Monday, July 31, 2023

Palestinian 'Unity' To Destroy Israel

by Bassam Tawil
  • Recently, the [Hamas] movement claimed responsibility for a number of terror attacks targeting Jewish soldiers and civilians in the West Bank. Hamas, in addition, continues to call on Palestinians to step up terror attacks with the declared intention of liberating all of "Palestine," from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, and replacing Israel with an Iranian-backed terror state.
  • The Biden administration and the European Union did not condemn Abbas for meeting with the leader of a movement designated by the Americans, Europeans and other countries as a terrorist organization.
  • The Biden Administration and the Europeans are also likely to continue providing financial aid to the Palestinians without asking Abbas about his repeated attempts to forge an alliance with the same Hamas terrorists who murder Jews and openly call for the elimination of Israel. The Biden Administration and the Europeans apparently have no problem with Abbas preferring to meet with the leader of a terrorist group, Hamas, than with the prime minister of Israel.
  • Needless to say, the term "comprehensive resistance" is a euphemism for terrorism. As it has proven over the past three decades, Hamas outright rejects non-violent "resistance." The only "resistance" Hamas endorses is one that includes suicide bombings and the indiscriminate firing of rockets at Israeli towns and cities, as well as drive-by shootings and stabbings. The only "resistance" Hamas endorses is one that results in the murder of as many Jews as possible.
  • One of Abbas's close associates, Azzam al-Ahmed, recently said that Abbas is hoping to form a unity government with Hamas. Such a move would mean that the US and European Union, the largest funders of the Palestinians, would also end up funding an Islamist movement which they have already classified as a terrorist organization. Once Hamas joins a Palestinian Authority-led government, it too would benefit from American and European taxpayer funds.
  • At the very least, the Biden Administration and the European Union ought to call out Abbas for seeking to forge an alliance with one of the most deadly Palestinian terrorist movements, Hamas.


The Biden administration and the European Union did not condemn Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for his meeting last week with Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, a movement designated by the Americans, Europeans and other countries as a terrorist organization. Pictured: Abbas talks with Haniyeh on April 5, 2007 in Gaza City. (Photo by Mohamed Alostaz/PPM via Getty Images)

Ismail Haniyeh is the leader of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement designated by the US and European Union as a terrorist organization because of its "armed resistance" against Israel. Haniyeh, who is currently based in Qatar, has always supported terror attacks against Israel and remains fully committed to Hamas's covenant, which states that the land of "Palestine" belongs only to Muslims and rejects any "initiatives or so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences." The Hamas covenant further states that "there is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad [holy war]."

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Friday, July 28, 2023

Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook: Seeking the Return of Religious Aliya – part II

#159 – part II 

Date and Place: 5667 (1907), Yafo

Recipient: Rabbis in the Diaspora. We only have the first section of the letter, and it is unclear what Rav Kook was advocating. Perhaps it was to increase religious aliya; perhaps it was funding for projects in Eretz Yisrael to strengthen the religious community. In any case, the beauty of the letter’s sentiment and style of writing are too engaging to skip over it.

Body: The letter began with a description of the holy people who were in the forefront of inspiring early aliya and the unfortunate change to it moving to people who are far from purity.

We have seen the results of the fact that in the early stages [of the return to Zion], the truly righteous people gave of their splendor to help create the desire to be connected to the holy love for the building of the Holy Land, and the longing to return the captives of the Diaspora to the Land from the lands in which they are scattered. [This spiritual energy] still “nourishes” the holy love that exists to build Zion and implant the root of the salvation of Israel in the Land with truth and justice.

However, over the many years, the true (i.e., religious) builders have had their hands weakened from supporting the strengthening of our Desired Land and the gathering of her sons to her with a true love. Thus, this tremendously important matter is increasingly neglected. This is particularly inappropriate at a time when there is an incredibly elevated, holy obligation to strengthen ourselves and exert ourselves – to establish things and to create appreciation for the love of the building of the Land of Life and to connect the souls of the holy flock to it with a love for sanctity on the most practical level. This requires creating holy communities whose populace consists of people who are complete in their standing as members of the Holy Nation on the holy soil.

There is much to make the heart rejoice and appreciate what the G-d of our salvation, may He be blessed, has done for us. He has shown us “the light that is emerging on the eastern horizon.” There are still righteous leaders of Israel who show their love and connect their hearts to their Father in the Heaven, with the sanctity of the love and fear of Hashem, with deep belief in Him and an ability to cling to Him with intellect based on purity and bright light. This comes from the upper source of the soul, which emanates from the sanctity of Am Yisrael, which exists in every generation. This includes the last generations, in which the opening of the hope for salvation has started to emerge, albeit with an opening that is only as wide as the eye of a needle. We shall hope that Hashem will shine light upon us so that we will be able to create wide openings like that of a grand hall (see Shir Hashirim Rabba 5:2). Then the path of the righteous will be like the light of the glow that increases until the appointed day has fully come.

Indeed Hashem has inspired one of the most special among special people, one of the holy rabbis, who had the good fortune to be touched by the sanctity of the Holy Land already from the time he was a special youngster. Hashem’s light appeared upon him in the form of the secrets of the Torah and the storehouses of the fear of Hashem, in the secret places of light in the Land of Life.

“Comfort My People. Comfort them.” (Yishayahu 40:1-2)

by HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir


“Comfort My people, comfort them, says your G-d. Speak comfortingly to Jerusalem and cry to her, that her war service is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned. For she has received of the L-rd’s hand double for all her sins” (Yishayahu 40:1-2).

Malbim explains that the repetition of “Comfort My People, comfort them” serves to teach us about the redemption process of the Jewish People. There are two possible scenarios of redemption: either for redemption to come early, “hastened,” or for it to come “in its allotted time” (see Sanhedrin 98a on Yishayahu 60:22). The redemption can come early for one of two reasons: either because Israel have great merit, or due to Israel’s having been punished with a severity far beyond what they deserve. Either can lead to “hastened” redemption. Thus, when Israel “has received of the L-rd’s hand double for all her sins” (Yishayahu 40:2), redemption is hastened.

There is also a possibility of redemption “in its allotted time.” One way or another, Israel shall ultimately be redeemed. To what may this be compared? To a woman in her last months of pregnancy. There is a chance that the birth will come early, and there is a chance that it will come at full term, but one way or another, the birth is anticipated and the woman will bring a new soul into the world.

Ours is the generation of holocaust and rebirth, of double punishment. We were smitten with a long exile of close to two thousand years during which the Jewish People were beaten down to the dust, and at the end of that time, there came a terrible Holocaust. Such a generation deserves the comfort and consolation of hastened redemption. Indeed, with our own eyes, we see the Jewish People reaping that consolation, building the State of Israel as a strong country militarily and economically. We see clearly how “every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill made low, and the crooked made straight and the rough places flattened” (Yishayahu 40:4). Through the ingathering of the exiles and the building of the State of Israel, the day is not far off when we will merit as well that “the glory of the L-rd shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the L-rd has spoken it” (Ibid., v. 5). All of G-d’s promises to the Jewish People - from the very start and onwards - He shall fulfill. That is our comfort.

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

Yeshivat Machon Meir Parashat Va'etchanan (video)

Some conquests need to happen slowly, over time

by Rav Binny Freedman

When Bergen Belsen was liberated by the Allies on April 15, 1945, the sight that greeted their eyes, even by concentration camp standards, was like a scene from hell itself. Thousands of bodies were lying in heaps all over the camp. In a desperate attempt to bury the dead before the British arrived, two thousand inmates were made to drag corpses to massive burial pits for three days between April 11 and April 14. And yet there were still over ten thousand rotting corpses around the camp on the day of liberation.

The camp was over-run with typhus, typhoid and tuberculosis, in addition to a lack of food and water and basic sanitation.

When the British liberated the camp, there were over 38,000 prisoners, but tragically, most were so ill, only ten thousand survived. Many of those who died after liberation actually died due to the food bestowed upon them by unsuspecting Allied soldiers who, meaning well, did not realize that the candy bars and ration they willingly gave these miserable survivors would be too much for their broken down bodies to handle….

Howard Klein should have died as well. After being ordered by camp guards to drag bodies into one of the pits just prior to liberation, he became so exhausted he simply collapsed and fell in with the corpses. He would later explain he was finally ready to meet his maker…

A short while later, a young woman named Nancy spotted him among the bodies and realized he was still alive. Garnering some help, she managed to haul him out of the pit, though no one thought he would live. But she overcame her skeptical companions and at her insistence they managed to move him to a bunk in one of the barracks.

For a week he was too ill to move or speak, but Nancy gradually nursed him back to health. She looked after him for three weeks until one day while she was out trying to get food, he disappeared; having been moved to a hospital by the British. Nancy was unable to find him, and eventually gave up looking for him; he was so ill, he spent the next six months recovering in the hospital.

Sometime later after immigrating to Canada and living in Toronto, Howard somehow discovered that by chance Nancy had also immigrated to Toronto. When he found out they were actually living in the same city, he turned up at her door unannounced with a bouquet of flowers but as she would later recount,’ he just stood there having no idea what to say’. As Howard would later explain: ‘How does one say thank you to someone for saving your life? There simply are no words…’

Three years later they were married and as of 2013 were still married sixty-five years later. Howard says he has spent their years together treating his wife “like a princess”; his way of saying thank you!

So how does one inmate survive when so many others perished in those dark, overwhelming days after liberation?


There is an interesting dialogue that occurs between the Jewish people and Moshe in this week’s portion of Va’etchanan, which often gets lost amidst the larger and more famous subjects we read of this Shabbat.

This Shabbat, the Shabbat after Tisha B’av, the day we lost both of our Temples (Batei Mikdash) is traditionally called Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of consolation, when we are comforted after our terrible loss. Indeed, the prophetic portion (the Haftorah) we will read from Isaiah begins with the phrase: “Nachamu, Nachamu, Ami….” “Be comforted, be comforted, my people….”, hence the name Shabbat Nachamu.

As such, one might suggest that all of the different topics we read of this week should offer us some form of consolation after weeks spent mourning what was and remains perhaps the most tragic occurrences in Jewish history. (One cold make a case for saying if the Temple had not been destroyed, there never would have been a Holocaust…)

And so it is in this week’s portion we read perhaps the most famous paragraph in the entire Torah: the first chapter of the Shema. And it is no accident that the Ten Commandments are repeated this week as Moshe recounts them for the second generation who will soon be entering the land of Israel.

