Dangerous Exit from Comfort Zone: Passover Offering on Temple Mount

By Moshe Feiglin

Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them: 'Draw out, and take lambs according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb.
And you shall observe this matter for an ordinance for you and your sons for ever.
(Exodus 12)

Soon, with G-d's help, we will establish Jewish leadership for Israel. Please be forewarned that when that happens, our familiar, comfortable Pesach holiday will be radically changed. We will have to forget about the Pesach seder with the extended family at the home of the family balabusta. Instead, we will be face to face with the Korban Pesach (Passover offering) at the Temple Mount.

For those who have forgotten, the Korban Pesach is a positive commandment, equal in its importance to the mitzvah of brit milah (circumcision). The mitzvah of circumcision is a personal covenant between a Jew and his Father in heaven. The Pesach offering is the national covenant between the Jewish Nation and its Father in heaven. These two commandments forged the Jewish People as the unique nation of the Creator – both as individuals and as a collective.

Today, a Jewish policeman stands at the entrance to the Temple Mount and explains to the Jews that they are prohibited from praying there. A request to bring a sacrificial lamb is out of the question. When we will finally establish Jewish leadership for Israel, though, the same policeman will stand at the entrance to the Temple Mount and cheerfully explain what you need to know, ensuring that you are well-versed in the Jewish laws that must be observed during your momentous visit.

In truth, it is not the policeman who blocks our entrance to the Temple Mount. It is the observant Jews whose Torah and faith are still in exile. They/we feel more comfortable when our covenant with G-d remains exclusively in the realm of the individual. It's great to be religious in your home and "Israeli" in public. The people subscribed to this mode of living will go to great lengths to avoid being a complete Jew in the complete Land of Israel – both in private and in public. In other words, at some level, all of us have a little policeman in our hearts, blocking the entrance to the Temple Mount. That is why we have a full-sized, flesh and blood policeman at its gates.

When we establish Jewish leadership for Israel, all of this will be distant memory. The prime minister and his cabinet will ascend to the Temple Mount with their sacrificial lambs. The entire national mentality will change, and there will be no more lame excuses for not bringing the Pesach offering.

Instead of sitting in the comfort of our living rooms and chewing on matzah that symbolizes the Pesach offering, we will joyously sit in the streets and alleys surrounding the Temple Mount, eating our roasted sacrificial lamb.

The international uproar will be deafening. How will we be able to conduct "peace" negotiations when the entire Jewish Nation is at the Temple Mount with their Pesach offerings? And who will protect us from Iran? And what will Obama do? And how will Russia react? And what about the European Union? What will we explain?

'And you shall say: It is the sacrifice of G-d's Passover, for He passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when He smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses.'

The Temple Institute is sponsoring registration for the Pesach offering for this year. Click here (Hebrew) to register for your portion in this mitzvah.

Happy Festival of Freedom

HaRav Nachman Kahana on Parshat Tzav and Shabbat HaGadol 5772

BS"D

Parshat Tzav and Shabbat HaGadol 5772

On the night of the 15th of Nisan, the seder night, each and every Jew is directed to envision himself as if he had experienced the exodus from Egyptian slavery. This is a near impossible requirement, because the deja vu experience cannot be elicited at will, it just happens or it doesn’t happen.

But twice in my lifetime, I came very close to feeling the exhilaration of freedom that closely paralleled that of our ancestors.

The first was on the 5th of Iyar 5708 (May 14, 1948) when the British mandate on Palestine was terminated and the State of Israel was declared, and the gates of the Holy Land were thrown open for the exodus of the Jewish people from their 2000 year galut.

The second time I experienced the exhilaration of freedom was on Wednesday morning, the 28th of Iyar, 5727 (June 7th 1967) when Hashem’s earthly angels in Tzahal’s olive green uniforms liberated the Temple Mount and all of Yerushalayim, after 2000 years under the control of the "zar" (the stranger).

On the seder night when I am directed to experience the feeling of freedom, I simple look back at what I had felt 45 and 64 years ago.

Freedom is a many edged sword. For some it is the license to entertain one’s lust without limit; for others it is the ability to present, previously prohibited, ideas for social betterment. A rabbit that is let out its cage will hop a bit and might even return to it; but a bird that is freed will soar on high.

The more than a century of Afro-American slavery came to a close in the middle of the 19th century, but as a group they fail to soar to great heights. The enslavement of the Jewish nation in Egypt was much longer and much more cruel. Nevertheless, 50 days after our emancipation, we received the Torah at Mount Sinai, and from that time on, our accomplishments and contributions to the world, in all fields of endeavor, have made us the object of jealousy and resentment. Take away the Jewish contribution and you would be left with a barbaric, brutish, idolatrous world, devoid of ideals or ideas. The organized religions that we know today would never have come about. And the concept of a Creator who sees and knows all, and judges every man according to his deeds, would have long ago been discarded, as it was in the time of Noach.

Probably, the closest experience of freedom that the Jewish nation has enjoyed since the day when King Solomon completed the first Holy Temple, was the establishment of the State of Israel. Never before has a nation in exile returned to its ancient homeland; and what’s more, after a 2000 year physical estrangement (I don’t include certain chareidi fringe elements in this Jewish equation, because they on a different mental planet than the main stream of religious Jewry).

So the big question is: Why do the Jews in the galut sit at their seder table pretending to empathize with the Jews of the exodus of 3000 years ago, while they remain apathetic, at best, to the modern miracles happening before their very eyes?

Are we in Eretz Yisrael made of a different cloth than our brothers and sisters who choose to remain in the galut? Is there something we know that they don’t?

Is the Gemara at the end of tractate Ketubot ,which speaks of the sanctity of Eretz Yisrael as opposed to the galut, censored out of the Talmuds that are printed in the galut?

Wherein lies the immense gulf of loyalty and preparedness to sacrifice for kiddush Hashem (the sanctity of the holy Name) in defense of the Holy Land?

One does not need a psychiatrist’s couch to unravel this dilemma.

Hashem, within the context of His total mastery and control over all that exists, has given us a tiny window called "free choice". Now, just as in the physical world there exists the phenomena of the survival of the fittest, so too in the spiritual world there is the survival of the spiritual fittest. As we draw closer to the "end of time", time passes more quickly, and the circumstances that determine who will survive spiritually and physically are sharper, more articulate and salient. Will the statistics of intermarriage move you to come home? Or possibly the increasing acts of anti-Semitism will convince you that the galut has served its purpose and HaShem is closing the door? Or perhaps the idea of freedom as a Jew in your ancient home-land means little to you, and you will decide to ride it out in the spirit of "tomorrow is another day".

On this coming shabbat ,"Shabbat Ha’gadol", we recall and commemorate the valiant act of our ancestors when they took the lamb, which was the symbol of Egyptian worship, in preparation for offering it as the Pessach sacrifice. This was an act of great courage, that took place on Shabbat the 10th of Nissan of that year. Forty years later, on that same day, the 10th of Nissan, the Jewish nation under the leadership of Yehoshua bin Nun, crossed the Jordan River with the intent to liberate the Holy Land from its Canaanite conquerors. This too was an act of great courage.

Permit me to make a suggestion to all those in the galut who read this .

This Shabbat, the day that saw great acts of courage on the part of the Jewish nation, take the leap of faith and decide that for you and your family it will be "This year in Yerushalayim" and forever!

