Friday, December 20, 2024

Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook: Alternatives to Gymnasium and Grafted Etrogim

#286

Date and Place: 18 Adar II, 5670 (1910), Yafo

Recipient and Background: The offices of the Mizrachi Center in Frankfurt. This is a response to their letter with questions.

Body: [First I will respond] regarding the gymnasium (Gymnasium Herzliya, an influential irreligious high school in what became Tel Aviv). I do not see benefit from opposing it publicly, as long as it will be only negative opposition. In other words, we would first need to be able to present to the community a school that is equivalent to the gymnasium, so that the only difference between the schools will be that they break the covenant with Hashem and our school will hold with great strength the banner of the light of Hashem and His Torah. The Tachkemoni school, although I, thank G-d, have great regard for it and its leaders, still cannot compete with the gymnasium in several cultural topics. Therefore, we have to be somewhat patient and work unceasingly for the school’s improvement, as we have begun to do, until it is able to provide all that those who choose the gymnasium yearn for. Then we can boldly proclaim that there is no difference between Tachkemoni or our gymnasium and between their gymnasium, other than that the latter uproots our nation’s tree of life, i.e., belief, from the hearts of its students, whereas the former crowns itself in the honor of belief. Then our campaign’s words will be heard. We must immediately prepare our strength for this holy battle, because there is endless benefit from each moment we can do this earlier.

The matter of etrogim is very complicated as I explained in “Etz Hadar.” If we make a general advertisement for the etrogim of Eretz Yisrael without distinction, it will not promote the proper fulfillment of the mitzva because there are very many (actually a great majority of the market from Eretz Yisrael), grafted etrogim from non-Jewish orchards in Eretz Yisrael. Kosher etrogim are available only from a small number of our brothers from the moshavot, which are under rabbinical supervision to ensure they are free from grafting. If it would be possible to publicize that not any etrog from Eretz Yisrael is desirable but only the supervised ones from our brothers from the moshavot, then we would attain the goal of strengthening the purity of the mitzva at a time that there is concern that it will unfortunately be lacking because of the many grafted etrogim.

Furthermore, it does not suffice to publicize [that not all etrogimfrom Eretz Yisrael are kosher] but to also tell all that the consensus of leading rabbis has always been that it is better to spend a lot of money for an etrog that does not look beautiful externally but is unquestionably not grafted than to buy a beautiful grafted etrog. If this truth is publicized, then the matter of kosher etrogim will be strengthened along with the development of the Jewish community of Eretz Yisrael, as Jews will plant etrog orchards when they see that people will buy their produce.

This ongoing work needs constant activity. I have already seen a public advertisement to encourage people to plant kosher etrog orchards and also let our brethren in the Diaspora know the truth about this dear mitzva, which has been slipping from Jewish hands due to the laxness in encouraging Jews to plant their fields with etrogim. I have just held up on publicizing this encouragement because this year is Shemitta, and it is definitely wrong to encourage a project that includes a lot of agricultural work.

As far as buying supervised etrogim during this Shemitta year, certainly the etrogim are not worse than wine and other produce of the Holy Land, regarding which we are compelled to rely on the leniency of selling the land, thus relying on the opinion that Shemitta does not apply to that which is owned by non-Jews. On the other hand, I will not take steps to expand marketing during the Shemitta year. It is more proper to begin with administrative work, which will come to fruition in future years. We are interested in things that are of value in the longer scheme of eternity, not within hours or years.

To Increase The Light

by HaRav Dov Begon,
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir


We customarily read the episodes about Yosef on the Shabbat that falls out on Chanukah, and that is no coincidence. The miracles performed for Yosef were akin to those performed for Israel during the Second Temple Period. Yosef was thrown into a pit full of snakes and scorpions, and he was saved. He lived in Egypt among corrupt people who were at the bottom of the forty-nine rungs of impurity - yet he remained righteous. He was in prison, and he rose to greatness, even becoming viceroy of Egypt.

In the same way, Israel, during Bait Sheini were ruled over by the Greeks. They had no political independence. The Greeks and the Jewish Hellenists longed to swallow up Israel within the Greek Empire, to blur their Jewish identity and to make them forget their holy Torah and its mitzvoth. Israel was like a person sitting in a dark pit, with snakes and scorpions all around him. Yet a miracle was performed, and the Hasmoneans beat the Greeks. The few vanquished the many and the weak vanquished the strong. At the end of the war they lit the menorah in the Temple, thereby demonstrating for all to see that they had emerged from darkness to light. And the light of Israel continues to shine forth from Jerusalem.

Today, we are grateful not just for the miracles performed for us in those days, but also - despite the hardships - for those miracles performed for us now. We have to open our spiritual eyes and see how G-d performs miracles for us, and how He brings salvation and comfort. After two thousand years, we have emerged from the “pit” of the dark exile, which was full of snakes and scorpions. The Jewish People lives on, despite countless attempts by the nations of the world and their religions to bite and to sting us, to poison the nation’s soul.

And just like Yosef, we have climbed out of a deep pit and ascended to a high roof, from Holocaust to Rebirth, from a poor country, governed by austerity at its creation, to a country that by the world’s standards is economically and militarily strong. Yet it is not enough to be strong economically and militarily. We have a duty to become stronger from a spiritual and moral standpoint, for: “where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18).

Certainly we have faith in the Israel's eternity and no effort will succeed in blurring our identity, uniqueness, and purpose as an eternal people intent on bringing light to the world. Particularly in these days, we must remind ourselves - and each other - that no people will succeed in extinguishing the lamp of Israel. In addition, our duty is to increase the light - the light of Torah, the light of love, the light of faith. We have to learn to recognize our identity and destiny down through the generations. By such means we will be privileged to see a new light shine over Tzion, speedily in our day, Amen.

Shabbat Shalom and BeSorot Tovot,
Looking forward to complete salvation,
With the Love of Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael.

Compromise

by Rav Binny Freedman

Compromise: such a challenging word; ranging from the very noble, to the very naïve. How does one know, truly, when compromise is called for, and even laudable, and when, on the other hand, it is actually a tragic mistake?

In the military, compromise can be a dangerous thing, and orders, once received, must out of necessity be carried out to the letter. There is no room for variance. But sometimes, when orders contravene principals, following those orders may be an unacceptable compromise, and the challenge becomes how to know where the line one cannot cross actually lies.

In all the years I served in the Israeli army, I only once knowingly and willfully refused a direct order, because a commander of mine drew a line in the sand I was not willing to cross; it was a compromise I could not and would not accept.

For some reason, when I arrived at the Armored Corps Tank commanders’ course, all the challenges I had faced till then were apparently not enough, and G-d must have decided to give me one more. As it turned out this one was a whopper, and it appeared in the visage of one eighteen-year-old baby-faced commander by the name of Avichai.

I had joined the army only after a couple of years of post-High School study, so by the time I got to Sergeants course I was already twenty-one, which may have been part of the reason this commander seemed to have issues with me, or maybe it was because I was the ‘religious’ guy with the kippah on his head, and Avichai, who had grown up on a religious kibbutz, had dropped his kippah somewhere deep into his locker, along with his tefillin and any other vestige of a religious upbringing. But whatever the reason, all the guys agreed that this sergeant had it in for me. Somehow, I was always being ‘volunteered’ for extra KP duty, or being spot checked for knowing the material or being on top of my maneuvers. Finally, one Friday, Avichai went too far.

We were stuck on base for Shabbat, and Friday was spent servicing and cleaning the tanks we had been training on all week. All day we cleaned out the shell casings, serviced, checked, and cleaned the machine guns, greased the tank treads, and completed the long checklist of items that would make each tank battle-worthy again after a week of maneuvers.

The sun was getting lower in the sky, and I took comfort in the fact that nothing could stop the sun from setting, and Shabbat was coming. In the Israeli army, there are no training maneuvers on Shabbat, only tasks related to actual military preparedness, so when you are in a course, everything pretty much stops on Shabbat, save for a little bit of guard duty. I was really looking forward to a nice long shower and a chance to catch up on sleep, of which one gets very little in sergeants’ course, and it took me a while to realize all the other guys had finished up and I was the only one left on the tank platform, along with Sergeant Avichai.

Every time I thought we were done, he would come up with another seemingly critical task that would not let me go. The tanks were all done, Shabbat was fast approaching, and I was still stuck in the belly of my tank, checking and re-checking things we had finished hours early, and I finally started to realize that Avichai was trying to make some kind of point at my expense.

“Organize the tool bins (bins on the sides of the tank containing all the equipment for working on the tanks) and make sure they are done”.

“Check that all the tread wheels have been greased.”

“Let’s run a spectronics (fire extinguishing system) test.”