There is an often-missed detail in the Ten Commandments (both here in Va’Etchanan (Devarim 5:6-18) and in the first recounting in the book of Shemot 20:1-14: the tense changes. In the first two commandments (Devarim 5:6-10) it seems Hashem is speaking directly to the Jewish people (“…I am the Lord your G-d; I took you out of Egypt…you should have no other gods aside from me… and so on…). But afterwards the verses continue with what seems to be Moshe speaking about G-d (“Don’t take G-d’s name in vain… and the seventh day is Shabbat to (for) Hashem your G-d…”) (ibid. 5:11-18).

Why do the Ten Commandments begin with G-d speaking directly to the Jewish people only to see Moshe ‘take over’ for the last eight commandments?

Jewish tradition (Tractate Makkot 24a) teaches that in fact G-d gave us the first two commandments directly (hence the first tense) but the people could not handle it, so Moshe gave them the remaining 611 Mitzvot.

Indeed, this is based on the verses in our portion (ibid. 5:19-250 in which Moshe recounts to the second generation how their parents at Sinai could not handle this direct contact with G-d instead begging Moshe to ‘receive’ the Torah and transmit it to them instead! (ibid. 5:20-25)

All of which raises a number of questions: Didn’t G-d ‘know’ the Jewish people would not be able to handle it? Why set them up? And if this was as it was meant to be, what value is there in an experience that seems to have been so overwhelming only for Moshe to have to ‘step in’ to mediate?

Indeed, Rashi (ibid. 5:24) suggests that Moshe is castigating the Jewish people for not wanting to receive the Torah in its entirety directly from G-d; after all, posits Moshe, how could Torah received by way of man ever be as meaningful and valuable as were it to be received directly from G-d? And should not the Jewish people embrace the opportunity to come closer to G-d by receiving His Torah directly? And yet, Moshe recounts that G-d agreed with the Jewish people saying: “…what they are saying is good! (ibid. v. 25) So what is this debate between Moshe and G-d?

Perhaps the point here is simply the contrast between experiences which overwhelm and even overpower us, and those which are more calming and even underwhelming.

We so often seek the exceptional and incredible moments that come so rarely and seem to overpower us. But in the journey of life perhaps we need to learn to value the normal and unexceptional….

The Torah seems to suggest on multiple occasions that the fantastic highs simply do not last. Sinai was an incredible experience, full of sound sight and fury; the Torah suggests that the Jews actually saw sound, and the thunder and lighting and the powerful splitting blasts of the shofar were overwhelming to the senses. The only problem was…. It did not last. Much like the Jewish people on the morning after Eliyahu brought fire down on Mount Carmel, six weeks after hearing G-d’s voice at Sinai, the Jews were frolicking with a golden calf. Shock treatment generally just does not work.

Moshe is described amongst other things, as the paragon of truth:

“Moshe Emet ve’Torato emet”
“Moshe is true and his Torah is true”

Truth is powerful, and has a way of splitting mountains, but sometimes ‘all the truth and nothing but the truth’ can be a bit overwhelming, and it’s not necessarily always the most productive way to go.

Sometimes a person needs to be confronted by the truth; by a reality so powerful it removes the ability to choose.

I recall many years ago reading a story about a fellow who was being pulled out to sea by a strong undertow when a good Samaritan who was a strong swimmer managed to get out to him. Panicking, the distressed fellow grabbed his would-be savior and started pulling him under, at which point the good Samaritan punched the fellow and overpowered him which allowed him to save his life. As it turned out the punch broke a couple of the fellow’s teeth. So, he sued the good Samaritan! Fortunately, the case came before a judge who had a healthy sense of right and wrong. Finding for the defendant (the good Samaritan) he wrote in his ruling: one does not always get to have a discussion on the matter, sometimes what’s right is pretty clear.”

But sometimes truth needs to sit down.

Imagine your daughter is getting married and on the day of the wedding you arrive at the hall a couple of hours before the guests for photographs, and your daughter suddenly turns to you with a worried look and asks you: “do you like my wedding dress?”

Now, don’t get me wrong: if you don’t think your daughter, on her wedding day, in her wedding dress, is the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen then you need therapy. But it isn’t about truth is it?

Sometimes, the gradual approach accomplishes far more than the overwhelming shock treatment we often are tempted to pursue.

Those Bergen Belsen inmates could not handle the candy bars all those well-meaning soldiers were sharing; they needed a long, slow nursing of love in order to eventually get back to health.

As the second generation prepares to enter the land of Israel., to conquer a land, Moshe reminds them that some conquests need to happen slowly, over time… Something we would all do well to remember…

Shabbat Shalom from Yerushalayim.

The Yishai Fleisher Israel Podcast: We're Not OK

SEASON 2023 EPISODE 29: On the 9th of Av Yishai and Malkah Fleisher sit on the floor and mourn the destroyed Temples and remember the destruction of Gush Katif with audio from that painful summer. Ben Bresky surveys the other calamities that befell the Jewish people on Tisha B'Av. Then, Rav Mike Feuer joins Yishai to deal with the split in Israeli society and search for signs of redemption. Plus: The Torah portion of VeEtchanan with the Ten Commandments and Shema Yisrael, and the secret of the birth of Moshiach on the very day of destruction.

Rabbi Ari Kahn on Parashat Vetchanan: Revealing the Hidden (video)

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Iran’s Ayatollas poke the US in the eye

by Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

North Africa Forum” reported that “On January 11, 2023, Iran’s naval commander announced that before the end of 2023, Iran would station warships in the Panama Canal [which facilitates 5% of the global maritime trade].”

According to the December 1823 Monroe Doctrine, any intervention by a foreign power in the political affairs of the American continent could be viewed as a potentially hostile act against the US. However, in November 2013, then Secretary of State John Kerry told the Organization of the American States that “the era of the Monroe Doctrine is over.”

Is Iran’s dramatic and rogue re-entrenchment in Latin America underscoring the relevance/irrelevance of the Monroe Doctrine? Does it vindicate John Kerry’s assessment?

Latin America and the Ayatollahs’ anti-US strategy
*Since the February 1979 eruption of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the Ayatollahs have leveraged the US diplomatic option (toward Iran’s Ayatollahs) and the accompanying mega-billion dollar benefit (to Iran’s Ayatollahs) as a major engine, bolstering their anti-US rogue policy, regionally and globally.

*The threat posed to the US by Iran’s Ayatollahs is not limited to the survival of the pro-US Arab regimes in the Middle East and the stability of Central Asia, Europe and North and West Africa. The threat extends to Latin America up to the US-Mexico border. The Ayatollahs poke the US in the eye in a most vulnerable geo-strategic area, which directly impacts the US homeland.

*Iran’s penetration of Latin America – the backyard of the US and its soft belly – has been a top national security priority of the Ayatollahs since assuming power in February 1979. The Ayatollahs’ re-entrenchment in Latin America has been assisted by their Hezbollah proxy, driven by their 1,400-year-old mega imperialistic goal (toppling all “apostate” Sunni regimes and bringing the “infidel” West to submission), which requires overcoming the mega hurdle (“the Great American Satan”), the development of mega military capabilities (conventional, ballistic and nuclear) and the adoption of an apocalyptic state of mind.

*Iran’s penetration of Latin America has been based on the anti-U.S. agenda of most Latin American governments, which has transcended the striking ideological and religious differences between the anti-US, socialist, secular Latin American governments and the fanatic Shiite Ayatollahs. The overriding joint aim has been to erode the strategic stature of the US in its own backyard, and subsequently (as far as the Ayatollahs are concerned) in the US homeland, through a network of sleeper cells.

*Iran’s penetration of Latin America has been a hydra-like multi-faceted structure, focusing on the lawless tri-border-areas of Argentina-Paraguay-Brazil and Chile-Peru-Bolivia, as well as Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua and all other anti-US governments. It involves a growing collaboration with all regional terror organizations, the leading drug cartels of Mexico, Columbia, Brazil and Bolivia, global money launderers and every anti-US government in Latin America. Moreover, the Ayatollahs have established terror-training camps in Latin America, as well as sophisticated media facilities and cultural/proselytizing centers. They have exported to the region ballistic technologies, predator unmanned aerial vehicles and tunnel construction equipment.

Latin America and the Ayatollahs’ anti-US tactics
*According to the Cambridge MENAF (ibid), the Brazilian navy reported that two Iranian warships have been granted permission to dock in Brazil. Experts speculate that the vessels could reach the Panama Canal as early as mid-February 2024. The presence of Iranian warships in the Panama Canal threatens not only Western security, but the safety and reliability of one of the world’s key trade routes.

“The gradual permeation of Iranian influence across Latin America over the past 40 years is a significant phenomenon, which has paved the way for this recent strategic move by Teheran. Attention is concentrated toward Iran’s criminal and terrorist network [in Latin America] via Hezbollah operations….”

*Wikileaks cables claim that Secret US diplomatic reports alleged that Iranian engineers have visited Venezuela searching for uranium deposits…. in exchange for assistance in their own nuclear programs. The Chile-based bnAmericas reported that “Iranian experts with knowledge of the most uranium-rich areas in Venezuela are allegedly extracting the mineral under the guise of mining and tractor assembly companies…. Planes are prohibited from flying over the location of the plant…. The Iranian state-owned Impasco, which has a gold mining concession in Venezuela, is linked to Iran’s nuclear program. Its Venezuela mine is located in one of the most uranium-rich areas, which has no-fly restrictions….”

*According to the June 2022 Iran-Venezuela 20-year-agreement (military, oil, economy), Iran received the title over one million hectares of Venezuelan land, which could be employed for the testing of advanced Iranian ballistic systems. Similar agreements were signed by Iran with Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia.

*Venezuela has issued fraudulent passports, national IDs and birth certificates to Iranian officials and terrorists, avoiding international sanctions and blunting counter-terrorism measures. The Iran-Venezuela air traffic has grown significantly, although tourism activity has been marginal….

*Since the early 1980s, Iran’s Ayatollahs have leveraged the networking of Hezbollah terrorists in the very large and successful Lebanese communities in Latin America (and West Africa). Hezbollah’s narcotrafficking, money laundering, crime and terror infrastructure have yielded billions of dollars to both Hezbollah and Iran. The US Department of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) estimates that Hezbollah earns about $2bn annually through illegal drug trafficking and weapon proliferation in the Tri Border Area of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, expanding ties with the most violent drug cartels in Latin America, including Mexico’s Los Zetas, Colombia’s FARC and Brazil’s PCC, impacting drug trafficking, crime and terror in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Iran has intensified its Hezbollah-assisted intelligence missions against US and Israeli targets in Latin America and beyond. Hezbollah has leveraged its stronghold, the Bekaa Valley, in Lebanon, which is one of the largest opium and hashish producing areas in the world.