I would suggest that you show this message to your local rabbi or rosh yeshiva.

If indeed, on this Shabbat you make the most decisive decision of your life to come home to your land and your people, please let me know.

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana

Copyright © 5772-2012 Nachman Kahana

Little Red Riding Hood: The Improved Version

By Moshe Feiglin

5 Nissan, 5772
March 28, '12

Translated from Ma'ariv's NRG website

Editor's Note: In Hebrew, the word "Kippah" is shared by both Little Red Riding Hood (Kippah Adumah) and the Iron Dome missile defense system (Kippat Barzel). Hence the play on words in this article in Hebrew.

"Hey, Red Riding Hood, what is that dome on your head?"

"Grandma-tech knitted it for me out of steel wool," Red Riding Hood proudly answered. "Nice, isn't it?"

"Sure, it's nice," answered the wolf and licked his lips. "It fits you very well. But why is it made out of steel wool?"

"Well," said Little Red Riding Hood, "I'm sick of feeding you all the time while you keep biting me. From now on, I'm not going to be such a pushover. I'm not Little Red Riding Hood anymore. Now I'm Little Iron Dome!"

"What? No more taking bites out of you?" Wolf asked, worried.

"No," Little Iron Dome answered.

"And what will happen to me if I try to bite you anyway?"

"Nothing," said Little Iron Dome.

"I don't understand," said Wolf. "If nothing will happen to me, why shouldn't I bite you?"

Little Iron Dome was confused a bit by Wolf's question. "Ummm", she said, "Grandma-tech promised me that you won't bite me. Here, come and try to bite me and we'll see what happens."

Wolf was confused. "Who knows?" he thought to himself. "Maybe this is some new type of strategy? If Little Iron Dome allows me to bite her, maybe something unpleasant is up her sleeve?" But then Wolf remembered all the threats in the past: "If they shoot just one bullet we will let them have it," etc. etc.

"O.k.," said Wolf. "Now I'm biting."

"All right, try it," said Little Iron Dome.

Wolf opened his jaws, got up his courage and took a bite out of Little Iron Dome, preparing himself for some surprise strike, just in case and - nothing. Nothing unpleasant happened – not to him and not to Little Iron Dome.

Little Iron Dome laughed heartily.
"That's it! Now you won't bite me any more! Now I can feed you with no fear."

Wolf was momentarily perplexed, but then he thought to himself:
On the one hand, this is a bad deal. I bite Little Iron Dome and my mouth stays empty. But on the other hand, Little Iron Dome will continue to feed me and now it is really fine to try to bite her. This is great! I won't go hungry from this deal and anyway, what's the rush? I will eat what she gives me and ultimately, I will find the way to eat her, too.

Wolf called all of his friends, headed by Wolfdinijad and told them the good news. "From today, we have nothing more to worry about," Wolf told Wolfdinijad. "The rules have changed. Little Iron Dome will allow us to bite her."

Little Iron Dome, who in the meantime had danced a victory jig, did not notice what had happened. The news spread quickly and before she knew it, more and more wolves from all over the world emerged from their dens and surrounded her. Because if the new rule was that it is fine to bite Little Iron Dome, what did they have to lose? Either they would succeed, or Little Iron Dome would volunteer to feed them.

In almost no time, it turned out that Little Iron Dome was not capable of dealing with so many wolves. Every so often, one of them would actually manage to bite her.

Little Iron Dome tried to go back to the old rules, but it was too late. The UN voted to condemn her threats and even Wolf-bama, who was just re-elected for a second term in office, refused to veto the resolution.

Luckily for Little Iron Dome, Grandma-tech knitted her a new improved dome at the last minute. The cafés in Tel Aviv re-opened – this time, underground, school in Haifa was resumed inside the Carmel Tunnels and the new, improved Little Iron Dome danced a victory jig once again.

The End of Bibi

By Jason Gold

Mark the date as you read it here first. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sealed his fate in political infamy by deciding to uphold the Supreme Court’s morally bankrupt position about evacuating Migron. That’s right folks because despite the assurances and Bibi’s pledge to find a mutually agreeable solution (which he did but it still ultimately meant a dispossess, just later rather than sooner), he has sold out these people with barely an afterthought while kowtowing to the monolith of the Left after they tossed out the brokered deal.

In true Santayana-esque fashion, he has decided to ignore the lesson of the Gush Katif expulsion and the toll it took on the nation and on the legacy of his predecessor Ariel Sharon. Let’s also not forget that he is also selectively forgetting (or perhaps not) his own role in fomenting that disaster.

For the record, if indeed the Knesset cannot find a way out of this travesty, and Gd forbid an evacuation is contemplated, the soldiers police et al, will not be met with tears hugs and kisses as they were in Gush Katif. No, this will be the resistance of Amona, considerably amped up with no doubt everyone’s favorite government goon squad the Yassamniks going in swinging clubs at Jewish skulls. There will be active resistance here with people coming from all over to prevent a repeat of the nightmare of Gush Katif.

When Sharon realized that he could never push the Gush Katif evacuation through the Likud, he bolted with the party dregs and formed Kadima (I wonder if there’s any way to let him know that his prime protégé, Livni, just had her head handed to her by Shaul Mofaz?) whose only raison d’être was to allow the expulsion to occur. I dare the current Likud government to allow Netanyahu political cover to allow this travesty on their watch. I dare the Likud to allow déjà vu all over again. It would be national suicide for the Likud and if Bibi is hell-bent on committing political seppuku, there’s no reason for everyone else to go down with him. Find a solution or make him bolt. Either way, if Gd forbid this comes to pass, Bibi’s career and anyone associated with him on this is over. On the positive side I wonder if this will finally be enough for all the people in Yesha to stop the recurrent process of self-immolation every election and finally not vote for Bibi over Feiglin as they have too often in the past because of some twisted Chelmian logic, jealousy, or just plain stupidity. I can only hope. Let the countdown to August 1 begin.

The EU and the Tower of Babel

In the same breath, EU Foreign Minister Ashton decried the murder in Toulouse and the fate of the children of Gaza. Is Europe crumbling? It looks like it is. While there is no reason to pity the nations that drowned our nation in rivers of blood, it is nevertheless sad to see the treasures of Western culture disappear. Secular Western culture does not bring descendants into this world. A culture that has no G-d simply loses its life force. In Israel over 80% of the Jewish population believes in G-d (and over 70% believes in the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai). It also boasts the highest birthrate of all Western countries.

The idea that formed the basis for the European Union is post-modernism. The European Union Parliament building was inspired by the famous painting of the Tower of Babel. Its motto is "Many tongues, one voice."

In other words, the underlying idea behind the EU is to invite the Creator to another round. They desire to overcome the differences in language by which they were separated in the first round, to overcome the national structures imposed upon us by the Creator and to be informed by the post-modern anthem of John Lennon: Imagine no countries, no religion, no heaven or hell, nothing to live or die for; in short, imagine that there is no G-d. The European Union did not save Europe. On the contrary, it is fostering its demise.

Where there is no distinction between good and bad, there is no distinction between murderer and victim. There is no reason to be insulted by the condemnation of the walking-dead European Union.

