn Torah in such a way that we learn it our whole life. That is how we fulfill, “Happy is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the L-rd; and in His law doth he meditate day and night” (Tehillim 1; Avodah Zarah 18b).

What was true in Biblical times is true still. When Israel first set out on the stage of history, we were admonished, “Avoid evil and do good.” We were to “avoid evil” – not to do the deeds of the Egyptians and Cana'anites, who were steeped in sexual sin, idolatry, and theft; neither to develop a culture of theatres and stadiums, involving scoffing and frivolity, or competitions involving violence and cruelty. Today, as well, we mustn’t pursue that same culture which no matter how different it seems remains the same, that culture of scoffing, violence, and cruelty. Yet today these sins are occurring not just in the new theaters and stadiums, but unfortunately almost everywhere that there are television and Internet. There, we find the wholesale display of sex, violence, and evil, all of which can influence the psyche and behavior of the spectators. Such content leads to unprecedented neglect of Torah learning and deterioration in morality, behavior, and values.

We are also commanded to “do good”. The terrible crisis plaguing education and culture in our country requires that these frameworks engage in some deep and candid soul-searching, and that the entire public do so as well. All must ask whether the time has not arrived to return to our Jewish roots, to learn and to teach our holy Torah with love, not just on an individual basis, but on a governmental level. Surely, that crisis of spirit, morality and values which plagues Israeli society plagues almost every Jewish home, the education system and the entire governmental framework, and it requires us to make a fundamental change in order to imbue spiritual content and values into our country. As one of our heads of state said in our country’s infancy: “The Jewish Nation is not just a national or political unit. Rather, it incorporates also a spiritual, ethical will and has borne a historic vision ever since it appeared on the stage of history… We cannot understand Jewish history or our people’s fight for survival if we do not envision the spiritual and philosophical uniqueness of the Jewish People.”

May there soon be fulfilled through us the words, “Who is the man who desires life and loves days, that he may see good therein? Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.”

Besorot Tovot, Shabbat Shalom, and Pesach Sameach,
Looking forward to complete salvation,
With the Love of Israel Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael.

Why will this coming Seder night be different than most other seder nights?

BS”D
Pesach 5784
by HaRav Nachman Kahana

My annual Pesach essay updated for today
Picture a frum family living in any one of the great Torah centers in the galut; they could even be your next door neighbors!

The home of Reb Sender and Mrs. Rayza is impeccable; the result of the great time and energy, not to speak of the money, which the expeditious and skillful ba’alat ha’bayit (woman of the house) has devoted to it.

The sofas and armchairs in the sitting room, which look so inviting if not for the thick plastic covers which ensure that the upholstery retains its “new” look.

The five-meter-long dining room table is covered with the finest Irish linen tablecloth. In the middle of the table stands the imposing sterling silver candle sticks handed down from mother to daughter for generations. The china is the finest Rosenthal, with each plate delicately rounded off with a band of gold. The silverware has been put away in favor of golden ware in honor of the great night.

On the table, under a hand embroidered silk cloth, lay the matzot. On the insistence of the two sons learning in the recently opened Yeshiva Taharas Ha’Torah in Las Vegas (in order to bring the voice of Torah even to the entrance of Gehennom) the matzot are from the first 18 minute batch, guaranteeing that no naughty piece of dough would be hiding in any of the rollers. The hand matzot were personally chosen by the Rebbe of the shteible where the family davens after leaving the central shul which was costing too much. The rebbe assured the boys that the matzot were bubble-free, with no overturned edges.

The wall-to-wall carpet is as deep as grows the grass in the beautiful garden. Above the table hangs the family’s pride and joy — a many faceted crystal chandelier, personally chosen by Rayza on the family’s last visit to Prague.

Reb Sender is wearing his new bekeshe, the one with the swirls of blue, with a gold-buckled gartel. Rayza has just said the Shehechiyanu blessing over the $3000 dress imported from Paris. The boys are handsome in their wide brimmed black hats and the two girls will make beautiful kallahs when the time comes, dressed in their very expensive dresses.

