Tribal Warfare

by Victor Rosenthal

The deliberate viciousness of the attack by Hamas on southern Israel was an announcement of the tribal nature of the conflict. Although it is true that the initial assault troops were followed by a civilian rabble that participated joyfully in the mass murder, rape, and looting, the Hamas soldiers themselves received explicit orders (this is documented) to perpetrate a terrorist massacre with all the trimmings, and they did so exceeding the expectations of their commanders.

This wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t merely an outburst of the hatred that is drilled into all Gazans by their Hamas-controlled (and UN-supported) educational system, although that is what made it possible for human beings to become monsters. The savagery was fully intended by the Hamas leadership.

A tribal war is fought for territory, but it is also fought for honor. And honor is gained (or in the case of Palestinians, lost honor is regained) by humiliating the enemy. And this is done here in the Middle East by exaggerated cruelty, especially to the weakest elements of the enemy tribe. That’s why Hamas fighters and their followers tortured women in unmentionable ways and overcame the normal human resistance to hurting children and the elderly.

There is little distinction between civilians and soldiers in tribal warfare, except insofar as soldiers are considered more dangerous. An enemy is an enemy, and you kill enemies.

This did not endear Hamas to some in the West, which had adopted humanistic standards for warfare after WWII, when the folks who had incinerated hundreds of thousands of Japanese and German civilians decided that they would outlaw tribal forms of warfare (indeed they even outlawed war itself). But tribal peoples, like those who inhabit our region, never signed on to the Western vision expressed by the UN Charter; indeed, they never really bought the idea of nations, and certainly not a framework defined by international law.

They operate in a different framework, one in which there are friendly tribes and there are enemy tribes; and what you do to an enemy is kill him before he kills you. You kill him by any means necessary, and you don’t spare women and children. And if you are Hamas or the PLO, you employ the Arab equivalent of WWII’s strategic bombing – murderous terrorism against enemy civilians. The object is to remove the enemy tribe from contact with yours. Genocide is a strategy.

But now we come to our situation. Americans and Europeans who seem to have forgotten Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Dresden, expect Israel to play by the rules that they made up (and don’t follow). Which is hard to do when you face an enemy whose very basic ways of fighting – human shields and hostages, terrorism of every kind, random rocketing of civilian areas, etc. – violate the laws of war that the West expects us to obey more carefully than they ever do.

One of the interesting things about humans is their ambivalence toward cruelty. On the one hand, we saw some reactions of revulsion to the massive pogrom (notably including the US president), even on the part of a few who had heretofore accepted claims that Israel oppresses the Palestinians in Gaza. But at the same time, there was a massive outpouring of support for Hamas, huge demonstrations in cities like London and New York, and of course on college campuses. Some of the demonstrators were were Palestinians or Muslims who were expressing their tribal loyalty, but others were Westerners whose primitive, atavistic lizard brains reveled in the blood and suffering of the Jews. And of course it was cause for great celebration among the Arabs of Judea and Samaria, as well as throughout the Arab world. In this respect, the Hamas strategy paradoxically achieved a propaganda victory.

We in Israel do not want to fight like Hamas. We don’t want to rape their women and butcher their children. On the other hand, we are not interested in committing suicide for the sake of the moral principles of the hypocritical West. And we have a message to send to Hamas and to all our enemies: we can and will fight as brutally as necessary. If we don’t do this, if we allow this campaign to end with an inconclusive whimper as so many previous ones have, then it will just be a matter of time before we are forced to leave up our beautiful homeland, perhaps for the last time, for an increasingly dark diaspora.

1 in 10 American Jews Support Hamas

by Daniel Greenfield

On October 18, Hamas supporters stormed the United States Capitol and rallied in the Canon rotunda against the Israeli campaign to stop the Islamic terrorist group. While many of the insurrectionists were Islamist and non-Jewish leftist activists, the event was linked to two veteran anti-Israel organizations: Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow.

There has always been a pro-terrorist fringe among American Jews exemplified by organizations such as these two, along with others such as J Street, the Israel Policy Forum, the New Israel Fund, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, T’ruah and other anti-Israel groups. And while they have generally boasted more organizations than members, a new poll raises the question of what percentage of American Jews supports Hamas and the killing of Jews.

The answer in one poll is deeply troubling.

Cygnal polled Muslims and Jews in America. It found that 57% of Muslims believed that Hamas atrocities against Jews were justified. But a less widely reported result found that 11.5% of American Jews also agreed that Hamas was justified.

3.6% of American Jews “strongly agreed” that Hamas was justified while another 7.9% “somewhat agreed.”

While the vast majority of American Jews, 88.5% disagreed, there is a distinct minority of people who were born Jewish that supports killing Jews.

And supports Hamas.

Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh enjoys a 7.2% favorability rating among American Jews.



When asked if knowing that “Hamas is nothing but a proxy for Iran and is funded and supported by Iran. Would you be more or less likely to vote for a political candidate who supports releasing billions of dollars in frozen assets for Iran to use any way it chooses”, 10.8% of American Jews would be more likely to vote for such a candidate.

1 in 10 American Jews supports the murder of Jews. Not to mention the rape, torture, kidnapping and dismembering of Jews. That is the JVP, IfNotNow, J Street, T’ruah demographic.

Polls are flawed and Cygnal dramatically oversamples Reform who make up 44.7% of the poll, but only 37% of American Jews, and Orthodox and Conservative Jews barely make up a quarter of the respondents, but the poll likely does reflect some percentage of American Jews.

They are the ones who rallied for Hamas in the Capitol and who, like Anna Epstein at Boston University, can be seen tearing down the posters showing the kidnapped women and children.

Anti-Israel groups over the years have claimed that they don’t support terrorism. Even the IfNotNow and JVP rallies operate under the false flag of calling for a ceasefire. Their allies from J Street to JFREJ to T’ruah use similarly misleading language. Some even claim to be advocating for the hostages. This is often enhanced by theatrical performances inappropriately using borrowed Jewish rituals such as a shofar, a tallit and the recitation of Kaddish, the mourning prayer, for Islamic terrorists.

In reality, IfNotNow’s first statement after the Hamas rape, torture, kidnapping and murder of Israelis asserted that, “we cannot and will not say today’s actions by Palestinian militants are unprovoked. Every day under Israel’s apartheid system is a provocation.” It made no mention of Hamas, but only claimed that the “blood is on the hands” of America and Israel.

But what the poll really lays bare is the worldview of Hamas supporters with Jewish last names. It does so without any of the dishonest language, the equivocation, the changes of subject that form the essence of their anti-Israel arguments. Asked if they support Hamas, they do.

It’s that simple and it was always that simple.

There is a percentage of American Jews whose leftist politics are so extreme that they back Hamas and the mass killing of Jews. We don’t know exactly what percent it is, is it really 11.5% or 7% or 3.6%. What we do know is that members of this group routinely lie and mislead about what they believe. They talk about peace when what they’re after is war. When they advocate for a ‘ceasefire’, what they really want is the unrestricted ability by Hamas to kill Jews.

They are not just opposed to the policies of a “right-wing Israeli government” or any Israeli government, they have a favorable view of Ismail Haniyeh: the leader of Hamas, who had bragged that the Islamic terror group would win because it loved death while “the Jews love life more than any other people, and they prefer not to die”.

They aren’t actually advocating for a deal with Iran, they just want an end to all sanctions on Iran even if it supports Hamas and even in the absence of any actual deal to end its nuclear program.

What does the anti-Israel fringe of the Jewish community support?

Israel released a recording of a Hamas terrorist excitedly calling his parents to tell them, “Father, I killed 10 Jews! Check your WhatsApp! I sent you the photos! Father, I killed 10 Jews! I killed 10 Jews with my bare hands. check your WhatsApp. Father, be proud of me!”

How did we get to the point where any percentage of American Jews supports Hamas?

Another poll, from Harvard/Harris, found that 16% of Americans side with Hamas and 24% agreed that “the Hamas killing of 1200 Israeli civilians in Israel can be justified by the grievances of Palestinians.”

This was an opinion held by 31% of Democrats and 36% of self-described liberals. People with college degrees (29%) were more likely to support Hamas atrocities than people with only some college (21%). Urbanites (40%) were far more likely to believe that the murder of Israeli women and children was justified than suburban (17%) or rural (13%) residents. Those making $75,000 or more were more often Hamas supporters (33%) than those making less (19%) and blacks (33%), Hispanics (28%) justified the murder of Jews more than white people did (21%).

The poll didn’t assemble the percentage of Hamas support from urban (40%) liberals (36%) with college (29%) degrees, but it’s a good bet that it’s between a third and a half of them.

That also is a good description of a sizable percentage of American Jews.

A third of American Jews do not support Hamas, but when they are immersed in an environment that does, especially on college campuses, is it any surprise that some do?

When 21% of liberals admit that they side with Hamas, some Jewish leftists will do it too.

Move to a neighborhood full of Nazis, enroll your kids in schools where there are daily chants of “Heil Hitler” during lunchtime and students are taught of the greatness of the Third Reich, and the odds of your kids coming home goosestepping vastly increases. Even if they’re Jewish.