Gerry Ziering's Zionist Letter, 3/26/12

There has been a bit of a hiatus since my last letter. I was either busy staring out the window at the much needed rain our holy land received this winter or I was deep in contemplation marveling at how lucky I am to be amongst the “Light unto the Nations” despite the continued barrage of threats and anti-Semitism constantly spewing from the nations of the world - lead by the United Nations.

Having recently finished the holiday of Purim where the reading of the Megilla is a yearly reminder of the baseless hatred the Persians had for the Jews, we see daily that not much has changed, as Ahasverosh and Haman have merely been replaced by Khameini and Achmadinajad. Living in Israel you can feel the tension and can empathize with the feelings of the Jews over 2300 years ago in Shushan. If you think that by living in the Diaspora, everything has become a routine, religion is by rote, and our feelings have become inured by the passage of time, try living here. It brings you back to life.

Immediately after Purim we begin to prepare for Pesach and as it says in the Mishna Breura we begin to study the Halachot of Pesach 30 days prior to Pesach. Pesach brings us back to another country, this time Egypt. Over 3000 years ago we left Egypt after being enslaved and brutalized under the heel of the Egyptians. We fled Egypt and went through a purification process until we reached Eretz Canaan (now Israel). We now have a “New King” about to arise from the Muslim Brotherhood who did not know “Joseph” (Menachem Begin) and who wants to abrogate the peace treaty and befriend our enemy Hamas. The Pesach seder has deeper meaning in Israel because we recite the 10 plagues that took place in Egypt and we know that they are right next door and scheming of new ways to subjugate us.

While we recognize that although things change, they remain very much the same. We continue to enlighten the world and fight against evil. Our economy continues to prosper, we continue to create and invent things that benefit the whole world, we offer our help in many different areas including medicine, water sciences, solar energy, increased agricultural production and a host of other things; yet we constantly need to fight for our existence.

I was recently at an induction ceremony for new soldiers into the IDF. This was not the usual protocol when new soldiers are inducted into the army. This was for soldiers, who despite some sort of affliction, persisted in convincing the army that they could overcome their malady and help the IDF and the State of Israel. Each one proudly ran up, one at a time, to the presenting officers, and took a Tanach in their left hand and placed it over a rifle in their right hand and said אני נשבה (I swear) (to serve the State of Israel and to uphold the ideals and the morality of the Jewish people). These young adults who had every right to stay home and go to college or get a job, chose to be our warriors to spread the word of G-d in the world through their good deeds, their high ideals, and their commitment to the land of Israel and the Jewish People.

Am Yisrael Chai and Chag kasher v Sameach,

Gerry Ziering

Refining the Nazi Dream

By Tuvia Brodie

When Lucy Dawidowicz wrote, The war against the Jews, 1933-1945 (New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975), her point of view ultimately got her labelled as an “intentionalist”—one who believes that the Holocaust was a top-down plan formulated (or ‘intentioned’) by Hitler. Some Historians of the Holocaust did not agree with her, arguing instead that there was too much focus on the Nazi leader as the cause of the Holocaust, and too little focus on Nazi functionaries (bureaucrats) who operated below Hitler. These historians tended to believe that the Holocaust grew out of the “anarchistic character of the Nazi state, its internal rivalries and chaotic decision-making.” (see Christopher Browning, speech in Paris, 1982, examining intentionalism and functionalism as a way to describe the origins of the Holocaust, quoted in Wikipedia, Functionalism versus Intentionalism). Those who believed that the Holocaust was top-down (intentionalists) still agreed with those who said it was bottom-up (functionalists): the horror of the Holocaust was real; their dispute was, who was responsible for it—leader or bureaucrat?

This question of responsibility for a state-mandated killing of Jews provokes a question: In Israel, we regularly hear Hamas or Fatah (proto-state rulers) talking about destroying Jews—or praising those who kill Jews; does their approach to their ‘Jewish problem’ compare to the Nazi approach, or is this Arab approach different?

It seems different, for two reasons. First, every Arab leader and every Arab bureaucrat accepts the ‘kill-the-Jew/destroy Zionism’ agenda that we see in PLO/Fatah and Hamas founding documents. ‘Intention’ and ‘function’ unite: leader and bureaucrat passionately embrace the same goal.

The second reason this approach might be different is that the Arab appears to invert Nazi priorities. One might be able to argue that the primary focus of Nazism is a xenophobic Nationalism based on Aryan supremacy and an almost primal need to defend Germany against subversion and foreigners; one might therefore attempt to argue that the Jew-hate that led to the Holocaust was actually secondary to and supportive of Nazi political goals. For the Nazis, it may be possible there was never a question of what was most important, National Socialism or Jew-hate: the principles of National Socialism came first, Jew-hate second. Jew-hate was indeed central to the Nazi world-view. But it might not have been their first political priority. For the Arab, however, the reverse might be true: Jew-hate first, then nationalism.

Look at the time-period, 1945-1950, the years immediately preceding and following the creation of the state of Israel. Contemporary news stories about those days did not discuss Jewish statehood versus Arab statehood. The issue of the day was not two groups fighting to create their own state on the same piece of land (a situation that could obviously lead to war); the issue of that day was, Jews wanted their state and the Arabs wanted to kill those Jews. Moreover, the Muslim leadership of the day in Palestine, the Waqf, was rabidly anti-Jew, had openly praised Hitler’s genocide, and called repeatedly to kill Jews. Statehood was not part of Arab leadership vocabulary. Nor was it heard on the Arab street. The Arab issue of the day was, kill Jews.

While Jew-hate is fundamental to Nazism, it may not have been the raison-d ‘etre for National Socialism in 1930’s Germany; but Jew-hate was certainly the main topic of Arab public discourse from before the founding of the Jewish state until Yasser Arafat refined that discourse with his ‘Palestinian people’ campaign. Then, even after Arafat appears (the early 1960’s), you notice that the primary focus in contemporary news was not nationalism, but killing Jews or ‘destroying Zionism’. For the Arab, it has always been, kill Jews first, nationalism second. Often, nationalism is not even mentioned.

This inverting of the Nazi priority in order to emphasize killing Jews above all else may be far more dangerous than Nazism. At least with Nazis, one could find some kind of social, cultural or economic ideals; one could study or visit Nazi Germany and marvel at the power, joy and even chilling beauty of the Aryan nation (consider the films of Leni Riefenstahl). With the Arab, that sense of power, joy and beauty is missing. In its place we find victimhood, Jew-hate and the celebration of destroying ‘Zion’. Instead of Deutschland Uber Alles, we get, ‘butcher the Jew’; the aesthetic just isn’t the same.

In the 1930’s, the world ignored the threat of Nazi intentions. Some openly admired German accomplishments. Some proposed appeasement. Some said, give land (Czechoslovakia) for peace. They were all wrong—and the nation which did not have Jew-killing as its top priority went on to murder six million Jews and perhaps another sixty million people. Imagine what you’ll get when you take the same road with those who openly make killing Jews their first priority.

Above Time

By Moshe Feiglin

On this coming Shabbat we will be reading the Torah from three separate Torah scrolls – a rare occurrence in our ritual Torah reading. The first Torah scroll will be for reading the weekly Torah portion, Vayikra, the second for the special reading for Rosh Chodesh, the new Jewish month of Nissan that falls on Shabbat and the third, for the reading of Parashat Hachodesh, read once a year on or prior to the first day of the new month of Nissan.