Now, in addition to the fact that all these tests and tasks had already been done that day, each one was a particularly tiring task. Checking the tread wheels meant crouching into the tank treads and finding the grease nozzle for each of fourteen tread wheels and being sure grease had poured out which showed they were fully greased.

And checking the tool bins meant climbing all the way back up on the tank, climbing in to turn on the 24-volt batteries and rotating the turret to allow each bin to be opened, one at a time.

But the dead give-a-way that he was just having ‘fun’ with me, was the expression on his face, almost daring me to argue or complain, and taking obvious pleasure in the frustration that must have showed on my face.

Finally, with about fifteen minutes left till Shabbat, having finished the last of his sadistic orders, I jumped off the tank, ready to trot back up to the base and get showered. He waited till I jumped down, picked up my gun and turned towards the base and, timing it perfectly, and pretending to look the other way (as if not noticing that I wanted to head back to shower) yelled out:

“Binny! Check the battery in the driver’s night vision equipment”.

Now, this meant climbing back up onto the tank, turning the 24 volt back on, turning the turret aside where I could slide into the tiny driver’s compartment, maneuvering myself into the seat and closing the hatch, and then releasing the night scope from its tied up spot, removing it from its encasement, opening the battery and flipping it over, then inserting the night scope into its proper slot in the hatch and seeing if the battery worked and whether the appropriate green light in the scope indicated it was functioning properly, after which I would have to reverse all these procedures before leaving the tank as it was meant to be left, all of which would take longer than the fifteen minutes I had left, not to mention the fact that I would be forced to enter Shabbat without a hot shower, covered in oil and grease.

Now recall that this boy was from a religious kibbutz, so I imagined he had to know when candle-lighting was, and that he was pushing the limits here. I turned back around prepared, finally, to argue with him and explain that I would not make Shabbat on time; I realized it would be a waste of time.

So, I simply looked at him and said:

“Lo’ Yachol, ha’mefaked.” “I can’t do it sir.” And then I turned and walked away.

It was at this point that he started screaming at me, demanding that I return and fulfill his orders, warning me I would be thrown out of the course, and asking me if I knew the consequences of disobeying a direct order. At which point I turned around, looked him square in the eye, and yelled back: “Me’tzapeh la’mishpat.” “I look forward to the (court-martial) trial.”

Interestingly enough, I never heard a subsequent word about that incident, and after that Avichai never bothered me again.

The question for me later on, was not whether it was the right thing to do; clearly there are principles one has to stick to and lines one cannot cross. The real question is how one knows when that point comes? How do we decide when to compromise, and when to hold the line?

This week’s portion, Vayeshev, may actually present us with the case par excellence of the compromise gone wrong, thus allowing us to consider the parameters for compromises in general.

The story of Compromise and his brothers is certainly one of, if not the saddest chapter in Jewish history. Indeed, this is actually the first instance of a transgression between a man and his fellow (chet bein adam le’chaveiro’) ever to occur amongst Jews, which may explain why, nearly four thousand years later, we still struggle with what actually went wrong.

In fact, some commentaries suggest that on Yom Kippur, the two central sacrifices are meant to gain forgiveness for the two central sins in Jewish history: the calf (par) for the sin of the Golden calf, which marks the first instance the Jewish people rebel against G-d (chet bein adam la’makom), and the goat (sair) for the sin wherein the ten sons of Ya’acov dipped Yosef's ketonet pasim in the blood of the goat in order to cover the heinous act of selling their own brother into slavery. One of the reasons there is so much to learn from this story is precisely because it is the first time such a transgression ever occurs in the Torah, which, as the Vilna Gaon suggests (in his Even Sheleimah), makes it the paradigm of such occurrences.

Thus, this is not just one more case of a Jew transgressing against his fellow Jew; it is actually the case study for such occurrences in general, and our ability to understand what went wrong, and particularly Jewish tradition’s perception of the mistakes made here, may help us to better avoid such errors in the future.

Now, there are many different levels to this story, and in the past, we have taken the view most closely associated with the context of the story. But rabbinic tradition has a fascinating viewpoint which bears consideration.

The S’forno (Bereisheet 37: 18), based on the Midrash Rabbah (Bereisheet Rabbah 84:7) suggests that the brothers viewed Yosef as a rodef, which is the halachic (legal) definition of someone who is pursuing someone and threatening their life.

In such an instance (as, for example, if someone is chasing me with a knife, and I believe my life to be in danger) I am actually allowed to kill before being killed, in Jewish tradition. And while the question of how the brothers could come to such an erroneous conclusion is a difficult one and does not imply a halachic (legal) conclusion today, one could certainly understand the brothers’ perception that Yosef’s tale-bearing ways, and his favored position in their father’s eyes as witness the gift of the ketonet passim could lead them to believe that he was edging them out of the family.

In fact, it may be that the debate between Yosef and his brothers was about the future of the fledging Jewish idea, and that just as Avraham had to choose between Yitzchak and Yishmael, and Yitzchak had to choose between Ya’acov and Eisav, so too Ya’acov would soon choose between Yosef and his brothers.

And if history was any indication, whoever was forced out of the family, lost their relationship with Judaism and G-d, such as it were. And again, while we cannot assume legal implications today, certainly the brothers may have assumed that if a threat to one’s physical existence allowed the taking of a life, then certainly when one’s spiritual existence was threatened the same might apply.

All of which leads us to a fascinating question. Put aside how the brothers came to this conclusion, if they did assume this to be so, and consider for a moment the possibility that they actually believed they had a right to kill Yosef.

Indeed, the Midrash (based on Bereisheet 37:19-20) suggests that it was actually Shimon and Levi (whose anger and violence we are familiar with from the story of Dinah’s rape in last week’s portion) who plotted to kill Yosef. And assuming again, that they believed (however mistakenly) they were justified in this action, and that it was not an act of passion, it is equally clear that not everyone agreed with them.

Indeed, of the eleven sons of Ya’acov (aside from Joseph), there were at least three who did not agree that Joseph should be killed.

Binyamin was simply a youngster and was not, apparently, present.

Re’uven, the eldest, clearly believed Yosef to be innocent, or at least not worthy of death, as he was the one to suggest that Joseph should not be killed immediately but thrown into a pit, in order to save him:

“Va’yomer aleihem Re’uven al tishpechu’ dam; hashlichu’ o’to’ el ha’bor ha’zeh asher ‘bamidbar ve’yad al tishlechu’ bo’, le’ma’an hatzil oto’ mi’yadam, le’hashivo’ el aviv.”

“And Re’uven said: “Don’t spill his blood, throw him into this pit in the desert, and do not raise a hand against him”, in order that he might save him from their hands, and return him to his father.” (37:22)

And Yehudah, who also did not want to kill Yosef, suggested instead in a moment forged in time forever, that they sell him to a passing Ishmaelite caravan:

“Va’yomer Yehudah el echav: “Mah’ betzah ki’ na’harog et achinu, ve’chisinu’ et damo’? Lechu’ ve’nimkerenu’ la’Yishmaelim ve’yadeinu’ al tehi bo’, ki’ achinu besareinu’ hu; va’yishmeu’ echav.”

“And Yehudah said to his brothers: “What profit is there in killing our brother and covering his blood? Go and sell him to the Ishmaelites and our hand will not be upon him, for he is our brother and our own flesh”, and his brothers listened (to his words).” (37:26-27)

And it is interesting to note that while Re’uven had in mind to save Yosef, he clearly did not succeed, because subsequent to his suggestion, Yehudah still had to convince them not to kill him, and they seemed to be struggling with the question of whether to actually kill him or leave him in the pit to die.(see 37: 24-26: the brothers actually sit down to eat lunch while Yosef languishes in the pit, which may mean they are so convinced of the correctness of their actions that they can actually sit down and eat lunch!)

So, it seems that the brother who is least culpable in this situation is Yehuda, who at least saves Yosef’s life by affecting the compromise of selling him instead of killing him.

And yet, the Talmud (Sanhedrin 6b) specifically takes Yehuda to task, suggesting that whomsoever praises Yehuda for his ‘compromise’ is actually as good as cursing (or blaspheming) G-d!

And even more difficult is the fact that in the story that follows the selling of Joseph, Yehuda loses two of his sons, and his wife to an early death, and the Midrash learns from this story that:

“Whoever begins a mitzvah and does not see it through (finish it) will bury his wife and children” (Bereisheet Rabbah 85:3)

On what grounds does Yehuda, in the eyes of the Midrash, merit such a severe punishment? Why is it that here and elsewhere, it is Yehuda who seems to bear the brunt of the blame for the tragic mistake of the selling of Yosef? After all, it is Yehuda who ultimately saves his life!

Indeed, Yehuda seems to affect the only compromise possible under the circumstances. Yosef maintains his innocence, and Re’uven wants to return him home, believing that he is not liable of death. But the brothers believe he is threatening their very existence and feel he should indeed be killed. So, Yehuda chooses the middle road, and compromises, neither killing him nor freeing him, instead selling him as a slave, where he will no longer be a threat, and neither will he be dead.

