Thursday, February 29, 2024
Favoritism and Tikun Olam
Parashat Ki Tisa 5784
by HaRav Nachman Kahana
Part One: Favoritism
A short lesson in Hebrew (Ivrit):
What is the Hebrew word for “bias” and “favoritism” and “privilege”?
Answer: אפליה, pronounced aflaya.
Our parasha records the pivotal moment regarding the Creator’s interaction with humanity before our parasha and after, and its implications for all future generations of Jews and gentiles.
Four Shabbatot ago, in parashat Yitro, HaShem presented the two tablets of the Ten Commandments to Moshe to be given to the Jewish nation. Moshe was a bit late in coming down from Mount Sinai, causing the rabble to feel justified in making a golden calf and proposing that it be the new deity of Yisrael. When Moshe descended the mountain and saw what the people had done, he shattered the tablets and ordered the rebels to be put to death.
HaShem revealed to Moshe that He could no longer tolerate the disloyal Jewish people and His intention to obliterate them. In their place He would establish a new generation of Jews from the offspring of Moshe. Moshe pleaded that he felt that his destiny was intertwined with this Jewish people, so if they die, he requested that his name be erased from the Torah. Here began an incredible dialogue between the ultimate Creator and the greatest mortal ever born.
Moshe brought about a reconciliation between HaShem and the Jewish nation no matter the severity of the sin. Moshe realized that if he and the nation had found favor with HaShem, enough to forgive this intolerable sin, then this was the opportune moment to submit another giant request (Shemot 33,16-17):
ובמה יודע אפוא כי מצאתי חן בעיניך אני ועמך הלוא בלכתך עמנו ונפלינו אני ועמך מכל העם אשר על פני האדמה
ויאמר ה’ אל משה גם את הדבר הזה אשר דברת אעשה כי מצאת חן בעיני ואדעך בשם
How will it be known that You are pleased with me and with your people unless You go with us (to Eretz Yisrael?) and show favoritism [bias] towards your Nation!
And HaShem said to Moshe: I will do the very thing you have asked [be forever biased towards the Jewish nation], because I am pleased with you, and I know you by name.
Moshe’s request was that the Shechina be present only within the Jewish people and not in any other nation or religion. HaShem agreed to Moshe’s request that He relate to humanity according to APARTHEID, where the Jews would be treated forever in a privileged manner.
Let’s see how it played out in history:
What is the oldest monotheistic religion still practiced to this day?
Judaism.
How long did the Tabernacles (Mishkanot) and Holy Temples stand in Jerusalem?
They all stood for a total of over 1200 years: The Tabernacles for approximately 400 years
King Shlomo’s Holy Temple for 410 years
The second HolyTemple (including the Temple of Hordus) for 420 years
Did we survive two millennia in the galut under the cruelty of Christianity and Islam?
Indeed yes.
Did we return to our ancestral homeland in Eretz Yisrael?
Yes.
Were we miraculously victorious in all the wars we fought here?
Yes.
Was Jerusalem restored to Jewish sovereignty on the second day of the Six Day War after 2000 years of praying?
Yes.
Is there another example of a people uprooted from their land and who returned to it after 2000 years?
No.
Is there any other ancient world empire in existence today?
No.
Is the Hebrew language that our F-35 pilots communicate with while flying identical to the Hebrew spoken by King David 3000 years ago?
Yes.
Are the Jews in Eretz Yisrael today drawing closer to traditional Judaism?
Yes.
Where are the Nazis and the Communists who were so committed to destroying our nation?
In the ash heap of history.
Is the innate spiritual and intellectual Jewish genius still functioning?
Yes.
Is this not DIVINE APARTHEID?
HaShem, Creator of all things – including logic and reason, compassion, and punishment – need not justify His actions. The dissolution of the idea – beginning with the Tower of Bavel – that all people are equal was negated the moment HaShem accepted Moshe’s request that He show favoritism to us forever, just as a parent to a child.
This is the central platform upon which Torah Judaism stands – a nation commanded and committed to be close to the Creator through the 613 commandments, as apart from all gentiles who were created to live their lives according to the 7 Noachide commandments.
Tehillim 147,19-20:
מַגִּיד דְּבָרָיו (כתיב דְּבָרָו) לְיַֽעֲקֹב חֻקָּיו וּמִשְׁפָּטָיו לְיִשְׂרָאֵֽל
לֹא עָשָׂה כֵן ׀ לְכָל־גּוֹי וּמִשְׁפָּטִים בַּל־יְדָעוּם הַֽלְלוּיָֽהּ
He tells His words to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel.
He did not do so to any nation, and they did not know the judgments. Hallelukah!
Part Two: Tikun Olam
A major principle in Kabala is that the world we live in now, following the distortion and corruption caused by Adam and Chava by their failed behavior in Gan Eden, is called Tikun Olam. Its meaning is to repair, amend and correct the defects, deficiencies, and deviations that the first human beings brought upon the billions of their future offspring.
In practical terms, Tikun Olam is achieved by making right the evils that exist in society, by restoring mankind to the holy principles of right and wrong, and by clinging to the ways of HaShem.
I am a fervent student of Jewish history. I began with the Tanach and then general history, which I studied at Brooklyn College night school in the years when it had a very high national scholastic rating because of the large number of its yeshiva students. I was introduced to the evil realities created by humanity, whose ways negated and denied the ideals of Tikun Olam.
For some strange reason, I was affected by the inhumanity shown to the indigenous Indians of the continent by the church-going Europeans who murdered millions of them in order to take their lands (perhaps I was influenced by the westerns that I watched on television).
By every standard, the indigenous Indian population to this day is inferior to the national norm in every standard such as health, education, life expectancy, and cultural freedom.
If you are interested in more details, search Google to get an idea of what the founding fathers of the US did to advance “Manifest Destiny” (the destiny of the white civilized Christian Europeans to extend their land grabs from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans, at the expense of millions of dead “redskins”).
At this point, some of you impatient readers may be asking yourselves why the issue regarding the American Indians is being discussed by a rabbi in Eretz Yisrael.
Answer: The United States and a number of Arab countries are finalizing a perilous and perfidious “peace plan” to be shoved down the throats of Israel. The unilateral plan (in total disregard to what Israel says) is to establish a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and its boundaries between the river and the sea.
We all know that, without HaShem’s intervention, a parallel state of millions of Hamas Arabs adjoining Petach Tikva, Yerushalayim and Tel Aviv will be our demise in less than a decade. There will be only one state between the river and the sea whose motto is “itbach al yehud” (death to the Jews).
Let’s get back to the Apache, Sioux, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Blackfeet, Arapaho, and Navajos.
In the name of Tikun Olam, the world must right the wrongs that have been done to the millions of Indians (who today number 326 reservations and 573 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and villages in over 25 states) whose standard of living is deplorable. Morality dictates that Israel as the oldest moral religion, together with a number of Arab countries, finalize a plan to establish the “Indigenous Indian Nation” comprising 25 states in today’s United States along with membership in the UN.
That’s “fair play” as taught in the U.S. – “Redskins” get 25 states and ‘White Man” 25 states, both with their capitals in Washington DC (divide and conquer ). ”
The chances of a national state of Indians in the heartland of America are more probable than a “Palestinian” state bordering on Israel. Never!
Shabbat Shalom through victory,
Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5784/2024 Nachman Kahana
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
A necessary evil
Friday Night
IT IS OFTEN called a necessary evil. When is evil ever necessary, you may ask. But the answer is, until Moshiach comes. We’re here to use free will, and that is what necessitates the existence of evil.
But that seems like a no-brainer. Choose evil over good? That’s crazy. Yes, it is, which is why the gemara says that a person has to be insane to sin (Sotah 3a). If so, then who is the Torah later telling to choose life? It’s not like you can have a logical discussion with mentally unwell people.
The answer of course is that the Torah is talking to people who are mentally well, but intellectually out of touch. They are not trying to do evil per se and even think that they’re doing okay by God. They’re wrong, but since no one or nothing is pushing them to see through their rationalizations and admit the truth, they don’t.
Because they don’t, they do not realize how far gone they have become. When I traveled a lot I used to see all kinds of people in the airports. Most of the time, nothing and no one really stood out, but there was always someone who would catch my attention in amazement and make me ask myself, “Doesn’t this person see how they look to others?”
On speaking trips, I also met a lot of people. At first, everyone seemed similar, but after a conversation or two, it would begin to become clear how differently people think from one another. It would also become clear how my idea of weird could be someone else’s normal, and as I smiled and politely listened I would think to myself, “Are you kidding me?”
Of course, others could and would say that about me. Everyone has their own set of rationalizations that they allow to influence their way of thinking. We’re all fighting the same battle, just on different levels. It’s only a question of who is winning and who is losing, and how badly.
So when the Torah later admonishes, “Choose life that you may live” (Devarim 30:19), it is talking to all of us who rationalize to make the truth what is most convenient for us, not necessarily what it is. It’s trying to inspire us to wake ourselves up before Divine Providence and history are forced to, as they have so many disruptive times in the past.