Rashi explains that even before the Jewish People left Egypt, G-d showed Moses an image of the new moon, explaining that upon the sighting of the new moon in the sky, the new month is declared and sanctified. From that moment, the Nation of Israel became a nation that operates outside the dimension of time. We are not servants of time; on the contrary, we determine time. And true to form, those who search for proof of the existence of the Creator find it first and foremost in the meta-historical existence of the Nation of Israel; an existence that runs against all natural and historical odds.

"Why didn't the Torah open with the first commandment to sanctify the months?" Rashi asks on the very first verse in the Torah. After all, the main focus of Torah is the commandments. Rashi answers that the first verse of the Torah, "In the beginning, G-d created the Heavens and the earth," is the basis for our right to the Land of Israel. But why couldn't the Torah, as the guidebook of the commandments, open with the first commandment, and then follow with our right to the Land of Israel at some later point?

The above-time status of the Nation of Israel is essential and deep, but it cannot manifest without the Land of Israel. In order to sanctify the new month, the witnesses were required to travel to the court on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in the Land of Israel. Only there would the new month be declared. The Talmud teaches us that no rabbinical court outside the Land of Israel can sanctify the new month. All the yeshivas in Sura and Pumbedita, in Warsaw and in Vilna, in New York and London cannot help. However, the Talmud continues, three of the simplest herdsmen in the Land of Israel can gather as a court of Jewish law on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and sanctify the new month.

In his commentary on the first verse of the Torah, Rashi was not explaining why the Land of Israel was first instead of the commandment to sanctify the new month. He was explaining why we need the Land of Israel at all. He was teaching us that the Land of Israel is the platform for the commandment to sanctify the month – and all the other commandments, as well. Outside the Land, the commandments are nothing more than faint shadows of the full spectrum of Jewish life meant to be lived according to the Torah in the Land of Israel.

Shabbat Shalom

It Really is our Fault

By Moshe Feiglin

There is nothing new under the sun. The murder of the Jews this week in France surprises no one. It exposes a dismal reality that is taking shape in Europe and throughout the world.

The murderous anti-Semitism that culminated in the Holocaust of European Jewry declined with the establishment of the State of Israel and bottomed out after Israel's victory in the Six Day War. "For the first time, I dared walk outside with a Jewish star around my neck," related a Chicago Jew.

"This Nation that I have created for Me will tell my praises," says Isaiah in the portion of Prophets that we will read this Shabbat. The entire world anticipates this Jewish message. When the Jews conquer their Land and hold it dear, they testify to G-d's presence in the world. For as Rashi explains, G-d created the Land of Israel, He took it from those who were living here and gave it to His children. It was specifically when we took the Sinai, Judea, Samaria, the Golan and above all – Jerusalem – by storm, despite the Arab refugees, that anti-Semitism practically disappeared.

The world waited for the Jewish Nation to imbue the Holy Land with sanctity. It expected holiness and a universal message to emanate from Jerusalem.

In the words of British intellectuals describing their disappointment with Israel to Sapir College Dean Professor Ze'ev Tzachor, "We dreamt of a place in which the new Book of Books would be written as the preface to the redemption of the world. You are, after all, a treasured and unique nation. The world had expectations, and look what you have done." (Makor Rishon, Adar, 5768)

The British intellectuals were not concerned with how we got here, but rather, with what we will be doing in the future. In their eyes, our right to this Land is not a function of the past, but rather, of the future. It is destiny that makes energies flow and vitalizes existence. When destiny is erased, existence loses its legitimacy and falters.

The Bible-based cultured nations have great expectations from the People of the Book. They want to see a new, inspiring vision emanating from Zion. When this vision is sparkling on the horizon, it inspires and pulls the upper tiers of Western culture to stand by our side. But when no vision emanates from Zion, the basest dregs of the West connect to the wild beasts of the desert. Anti-Semitism is the result of our denial of our destiny here in the Land of Israel.

HaRav Nachman Kahana on Parashat Vayikra 5772

BS"D

Parashat Vayikra 5772

The qualitative distinction I made between tefilot (prayers) recited in EYY, as opposed to those recited in the galut (exile), continues to arouse visceral reactions. Of the last 10 replies that I received, 8 were negative - 3 of which were grossly insulting not to me but to the senders. Their words were filled with hate and with what is usually associated with hate - intellectual superficiality.

Of the remaining two who sided with me, one was a good Jewish brother living in EYY and the other was a Noachide gentile who wanted to learn what spiritual value Judaism places on the prayers and good deeds of Noachides.

It is to that gentleman that I dedicate this week’s message.

This coming Shabbat, in synagogues the world over, Jews will commence reading "Vayikra," the third book of the Torah, dealing with the many complexities of the Temple service and sacrifices.

The place that HaShem (the Holy Name) established for effectuating the sacrificial service is the Holy Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. The individuals who are designated to conduct the sacrificial service are the kohanim, the direct descendants of Aharon, brother of Moshe. And the people who are subject to the many and complex laws, procedures, schedules, specifications and components are the Jewish nation.

This is not to say that we have a monopoly on God. The merciless, egomaniacal, megalomaniac, narcissistic, homicidal Moslem Imams would have you believe that their God has deemed the highest spiritual goal man can achieve is to drive a truck loaded with TNT into a non-Moslem hospital or orphanage and be declared a shahid (martyr), since all non-Moslems are kofrim (infidels) and must be killed.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses is not as many Christians believe that man is born in sin and his only salvation is to accept the divinity of a baby born in a stable in Bethlehem to a virgin Jewish mother. And whoever does not accept the divinity of this Jew can expect to spend the rest of eternity in hell or purgatory.

At Mount Sinai, the Jewish nation met the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses who created a beautiful world to serve the physical and spiritual aspirations of the highest of His creations - human beings, Jew and gentile.

Traditional, rabbinic, historic Judaism negates the existence of organized religions. Our world view is that all men are created for the purpose of serving God according to His will and command.

Adam and Eve were commanded to live according to what we erroneously call today the "Seven Noachide" commandments – erroneous because they were initially commanded to Adam and Eve; and the seven actually encompass numerous details and applications within hundreds of laws, each with specific applications.

Several examples:

Prohibition against theft - shifting a land mark, repudiating a claim of money owed, overcharging, using false weights and measures.

Prohibition against sexual immorality in all its various perversions.

Prohibition against idolatry - against the belief that there exists a deity except the Jewish concept of monotheism, making any graven image.

Commandment to fear God and pray to Him, to honor the scholars, and to revere one's teachers.

Commandment to establish courts of law, to appoint judges and officers in each and every community;

From the entire population of the world, God chose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to be the progenitors of the Jewish people. They were destined to become a unique and separate national, religious entity. They were to be elevated in their responsibilities to God from the ranks of the seven Noachide laws to the 613 Torah laws pertaining to every walk of life. God commanded His chosen people to forge a perfect society based on those laws, in the demarcated geographical area specified in the Torah that we call the Land of Israel. The peoples of the world would develop each in his own way in accordance with the orientations of their souls. Some nations would excel in scientific advancements, others in art and other in technology, while the responsibility of the Jewish nation in the Holy Land would be to serve as the conscience and spiritual guides of humanity. The Holy Temple would serve all peoples, according to the details of the Torah. And just as the Kohanim are the spiritual mentors of the Jewish nation, the Jewish nation would fill the role of spiritual mentors to the world.