And if compromise is an ideal, then Yehuda should not be castigated, he should be praised!

Indeed, the Talmud (in the same discussion in Sanhedrin 6b) questions whether a judge should ideally do everything in his power to bring the parties to a compromise, or whether:

“Yikov ha’Din et ha’har!” “Let Justice split mountains!”

In other words, maybe a judge is compelled to rule according to the strict letter of the law, as that is the only path to true justice, leaving compromise as a less than ideal solution.

In response to this question, the Talmud rules quite clearly that a judge is obligated to do everything within his power to bring the parties to a compromise. Which leaves us with our question: what was so terrible about Yehuda’s actions, if in the end he actually succeeds in arriving at a compromise the brothers accept?

Rav Avigdor Nevehnsahl in his Sichot Le’Sefer Bereisheet shares an idea that has enormous ramifications not only regarding the lessons to be learned from the story of Yosef, but indeed for the tragic errors we may be making even today, nearly four thousand years later.

A compromise is a beautiful thing and is indeed lauded in Jewish tradition as bringing peace, and even G-d, into the world. But it depends upon how the compromise is reached. A compromise is only of value if it is reached with the agreement of all parties concerned. But when a judge imposes his own compromise which is not accepted by the litigants or even one of the litigants, then it is not really a compromise at all.

As an example, imagine that you buy a used car, and when it is delivered, you find that it has no engine. So you track down the seller, who claims that he made it clear the car had no engine. So you go to the judge, who decides to reach a compromise, and tells the seller to give you half an engine!

So that’s not a compromise, that’s an abomination! And that may well have been Yehuda’s mistake. The brothers, who believe Yosef to be liable of death, are at least consistent: they insist Yosef should be killed.

Re’uven, who believes Yosef to be innocent, at least attempts to return him home to his father. But what does Yehuda believe? If indeed, he believes Yosef is liable then he should be put to death, just like Haman who planned to destroy the Jewish people, though he had not yet actualized his plan.

If Yehuda believes Yosef is innocent, then he should set him free. But when Yehuda compromises by selling Yosef as a slave, his compromise is at Yosef’s expense. If Joseph is innocent, and Yehuda believes this to be a possibility, how can he ‘compromise’ by allowing him to be sold into slavery?

Indeed, immediately after the selling of Yosef, the Torah tells us (38:1)

“And Yehuda went down from amongst his brothers.”

And Rashi there points out that the brothers no longer view Yehuda as their leader, he has lost their respect, because they would have listened to him had he insisted that Yosef be returned to his father.

In other words, Yehuda’s responsibility was to convince the brothers to set Yosef free. And perhaps the reason Jewish tradition takes Yehuda to task is because as terrible as the brothers’ actions were, at least they were acting according to their principles and beliefs, however mistaken they may have been. But Yehuda, who was compromising with what he knew in his heart to be right, was making a mistake of much graver proportions.

When we ignore what we know deep in our hearts to be right, especially when we impose compromises that conflict with those ideals, at the expense of others, and even with disregard for their pain, then we are not bringing peace into the world, we are inviting destruction and anarchy. We are no longer spreading love and light; we are fomenting hatred and allowing darkness.

And of course, this is why, as heinous as Shimon and Levi’s intentions were, they were not as vilified here for their actions as was Yehuda, because at least they were acting upon their beliefs, and behaving in a fashion consistent with their understanding.

It is, as a final point, interesting to note, that there is one way a judge can actually impose his own compromise even without the litigants’ agreement, and that is when his compromise is only at his own expense.

Here too, the Talmud in Sanhedrin gives us the example of Dovid HaMelech of whom it was said:

“Va’yehi David oseh’ tzedkah u’mishpat le’chol amo’.”
“And Dovid would make righteousness (tzedakah) and justice (mishpat) for all his people.” (Shmuel II 8:15)

And the Talmud explains that when judging a case where one of the litigants was poverty stricken, and the other wealthy, he would ignore his natural inclination to be merciful to the poor fellow, and find against him if the case so dictated, because that was the law, and justice had to be served. But once the verdict was given, he would often pay the poor fellow’s debt out of his own pocket as an act of tzedakah.

And it is interesting, as Rav Avigdor points out, that this trait, this ability to affect a compromise at his own expense is actually something Dovid inherits from none other than Yehuda!

Perhaps the greatness of Yehuda was his ability to learn from, and ultimately rectify his mistakes. Many years later, when Yosef is already the Viceroy of Egypt, and Binyamin is caught ‘stealing’ the royal goblet, Yosef (who as far as the brothers are concerned is an Egyptian) demands his imprisonment, which for all intents and purposes is a death (or at least a life) sentence. Yet, Binyamin correctly maintains his innocence. And Yehuda once again, in a replay of the tragic error of his youth stands forward to make the case. Only this time, the compromise Yehuda suggests is not at the expense of Binyamin, but at his own expense alone.

Twenty-two years later, Yehuda offers himself a as slave in place of Binyamin, and in that moment the future Royal line is born as Yehuda the outcast reclaims his place as the leader of the Jewish people.

In the end, true Kingship, and the nature of Royalty in Judaism is all about the willingness to take responsibility for one’s subjects and people, and even for the world, under the most difficult of circumstances. And while there are lines we cannot cross, sometimes we have to be willing to pay the price for helping others not to cross them.

As individuals, we often struggle with this duality: where we need to compromise, such as in our relations with our fellow human beings and the opportunity to compromise at our own expense, we often stand on principle, refusing to budge. “Let Justice split mountains!” we say and refuse to initiate peace or to be flexible enough to allow someone else to save face.

And when we are faced with moments where we cannot, and perhaps even dare not compromise, we sometimes find it all too easy to give in, and ignore our principles, whether in our relationship with G-d or with fellow human beings, such as our ability to witness injustice in the world with no more than a sad expression or a sigh.

And this is not only true on an individual level, but it exists on a National level. If we are to learn anything from the tragedy of the brothers’ selling of Joseph, it is that until we succeed in working together, we will end up working ourselves apart.

May we all be blessed with the strength of knowing when and where the “Justice has to split mountains“, and when we need to overturn those mountains in order to find a compromise we can all, really all of us, live with, as individuals, and together as a people and a as world community.

Shabbat Shalom.

Thursday, December 19, 2024

Learning from past mistakes

by Rabbi Pinchas Winston

THERE IS THIS joke about a woman who cried the first time she read the story about Yosef’s kidnapping and how he suffered. But her son noticed how she didn’t cry when she read the story again the following year, and he asked her, “Not sad for you anymore?” She answered, “It is, but I can’t cry for someone who doesn’t learn his lesson the first time!”

Year after year we come back to the story of Yosef and his brothers, and suffer through his flaunting of his dreams, his brothers’ hatred and jealousy of him and finally, his sale to Arab merchants. We can’t expect Yosef or his brothers to learn from their past mistakes because they’re long gone. But what about us?

The Torah reports that:

They took him and cast him into the pit. The pit was empty there was no water in it. And they sat down to eat a meal… (Bereishis 37:24-25)

Really? They sat down to eat after their deed? Wasn’t that kind of callous of them? And even if true, why tell us?

This has led some commentators to rationalize their actions, because we do not like to assume anything about the Shevatim that paints them in an unfavorable, mundane light, even though the Torah itself seems to. Rather, they acted as any Sanhedrin did when making life and death judgments, fasting until judgment and only eating after as part of the procedure.

Whether true or not, it is only in Parashas Mikeitz, when Yosef, a.k.a. Viceroy of Egypt, tightens the screws on the brothers and accuses them of being spies, that we retroactively get a better look at the emotional side of what happened:

They said to one another, “We are guilty for our brother because we witnessed his distress and did not listen [to his pleas]. That is why this trouble has come upon us.” Reuven told them, “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Do not sin against the boy,’ but you did not listen? His blood, too, is being demanded!” (Bereishis 42:21-22).

It is not for no reason that the Torah did that, showing us what happened in this week’s parsha only next week in Parashas Mikeitz, when the brothers themselves were feeling the heat. It reveals to us how much a person can allow themself to get away with, as long as no one challenges them. They know they are doing something unacceptable at the time, but out of weakness they do it anyhow and, this is the important part, they stifle feelings of remorse to feel less bad.

Had the brothers felt completely confident that selling Yosef had been the undisputed will of God, they would not have felt remorse after being accused by Yosef of being spies. The fact that they immediately attributed their own troubles to the sale of Yosef means that they had carried their guilt around with them for decades, especially since they saw that their father refused to let go of what happened.