The bottom line
The track record of the Ayatollahs, including the surge of their rogue presence in Latin America, documents the self-destructive nature of the diplomatic option toward Iran – which has served as a most effective tailwind of the Ayatollahs’ anti US agenda - and the self-defeating assumptions that the Ayatollahs are amenable to good-faith negotiation, peaceful-coexistence with their Sunni Arab neighbors and the abandonment of their 1,400-year-old fanatical imperialistic vision.

Is Patience a Virtue?

by Rabbi Pinchas Winston

Friday Night
WHAT DOES IT mean, “patience is a virtue”? As opposed to what? Sure, patience is not the easiest to acquire and often seems lacking in the world, but that doesn’t mean people think it is anything less than a virtue. So why state the obvious?

Perhaps it has to do with the way that people tend to be patient when they really shouldn’t be, and have no patience when they should have it. Sometimes people put up with something evil for too long, and yet run out of patience when waiting for something good to happen, like justice for example.

There are a lot of people in the world doing much evil, and getting away with it. Yes, over time good does seem to triumph, but until it does a lot of evil is done and the perpetrators often live “great” lives until their dying day. And this is often at the expense of good people, who end up living miserable lives as a result. Even Dovid HaMelech did not live to see his name cleared and his enemies taken down.

Then there is the issue of redemption. How long must this final exile continue? How many times must it go south on the Jewish people? How many times do we have to get to the brink of the Messianic Era and, then watch history back down and continue as it has? How much more insanity must reasonable people put up with before God finally says “Enough is enough!”

You’re not allowed to ever give up on redemption, but it is certainly understandable why many do. We’ve had to live through the destruction of two temples, countless pogroms everywhere we have gone, and two world wars that included a holocaust. We even have to go head-to-head with some of our own people who want to obliterate all things Jewish.

Ask any geulah-believing Jew if history should continue as is and they will give you a resounding no. Exile was great for decades, but it is souring now and people don’t want to see it get any worse. They feel they have had all they can handle and want everything to get back on course for Moshiach.

God begs to differ. If He didn’t, then He would do exactly that, bring the redemption and put out the evil. But then again, we’re into comfort even at the cost of tikun, and He’s into tikun even at the cost of comfort. History shows who always wins this argument.

Take Egypt, for example. After 116 years of multi-generational torturous Egyptian servitude, the Jewish people finally called on God to stop it. Lo and behold, Moshe Rabbeinu showed up with promises of redemption, and everyone got excited. But rather than let us go free, Pharaoh hardened the slavery, Moshe retreated to Midian for six months, and the Jewish people became despondent.

Similarly, 52 years into the 70-year Babylonian exile, Persia conquered Babylonia and Koresh permitted the Jewish people to return to Eretz Yisroel to begin construction on the Second Temple. It seemed Messianic, but when only 42,000 heeded the call and Koresh rescinded his offer, geulah seemed to get sidetracked.

When Haman quickly rose to power 18 years later and decided to exterminate the Jewish People, redemption seemed an impossibility. Only Mordechai seemed to stay with it and fought tirelessly to get the rest of the nation back on the same page. In the meantime, Haman just seemed to get more powerful…until he fell faster than he had risen and geulah happened.

The truth is, patience is much more than just a virtue. It is a survival tactic. That’s why it is also one of the 13 Principles of Faith:

I believe with perfect faith in the coming of Moshiach, and though he may delay, I await him every day.

Shabbos Day
THE HEBREW WORD for patience is savlanut. It comes from the sovel, which means to carry a load, to endure something, or to suffer. Hence:

So they appointed over them tax collectors to afflict them with their burdens (b’sivlosam)… (Shemos 1:11)

Because it is amazing what a person can put up with, even physically, if there is hope. That is what the enemy tries to destroy first and completely, hope. That is why Pharaoh increased the slavery after Moshe came and restored faith in redemption, even though it meant work slowdowns and put him back.

That is what patience is, hope. The belief that the bad will end, the good will come, and that justice will be served, is what gives a person the strength to be sovel the opposite in the meantime. Destroy a person’s sense of hope and they become despondent, zombie-like, kotzer ruach in Torah language, as the Jewish people had become just before Moshe began to turn the tables on Pharaoh.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that this only means being broken and depressed. On the contrary, the current generation has been incredibly content for decades now. It’s just that so many have lost hope in the coming of Moshiach and the final redemption, if they had any in the first place, that they have turned their focus elsewhere. They live without a geulah consciousness, as if they no longer need it.

But we do need geulah, always. It doesn’t make a difference if we are being treated badly in exile or well, we always need geulah. Being able to learn Torah and perform mitzvos properly without interference is only one aspect of geulah. It is just a means to a higher end whether talking about national geulah or a personal one. When that is enough for a person, they are also considered to be spiritually despondent.

This is because the entire time the Jewish people are exiled from their land, the Shechinah is in pain. The entire time that some Jews remain indifferent to Torah and mitzvos, the Shechinah is in pain. The entire time the Temple has yet to return to its proper place on top of Har Moriah and the Jewish people cannot serve God there, the Shechinah is in pain. And feeling no pain while the Shechinah does only exacerbates the suffering of the Shechinah.

Building a wonderful yeshivah in Chutz L’Aretz does not alleviate that. Making Shabbos with all the trimmings in exile does not remedy that. Making a lot of money and giving lots of tzedakah does not make up for that. Living as if they do is not only a mistake, it is a Chillul Hashem:

And they entered the nations where they came, and they profaned My holy Name, inasmuch as it was said of them, “These are the people of God, and they have come out of His land.” But I had pity on My Holy Name, which the House of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they had come. Therefore, say to the House of Israel: God says: Not for your sake do I do this, House of Israel, but for My holy Name, which you have profaned among the nations to which they have come. And I will sanctify My great Name, which was profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst, and the nations will know that I am God…when I will be sanctified through you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the nations and gather you from all the countries, and I will bring you to your land. (Yechezkel 36:20-24)

Shalosh Seudot
IT IS ALSO a sure-fire way to make sure that an exile does not end well. The exile will come to an end, because they always do for believers and disbelievers alike. The only questions are, when and how, and growing anti-Semitism is usually a good indicator of the direction in which the answer is going.

Somehow people think that God will just come and get us peacefully no matter what we’re doing at the time. Some kind of Divine bell will go off in Heaven signaling the end of exile, and Jews will find themselves heading for Eretz Yisroel in one way or another without any losses or regrets…despite prophetic warnings of one last biblical War of Gog and Magog.

Is it just wishful thinking, or part of having given up on the final redemption, and therefore feeling no sense of urgency to do anything geulah-oriented in the meantime? Because there are some Jews who feel and act differently, preparing for and making aliyah while they still can on their own terms.

The Malbim foresaw this back in the 1800s:

God says: Sing, Ya’akov, with gladness, exult on the peaks of the nations; announce, laud [God], and say, “God, save Your people, the remnant of Yisroel!” Behold, I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the ends of the earth. Among them will be the blind and the lame, the pregnant and birthing together; a great congregation will return here. With weeping they will come and through supplications I will bring them. I will guide them on streams of water, on a direct path in which they will not stumble, because I have been a father to Yisroel, and Ephraim is My firstborn. (Yirmiyahu 31:6-8)

At the end of their exile, the oppression will be removed from them and they will be joyous because they will be on the peak of the nations. The gentiles will give them honor and they will be their leaders, instead of being disgraced and lowered among them as they were at first. “Ya’akov” will be the masses of the people, and the lesser among them. “Yisroel” are the great ones. The joyousness from being at the peak of the nations will be Ya’akov’s only and not Yisroel’s, because they (Yisroel) will want to return His Presence to Tzion…because they will want the true salvation of the ingathering of the exiles and the return to Tzion. (Malbim, Yirmiyahu 31:6-8)

Ain Od Milvado, Part 60
WHAT ABOUT THE War of Gog and Magog? That has to do with holy sparks as well, as explained by the Arizal:

As a result of the sin of Kayin and Hevel all the souls became mixed together with the Klipos…

The word Klipos means “peels,” but to make a very long and complicated kabbalistic discussion short and simple, the Klipos are the spiritual source of evil in Creation. Evil lives off the same holy sparks that good does, which is why it tries to “steal” as many as it can through people’s sins.

…and this is called the mixing of good with evil. Since then, the souls have been continuously separated out from within the Klipos, like the refinement of silver from the waste.

This process of separation is called Birrur in Kabbalah, and it is the main way to rectify Creation. It happens continuously, but mostly as a result of Torah learning, mitzvah performance, and suffering, that is, through mesiras Nefesh:

This separation will continue until the completion of the separation of the souls…Once all the souls are separated out completely then…the [spiritual] waste will not need to be removed through [some kind of] action, but will collapse and be absorbed [to the point] of not being visible or present. Holiness, which is life [itself], will become separated from the spiritual waste which is called death…and will disappear like smoke.

In other words, cut off evil’s access to holy sparks and they starve to death. We accomplish this by doing good and avoiding evil, and when necessary, through suffering as well. Therefore, if there is going to be a War of Gog and Magog it will be to extricate the remaining sparks left over by mankind in the Klipos when the time for redemption has come. Only then can the verse from this week’s parsha be fulfilled: ain od Milvado.

Tisha B’Av and our future

BS”D
Parashat Va’et’chanan 5783
by HaRav Nachman Kahana

I cannot determine if it is old age or the penetrating introspection that comes in the “nine days” that direct me to think “out of the box”, but here I am pondering several issues.

1- In the 30 days between the 9th of Av and the 8th of Elul in the year 70 C.E. (3830 years after Adam and Chava) there was hand to hand fighting between the emaciated Jewish fighters and the powerful Romans. It took the Romans 30 days to advance 100-150 meters from the Temple Mount to the upper city, which illustrates the ferocity and determination of the Jewish defenders against the overwhelming Roman forces.

I can picture in my mind’s eye the slaughter of the Jewish civilian population; the stench of death from every corner and uncontrollable cruelty of the descendants of Aisav.

Not a stone upon a stone remained intact. The remaining live Jews were shackled and sent to the slave markets of the Middle East and Europe. Among them were my (and your) grandparents, looking back at what had been the beautiful Yerushalayim, now under pools of blood. Savta says to Saba, “it’s all gone. Our sins have brought this about. All hope is gone!” And Saba replied, “We have before us a long period of suffering in exile; hundreds or even thousands of years of wandering across the planet. But one day our descendants will return and rebuild what we have lost”.