Ultimately, it is about not becoming part of the Erev Rav—Mixed Multitude. They’re first mentioned back in Parashas Bo on the way out of Egypt, but they rise to prominence in this week’s parsha with the episode of the golden calf. It is a warning to all generations to come. It is no coincidence, as the GR”A pointed out, that Erev Rav equals da’as—knowledge—in gematria.
Shabbos Day
DA’AS USUALLY HAS a positive connotation: “If you want it as you do silver, and search after it like buried treasures, then you will understand fear of God, [and] Da’as Elokim you will find (Mishlei 2:4). But we need only to go back to the Garden of Eden to recall that the Aitz HaDa’as was an Aitz HaDa’as Tov V’RA, a tree of knowledge of good AND evil.
We need only to look at the world to see just how true a reality that it is. Thanks to technology, the world has never been filled with more da’as. But thanks to all that da’as, the world has also probably not ever been more evil, or able to act on it. The hatred of Jews of the Chmielnicki Massacres in 1648-49 was on par with the Nazis’s hatred of Jews. They just lacked the technology to act it out.
The truth is, knowledge itself is neutral. What makes it good or bad is how the person is using it, either for good or for bad. The same technology that surgeons use to perform life-saving operations can be used, in the wrong hands, to hurt innocent people. Even Torah knowledge has at times been used against the Jewish people.
The Erev Rav does this all the time. They’re manipulative. They have a way of taking knowledge and subtly twisting it to ensnare less aware minds in their falsehoods and selfish ambitions. They’re psychological terrorists who prey on the intellectually weak and undermine the intellectually strong. They have a way of making deceit look like the truth.
The scary thing is that when the Zohar, and then later the GR”A, describe the Erev Rav and how they act, it is not so shocking…which is shocking. It means that we’ve become so accustomed to such levels of behavior that we tend to minimize their destructive ability. We’ve come to accept such miscreant activities as unwanted, perhaps, but also as unavoidable.
It’s like saying, “Well, we need politicians, but politicians tend to be corrupt. Therefore, we must need some corruption.”
But there is a greater danger than just being at the mercy of Erev Rav leaders, as the Zohar and GR”A foretold would be the case in later generations. It is how the evil of the Erev Rav spreads to others who, at one time, would have rejected the Erev Rav out of hand. As the expression goes, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing.”
And when that happens, the GR”A warned, a person de facto becomes one of the Erev Rav, and it would have been better if they had not been born at all.
Shalosh Seudot
THIS IS WHY the entire nation was held responsible for the sins of a few thousand people. The golden calf involved very few Jews in the end, just the Erev Rav and a bunch of Jewish “stragglers.” And the rest of the nation? Sitting at home and nervously shaking in their tents while doing nothing to stop the evil. Instead, they just worried about what would happen once Moshe Rabbeinu returned to deal with it. They were “good men” doing nothing in the face of evil.
It’s the idea of risk that traps us, what putting ourselves out there might cost us. It could be embarrassing or worse, it could cost us our jobs or some kind of benefit. People who stand up for truth have to be ready for attacks against them, their families, and whomever the enemies of truth can access to try and intimidate their opposers.
It’s the world we live in today and will be until Moshiach comes and gets rid of the yetzer hara. As long as the yetzer hara is allowed to wander around, there will be people willing to take advantage of any system they can to get ahead and stay ahead. They have agendas and often devious means, to further those agendas while making it look as if they are honest and reliable.
It’s not that there are not a lot of good people left in the world. I believe that they still make up the vast majority of the world’s population today. But they are not the aggressive ones, and certainly not the noisy ones. They are content to work hard for what they want, which is rarely excessive.
But history shows that being only a good person is rarely enough for this world. We need to be more.
Melave Malkah
THERE ARE THREE (Hebrew) words that have rung out through history. Well, at least they should have. They are, “Mi l’Hashem Elai—Whoever is for God [come] to me.” It was Moshe Rabbeinu’s rallying cry to those still loyal to God in the camp below. The party was over—literally—now that Moshe had returned to the camp and caught the perpetrators worshipping the golden calf. It was time to clean up the mess and restore order once again.
Easier said than done. Killing off the guilty was only the first step. Then Moshe had to return up the mountain for another 40 days, to beg God to forgive the rest of the nation for allowing the incident to occur. Then he had to come back down and carve out two new tablets for God to write on to reboot Torah history. It was a long and drawn-out process that left a lot of people worrying for months about their survival.
And all because “good” people didn’t step up when the situation required it. They let their fears hold them back from going out on a limb for God when they had the chance to. As the Chofetz Chaim told a young Rabbi Shimon Schwab thousands of years later, “Next time the call goes out, make sure you answer it!”
The problem is that the call is not always a recognizable and reliable voice. Many times, the voice does not come from outside the person, but from within them. It is their sense of right and wrong that nudges them and complains, “Shouldn’t we be doing something about this travesty of justice?”
Of course, if a person does not have such a clear picture of right and wrong, they won’t even care that much about situations that others can’t overlook. They will remain oblivious to problems until they become so big that no one can ignore them. Too late, they will later complain and wonder what they could have done before the problem had gotten out of hand.
IT IS OFTEN called a necessary evil. When is evil ever necessary, you may ask. But the answer is, until Moshiach comes. We’re here to use free will, and that is what necessitates the existence of evil.
But that seems like a no-brainer. Choose evil over good? That’s crazy. Yes, it is, which is why the gemara says that a person has to be insane to sin (Sotah 3a). If so, then who is the Torah later telling to choose life? It’s not like you can have a logical discussion with mentally unwell people.
The answer of course is that the Torah is talking to people who are mentally well, but intellectually out of touch. They are not trying to do evil per se and even think that they’re doing okay by God. They’re wrong, but since no one or nothing is pushing them to see through their rationalizations and admit the truth, they don’t.
Because they don’t, they do not realize how far gone they have become. When I traveled a lot I used to see all kinds of people in the airports. Most of the time, nothing and no one really stood out, but there was always someone who would catch my attention in amazement and make me ask myself, “Doesn’t this person see how they look to others?”
On speaking trips, I also met a lot of people. At first, everyone seemed similar, but after a conversation or two, it would begin to become clear how differently people think from one another. It would also become clear how my idea of weird could be someone else’s normal, and as I smiled and politely listened I would think to myself, “Are you kidding me?”
Of course, others could and would say that about me. Everyone has their own set of rationalizations that they allow to influence their way of thinking. We’re all fighting the same battle, just on different levels. It’s only a question of who is winning and who is losing, and how badly.
So when the Torah later admonishes, “Choose life that you may live” (Devarim 30:19), it is talking to all of us who rationalize to make the truth what is most convenient for us, not necessarily what it is. It’s trying to inspire us to wake ourselves up before Divine Providence and history are forced to, as they have so many disruptive times in the past.
Ultimately, it is about not becoming part of the Erev Rav—Mixed Multitude. They’re first mentioned back in Parashas Bo on the way out of Egypt, but they rise to prominence in this week’s parsha with the episode of the golden calf. It is a warning to all generations to come. It is no coincidence, as the GR”A pointed out, that Erev Rav equals da’as—knowledge—in gematria.
Shabbos Day
DA’AS USUALLY HAS a positive connotation: “If you want it as you do silver, and search after it like buried treasures, then you will understand fear of God, [and] Da’as Elokim you will find (Mishlei 2:4). But we need only to go back to the Garden of Eden to recall that the Aitz HaDa’as was an Aitz HaDa’as Tov V’RA, a tree of knowledge of good AND evil.
We need only to look at the world to see just how true a reality that it is. Thanks to technology, the world has never been filled with more da’as. But thanks to all that da’as, the world has also probably not ever been more evil, or able to act on it. The hatred of Jews of the Chmielnicki Massacres in 1648-49 was on par with the Nazis’s hatred of Jews. They just lacked the technology to act it out.
The truth is, knowledge itself is neutral. What makes it good or bad is how the person is using it, either for good or for bad. The same technology that surgeons use to perform life-saving operations can be used, in the wrong hands, to hurt innocent people. Even Torah knowledge has at times been used against the Jewish people.
The Erev Rav does this all the time. They’re manipulative. They have a way of taking knowledge and subtly twisting it to ensnare less aware minds in their falsehoods and selfish ambitions. They’re psychological terrorists who prey on the intellectually weak and undermine the intellectually strong. They have a way of making deceit look like the truth.
The scary thing is that when the Zohar, and then later the GR”A, describe the Erev Rav and how they act, it is not so shocking…which is shocking. It means that we’ve become so accustomed to such levels of behavior that we tend to minimize their destructive ability. We’ve come to accept such miscreant activities as unwanted, perhaps, but also as unavoidable.
It’s like saying, “Well, we need politicians, but politicians tend to be corrupt. Therefore, we must need some corruption.”