Believe it or not, that says something good about the brothers. Even though they had acted as they had thought they should by ridding Jewish history of Yosef, they still harbored a sense of doubt and regret. True, it took Yosef masquerading as their accuser to expose it, but as the Midrash says, one of the main reasons they had come to Egypt was to find Yosef and bring him back home.

The Gemora says that one of the key differences between a tzaddik and a rasha is that a tzaddik falls seven times and gets up each time. A rasha falls once and stays down. Amazingly, the Gemora is saying that we should not think tzaddikim are people who never err. They err plenty. But whereas a rasha accepts his failings and incorporates them into his life view, tzaddikim never do. They allow themselves to feel bad about their mistake in order to try and avoid it the next time around. And they don’t wait for a period of negative Divine Providence to bring it to the surface.

One of the main things that makes a sociopath a sociopath is, their apparently inability to feel any remorse about anything bad they do. Whether it is the result of some mental deficiency or some trauma they may have suffered, they lack the ability to feel bad about anything. This makes the most heinous acts run of the mill for them.

But there are plenty of people today doing despicable things and feeling little or no remorse about it. Their brains are just fine, physically. Their emotions are not. They have uncontrollable hatred, or unchecked levels of jealousy. They are too lazy to find out the truth or just don’t want to know what it is because it will undo their plans and make them feel bad. Or worse, their brains seem to have “melted” due to technology and social media, and they just believe what they want because no one challenges them.

For now. It took 22 years for Yosef’s brothers to meet their match and pay their dues. Oh, but the damage that occurred in the meantime! Likewise, justice will come when God says it must, and whereas some will find vindication, many others will find out that the truth hurts when you make a point of avoiding it. Better to take stock of your life now, feel the remorse if you should immediately, and align with the God-given truth in the present. It might be a lonely approach in the short run, but the only safer and rewarding one in the long run.

Yeshivat Machon Meir: Sichot with Rosh HaYeshivah Parshat Vayeishev (video)

Rav Doniel Glatstein -Torah From Syria: Vayeishev - How Yosef's Reports Made Yaakov Love Him More (video)

Rabbi Ari Kahn on Parashat Vayeshev: Candidates for Kingship (video)

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Rav Kook's Ein Ayah: The Perception of Hashem and His Tefillin

(based on Ein Ayah, Berachot 1:76)

Gemara: “I will remove My hand, and you will see My back” (Shemot 33:23). This teaches us that Hashem showed Moshe a knot of tefillin.

Ein Ayah: Regarding abstract intellectual attainments, especially relating to the Divine, there are two elements of truth to investigate: 

1) the true innate essence of the matter, as we do for all sense-based investigation; 
2) the truth as it relates to the value of the matter in the conception of the one who perceives it.

In truth, the entire Torah is presented according to the ability of its recipients to perceive it. This is because all of the ethical good flows only from perceiving this relative truth. The abstract absolute truth goes beyond the intellectual capabilities of the one who investigates the matter and is thus unperceivable. This is what Hashem meant when he told Moshe: “For man cannot see Me and live” (ibid.:20).

This is why Chazal used the metaphor of Hashem’s tefillin. They contain matters of wisdom, the words of the Living G-d. However, they do not relate to man by themselves. Rather, it is the knot of the tefillin that enables the tefillin to impact on man. Thus, the abstract concept is referred to as tefillin or totafot. The conception that is attainable to human intellect is represented by the knot. One should go deeper into the matter and realize that the abstract conceptions certainly have a known value for their truth from their own perspective along with their truth in relation to the perceiver. The special level of Moshe Rabbeinu of blessed memory was that Hashem informed him even regarding the relation and connection that these levels of conceptions have to each other, and how they are arranged one next to the other. However, the actual abstract conception of objective Divine truth was not able to be grasped even by Moshe, as the pasuk said: “My face shall not be seen” (ibid.:23).

"He Sent him from the Depth of Chevron"

by HaRav Mordechai Greenberg
Nasi HaYeshiva, Kerem B'Yavneh


Rashi, based on the Midrash, comments (Bereisheet 37:14):

He sent him from the depth of Chevron. But Chevron is on a hill! ... Rather, from the deep plan of that tzaddik (Avraham Avinu) who is buried in Chevron, to fulfill what was said to Avraham in the covenant between the pieces (brit bein habetarim), "Your offspring shall be aliens in a land not their own."

Clearly, Chazal do not mean that Yaakov knew where this errand would lead. Yaakov very much feared the descent to Egypt, and when he set out to meet with Yosef, G-d had to encourage him, "Have no fear of descending to Egypt." (Bereisheet 46:3) Rather, Chazal hint here to an important principle in Jewish philosophy. The Divine master plan is preordained, just that its implementation is generally carried out by man, through his own free will. Divine Providence often makes use of human actions to advance its plans, and sometimes it even leads man, in a hidden way, so that he will advance its goals.

The exile in Egypt was the result of the hatred and jealousy between brothers. Chazal warn us: "A person should never favor one child amongst the children. Because of two selaim's worth of fine material (for the striped cloak) that Yaakov gave Yosef more than the rest of his sons, his brothers became jealous of him, one thing led to another, and our forefathers descended to Egypt." (Shabbat 10b) Everyone knows, though, that this process does not begin in Parshat Vayeishev, but rather in Parshat Lech-Lecha, in the decree of bein habetarim. We wait to see how the Divine plan will materialize. Indeed, Chazal say that Yaakov deserved to go down in iron chains (i.e., by Divine decree), but G-d had compassion on his honor and brought his son down as King of Egypt, so that Yaakov would descend in honor. They give the metaphor of a cow that does not want to go to slaughter, so a calf is led before her, and she is drawn after it.

Indeed, the tribes complained about the fact that they were involved against their will in the execution of the Divine plan. On the pasuk, "Why Hashem do you let us stray from Your paths, letting our hearts become hardened from fearing You: Return for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage" (Yeshaya 63:17), Chazal comment: When You wanted to -- you placed love in their hearts; and when you wanted to -- you placed hatred in their hearts. (Bereisheet Rabbah 84:17) The Netziv explains: To love -- in the episode of Dina; and to hate -- in the episode of Yosef. In these two episodes they sinned and were punished, despite the fact that they were not worthy of such action, were it not that Divine Providence desired that it should be so. Therefore, He aroused in their hearts at that time a great hatred and a great love.

Chazal express this idea vividly on our parsha (Midrash Tanchuma Vayeishev #4):

"Yosef was brought down to Egypt." (Bereisheet 39:1) That is what Scripture states, "Go and see the works of Hashem, He is awesome in deed (`alilah) toward mankind." (Tehillim 46:9) R. Yehoshua b. Karcha says: "Even the awesome deeds that you bring upon us you bring with a pretext (`alilah)...

What is this comparable to? To a man who wanted to divorce his wife. When he planned to go to his house, he wrote a Get and entered his house with the Get in his hand. He sought a pretext to give her the Get. He said to her, "Pour me a cup to drink!" She poured for him. When he took the cup from her, he said to her, "Here is your Get!" She said to him, "What did I do wrong?" He said to her, "Leave my house, because you poured me a lukewarm cup." She said to him, "Did you know beforehand that I would pour you a lukewarm cup that you wrote a Get and brought it with you?!"

Similarly, it says about Yosef, "His brothers saw that it was he whom their father loved most," etc. G-d sought to fulfill the decree of "Know with certainty," and brought as pretext all these things, so that Yaakov should love Yosef, his brothers would hate him, they would sell him to the Yishmaelites, who would take him down to Egypt, and Yaakov would hear that Yosef is alive in Egypt, and he would go down with the tribes -- and they would be subjugated there.

This indicates that the brothers' hatred was not the cause for Israel's descent to Egypt, but the opposite is true. The need to descend to Egypt caused that the brothers should hate Yosef. "He sent him from the depths of Chevron -- from the deep plan of that tzaddik who is buried in Hebron.

This principle brings us to the difficult issue of the contradiction between Divine knowledge and free choice. Yet, the Netziv writes about this (Ha'amek Davar 3, 14):

This wonder is the famous question regarding knowledge and free choice. The well-known resolution is G-d's statement: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways." (Yeshaya 55:8) Thus, not everything that we find incomprehensible is incomprehensible to Him. It is clear that this is so.

Rav Kook on Parashat Vayeishev: Tamar's Sacrifice

Perhaps the most astonishing aspect of the story of Yehuda and his daughter-in-law Tamar took place after Yehuda was informed that the young widow had behaved loosely and was pregnant. Yehuda meted out a harsh punishment for her promiscuity: “Take her out and have her burned” (Ber. 38:24).