There is no requirement for a gentile to become a Jew. Maimonides states that a gentile who believes that the seven Noachide laws were given by God for all humanity, and who abides by those laws, is considered to be a righteous person and has a place in the world-to-come.

Since we are prohibited to add religious requirements to what God has given the gentile world’s organized religions are all in breach of the Divine plan – no new Testament or Sacraments; no Ka’ba in Mecca, no Ramadan and no sharia laws.

No thinking person can deny that the world today is facing a bleak future, with the presence of nuclear weapons in the hands of unstable, fanatical leaders. It is a world where human life and dignity are not valued. It is a time of frustration, hunger - a time where there is little hope for an improved future, when nature itself cries out for salvation through earthquakes, tornadoes, drought and floods.

Why?

Because the world is in an unnatural state. The Almighty’s design for human beings is as stated above. The Jewish nation, in its entirety must be settled in the entire Land of Israel. The Holy Temple must stand in the sacred precinct of Mount Moriah. Kohanim must offer up sacrifices to God; with the Levites accompanying the service with song. Then humanity will be connected to the Creator through the Noachide laws, and the 613 Torah laws uniquely for the Jewish nation. The world will exist in peace and tranquility, and nature will sing its song of harmony in praise of the Creator.

This is the only hope for mankind.

We are in the throes of the Messianic period, when God has opened the gates of the Land of Israel for His children to return home.

The Jewish people must leave the lands of our exile, and righteous gentiles must do all in their power to assure that the entire Land of Israel be returned to its God-given possessors. This is the call of God to the gentile peoples as proclamed by Isaiah, the prophet of hope and salvation, in chapter 49:

7 This is what the LORD says—

the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel—

to him (Israel) who was despised and abhorred by the nation,

to the servant of rulers:

"Kings will see you and stand before you, and princes will see and bow down, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."

8 This is what the LORD says:

"In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances,

9 to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’ "They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill.

10 They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.

11 I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up.

12 See, they will come from afar— some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan."

13 Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains!

For the LORD comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

14 But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me."

15 "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?

Though she may forget, I will not forget you!

16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;

your walls are ever before me.

17 Your children hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you.

18 Lift up your eyes and look around; all your children gather and come to you.

As surely as I live," declares the LORD, "you will wear them all as ornaments; you will put them on, like a bride.

19 "Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away.

20 The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; give us more space to live in.’

21 Then you will say in your heart,

‘Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected.Who brought these up?

I was left all alone, but these—where have they come from?’"

22 This is what the Sovereign LORD says: "See, I will beckon to the nations, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their hips.

23 Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers.

They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground;

they will lick the dust at your feet.

Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed."

24 Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives be rescued from the fierce?

25 But this is what the LORD says: "Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce;

I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save.

26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine.

Then all mankind will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior,

your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."

　

It is incumbent upon every rabbi to encourage his congregants to leave the exile and come home. We must rebuild the physical destruction of the Holy Land, and attain the spiritual level expected from God’s chosen people. Rabbis must restore the desire for the Holy Temple to the consciousness of the Jewish nation after 2000 years of artificial existence without the sacrificial service. And it is incumbent upon every gentile clergyman to direct his flock away from the falsehoods they all inherited, and lead them towards the seven Noachide laws as was commanded by the Creator.

This is the hope, indeed the only hope, for humanity to escape its descent into a future fraught with horror and destruction.

Gentiles of good will with God in their heart must join with the Jewish nation in directing the world towards a spiritual future, where all things will be measured from the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana

Copyright © 5772-2012 Nachman Kahana

The Secret of Manhigut Yehudit

As we began our campaign in the previous elections, we had a very reliable polling firm chart our standing in various sectors of society. The firm, which does polls for all the political parties in Israel, returned with very gloomy results. On the surface, it looked like we were heading for a devastating defeat.

"But I must tell you something," said the professor from the firm. "You are outside the statistics. I do not have an explanation for the Feiglin phenomenon. According to the rules that I know, a person who loses does not return to the game. A person who loses twice is finished. But for some reason, Feiglin gets stronger with every defeat."

The final result of the elections was above and beyond the calculations of the experts. Clearly, we once again were far outside the statistics and emerged from this campaign stronger than ever.

The following video sheds some "scientific" light on this phenomenon:
http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

The Jews and Israel are Alive!

By Tuvia Brodie

Why do the Jews and Israel exist? Haven't they caused enough trouble? With so many nations hating the vile Jew, why won’t they disappear? Wouldn’t the world be better off without them?

There is a strange truth here, about the Jew, something startling: the Jew proves that the G-d of Israel is real. This is a strange truth indeed because the G-d of Israel has no visible form or physical manifestation; and yet in this very physical world He is proven real.

The Jews’ survival proves that G-d exists. There is no other explanation for the survival of a people so hated, scattered, hunted and murdered by so many enemies for so many centuries as the recent barbaric murders in France demonstrate. No other people have survived such abuse. No other nation has been so horrifically deconstructed and then reconstituted after 2,000 years of exile, persecution and murder.

The Jewish holy texts have said for more than 2,100 years that G-d will disperse and scatter the Jews (for sceptics who believe only ‘science’, I use 2,100 years as my reference because that’s the approximate ‘scientific’ age of the oldest discovered Old Testament Dead Sea Scrolls). For more than 2,100 years, the Jewish Tanach has said that the sword will be against the Jewish people. For more than 2,100 years, the Jewish Tanach has taught that G-d would punish but never reject or forsake His holy people; and for more than 2,100 years, that same Tanach taught that G-d will once again bring His nation back to the land of their forefathers, the land called Israel. Today, the existence-- and the power-- of the state of Israel is the fulfilment of that 2,100+ year-old promise. The survival of the Jews proves that they have a G-d they can trust--a G-d who keeps His promise and speaks a Truth that becomes visible fact.

Can anyone else present a comparable 2,100+ year-old promise?

What individual Humanist has predicted so much so long ago that is now true? The Humanist rejects G-d but his word cannot compare to G-d’s Word. Only G-d’s Word has been Proven: promises recorded more than 2,100 years ago have become today’s reality--the desert blooms, the Jews gather into Israel, the Hebrew language is reborn as a daily language, Jews around the world return (religiously) to Him and the nations of the world now—before our promised Final Redemption— turn against Israel. All of this—and more—was written more than 2,100 years ago. All of this—and more—has come true.

The verdict is in. The judgment is public. History has the record: the Word of the G-d of Israel is True. The proof is modern Israel’s existence. If Israel exists our G-d is real.

This ability of the Jews and Israel to validate G-d marks their greatness. But simply existing is not the issue. The rebirth of Israel is not the issue. What matters is purpose. For example, what is the purpose of a beautiful woman? Does she exist only to be admired as a living statute of perfection? Does she exist so she can provide pleasure to a powerful ruler—or be destroyed by a jealous competitor? Does she exist only to enflame men’s passion and inspire poetry and war?

Are Israel and the Jews that beautiful woman? If so, what is their purpose? Perhaps it is to be a light unto the nations, to compel others by her beauty to understand that her G-d is real.

But a beautiful woman can change. Her beauty can fade through neglect or nature. Her worthiness can diminish. When the beautiful woman rejects what she needs to be beautiful—proper sustenance and attention—her beauty can wither. Every Humanist understands the effort beauty requires. The Humanist worships beauty.