But there is a greater danger than just being at the mercy of Erev Rav leaders, as the Zohar and GR”A foretold would be the case in later generations. It is how the evil of the Erev Rav spreads to others who, at one time, would have rejected the Erev Rav out of hand. As the expression goes, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing.”
And when that happens, the GR”A warned, a person de facto becomes one of the Erev Rav, and it would have been better if they had not been born at all.
Shalosh Seudot
THIS IS WHY the entire nation was held responsible for the sins of a few thousand people. The golden calf involved very few Jews in the end, just the Erev Rav and a bunch of Jewish “stragglers.” And the rest of the nation? Sitting at home and nervously shaking in their tents while doing nothing to stop the evil. Instead, they just worried about what would happen once Moshe Rabbeinu returned to deal with it. They were “good men” doing nothing in the face of evil.
It’s the idea of risk that traps us, what putting ourselves out there might cost us. It could be embarrassing or worse, it could cost us our jobs or some kind of benefit. People who stand up for truth have to be ready for attacks against them, their families, and whomever the enemies of truth can access to try and intimidate their opposers.
It’s the world we live in today and will be until Moshiach comes and gets rid of the yetzer hara. As long as the yetzer hara is allowed to wander around, there will be people willing to take advantage of any system they can to get ahead and stay ahead. They have agendas and often devious means, to further those agendas while making it look as if they are honest and reliable.
It’s not that there are not a lot of good people left in the world. I believe that they still make up the vast majority of the world’s population today. But they are not the aggressive ones, and certainly not the noisy ones. They are content to work hard for what they want, which is rarely excessive.
But history shows that being only a good person is rarely enough for this world. We need to be more.
Melave Malkah
THERE ARE THREE (Hebrew) words that have rung out through history. Well, at least they should have. They are, “Mi l’Hashem Elai—Whoever is for God [come] to me.” It was Moshe Rabbeinu’s rallying cry to those still loyal to God in the camp below. The party was over—literally—now that Moshe had returned to the camp and caught the perpetrators worshipping the golden calf. It was time to clean up the mess and restore order once again.
Easier said than done. Killing off the guilty was only the first step. Then Moshe had to return up the mountain for another 40 days, to beg God to forgive the rest of the nation for allowing the incident to occur. Then he had to come back down and carve out two new tablets for God to write on to reboot Torah history. It was a long and drawn-out process that left a lot of people worrying for months about their survival.
And all because “good” people didn’t step up when the situation required it. They let their fears hold them back from going out on a limb for God when they had the chance to. As the Chofetz Chaim told a young Rabbi Shimon Schwab thousands of years later, “Next time the call goes out, make sure you answer it!”
The problem is that the call is not always a recognizable and reliable voice. Many times, the voice does not come from outside the person, but from within them. It is their sense of right and wrong that nudges them and complains, “Shouldn’t we be doing something about this travesty of justice?”
Of course, if a person does not have such a clear picture of right and wrong, they won’t even care that much about situations that others can’t overlook. They will remain oblivious to problems until they become so big that no one can ignore them. Too late, they will later complain and wonder what they could have done before the problem had gotten out of hand.
Michigan Muslims Take Biden Hostage to Save Hamas
While Israeli commandos rescued a 70-year-old man and 60-year-old man who were being held hostage in Gaza, Hamas supporters in America were taking an 81-year-old man hostage in D.C.
Hamas may be losing in Gaza, but it’s winning in Michigan.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib is now the latest Michigan Muslim terror activist to urge Hamas supporters in the state to reject Biden in the primary by casting an “uncommitted” vote.
According to Rep. Tlaib, who became the only member of Congress to refuse to vote to condemn Hamas rapes of Jewish women, her goal is to “create a voting bloc” to stop Israel’s campaign to take down the Islamic terror group.
The campaign, misleadingly titled, “Listen to Michigan”, to pressure Biden into saving Hamas is being run by Layla Elabed, Rep. Tlaib’s sister and its spokesman is Abbas Alawieh, who had served as Rep. Tlaib’s legislative director and then as Rep. Cori Bush’s chief of staff.
The leading signatory of ‘Listen to Michigan’ is Dearborn Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud (pictured above) who after the Hamas atrocities of Oct 7 had addressed a pro-Hamas rally declaring that Dearborn was “the city of resistance”.
That same rally featured Osama Siblani, the publisher of the Arab American News paper and with whom Biden officials had met in an attempt to end the pro-Hamas pressure campaign, who had previously told the Washington Post that, “Mr. Bush believes Hezbollah, Hamas and other Palestinian factions are terrorists, but we believe they are freedom fighters.”
The Dearborn mayor had spoken at a previous pro-Hamas rally at which Osama Siblani had threatened, “We are the Arabs that are going to lift Palestinians all the way to victory. Whether we are in Michigan, and whether we are in Jenin. Believe me. Everyone should fight within his means. They will fight with stones. Others will fight with guns. Others will fight with planes, drones. And others will fight with rockets. And others will fight in their voice.”
Michigan Muslims have decided to fight by taking Biden hostage while playing the victim.
Mayor Hammoud had recently convinced Biden to condemn a Wall Street Journal op-ed by a MEMRI counterterrorism researcher which exposed the level of terror support in Dearborn.
Hammoud then repaid Biden by doubling down on fighting to save Hamas from Israel.
The number two signatory is Michigan State Assembly Majority Floor Leader Abraham Aiyash out of Hamtramck, the first all-Muslim governed city in the country, who has accused Israel of “genocide” and promoted a message urging “context” for the Hamas atrocities of Oct 7.
(Rep. Aiyash was profiled in the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s Election Jihad report.)
The Hamtramck politician was rapidly elevated by the Democratic Party to one of the top positions in the state after first being elected in 2020. Rep. Aiyash abused that power to first block a resolution condemning the Hamas atrocities of Oct 7 because it did not also criticize Israel and complained that it neglected “the conversation around the Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza Strip, who for decades have endured mistreatment.”
He has now decided to repay the Democratic Party by taking Biden hostage for Hamas.
Also signing on to the campaign is State Rep. Alabas Farhat, newly elected in the 2022 midterms, who claimed that asking him to condemn Hamas was a “racist dog whistle”, and who has accused Israel of “apartheid”, “occupation” and the “systematic murder of Palestinians.
Also listed is ‘Bill’ Bazzi, Dearborn Heights’ first Muslim mayor, as well as Dearborn Councilman Mustapha Hammoud, the son of Abed Hammoud. Abed Hammoud, a Lebanese immigrant and an “old family friend” of Gov. Whitmer, who had headed the Congress of Arab American Organizations alongside Osama Siblani, had complained that a government crackdown on the Hezbollah Islamic terrorist group was “smearing the whole community”.
“Now people are scared to even say `I want Hezbollah to defend Lebanon,’” he had objected.
Despite that, the Obama-Biden administration had made Hammoud an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. Hammoud is currently listed as the lawyer for Hezbollah financier Mohammad Bazzi: a “specially designated global terrorist” who has been described as “a player for senior Hezbollah operatives and senior Iranian leadership”.
Hammoud, the other Hammoud, Farhat, Aiyash and multiple other Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, and Muslim officials across Wayne County benefited from significant Democratic Party funding outlays. But they did not run for office or take power for the party, the country or for anyone or anything except members of their tribal group and its ideology of Islam.
Given a chance they demonstrated that their only loyalty was to Islam and Muslim terrorists, not America or even the Democrats who brought them here, nurtured them and funded them.
At a recent speech, Rep. Ilhan Omar, speaking in her native language, hailed Somalis as “people of one blood” and “people who know they are Somalians first”.
“The US government will only do what Somalians in the US tell them to do,” the translation describes the Somali Muslim congresswoman as saying. “They will do what we want and nothing else. They must follow our orders.”
“Sleep in comfort knowing I am here to protect the interests of Somalia from inside the US system,” Rep. Omar assured them.
That is the ‘Listen to Michigan’ campaign writ large.
“We are on the road to a great victory here in D.C. and there in Palestine,” Osama Siblani, who had openly expressed his support for Hamas and Hezbollah, boasted at the same rally at which Mayor Hammoud spoke and at which other ‘Listen to Michigan’ signatories were present.
To the Hamas caucus in America, they are fighting one war whether it’s in Israel or America.
And Democrats are learning the hard way that their new Muslim constituency has no loyalties or allegiances to anything except, as Rep. Omar put it, “people of one blood” and, as has been made clear in Dearborn, people of the same religion. And the issue goes far beyond Israel.
Hamtramck Amer Ghalib, the mayor of the first all-Muslim governed city in America, is one of the ‘Listen to Michigan’ signatories. Democrats squirmed when Ghalib banned flying gay flags, compared black people to animals and attacked Christians. He praised Saddam and Iran.
These are a few of the other things that Democrats have to accept from their new electorate.
‘Listen to Michigan’ and you can hear the mayor of the first all-Muslim governed city thanking a Sheikh and celebrating the “young people from the Salafi stream who came out with great enthusiasm and elected me”. Salafis, like the Al Qaeda group, are a Jihadist movement.