And today I call out to them, “Saba and Savta it’s me – Nachman, son of Yechezkel Sharaga HaKohen and Sarah Chana, daughter of the illustrious Gaon Harav Baruch Shalom Trainin. I’m your grandson, and my wife Feiga and children have returned after 2000 years of keeping the faith. I am a conscious kohen like you. I don tefillin every day like you and learn the oral Torah that you knew by heart, but which was written down centuries later. The last Roman walked the planet about 1800 years ago. There is no Roman to rejoice in their cruelty; they are a relic, while we and our family live again to walk the streets that you walked, and we breathe the holy air of Yerushalayim as you did. Our generation is restoring the beauty and sanctity that your generation lost. Yes, Saba and Savta – it is happening, and your descendants are a part of the dream come true”.

HaShem through His prophets promised and is now fulfilling His holy words that the Jewish nation will return.

2- Initially it appears as though this world is a disaster. A logical, compassionate person who reads a chapter or two of world history could be forgiven for raising the question, that when the Creator brought forth chimpanzees, why did He not stop there. Why take the extra step on the Darwinian ladder?

For even the Torah says in Bereishiet (8,21):

….. כי יֵצֶר לֵב הָאָדָם רַע מִנְּעֻרָיו

The desires of man are innately evil.


So, why did HaShem make Man, when in the 20th century alone it is estimated that about 170,000,000 persons were systematically and cruelly killed by the actions of governments?

It took time; but I finally caught on. Humanity is indeed evil (except for some shining stars who probably had Jewish blood), but it has produced many cultures and civilizations which are the perfect background on which Am Yisrael are commanded to fulfill HaShem’s mitzvot.

To keep the Torah in a world filled entirely with the yetzer tov (instinct of good) is no challenge, but to do so when the world is a very narrow bridge and with one false step you can find yourself on a slippery slope to oblivion is another matter. To keep the Torah in Gan Eden was not a challenge, so Adam and Chava were sent away. To keep the Torah among evil doers is a kiddush HaShem, when the good and the holy triumph over evil.

The classic paradox of what happens when an “irresistible force meets an immovable object” becomes real in Jewish history. When the never-ending irresistible force of Judenhass (anti-Semitism) meets the immovable emunah (belief and trust) of the Jewish nation in HaShem, the result is a buildup of emotional and religious friction that explodes with expulsions, pogroms and peaks with extermination camps.

But dear Saba and Savta, the Jewish nation is now beyond that bitter history with the miraculous establishment of the Jewish Medina. HaShem has changed the gears of history and we have turned the corner, from victim to master, of our holy fate.

Today, if one stretches a little to see a bit beyond the horizon, he will see the third Bet Hamikdash and all Am Yisrael filling every corner of Eretz Yisrael as described by the prophet Yechezkel.

3- What is happening now in the Medina between those who want a Jewish Medina and those who want a Medina of Jews, is a result of natural law that states: Every material object or secular concept or value becomes, at some point, obsolete and is discarded.

The “mob” that we see running wild today has no concept of “kedusha”. They are culturally closer to western non-values than to the nation they were born into. About 15 years ago, there was a religious Aluf (general in tzahal) who was scheduled to be appointed head of military intelligence. He said in a TV interview that the secular here are “like goyim who speak Ivrit”; He immediately lost his appointment for telling the truth.

Secular Zionism has a major share in establishing the Medina at a time when the religious and rabbinic world did not, could not, and even opposed political Zionism and the creation of a secular Jewish state. But secular Zionism has run its course, as in the words of a former secular minister of education, “we attempted to create a society of apikorsim (learned atheists) but succeeded in producing a generation of ignoramuses”. The screamers in the streets are varied but are united on one point. They truly fear pending religious legislation in the Knesset. They are aware that the numbers have changed in the Medina and there is no way that they can return to governmental power.

Medinat Yisrael will soon be an official Torah religious state.

Those who will push forward on the right side of history will endure, but those who seek to derail the train of history will be rejected, just as tiny bits of diamond dust fall away at the hands of the expert cutter.

For those who shout “democracy” will not be part of our team in the marathon towards the pinnacle of history which is waiting for the Jewish nation to arrive.

Conclusion: After rereading what I wrote, it’s clear to me that these are not the thoughts of old age. Neither are they the emotions of a mourner for Zion; but rather those of a Jew tied to history and who hears the words of the prophet Zecharia (8,18-19):

וַיְהִי דְּבַר ה’ צְבָאוֹת אֵלַי לֵאמֹר:

כֹּה אָמַר ה’ צְבָאוֹת צוֹם הָרְבִיעִי וְצוֹם הַחֲמִישִׁי וְצוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי וְצוֹם הָעֲשִׂירִי יִהְיֶה לְבֵית יְהוּדָה לְשָׂשׂוֹן וּלְשִׂמְחָה וּלְמֹעֲדִים טוֹבִים וְהָאֱמֶת וְהַשָּׁלוֹם אֱהָבוּ: פ

18 The word of Hashem came to me.

19 This is what Hashem declared: The fasts of the fourth (month) and fifth (month of Av) and seventh (month) and the tenth (month), will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah, where truth and peace shall be loved (by man).


A meaningful fast to all. May we merit to celebrate all the dates of mourning as holidays as the prophet has stated.

Shabbat Shalom,
Nachman Kahana.

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Rav Kook's Ein Ayah: Different Methods of Fighting the Yetzer Hara

(based on Berachot 1:24)

Gemara: Rav Levi bar Chama said in the name of Rav Shimon ben Lakish: A person should always agitate the yetzer hatov (good inclination) against the yetzer hara (evil inclination), as it says: “Get agitated and do not sin…” (Tehillim 4:5). If it [the yetzer hatov]defeated it [the yetzer hara], good; if not, he should occupy himself with Torah study, as it says, “… say in your hearts… ” (ibid.). If it defeated it, good; if not, he should recite Kri’at Shema, as it says “… on your beds…” (ibid.). If it defeated it, good; if not, he should remind it of the day of death, as it says, “… and be silent forever” (ibid.).

Ein Ayah: The purpose of the powers within man, the good and the evil, is to use [both of] them in a positive manner. Therefore, it is not a good idea to weaken and minimize the powers of evil that come from the side of the yetzer hara because at times they will be needed for a good purpose and he will not be able to use them. Therefore, the proper advice is to keep all powers full and good, just that the yetzer hatov should rule in his soul, and the evil ones should be subservient to it. Indeed, the powers of evil are good when they are kept within their bounds.

In general, the yetzer hara is more awake and ready to act than the yetzer hatov. Therefore [the gemara says that] one should agitate the yetzer hatov to wake it up so that it should be ready to act and to take control over the yetzer hara. 

All of this is possible for someone who has a healthy moral/emotional base and feels by himself that which is a positive path to take. However, one whose soul is not so pure will not sense the beauty of the good paths until he accepts it through Torah and through study. Therefore [the less pure person, says the gemara] should occupy himself with Torah study, specifically with the study of good paths that he needs to strengthen in his soul. This is not talking about regular Torah study, which he is anyway obligated in. By means of the knowledge, he will acquire the power of awakening to desire the paths of good.

However, if his soul is so polluted that the knowledge does not suffice to awaken the good powers in his soul, then he has to awaken the emotional side, which makes more of a mark on the soul than knowledge does. This point is explained elsewhere, where the gemara says, “You should know that a person recites Kri’at Shema morning and night; if one night he does not recite it, he is considered as one who never read Kri’at Shema.” This is because the special attribute of Kri’at Shema is to awaken the emotions of goodness and add power to the intellect of good. 

All of these paths do their job just by strengthening that which is good but not by weakening the power of evil. However, if with all of the different systems, nothing has succeeded, then there is no choice but to use a tactic that weakens the powers of evil, which seek to violate their boundary by strengthening the deceitful imagination and creating more of an appreciation of the pleasures of this world than there should be. In such a case [says the gemara], he should remind himself of the day of death. However, this is only if he is unable to use his powers in a manner that good is strengthened, which is preferable to weakening the yetzer hara, for when a person’s power of the soul is weakened there is always going to be a loss of good things as well.

Adam HaRishon and Moshe

by Rav Mordechai Greenberg
Nasi HaYeshiva, Kerem B'Yavneh


In describing Matan Torah, Moshe says:

For inquire now regarding the early days that preceded you, from the day when G-d created man on the earth, and from one end of heaven to the other end of heaven: Has there ever been anything like this great thing or has anything like it been heard? Has a people ever heard the voice of G-d speaking ... as you have heard, and lived?

The simple meaning of this pasuk is: Inquire in the entire human history, from the days of Adam, and throughout the entire world -- from one end of the sky to the other. Rashi also quotes a midrashic interpretation: This teaches that the height of Adam Harishon was from the earth until the heaven, which is the same distance as from one end of heaven etc. It is very strange, though, why did the Torah mention this noble quality of Adam here and not in the story of creation?

In addition, we find in the Midrash:

This is the blessing that Moshe, the man of G-d, etc. This is what the pasuk says, "Many women have amassed achievement, but you surpassed them all." (Mishlei 31:29) This pasuk is referring to Moshe who surpassed all. How? Adam Harishon said to Moshe, "I am greater than you, because I was created in the image of G-d," as it says, "G-d created man in his image." Moshe said to him: I surpassed you! The honor that was given to you was taken from you, as it says, "Man is glorious but [if he] understands not, he is likened to the silenced animals." (Tehillim 49:21) But I -- the radiating countenance that G-d gave me is [still] with me, as it says, "His eye [or, color] had not dimmed and his vigor had not diminished."

G-d's image in man is the connection between the upper, spiritual, realms and the lower, physical ones. "Hashem G-d formed the man of dust from the ground" -- from the lower realms; "and He blew into his nostrils the soul of life" -- from the upper ones; "and man became a living being" -- intellect and speech. (Bereisheet 2:7) Man's wisdom finds expression in a person's face: "A man's wisdom lights up his face." (Kohelet 8:1) Linguists explain that the face is called in Hebrew "panim" because it expresses the inner content ("penim") of man. Thus, the image of G-d is expressed in man's face.

It says in Midrash Rabbah: G-d said to the angels, "There is My likeness in the upper realms; if there is no likeness of Me in the lower realms, there will be jealousy in the work of creation." Man is the microcosm of the creation, as the Maharal writes, and therefore his height is from the sky until the ground, i.e., he encompasses the entire creation. In Chazal's words, "His height was two hundred cubits." The Maharal explains that the number 100 indicates completeness. 200 is two completenesses, physical and spiritual. When man sinned, he tended toward the material, and his height was reduced to physical, one hundred. This is what Chazal teach, "You have laid your hand ("kaf") upon me" (Tehillim 139:5) -- "kaf" has the numerical value of 100. Adam Harishon did not last in his splendor even one night, because he is likened to animals and lost his G-dly image. This quality of a shining countenance, which expresses the connection of the spiritual with the physical, is called "tiferet" (splendor), as Rashi explains.