If the Jews and Israel are that beautiful woman, then she, too, can change. Her beauty can fade. Her worthiness can diminish. Every G-d-fearing Jew understands the spiritual struggle necessary to keep Israel beautiful. Jews who believe in G-d, like the Humanists, understand the work needed to keep beauty from fading. But the Humanist faces a losing battle. He cannot escape decay. He cannot avoid death. The forces of the physical world always triumph. A beautiful woman can remain startlingly beautiful for only a short time; soon, the physical forces around her bring decay—and death.

Ah, but the Jews and Israel are different. She is not just a beautiful woman. She is more. She is G-d’s beloved. Her beauty, like G-d Himself, transcends the physical. G-d Himself longs for her to turn to Him. He has taught us how to do that. He has also taught us that the Jews and Israel live through Him alone.

G-d has proven He is real. His promises come true. This is the Truth that marks Israel’s greatness: she lives beyond tomorrow only because of G-d.

This is the truth that keeps Israel safe and the Jews alive. It is the truth that authentic Jewish Leadership must proclaim.

Guard our Freedom

By Moshe Feiglin

26 Adar, 5772
March 20, '12

Translated from Ma'ariv's NRG website

Cutting edge technology is a double-edged sword. Under the mantle of progress, and with increasing ease, we are losing greater and greater slices of our freedom. Opponents of the proposed Biometric Law say they worry about how secure a database housing the biometric information of all of Israel’s citizens will be. That fear was recently confirmed when a Saudi Arabian hacker succeeded in breaking into supposedly secure Israeli websites. If the Foreign Ministry’s database was broken into, if the Israeli credit card base was broken into, it is safe to assume that the biometric database will also be compromised.

The possibility of breaking into the database is simply too strong of a temptation for powerful interest groups and tycoons, who are sure to find a way to get to this data. The same is true for the crazy idea to computerize the elections. If there is a stage in the vote counting process during which a candidate or his representative cannot physically check the voter slip—it is exactly at that stage that the election will be compromised. There is no way around the fact that when election results are transferred in electronic files, election fraud becomes a simple task. In America, the idea of digital voting has become so controversial that it is no longer a political debate, but a legal issue.

But my opposition to the Biometric Law is a lot deeper than that.

Many years before the invention of computers and the unraveling of the genetic code, an argument developed in the United States around the question of identity cards. America’s founding fathers did all they could do ensure that the American Constitution would protect individual liberties at any price.

For the founding fathers, liberty superseded all other values. They engraved it on their flag and fought for it. It is liberty that gave them the most important thing of all: a goal and sense of national purpose that fueled the creation of the American nation. The founding fathers understood how easy it is to slide down a slippery slope in which liberty slips away step by step, without anyone noticing.
Distrust of governmental authority is a value that the founding fathers engraved through every line of the constitution and American culture. It is for this reason that the simple question of requiring citizens to carry identity cards became a judicial matter in the United States. Americans said, “No way am I going to let the state treat me as a number on its list, and require me to identify according to this number. My identity is exactly that—my identity, and it does not belong to anyone else." For the Israeli citizen, this sounds absurd, for we grew up in a culture far removed this type of liberty consciousness.

Does all of this seem irrelevant? Let us do a little test, so that you can see how easy it is to lose your liberty:
If Biometric Law proponent Kadimah MK Meir Sheetrit pushed through a law requiring every one of you to go to a certified tattoo center, and ink in a number on your shoulder—would you agree to that? Of course not. Even thinking about this brings up horrifying memories.
But what if the tattoo centers used invisible ink—would you agree then? In that case, I think many people would agree. The law is the law, right?

If they were to tattoo you with invisible ink and offer you some perks in return—cutting lines, property tax breaks, and more—would you agree? In my opinion, more than 50 percent would agree to that, and maybe even more.

Now for the final question. If instead of ink they use a biometric technique which marks you without touching you, and on top of that, they will give you the perks previously mentioned—are you willing? The overwhelming majority of people would agree to that.

Now look at how, with amazing ease, they have shut off all of our warning lights and closed our eyes. The master of the house has chiseled our ear into the doorpost like a Biblical slave - and, just like that, we’ve made a soft landing into a life of servitude.

The Saudi hacker is not the real issue. The real issue is how easy it is to lose your liberty without feeling a thing. So guard it with the greatest vigilance, and do not give anyone your biometric information. As for the Saudi hacker, if his attack has at least helped us to wake up and understand this danger, he has done us a great service.

Iron Dome: The Strategic Disaster

By Moshe Feiglin

The Chief Commander of the Expulsion from Gush Katif, Dan Harel, praises the Iron Dome system (editor: during the present fighting between Israel and Gaza, the Iron Dome missile intercepting system has successfully intercepted 85% of the missiles heading for Israeli cities and towns). He forgot, however, to remind us of the leading role that he played in the operation that created the need for Iron Dome, in the first place. The media and reserve generals are justifiably lauding the abilities of the system that gives the government the maneuvering space that it needs to weigh the situation carefully. Without Iron Dome we might, perish the thought, have been forced to re-conquer Gaza.

The Iron Dome system does not give us maneuvering space to weigh the situation and its consequences. On the contrary, it is a fig leaf that absolves our leadership of its main role: preserving State security.

The Iron Dome is a tremendous technological accomplishment. But the great technological success is also our great strategic failure.

Let us imagine that the IDF had decided to equip itself with the ultimate tank. Our brilliant engineers come up with a revolutionary proposal for a new type of tank shield. There is only one drawback: for every centimeter of shield, the tank's cannon loses one meter off its length and its range decreases by 20 kilometers. By all calculations, if we completely forgo the tank's ability to shoot and move, we will have a miracle tank, impervious to anti-tank weapons.

We all know how a tank like that would end up: It would never win a battle and its crew would eventually be taken captive.

All those Iron Dome enthusiasts need to take a short walk down memory lane. Try to remember Israeli mentality before Oslo. Let's say that the year is 1991. Now take this week's news reports on missiles in Be'er Sheva and Ashkelon and broadcast it as is in 1991. How would that news report go over?

Probably, we would think that it was a practical joke. Remember: missiles in Ashkelon are a casus belli – a reason for an all-out war.

And how is this war defined today?
Government and IDF officials and the media are calling it a "round."
That's all.
It is just a "round of fighting."

The Iron Dome reinforces the legitimacy to attack Israel's cities – highlighting the fact that Israel itself is no longer very legitimate.

Defense systems are important, just as tank shields are vital. But that is true only when we are on the offensive and focused on victory. In defensive-defeatist mode, these systems draw the end near. They are like aspirin for cancer.

By the grace of G-d, as these words are being written, there have been no serious injuries. But national leadership must first and foremost weigh its actions in light of national security. Just as with Gilad Shalit, our leadership is has taken the opposite tack; it is selling our future security for a short-term panacea.

Mid-term Grades

By Tuvia Brodie

Since 1948, Arabs have sought to exterminate the world's only sovereign Jewish state. They have tried at least three times to get the job done, in 1947-8, 1967 and 1973. Each time, they failed. In 2010, they developed a new idea: use the UN. Last year, they stood before the nations of the world and requested a new state, Palestine. But if some said their words were diplomatic, their actions were not: they minted new maps to show their Palestine in place of Israel. Through war or the UN, their goal remains constant--to remove the world's only Jewish state from existence.