‘Listen to Michigan’ and you can hear the Dearborn mayor hailing his city as a “city of resistance” at a pro-Hamas rally.
‘Listen to Michigan’ and you can see Michigan being taken hostage by Islamic terrorists. And that same movement is now bent on hijacking the 2024 presidential election. With Biden polling poorly, the Hamas supporters in Michigan are betting that they can either force Biden to save Hamas by imposing sanctions on Israel or that they can take credit for his election defeat.
The emerging narrative is that the Democrats aren’t turning out voters because the party hasn’t come out strongly enough in support of Hamas and against Israel. If the Democrats lose in 2024, that narrative will solidify and future Democratic Party presidential candidates will be warned to support Islamic terrorism and oppose those like Israel who resist it or lose
A handful of Muslim settlers in Michigan built up their state within a state, they’ve taken the Democratic Party hostage and now intend to take the United States of America hostage.
Pakistani Imam Preaches Jew-Hate in Belgian Parliament
by Drieu Godefridi
Pictured: The Brussels Regional Parliament in Belgium. (Image source: Romaine/Wikimedia Commons)
In a surreal scene revealed by Flemish anti-jihad researcher Peter Velle, on January 13, a Pakistani Islamist preacher came to the Brussels Regional Parliament in Belgium to chant verses from one of the most radical and anti-Semitic suras, Koran 33. The presentation provoked several reactions of indignation, particularly from the centre-right Mouvement Réformateur party (MR).
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- Three months to the day after Hamas's bloodthirsty massacre of Jews, an Islamist preacher from Pakistan comes to the rostrum of the Brussels Regional Parliament, in the capital of the European Union, to chant verses from a sura celebrating the defeat, surrender and massacre of Jews and the enslavement of Jewish women and children.
- For his presentation, Butt was awarded a medal at the end of the same ceremony by Nawal Ben Hamou (PS), Secretary of State of the Brussels-Capital Region, who congratulated the Islamist preacher on the "quality of his integration" into Belgian society.
- It is worth noting that this Islamist preacher of Jew-hate does not speak a word of French or Dutch, Belgium's two national languages. What a heart-warming story of "integration".
Pictured: The Brussels Regional Parliament in Belgium. (Image source: Romaine/Wikimedia Commons)
In a surreal scene revealed by Flemish anti-jihad researcher Peter Velle, on January 13, a Pakistani Islamist preacher came to the Brussels Regional Parliament in Belgium to chant verses from one of the most radical and anti-Semitic suras, Koran 33. The presentation provoked several reactions of indignation, particularly from the centre-right Mouvement Réformateur party (MR).
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The Ramadan Ruse
Is there anything more preposterous than abruptly halting Israel’s war against Hamas in order to allow Muslims to observe Ramadan? Well, rewarding our invaders with an independent state so as to facilitate another massacre leaps to mind as equally absurd, but still. The assumption is that our enemies will use Ramadan as intended, as a month of fasting, charity, prayer, contrition, and reflection. For sure, many pious Muslims do, but it is equally true that Ramadan has frequently been celebrated with an upsurge in violence.
Those with long memories will remember that Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack against Israel on Yom Kippur 1973 – during the month of Ramadan. In many circles, it is still called the “Ramadan War.” Somehow the prayer, contrition, and reflection did not inhibit that sneak attack that ultimately claimed about 2700 Jewish lives. Neither did the fasting; as I recall from the period, apparently Muslim soldiers are exempt from fasting during Ramadan because, presumably, they are engaged in the religious duty of killing the infidels.
Those with short term memories – which excludes many individuals in the Biden White House and State Department – can easily ascertain that our enemies have long used Ramadan in order to murder Jews. In 2016, Hamas gleefully labeled the murderous attack on the Sarona Market in Tel Aviv the “Ramadan Operation” and celebrated the “First Attack of Ramadan.” Other terrorist attacks on Jews soon followed, making that Ramadan a particularly bloody month in Israel. It is not even limited to Jews. In 2016 and 2017, ISIS twice bombed a popular street in Baghdad during Ramadan, killing hundreds of Muslims. During that same 2016 Ramadan, a radical Muslim attacked the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, murdering 49 people. These are not isolated examples. Arabs have historically fought vicious wars against each other during Ramadan.
Several years ago, the Institute for National Security Studies titled a report: “With Ramadan Approaching, the Fear of Escalation,” referring to increased terrorist attacks in Israel before and during Ramadan. Even our current Defense Minister pays too much deference to Ramadan. Thus, for years, we have been routinely warned to be extra cautious during Ramadan because Muslim emotions are very sensitive during that month, they are even more prone to violence, and that nothing should be done to provoke them.
Obviously, to a Jew, such sentiments sound bizarre, because they are bizarre. I do not recall ever becoming so agitated on Rosh Hashana or the Aseret Y’mei Teshuvah or Yom Kippur that I felt the urge to run out and attack innocent Gentiles, or even guilty ones. Nor have I ever heard of that passion afflicting any Jew. For that matter, it is inconceivable to any Jew – or any normal, moral, right-thinking person – to yell “G-d is great” as a prelude to murdering, raping, marauding, beheading, exploding, stabbing, shooting innocent people, for whatever reason. Perhaps good Muslims should use this Ramadan for soul searching and how best to uproot this savage evil from their midst. The problem is that in the parts of the world where this soul searching would be most needed, many Muslims live in fear, petrified that these radicals will turn on them, as has happened across the globe.
Nevertheless, in George W. Bush’s felicitous phrase, it is “the soft bigotry of low expectations” that so-called security experts, politicians, diplomats, and statesmen nod their heads and say, “well, of course, tensions always run high during Ramadan, and as such Jews should keep a low profile, because Muslim violence must be anticipated.” Such a sentiment insults the majority of the world’s Muslims, as well as our intelligence. It is the very definition of surrendering to bullies rather than confronting them and vanquishing them.
As such, it is hard to take seriously Biden’s demands for a “Ramadan” cease fire. It is tantamount to acquiescing to Hamas’ survival and what for it would be a victory in this conflict. Hamas would be getting away with murder. No person who genuinely wants to see the destruction of Hamas and the eradication of the evil that it represents could be pressing today for a cease fire. It is important to note that nothing inherently connects a hostage deal and a cease fire. Israel could agree – foolishly and dangerously, as many believe – to exchange innocent Jewish hostages for murderous, bloodthirsty convicted Arab terrorists, but such need not be accompanied by a cease fire that lasts any longer than the few hours it takes to make the exchange.
The pressure has only one goal, and it is not to allow all to celebrate Ramadan in peace. It is to deprive Israel of victory and preserve Hamas. That is the opposite of common sense, decency, morality, and stability.
Some will plead that the poor Gazan civilians deserve to observe Ramadan in dignity. One problem is that many Gazan civilians are indistinguishable from members of Hamas because quite often they are members of Hamas. Most Hamas terrorists do not wear uniforms (in gross violation of the much-heralded international law that is designed to only inhibit us) and thus look like civilians. When they are smoked out of their tunnels, caves, and ratholes and killed, they die in their civilian garb, allowing our enemy to claim they are civilians. It is certainly a clever scam that has worked on Biden and others but, more egregiously, on our government, which repeatedly fails to underscore the parity of Hamas terrorists and many of the civilians on whom is constantly bestowed what is called humanitarian aid. It is a mistake for which we are paying a terrible price and must be rectified immediately. The innocent Gazan civilians are not all so innocent. Our hearts need not bleed for them. Their newfound opposition to Hamas has evolved not because they are suddenly horrified by Hamas’ massacre of Jews but because they are horrified by the consequences to them of Hamas’ massacre of Jews.
The Ramadan cease fire request is just another ploy to thwart our war aims, restore the status quo ante, and again leave us vulnerable. A good deal of Muslim soul searching and an abrupt change of behavior and values will be necessary before such proposals are taken seriously.
Indeed, we should show as much concern for Ramadan as our enemies showed for our Simchat Torah this year or, for that matter, our Yom Kippur of 1973. It is a ruse and it should be treated, and dismissed, as such.
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
There Can Be No Ceasefire in Gaza with Hamas in Power
by Con Coughlin
The Israeli people, irrespective of their political differences, will never accept any long-term deal that allows the terrorist masterminds of Hamas to remain in control of Gaza. Yahya Sinwar leader of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza, shakes hands with a masked member of Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza City on December 14, 2022. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images)
For all the various efforts world leaders are investing in arranging a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, they must understand there will be no genuine prospect of peace so long as Hamas terrorists retain control of Gaza.
Numerous options have been explored in recent weeks, ranging from the Biden administration's wide-ranging plan to address numerous regional issues, from the threat posed by Iran to reopening negotiations on Palestinian statehood, to the recent attempt by Arab nations, led by Algeria, to pass a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which was vetoed by Washington.
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- A short, temporary ceasefire might be achievable, so long as it requires Hamas to release all of the remaining Israeli hostages it is holding.
- The Israeli people, irrespective of their political differences, will never accept any long-term deal that allows the terrorist masterminds of Hamas to remain in control of Gaza.