The seder goes better than expected. Words of Torah, beginning with an invitation to the hungry to join with them in the meal, despite the fact that there is not a needy person within 50 miles. A lively discussion develops on the characters of the “four sons.” The afikomen is “stolen” by the youngest daughter who, for its return, has succeeded in extorting from abba a vacation in Aruba.

Songs of thanks to Hashem for freeing the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt are recited. For it is a mitzva on this night for each person to consider himself as if he and she where pitiful slaves in Mitzrayim.

Birkat Hamazon is said, as is the second part of Hallel. Chad Gadya puts the final touch on the mitzvot of the night. Now, just as Hashem destroys the “Angel of Death” in the song, father jumps up and gathering the family in a circle they all break out in a frenzy of song — L’shana ha’ba’a Be’Yerushalayim — “next year in Jerusalem.” Again and again around the table L’shana ha’ba’a Be’Yerushalayim is sounded. Louder and louder until their song merges with the same melody resounding from the neighbors’ homes, cutting a path into the highest realms of heaven.

Suddenly Mama collapses into a chair crying hysterically. The singing stops. Father runs over and asks: “Darling! Why are you crying just now at the height of the beautiful, sacred night?

And “darling” replies: “What do you mean next year in Yerushalayim? What about the table, the chandelier, the deep carpet, the Rosenthal China! How can we leave all this?”

Father approaches Mama. And taking her hand, while gently dabbing her tears away, in a voice full of compassion says to his beloved wife, “Darling, don’t cry, IT’S ONLY A SONG!”

In Israel
Ten thousand kilometers to the east, in Eretz Yisrael, lives Reb Sender’s brother Kalman and his wife Vered (Rose). Kalman had moved to Eretz Yisrael many years before, and they were blessed with a beautiful family and an adequate apartment. Their son, Yossi, will not be home for the Seder night since he is doing his army service within the Hesder yeshiva system.

But Kalman and Vered are not overly worried. Yossi himself told them that he is in a safe place in the north, and that next year they will all be together for the seder.

At 12 noon, on the 14th of Nisan, erev Pesach, Yossi and three other soldiers from the same yeshiva were called to the commander’s room, where he informed them that they have been chosen to fill an assignment that evening, on the Seder night. They were to cross the border into Hizballah territory in Southern Lebanon and man the out-post bunker on hill 432 until sunrise.

Yossi knew the hill well; he had been there several times in the past year. It was sarcastically called a “bunker,” but in reality, it was nothing more than a fox hole large enough for four soldiers. Their assignment was to track terrorist movements and destroy them on contact. It was tolerable except when it rained, which caused the bottom of the hole to be soggy and muddy. But today the four hoped that it would rain, even though chances were small since it was late in the season. On the 14th of every Hebrew month the moon is full, which presents a greater danger when crossing into enemy territory; so rain would be a mixed blessing.

At 5 PM, they were given the necessary arms and ammunition. In addition, the army rabbinate had provided them with 4 plastic containers each holding 3 matzot and all the ingredients necessary for a seder, as well as 4 plastic bottles of wine, sufficient for 4 cups, and of course a Haggadah.

At 6 PM they waited at the fence for the electricity to be turned off, in order to cross into hostile territory. Yossi held in his hand a map of the minefield they would have to cross. “It was so strange,” Yossi thought, “this is the area assigned to the tribe of Naftali, and we have to enter it crawling on our stomachs.”

At 6:00 PM the small aperture in the gate opened and they passed through. As they had hoped, it was raining and the thick fog was to their advantage.

At that moment, ten thousand kilometers to the west, it was 12:00 noon and Yossi’s two cousins in New York were just entering the mikva to prepare for the Pesach holiday.

The 4 soldiers reached hill 432 after walking double-time for 5 kilometers. They removed the camouflage and settled in, pulled the grassy cover over them.

Each soldier was assigned a direction. Talking was forbidden. If any murderers were sighted, a light tap on the shoulder would bring them all to the proper direction. After settling in, they prayed Ma’ariv and began the seder. In was finished within a half hour, and not unexpectedly, the four cups of “wine” had no detrimental effect on their senses.