Although there are perhaps fifty Muslim states today, there is no room for Jews. Instead, there must be fifty-one Muslim states. Each must be Jew-free. Ethnic cleansing is forbidden by UN. But when Arabs demand that the Jew must be cleansed from the new Palestine, the UN remains silent.

The Arab population that would live in the new ‘Palestine’ is ruled by two groups, Hamas and Fatah. Each of these groups has a Charter/Constitution that outlines group objectives. Both Hamas and Fatah want their new nation of Palestine to be built upon the destruction of a neighbouring sovereign state, which will then be depopulated so that Arabs can move in. Their shared goal is to destroy the ‘Zionist entity’. If you’ve never seen a ‘Zionist entity’, that’s okay because there is only one in existence—Israel. The UN Charter declares that Member states have the right to live with peace and security. But when the Arab threatens to destroy the world’s only Jewish state, the UN remains silent.

Since the moment the UN passed Resolution 181 to create the state of Israel, Arabs have killed more than 24,000 Jews in their attempt to un-create Israel. The UN was created to promote peace and prevent war. Why do they remain silent about Arab hate? The Arab is not secretive. He is so forthright about his intentions that he spells everything out in his Hamas Charter and Fatah Constitution. Have you read these documents? They’re worth reading. Use your search engine. You’ll find that nothing is left to the imagination. Both call for the eradication of the ‘Zionist entity’. Both seek the ‘liberation’ of Palestine. If you understand the traditional definition of ‘racism’, both documents are racist, for they seek to exclude and indeed eradicate an homogenous population based on citizenship, nationality and ethnic origin, so as to nullify the recognition of that people. This explicit racism is institutionalized into their founding documents. Moreover, this institutionalized hate is religious in nature, particularly in the more popular Hamas document. On this point their Charter is explicit: they call ‘Palestine’—modern-day Israel-- religious Islamic land which has been usurped [sic] by the Jews. Only Jihad [holy war] can face this usurpation. Only Jihad will liberate Palestine.

In case you fail to understand the focus of this hate, the Hamas Charter spells it out: their battle is “against the Jews” [emphasis mine]. The Charter declares, “There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except Jihad…International conferences and initiatives [for peace] are…complete nonsense.”

The UN—created to fight hate—remains silent. Hamas hears that silence. For Hamas, such silence is acquiescence.

Fatah, meanwhile, appears to have rewritten its principal document (in 2009). Look, apologists say, the new ‘charter’ omits language about Israel’s destruction. But when you actually read that 2009 document, you realize immediately that it is an internal charter designed “to regulate the relationship between the members” and does not in any way alter the original Constitution. In fact, it states right at the beginning that it adheres to the original document’s principles and objectives. When you read these two Fatah documents, you realize that nothing changed in 2009. Israel must go.

What’s going on here? Why such institutionalized hate and acceptance of hate? Some say that, in the days preceding our final Redemption, Yishmael—the Arab—will inflict suffering upon the Jewish people (see Yalkut Shimoni) perhaps just as the nations of the world turn against us. These Arab charters of hate were written after 1948 and Israel has suffered because of them and the UN’s silence. Was the rebirth of Israel a spiritual signal for Yishmael (and the nations) to awaken fully, to play out their roles in our ultimate Redemption? If this is Yishmael’s destiny, he is not failing. Surely, he gets at least a B+ for his efforts.

The nations don’t seem far behind. Their mid-term grade might be B.

But what about Jews? If today we approach the threshold of our Redemption, what’s our mid-term grade? Some might suggest that our grades right now aren’t that good—and our leadership is certainly not helping us. Are we prepared to pass the Final?

Shabbat and the Holy Temple

By Moshe Feiglin

And Moses gathered all the congregation of the Children of Israel and he said to them: These are the things that G-d commanded to do them. For six days you shall work and on the seventh day, it will be holy for you, a Shabbat of Shabbats for G-d, whoever does work on it will be put to death. You shall not burn fire in your dwellings on the day of Shabbat. (From this week's Torah portion, Vayakhel, Exodus 35: 1-3)

The commandment to observe the Shabbat is often woven together with the commandments of the Temple. What is the connection between the two?

The Temple is the royal palace. Its purpose is to make the Creator King over His world. The Shabbat also revolves around recognizing that G-d is King over His world: "It is an eternal sign for for six days G-d made the heavens and the earth."

G-d created man in His image. Man is like his Creator in his ability to create. Man can imagine a reality that does not yet exist and bring it into reality. No living being other than man has this ability. A bird can build a nest, but it is already burned onto its "hard disk." The bird will never build a triangle nest, or paint it in psychedelic colors. Man imagines a five-pronged fork – something he has never seen – and produces it.

What usually happens then is that man decides that not only is he made in G-d's image, but that he is god, himself. This danger is more pronounced in developed cultures; the type that produced Mozart and Tchaikovsky. This is where the Shabbat comes in. On this day, we do not produce anything. The 39 root categories of production that formed the daily service in the Temple are forbidden on Shabbat. This is our testimony to the way the world works; Who is the Creator and who is merely created in His image.

It is no wonder that the culture that produced Mozart and Tchaikovsky attempted to destroy the Nation of Israel. For he who has already decided that he is the creator, the sanctity of life has no meaning and he can no longer live in a world with a nation that testifies to G-d's existence.

Shabbat Shalom

In the News: Ha'aretz: In Likud Event, Hard-line Leader and Netanyahu Nemesis Gets all the Love

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/in-likud-event-hard-line-leader-and-netanyahu-nemesis-gets-all-the-love-1.415975

8 Adar 5772 (March 2, '12)

By Ophir Bar-Zohar

The values of extreme-right activist Moshe Feiglin are the values of the Likud, said Minister Gilad Erdan at an event to mark Feiglin's success in the party's recent leadership primaries.

Likud ministers and Knesset members expressed support for Feiglin and his ideology at the conference in Rishon Letzion on Wednesday.

Feiglin, head of the Jewish Leadership faction in the Likud, won almost a quarter of the votes in the primaries at the end of January.

Hundreds of Likud activists attended Wednesday's event, including Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan and MKs Danny Danon, Tzipi Hotovely, Zeev Elkin, Miri Regev and Ayoob Kara.

"I've come directly from Itamar [a settlement in the West Bank]," said Katz at the conference. "There will be many more Itamars throughout Israel."

Katz said he was against demolishing homes in Migron, a West Bank outpost due to be evacuated and dismantled by High Court order. "Whom will that appease? The Palestinians? Will they sign a peace agreement if you take a house down in Migron?"

Erdan congratulated "my friend Moshe Feiglin for his extremely impressive achievement in the elections... That's democracy. Jewish Leadership acts on the values of democracy. You represent values that have guided the Likud," he said.

"In the world a leader can be very talented and make only rational decisions," Erdan added, "but if we acted here on the basis of rational decisions [alone] I don't think they would have established the state when they did. A leader in Israel must have faith."

Regev also commended Feiglin on his "great success," and said he had beaten the system. "There's room for everyone in the Likud. You have a way and you're not afraid," she said.

"All of us, or most of us, are people who follow the winners like a herd," Regev added. "We don't like being in minority groups or having the media criticize us... Today we are here because you have beaten the system... We must stop being afraid of telling our truth, even if it is not popular."