After Adam Harishon lost the quality of "tiferet," this trait found its place in Moshe. "Moshe did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant." (Shemot 34:29) The Targum Yonatan translates this pasuk to mean, that Moshe did not know that the countenance of his face had become full of splendor, which he had from the splender of G-d when He spoke with him. On the pasuk, "His eye [or, color] had not dimmed," Targum Yonatan writes, "The countenance of his face had not changed." This is the same "countenance of the face" that the Targum Yonatan mentioned in regards to the radiance of his face.

This is the meaning of the debate between Adam and Moshe. When Adam claimed that he was created in the image of G-d, Moshe responded that Adam lost that the splender and glory right away, and didn't even maintain it for a single night. However, the radiating countenance of Moshe remained with him until the day of his death, and he never lost it.

The purpose of creation is the connection of spiritual with the physical. The fact that the physical is merely a means of expressing the physical is emphasized in the beginning of creation in its three dimensions: soul, year, and world, or, in other words, man, time, and place. In man -- this is the splendor of Adam Harishon who was created in G-d's image. In time -- "The heavens and earth were finished ("vayechulu")." There are a few meanings to the word "vayechulu," based on interpretations of Chazal in Midrash Rabbah:

Kilui (used up): Until now, the sky and earth served an independent purpose; from now on their strength was gone.

Kli (tool): Although they were reduced, they were not completely abolished, but rather turned into a tool to reveal the inner content of the creation.

Shichlul (perfection): Onkelos translates "veishtachlelu." The Torah Sheleimah interprets this as crowning beauty. In the Midrash it say, "Shabbat is the crown of the other days," i.e., it gives the inner meaning to all the days of the week.

These various meanings are not contradictory, but rather complement one another. When the physical world becomes a tool for Godliness, it is reduced from its own strength, and this is its perfection and splendor.

Tosfot writes (Ketuvot 8b), "A psalm for the day of Shabbat" -- a "new face" is here and we say song, since the Shabbat provides a new dimension to the days of the week. It further says in the Midrash, "G-d blessed the seventh day" -- He blessed it with "maor panim" (a shining face). In addition: R. Levi says: "A psalm for the day of Shabbat." (Tehillim 91) Adam Harishon composed this psalm, but it was forgotten from his generation, until Moshe came and renewed it under his name. The psalm of Shabbat immediately follows, "The prayer of Moshe, man of G-d" (Tehillim 90), and it is a continuation of Moshe's prayer. The acronym of "Mizmor SHir Leyom Hashabbat" is "LeMoSHeH". Rashi explains that Adam was like the "silenced animals" because the song was forgotten from Adam and he was silent, and Moshe renewed this quality of a shining face in man and in Shabbat.

In the dimension of the world -- "the sixth day," this teaches that G-d stipulated with the world that if Israel will not accept the Torah on the sixth day [of Sivan], He would return the world to nothingness. Chazal further said regarding Matan Torah: It is comparable to a king who decreed that people should neither leave his country nor enter it. When he wanted to marry off his daughter, he rescinded the decree, and said, "I will travel first." So too, G-d said, "The heavens are Hashem's; but the earth He has given to mankind." When he wanted to give the Torah, "Hashem descended on Mount Sinai," and "Moshe ascended to G-d." (Shemot Rabbah 12) This connection formed the trait of "tiferet" in the world. "Yours, Hashem is the greatness, the strength, the splendor, etc." -- This refers to Matan Torah. From then on, the stipulation was fulfilled, and the world became a vehicle to reveal the Divine. As the Sfat Emet writes, the ten commands with which the world was created, turn now to become the vessels for the Ten Commandments.

After Adam lost his splendor, this noble quality returned to man with Moshe, and to the world with Matan Torah. Matan Torah is not merely a revelation of the Divine will and wisdom, and instructions how to serve Him, but a renewal of the connection between G-d and the world after it was severed by Adam's sin. This a renewal of the act of creation, and, once again, "man became a living being." A new existence and a new life.

This is what Moshe said, "For inquire now regarding the early days." There was once a Divine creation of connecting heaven and earth, through the creation of man, but he lost his noble quality. However, since the creation of man -- whose height was "from one end of heaven to the other," who connected heaven and earth -- there was no such creation, until now -- with Matan Torah. Now, this quality returned. This is what Moshe asked, "Has there ever been anything like this great thing," any new existence? "Has a people ever heard the voice of G-d speaking ... and lived?" This is a new version of "man became a living being."

Why didn't man endure in his splendor? Adam claimed that he was the handiwork of G-d. Moshe responded that this itself led to his downfall. As the Maharal writes, this is an example of "wisdom greater than actions," since Adam received everything as a gift. He is like a tree with few roots but many leaves, so that the wind comes and overturns it. Moshe, however, merited to endure in his splendor, because it came about through his efforts. As Chazal say: In the merit of, "Moshe hid his face" (Shemot 3:6), he merited in the end of his days, "At the image of G-d does he gaze." (Bamidbar 12:8)

This is what Chazal say, "Who is rich? He who is happy with his portion." The simple understanding is that he suffices with little. However, then the continuation is not understood: As it says, "When you eat the labor of your hands, your are praiseworthy." Rather, "He who is happy with his portion," is one who earns his bread through his labor and doesn't receive it as a gift, and this is the "labor of his hands." For Israel, this distinction was paralleled by the first and second Tablets. The first Tablets did not endure because they were given as gifts -- "But like men you shall die." (Tehillim 82:7)

It is possible that this is the meaning of the phrase in the Shabbat prayers, "Let Moshe rejoice with the gift of his portion." The gift is, "A crown of splendor you gave on his head." Although he, too, received it as a gift, still it is not the same as Adam, since, "A faithful servant You called him." Moshe reached this height through service. This is a fulfillment of, "You toiled and you found -- believe." This is "his portion" -- his Torah. Therefore he is a faithful servant, since he never lost this noble quality of splendor, and remained with it until the day of his death, and his vigor did not diminish.

The prayer continues, "Two stone Tablets he brought down in his hands, and it says in them the observance of Shabbat." When Chazal joined the perfection of the world in its three dimensions, they attributed it to Moshe, who returned the crown of man to its original state, through bringing down the Tablets. All were reconnected through Moshe's joy, who returned the light of Shabbat, man and the world. Chazal chose this expression of "servant," since this is how the Torah itself describes Moshe: "So Moshe, servant of Hashem died there; his eye had not dimmed and his vigor had not diminished."

Rav Kook on Parashat Va'etchanan: Prolonging Echad

שְׁמַע, יִשְׂרָאֵל: ה’ אֱלֹהֵינוּ, ה’ אֶחָד.

Judaism’s ultimate prayer is the Shema, our declaration of God’s unity. And the ultimate word in the Shema is its concluding word — אחד (echad) — “God is one.”

The Sages provided detailed instructions how to carefully pronounce this critical word:

“All who prolong the word echad will have their days and years prolonged.
R' Acha bar Ya’akov taught: One should prolong [the last letter in the word], the ‘ד’ (Dalet).
R' Assi added: Provided one he does not slur over [the middle letter], the ‘ח’ (Chet).” (Berachot 13b)

Why should the word echad be stretched out? And what is the significance of the letters Dalet and Chet?

God’s Reign Over All Events
The Talmud explains that one should pronounce the word echad long enough to draw a mental picture of God’s reign over all that is above, all that is below, and the “four sides of the heavens.”

When we proclaim God’s unity in the Shema, we acknowledge God’s unique control of the universe. While His absolute reign may be expressed in spatial terms — in all six directions — a deeper insight is that we should recognize God’s providence in all events that occur in the world. We may divide up the universe into three functional categories: 
  1. The initial causes that place into motion all of the myriad actions and events in the world. 
  2. The final effects and goals that are the fulfillment of the original causes. 
  3. The various intermediate means that lead from the initial causes to the ultimate effects. 
God’s reign incorporates all three categories. He rules over the heavens— i.e., the initial causes. His control extends to the earth — the completion and fulfillment of each goal. And Divine rule also includes the diverse intermediate means and events. These means are referred to as the “four sides of the heavens,” since they form an intermediate stage connecting the heavens (the initial causes) with the earth (the ultimate goals). 



Why is God’s oneness so significant? What is the principal message to be derived from the Shema?

By recognizing this underlying unity, we acknowledge that all of the various events in the world — even though they appear to be dispersed and disconnected, like the four sides of the heavens — are in fact directed towards one unified purpose, towards the goal of that which is good and elevated.

Emphasize the Dalet — But Remember the Chet
Why prolong the letter Dalet when saying the Shema? Dalet has the numerical value (Gematria) of four. It represents the four diverse directions, the myriad intermediate means in the universe. By emphasizing the Dalet, we affirm the connection of these means to the unified goal of creation.

Still, the ‘heavens’ and the ‘earth’ should not be ignored. In order that we will be able to properly value the intermediate means, we must contemplate the lofty counsel which directs all events towards their purpose. And we should consider the value of the sublime goal, as it is attained and revealed in all its splendor.

Thus, the letter Chet needs to be articulated clearly. Chet has the numerical value of eight; it represents the seven levels of heaven (shiv'ah reki'im) together with the earth. These eight levels indicate the various stages, from the initial cause to its final, practical fulfillment. In addition, the number eight signifies the realm of time: the seven days of the week, and the eighth dimension, unlimited by the confines of time.

To “swallow up” the Chet would show an insensitivity to the value of the initial cause and the final goal. Then the intermediary events would lose their true significance.

(Adapted from Ein Eyah vol. I p. 71; Olat Re’iyah vol. I, p. 245 by Rav Chanan Morrison)

Heaven's Refusal

by Rabbi Dov Berel Wein

Although our teacher Moshe figuratively tears down the gates of heaven with his prayers and supplication to be allowed to enter the land of Israel, his wish is not granted. Over the centuries, the commentators have offered very explanations as to why heaven, so to speak, remains so adamant in refusing his request and prayer. Even though many great and noble insights have been advanced to attempt to rationalize and explain this refusal of the prayers by Moshe, the question itself remains a vexing one, even thousands of years later. 

The simplest and, perhaps, least satisfying answer to the problem is simply that we can never understand or fathom the judgments and decisions of Heaven. The mortal mind never crosses the line of eternity, and, thus, will always be left with questions and difficulties. All of this is encompassed in the words of God that "no human being while alive can fathom or see Me". Naturally, we are greatly frustrated by our inability to deal with eternity on a rational basis. We are frustrated by the realization of any of our limitations, whether they be physical, mental, spiritual, or even mundane. The aptitude to live and function within the limitations of one's own shortcomings is a great talent, and, unfortunately, there are many who do not possess it, and therefore, are constantly unhappy, disappointed, frustrated, pessimistic and morose. All the utopian ideas and legislation currently being promoted in much of the Western world is simply an outlet for the disappointment that is felt when one realizes that society is not perfect, and that life usually is messy.