Confronted with such a severe sentence, Tamar could have easily pointed an accusing finger at Yehudah. After all, it was Yehuda who had made her pregnant, not knowing the true identity of the “prostitute” he had met on the road to Timna. Incredibly, Tamar chose to be silent. Only as she was led out to be executed did Tamar remark enigmatically, “I am pregnant by the man who is the owner of these articles” (Ber. 38:25). When Yehuda heard that cryptic message, he immediately realized that her pregnancy was not the result of promiscuity, but a form of yibum, which Tamar had only been able to consummate through deception.

Why didn’t Tamar save her life by openly identifying her father-in-law — and judge — as the person responsible?

The Gemara derives an amazing lesson from Tamar’s selfless act:

“It is better to throw oneself into a fiery furnace than to shame another person in public.” (Berachot 43b)

This remarkable statement raises two questions. First of all, is honor really such an important thing? Did Chazal not teach (Avot 4:21) that the pursuit of honor and fame is an undesirable trait that can “drive one from the world”?

Secondly, there are only three crimes — murder, idolatry, and illicit relations — so grievous that it is preferable to die rather than transgress them. Why was Tamar willing to die rather than embarrass her father-in-law?


Illustration image: Judah and Tamar (Rembrandt’s school, 1620-1700)

Superficial Honor versus Inner Worth
To answer the first question, we must distinguish between two types of honor. The first is an illusory honor based on external acquisitions — wealth, position, fame, and so on. Pursuing this type of honor is certainly a negative trait, a mindset which can cause one to lose his way and squander his time on inconsequential matters.

There is, however, a nobler form of honor. This honor is based on our awareness of our true inner worth as human beings created in God’s image. Recognition of our innate dignity, and an aversion to ignominy, has the opposite effect to the pursuit of superficial honor. This awareness is the very foundation of morality. It enables one to value the nobility of a life rooted in ethical and spiritual ideals.

In an essay describing our generation’s need to deepen its appreciation of the spiritual side of the universe, through the study of the Torah’s esoteric teachings, Rav Kook noted a decline in humanity’s awareness of inner values:

“As the world advances in its superficial culture, it simultaneously declines in its inner worth. This deterioration is due to the phenomenon that, with the advance of society’s external values, the eye is increasingly captivated by superficialities and learns to belittle inner awareness. Due to this process, humanity’s true worth continually dwindles. The world’s redemption is dependent upon the revival of our inner perceptions.” (Orot HaKodesh vol. I, p. 96)

Human life has value only when it is accompanied by recognition of one’s inner worth and dignity. It is preferable to forfeit life in this world rather than publicly shame another person, permanently disgracing him and ruining his honor. Such a public defaming will bring about the loss of all value in living, a slow and degrading demise.

In practice, however, it seems that one should not take such a drastic step. With time, a life lived fully can heal and restore lost honor. Nonetheless, those with a noble and sensitive soul should feel that their own will to live is weakened if their own survival must come at the expense of another’s public disgrace and humiliation.

For this reason, Chazal did not write, “One is required to throw oneself into a fiery furnace,” but rather, “It is better.” This is how one should feel, even if in practice it does not come to that.

(Sapphire from the Land of Israel. Adapted from Ein Eyah vol. II, p. 191 by Rav Chanan Morrison)

Yosef and His Brothers / The National Religious and the Left

by HaRav Zalman Baruch Melamed 
Rosh HaYeshiva, Beit El

It seems as if the relationship between the left-wing and the Jewish population of Judea and Samaria (Yesha) is like that between the first ten sons of the Patriarch Yaakov and their young brother Yosef. Yosef is a dreamer, dreaming of royalty, of redemption, of Messianic times. He dreams of grain sheaves, in which those of his brothers bow down to his own. This is reminiscent of the Song of Redemption (Shir HaMaalot B'shuv), which states both "When G-d returned [us] to Zion, we were like dreamers" and "he will come with joy, carrying his grain sheaves." Yosef dreams that he has a senior role and a great mission, and this causes his brothers jealousy and even hatred.

The Yesha settler community, too, dreams of Israel's Redemption - Messianic dreams - and there are those on the left wing of the political and philosophical spectrum who hate them and their dreams. Yosef is critical of his brothers, he has high ethical standards, and for this purpose he speaks to his father about their shortcomings. Yosef's father loves him, and his brothers hate him. The residents of Yesha are also pioneers, they are idealistic, they are willing to sacrifice for the nation and the Land; they are people of values – and this is what brings about jealousy, even among brothers, and hatred. The hatred is so deep that the Torah tells us, "they couldn't speak to him in peace" (B'resheet 37,3). The left feels so strongly against the residents of Yesha that they are unable to open channels of dialogue with them. Yosef's brothers are so resentful that they wish to simply be rid of him. They throw him into a pit teeming with snakes and scorpions. They ultimately take him out and sell him to passing Ishmaelite traders, and say cynically, "Let's see now what his dreams what will be!"

The left, too, acts this way towards us. Many of them are unfortunately willing to endanger the settlers, and "sell" us to the Ishmaelites/Arabs, giving us over to their rule – and then say, "Let's see your dreams now." But just like in the story of Yosef, who said that though his brothers' intentions were originally bad, G-d arranged the entire situation for good. And just like Yosef's dreams came true, our dreams today will also come true, dreams of Redemption and Mashiach.

Before the arrival of the Davidic Mashiach, Mashiach ben David, the Mashiach ben Yosef will prepare the way. The Gaon of Vilna says that Yosef expresses the process of Moshiach ben Yosef in all generations and in the generation of Redemption. It is said of Yosef [when his brothers came to Egypt to buy food], "Yosef knew his brothers, but they did not recognize him" (B'resheet 42,8). This is the story in all generations: Yosef's role is not recognized or understood. This is the work of Satan, who conceals from our sight the function of the Messiah ben Yosef, causing us to scorn him and his mission.

The Gaon of Vilna also cites this verse: "they [Your enemies] disgraced the footprints of Your anointed" (Tehilim 89, 52). He writes that it is known that the enemies of G-d and Israel seek to thwart the activities of Atchalta D'Geula, the beginning of Redemption, which are: building the Holy Land, settling it, and fulfilling the commandments that are dependent on it. It is incumbent upon us, then, to rely on G-d, Whose desire it is that we should do our part in this world – a concept known as it'aruta d'ltata – and stand up against all those who condemn us.

With this exhortation by the Vilna Gaon, let us be strong, and everything will turn out for the best, as it was with Yosef.

The plan of Yaakov

by Rabbi Dov Berel Wein

Modern writers and commentators have found the biblical narratives of the book of Berisheet irresistible in their penchant for psychoanalyzing people described in terms of modern understanding and current correctness. In so doing they do a great disservice to Jewish tradition and present a distorted picture of the message that the Bible is attempting to convey.

The narrative regarding Yosef and his brothers has engaged mankind for millennia. In it is represented all of the personality characteristics of nobility, self-justification, blindness and deception throughout history. The narrative stands by itself and needs no "deeper" exposition or analysis. It is what it is and that is how Jewish tradition has always viewed it.

The tendency to "understand" the characters of the people presented in the Torah narrative leads to all sorts of weird ideas that serve to undermine Jewish values and traditions instead of strengthening them. In all of the narratives that appear in this holy book the unseen hand of Heaven, so to speak, is present and active. And that part of the story is not subject to any psychological or personal analysis or perspective.

Rashi points this out in his opening comment to this week's Torah reading. The plan of Yaakov is to enjoy a leisurely retirement in his later stage of life but Heaven interferes as the story of Yosef and his brothers unfolds. No matter how you will analyze the motivations of the characters in this biblical narrative, we still will not know the entire story. It is always the inscrutable hand of Heaven that governs the story and mocks our pretensions.

One of the great differences between the traditional commentators and the more modern versions of this genre is this God factor. Midrash, Talmud, and the great medieval and later commentators that created the framework for understanding the narrative of the Torah, also delved deeply into the personalities and motives of the people represented in the Torah. They were always careful not only to include but also to emphasize that ultimately it was the will of Heaven that was guiding events towards Divine purposes.

The Bible is not a psychodrama or rebuke of history and psychology. It is a book of fire and holiness and one has to be careful in handling it. But modern commentators – even those who are observant and scholarly – many times insert currently faddish values and interpretations into its eternal words. Keeping this in mind in dealing with the great narrative regarding Joseph and his brothers, one of the key narratives in the entire Torah, we should do so with caution and tradition.

To do otherwise, is a great disservice to the text of the story itself and to the value system that Jewish tradition has assigned to it. The dispute between Yosef and his brothers has heavenly and historic consequences and still hovers over Jewish life today. To treat it as a matter of sibling rivalry is a misunderstanding of the entire purpose of the Torah narrative.