Jews in America have become part of a cultural community that has supported leftist terrorism for at least half a century. Some never abandoned their admiration for Communism, others saw the Marxist terrorists of the counterculture as noble idealists, and some now celebrate Hamas.

American Jews are much less likely to support their own killing, kidnapping and torture than the average liberal (36%), but as many as 1 in 10 may be willing to accept Jewish genocide as the price of social justice. In the early days of the Soviet Union, the Yevsektsia or Jewish Section, made up of people who were born Jewish, was the most ruthless in wiping out Judaism and Zionism. Today, IfNotNow, J Street and Jews for Racial & Economic Justice take up the banner.

The Hamas atrocities and the reaction to it are a reality check. Some Jewish liberals recoil in horror at the implications of the ideology of social justice, others double down and embrace it. They claim that they want peace, but the Cygnal poll shows what they really want is dead Jews.

(Editor's note: as bad as these numbers are, they're the best numbers of any U.S. group.)

The Palestinian Authority's Responsibility for Hamas's October Massacre

by Bassam Tawil 

• There is absolutely no difference between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas when it comes to spreading hate against Israel and inciting the murder of Jews. It has also been proven that each time Israel cedes land or makes gestures to the PA or Hamas, they respond by increasing terror attacks against Jews.
• Make no mistake. Inflammatory statements such as these drive Palestinians to carry out terrorist attacks against Jews.
• The terrorists in Gaza must have said to themselves: If terrorism is working in the West Bank and the Palestinian Authority is not doing anything to stop us from murdering Jews, why not launch an attack to murder Jews from the Gaza Strip?
• This month alone, the Palestinian Authority will pay the families of the Hamas terrorists who were killed this month at least 11.1 million shekels ($2.7 million) "Pay-for-Slay" reward for perpetrating the atrocities against Israeli civilians.
• [I]t is not enough to condemn Hamas for the atrocities. The Biden administration and the international community must understand that the hands of Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority also drip with the Hamas victims' blood.

There is absolutely no difference between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas when it comes to spreading hate against Israel and inciting the murder of Jews. Pictured: PA President Mahmoud Abbas said in 2015 that the Palestinians will not allow Jews "with their filthy feet to defile our Al-Aqsa Mosque," and "We bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood, blood spilled for Allah..." (Image source: Palestinian Media Watch video screenshot)

While many have condemned the Iran-backed Hamas terror group for the October 7 massacre that killed 1,400 Israelis and wounded at least 5,400 others, the fact is that the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its leaders also bear responsibility for the carnage. The PA's rhetoric and actions actively paved the way for the hell that Hamas unleashed on Israel.

There is absolutely no difference between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas when it comes to spreading hate against Israel and inciting the murder of Jews. It has also been proven that each time Israel cedes land or makes gestures to the PA or Hamas, they respond by increasing terror attacks against Jews. The areas controlled by the PA in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip have become havens for countless terror groups.

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Rav Kook's Ein Ayah: Differences between this World and the Next

Gemara: The following was a favorite saying of Rav: "The world to come is not like this world. The world to come does not have eating and drinking, or procreation, or commerce; it does not have jealousy, hatred, or competition. Rather, tzaddikim sit with their crowns on their heads, and they enjoy the aura of the Divine Presence."

Ein Ayah: Physical deficiencies will disappear totally when existence will reach its ultimate level of shleimut (completeness). In this world, where we are to progress toward shleimut, there are actually deficiencies that bring on higher levels. In fact, they are irreplaceable in obtaining certain attainments without which the world cannot be sustained.

Three areas that, according to the values of this world, are considered positive things, are: 1) eating and drinking; 2) procreation; 3) commerce. In order that these sustainers of life as we know it will exist, there is a need for negative traits to sustain them.

The existence of eating and drinking and, for that matter, any of a person's needs, requires jealousy. If not for jealousy, no skilled activity would come to fruition and people would not obtain those things that they need. This is the gist of the pasuk: "I saw the toil and the skill of activity, that it is the jealousy of man against his counterpart" (Kohelet 4:4).

Procreation has to do with the system of families. In order for it to exist, there must be a concept of hatred, for there could be no love without the existence of hatred, as love can be discerned only in contrast to hatred. Without it, there would be no place for families.

Because it is necessary for people to be involved in commerce, there is a need for competitiveness, which is the pillar of commerce. Only in this way does one merchant try to improve on that which another merchant offers, regarding such things as quality of the product, its delivery, etc.

All of these things, though, exist only in this world, where things are considered advantages as if by chance, without intrinsic value. This is because the advantages are just relative to the deficiencies that exist at that time. In contrast, when the world will reach its ideal state of shleimut, it will be a world of good alone. Then all of the contributing factors will also be real ma’a lot (high levels).

The shleimut of humankind is when man perfects his power to choose well to the extent that he is capable of doing. A person should truly desire to see how all of the existence will perfect his power of choice to its fullest. One of the concepts related to the shechina(Divine Presence) is the fulfillment of the Divine desire by means of human choice. There is no way of estimating how great this success will be. For the idea of shleimut through choice is great and wonderful in a way that we will understand only when it will be achieved.

The great spiritual attainment which surpasses the natural world is called an atara (crown). That is why the gemara describes people in the world to come as sitting with crowns on their heads. In other words, they possess that which they acquired through good choices in addition to the personal shleimut that they had naturally. The enjoyment they have is from exposure to the aura of the shechina, in other words, from the pleasantness of realizing the value of fulfilling the Divine desire through human choice. Therefore, the more one is able to succeed as a human to improve and become greater, the greater the pleasantness in the world to come. The significance of the aura of the shechina depends on the level of recognition of the value of the shleimut they achieved through choice. The absolute knowledge of the value is indeed known only to Hashem. However, the level of human understanding increases as a person goes from strength to strength.

Yisrael and Yishmael

by HaRav Mordechai Greenberg
Nasi HaYeshiva, Kerem B'Yavneh

Yisrael and Yishmael are the only two nations that contain G-d’s Name, as it says in Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer (ch. 29):

Bilaam said: Of the seventy nations that G-d created in His world, he did not place His Name in any one of them, other than Yisrael. Since G-d equated Yishmael’s name with that of Yisrael: “Oh! Who will survive in his days,” as it says, “Oh! Who will survive when He imposes these!” (Bamidbar 24:23)

Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer states further:

Why is his name called Yishmael? Because G-d will hear the sound of the [Israel’s] groan from what Bnei Yishmael are destined to do in the Land in the end of days. Therefore, his name is called Yishmael, as it says, “Yishma E-l ve’yaanem” – “G-d will hear and answer them.” (Tehillim 55:20)

Radal (R. David Luria) explains that although the name Yishmael was given because G-d heard the voice of Hagar and the voice of the lad, nevertheless, since the name Yishmael is in the future tense, there must be two meanings, one for the past and one for the future.

Israel’s enemies are the four kingdoms: Babylonia, Persia, Greece and Rome. The question is, where does Yishmael fit in? After all, it is impossible to ignore this tremendous mass! The Ibn Ezra writes in Doniel (7:14), that indeed Yishmael is the fourth kingdom, whereas Greece and Rome are considered as one kingdom.

The Ramban on Parshat Balak rejects this position, and writes that the Ibn Ezra erred in this, “because their fear fell upon him.” The Maharal also explains that the criteria of the four kingdoms is not only their hatred of Israel, but also the taking away of sovereignty from Israel. They fight against G-d’s Kingdom, which is represented by Israel. On the other hand, Yishmael’s very strength is because Avraham pleaded on his behalf, “O that Yishmael may live before You” (Bereisheet 17:18), and G-d granted his request, “Regarding Yishmael, I have heard you.” (17:20)

Yishmael does not come to rebel against G-d’s rule, to add another element to divinity, as Christianity does. They believe in One G-d. Therefore the four kingdoms are compared (in Daniel) to animals, whereas Yishmael, to a person. Yet, a “pereh adam” – “A wild donkey of a man.” (Bereisheet 16:12)

Rav S.R. Hirsch explains that a wild donkey refuses to accept discipline and yoke, but rather is free: “Like a wild donkey accustomed to the wilderness.” (Yirmiya 2:24) Therefore, “His hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him.” (Bereisheet 16:12)

In Hebrew (unlike English), the noun always precedes the adjective, as in “adam gadol” (great man). Thus in the phrase, “pereh adam,” the noun is “pereh” and the adjective is “adam.” The Chafetz Chaim already wrote that since the Torah is eternal, Yishmael will always be wild, and he added, “Who knows what this pereh adam is still liable to do to Israel.”

This idea is expressed in the names Yishmael and Yisrael. Yisrael indicates, “yishar E-l,” that we straighten ourselves in the direction of G-d, to walk in His ways. Yishmael is on account of the fact that G-d heard their voices; they subjugate, as if, G-d for their needs. They think that all of what they do is the Divine will; their wars are Jihad, holy wars, and all of their actions – in the name of Allah.