The Israeli people, irrespective of their political differences, will never accept any long-term deal that allows the terrorist masterminds of Hamas to remain in control of Gaza. Yahya Sinwar leader of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza, shakes hands with a masked member of Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza City on December 14, 2022. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images)
For all the various efforts world leaders are investing in arranging a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, they must understand there will be no genuine prospect of peace so long as Hamas terrorists retain control of Gaza.
Numerous options have been explored in recent weeks, ranging from the Biden administration's wide-ranging plan to address numerous regional issues, from the threat posed by Iran to reopening negotiations on Palestinian statehood, to the recent attempt by Arab nations, led by Algeria, to pass a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which was vetoed by Washington.
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Rav Kook's Ein Ayah: Rav Yehuda’s Opposition to Personal Aliya
[It is fascinating to see how the ultimate Religious Zionist glorifies the approach of the Amora whose views are the basis of the Neturei Karta philosophy. Rav Kook attributes to Rav Yehuda a purist approach to one of the philosophical approaches most dear to Rav Kook himself.]
Gemara: Rebbi Abba was avoiding Rav Yehuda, as the former wanted to move to Eretz Yisrael, whereas Rav Yehuda posited that whoever makes aliya from Bavel violates the positive commandment of: “They will be brought to Bavel, and there they will remain until I will recall them, says Hashem” (Yirmiya 27:22).
Ein Ayah: It is a principle of the most complete levels of avoda (service of Hashem) that personal shleimut (completeness) and the desire for it do not compare to one’s part in the shleimut of the klal (whole). Only one who is dedicated to the shleimut of the klal is a real chassid, for it is based on what wisdom dictates, without the emotional element of self-love (causing one to want to personally succeed spiritually). Moshe epitomized this high level. Hashem told Moshe that Bnei Yisrael should be destroyed and the chosen people would reemerge through him, yet Moshe said that if Bnei Yisrael would not be spared, “Erase me from the book You have written” (Shemot 32:32). Among great people there are different levels of dedication to this distinction between personal shleimut and that of the klal, as it is impossible to rid oneself totally of the concern for personal shleimut.
Eretz Yisrael certainly adds shleimut, as the nation who lives there has sin removed and its air breeds wisdom. However, Rav Yehuda, whom Shmuel said was almost beyond human (Nidda 13a), was on such a high level that personal shleimut was of no value to him in the face of shleimut of the klal. Rav Yehuda saw Eretz Yisrael as the spring of salvation for the shleimut of the klal. That is why he felt that the individual had no right to enjoy the light of the Land’s shleimutbefore it came time for the klal to benefit from it. This in turn required a Heavenly decision to redeem them, whether it be via miracle or naturally. In any case, he posited that one had to wait for the klal to make it to Eretz Yisrael before personally doing so.
Rav Yehuda felt that if individuals would curb their spiritual desires to move to the Land, it would help hasten the klal’s salvation via Divine Providence. That way the prayers regarding return to Eretz Yisrael would be ones of the klal, which, because of their higher level, would be more likely to be accepted. Even if one were to say that Hashem will redeem us through natural steps, it would still need to be preceded by beseeching Divine mercy and an element of strengthening spiritual virtues. If an individual is unable to fulfill his spiritual passion to make it to the Land to which our eyes and hearts are tied, it will cause the national efforts to be strengthened. According to Rav Yehuda, whenever there is a step that could remotely impact on the klal’s chances, an individual must not make even his loftiest spiritual goals a factor. However, all other righteous people throughout the generations, with all their greatness, would not withdraw their personal quest for shleimut to the extent that it would prevent them from coming to the Land to benefit from its light due to some remote drawback. Especially since the higher the level of individuals, the higher the level of the klal, other scholars felt that it was proper for great people to stream to Eretz Yisrael when possible.
The Breaking of the Luchot
Nasi HaYeshiva, Kerem B'Yavneh
The question of why Moshe broke the luchot was the basis for many drashot over the generations. Indeed, Moshe certainly would not have dared to shatter the luchotengraved by Hashem Himself if the benefit of doing so did not outweigh the cost. The Meshech Chochma wrote about this question at length and emphasized that Moshe’s actions reflect an important principle of Judaism.
On the pasuk, “And my Mikdash you shall fear” (Vayikra 19:30), the midrash comments: “It is not the Mikdash that you fear, but rather the One who warns about the Mikdash.” The principle reflected in this drasha is that there is no object in this world that is inherently holy. All things that we consider to be holy are objects that are used to fulfill the will of Hashem; that is the only meaning of santity. It is only the mitzva performed with the item that grants it the status of kadosh. The Mikdash is a holy place because Hashem wanted to have a “residence” in this world – “And I will dwell among them” (Shemot 25:8). When Bnei Yisrael sinned and the Shechina departed, the place itself no longer possessed any sanctity. At that point, Titus was able to enter the Kodesh HaKodoshim with a harlot without being harmed; the building of the Mikdash was then only a structure of wood and stone, nothing more.
Bnei Yisrael erred in thinking that Moshe possessed inherent kedusha, and it was for that reason that they were so concerned when he appeared to be delayed in returning. Hashem told Moshe: “Go down, for your nation has sinned.” What was there sin? “That you took out of the land of Egypt” (Shemot 32:7) – they attributed divinity to Moshe and thought that he was the one who had taken them out of Egypt.
The Pelishtim made the same mistake when the aron was brought to their camp, leading to devastation: “Who will save us from the hand of this mighty god?” (Shmuel I 3:8). And this was the mistake of Bnei Yisrael when they created the egel; they thought that there are physical things that have divine powers. Moshe realized that if he were to give them the luchot, they would think that they were inherently holy and divine. They would then simply replace the egel with the luchot. In order to clearly uproot this mistaken belief, Moshe shattered the luchot, demonstrating that even objects that are imprinted by divine action – “And the writing was the writing of God” (Shemot 32:7) – have no inherent value. Hashem concurred with Moshe’s shattering of the luchot; in the words of Chazal, He told Moshe, “Yasher koach sheshibarta,” “ Yasher Koach for breaking them!”
The aron contained both the complete set of luchot, as well as the shattered set of luchot. This was a constant reminder that the first set, the luchot made by HashemHimself, were the ones that were now broken, while it was specifically the luchot made by Moshe that were shattered.
The nevi’im reiterated this message in warning Bnei Yisrael not to rely on the Mikdash and korbanot to save them “when their mouths and tongues deceive Him, and their hearts are not complete with Him.” As Yirmiyahu states (7:3-11): “So says Hashem Tzevakot, the God of Yisrael: Improve your ways and your deeds, and I shall dwell with you in this place. Do not rely on the words of falsehood, saying, ‘The sanctuary of Hashem, the sanctuary of Hashem, the sanctuary of Hashem are these.’… He steals, murders, and commits adultery… and you come and you stand before Me in this house, upon which my name is called, and you say, ‘We are saved’… Is this house then a den of thieves?”
The converse is also true; objects used for sin are not inherently profane. “The corpse does not defile and water does not purify; rather, Hashem said: I have made a law, I have made a decree…” Certain foods were not forbidden because they are inherently bad, but rather “because they are not appropriate for man according to the order instated by Hashem.” As the Maharal writes, “All of the mitzvot reflect divine wisdom. Therefore, man, who possesses a divine soul but who is entrenched in physicality, cleaves to Him through his divine traits.”
Rav Kook on Parashat Ki Tissa: The First and Second Luchot
“As he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moshe was angry. He threw down the luchot in his hand, shattering them at the foot of the mountain.” (Shemot 32:19)
Why did Moshe need to break the luchot? He could have put them aside for a later time, when the Jewish people would be worthy of them. The Torah does not record that Moshe was criticized for destroying the holy tablets. On the contrary, the Talmud teaches that God complemented Moshe for this act: “Yashar Kochacha!” “Good job that you broke them” (Shabbat 87a). Why did they have to be broken?
The question becomes stronger when we note the exceptional nature of these unique luchot. They were “the handiwork of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets” (Shemot 32:16). The second luchot did not possess this extraordinary level of sanctity. When God desired that a second set of tablets be prepared, He commanded Moshe, “Carve out two tablets for yourself” (Shemot 34:1), emphasizing that these tablets were to be man-made. Furthermore, unlike the engraved writing of the first luchot, God said, “I will write the words on the tablets” (ibid). The letters were written, not engraved, on the second tablets, like ink on paper. Why were the second luchot made differently?
Illustration image: ‘Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law’ (Rembrandt, 1659)
Beyond Man-Made Morality
The two sets of luchot correspond to two different paths to serve God.
The first path is when we utilize our natural capabilities to live an ethical life. We perform good deeds and acts of kindness out of a natural sense of integrity and morality.
However, God meant for the Jewish people to aspire to a higher level, beyond that which can be attained naturally, beyond the ethical dictates of the intellect. It is not enough to help the needy, for example, because of natural feelings of compassion. This is praiseworthy. But the higher path is to help those in need because through this act one fulfills ratzon Hashem, God’s will.