Israel's Biggest Enemy: How Netanyahu Is Thanked for Disabling Iran, Terrorist Groups

by Bassam Tawil 
  • [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] has not earned the title "The Churchill of the Middle East" for nothing.
  • What is lethal for the country is that the judges ruled that Netanyahu must appear in court three times a week for at least six consecutive hours each time. All this when the prime minister is preoccupied with the multi-front war against Israel by Iran, its terror proxies, and now Turkey, which no doubt sees its proxy-invasion of Syria as a pathway to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's long-term dream to "liberate Jerusalem from the Jews."
  • Some might view this judicial escapade, in cases of trumped-up charges, as political payback for Netanyahu's having tried to reform the judicial system after he was last re-elected in 2022. The judicial reforms are desperately needed, but would diminish the absolute power that Supreme Court judges arrogated to themselves starting in the 1990s, and which they appear autocratically determined to keep.
  • Do these seemingly vindictive judges really think that Netanyahu's cigars and champagne are not more important than Israel's war against Iran's "Axis of Resistance"?
  • There is no reason for the prime minister to spend several hours a day in court now, when Israel is at war and he is successfully protecting his people from enemies seeking his country's destruction and the murder of all Jews.
  • Do these judges actually want Israel to lose the war just so they can keep their absolute power?

Some might view the judicial escapade against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in cases of trumped-up charges, as political payback for the prime minister's having tried to reform the judicial system after he was last re-elected in 2022. The judicial reforms are desperately needed. Do these judges actually want Israel to lose the war just so they can keep their absolute power? Pictured: Netanyahu enters the district court in Tel Aviv at the start of his hearing on December 10, 2024. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deserves an award for successfully leading the war against Iran's "Axis of Resistance" in the Middle East. He has not earned the title "The Churchill of the Middle East" for nothing.

Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, during which 1,200 Israelis were murdered and thousands injured, Israel has destroyed most of the terror group's military capabilities in the Gaza Strip and eliminated its top political and military leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar.

Continue Reading Article

Sudden and Extreme Changes

BS”D 
Parashat Vayeishev 5785
by HaRav Nachman Kahana

It has been reported, that following the fall of the Asad regime in Syria, the head of IDF military intelligence and the head of Shabak (internal security) met in Jordan with their counterparts to discuss the real possibility that Iran would attempt to undermine the government of Jordan and send in Iranian troops to the border with Israel.

Let’s discuss this.

The changes in our region are so sudden and extreme that political analysts, commentators, as well as rabbis who have to prepare Shabbat drashot cannot keep up with events. And the only way to be relevant is to begin by appraising events beyond the present and then waiting for reality to set in.

I suggest that just as the Asad regime of Syria was overthrown, so too, by the will of HaShem in His plan for Am Yisrael, there will be a revolt and civil war in Jordan, with King Abdulla begging for refuge in Israel. This will necessitate our army seizing large areas within Jordan, if not all of that country.

Behind and energizing all that is happening in and around Eretz Yisrael are the tectonic changes in HaShem’s relations with Am Yisrael. They could be headlined “End of galut and beginning of the advent of the Mashiach”, meaning:We have troops along the width and length of the Gaza strip, which is part of the two biblical tribes of Yehuda and Shimon.

We have troops in Lebanon, which is situated on the soil of the two tribes of Asher and Naftali.
We have troops in Syria which is in the tribe of Menashe.

In total, there are Israelis today in the areas of ten of the twelve Biblical tribes that constitute Am Yisrael. Excluded are the tribes of Reuven and Gad, which are in the central and southern regions of Jordan.

Ten is nice but it’s not 12; and just like water, history seeks its natural level.

The last time Jews were in control in the areas of all the 12 tribes was in 722 BCE when Hoshea ben Ella, last king of the northern 10 tribes, was exiled by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser. That is 2746 years that Jews have not been present and in control in the areas of all 12 tribes at the same time!

The involvement of Iran in Jordan will necessitate our seizing large parts of Jordan, including the areas of Reuven and Gad, thereby closing the historical circle of 2746 years when Am Yisrael is again in control of all the land areas of all the 12 tribes.

This does necessarily mean that the Mashiach is about to arrive. In fact, it is quite possible that the era of pre-Mashiach struggle could continue with ups – and downs – for many more years; but the direction is the increasing admiration for the Jewish nation among the rational family of nations.

Megillat Ta’anit, or “Scroll of (not) Fasting,” is a compendium of miraculous events which occurred during the 420 years of the second temple period. It lists the days the rabbis prohibited fasting and eulogizing in order to commemorate with joy those days of miracles when HaShem intervened to save the Jewish nation. After the Temple’s destruction by the Romans, the Megillah was rescinded and those days of thanks were no longer relevant as holidays, except for two which retained their special status – Chanuka and Purim to this day. Why these two?

Chanukah
I suggest: Our rabbis knew that Chanuka and Purim would be relevant in future Jewish history, specifically to the events of our time, as follows:

Chanuka, which we will be celebrating during the next two weeks, commemorates the military achievements of the Maccabim who defeated the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV. His capital was Antioch in what is today’s southern Syria, and then we reconsecrated the defiled Temple of Jerusalem.

It took the Maccabees 33 years to achieve victory (167 BC to 134), but today our soldiers are walking freely in southern Syria without having fired even one shot. And if our government desired, we could capture all of the strategic areas of Syria.

It is now Chanuka plus.

Baruch… Shehechiyanu

Purim
Purim and the Megillah teach us important lessons:

1- The Megillah relates that when Haman told his wife Zeresh of the demeaning manner in which he had been treated by having to lead Mordechai on a horse through the city, his wife replied (Megillah 613):


… אם מזרע היהודים מרדכי אשר החלות לנפל לפניו לא תוכל לו כי נפול תפול לפניו

If Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him. You will surely come to ruin!


And the reverse is true regarding the Jewish nation. “If your enemies before whom your greatness has begun to show are of Yishmael origin, you will rise from victory to victory without end.

2) After the astonishing turn of events in the 127 regions in the Persian empire when the citizens were preparing to murder all the Jews in one day on the 13th of Adar, and the Jews defended themselves, killing 75,000 across the land and another 800 in the city of Shushan, the reaction of the Persians was:


וּבְכָל מְדִינָה וּמְדִינָה וּבְכָל עִיר וָעִיר מְקוֹם אֲשֶר דְבַר הַמֶלֶךְ וְדָתוֹ מַגִיעַ שִמְחָה וְשָשׂוֹן לַיְהוּדִים מִשְתֶה וְיוֹם טוֹב וְרַבִים מֵעַמֵי הָאָרֶץ מִתְיַהֲדִים כִי נָפַל פַחַד הַיְהוּדִים עֲלֵיהֶם.

In every province and in every city to which the edict of the king came, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them.

If the chain of miraculous current events continues, we could be seeing great numbers of gentiles the world over leaving their religious beliefs in order to become Jews, as stated by Yirmiyahu the prophet (16,19):

אליך גוים יבאו מאפסי ארץ ויאמרו אך שקר נחלו אבותינו הבל ואין בם מועיל:

…the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, our ancestors bequeathed us false gods, worthless idols that bring no benefit.



Conclusion
Something big is happening now in our world; changes which are on a Biblical scale.

As it appears, the destiny of Am Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael is to achieve inter-national and religious recognition of which we have been deprived of for 2000 years.

All mankind will be affected. Some by wars, others by natural calamities, while others will undergo spiritual transitions. Our destiny is to return home and restore that which was lost to us by our not fulfilling the functions of HaShem’s chosen people.

We might soon prove to be the greatest generation in Jewish history!!!!

Shabbat Shalom,
Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5785/2024 Nachman Kahana

White House Islamophobia Strategy Says Muslims Were the Real Victims of Oct 7th

by Daniel Greenfield

On October 7, Islamic terrorists invaded Israel and murdered over 1,000 people. They raped, looted, and burned families alive in their home. Those whom they did not kill, they took hostage.

According to the Biden administration’s newly announced Islamophobia strategy, however, Muslims in America were the real victims of Oct 7 just like they were the real victims of 9/11.

“Threats and acts of violence against Muslim and Arab communities have increased since the October 7 terrorist attacks,” the official White House ‘Islamophobia’ strategy claims. Muslims are also concerned “about the recent spike in incidents of hate and discrimination in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, concerns they say mirror their community’s experiences following the 9/11 attacks.”

Forget the hostages, the real issue stemming from the brutal Hamas massacres, according to the administration’s ‘strategy’ is that “members of Muslim and Arab communities have often faced obstacles in renting and using public and private gathering spaces. This issue has become more prevalent following the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.”

The U.S. National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia and Anti-Arab Hate operates out of this parallel universe in which Muslim mobs have not been attacking synagogues and assaulting Jews, or blockading Jewish students from college campuses, but have been the victims.

The Biden administration has yet to condemn the sustained harassment, boycotts and assaults on Jewish students at UCLA, CUNY and Columbia, instead it claims that “since October 7, 2023”, “Muslim and Arab students, faculty, and staff, have been subject to violence, discrimination, hate, harassment, bullying, and online targeting.”