Not long ago, there was a convention of the Islamic clergy to discuss the question of how to explain the fact that this “infection” of the Jewish state got stuck in the middle of the large Islamic region. Their conclusion was that G-d sent Israel into the midst of the Moslem region in order to make it easier to destroy them, what Hitler was unsuccessful in because of the Jews’ great dispersion.

There are those who explain that this attitude is a form of idolatry. They worship, “the dust that is on their feet,” believing that wherever they go, G-d is with them.

Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer (ch. 29) relates that Sarah saw Yishmael shooting an arrow at Yitzchak in order to kill him, and said, “The son of that slavewoman shall not inherit with my son, with Yitzchak.” (Bereisheet 21:10) Why does the issue of the inheritance trouble Sarah so much?

The sefer, Minchat Ani (by the author of the Aruch Laner) explains that Sarah that Yishmael did want Yitzchak to inherit together with him, but rather he would inherit everything.

Rav Hutner explains that for this reason Yishmael hates Israel so much, since the children of the concubines received presents from Avraham, whereas Yishmael was chased away. Moreover, all of this was after he thought that he was the only child. Therefore, his disappointment was so great, and he burned with hatred.

Why did Yishmael think that everything was his? The Netziv explains that Sarah was punished by being taken to Avimelech’s house because she laughed to herself and said, “my husband is old.” (Bereisheet 18:12) There is an element of quid quo pro here. When she said, “my husband is old,” there was a lack of faith that Avraham was capable of fathering. Her punishment was that the skeptics of the time were given room to say that Yitzchak was actually not the son of Avraham, but rather of Avimelech, and that Sarah became pregnant from him. This was the meaning behind Yishmael’s mocking.

“The child grew and was weaned. Avraham made a great feast on the day Yitzchak was weaned. Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, ... mocking.” (Bereisheet 21:8-9) The Sforno writes: “He was ridiculing the feast, saying that she became pregnant from Avimelech.” “Sarah laughed in herself saying, ... and my husband is old.” (Bereisheet 18:12) Now she saw Yishmael mocking that Yitzchak is not his son.

This is the source of the Yishmaelites contention on our holding of Eretz Yisrael, since if Yitzchak is the son of the Philistine, then Eretz Yisrael belongs to the descendents of Avraham, who are the Yishmaelites.

With this we can understand Chazal’s teaching that Yishmael repented. Their source is from the pasuk, “Yitzchak and Yishmael, his sons, buried him” (Bereisheet 25:9), that Yishmael allowed Yitzchak to go before him. What is the proof from this that he repented? Since Yishmael had claimed that Yitzchak was not Avraham’s son, by allowing him to go first, he acknowledged that Yitzchak is, indeed, a son following his father’s coffin.

The Zohar in Parshat Va’era teaches that Yishmael’s angel complained that he was rejected and that Yitzchak was chosen and received the inheritance of the Land, even though he, too, is circumcised. G-d answered that this was to distance Yishmael from the ultimate clinging, and He gave them a share in the Holy Land below. Thus, Yishmael is destined to rule the Land so long as it is empty, and they will prevent Bnei Yisrael from returning to their place, until the merit of the circumcision runs out.

Eretz Yisrael is the land of faith and Providence: “G-d’s eyes are upon it.” (Devarim 11:12) Only believers can dwell in it. So long as it is empty, believers like Yishmael can dwell in it, but when Israel, who are steadfast believers, arrive, their merit expires.

Therefore there is a double obligation to increase our faith in these times, to overcome Yishmael’s right to the Land.

Now we are approaching the end: “A dread! Great darkness fell upon him.” (Bereisheet 15:12) “A dread...” – these allude to the four kingdoms; “upon him” alludes to Yishmael, and over them the son of David will sprout, as it says, “His enemies I will clothe with shame, but upon him, his crown will sprout.” (Tehillim 132:18) R. Chaim Vital writes that all of the kingdoms wanted to convert us, and only through this came to murder, unlike Yishmael, whose goal is to eradicate Yisrael’s name from the world, and does not suffice with converting faith.

The Rambam writes in Iggeret Teiman that there was no nation worse to Israel than Yishmael, and about them David said, “Woe unto me, for I dwelled with Meshech, I dwelled with the tents of Kedar.” (Tehillim 120:5) Despite the fact that we bear their yoke without complaining, and their subjugation and their lies and falsehoods are more than we can handle, despite all this, we cannot be saved from the magnitude of their evil and recklessness. As much as we chase after peace with them, they chase us with war, as David said, “I am peace; but when I speak, they are for war.” (120:7)

Rav Kook on Parashat VaYeira: The Salt of Sodom

The Torah vividly contrasts the kindness and hospitality of Avraham’s household with the cruelty and greed of the citizens of Sodom. When visitors arrived at Lot’s home, the entire city, young and old, surrounded the house with the intention of molesting his guests. Lot’s attempts to appease the rioters only aggravated their anger.

Washing after Meals
The Gemara makes an interesting connection between the evil city of Sodom and the ritual of washing hands at meals. The Sages decreed that one should wash hands before and after eating bread, as a form of ritual purification, similar to partial immersion in a mikveh. The rabbinical decree to wash hands before meals is based on the purification the Kohanim underwent before eating their terumah offerings.

The Gemara in Chulin 105b, however, gives a rather odd rationale for mayim acharonim, washing hands after the meal. The Sages explained that this washing removes the salt of Sodom, a dangerous salt that can blind the eyes. What is this Sodomite salt? What does it have to do with purification? How can it blind one’s eyes? 

The Selfishness of the Sodomites
In order to answer to these questions, we must first understand the root source of Sodom’s immorality. The people of Sodom were obsessed with fulfilling their physical desires. They concentrated on self-gratification to such a degree that no time remained for kindness towards others. They expended all of their efforts chasing after material pleasures, and no energy was left for helping the stranger. 

Salty stone at Dead Sea (Wikimedia Commons)

Purifying the Soul When Feeding the Body
A certain spiritual peril lurks in any meal that we eat. Our involvement in gastronomic pleasures inevitably increases the value we assign to such activities, and decreases the importance of spiritual activities, efforts that truly perfect us. As a preventative measure, the Sages decreed that we should wash our hands before eating. Performing his ritual impresses upon us the imagery that we are like the priests, eating holy bread baked from terumah offerings. The physical meal we are about to partake suddenly takes on a spiritual dimension.

Despite this preparation, our involvement in the physical act of eating will reduce our sense of holiness to some degree. To counteract this negative influence, we wash our hands after the meal. With this ritual cleansing, we wash away the salt of Sodom, the residue of selfish preoccupation in sensual pleasures. This dangerous salt, which can blind our eyes to the needs of others, is rendered harmless through the purifying ritual of mayim acharonim.

(Gold from the Land of Israel. pp. 44-45. Adapted from Ein Eyah vol. I, p. 21 by Rav Chanan Morrison)

Akeidat Yitzhak and the Story of the Jewish Nation

by Rabbi Dov Berel Wein

The story of the miraculous birth of Yitzchak to his ninety-year-old mother Sarah is not only one of the highlights of the parsha but it is one of the foundation narratives of all of Jewish history. Without Yitzchak there simply isn’t a Jewish people. The birth of Yitzchak is one of the triumphal moments of Jewish life, a reflection of God’s mercy and guidance in creating His special people.

It is therefore all the more surprising – indeed shocking – that the story of Avraham sacrificing Yitzchak appears in this very same parsha. In effect, this story of the binding of Yitzchak on the altar of Mount Moriah completely negates the miraculous birth of Yitzchak.

Of what necessity or purpose is the miracle of Sarah’s giving birth to Yitzchak if the entire matter will be undone by the succeeding story of Avraham sacrificing Yitzchak? What is the point that the Torah wishes to teach us by unfolding this seemingly cruel sequence of events? Is not God, so to speak, mocking His own Divine Will and plans by this sequence of events, recorded for us in this most seminal parsha in the Torah?

Much ink has been used in dealing with this most difficult issue. It has been the subject of much commentary in Midrash and Jewish thought throughout the ages. Amongst the many mysterious and inscrutable issues that God raises for our analysis in His Torah, this contradiction between the miraculous birth of Yitzchak and the challenge of his being bound on the altar ranks high on that long list of Heaven’s behavior that requires Jews to have faith and acceptance.

But is this not the nature of things in today’s Jewish world as well? After the most negative of extraordinary events of sadistic cruelty that we call the Holocaust, miraculous positive events have occurred to the Jewish people. The old woman of Israel, beaten and worn, was revived and gave birth to a state, to a vibrant language, to myriad institutions of Torah learning and good deeds, to the miraculously successful ingathering of the exile communities to their homeland, to a scale of Jewish affluence unmatched in Jewish history.

In short, the story of the Jewish people in its resilient glory over the last seventy-five years defies rational and easily explained historical logic. And yet the danger and tension of open hostility to the State of Israel, the threats to its very existence, the attempts to delegitimize it and boycott its bounty, all are evident in our current world.

In the story of Yitzchak, the Torah teaches that we have to live in a world of almost absurd contradictions. Logic plays a very small role in the events of history that occur to the people of Yitzchak. Yitzchak is a product of miracles and his very maturation and survival is also a product of supernatural stuff. So too is this the story of the Jewish people in our age. Just as Yitzchak survived and proved successful, so too shall we, his progeny, survive and be successful and triumphant.