At 6 PM in NY, the family returned from shul to begin their seder. It was then 12 midnight in Eretz Yisrael, and the four soldiers were waging a heroic battle against boredom and sleep. The minutes crawled by and at the first approach of light they exited their outpost and returned through the minefield and electric fence to the base. After reporting to the officer in charge, the four entered their tent, and collapsed on their cots without removing clothing or shoes, because in an hour they would have to join the shacharit service.

That night, the heavenly angels of Yossi and of his friends were draped in flowing, golden robes while sharing the heavenly Seder with the righteous of all the generations.

Why will this coming Seder night be different than most other seder nights?
Answer: Tens of thousands of Israelis will not be like the sons of Sender and Rayza enjoying the privilege of a seder in the comfort of their homes, but more like the sons of Kalman and Varda celebrating our exodus from Egypt in strange places like demolished buildings, fox holes, sitting in the cockpit of a jet fighter or in the belly of a submarine carrying advanced weapons capable of demolishing whole nations. HaShem has now advanced the Medina to a more auspicious role in divesting the world from its evildoers in preparation for receiving the long awaited Mashiach.

I have often stated that there is an uneven distribution of historic responsibility in our generation, when so much of the future history of Am Yisrael is being carried on the shoulders of the few in Eretz Yisrael.

But the truth is that it was always that way. The cry of Moshe Rabbeinu when he saw the Jews reveling before the Golden Calf, “Mi LaShem Ailei” – whoever is for God, let him come forth to me – reverberates through the generations. It was always the dedicated few who ensured the survival of our people by their willingness for self-sacrifice.

The others can draw false strength from the English poet John Milton (1608-74) who wrote:… They also serve who only stand and wait“.

This essay is a call to the dedicated Jewish young men and women in galut to come forward and join the ranks of their brother and sister Jews in Medinat Yisrael by enlisting in the IDF – Israel Defense Forces. University can wait, but victory over those who would rejoice in the destruction of Medinat Yisrael and the death of all its Jewish citizens and all Jews wherever they are – cannot wait!!

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Pessach Kasher Vesamai’ach
Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5784/2024 Nachman Kahana

Rabbi Ari Kahn on Pesach: Chametz and Idolatry (video)

Rabbi Doniel Glatstein on The Stunning Insight of the Chida: Why We Commemorate the Miracle on Shabbos and Not The Day of the Month (video)

From a person’s mouth you can tell what they are

by Rabbi Pinchas Winston

THE LAWS OF purification from tzora’as seemingly have little to do with Shabbos HaGadol. True, Moshe himself became a metzora on Har Sinai when he spoke badly about the Jewish people:

“…his hand was leprous like snow” (Shemos 4:7)”: It is usual for tzora’as to be white [as it says:] “If it will be a white blemish” (Vayikra 13:4). With this sign He (God) also hinted to him (Moshe) that he spoke slanderously when he said, “They will not believe me.” It is for this reason that He afflicted him with tzora’as, just as Miriam was for speaking slanderously. (Rashi)

But that seems to have been more incidental to the story, not a central part of it, right? Maybe not. On a Pshat level perhaps, and that is the level Rashi speaks on. On a deeper level, actually not.

After all, Pesach is peh sach, the mouth that spoke. Pharaoh is peh ra, the evil mouth. Moshe complained about having uncircumcised lips, which he felt made him unfit to redeem the nation. The Jewish people finally escaped the Egyptian people at Pi HaChiros, the mouth of the freedom. That’s a lot of mouths in the redemption story.

Maybe it has something to do with this:

Berurya came and found a student learning Torah in a whisper rather than out loud. She smacked him and said to him: “Isn’t it written: ‘Ordered in all things and secure’ (II Shmuel 23:5), that is, if [Torah is] ‘ordered’ in your 248 limbs, it will be secure (i.e., not forgotten), and if not, it will not be secure.” (Eiruvin 53b)

It’s true. Everyone who has learned anything knows that there is something different about letting your mouth speak and your ears hear what your eyes are seeing. It’s as if the information resonates more with the person, and affects more parts of them, somehow making what was learned a more memorable experience.