Moshe was told by heaven that he should no longer pursue this course of prayer. He is to give up on his lifelong dream and accept the will of heaven, even though he may not understand or certainly agree with the decision that is being rendered. This becomes part of the matrix of the greatness of Moshe, in that he does accept this judgment against him, and we do not find him pursuing the matter any longer. In his closing words of the Jewish people, Moshe will refer again to the fact that he will not lead them into the land of Israel, and that he will die and be buried in the land of Moab. But these statements are not made in bitterness or in complaint, but, rather, simply a recognition of the truth of the situation that faces him and the Jewish people. Judaism is a religion of optimism, opportunity, and multiple choices, but also contains within it a certain degree of fatalism – an understanding that the will of Heaven will not be thwarted, no matter what, and no matter how mysterious it may appear to an ordinarily mortal. In Yiddish, this streak of fatalism is expressed in the word Bashert. After all our attempts and actions have taken place, there still is this element of bashert that governs the final outcome after all our efforts and seeming accomplishments. Such is the relationship of the created towards the Creator.

The Sun Rose Today

by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky

The morning after the Knesset voted to repeal the “Reasonableness Clause,” the sun rose. The sky was blue, the birds chirped, the summer heat remained, and Jewish men put on tefillin. Somehow, life went on as normal, if still reeling from the mayhem in the streets. Israelis did not awaken to a dictatorship; indeed, the State of Israel was slightly more democratic and perhaps, down the road, will even be more Jewish. Yesterday, I even saved some money as shopping was limited, although it is depressing that merchants and workers lost a day’s wages because of the virtue signaling of some corporate bigwigs.

The judicial reforms have taken on the character of Chinese Water Torture, drip by drip, month after month and week after week of incessant demonstrations, threats and recriminations, dire warnings about the end of life as we know it, insubordination in the IDF (although the extent of that seems wildly exaggerated), and violent attacks on ministers and Knesset members supportive of the legislation. The irony should not be lost that those who scream the loudest about the imminent threats to democracy are those who engage in tactics that are hallmarks of dictatorships, including the refusal to accept the results of elections and their consequences, and taking to the streets as a mob to overthrow the duly elected authorities. It is as if they maintain "we have to destroy the democracy and make ourselves the permanent rulers in order to save the democracy."

Perhaps the error made by the government – whose constituent parties had been promising judicial reform for years – was not presenting an entire bill at one time but rather introducing the reforms piecemeal. Thus, only one plank was enacted, which presages that future reforms will generate the same foolish, counterproductive, and self-destructive protests, strikes, and irrational fears.

It was German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck who said that “laws are like sausages. It is best not to see them being made.” It was imprudent to negotiate with the opposition in the President’s House, a colossal waste of time as not one opposition representative compromised on anything and only sought delay after delay. But the members of Israel’s Knesset are not warring nations, all rumors to the contrary notwithstanding. There is no need for summit meetings at the (presumably) apolitical President’s residence. Laws should be proposed, debated, and resolved, one way or another, in the appropriate Knesset committees and in the corridors of the legislature where members and their staff can meet in private to try to gain consensus. And then, in a true democracy, the legislators vote, the winners applaud, and the losers accept the decision and pledge to use the legislative atrocity as campaign fodder in the next election.

In the end, the vote in favor of the “Reasonableness Clause” was overwhelming, 64-0, if only because of the childish boycott of the opposition. It is worthwhile to recall that Oslo I passed with a smaller majority (61-50, with 8 abstentions) and Oslo II with an even smaller majority (61-59), and in both cases, a majority of the Jewish Knesset members voted against the agreements. And those bills were much more momentous and consequential than is any item on the judicial reform agenda. The Oslo Accords got many Jews killed, recognized the PLO, brought them into the heartland of Israel, gave them weapons, territory, and diplomatic cover. I do not recall anyone in the mainstream media lamenting the narrow majorities (in which the Arab MK’s provided the parliamentary margin of victory), the lack of national consensus, the rush to a decision, or the illegitimacy of a government that campaigned on not recognizing the PLO. Nor did the President at the time beg for negotiations in his residence or bellow about the dangers facing Israel. No one will die because of tinkering with the judicial process and yet one would think the sky is falling. It is not and it will not. Perhaps the media is biased? Perhaps.

This particular bill does not change the judicial dynamic all that much, although it is a good start as “reasonableness” has never been a factor in judicial decision-making. Judges are supposed to interpret the law, not pass judgment on whether a law, decision or policy is reasonable. Their notion of “reasonable” is no more salient or sagacious than that of the legislators, and no law afforded them the right to issue decrees on such grounds. Thus, the Court literally had no authority to rule on such a basis and usurped the legislative and executive role in doing so.

Yet, power – even or perhaps especially illicitly seized – is not easy to relinquish. One hopes that the Court will take to heart this legislative rebuke and unilaterally limit the scope of its heretofore unlimited powers. It is unlikely, although possible, that the Court will void the repeal of the “Reasonableness Clause” as unreasonable, but that would really provoke a crisis. There is no law that makes the Supreme Court the ultimate and final authority on everything in the State of Israel. What is more likely given the temperament of some of the justices is that they will begin invalidating legislation, appointments, decisions or policies not because they are unreasonable (or because they contradict some existing law, which is legitimate) but because the Court finds them “illogical,” “unfair,” “biased,” “disproportionate,” “arbitrary,” or “unwarranted,” or some other synonym for “unreasonable.” Let us hope that too does not happen or the Court’s legitimacy will be forever tainted.

It is helpful to recall President Andrew Jackson’s rejoinder (1832) when he felt that US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall had overstepped his authority and prevented the expansion of US sovereignty into Indian territory: “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.” (The quotation is perhaps apocryphal; the reality is that Jackson did not enforce Marshall’s decision.) America could survive that. Israel is a smaller country, and largely family, where disputes can continue for generations and where we have real enemies with which to contend. Let us pray it never comes to that either, where a Supreme Court decision is so outrageous and blatantly political that the political branch just ignores it. Courts in America operate with a principle known as “judicial restraint” and courts in Israel would do well to learn and implement that principle.

The “Reasonableness Clause” repeal, despite the hoopla, the overheated rhetoric, and the doomsday prophecies, does not accomplish that much on its own. Several other key reforms are essential, including limiting the authority of the Attorney General (technically called the “Legal Advisor,” but one whose advice must always be taken; that, too, is absurd). Similarly, changing the composition of the judicial selection committee to make it more political is a good thing, not a threat to our existence. For some reason, people in Israel assume that a judge appointed by political party nomination is beholden to that party forever, regardless of the nature of the law on which the judge is ruling. In the American experience, that is decidedly not so. One of the bitter ironies of recent American history is the number of justices nominated by conservative Republican presidents who then turned out to be anything but when they sat on the Court (see Earl Warren, Harry Blackmun, Sandra Day O’Conner, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, and others). This anxiety is a poor reflection on Israel’s future justices and perhaps results from Israel’s Supreme Court overinvolvement in partisan politics. One way to remove the Court from politics is to grant them jurisdiction only on cases and controversies that affect aggrieved parties, and not just someone who does not like a particular policy.

Finally, a need for some check on the Court’s decision-making is necessary. The Knesset must pass an override clause, which should be used sparingly. I would suggest a Knesset majority requirement of 65, 67 or even 70 votes that ensures that any override has broad support – certainly broader than the Oslo Accords or the Gaza Expulsion had.

Compromise is always welcome. More importantly, we need cooler heads and calm reassurance. The protesters who were led to believe that riots and anarchy define the political process should think again. Chaos will not accomplish anything productive and will certainly not topple the Netanyahu government, the true objective of so many of them. It is inconceivable that they would rather see the country destroyed than live with a Supreme Court whose powers are simply comparable to almost every other Supreme Court in the world. They should look around and see that the earth is still rotating on its axis, the sun is still shining, the land of Israel is still beautiful (if a bit hot), and the State of Israel, with God’s help, is flourishing and will continue to flourish.

Monday, July 24, 2023

Muslim Mobs Get a Pass for Assaulting Jews in NYC and LA

by Daniel Greenfield

Joseph Borgen was violently assaulted by a Muslim mob while walking down the street in midtown Manhattan in the vicinity of an anti-Israel rally. The Jewish man was kicked, punched, pepper sprayed, beaten with a metal object, and ended up in the hospital.

Borgen was taunted as a “dirty Jew” and the assault was caught on video. “They were kicking me in my ribs, my stomach,” he described.

Waseem Awawdeh, the best known of the attackers, was out two days later. Even after Awawdeh reportedly told prison guards, “If I could do it again, I would do it again”, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg offered him a plea deal of only six months in prison. After public outrage, including protests and condemnations by elected officials, it was raised to eighteen months.

Faisal Elezzi, another of the attackers, got off with probation and an obligation to complete “anti-bias programming”.

That same month in Los Angeles, a pro-terrorist Muslim convoy was driving down the street near the Jewish neighborhood of Fairfax, and began harassing outdoor diners at a sushi place. Members of the Muslim mob waved a PLO terror flag, demanded to know who at the restaurant was Jewish, and witnesses said chanted, “death to the Jews” and “free Palestine”.

The Muslim attackers reportedly punched, kicked, threw bottles and pepper sprayed their targets who were members of the Persian Jewish community who had fled Islamic violence in Iran.

Samer Jayylusi and Xavier Pabon were arrested and immediately released on bail. They have since been sentenced to probation and ordered to visit a Holocaust museum.

The assaults in Manhattan and Los Angeles went viral. Videos of Muslim mobs attacking Jews made their way around the country and the world. They ended up appearing in national news stories. And yet most of those suspects got off with a slap on the wrist and diversity training.

“We take these cases extraordinarily seriously. That sort of hate has no place in Manhattan,” Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg had claimed.

“A hate crime is a crime against all of us,” Los Angeles DA George Gascon had promised, referring to the case. “My office is committed to doing all we can to make Los Angeles County a place where our diversity is embraced and protected.”

Both district attorneys have been linked to the pro-crime progressive prosecutor networks championed by George Soros as well as other leftist billionaires. And their promises of justice evaporated into consequences that could barely qualify as a slap on the wrist.

Of the four defendants sentenced so far in these four cases, whose sentences are known, three received probation and anti-bias classes. 75% of the perpetrators in these Muslim mobs may have spent only a few days in prison and have walked away with nothing except some classes.