Jerusalem Post: Netanyahu Backtracks on Likud Races

Israel National News: Demonstrators: End Mandatory IDF Service

HaRav Nachman Kahana on Parashiot Vayakhel-Pekudai 5772

BS"D

Parshiot Vayakhel-Pekudai 5772

Shemot 35:1

ויקהל משה את כל עדת בני ישראל ויאמר אלהם אלה הדברים אשר צוה ה' לעשת אתם

And Moshe assembled the whole community of Israel and said to them, "These are the things the LORD has commanded you to do.

The presence of 600,000 men, and a much larger number of women, and innumerous children was an awesome spectacle. They were riveted together as a single body and mind, captivated by Moshe’s every word, as he described how, starting at that moment, they were to prepare for their future in Eretz Yisrael.

Moshe focused on the two dimensions which define Man’s relationship with his environment - time and space, and whose specific details define the Jewish nation’s relationship with the Creator; the time of Shabbat and the space of the Bet Hamikdash in Eretz Yisrael.

Shabbat:

Gentiles may work without limitation, but on Shabbat the Jewish nation must refrain from all acts of a creative nature in the public domain as well as in the privacy of one’s home, as HaShem had done after the initial six days of creation. This collation and identification between Creator and a specific created entity - the Jews, is the Creator’s expression that the world, and all that is in it, was brought about only for the sake of the Jewish nation.

The Bet Hamikdash:

The temporary Mishkan (Tabernacle) to be erected while the Jews were still in the desert, was meant to prepare the people and the kohanim (priestly family that performed the sacrificial functions) for the Bet Hamikdash, to be built on the Temple Mount in Yerushalayim. Here again the exclusive preference of a specific place on the planet -Yerushalayim in Eretz Yisrael, is another of the Creator’s expressions that the world and all that is in it was brought about only for the Jewish nation who is commanded to live in Eretz Yisrael.

We cannot know how many times the audience stood up at Moshe’s words in thundering ovation. But "coincidentally", last week, we witnessed another very impressive event of a Jewish leader, who, like Moshe Rabbeinu is from the tribe of Levi, holding his audience spellbound at his every word. It was our Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, addressing 13,000 people in Washington DC’s convention hall.

Mr. Netanyahu did not speak about Shabbat nor of the Bet Hamikdash. His subject was more basic than any of the 613 Torah mitzvot. He spoke of the existential threats facing the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael, and by necessity Jews the world over; because as the Jews fare here, so goes world Jewry. Why "more basic?" Because the building of the Mishkan or Bet Hamikdash does not defer Shabbat, however, the saving of a Jew whose life is in jeopardy does defer Shabbat.

I saw the event on video. It was an amazing speech by the Prime Minister. The audience stood and clapped tens of times in total agreement and identification with the logic of his words. Iran and its resolve to build nuclear weapons and delivery systems to targets many thousands of kilometers away should awaken even the most apathetic of people.

But, the subject of this week’s message is not Moshe Rabbeinu directly, nor is it our Prime Minister, and not even Eichmann-Ajad of Iran; it is the 13,000 people who heard that speech in the convention hall!

Let’s project for a moment that all 13,000 are on their feet after the members of Congress had left. The chairman of the session requests that whoever has a gentile mother to kindly be seated. I estimate that about 1000 would sit down. Then he requests that whoever is married to a gentile as well as the gentile spouse be seated; another 2000 sit down. He then requests that whoever has a son or daughter married to a gentile to be seated; another 3000 sit. Whoever has a grandchild married to a gentile, please be seated; 3000 more sit down. He then requests whoever underwent a reform conversion to be seated; another 1000 sit down. That would leave about 3000 people standing on their Jewish feet.

This is not an exaggeration, it is the stark and ugly face of the failed American Jewish community.

The Jewish community in the United States is indeed a failed one. It is failing financially because the United States economy is in an unstoppable downward spiral; and it has failed spiritually because the vast majority turns their backs on the only spiritual life boat available today - Eretz Yisrael.

The situation is a bit better with the orthodox community. But they too will go the way of the others, albeit a bit more slowly, because they too are apathetic, at best, when it comes to aliya to the Holy Land.

It is thought that any estimate of the number of Jews in the USA, whether it be 4, 5 or 6 million, at least half are not Jews by halachic standards.

Whoever values his or her family’s 3500 years of being an important component in the family of Jews, must realize that the thread is running out. Membership in AIPAC and support of the Jewish State are certainly admirable, but in no way will they guarantee that one’s children will remain Jews.

Come home! That is the only path to save yourselves physically and spiritually.

B:

At one point in his address, Mr. Netanyahu raised the specter of danger from Iran, imploring the sane world not to be oblivious to the words of the Ayatollahs.

Mr. Netanyahu said: "If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck and swims like a duck, what is it? It’s a duck! But this duck is a nuclear duck".

I recently saw an interview on Aljazeera that broadcasts from Doxa in the Persian Gulf, with a certain American. He has long peyis. He has a full beard. Wears a long kaftan and tzitzis and speaks with a deep accent. So what is he? He is closer to a duck than to a Jew!

He goes by the name Yisrael Dovid Weiss, and represents the Neturai CARTERr of the USA. The venom he spurts out is of the sort heard in Shushan, Rome and in Spain of 1492. He was so disgusting that the Moslem interviewer asked him, "Are you an anti-Semite?"

He, and the people he represents would declare a festival with shtreimel, white socks and all, if a calamity befell the Jews in Eretz Yisrael. I believe that even their spiritual mentor, the Satmar Rebbe, would disown them if he knew the "bad seeds" that grew out of his teachings.

These people travel to Teheran to embrace Eichmann-Ajad and wish him and his nuclear engineers success in developing the ultimate weapon of destruction. And all this in the name of the Torah!

The grievous sin of King Menashe of Judah, for which he lost his place in the world to come, was his perversion of Biblical texts.

My immediate reaction to this man was disbelief, then anger ensued, but at some point he turned into a comical figure, who I would place in Disneyland.

But this comical figure is a radioactive duck. Like the destroyed atomic reactors in Japan and in the Ukraine, he spurts out poisonous messages of hate that kill one’s soul.

One need not delve into the commentaries to understand who Datan and Aviram, the nemeses of Moshe Rabbeinu were. You need not go further than seeing this man and his cult.

But the great tragedy is that the Satmar Rebbe and these people have won the day in American orthodox Jewry. They are aware of the fact that they will not convince an American Jew to accept their own self-hatred; but it is sufficient for them to cool down the American Jews’ enthusiasm for the miracle of Medinat Yisrael. To create a doubt is enough for them, because the doubt will cause one to say, "I am not a Satmar Chassid. But the Rebbe was such a religious man, and his adherents look so frum, that I am not convinced enough that the final redemption of the Jewish people has begun, so I won't sell my house and change my life".

This tragic-comic figure and his cult demonstrate at the drop of a shtreimel, identifying with the poor downtrodden murderous Arabs in Eretz Yisrael.

You can find them influencing politicians and the media who drink up their words of hate toward the Jewish people, as a vampire bat laps up the blood of an animal.

May HaShem have pity on His holy name, and deal with these people as befits them.

As for us, we will continue to praise the name of HaShem, and look to the fantastic future promised to us by HaShem as we build a Torah society in our ancient Holy Land of Eretz Yisrael.

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana

Copyright © 5772-2012 Nachman Kahana