But even if a person jumps and down and acts out what they are learning, which definitely helps a person to be more connected to the information, there is something unique about speech itself. This is especially so since the Gemora says God only made a bris with the Jewish people because of Torah Sh’b’al Peh, the Oral Law (Gittin 60b). According to the Arizal, learning the Oral Law is transformative:

A person who only performs mitzvos merits [access to] the [level of soul called] Nefesh, which corresponds to [the level] called Asiyah, but not more…[But] a Nefesh without Ruach…hasn’t any light or intelligence to understand. If they make an additional effort to learn Torah, learning, thinking about, and constantly teaching Oral Law, learning it for its own sake (lishmah), then they will merit [access to] the [level of soul called] Ruach, from [the level of] Yetzirah…Then their Nefesh will be filled with the spirit of wisdom, and their Nefesh will ascend from Asiyah to Yetzirah. (Sha’ar HaGilgulim, Introduction 18)

The answer to the question comes from a short but profound Targum Onkeles:

God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils a living soul, and the man became a living spirit. (Bereishis 2:7)

A living spirit: A speaking spirit. (Onkeles)

Until God gave man a soul he was just a golem, a lifeless body. But after receiving a soul, man not only became a living being, he became a speaking being. Speech may use the body, but it is a function of the soul. Hence, the Zohar says:

From a person’s mouth you can tell what they are. (Zohar, Balak 193b)

Refined speech is what life is all about:

Rebi Elazar said: “Every man was created to toil, as it says, ‘Because man was made to toil’ (Iyov 5:7). I do not know if this means to toil through speech or actual labor, but once it says, ‘A toiling soul toils for him, for his mouth compels him’ (Mishlei 16:26), I know that a person was created to toil with his mouth. I do not know if this means to toil in [oral] Torah or just in mundane conversation. However, once it says, ‘This Torah should not leave your mouth’ (Yehoshua 1: 8), I know that man was created to toil in Torah [speech].” (Sanhedrin 99b)

Talk? It should never be cheap, but the song of the soul and a ticket to freedom.

The Destruction of Iran's Terrorist Hub in Damascus Was Entirely Justified

by Con Coughlin

• Iran's decision to rely on groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas to prosecute its war against Israel has resulted in the Israelis regularly having to retaliate with air strikes against Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria and Lebanon in an attempt to disrupt their terrorist infrastructure.
• Since October 7, the consulate served as Tehran's main regional command centre, helping to supervise the activities of Iran's so-called "axis of resistance".
• [A]s recent events have indicated, Israel is not just fighting a war against the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists who committed the terrible atrocities on October 7. It is in an existential battle for survival against the Iranian regime and its many proxies which, if left unchecked, will continue seeking to achieve their ultimate goal of destroying the Jewish state.

The bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria was not, as the Iranians claim, simply an attack on a blameless diplomatic mission. It was a carefully targeted strike on the headquarters of the expansive terrorist network that Tehran has established throughout the Middle East. Pictured: The Iranian Embassy compound in Damascus, Syria on April 1, 2024, following an airstrike that destroyed the consulate building. (Photo by Maher Al Mounes/AFP via Getty Images)


The bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria was not, as the Iranians claim, simply an attack on a blameless diplomatic mission.

It was a carefully targeted strike on the headquarters of the expansive terrorist network that Tehran has established throughout the Middle East.

The real purpose of the Iranian consulate building, an adjunct of the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, was revealed when the Iranians themselves admitted that two senior commanders of the elite Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed in the air strike, which has widely been attributed to the Israeli air force.

The Quds Force, which has direct responsibility for overseeing Iran's global terrorist operations, reports directly to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and was established to fulfil the ayatollahs' ambition of exporting Iran's Islamic revolution throughout the Muslim world.