Not So Innocent Civilians

by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky
(

First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

There is no more unctuous lament being heard today across the world than that of the fate of the so-called “innocent civilians” of Gaza. Indeed, those lamenting the loudest – including some members of the United States Congress and world leaders – were the most inaudible regarding the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas (including some of the same civilians”) against the Jewish visitors and residents of the Gaza-area communities. The horrific murder, torture, molestation, and kidnapping of women, young and old, infants, children, men of all ages, are mentioned in passing, if at all, and occasionally accompanied by some measure of rationalization such as offered by the UN Secretary-General.

Antonio Guterres suggested that Hamas’ Nazi-like behavior did not “happen in a vacuum.” Would he ever assert that the death of Gaza civilians past and future also does not “happen in a vacuum”? Hardly.

It is not merely that the smarmy politicians, academics, college students, BLM activists and assorted hypocrites and Jew haters refuse to distinguish between the intentional homicide of non-combatants and collateral damage caused while attacking legitimate military targets. It is that their passionate Jew hatred, irrational to the core, engenders in them the notion that all Jews, everywhere, are targets, and when Jews are assaulted and brutalized, we had it coming. They need never answer the question, why. It is doubtful they ever ask it; it is taken for granted.

Much of the world grudgingly concedes that Israel has the right of self-defense, as long as Israel does not exercise that too strenuously or effectively. But there is a good part of what used to be called civilization that does not even grant that right. Murdering Jews is always justified. As Becket Adams wrote last week in National Review, many people – journalists and politicians – were “disappointed” when it turned out that Israel did not bomb a Gazan hospital. Similarly, it violates some macabre and pathological conception of theirs when Jews defend themselves and take the war to the enemy. To their thinking, Jews should die, and they should be quiet about it as well. Hence the duplicitous calls for a cease fire.

But just who are these “innocent civilians” of Gaza? These are the same people who elected Hamas in 2006, knowing that Hamas’ charter called for the extermination of all Jews. That charter preceded Hamas’ election by almost two decades. These “civilians” knew for whom they voted and why they voted for them. There are the same “civilians” whose homes conceal entrances to Hamas’ tunnels, whose hospitals shield Hamas’ leaders, whose clinics and schools are used as launching pads for Hamas’ rockets. These are the “civilians” who rushed across the border fence on October 7 to maraud, rape and murder. These are the “civilians” who are used as human shields. My sympathy for them is lacking and we should feel no guilt about their fate.

Certainly, infants are innocent, but all children pay the price for the folly of adults. More troubling are the adults – civilians all – who birthed and raised monsters, such as one evildoer who called his father from Kibbutz Mefalsim to boast in real time of his mass murder: “Father, look how many Jews I killed with my own hands! Your son, I killed ten Jews with my own hands!’ To which the proud father responded: “God is great. May God protect you.”

Consider this for a moment. Is there one reader among you who would be “proud” of a child who boasted of mass murder? If I while driving accidentally struck a pedestrian who fell to the ground and tore his pants, I would have been too embarrassed to tell my father. And here, this savage not only murders, beheads, tortures, and dismembers, but he also has the presence of mind to call his father, knowing that his father would admire his cowardly and dastardly deeds. Those are not “innocent civilians”; those are people steeped in a sick culture of hatred that is inconceivable to normal human beings. Those are people who willingly aid and abet mass murder and then cry about the consequences when they and their homes are bombed. Gaza’s imams this week issued a fatwa calling it a crime against Islam for any Gazan to travel south to avoid Israel’s offensive. They are not “civilians” but passive combatants, tools in Hamas’ arsenal. They deserve no protections – certainly not international law – and humanity will be better off without them.

The recourse to international law to protect these murderers and their accomplices is farcical. For decades now, the West has struggled with a response to radical Islam and the proper method for conducting asymmetrical warfare. Consequently, radical Islam, as typified by Iran, has grown stronger, and even stronger due to the appeasement of the Americans and the West. But the primary fallacy has been the West’s choice to indulge the grisly notion that Israel has to be bound by the rules of war while their enemy does not, that somehow proxies of Iran are excused from the norms of war that bind all others. That notion is illogical, immoral and violates the Torah. It is tantamount to fighting with one hand tied behind your back, the better for the enemy to chop off your free hand. The enemy’s immorality should redound to their detriment. It should not be allowed as an essential part of their strategy. It should not be their strength. Our morality should not be the enemy’s armor. That only causes more suffering for the good, decent, and righteous, and prolongs the war against evil.

We should never willingly or intentionally kill civilians – and we don’t. We should also never propagate or embrace the fantasy that most Gazans are innocent civilians, oppose Hamas, or want peace with Israel. Joe Biden should stop saying that Hamas does not represent Gaza. Hamas garnered a far larger percentage of the vote than did Biden; does Biden not represent America? We should not delude ourselves that Gazans did anything but rejoice over the massacre of Jews. They did. I have yet to hear one dissenting word from Gaza, one smuggled-out video, one recorded audio with an altered voice that expresses revulsion at the mass homicide committed by their fellow citizens and co-religionists. They are not innocent at all and pretending that they are is a Western subterfuge and an Israel and Jewish weakness. It will cost Jewish lives and that is the ultimate immorality.

The grossest ongoing violation of international law is the holding of Jewish hostages, which somehow the “world” condones as, well, just the way it is. We are expected to provide water, electricity, food, medicine, and other needs to our enemy to demonstrate our commitment to international law, notwithstanding that the enemy can flout international law with impunity. That, too, is senseless and immoral, and we should not tolerate that. We should be unafraid to tell the world – including Biden, Blinken, Macron and whoever else visits Israel – that if Hamas still has enough fuel to launch rockets, then they have enough fuel, period. Let the hospitals procure their fuel from the leaders they elected. Let the million and a half “innocent civilians” revolt against their cruel leaders if indeed they are so innocent and so troubled by the conditions in Gaza.

We should have no interest in making more Arab fathers proud of their sons’ talent for murdering Jews.

Only Israel has every military action assessed and approved by its lawyers. That is no way to run a war and no way to win a war, which has resulted in decades of Israel not winning any wars and even thinking that wars are not winnable. That is a defeatist strategy that has brought disaster upon us. The United States and allies have fought wars in the last century that have killed millions of enemy civilians, with reassessments coming only after the wars’ successful conclusions. That is a good template for us as well.

Hamas has been analogized to ISIS and to the Nazis, and that is accurate. But there is another, even more useful analogy for Jews. Hamas is the modern Amalek, defined as a people that murders Jews simply because they are Jews. There was no strategic benefit to the Simchat Torah massacre. It was just a bloodlust, a wanton and depraved savagery to debase and murder every Jew on whom they could get their wretched hands. We should see them as Amalek and suddenly the way forward is clear.

They deserve no sympathy, not from Jews, and not from anyone who aspires to be part of the civilized world. Those truly innocent should be afforded safe passage elsewhere, as long as terrorists do not escape with them. If Hamas remains in existence, no Jew is safe anywhere.

May the government that failed to protect us prosecute the war successfully so that our enemies, wherever they are, fear raising a hand against a Jew. It should not cower or waver, not embrace the false values of the West that seem to apply only to us, and never to them, and never to our enemies. It should talk tough and act tougher. We must prioritize Jewish life, especially those of our soldiers. And may the G-d of Israel protect them in their righteous missions.

Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook: Report on Relations with New Turkish Government

#174 

Date and Place: 5 Kislev 5669, Yafo

Recipient: Rav Kook’s uncle, R. Yehuda Leib Felman

Body: I rejoiced upon receiving the signed letter that you gave to me (Rav Kook used a play on words with a complex halachic concept), in which you informed us about your satisfactory state and in which you inquired about our welfare. Thank G-d, His kindness continues to grow as He enables us to live in our Coveted Land, which Hashem established to always be holy before Him, above all other lands, from the beginning of time and for eternity.

There is nothing to fear from the news regarding the government, in whose hands Hashem entrusted our Holy Land until it will return (may it happen soon) to its true owners, the offspring of His servants. (The Young Turks movement had taken over the Ottoman Empire, replacing the Sultan with a civilian council.) To the contrary, we see that the Hand of Hashem, which was involved in the matter, acted [as usual] for the good, to cause the “horn of salvation” to flourish.

The draft notices [that they send to Jewish men] can be redeemed by paying 50 Turkish liras, which is worth approximately 400 rubles. Also, any Torah scholar is exempt according to government law. It is even possible that, with Hashem’s help, it will be possible to arrange kosher food for our Jewish brethren (presumably for those in the Turkish army in Eretz Yisrael) and that they will be given vacation on Shabbat and holidays.

In the other direction (i.e., what can be gained by engaging the new Turkish government), Jews (unclear if this is only those who serve in the army, or in general) will be able to be promoted to all the various levels of the government, even the highest ones. They actually like to have those who believe in Hashem and in our holy Torah [working for them], and respect for the Torah is important to them. In short, there is absolutely nothing to worry about from the change in the government.