The Islamophobia strategy provides no citation for its claim of nationwide harassment of Muslims on college campuses. Under its Department of Education Office’s for Civil Rights section its few named incidents include a University of Michigan student who claimed that “someone yelled at her that she had terrorist friends because she participated in a pro-Palestinian protest” and that “CUNY Law School cancelled an event hosted by a Muslim student group without adequate justification for doing so”.




The event in question was by the Muslim Law Students Association falsely accusing Israel of genocide for fighting against Hamas that was reportedly to feature CUNY students who had expressed support for terrorism including Fatima Mohammed who had tweeted, “i pray upon the death of the USA on a public platform “ and had urged, “grant victory to the Mujahideen” or the Jihadis, and Nerdeen Kiswani who had quipped, “I hope that pop-pop is the last noise that some Zionists hear in their lifetime!”

According to the White House Islamophobia strategy, CUNY’s failure to platform murderous hatred for America and Israel was ‘discrimination’ and ‘hate’ against Muslim students.

Meanwhile at CUNY, anti-Israel students had demanded the expulsion of most Jewish students and called to “globalize the intifada”. A CUNY professor described how “a Kingsborough/CUNY student beat a Jewish man in a kippah with a bat while yelling, ‘Kill all Jews, free Palestine.’”

But according to the Biden administration, Muslim students at CUNY are the real victims because a Muslim group’s ugly hate event was canceled “without adequate justification”

Students for Justice in Palestine, the top campus anti-Israel group, had openly celebrated and praised the atrocities of Oct 7, and campus protests featured Hamas and Hezbollah flags, but the Islamophobia strategy falsely claims that “student protestors, despite having condemned Hamas and terrorism and engaging in only peaceful protests, have been accused of supporting terrorism merely due to their advocacy for the human rights of Palestinian civilians”.

The strategy’s citation for the claim that anti-Israel students faced “violent attacks, threats, discrimination” was the UCLA encampment where a federal judge ruled that “Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith.” Prior to what the CNN story linked in the strategy describes as Jewish violence against the terrorist encampment, multiple Jewish students and community members had been assaulted, including on camera, and a Jewish female student had been knocked unconscious.

The Biden administration’s idea of “peaceful protests” was kicking a Jewish girl in the head and it claims that students calling for Hamas to destroy Tel Aviv were “accused of supporting terrorism merely due to their advocacy for the human rights of Palestinian civilians”.

The UCLA encampment had been set up by Students for Justice in Palestine UCLA which had co-signed a statement declaring “our unwavering support of the resistance in Gaza” and taking pride in “Towfan Al-Aqsa” (the Hamas name for the October 7 massacres) “as a revolutionary moment in contemporary Palestinian resistance.”

The White House Islamophobia strategy has as little basis for the “peaceful” nature of the terrorist mobs as it does for the contention that Muslims faced a surge of violence after Oct 7.

The U.S. National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia and Anti-Arab Hate quickly discredits itself by citing hoax after hoax. It repeatedly plays up the Burlington hoax referencing “the shooting of three young men in Vermont” and the contention that “a gunman shot three college students of Palestinian descent in Burlington, Vermont,”

While a mentally ill man did shoot three Muslim men, he was a Hamas supporter.

Rather than being anti-Muslim, the gunman had tweeted, “the notion that Hamas is ‘evil’ for defending their state from occupation is absurd” and “what if someone occupied your country? Wouldn’t you fight them?” The Burlington Islamophobia hoax was so thoroughly discredited that even CAIR had given up on listing it in its litany of ‘Islamophobic’ events, but the Biden administration somehow manages to have even lower standards for the truth than CAIR.

The Islamophobia strategy also lists an incident where “an individual believed to have been involved in prior violent incidents at a Minneapolis mosque struck a man with a minivan in the mosque’s parking lot.” The individual, James Evan Suttles, was a black man who had a long list of prior violent incidents, suffered from paranoid delusions and had been committed four times to mental institutions. No hate crimes charges were brought against him over the attack.

The Biden Islamophobia strategy has to lean on such cases to manufacture the myth of Muslim victimhood because it lacks any actual substance. And it props that up with calls for censorship.

The strategy urges social media platforms to specifically cover Islamophobia and to rig their algorithms “de-rank and stop recommending” content that Muslim groups consider hateful.

Beyond censorship, what does the Biden administration propose we do to fight ‘Islamophobia’?

The strategy calls on Congress to formally recognize the UN’s International Day to Combat Islamophobia. The Islamophobia resolution was introduced by former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. Khan had described Osama bin Laden, whom Pakistan had harbored, as a “martyr”, supported the Taliban and was later charged by his own country under its terrorism act.

Once again, Islamophobia turns out to be how Islamic terrorists silence criticism of their crimes.

The Biden administration’s National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia is an insult to American Jews and Christians. It uses lies and hoaxes to turn the Muslim terrorist supporters who have shut down Christmas tree lightings and attacked synagogues, and who rally for the murder of Americans and Jews as the victims, while portraying Christians and Jews as ‘Islamophobes’.

The Islamophobia strategy is the final insult of many from an administration that has stood with the Islamic terrorists and never with their Jewish and Christian victims.

Monday, December 16, 2024

President Trump – Beware of HTS and the Moslem Brotherhood

by Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

*The success of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorists to topple the Assad regime is traumatizing all pro-US Arab regimes, which, for decades, have had the machetes of Iran’s Ayatollahs and the Moslem Brotherhood at their throats.

*Contrary to some Western policy makers, journalists and academics, the pro-US Arab leaders do not take HTS’ moderate statements at face value. They are aware of the fanatic, religious vision, which has guided the HTS, and are familiar with the Middle Eastern gap between the talk and the walk, and with the Islamic tactic of Taqiyya (dissimulation). Taqiyya was also employed by Bashar Assad upon assuming power in 2000, when his moderate talk led US legislators (e.g., Senator John Kerry), Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and NYT’s Tom Friedman to view him as a potentially peaceful leader. It was used by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1978/79, ahead of assuming power in Iran, convincing President Carter and the State Department that he would be “an Iranian edition of Ghandi.... preoccupied with tractors, not tanks.” The Houthis issued moderate pronouncements that led to their delisting from the list of terror organizations in 2021 by President Biden. Also, Arafat issued peaceful statements upon concluding the Oslo Accord, which won him the Nobel Prize for Peace, and led Tom Friedman to wonder: “Who’s Arafat? Is he Nelson Mandela or Willie Nelson?”). Etc.

*The vision of the HTS is not limited to Syria. It aims to topple all national Islamic regimes, and establish a universal Islamic entity, as prescribed by the precepts of the Moslem Brotherhood, which has pursued its goals through politics, education, social welfare and affiliates, splinters and offshoots that engage in terrorism.

*The initial strategy of HTS, as suggested by their name (al-Sham = the Levant) is to “liberate” the Levant, which was “Greater Syria” (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Cyprus and Turkey’s Hatay province), then the entire Middle East, the “Abode of Islam,” and finally the “Abode of the Infidel,” preferably via peaceful means, or militarily, if resisted by the “infidel.”

*The Moslem Brotherhood is inspired by the HTS’ success in Syria, to be replicated in additional Moslem countries. Therefore, the Muslim Brotherhood branches in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and other Moslem countries have congratulated HTS for achieving the first goal of the Sunni Islamic revolution, expecting a robust tailwind to bringing down additional national Moslem regimes.

*HTS considers the toppling of Jordan’s pro-US Hashemite regime as a top priority, as does a chief enemy of HTS, Iran’s Ayatollahs. Both have intensified subversion, terrorism and drug trafficking in Jordan, leveraging the presence – in Jordan – of 2 million refugees from Syria and Iraq, a solid operational foundation of the Moslem Brotherhood, the presence of Palestinian terror organizations, and the intra-Bedouin animosity.

*The HTS’ success in Syria is inspiring the Moslem Brotherhood in its attempts to topple the pro-US General Sisi regime in Egypt, which is the 1928 birth site of the Moslem Brotherhood. In 1949, the Moslem Brotherhood assassinated Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmoud Nuqrashi; in 1954, the Moslem Brotherhood failed in its attempt to murder Egyptian President Nasser; in 1981, the Moslem Brotherhood’s offshoot, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, murdered Egyptian President Sadat. The Islamic Jihad merged with Al Qaeda.