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Christians Prefer Living in Israel, Not the Palestinian Authority

by Bassam Tawil

• Among the top 50 countries in which Christians were persecuted in 2023 were Yemen, Libya, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Morocco, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, and other Middle Eastern and Muslim-majority countries. Israel, needless to say, was not on the list.
• Despite these disturbing statistics, US television personality Tucker Carlson, in his interview with the Bethlehem pastor, chose to single out Israel, the only country where Christians feel safe and where their number is increasing every year. Carlson did not bother to ask the pastor about the persecuted Christians of Egypt.
• Carlson chose to interview Isaac, who has long history of promoting falsehoods about Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict in his roles as pastor, academic dean of Bethlehem Bible College (a self-identified "Palestinian Christian Evangelical university college" that promotes a "Palestinian Christian theology"), and director of the "Christ at the Checkpoint" conferences -- the infamous venue where anti-Israel libels are proclaimed in the name of Christian love, justice and peace.
• "[T]hose of us who track these things know that Munther Isaac has long been the high priest of antisemitic Christianity; sadly, he spreads his hate from the city of Jesus' birth." — Rev. Johnnie Moore, president of the Congress of Christian Leaders, jewishinsider.com, April 11, 2024.
• "We have a mafia here that is seizing Christian-owned lands. I protested against this Muslim mafia, and I even called a large gathering. I invited 80 people to my home. That same night, fliers were distributed in Bethlehem threatening to kill me. Of course, I am worried about the future of Christians here. Looking at the facts on the ground, you can see that there is no future for the Christians here. We are melting; we are disappearing. I fear the day will come when our churches will become museums. That is my nightmare." — Samir Qumsieh, prominent Christian leader near Bethlehem, to Gatestone, April 2024.

Since the Palestinian Authority (PA) assumed control of Bethlehem in 1995, the Christian share of the population has dropped from 65% to only 12% today. By contrast, the Christian population in Israel has been on the rise in recent years. "Most of us 180k Christian Israelis prefer to live under Israel freely rather than under a Palestinian Islamic Authority regime controlling Bethlehem. Israel gives us freedom while living under Arabs has been genocidal for Christians all across the Middle East," says Shadi Khalloul, a Christian Maronite who describes himself as a "patriotic Israeli." Pictured: PA policemen stand in Manger Square, Bethlehem, in front of the Church of the Nativity. (Image source: iStock)

On the same day that US television personality Tucker Carlson interviewed a pastor from Bethlehem who falsely accused Israel of mistreating Christians, Israel's University of Haifa announced the appointment of Professor Mona Maron as Rector. A Maronite Christian from the village of Isfiya, near Haifa, Maron has been a trailblazer for the integration and advancement of women in the sciences, particularly within the Arab community. She was the first Arab woman from her village to earn a doctoral degree and Israel's first Arab professor of neuroscience.

"I am grateful for the trust I received from the members of the University senate and look forward to taking up the position," Maron said.

"First and foremost, the University of Haifa is a home for me. A home that welcomed me into its ranks more than 30 years ago, as an undergraduate student, then as a faculty member in the neurobiology department and now with the Rector's role."

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Launched from Iran, Made in America

by Daniel Greenfield

On Saturday night, Iran launched its attack, codenamed “Ya Rasool Allah” or “Messenger of Allah”, on the Jewish State, after Israel had taken out the Iranian mastermind of Oct 7.

The attack began with waves of drones to swamp Israel’s air defenses, followed by cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. While the British and the French took out some drones, U.S. forces accounted for about half the total of drones and some of the ballistic missiles, leaving the rest for the Israelis to deal with. By the time it was over, 99% of the attack had been intercepted.

The only serious injury in the “Messenger of Allah” bombardment was to a 7-year-old Muslim Bedouin girl.

But why was Iran able to launch so many missiles at all, how did everyone know when the attack would happen, and why is Biden warning Israel not to respond to the Iranian attack?

Last month, the Biden administration provided a $10 billion sanctions waiver for Iran. The administration warned Iran that it would impose sanctions on its missile program if it sent them to Russia. There was no mention of the real focus of those sanctions which was concern that Iran would provide those weapons to proxy terror groups like Hezbollah, Iraqi Shiite militias and the Houthis, now using those weapons to attack civilian container ships and US Navy vessels.