Fortunate is he who is blessed with riches and property and settles in the Holy Land. (Rav Kook was certainly not speaking about himself, as he was not rich. Perhaps, Rav Kook’s uncle, about whom I did not succeed to find information, was well-off and might have been considering or was open to moving to Eretz Yisrael). If he does so, he will be able to see a wonderful spiritual life during his physical life, enjoying the aura of the pleasantness of its sanctity and the beauty of its desirable air, which is pleasant and pure. From the small amount of revealed special qualities, one can peek from between the cracks at the hidden treasures that Hashem [has stored in Eretz Yisrael], in the grandeur of the aura of its glory, honor, and splendor. May Hashem make the Land secure very very quickly, with great goodness for the House of Israel.

I also would like to request of you to bring us joy on a regular basis with your dear letters, letting us know about your good life and the peace that you and all of your offspring, from near and far, shall enjoy. May Hashem bless them all with His bountiful blessing and goodness. May you receive herein the prayer of peace and blessing from the eager spirit of your nephew, who loves you with all my heart and soul. We look forward to Hashem’s salvation for His nation in the Land of our Heritage, quickly in our days.

“To Your Descendants I Have Given This Land!”

by HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

The covenant G-d forged with Avraham was expressed in the past tense: “On that day, the L-rd made a covenant with Avram saying, ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the Egyptian River as far as the great river, the Euphrates’” (Bereisheet 15:18).

Regarding the use of the past tense when we might have expected, “To your descendants I will give this land,” Rashi explains: “G-d’s word is as good as done.” In other words, the time factor is nullified before a divine promise, and future is transformed into past by the promise’s great certainty. All this is in contrast to covenants, agreements, and promises between human beings, which do not stand the test of time, and which have failed, as is known, throughout history.

Right now, our generation is privileged to see with its own eyes the start of the fulfillment of G-d’s promise to Avraham. Eretz Israel and the millions of Jews gathering together in our land are living testimony to the fulfillment of the promise to give us Eretz Yisrael. We have not yet attained the covenant’s complete fulfillment, however. After all, the covenant also enumerates the promised borders, “from the Egyptian River as far as the great river, the Euphrates’” (Bereisheet 15:18). We are still living in a generation in which the borders of the State of Israel change in accordance with Israel’s wars and in accordance with the political and diplomatic power struggles between us and the Arabs and their supporters among the nations, who put obstacles in our path, intending and preparing for our downfall. Yet King David, the sweet singer of Israel, long ago declared, in relating to the enemies of Israel:

“Why are the nations in an uproar? Why do they mutter in vain? The kings of the earth join ranks and the rulers take counsel together, against the L-rd and against His anointed... ...He who sits in the heavens laughs. The L-rd has them in derision... ...You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Tehilim 2:1-2,4,9). Ultimately days will come when the nations of the earth will recognize their wickedness and folly: “Be wise now therefore, O kings; be warned, O judges of the earth” (Ibid., v. 10; see Rashi there).

From within also, there is still great weakness. The question that Avraham asked about Eretz Yisrael - “How can I really know that it is mine?” (Bereisheet 15:8) - is a question expressing weak faith and doubts regarding the future of the Land. Not by virtue of this question was it said, “Avraham believed in the L-rd, and the L-rd counted it as righteousness” (v. 6). Quite the contrary, such a question is unfortunately asked by that part of the nation sunken in a trance, stricken with worry and dread regarding the future of the State of Israel, and indeed, the Torah says, “Avraham fell into a trance and was stricken by a deep dark dread” (v. 12).

Yet, this weakness too, will pass. Indeed, the day is not far off when an enormous change will occur in the  in the Land of Israel. More and more, we will return to ourselves. We will recognize our identity, our uniqueness, and our destiny, as a great and holy nation “chosen by G-d from among all peoples” (Regalim tefilot) to act benevolently and bring light to all mankind from Eretz Yisrael and Jerusalem. That vision accords with Yeshayahu (2:3), “For out of Tzion shall go forth the law, and the word of the L-rd from Yerushalayim”, as well as with G-d’s promise to the father of our nation, “Go away from your land... ...to the land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation... ...You shall become a blessing... ...All the families of the earth will be blessed through you” (Bereisheet 12:1-3).

Such a situation already existed at the dawn of our history, following Avraham’s victory over the four kings, when all the nations crowned Avraham as a “prince of G-d” and an officer over them (Rashi on Bereisheet 14:17). Moreover, the Rabbis have said, “The deeds of the fathers presage those of the sons.”

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

Shabbat Shalom.

Yeshivat Machon Meir: Avram (Avraham) vs. Noach (video)

The Journey

by Rav Binny Freedman

What would it take today for a person to give up his principles? What would cause a person to leave his faith? The story of Sol Teichman comes to mind.

Sol Teichman was twelve years old when World War two began, and the Germans started rounding up Jews all over Poland. Sol and his family lived in the Hungarian town of Munkacz, in a large family home that once occupied two square blocks; their initials are still visible on top of the house. They are all that is left of the once thriving Munkacz Jewish community, full of Belzer and Munkacz Chassidim. Of the 40,000 people in Munkacz, approximately 80% were Jewish, over 90% of whom were Sabbath observant.

Even so, there was always anti-Semitism in Munkacz, and when Sol would visit his grandparents on their farm, they weren’t allowed outdoors on Sunday mornings; after church, as the priests marched with crosses in hand, the parishioners would spit and kick at any Jews they passed…

So the Jews kept to themselves and were oblivious to the storm that was coming…

Mr. Teichman was close with the Minchas Elazar, the Munkaczer Rebbe, and recalled him exhorting is followers that if they kept Shabbos all would be good for them…

Shortly after his Bar Mitzvah, Sol’s father was taken away to a Hungarian Labor camp, but as bad as things were, the Hungarians were still not the Nazis, and the Jews still did not see what was coming, until the spring of 1944. On the second day of Pesach (Passover) in 1944, the Jews of Munkacz were given one hour to vacate their homes and were herded into the ghetto.

In June, they were transported to Auschwitz. That was the last time that Sol Teichman saw his mother, sister and three of his brothers. Sol would often later recount:

“If you didn’t have faith, you had nothing to live for.”

Throughout the terrible Holocaust years, he never ate on Yom Kippur.

As the end of the war approached, the Nazis forced many of their Jewish prisoners to participate in their infamous death march to Dachau. Sol and his brother Steve began the march. But Steve’s strength gave out so Sol carried him for the rest of the journey. Of the 6,000 who started the march, only about 600 survived, Sol and his brother among them…

Eventually after the war, the two brothers managed to get aboard a ship full of American soldiers as part of a group of two hundred orphans being sent to America under the sponsorship of Eleanor Roosevelt.

The boat docked in New York on a Shabbat afternoon. When the two boys realized it was Shabbos they refused to disembark; The Minchas Elazar’s voice was ringing in their ears, “Keep the Shabbos and it will be good for you.” The crew threatened them that they would be arrested or taken back to Europe, but the Teichman brothers held fast. When the Captain heard what was going on he made sure the boys were allowed to stay on the boat till Shabbat ended; when they got off a crowd was waiting for them; the press had gotten wind of the story and hundreds of people came to meet the two boys, Holocaust survivors who still believed … *

So how does someone who sees his entire life go up in flames, who loses his mother and siblings, his home, and almost everything he holds dear at such a young age still believe that Hashem (G-d) runs the world? How does he keep faith that Shabbat still matters?

This week we read the portion of Lech Lecha, which begins the journey of the Jewish people and specifically the journey of Avraham, the father of Judaism. Jewish tradition (Pirkei Avot 5:4) describes his life as a series of ten tests, culminating in next week’s portion with the binding of Isaac. Although the Mishna does not delineate what these tests are, it is generally accepted that the first is Hashem’s command to Avraham to leave everything behind and undertake a journey to an unknown land.

“Lech Lecha” (Bereisheet 12:1) Go from your country, your home, even your family, leave everything behind, and journey into the unknown, to the land that I will show you.

This journey, tradition teaches, must have been an incredible leap of faith. To be willing to leave everything behind, to journey into the unknown following a belief the entire world at the time considered to be madness, must have taken tremendous courage, self-sacrifice, and idealism, not to mention altruism, and selflessness, without any ulterior motive.

And yet, if one takes a closer look at the actual story in the Bible, nothing could be further from the truth!

The words that represent the mission G-d gives to Abraham are “Lech Lecha”.

So what do these words really mean? Literally, ‘go for yourself’! Indeed G-d then shares with Abraham what he will gain by taking this journey:

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great.” (Ibid.v.1-2)

Rashi (Rav Shlomo Yitzchaki, 1040-1105) explains the words Lech Lecha as “for your own good and your own benefit”. Indeed, these three benefits promised by G-d are explained as producing great progeny (children), great wealth, and great fame.

And in fact, the portion of Lech Lecha proceeds to describe how Abraham, upon arriving in Israel, achieves all three of these blessings. He acquires great wealth upon his return from Egypt, he achieves great fame by defeating the mighty empire (5 kings) of the day on the battlefield, and he has a son (Yishmael) and is promised another (Yitzchak) at the end of the portion.