Ethical deeds that are the product of human nature are like a candle’s feeble light in the bright midday sun, compared to the Divine light that can be gained through these same actions. The loftier path is when the Torah is the light illuminating our soul. We do not follow the Torah because its teachings correspond to our sense of morality, but due to our soul’s complete identification soul with the Torah, which is ratzon Hashem.
The Sages hinted to this level in the Pesach Haggadah. “If God had brought us near to Har Sinai and not given us the Torah, it would be enough [to praise Him].” What was so wonderful about being close to Har Sinai?
As the Jewish people stood at Har Sinai, and prepared themselves to accept the Torah, God planted in their souls a readiness to fulfill His will. This preparation was similar to the natural inclination of moral individuals to perform acts of kindness.
This explanation sheds light on a difficult verse in Mishlei: “Charity will uplift a nation, but the kindness of the nations is a sin” (Mishlei 14:34). According to the Talmud in Shabbat 146a, “Charity will uplift a nation” — this refers to the Jewish people, while “the kindness of the nations is a sin” — this refers to other nations. What is wrong with the kindness of the nations?
Performing acts of kindness and charity out of a natural sense of compassion is certainly appropriate and proper — for other nations. For the Jewish people, however, such a motivation is considered a “chatat” — it “misses the mark“ (the literal meaning of the word cheit). The path meant for the Jewish people is a higher and loftier one.
Under the Mountain
After receiving the Torah and before the sin of the Golden Calf, the Jewish people were like angelic beings (Tehilim 82:6, Shemot Rabbah 32:1). They sensed ratzon Hashem with such clarity that their desire to do good was not based on character traits, but because the light of God and His will that could be found in such acts. Their souls completely identified with the light of Torah.
At that point in time, they deserved the first set of luchot. These tablets were the work of God, just as their own natural inclinations matched God’s will. And the writing was engraved in the tablets themselves, not a separate material like ink on paper. So too, their souls were united and identified with God’s will.
Their state was so elevated, their holiness was so intrinsic, that they were almost at a level beyond sin, like celestial bodies that cannot change their paths. This is the meaning of the Talmudic statement that the Jewish people stood literally “under the mountain” (Shemot 19:17), i.e., that God coerced them to accept the Torah as He raised the mountain over their heads. This metaphor alludes to a state whereby their inner connection to the Torah was so strong that they lacked true free will whether to accept the Torah.
The Golden Calf
But for the Erev Rav, this service of God was simply too lofty. They aspired only to the regular level of ethical perfection, based on character traits and human intellect. Therefore, the Erev Rav demanded a physical representation of God. They wanted a service of God rooted in that which one can feel and sense, the natural feelings of human compassion and kindness.
Tragically, the Erev Rav succeeded in convincing the Israelites to abandon their lofty level. Even worse, as they relied on their natural sense of morality, they lost even this ethical level due to their undisciplined desires. They descended into a state of complete moral disarray — “ Moshe saw the people were unrestrained” (Shemot 32:25) — and they transgressed the most serious offenses: idolatry, incest, and murder.
After the Jewish people had abandoned their elevated state, they required a new path of Divine service. But as long as the covenant of the first luchot existed, no other covenant could take its place. Moshe realized that they would not be able to return to that lofty state until the end of days. The first luchot needed to be destroyed so that a new covenant could be made.
Interestingly, the Torah notes that Moshe destroyed the tablets “under the mountain.” The first luchot belonged to Israel’s unique spiritual state of “under the mountain,” when God’s will was so deeply implanted in their souls that they had little choice but accept the Torah.
The Holy Shekel
The covenant of the second luchot signifies a lower path of serving God, one closer to our natural faculties. Thus the second tablets combined both man-made and heavenly aspects. Moshe carved out the stone tablets, but the writing was from God.
God nonetheless desired to leave us with a residual form of the loftier service of the first luchot. For this reason, we have the mitzvah of donating a half-shekel coin to the Temple, thus connecting every Jew with the holy service in the Temple. This donation, the Torah emphasizes, must come from the shekel hakodesh, from the highest motives, for God’s sake alone — “an offering to God” (Shemot 30:13). And the Torah introduces the mitzvah of the half-shekel with the words, “When you will raise the heads of the Israelites” — a hint that it raises up the Jewish people to their once lofty level, when they encamped at Har Sinai.
(Adapted from Midbar Shur, pp. 298-305 by Rav Chanan Morrison)
A Mysterious Sin
The sin of the Golden Calf remains one of the great mysteries in the story of the Jewish people throughout the ages. Flooded with miracles on all sides, unbelievably redeemed from Egyptian bondage, and being sustained daily in a desert, the Jewish people somehow revert to idolatry and paganism. As illogical as this is, it is, nevertheless, not as surprising as later generations may assess the events.
Human beings are not only influenced, but, to a greater extent, are limited and bound by the norms of the general society in which they exist. How can millions of North Koreans weep at the death of someone who was a tyrant and a murderer over them? Yet that is exactly what happened when the two previous Kingdoms finally passed from this earth. It is exceedingly difficult to maintain one's individual beliefs, no matter how correct and logical they may be, in the face of contrary opinion held by the majority general society.
There was a phrase in Yiddish and translates as "the general society is malleable and foolish". Even the most outlandish of ideas – such as paganism itself – somehow will gain traction, even amongst intelligent people, if it is somehow the prevailing attitude that permeates the general society. In a world of belief and sacrifice for paganism, it is not that difficult to understand that this should affect the Jewish people as well, in spite of their own personal and national history of monotheism, miracles and Godly deliverance.
The Talmud records that one of the great rabbis of the time saw the wicked king Achov in one of his dreams. The Rabbi asked the tyrant for his help in answering a question in Jewish law, over which the rabbis of the study hall were struggling. The king answered promptly and correctly, as to what the law is according to Jewish tradition. The rabbi in wonderment asked the king that if he is such a scholar, how could he follow idolatry and allow it to be rampant in the Jewish kingdom that he ruled? Achov answered: "If you would have lived in my generation, you would have picked up the hem of your robe in order to run more quickly to serve that false idol."
We look back at so many false idols and beliefs that litter the landscape of human history, and especially those of Western civilization. We wonder how people could have been so naïve and foolish and so wrong about such basic matters of faith and perspective? Yet we ourselves live in a society dominated by what we realize to be false ideas, bad policies and the foolish denial of facts and realities, let alone the obvious lessons of history and tradition. We know, for instance, that cancel culture is wrong, evil, and counterproductive to the human spirit and belief. Nevertheless, we are all careful not to say and certainly not to publish what we know to be true, because of our trepidation that we will somehow be canceled because of it.
To be a Jew requires a great moral strength and fortitude. We have not always been able to swim against the current tide, and, tragically, we always pay a price for that failing.
Human beings are not only influenced, but, to a greater extent, are limited and bound by the norms of the general society in which they exist. How can millions of North Koreans weep at the death of someone who was a tyrant and a murderer over them? Yet that is exactly what happened when the two previous Kingdoms finally passed from this earth. It is exceedingly difficult to maintain one's individual beliefs, no matter how correct and logical they may be, in the face of contrary opinion held by the majority general society.
There was a phrase in Yiddish and translates as "the general society is malleable and foolish". Even the most outlandish of ideas – such as paganism itself – somehow will gain traction, even amongst intelligent people, if it is somehow the prevailing attitude that permeates the general society. In a world of belief and sacrifice for paganism, it is not that difficult to understand that this should affect the Jewish people as well, in spite of their own personal and national history of monotheism, miracles and Godly deliverance.
The Talmud records that one of the great rabbis of the time saw the wicked king Achov in one of his dreams. The Rabbi asked the tyrant for his help in answering a question in Jewish law, over which the rabbis of the study hall were struggling. The king answered promptly and correctly, as to what the law is according to Jewish tradition. The rabbi in wonderment asked the king that if he is such a scholar, how could he follow idolatry and allow it to be rampant in the Jewish kingdom that he ruled? Achov answered: "If you would have lived in my generation, you would have picked up the hem of your robe in order to run more quickly to serve that false idol."
We look back at so many false idols and beliefs that litter the landscape of human history, and especially those of Western civilization. We wonder how people could have been so naïve and foolish and so wrong about such basic matters of faith and perspective? Yet we ourselves live in a society dominated by what we realize to be false ideas, bad policies and the foolish denial of facts and realities, let alone the obvious lessons of history and tradition. We know, for instance, that cancel culture is wrong, evil, and counterproductive to the human spirit and belief. Nevertheless, we are all careful not to say and certainly not to publish what we know to be true, because of our trepidation that we will somehow be canceled because of it.
To be a Jew requires a great moral strength and fortitude. We have not always been able to swim against the current tide, and, tragically, we always pay a price for that failing.
Monday, February 26, 2024
Secretary Blinken on settlements – vindicated by facts?