The message that has been sent by DA Alvin Bragg, DA George Gascon and Judge Laura F Priver of the California Superior Court is that Muslim attacks on Jews will go unpunished. According to reports, Judge Priver thought that “counseling and Museum of Tolerance program was a better solution than sending the two to state prison as the prosecution had requested.”

While these two Muslim mob attacks on Jews caught the attention of the world, there have been individual assaults that have gone unnoticed and mostly unpunished.

Also in 2021, Suleiman Othman accosted Blake Zavadsky in a Brooklyn neighborhood with a sizable Jewish and Muslim presence and demanded, “Why do you support those dirty Jews? What are you doing in my neighborhood?” Othman then assaulted the Jewish man.

“The hateful and unprovoked assault this defendant admitted to today left one victim hurt, but also shook an entire community,” District Attorney Eric Gonzalez declared. “His conviction, jail time and probation should send a message that this kind of intolerance has serious consequences.”

In reality, Othman was offered a six month plea deal and when he turned that down, got only 60 days in prison and probation.

DA Gonzalez, like Bragg and Gascon, is a pro-crime prosecutor who ran on a platform of reducing incarceration. He’s a member of pro-crime organizations like the Soros-funded Fair and Just Prosecution alliance of prosecutors who commit to giving criminals a pass.

Gonzalez’s office had previously resisted filling hate crime charges against Farrukh Afzal, a Muslim cab driver who tried to run over a Jewish man, then after failing to hit him, got out and assaulted a second Jewish man, Rabbi Lipa Schwartz, 62, while shouting, “Allah, Allah” and declaring that he wanted to “kill all Jews”.

The Pakistani Muslim severely beat the rabbi who had been on the way to synagogue for morning prayers. He shoved him to the ground and repeatedly hit him in the head. When another Jewish man attempted to intervene, Afzal attacked him too, until he was finally restrained.

The DA’s office had attempted to dismiss it as a road rage incident with no hate crime element to it even though Afzal had eight prior arrests. Eventually he was convicted, but not of hate crimes, and while he was supposed to have been sentenced, there is no word on the outcome. No records appear for anyone by that name in the city system while the state system shows a man by that name who committed assault had a parole interview date last year.

Antisemitic attacks are routinely greeted by promises that they are being taken very seriously followed by the offenders quietly getting a slap on the wrist. Millions watched videos or read news stories about the violent Muslim mob attacks in New York City and Los Angeles. Only thousands are aware that most of the perpetrators walked away with anti-bias classes.

Pro-crime DAs like Bragg, Gonzalez and Gascon claim to take ‘hate’ very seriously, while remaining committed to a criminal justice reform movement that rewards criminals.

It is difficult to know to what extent the slaps on the wrist for Muslim mob attacks on Jews are due to sympathy for the ideological antisemitic motives of the perpetrators or a general belief that violent criminals should be coddled rather than being locked up. But to the victims it really doesn’t make much of a difference. The targets of Muslim antisemitic violence may be collateral damage in a pro-crime movement or leftist solidarity with terror supporters.

But the message to both Muslim mobs and the Jewish community is abundantly clear.

In the two cities with some of the largest Jewish populations in the country, Jews are fair game. Muslim thugs have little to fear from the legal system when they attack Jews except a few days in prison and a visit to a Holocaust museum.

Sunday, July 23, 2023

This Jewess Says RFK Jr is Right: A Presidential Candidate is Assailed for Saying True Things

by Naomi Wolf

It’s legacy media hysteria time again: news outlets from The Washington Post to The Atlantic hyperventilate about what they spin as the latest scandale. Presidential candidate RFK Jr made comments at a dinner about ethnically targeted bioweapons. Mainstream media commentators claim that these comments are in themselves anti-Semitic.

Some articles are going back in time, cherry-picking remarks RFK Jr has made in the past about the Holocaust, and about other aspects of historic totalitarianism, to strengthen the case for imprinting the “Anti-Semite” label forever on Mr Kennedy’s candidacy and campaign. With the (now AI-driven) global smear campaign in full mode, we see the way that bad press today quickly becomes circular and self-referential.

Look at who is most upset! It is the Democratic political establishment — which is directly threatened by RFK Jr’s potential success — that is beside itself.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Jamie Harrison called RFK Jr’s remarks “deeply troubling.”

A group of Democrats ask the White House to disinvite Kennedy from appearing on Capitol Hill. Kyle Herrig, Executive Director of the [Democrats’] Congressional Integrity Project, wrote a letter to Congressman Jim Jordan, calling Kennedy “a total whack job whose views and conspiracy theories would be completely ignored but for his last name.” Herrig asked Mr Kennedy to be disinvited from a planned appearance at the White House due to “video evidence of his horrific antisemitic and xenophobic views which are simply beyond the pale.”

Who else is beside itself? The White House, and its spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre! It is this White House’s current inhabitant, of course, whom this candidate seeks to unseat.

These are the folks who most fear and dread this outsider’s surprisingly dynamic challenge to their planned stitch-up — (a Michele Obama/Gavin Newsom ticket is my guess) — of the 2024 Presidential election.

There is another branch of folks who are upset at RFK Jr. Who? Oh! That would be Big Pharma/Big Public Health.

AP (which has a Memorandum of Understanding with the CCP’s main propaganda outlet, Xinhua, to “Enhance Cooperation”) spun the candidate’s warnings about ethnically targeted bioweapons as lunacy, and trotted out Dr Michael Mina to confirm:

“He [Kennedy] asserted without evidence that there are bioweapons being developed to target certain ethnicities, and called for the Post’s article to be retracted.

Researchers and doctors pushed back on the assertion, including Michael Mina, a medical doctor and immunologist.

“Beyond the absurdity, biological know-how simply isn’t there to make a virus that targets only certain ethnicities,” Mina wrote on Twitter.”

Dr Mina is not an independent immunologist. He was a voice on social media promoting antigen tests throughout the pandemic (widespread testing with unreliable methods later proved to be one of the ways that the numbers related to the pandemic were inflated. PCR tests are grossly inaccurate and antigen tests too are not always accurate). Dr Mina called for weekly testing, worldwide.

He is also on the faculty at the “Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics” at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. This entity exists to communicate about public health threats. It boasts of partnering with government agencies, and it devotes a section of its website to COVID-19 op-eds published by its faculty.

Another surprise! These op eds universally support and elaborate “the narrative” of an eternal, lucrative COVID Inc. They warn about the faulty information sources of “anti-vaxxers”, they blame “COVID minimizers” for the fact that the population did not yet achieve herd immunity, and they glorify Pfizer’s “hyper-pursuit” of a vaccine. (We know now how scientifically shoddy and how damaging to public health was this “hyper-pursuit”). Dr Mina wrote an op ed in The New York Times urging executive action to bypass FDA approval for rapid antigen testing. Yet another surprise! Dr Mina may get a second paycheck from COVID Inc — “He advises Detect, Inc., a diagnostics company working on a rapid molecular test for Covid-19 […].” And perhaps a third: he is “Chief Science Officer” at eMed Digital Healthcare.

So: the two entities that initiated the attacks on RFK Jr, and that provided the media with the early grist in the form of howls of DNC outrage and sober “assessments” by fully compromised medical voices, are the two entities who stand to lose the most from a President Kennedy: Big Democrats, and Big Pharma/Big Public Health/Big Medical Data.

Now to Mr Kennedy’s assertions themselves. AP is supposed to do actual research before declaring a subject without merit. A simple Google search reveals scores of articles about ethnically targeted bioweapons, in publications ranging from Newsweek to peer-reviewed journals. The National Review warns as recently as April 2023 about “The Coming Threat of a Genetically Engineered ‘Ethnic Bioweapon.’” Eurasia Review alerted readers to “Bioweapons Targeting Specific Ethnicities: A Threat, and Nanotechnology’s Promise for Defense.” This essay is enlightening about one possible reason for the furore over Kennedy’s remarks. Look carefully:

“Bioweapons are defined as infectious agents or toxins that can be used to kill or incapacitate people, animals, or plants. These weapons can be engineered to target specific genetic traits or ethnicities by modifying the infectious agents’ genome or by altering the toxic properties of the bioweapon. Bioweapons are known to be used as a tool for ethnic cleansing or genocide, as they can selectively target specific populations.

One example of such a weapon is the so-called “ethnic bomb” that was reportedly developed by the former South African government during the apartheid era. This weapon was designed to target specific ethnic groups by exploiting genetic differences in the way the body metabolizes certain chemicals. The weapon was never deployed, but its existence highlights the potential for bioweapons to be used in this way.

Another example of a bioweapon that could target specific ethnic groups is the use of CRISPR gene editing technology. This technology allows for precise editing of genes and could be used to target specific genes that are unique to certain ethnic groups. This would allow for the creation of a bioweapon that is more lethal to one group than another [Italics mine].”

So — please process this. CRISPR — the new gene-editing technology with which establishment gatekeepers are so infatuated, and which is the darling of Bill Gates and the entire globalist gene-editing establishment — can be used as a precursor of ethnic targeting.

Articles are abundant that confirm that ethnically targeting bioweapons are seen as a pressing threat by those who actually know about national security issues. If the AP reporter had done a quick search, 14,900 scholarly articles on ethnically targeted bioweapons would have appeared, including in Foreign Affairs: “The New Killer Pathogens: Countering the Coming Bioweapons Threat”. Sasha Latypova, on her Substack “Due Diligence and Art”, in an essay titled “Ethnically Targeted Bioweapons?” has done a thorough job presenting the many iterations of this form of bioweapons threat.

So while the details may be open to debate, the general subject that RFK Jr cited, regarding ethnically targeted bioweapons, is verified and real.

We at the WarRoom/DailyClout Pfizer Documents Volunteers Reports found possible evidence of geographic targeting, with 36,000 of 42,000 plus adverse events from the Pfizer injection, being within the United States; the next largest tranche of adverse events is in Western Europe, in order of political importance: Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Spain. And all the rest of the 52 countries of the world combined, in which this injection was rolled out, yielded only 7000 adverse events. I have confirmed from previous research that China is in charge of the IP of the Pfizer injection, and is deploying manufacturing plants in the West. I am not a medical doctor; I am a political commentator.

But any one who thinks about geopolitics will look at this distribution of adverse events and ask the cause of it.

****

Let me now reflect on the furore while putting on the hat of having been a former political consultant to two Presidential campaigns.

Disclosure: I know RFK Jr slightly, and I like and respect him. We are nonpartisan at DailyClout, so I can’t endorse any candidate.

That said, there is a reason his campaign is attaining sufficient momentum to scare the Democratic establishment criminal syndicate.