So what was the great test or challenge here?

If you were seventy years old, without children, a poor man with no money, unknown, and with a set of ideas so radically different that people thought you were a mad man, and G-d came to you and promised that if you took this journey, you would become wealthy, famous and finally have children, wouldn’t you go? Who wouldn’t?

Rav Moshe Feinstein in his Darash Moshe suggests that what made this command challenging was that it made no sense: why would G-d need Avraham to go anywhere to make him famous and allow him to become wealthy and achieve his goals?

If G-d is really all powerful, then Avraham can become great right in Mesopotamia (Charan) where he is. And this, says Rav Moshe is what made Avraham great; he spent a lifetime thinking and analyzing the world according to the pagan idolatry of his time, and he alone finally discerned that it was one G-d who was the source of reality, so clearly Avraham was a thinker. And yet he knew when he had to take a leap of faith that was beyond logic. Indeed, faith begins where logic ends.

And it is precisely the ability to move beyond logic, to take that leap of faith that allows us our greatest moments. Love, as an example, is not always logical; sometimes you have to take a leap of faith.

This, suggests Rav Moshe, is what is meant by the verse (ibid 17:1):

“Walk before me and be complete.”

“Hithalech le’fanai Ve’heyeh tamim…”

Avraham walked before G-d in that he acted based on his understanding of what Hashem wanted of him, even though he did not understand; he did what needed to be done even if sometimes it made no sense (as in the binding of Isaac…) simply because Hashem asked it of him.

We live in a world where everything has to make sense, and so many of the younger generation are trying to logically find a way to believe. But belief is way beyond faith, and sometimes we need to let go of the limitations and constraints that logic place on us, to discover the world and the reality beyond logic.

For two thousand years the Jewish people continued to believe even when that belief was completely illogical, when it made absolutely no sense.

After the Holocaust, in 1945, the world-renowned historian Arnold Toynbee wrote an article noting that the enigma of history, the Jewish people, was finally falling into the pattern of all other ancient peoples and, just like the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians the Greeks and the Romans, the Jewish people were finally going to disappear. He called his article The Fossil.

Five years later, after the birth and survival of the State of Israel, an Israeli Historian, Chaim Herzog (who would one day become the President of Israel) wrote an article which he called The Fossil lives.

Sol Teichman understood that not everything makes sense; sometimes you just have to let go of the question and put your faith in something much bigger than your own intellect …

After all, it was Shabbos …

Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.

Rabbi Ari Kahn on Parashat Lech Licha - Meaning and Purpose (video)

Qatar: Master Double-Dealer

by Con Coughlin

• The hundreds of millions of dollars the Qataris have given Hamas during the past decade have been instrumental in helping the terrorist group to develop the infrastructure that enabled it to carry out its murderous assault on Israel in the first place.
• Qatar would like the world to believe that it is acting as an honest broker with its efforts to secure the release of the Gaza captives. But the reality is that it deserves to be condemned by the West as a state that sponsors global terrorism, so long as it maintains its indefensible support for Hamas.

The hundreds of millions of dollars that the Gulf state of Qatar has given Hamas during the past decade have been instrumental in helping the terrorist group to develop the infrastructure that enabled it to carry out its murderous assault on Israel in the first place. Pictured: Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal (R) and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and are hosted by Qatar's then Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani at a ceremony in Doha, Qatar on February 6, 2012. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

There is a very good reason why the tiny Gulf state of Qatar finds itself so well-placed to play a central role in negotiating the release of Israeli hostages taken captive by Hamas during its barbaric assault against Israel.

The hundreds of millions of dollars the Qataris have given Hamas during the past decade have been instrumental in helping the terrorist group to develop the infrastructure that enabled it to carry out its murderous assault on Israel in the first place.

Qatar would like the world to believe that it is acting as an honest broker with its efforts to secure the release of the Gaza captives. But the reality is that it deserves to be condemned by the West as a state that sponsors global terrorism, so long as it maintains its indefensible support for Hamas.

Continue Reading Article

Obama, Iran and the Road to Gaza

by Daniel Greenfield

In 2014, Hamas kidnapped and killed three teens, including Naftali Frenkel, an American 16-year-old. “I’ve murdered three Jews,” the killer boasted.

As Israel battled Hamas, Obama called for a ceasefire. “I have no sympathy for Hamas. I have great sympathy for ordinary people who are struggling within Gaza,” he argued, while describing the terrorists as having behaved “extraordinarily irresponsibly”.

“The US goal right now would be to make sure that the ceasefire holds, that Gaza can begin the process of rebuilding,” Obama said and urged that there needs to be “some prospects for an opening of Gaza so that they do not feel walled off.”

After the fighting died down, the Palestinian Authority asked for $4 billion to rebuild Gaza, the international community pledged $5.4 billion with $212 million of it coming from America.

“The people of Gaza do need our help, desperately,” Secretary of State John Kerry claimed.

The ceasefire which allowed Hamas to rearm and rebuild was one in a series that led directly to the horrors in the Israeli communities near Gaza attacked by the murderous Islamic group.



Obama’s pivot on Hamas was part of his pivot on the Muslim Brotherhood. When he delivered his ‘New Beginning’ speech in Cairo in 2009 , he specifically requested that the Muslim Brotherhood attend as he not only called for a ‘Palestinian’ terrorist state inside Israel and negotiations with Iran, but also legitimized Hamas which is an arm of the Brotherhood.

“Hamas does have support among some Palestinians, but they also have to recognize they have responsibilities. To play a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, to unify the Palestinian people, Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, recognize Israel’s right to exist,” he told an audience which included members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Hamas responded warmly to the outreach. Hamas boss Khaled Mashaal praised “Obama’s new language towards Hamas” and described it as “the first step in the right direction.”

Obama had made a point of reaching out to Hamas and to both of its key backers: the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran. On taking office, he had received letters from both Hamas, which “congratulated Mr. Obama on his presidency and reminded him that he should live up to his promise to bring real change to the region”, and from key national security figures, Brent Scowcroft, who provided advice to him, Chuck Hagel, his future defense secretary,

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter’s national security adviser, Paul Volcker, the head of Obama’s economic recovery board, along with other notables, urging him to talk to Hamas.

“I see no reason not to talk to Hamas,” Scowcroft, a longtime advocate of Iran appeasement, had argued. The national security figure was especially influential with Obama gushing, “I love that guy.” And what Obama offered was much better than words..

Earlier in 2009, the Obama administration promised to provide $900 million in aid to help “rebuild” Gaza after fighting that began when Hamas was caught digging a tunnel to kidnap Israelis. The donation was announced in Egypt by Hillary Clinton who promised that the money would not end up in the “wrong hands”, but made no mention of Hamas.

Despite that promise, Obama administration officials told Congress that the money needed to be allocated even if Hamas were to become part of a ‘unity’ government with the PLO. The unity government never happened. Instead, Hamas drew Israel into a series of clashes that ended with ceasefires and reconstructions funded by American aid that left the terrorists stronger.

In March 2014, Rob Malley, who had been dumped by the Obama campaign for his contacts with Hamas, was brought back in and made a senior National Security Council director and then the White House Coordinator for the Middle East. When Obama pressured Israel to stand down and accept a ceasefire after the kidnapping and murder of three Jewish teens, Malley was at the wheel. After Hamas survived, Malley moved on to become Obama’s lead negotiator on the Iran deal. He became Biden’s special envoy to Iran until he was sidelined when the FBI began investigating him for mishandling classified information.

Malley had described Hamas as a misunderstood organization victimized by “misinformation”.

When Obama took office, Iran was torn by internal strife and Hamas was struggling to hang on to Gaza. By the time he left office, Iran had benefited from sanctions relief and used that money to tighten its grip on Syria, Iraq and Yemen (not to mention Lebanon.) Obama’s Arab Spring delivered significant amounts of weapons and rockets to Gaza from Libya, By 2019, Hamas was receiving $30 million a month from Iran. More recently it benefited from the trade in weapons abandoned in Afghanistan. All the negotiations made Iran and Hamas much more powerful.

And this was not an accident.

The Hamas atrocities in the last day of the High Holy Days were a direct result of Obama’s foreign policy which empowered Islamists and undermined American allies. Hamas was the beneficiary of not only regular rebuilding programs after every clash with Israel, but of the newfound wealth and power of Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Obama replaced Bush’s flawed agenda of democratizing enemy nations with something much worse, Islamizing allied nations. The Arab Spring and the Iran Deal had disastrous consequences for every allied country in the region. The effects on Israel were more subtle. It handled the Syrian Civil War on its border without being significantly affected by it and survived Egypt’s brief experiment with Muslim Brotherhood rule. Iran’s rise posed a grave threat, but also spurred some Arab Muslim Sunni enemy nations to form the Abraham Accords alliance.

And yet Obama’s foreign policy had a corrosive effect on Israel that few were aware of. Hamas rocket attacks increased in volume and range. Regular conflicts were settled with ceasefires. Israeli leaders came to rely on a defensive strategy, building up the Iron Dome program, while remaining confident that high tech tools, surveillance cameras, drones and sensors, would enable it to manage any crisis coming out of Gaza. That has proven to be disastrously wrong.