Secretary of State Antony Blinken represents conventional wisdom when claiming that “It’s been longstanding US policy… that new settlements are… inconsistent with international law.”
However, conventional wisdom is frequently demolished by the march of facts.
For instance:
*According to Prof. Eugene Rostow, who was the co-author of the November 22, 1967 UN Security Council Resolution 242, served as Undersecretary of State and was the Dean of Yale University Law School: “Jews have the same right to settle in the West Bank as they have in Haifa.”
*According to UN Resolution 242, Israel is required to withdraw from territories, not the territories, nor from all the territories, but some of the territories, which included Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. Moreover, according to Prof. Rostow, “resolutions calling for withdrawal from all the territories were defeated in the Security Council and the General Assembly…. Israel was not to be forced back to the fragile and vulnerable [9-15 mile-wide] lines… but to secure and recognized boundaries, agreed to by the parties…. In making peace with Egypt in 1979, Israel withdrew from the entire Sinai… [which amounts to] more than 90% of the territories occupied in 1967….”
*Former President of the International Court of Justice, Judge Stephen M. Schwebel, stated: “Between Israel, acting defensively in 1948 and 1967 (according to Article 52 of the UN Charter), on the one hand, and her Arab neighbors, acting aggressively in 1948 and 1967, on the other, Israel has better title in the territory of what was [British Mandate] Palestine…. It follows that modifications of the 1949 armistice lines among those States within former Palestinian territory are lawful…. [The 1967] Israeli conquest of territory was defensive rather than aggressive… [as] indicated by Egypt's prior closure of the Straits of Tiran, blockade of the Israeli port of Eilat, and the amassing of [Egyptian] troops in Sinai, coupled with its ejection of the UN Emergency Force…[and] Jordan’s initiated hostilities against Israel…. The 1948 Arab invasion of the nascent State of Israel further demonstrated that Egypt's seizure of the Gaza Strip, and Jordan's seizure and subsequent annexation of the West Bank and the old city of Jerusalem, were unlawful….”
*The legal status of Judea and Samaria is embedded in the following 4 authoritative, binding, internationally-ratified documents, which recognize the area for what it has been: the cradle of Jewish history, culture, language, aspirations and religion.
(I) The November 2, 1917 Balfour Declaration, issued by Britain, calling for “the establishment in Palestine (a synonym to the Land of Israel) of a national home for the Jewish people….”
(II) The April 24, 1920 resolution, by the post-First World War San Remo Peace Conference of the Allied Powers Supreme Council, entrusted both sides of the Jordan River to the British Mandate for Palestine, for the reestablishment of the Jewish Commonwealth: “the Mandatory will be responsible for putting into effect the [Balfour] declaration originally made on November 2, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” It was one of over 20 Mandates (trusteeships) established following WW1, responsible for the boundaries of most Arab countries.
(III) The July 24, 1922 Mandate for Palestine was ratified by the Council of the League of Nations, entrusted Britain to establish a Jewish state in the entire area west of the Jordan River, as demonstrated by its 6th article: “[to] encourage… close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands….” The Mandate was dedicated exclusively to Jewish national rights, while guaranteeing the civic rights of all other religious and ethnic groups. On July 23, 1923, the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Lausanne, which included the Mandate for Palestine.
(IV) The October 24, 1945 Article 80 of the UN Charter incorporated the Mandate for Palestine into the UN Charter. Accordingly, the UN or any other entity cannot transfer Jewish rights in Palestine – including immigration and settlement - to any other party.
According to Article 80 of the UN Charter and the Mandate for Palestine, the 1967 war of self-defense returned Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria to its legal owner, the Jewish state. Legally and geo-strategically the rules of “belligerent occupation” do not apply Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria, since they are not “foreign territory,” and Jordan did not have a legitimate title over the West Bank. Moreover, the rules of “belligerent occupation” do not apply in view of the 1994 Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty. The 1950-67 Jordanian occupation of Judea and Samaria violated international law and was recognized only by Britain and Pakistan.
*The 1949 4th Geneva Convention prohibits the forced transfer of populations to areas previously occupied by a legitimate sovereign power. However, Israel has not forced Jews to settle in Judea and Samaria, and Jordan’s sovereignty there was never legal.
*The November 29, 1947 UN General Assembly Partition Resolution 181 was a recommendation, lacking legal stature, superseded by the Mandate for Palestine. The 1949 Armistice (non-peace) Agreements between Israel and its neighbors delineated “non-territorial boundaries.”
*The term “Palestine” was a Greek and then a Roman attempt (following the 135 CE Jewish rebellion) to eradicate Jews and Judaism from human memory. It substituted “Israel, Judea and Samaria” with “Palaestina,” a derivative of the Philistines, an arch enemy of the Jewish people, whose origin was not in Arabia, but in the Greek Aegian islands.
*The aforementioned march of facts demonstrates that Secretary Blinken’s conventional wisdom on the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria is based on gross misperceptions and misrepresentations, which fuels infidelity to law, undermining the pursuit of peace.
*More on the legality of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria in this article by George Mason University Law School Prof. Eugene Kontrovich.
Friday, February 23, 2024
Palestinian Leaders Have Brought a Nakba to Their People
by Khaled Abu Toameh
Instead of distancing themselves from Hamas, leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) continue to talk about achieving "unity" with the terror group. Asked about making common cause with a group that carried out atrocities against Israelis, PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh indicated that the world needs to forget the massacre that took place on October 7. Pictured: Shtayyeh speaks during a December 11, 2023 interview that aired on Qatar's Al-Araby TV. (Image source: MEMRI)
Nearly four months after Hamas waged war on Israel, Palestinians and other Arabs are finally speaking out against the Iran-backed terror group, holding it responsible for bringing a new nakba (catastrophe) on the two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Despite the criticism, many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip continue to support Hamas and would likely vote for it if there were an election.
Hamas sought to bring a nakba to Israel when its terrorists in the Gaza Strip crossed the border into Israel on October 7, 2023, murdering, beheading, raping, mutilating and burning alive some 1,200 Israeli men, women, and children.
Instead, Hamas, whose leaders are either hiding in tunnels throughout the Gaza Strip or in villas and five-star hotels in Qatar and the Middle East, ended up bringing a true nakba on the Palestinians.
Continue Reading Article
- "Ending Hamas's rule is very good for everyone, even for Hamas itself. It will prevent Hamas from tampering with the Gaza Strip and will put an end to the torture and killing of the people of Palestine. Overthrowing Hamas and ending its coup in Palestine is important for every Palestinian and Arab." — Abdullah Ghanem al-Qahtani, Saudi social media influencer, X (twitter.com), February 20, 2024.
- "We congratulate the leaders of Hamas and the [Iran-led] axis of resistance for the decisive victory they achieved over the Palestinian people in Gaza. They [Hamas leaders] have caused the extermination of the people, destroyed their homes and displaced them." — Ahmed al-Fifi, Saudi influencer, X (twitter.com), February 21, 2024.
- As soon as the war ends, the Palestinians' first priority should be to replace the horrific leaders who have been dragging them from one nakba to another.
- For the past three decades, Palestinian leaders have failed their people on an epic level. Instead of improving their lives, they have been radicalizing them.... Unless the Palestinians rid themselves of these despots, they will continue to pay with their lives and the lives of their children.
Instead of distancing themselves from Hamas, leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) continue to talk about achieving "unity" with the terror group. Asked about making common cause with a group that carried out atrocities against Israelis, PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh indicated that the world needs to forget the massacre that took place on October 7. Pictured: Shtayyeh speaks during a December 11, 2023 interview that aired on Qatar's Al-Araby TV. (Image source: MEMRI)
Nearly four months after Hamas waged war on Israel, Palestinians and other Arabs are finally speaking out against the Iran-backed terror group, holding it responsible for bringing a new nakba (catastrophe) on the two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Despite the criticism, many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip continue to support Hamas and would likely vote for it if there were an election.
Hamas sought to bring a nakba to Israel when its terrorists in the Gaza Strip crossed the border into Israel on October 7, 2023, murdering, beheading, raping, mutilating and burning alive some 1,200 Israeli men, women, and children.
Instead, Hamas, whose leaders are either hiding in tunnels throughout the Gaza Strip or in villas and five-star hotels in Qatar and the Middle East, ended up bringing a true nakba on the Palestinians.
Continue Reading Article
Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook: The Need to Sell the Land before Shemitta– part II
Date and Place: 17 Shevat 5669 (1909), Yafo
Recipient: Rav Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky, known as the Ridbaz. The Ridbaz was a leading Torah scholar, who had served as a rabbi in several communities in Eastern Europe and then in Chicago. In 1905, he moved to Eretz Yisrael and founded a yeshiva in Tzfat. An author of many Talmudic works, his most famous halachic stand was against the heter mechira, the temporary sale of land in Eretz Yisrael in an attempt to obviate the restrictions of Shemitta (the Sabbatical year).
Body: [Last time, we saw Rav Kook’s explanation for why there was an acute need to perform the heter mechira once again.]