Iran should never have had that weapons technology in the first place. In 2006, the Bush administration had convinced the UN Security Council to sanction Iran’s missile program “to prevent the supply, sale or transfer …of all items, materials, equipment, goods and technology which could contribute to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.”



Part of Obama’s Iran Deal allowed those sanctions to expire on October 18, 2023. Two weeks after the Oct 7 attacks on Israel which killed over 1,000 people, the Biden administration let the UN sanctions lapse, making it easier for Iran to buy, export and boost its development of weapons technology. The administration tried to substitute a limited sanctions program of its own for the original sanctions while continuing to allow Iran to access billions in sanctions relief.

Where the Trump administration had snapped back sanctions for Iran’s violations, Biden lifted them a month after taking office. Sen. Ted Cruz has estimated that the Biden administration allowed around $100 billion to flow to Iran since 2021. That $10 billion was just the latest of it.

Despite the open violations of the Iran Deal, Biden allowed Iran to benefit from an agreement it was actively violating every single day even as it was attacking American soldiers and Israel.

When Biden allowed Iran that latest $10 billion in sanctions relief, not only were US Navy personnel actively in combat with Iran’s Houthi terrorists, but two Navy SEALS had died in an operation to intercept Iranian weapons being smuggled from Somalia to the Houthis in Yemen. In Jordan, an attack by Iran’s Shiite militias operating out of Iraq had killed three American servicemembers. While Biden appeared willing to let Iran get away with it, Israel was not.

As General Mohammad Zahedi and other figures from Iran’s IRGC international terror network were meeting in a building near Iran’s terror facility in Damascus, they were taken out. After his death, Iranian sources named Zahedi as the mastermind of the Oct 7 attacks.

What followed were a series of back-channel communications between the Biden administration and Iran through various third parties. The goal of these negotiations was to persuade Iran not to “escalate” the conflict by limiting its attack to what a Reuters report described as “within certain limits.” The timing of the attack was so widely known that media reports correctly repeated warnings that Iran would strike within 36 hours. Hours before the attack began, not only Iran’s allies, but also other countries in the region, were already prepared for it to begin.

Instead of making clear to Iran that an attack was unacceptable, the Biden administration was pre-arranging the terms of the attack on one of its allies while warning it not to respond.

When Iran launched the attack, it had been coordinated with Biden officials. Had it really wanted to launch a damaging assault, it would have changed the timing of the attack. Instead it not only launched the attack on time, but it did so while communicating with D.C. through backchannels before and after the attack. A Biden administration official stated that there were “direct communications through the Swiss channel” including to tell the Biden administration when the attack was winding down.

That is not how attacks normally work, but this was not a normal attack, nor is it the actual one.

Iran launched the attack to demonstrate its capabilities. For the first time it showed that it could coordinate missile and drone launches from all of its clients across the region. The launches took place not only from Iran, but from the Houthis in Yemen, Iraq and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The attacks allowed Iran to test a coordinated assault across four countries, to test how Israeli and American air defenses would respond to being swarmed, and to score a propaganda victory with images of its drones over Jerusalem and that part of the Temple Mount where Muslim invaders had built their Al Aqsa mosque. What it was not meant to do was be devastating.

Iran would have rejoiced if it had hammered Israeli air bases and cities, but barring critical errors by Israel and America, it wasn’t expecting more than an expensive light show and a little rubble.

Compare the Iranian attack on Israel with the finely coordinated attack on Tower 22, the U.S. base on the Jordanian-Iranian border, where the Iraqi Shiite terror proxies had perfectly timed the attack to coincide with a moment of confusion caused by the return of a U.S. drone, or the Oct 7 attack which set out to analyze and dismantle Israel’s border defense network, timing drone attacks to disable automated defenses, with this straightforward telegraphed attack.

If Iran remains true to form, the actual attack will come from its proxies, will exploit vulnerabilities in Israeli defenses and will allow the regime to maintain plausible deniability as it did on Oct 7.