The mindset that made Israel so vulnerable came from the modus vivendi imposed by the Obama administration. Rather than trying to defeat or at least cripple Hamas, Obama had pressured Israel, as he had Egypt and the PLO, to make Hamas a partner. Israeli leaders were encouraged to find ways to incentivize good behavior by Hamas. Such programs led the previous leftist Israeli government to offer 20,000 work permits for Gazans to enter Israel.

Those Gazans scouted Israeli communities and took part in the brutal Hamas attacks.

Obama had corrupted both America and Israel into adopting the worldview that Islamic terrorism could not be defeated, only managed by making deals with even the worst possible terrorists. Hamas was treated as a rational actor which could be co-existed with as long as it had something tangible to gain from avoiding conflict. This same philosophy underlay the massive aid programs to rebuild Gaza after every war which provided Hamas with weapons and money.

It was and still is the philosophy behind the Iran Deal and in every attempt to reach an accommodation with Islamic terrorists. Foreign policy appeasers claimed to be realists and argued at every turn that the jihadists were reasonable and could be dealt with.

“We may disagree with them, but they have their own rationality, that’s the one thing to understand. These are not—none of them are crazies,” Rob Malley spoke of Hamas. “If you want to take Hamas at its word, its long-term objective is the destruction of Israel. But that’s not a practical or realistic goal, even for them,” Brent Scowcroft said dismissively.

The negotiations and agreements with Hamas and Iran, not to mention the Taliban, advocated by the realists fell apart badly. A political and military leadership, and diplomatic corps which had absorbed the nonsensical propositions of the realists was unable to see it coming. Its members refused to evacuate the embassy from Kabul until the very last minute because they were convinced that the Taliban were going to join a unity government. They are still trying to cut an interim nuclear deal with Iran. And they didn’t see a Hamas attack coming.

All the calculations of co-existence were wrong. The ideas that the Obama administration had passed off as reasonable, sensible and credible were actually delusions unmoored from reality.

“Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘Nice doggie’ until you can find a rock,” Will Rogers had quipped.

That is still how our enemies practice diplomacy, but we keep saying ‘nice doggie’ without ever looking for a rock or realizing that we even need one. Saying ‘nice doggie’ has become a magical incantation that continues to be invoked no matter how often it fails.

Defeating Hamas and neutralizing Iran are more than military problems, they require the unlearning of the foolishly dangerous ideas injected into the establishment under Obama.

Barack Obama opened the road to Gaza with his outreach to the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iran Deal. Closing the door on Hamas will require also closing the door on Obama’s legacy.

The only land where a person can really fulfill Ain Od Milvado

by Rabbi Pinchas Winston

Friday Night

I COULD NOT have planned it better. This is Issue #2018, and #70 of Ain Od Milvado, two very important numbers in this week’s parsha. Talk about Hashgochah Pratis.

More on that later, b”H. In the meantime, I was allowed to share the following personal note, which I feel is relevant to this week’s parsha. This is what it says.

Dear God: I am writing this letter to You, and to me as well. Anyhow, you already know what I am about to write, even if I don’t. You’re probably even telling me what to write.

First of all, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing me to live in Your land, Eretz Yisroel. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t appreciate it and feel eternally grateful to You for the merit. I don’t know what I did to deserve it, or if I even do, but I’m so very glad that I am here.

Now with the latest war I want to add something. Everyone dies at some point, some sooner than later. We have already lost so many in the last two weeks alone, and so horribly. We don’t get to choose when we go, or how and where. But if I die in Eretz Yisroel, even just “accidentally,” I thank you again. Admittedly it would be nice to go out in a more meaningful way, but at least it was still in Eretz Yisroel, making death so much more meaningful.

I do ask one personal thing, though. If I am meant to go soon, which would be considered early by most standards, help my family survive it. They’re going to be shocked and sad, so please help them cope. I want them to be strong and happy in life so they can serve You with a complete heart. Please don’t let my death break them in any way.

Having said that, here is my request regarding the rest of my brothers and sisters, even the ones who say that they do not feel the same way about me. Although, I have to say, You have certainly brought a lot of people together who, just weeks ago, were headed in opposite directions. It is wonderful that has happened. It is so painful that it cost so much.

So please save us from any more division and destruction. Nineveh was saved because it didn’t know its right from its left. We were almost destroyed because we knew the difference only too well. Dor HaFlagah, the Generation of the Dispersion, wasn’t destroyed because they worked together. We were destroying ourselves by working against each other. So, I beg You God, let this air of achdus become increasingly stronger, so that we will never go back to our warring ways again. The only one our infighting strengthens is the Sitra Achra, and those he works through.

I’m asking this of You specifically because I have learned that creating achdus in the Jewish people is beyond our capability. No one is smart enough to talk to so many people with so many different opinions and make them all get along. It would take a huge miracle, and last I checked, that was Your department.


Shabbos Day
WHY HAVE I put a request for achdus before a victory over our enemies? Because I know that the latter depends upon the former. That’s the reason, isn’t it, why division in this country is usually followed by some kind of unifying war?

During the Yom Kippur War in 1973, I was told, many thought it was the end of the Jewish State, God forbid. But when some asked Rav Abramsky, zt”l, one of the Gedolim of that generation, why he wasn’t as concerned as others about the outcome he told them, “With this much achdus the Jewish people will not lose the war!” He was right, Boruch Hashem.

After all, You didn’t bring us back to Eretz Yisroel to divide us. We are a nation that knows exile only too well. We are the only people to have been spread to the four corners of the earth, and the only one to have been ingathered from there afterwards. To do what? To fight against each other? To build walls between groups? We are supposed to be a single people with a single God living on a single land. It’s in our dovening, in Shabbos Mincha.

Granted, national unity has not been our history. Moshe Rabbeinu had to fight off dissenters and breakaways in his day, and that was right under the auspices of God. After getting to the land and building a kingdom, it later divided into two parts during Rechavam’s reign, remaining that way until foreign powers eventually attacked and exiled all of us.

Even after we came back to the land, we had a difficult time being unified. The joke about “two Jews, three opinions” is no joke, just a sad reality. You would think that a nation that suffered the Holocaust would never want to fight one another ever again. We have enough enemies in the world. We don’t need to become our own worst enemies as well.

But I think I know why it happens. I think I understand where the bad comes from. This was a land that once belonged to the most depraved people on earth, the Canaanim. But how can the holiest land be lived on by such evil people? Strangely enough, it was not a question I thought to ask until after I already saw the answer, in a sefer, as You know, called Tuv HaAretz. It explains a lot.

Based completely on the teachings of the Arizal, it explains that Eretz Yisroel is not something that You created, but something that we, the Jewish people, have to create. It is our job to redeem the holy sparks that are the basis of the land out of the side of spiritual impurity and bring them to the side of holiness. That is what transforms Eretz Canaan into Eretz Yisroel.

I guess we never did that fully. It would seem from history that as close as we have come to doing it, we were still far enough away to be affected by the Klipos, the spiritual basis of evil in the world. I also assume that it is also possible to reverse some of the redemption and send sparks back to the Klipos, just as Adam HaRishon did when he sinned. Not only did he not fix the rest of Creation, he undid a lot of what You had already rectified. That’s how Gan Aiden turned into this very non-paradisal world of ours.

I suppose this is something that has to be resolved once and for all before Moshiach comes.


Shalosh Seudot
I GUESS ALSO that this might be the reason why we had to go through what we just did, and what might be coming up, may it be sweet and easy, please. We may have recovered the physical land of Eretz Yisroel back in 1948, but not all of the spiritual reality of it. Some of Eretz Canaan still lingered after all this time.

We have been told that Eretz Yisroel today is built upon the ashes of the Holocaust. Six million sparks were released from this world and somehow gave us the right to get and keep our homeland in preparation of the final redemption, may it come very soon and peacefully. Might it be then that the death and suffering over the last couple of weeks, reminiscent of the atrocities and cruelties of the Holocaust, be part of the final payments, part of the final extraction of the remaining sparks from the side of impurity in preparation for Moshiach’s arrival.

I don’t just hope so.

I believe so.

As You told us, Your ways are not our ways, which is why we have a difficult time comprehending Your calculations. Sacrifices have been imposed upon us that we ourselves would not have made, given the choice. We don’t have the big picture view You do to know why they need to be made in the first place. That kind of understanding, we have been told, won’t come until later.

In the meantime, it seems, it is Lech Lecha for all of us. We’re going to have follow You blindly and trust You implicitly. We’ll have to have faith that You will direct us down the best path possible, despite what the world and history seem to show us. Avraham did, and we have to learn from him how.

Isn’t that what Bris Ben HaBesarim was all about? What a prophecy! Strangers in a land not ours for 400 years! Oppression for long periods of time! Sure, eventual redemption. But how many would still be around to enjoy it? How many of those generations were born and died in slavery, never getting a chance to realize the reality of the Your promise and their hope?