*Prof. Albert Hourani, a leading Middle East historian, Oxford University’s St. Anthony’s College, noted the following tenets of the Muslim Brotherhood (A History of the Arab Peoples, pp. 445-446): “A total rejection of all forms of society except the wholly Islamic one…. The true Islamic society…regarded the Quran as the source of all guidance for human life…. All other societies were societies of Jahiliyya (ignorance of religious truth), whether they were communist, capitalist, nationalist, [followers of] false religions, or claimed to be Muslim but did not obey the Sharia…. The leadership of Western man in the human world is coming to an end… The turn of Islam has come….Those who accepted [the Muslim Brotherhood] program would form a vanguard of dedicated fighters, using every means, including Jihad… The struggle should aim at creating a universal Muslim society.... The Western age is finished…. Only Islam offered hope to the world…. [The Muslim Brotherhood] were prepared for violence and martyrdom.”

*The Muslim Brotherhood, just like the HTS, have been very skillful in obfuscating the West through Taqiyya and a two-pronged operation: the religious, educational, social and political screensavers, as well as the operational (subversive and terroristic) modes. In fact, the Muslim Brotherhood poses the following proposition: Submission to Allah and the Koran, or else...!

*Before embracing the Muslim Brotherhood’s and the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s moderate talk, Western policy-makers are advised to study the following observations by Sir John Jenkins, a top specialist on the Moslem Brotherhood and the Middle East, and former Executive Director of the British International Institute for Strategic Studies – Middle East branch:

“[The West] should resist the temptation to seek to understand the Muslim Brotherhood through our own cultural or epistemological [knowledge] categories…. [The Muslim Brotherhood] continues to threaten the constitutive basis of most contemporary Muslim majority states…. Some may still be tempted to hope that when a malign or otherwise unsatisfactory regime is overthrown the subsequent trajectory must be progressive. [Middle East] experience suggests the reverse.... Authoritarianism is not weakened in such circumstances: it recurs….

“[Hassan Al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood] urged his followers to scorn life; claimed that ultimate martyrdom could only be attained through death in the service of the divine; articulated a doctrine of armed physical force.... The writings of Sayyid Qutb – its most significant and protean ideologue [who was executed in Egypt in 1966] – remain central to Brotherhood thinking everywhere and continue to be used to justify multiple forms of Islamist violence....”

“The Brotherhood… gives little space to tolerance, choice and individual freedoms.... no commitment to democratic choice.... It is constitutively antisemitic and homophobic….”

Friday, December 13, 2024

Iran Threatens Jordan, Smuggles Arms to Palestinian Terrorists in Israel

by Lawrence A. Franklin
  • Iran appears determined to destabilize Jordan, and is thus trying to drag the kingdom into its regional maelstrom by manipulating Jordanian national and terrorist substate entities to do its bidding.
  • The Islamist threat to the stability of the Kingdom has greatly increased with the fall of its neighbor Syria into the hands of the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, a Sunni Islamist group committed to radicalizing the Levant, which includes Jordan.

Iran appears determined to destabilize Jordan, and is thus trying to drag the kingdom into its regional maelstrom by manipulating Jordanian national and terrorist substate entities to do its bidding. Pictured: A shipment of weapons smuggled into Israel from Jordan by a Bedouin Arab in December 2023, which was seized by the Israel Police. (Image source: Israel Police Spokesperson)


The Israeli Air Force (IAF), in a recent airstrike, destroyed three cross-border smuggling routes from Syria to Lebanon, which were being used by Iran to bring ship weapons to still-functioning Hezbollah terrorist cells. The Israeli strike took place just hours before a ceasefire took effect on November 26 between Israel and Hezbollah.

Iran's special forces units, however, will no doubt continue their past efforts to smuggle arms through Jordan to Palestinian terrorist cells in Judea and Samaria ("the West Bank"). These smuggling operations will still enable terrorists there to kill Israelis and further entrench an atmosphere of fear among the hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens who live in Judea and Samaria.

Continue Reading Article

Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook: Possibilities of Creating Religious Moshavot – part II

#284 – part II 

Date and Place: 1 Adar II, 5670 (1910), Yafo

Recipient and Background: Rabbi Dr. Meir Lerner, Rabbi of Altuna (Germany), who for years had interest in the settlement of Eretz Yisrael.

Body: [We continue with more answers to Rabbi Lerner’s inquiries.]

2. The price of land varies greatly, based on location and based on the quality of the land – choice, average, and low quality – as well as many other details. Around the area of the moshavot, the land goes for approximately 30-50 francs per dunam. In contrast, in new places, like Rafah, one can purchase for cheaper, approximately 5-8 francs per dunam. On the other hand, conditions of settlement are much more onerous in places that are far from where others live, to the extent that the expense is almost the same thing. Experts say that it is more worthwhile to pay the greater sum near the [existing] moshavot than to buy cheap land in distant places. If, though, hundreds of families join up to buy together, then one can also buy in distant places and establish a new locality, and the more people there are, the easier and safer it is.

Regarding crops, not all the places are the same. When the matter will hopefully come to fruition, it will be possible to clarify exactly. However, according to today’s market situation for wine, it is impossible to base a new settlement on it. For an orange grove, there is a need for a big investment in securing a well and installing special machines. When the settlement is blessed with riches, this is a good business, and one can obtain land that is fitting for this. But what is more correct is to work hard on simple agriculture, so that orchards are minor compared to growing wheat, barley, and vegetables. [It is best] when the farmers are not business owners but are people who eat the produce (i.e., subsistence farming) and live in peace on the holy soil with good will and happiness with Hashem and service of Him. For simple agriculture, the Galilee is more fit than Judea, the latter of which is better for fruit trees.

3. Regarding farmers, there are trained people for farming who are fully religious, and it is better to put them on the land than to bring in new people.

4. The full price of settling an average-sized family with all the resources it needs is assumed to be 17,000-20,000 francs.

5. You can use the number above to figure out how much it would cost to start a whole moshava. Granted, some expenses are smaller when shared by many people, but you must consider also public expenses and especially things having to do with religion, e.g., kashrut and public mitzva obligations.

To start a moshava of five or ten people, you can certainly only do so close to an existing moshava. This can be done in Kastina (near today’s Kiryat Mirachi). Also, the people of Kastina are simple people who keep Torah and mitzvot, and it would be proper to join up with them and increase the settlement together.

I find it necessary to encourage you to continue the great work with the Moriah organization and concentrate on strengthening our holy religion in the New Yishuv in the Holy Land. One can approach such a task without incredible resources. The fundamental achievement of “planting the tree of life in its place” (i.e., religious success in Eretz Yisrael) could expand to all of the scattering of Israel. This is because the very involvement in the strengthening of serving Hashem uplifts those who toil in it, and this will also strengthen religion throughout the Diaspora. If one tries to directly strengthen religion in the whole world, it will be too vast a challenge, and if the effort is unsuccessful, it will cause disappointment and weakening of resolve for those who involve themselves in it.

Paradoxically, we should learn from the actions of those who destroy religion, who focus all of their energy on the Holy Land. This is the strategy that those who are faithful to Judaism should take. Let us put all of our energy into improving the building of the Holy Land according to the path of the Torah, and as a result it will make the stature of fear of Hashem greater everywhere that Jews live.

“Let Us Be Strong and of Good Courage!”

by HaRav Dov Begon,
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

Ya'akov attempts to flee from Esav and succeeds in smuggling out his family across the Yabok River. Yet, he himself remains behind and is confronted by Esav’s angelic prince: “A stranger appeared and wrestled with him... When the stranger saw that he could not defeat him, he touched the upper joint of Ya'akov’s thigh. Ya'akov’s hip joint became dislocated as he wrestled with the stranger... He was limping because of his thigh.” (Beresheet 32:25-26,32).

Rashbam explains that Ya'akov was punished and smitten, and acquired a limp because he fled rather than trusting G-d’s promise to protect him and make him defeat Esav. We find the same with all those who diverge from G-d’s path, and with those who refuse to accept the missions G-d assigns them. All are punished (Rashbam, Beresheet 32:29).

Today, we must learn a lesson from Ya'akov’s flight and from his subsequent limp. Wherever the Jewish People retreat and flee, G-d forbid, everyone can see them limping. Precisely today, when we are facing a difficult test, when our enemies are attacking us in order to destroy us and banish us from our land, G-d forbid, we must become stronger in spirit. We must know and believe that we are fighting a just war over the land of our ancestors. Only through the Jewish People’s having control over their land will G-d’s name be sanctified for all to see. Then we will be able to spread benevolence and illuminate the whole world, all mankind, with the timeless and divine values of peace, justice, love, and truth.

Our enemies’ whole goal is to take control over Eretz Yisrael, and thereby, to bring ethical and spiritual darkness to the world. May it never be! In King David’s time, when Aram was attacking Israel from both front and back (Shmuel Bet 10:9), Yo'av, the head of King David’s army, encouraged the soldiers of Israel with the words, “Let us be strong and of good courage for our people, and for the cities of our G-d, and the L-rd will do that which seems good in His eyes” (v. 12). Let us too be strong and of good courage, and then we will defeat our enemies and cease our limping.

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