What happened on Saturday night was not the actual attack, but a feint with the added purpose of convincing the Biden administration that its diplomatic approach can work. Beginning with the Iran Deal, the Islamic terror state has played a complicated game, welcoming diplomacy and then abruptly rejecting it, holding out hope and then taking it away, but only doing it long enough to keep up the chase. This time around, Tehran convinced Biden that its Islamic leadership, despite their cries of, “Death to America” are rational actors who want to manage the conflict.

In the two years before Oct 7, Hamas convinced the Biden administration and the Israelis that it could be dealt with before launching a devastating assault, so too Iran, like other Islamic terrorist entities, specializes in luring America into a state of complacency before an attack.

And so the Biden administration is warning Israel not to respond. After all these years it believes that Iran can be dealt with and that it successfully negotiated an end to the crisis. It allowed Iran to launch its attack on Israel, helped intercept it and foolishly believes that Tehran is now satisfied because all its leaders ever wanted, like Biden, was a show, not the real thing.

Biden thinks that when Iran’s elites chant, “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”, it’s as empty a slogan as all of his campaign promises. But, unlike Biden, Iran’s leaders keep their promises. The slogans are serious. They intend to destroy America and they intend to destroy Israel.

American soldiers continue dying at the hands of Iran and its terror proxies while D.C. diplomats conduct empty negotiations and Iran’s agents penetrate their way into our government.

After September 11, Biden suggested, “this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran.” Since then billions of dollars have made their way to Iran. The Islamic terror state has killed and kidnapped Americans, it is encircling America’s allies in the region, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, and still the ‘no strings’ checks keep coming from D.C.

Rav Kook's Ein Ayah: The Elusive Inheritance of Personality Traits

(based on Ein Ayah, Berachot 1:144)

Gemara: Rebbi Yochanan said in the name of Rebbi Yossi ben Zimra: Whoever attributes merit to himself, will have the successful outcome attributed to the merit of another. Whoever attributes the merit to others, will have the successful outcome attributed to his merit. Moshe attributed the merit to others, as it says: “Remember Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yisrael, your servants” (Shemot 32:13). The success of his prayers was attributed to him: “[Hashem] said that they would be destroyed, if it were not for Moshe, his chosen, who stood in the breech to deflect His anger from destroying” (Tehillim 106:23). Chizkiya attributed the merit to himself, as it says: “Please remember that I walked before You” (Yeshaya 38:3). The success was attributed to others, as it says: “I will defend this city to save it for My sake and for the sake of My servant, Dovid” (Melachim II, 19:34).

Ein Ayah: There are people who are naturally blessed with good qualities and who do not have to work hard to follow good paths. A person like that will not attribute his shleimut (completeness) to himself but will attribute it to his forefathers, who passed on these traits to him. Someone whose qualities are not naturally the finest but who worked hard to acquire good attributes will normally attribute the traits to himself, for he toiled until he arrived at his proper state. However, the truth is that one who was born with less than ideal characteristics still must have inborn strength, hidden from earlier generations, which enable him to overcome his bad traits. This is along the lines of the Kuzari, who says that a special quality can disappear in a rasha’s (a wicked person’s) personality and reappear in the rasha’s righteous son’s personality. Therefore, in that case, one can still attribute his success to others. In contrast, someone who was born with precious qualities still will usually apply himself to follow the ways of Hashem by doing good deeds beyond those for which he was naturally prepared.

Chizkiya attributed the merit to himself because he was the son of a rasha and, therefore, he did not think he could attribute his acquisition of shleimut to inheritance from his forefathers. In truth, the success could be attributed to others, as Chizkiya was told that he had a lot of help in overcome shortcomings from the hidden special qualities that could be traced back all the way to Dovid. These positive qualities remained inactive in his father, Achaz, but reappeared in Chizkiya. This idea finds expression in the gemara’s previous statement that Chizkiya saw in the Divine Spirit that bad offspring would come from him. This is because he was concerned with bad attributes that he was born with and saw how these attributes were actually going to play out.