Now my bubby’s prayer makes so much more sense to me than ever before. It was her own personal prayer that she constantly said because she had gone through so much in her lifetime, more than many other people of faith could ever handle and remain loyal to You. “God,” she would say, “test me if You will, but also give the strength to pass Your tests.”

Amen. Because it seems that, as children of Avraham Avinu, having our faith and trust in God tested is part of our legacy. Help us make passing Your tests part of that legacy as well.
Ain Od Milvado, Part 70

THE BRIS BEN HaBesarim took place in 2018, the issue number of this parsha, and it was also Avraham’s 70th year, the number of this week’s chapter of Ain Od Milvado. How impressive is that, since I started number these many years back, and didn’t start Ain Od Milvado until last year, and had no idea that they would come out together in the one parsha that they make a difference. The odds must be astronomical against it, especially since not everyone is familiar enough those numbers and the history behind them to realize the “coincidence” as it happens.

What does it mean? No clue. We’re not talking about the Urim u’Tumim here. We don’t have prophets to find out or confirm our suspicions. But one thing it does do with certainty is make you feel the Presence of God, even on the level of your learning and teaching. And the truth is, the Zohar says that’s what Lech-Lecha actually meant.

What’s the purpose of life? What do you want from life? These are questions that many of us consider at one point or another in our lives, but the answer tends to be something very personal, something that gives us pleasure in life. Not too many people get the real answer, God’s answer.

And what is God’s answer? His revelation of Himself to us. Not for His benefit, mind you, but for our benefit. That’s what God gave Avraham to encourage him to make the move to Eretz Yisroel, the promise of a more intense revelation of God, available nowhere else in the world.

And that’s what God told us as well when He said, “I am God, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be a God to you (Vayikra 25:38). God’s just not willing to reveal Himself as intimately anywhere else but in Eretz Yisroel, making it the only land where a person can really fulfill ain od Milvado.

Besoros Tovos for Klal Yisroel.

Why Jewish Soldiers Die in Battle

BS”D
Parashat Lech Lecha 5784
by HaRav Nachman Kahana

War time is the wrong time for the people of Medinat Yisrael to point an accusing finger at whoever they believe was negligent in responding to the signs that Hamas was about to perpetrate the unspeakable atrocities. There is plenty of time for that after the cannons become silent.

Indeed, there are irresponsible reporters and news analysts who have already placed the blame for our state of unpreparedness on the night of Shmini Atzeret on the shoulders of the head of military intelligence; while others blame the general of Israel’s southern command, and still others on the head of the Prime Minister.

Wise people don’t go down that path of social suicide because the only issue at stake now is the swift and complete destruction of the Nazi Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

However almost every rule has its exceptions. I stand now and declare “j’accuse” the despicable actions of groups of Torah deniers, and in particular one woman who provoked the quality of severe justice to appear before HaShem with the criminal sheet.

I will explain:

Jewish soldiers defending Eretz Yisrael fall at the hands of today’s Amalek. That should not happen. A Jewish warrior who goes out to fight for God’s chosen people is supposed to return home to continue his life, and not to be killed on the battlefield!

Indeed, the count on Memorial Day of 2023 was 24,213 soldiers of Tzahal who are at rest in military cemeteries scattered throughout the land; and the question remains, what went wrong when not one of them deserved to die?

It is not only me who is asking this question before HaShem. The first to do so was Yehoshua bin Nun.

The Book of Yehoshua relates that after the miraculous victory at the city of Yericho, the next Canaanite place to be taken, as the Jews moved westward, was the small town of Ai. Yehoshua’s generals suggested that instead of sending the entire Jewish army, it would be more than enough to send just 3000 troops. Our 3000 men were defeated, with the dire result that one Jewish warrior named Yair Ben Menashe was killed. He was equal in Torah knowledge to half the Sanhedrin of 71 judges!

Yehoshua was devastated! How could it happen that a Jewish soldier was killed while taking part in the major mitzva of liberating Eretz Yisrael? Jewish soldiers don’t die in battle!

Book of Yehoshua 7:6-11

6 Then Yehoshua tore his clothes and fell face down to the ground before the ark of the Lord, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and they sprinkled dust on their heads.

7 And Yehoshua said, “Alas, HaShem, why did You bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites – to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan!

8 Pardon your servant, Lord. What can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies?

9 The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this, and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will You do for Your own great name?”

10 HaShem said to Yehoshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face?

11 Israel has sinned. They have violated My covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions.

HaShem informed Yehoshua that “Israel had sinned”, the implication being that the community of Israel itself had caused the catastrophe of losing the battle, and a Jewish soldier being killed.

Yehoshua investigated the matter and discovered that one man, Achan Ben Karmi, had stolen some items from the Yericho booty that was sanctified for the Mishkan.

Achan was put to death by HaShem’s command, despite the fact that the punishment for intentional embezzling of a sanctified item is malkot (39 whip lashes), not death.

HaShem’s declaration to Yehoshua that “Israel had sinned” was in fact the sin of only one man – Achan Ben Karmi of the tribe of Yehuda, who caused the defeat of the Jews and the death of the righteous Yair of the tribe of Menashe.

The Almighty’s accounting principle that an “innocent” man could pay the ultimate price for another’s sin is beyond human comprehension. But the principle is in effect: Jewish soldiers die in battle when other Jews sin and cause the Midat Hadin (the Quality of Harsh Justice) to prevail.

The severity of Achan’s act and death penalty can be readily understood.

The Jewish nation’s 40-year sojourn in the hostile desert was no secret. The Midrash relates that there was commercial and theological contact between the Jews and other nations, so Am Yisrael’s end goal of entering the Holy Land was no secret.

But the Canaanite nations in Eretz Yisrael were not overly worried, because between them and the Jews stood two buffer states ruled by invincible kings, Og King of Bashan and Sichon King of the Amorites.

On their way to crossing the Jordan River, Moshe Rabbeinu and the Jewish army totally annihilated these two buffer states. At this point, a gentile in the Holy Land with any thoughts of self-preservation probably left the land or prepared to do so knowing that no one could stand before the “steam roller” of God’s chosen people.

Yehoshua at the head of the army destroyed Yericho. By then, it is probable that the majority of the gentile population had already left Eretz Yisrael. Then came the disaster at Ai caused by the sin of Achan. A Jewish soldier was killed, and our army was routed. The remaining gentiles concluded that it was possible to defeat the Jews in battle. So why leave? And so, they unpacked and remained.

Indeed, Yehoshua conquered the land in seven years of battles, however, the gentiles who remained, influenced many of the Jewish nation to adopt their idolatrous ways, which eventually led to the destruction of the First Bet HaMikdash.

The result of Achan’s heinous sin and the resulting military defeat empowered the gentiles to deny HaShem’s gift of the Holy Land to the Jewish people, and they remained in Eretz Yisrael. HaShem commanded that Achan be put to death, not because he embezzled from the sanctified objects, but because of the dire repercussions of his act: the goyim remaining here and influencing the Jews to practice idolatry.

We all sin! Indeed, there is no escaping the tyranny of the yetzer hara (evil inclination), as stated by Shlomo HaMelech (Kohelet chapter 7): “There is not a tzaddik in the world who does good and never sins”.

There are sins which go no further than staining an individual’s neshama, however there are sins which carry with them historical implications.

There was a group of Israelis whose conduct raised doubts as to their authentic Jewish genealogy of being born to a Jewish mother, and especially one woman whose dire sin was equal in its national and religious consequences to that of Achan Ben Karmi, with similar tragic results.

It occurred on the night of Kol Nidrei and Yom Kippur day in Tel Aviv, this year. This anti-Torah group interfered with noise and other related nuisances against the thousands who came together to pray. But the peak of insanity was one woman whose name I don’t know who will have to stand before the heavenly court and explain why so many Jews have been murdered. She entered a minyan wearing only a bathing suit and stood by the chazan until he stopped the prayers.

When I heard of this on the news, and that she and her friends were not arrested and charged with degrading Judaism, I knew that it would not pass without a divine reaction. We would feel a big sheimis (slap) very soon, and indeed, it came on Shemini Atzeret.

She and her liberal progressive friends who seek to eradicate all semblance of Judaism from the land crossed the border into insane evilness. They evoked the heavenly gazeira (decree) that our nation is in need of an electric shock to return us to our Jewish roots.

It was not the generals, nor the politicians, nor the troops in the area who were derelict in their responsibilities. It was a decree from the Shamayim that we, as the nation chosen by Hashem, must do teshuva, so the leaders were “put to sleep” temporarily.

After three thousand years of bonding and acquaintanceship, it is high time that we realized that HaShem is serious. He restrains Himself from punishing us for our sins, but there comes a time and limits of conduct where restraint turns to action.

The hate of Judaism demonstrated on Yom Kippur by certain Jews was the TNT that took down the defense wall in Gaza. It remains for us to analyze, draw conclusions, and return to who we really are.

I wonder. Why have we not seen pictures of burnt batei knesset (shuls) and desecrated Torah scrolls? Think about it – there is a reason!

Shabbat Shalom
Nachman Kahana
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