He is a candidate whose blessings are his curses, and vice versa.

Many people welcome him to the national political discussion because of his blistering honesty. A man who will call out Dr Anthony Fauci in a book of hundreds of pages, with thousands of footnotes; who will state in public that he believes that the CIA killed his uncle; who will approach radioactive no-go areas such as the impact of thimerisol on children’s health — brings to the stage a level of honesty (and of moral courage) that is compelling to watch.

That said, speaking as a former advisor to Presidential candidates and campaigns, this very honesty, moral courage and seriousness of purpose, if completely unmediated, can, frankly, turn into a minefield on the campaign trail.

No one who has not lived through a Presidential campaign, can imagine the white heat of the constant national scrutiny of every word; the fatigue generated by 12 hour days of events, with flights every other day; and above all, the paranoia that is engendered by the fact that spies, infiltrators and provocateurs are constant threats and presences. People whom the candidate thinks are friends, give damaging interviews to the press; personal secrets surface; the inner circle is often reluctant to present bad news in an unvarnished way, thus distorting the candidate’s sense of the political landscape; family members are attacked and react emotionally; and so on. Literally no one who has not experienced this for him or herself, can imagine the psychological and physical pressures of a Presidential campaign trail.

The exhaustion, upheaval and isolation can lead a candidate to — well, talk too much or too spontaneously, or to go into messy areas that can be taken out of context by the campaign’s enemies.

Both President Clinton and Vice President Gore had this tendency to freelance, and their advisors would tear their hair out when it surfaced. President Clinton liked to depart from his speech text with long, looping verbal riffs. Mostly that was fine, but sometimes it blew up in his face. The Vice President liked to detour into long excursions into highly technical subjects that fascinated him, but that did not always edify the press or his immediate audiences.

In such a context, any candidate requires a team that can and will enforce what is called “message discipline.” Any successful Presidential campaign needs a core set of talking points, a cleared set of soundbites, and speeches that are bulletproof. It also helps to have dozens of trained surrogates who repeat the campaign’s message, so that it does not all rest on the energies and efforts of the exhausted candidate.

Any Presidential candidate also needs someone — ideally from the press office — seated near him or her at all times who will jump in, signal quietly, or redirect, when a comment risks being taken out of context. No human being can police him or herself at all times, especially under the grueling conditions of a campaign.

What I am saying here is something that a candidate as honest and brave as RFK Jr may be reluctant to hear — but if he is really going to achieve his best shot at being President, I do believe this is important to consider.

RFK Jr is cursed and blessed with a passion for actual truth. So he speaks actual truth. This passion for truth, which I hope I share, is something that makes us both nostalgic and sad when we talk about the demise of truth in the liberal American ideal.

The sad fact though about a Presidential campaign, which is an absolutely grueling psychotic marathon, is that not everything that is true, or even true and very important, is wise always to present in that particular moment. The observation at the private dinner probably falls into that category. There are some truths that will be spun as lies from the start: they give rise to reactions described in Winston Churchill’s quote, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

Mr Kennedy is not the first candidate to learn that not everything that is actually true, and important, will play well. Mrs Gore had to discover that even though her commitment to raising awareness about depression was noble, and even though depression is a very real and important disease, it was not a discussion that was ultimately helping her husband’s campaign. She productively moved on to health and wellness. Mrs Clinton was correct in identifying her expertise as a potential bonus to the discussion about health care; but she was wrong in thinking that Americans would like having unelected individuals affecting national policy.

All of this risks sounding as if I am urging candidates to be fake, or to dissemble, or to trim their words, and I am not. Inauthenticity is offputting to voters— they can smell it — as well as being morally repellent.

I am saying rather that a good press team will enforce message discipline and will distill the candidate’s real passions and true motivations into talking points, speeches and sound bites that will never betray him or her, and that will spare his or her energies for the really important fights.

The second form of curse/ blessing that belongs to RFK Jr is that he actually understands the governance of this nation. It is the legacy of his family business and heritage. His uncle of course served as President and his father was that President’s Attorney General, as well as being that President’s closest advisor. Other members of Mr Kennedy’s family have served the nation in various ways at high levels.

This means that, likely due to the context of family memory and discussion, no doubt also due to his own reading about his heritage and about geopolitics, RFK Jr is not naive about what it actually means to be President, or what it means to be America in a dangerous world.

That means that he sees real geopolitical threats in advance and is not, to speak frankly, an idiot about national security, as most commentators in legacy media tend to be.

So he will inevitably see ethnically targeted bioweapons — or bioweapons as a whole - as the looming national security threat that they are, rather than as a “wacky” issue that is unmentionable at fancy dinners.

Very few people have had exposure to those making decisions about national security at the highest levels; so at times RFK Jr is likely to see a threat or express a concern that few others will see or understand.

Again: blessing/curse. You want that eagle’s eye view of global security threats in a President; but this rare perspective, as well as this passion to speak the truth, can create difficult, isolating challenges for a campaigner.

*****

Now let us address the string of allegations that are being hurled at RFK Jr related to other alleged instances of anti-Semitism.

In the past, in multiple appearances, RFK Jr has compared current medical totalitarianism to Nazi practices. For this, he has been aggressively assailed.

I am embarrassed to say that the charges of anti-Semitism related to his having done so, have come from institutions central to preserving memories of the Holocaust; institutions ranging from The American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League have come forward to condemn him. For his 2022 remarks, in a speech, about Anne Frank, in which he pointed out that in the Nazi era one might hide from tyranny whereas now there is no escape possible, the US Holocaust Museum itself came forward to condemn him — a surprising turn of events, when a museum, which is supposed to be nonpartisan and apolitical, steps into a political fray. The museum gave Politico this quote:

“Making reckless comparisons to the Holocaust, the murder of six million Jews, for a political agenda is outrageous and deeply offensive. Those who carelessly invoke Anne Frank, the star badge, and the Nuremberg Trials exploit history and the consequences of hate,” the museum said Monday in a statement posted to Twitter.”

Do I think his Anne Frank remarks were perfectly worded? No indeed (hello again, mythical press officer who should be reading the candidate’s speech first).

Do I understand what he is saying? Yes I do.

I will go further. This Jewess here — who, as I often note, is the granddaughter of a woman who lost nine siblings to the Holocaust — abhors the fact that Jewish organizations are piling on and accusing RFK Jr of anti-Semitism for making comparisons of current medical tyranny to the Nazi era. I abhor this gross oversimplification and over-reaction, because RFK Jr is literally correct to draw these comparisons. I draw them myself.

Remember “Never forget”?

Anyone who has read the history of the rise of the National Socialists to power, knows that the weaponization of German society began with the coopting by the Nazis of physicians, and of doctors’ professional organizations. The full account of this brilliant and damaging innovation, which long preceded the 1933 formal ascendancy to power of the Nazis, let alone the 1939-1945 genocide programs, is in the important books, The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide by Robert Jay Lifton, and Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis, by Robert N Proctor.

From where did the fully-formed murderous protocols and techniques of 2020-2023 come? They were not invented from whole cloth in the US or in the other nations in which they were launched. They were invented by the National Socialists in the 1930s.

In the early 1930s, as today, the Nazi state enlisted doctors, nurses and midwives to do the bidding of the State. In the early 1930s, as today, doctors were advanced if they joined the Nazi Party, and professional medical organizations were coopted by the Party; doctors lost licenses to practice or lost professional opportunities, if they refused to align.

As today, the National Socialists quickly divided society into two tiers, in which Aryans had rights, access to jobs, and access to state benefits and to universities, while non-Aryans were identified in multiple ways as second class citizens. The second class citizens lost the right to enter public buildings, to shop in commercial establishments, to keep their jobs, to study or teach in universities, and so on.

Does that sound familiar?

By 1939, the Nazi regime compelled nurses, doctors and midwives to identify mentally impaired infants and children. This was a program called “Aktion T4”. The parents of these children were being urged by “public health authorities” to bring these children to “pediatric clinics”. After that they were euthanized “by lethal overdoses of medication or starvation.” Of course the program expanded to include other ages.

Does this sound familiar?

We heard stories of medical murder “by lethal overdoses of medication or starvation” during the pandemic, by the score.

Indeed, does the following recent account, sound historically familiar?

“In early spring of 2021, the family of Grace Schara, a 19-year-old young woman with Down’s Syndrome, brought their daughter to an emergency room at the direction of an urgent care clinic due to wavering blood oxygen levels from COVID-19. According to her father Scott Schara, this was a grave mistake.

Schara claims the hospital, St. Elizabeth’s in Appleton, Wisconsin, became an adversary, not an ally, in treating Grace. The relationship broke down when the Schara’s were not convinced Grace needed to be put on a ventilator, a treatment encouraged by the federal government with financial incentives. Within a matter of days, Grace was dead. Her family discovered the physician put a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order in place and infused a combination of powerful anesthesia drugs into her system. As a result, they’ve filed a lawsuit claiming the hospital engaged in euthanasia.

It was physicians and nurses tasked with being the “tip of the spear” of Nazi ideology, which saw non-Aryans or the impaired as “infectious” and “diseased”; and it was “public health” as the overarching ideology, that first established the Nazi ideals of pure and impure humans, of those who were privileged and those who were and who should be expendable.

And doctors complied.

Nazi totalitarianism, as anyone who is not historically illiterate knows - and RFK Jr knows history - started with and was predicated upon, medical or “public health” totalitarianism.

Which is all to say: RFK Jr is right to call our attention to direct echoes of our current dystopia with the early days of the Nazi regime. He is right to warn us, by using examples from this so-relevent history, where this all always goes.

It is madness to claim that no one should mention the Holocaust in relation to current redeployments of Nazi-type protocols and policies. We as Jews have always been told to be vigilant, to remember the Holocaust, to learn its lessons.

How can we deny that duty of vigilance, and of recognizing historical patterns, to leaders and colleagues who happen not to be Jewish?

I say it dishonors the memory of victims of the Holocaust to condemn anyone who seeks to learn from what happened to them, and who seeks, by learning from history, to prevent such atrocities from unfolding again.

This Jewess says: RFK Jr is not an anti-Semite for doing so. He is honoring the victims of the Nazis, and trying to draw our attention to that era’s lessons, to save us from similar horrors.

*****

I hope for the sake of this country that we turn our gazes away from sideshows and smear campaigns, that we ignore personal invective, and that we not credit baseless character assassinations.

I hope for the sake of this country that we as voters demand that our media and our national debate stay focused on the actual platforms of all of the candidates; and that we direct our collective attention to the abundance of crises that we really do face, and hear out possible solutions — not as addicts of clickbait, but as sober, discerning citizens, with an important choice to make.