Moshe attributed the merit to others because he was born with good and holy qualities from holy, pious parents in an unbroken chain from the “fathers of the world.” His success was attributed to him because he exceeded drastically the expectations from the attributes with which he was born. That which people say that he was born with exceptional qualities is contradicted by Chazal and the simple reading of the pasuk, “She saw that he was good,” and from straight logic. Certainly the greatest person ever created had very fine natural attributes, but he still added on a tremendous amount of shleimut above and beyond what he naturally received.

Who is the Person who Wants Life

by HaRav Mordechai Greenberg
Nasi HaYeshiva, Kerem B'Yavneh

The Midrash comments on the pasuk, "This shall be the law of the metzora" (Vayikra 14:2):

This is what it says, "Who is the man who desires life." (Tehillim 34:14) There once was a peddler who traveled around the villages near Zipori, and would declare, "Who wants to buy the elixir of life!" ... R. Yanai was sitting ... He imposed upon [the peddler], and he went up to him. He took out a book of Tehillim, and showed him the pasuk, "Who is the man who desires life." What does it say afterwards? "Guard your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit." (34:15) ... R. Yanai said: My whole life I read this pasuk, and I did not realize how simple it is, until this peddler came and told me, "Who is the man who wants life." Therefore, Moshe warns Israel and says to them, "This shall be the law of the metzora" - the law of the motzi shem ra (slanderer).

This passage is baffling. What novel idea did this peddler reveal to R. Yanai that he did not know beforehand?

In the sefer Be'er Moshe, the Admor of Ozrov points to a similar Gemara in Masechet Avoda Zara (19b):

R. Alexandri declared: "Who wants life? Who wants life?" Everybody gathered and came to him. They said to him. "Give us life!" He said to them: "Who is the man who desires life ... Guard your tongue from evil." Perhaps a person will say, I guarded my tongue from evil, and my lips from speaking deceit, I will now go and indulge in sleep." The pasuk teaches, "Turn from evil and do good." (34:16) Good is none other than Torah, as it says, "For I have given you a good purchase, do not forsake my Torah."

From the pasuk, "Who is the person who desires life...," one could understand that turning away from evil is enough to grant life. This could be the conclusion of the Gemara, "Perhaps a person will say, I guarded my tongue from evil, and my lips from speaking deceit, I will now go and indulge in sleep." In other words, since he guards his mouth and tongue from speaking evil, this is the perfection of the attribute of speech. To this comes the continuation of the pasuk: "Turn from evil and do good," that it is not enough to guard the tongue from speaking evil, but rather it should be used for positive purposes, for good, and "Good is none other than Torah, as it says, 'For I have given you a good purchase, do not forsake my Torah.'"

"Life" does not mean simply the lack of death, but rather a life of positive value. Thus, for one who desires life, it is not enough to avoid evil, but there is need to do good.

This is what the peddler asked, "Who is the man who desires life" – inherent life. To this the answer is: "Guard your tongue from evil ... and do good!"

To this the Torah says, "See- I have placed before you the life and the good." (Devarim 30:15) Life is linked with good. Therefore, the answer to the question, "Who is the man who desires life?" ­– is: "Guard your tongue from evil ... and do good."

Parshas Tazria and Metzora are usually read during the sefira period, which are days of preparation to receive the Torah. As we say in the prayer after the sefira counting, they are days that are special "To purify us from our imperfections and contaminations," i.e., to free ourselves from all evil that sticks to us. However, this is not enough, and we ask, "I should be purified and sanctified with a holiness of Above."

The Torah portions are also arranged in this manner. Tazria and metzora deal with removing all evil and contamination, and afterwards come the portions Acharei Mot and Kedoshim, which deal with the sanctity of Shabbat and the festivals, which elevate man and sanctify him with the holiness.

Therefore, the sefira days are begun with the korban of the omer, which is from barley – animal food, and conclude with Shavuot, when we offer the two loaves from wheat, which is human food. This teaches that before spiritual ascent, a person first has to distance himself from animalistic actions, and only afterwards can he pursue human activities and sanctify himself with a Divine holiness. – "Be holy!"