On the heart of the matter (the halachic logic), I will tell you my humble opinion. This is indeed not the first ruling where a broad segment of society relies in its time of need on a minority of opinions or even a single opinion. Some examples are: new grain, abrasions in an animal’s lungs, and the ability to construct eruvin based on the assumption that there are not in our times public domains on the level of Torah law. Therefore, it is not farfetched in our days to rely on those who are lenient to say that it is permitted for a Jew to work the field that is owned by a non-Jew, that the sanctity of Shemitta is removed from the land, and that the selling for a limited time is valid in cases of need, as there are [established rulings] about renting out land.
The main thing that causes pain to our heart is that in certainty, the mitzva of Shemitta is being uprooted and not fulfilled. This is what happened [regarding the forgiveness of loans, which is one element of the laws of Shemitta] by means of the pruzbol (a document that enables creditors to demand payment for loans that normally would be cancelled by Shemitta). This halachic device did not create a new Torah-level law, and the [regrettable element of the need for its use] is that we do not want people to learn to obviate mitzvot (see Tosafot, Gittin 36a). So too here, what is upsetting is that we need to teach the nation to uproot the mitzva of Shemitta. After all, our ongoing obligation is to maintain that which is unique in our nation and teach our people to obligate themselves in mitzvot, including those for which one can find an exemption, like tzitzit and tithes, which are not required if one brought the produce into the house abnormally.
Therefore, I am ready to stand by your side and work together, including by going on long journeys, e.g., to Paris or similar places. Maybe Hashem will have mercy on us so that we may secure at least significant help for a large portion of our dear brothers, who desire with all their hearts and souls to fulfill the mitzva without any uprooting. If we will succeed in that which Hashem desires, this would greatly sanctify Hashem’s Name with His powerful help. This would strengthen the position of those who fear Hashem and obey His commands.
We just must do everything with peace, honor, and love, for His blessed name, for the Holy Land, and for those who inhabit it and work its land. It cannot be done with threats, strange warnings, screaming, and quarreling. Rather, we simply need to say that the heter mechira is necessary due to extremely great need, but that even under pressing circumstances, it obviates a mitzva. The dear and holy mitzva, which we merited to have the opportunity to fulfill in the Holy Land, with Hashem’s help, after a long and bitter exile, would be missing for us. Therefore, we want to help many people be obligated in it and fulfill it without any questions.
By taking the small initiative in this matter, we will be able to trust in Hashem, Who had His presence dwell on His holy mountain. May this awaken a lofty blessing, and cause the openings of redemption and salvation for the Holy Land and Hashem’s nation, who are waiting for His salvation. May the End of Days draw close and reveal the bearer of tidings of peace, as this upcoming Shemitta year concludes. “The time for His mercy has already come.” I await your response at the earliest possible time.
“The Kohen Gadol Among His Brothers”
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir
The Kohen Gadol's job was to atone for the entire Jewish People and bestow his benevolent spirit on the entire nation, lovingly. As the kohanim say each day, blessing G-d "who sanctified us with the holiness of Aharon and commanded us to bless His people Israel with love." Indeed, there were two ornaments on his outfit, and they contained the names of all the tribes of Israel. There was the breastplate [choshen], on which were embossed twelve precious gems, each different from the rest, and engraved on them were the names of the tribes. As it says: "The stones shall contain the names of the twelve sons of Israel, one for each of the twelve [stones]. Each one's name shall be engraved as on a signet ring, to represent the twelve tribes" (Shemot 28:21). The breastplate lay on the Kohen Gadol's heart, as it says, "Aharon will thus carry the names of Israel's sons on the decision breastplate over his heart when he comes into the sanctuary. It shall be a constant remembrance before G-d" (29).
The second ornament, the sardonyx stones, were on the shoulders of the Kohen Gadol, over his apron [ephod]. On them as well were the twelve names of the tribes engraved, as it says, "Take two sardonyx stones, and engrave on them the names of Israel's sons. There shall be six names on one stone, and the remaining six names on the second stone [inscribed] in the order of their birth... Place the two stones on the two shoulder pieces of the ephod as remembrance stones" (28:9-12).
The entirety of the Jewish People - all the tribes, and all of the variations between individuals, down to the very last Jew - is engraved on the heart and weighs on the shoulders of the Kohen Gadol as a constant remembrance before G-d. The heart hints at the Kohen Gadol's great love and the shoulders hint at the responsibility resting on the Kohen Gadol.
Already with the Exodus from Egypt, the Jewish People had two leaders: Moshe, our political leader who led us through the desert, gave us the Torah, and judged all of Israel. Along with him was his brother, Aharon the Kohen, who bestowed his benevolent spirit on the people. Aharon "loved peace and would pursue it. He loved his fellowman and would bring him closer to Torah" (Avot 1). During the First and Second Beit HaMikdash periods as well we had high priests some of whom bestowed their benevolent spirits on the political leadership - that is, on the kings and the entire nation.
In our own generation - the generation of national rebirth and the ingathering of the exiles - the further we move along the ascending path towards complete redemption, the more we encounter difficulties and complications from within and from without. Precisely at this time, we need responsible, strong, and wise political leadership that will know how to lead the nation to the goals and destinations for which purpose it was created. And alongside that political leadership, we need moral and spiritual leadership, like the air we breathe, which can bestow its spirit on the nation and its leaders, just as the Kohen Gadol did.
Our generation has been privileged in that G-d - who plants in our midst the souls that each generation needs - planted the magnificent, benevolent soul of Rav Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook, zt"l. He was like the Kohen Gadol of our generation and of the generations to follow. Rav Kook bore the nation upon his heart and his shoulders. He loved our nation infinitely Just as G-d loves Israel, and just as we bless G-d who "chooses His people Israel with love." Rav Kook bequeathed to us the light that illuminates our pathways and our souls, as well as the souls of the generations to come, until the advent of a righteous redeemer, speedily in our day.
The day is not far off when the light of Rav Kook will illuminate the path of the Jewish People, in all their streams and all their variety, and will be revealed for all to see. Then we will be the living fulfillment of, "A new light shall shine over Tzion, May we all speedily merit that light."
Besorot Tovot,
Looking forward to complete salvation,
With the Love of Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael,
Shabbat Shalom.
Thursday, February 22, 2024
The Yishai Fleisher Israel Podcast: THE GREAT ONE
SEASON 2024 EPISODE 8: Yishai and Malkah Fleisher discuss the vestments of the High Priest and how to feel like an organic Judean - Original Aboriginal! Then, Ben Bresky on the meaty history of Argentinian Jewry. And finally, Yishai reacts to "The Great One" Mark Levine on Israel's Channel 14.
Habit
It was known as ‘Shavua Tirgolot’ the ‘week of training drills’. It sounded pretty innocuous, but as it turned out, it was a week of hell.
The IDF prides itself on being prepared for any and every eventuality, and to that end, tank crews were trained to automatically respond in any given combat or stress situation. When such events actually occur, you don’t have time to think about what to do, you have to already have it down to a T. If there is a fire in the tank you can’t start debating who gets the fire extinguisher (or activates the spectronics system) and who opens up the engine doors, it all has to be automatic with everyone knowing exactly what they are meant to do, and even what to do in the event someone is injured and their role needs to be filled by someone else.
To this end we practiced endlessly what to do in the event there was a fire, or the tank was about to overturn, or we had to get the tank under camouflage, and a variety of other possibilities. Each possible scenario was its own day which entailed half an hour of instruction and discussion followed by a tank crew practicing said activity as many as thirty or forty times, until they got it perfect, which meant it was completed in an impossibly small amount of time. And we had to practice not only as tank crews but as infantry squads, in the event we had to abandon our tanks and were forced into infantry combat situations.
This meant clambering out of the tank, removing the 12 kg. heavy machine gun from its position, handing it over to a second crewman who had already jumped down and was ready to receive it, then grabbing two extra heavy ammo boxes, jumping off the tank, and running up the hill they had us practicing on.
Then, mid-run, being told we were under fire which meant hitting the ground in a combat roll and responding with fire after which we had to resume our climb up the hill until we reached the top with all our gear and were able to set up the machine gun post. Our commander would yell out our time which was inevitably not even close to good enough, after which we had to run down with the gear, jump back up on the tank, re-attach everything, put the ammo back in its place and then do it all over again, and again and again… all in the sweltering heat of the desert Middle-Eastern sun…
It was only years later, as a combat officer responding to an actual situation in Lebanon, that I realized as we came under fire and every one of us hit the ground in a perfect combat roll, just how valuable those hours and hours of training actually were. In my mind I took back every negative thought I had considered about our seemingly sadistic commanders; their refusal to accept anything less than perfect absolutely saved my life.
This week’s portion, Tetzaveh, continues the explanation of the commandment to build the Mishkan and all its vessels, with the depiction of the clothes the Kohanim were required to wear during the service in the Mishkan.
Interestingly, the different sacrifices which Jews were meant to offer in different situations in the Beit HaMikdash (and the Mishkan) are described and delineated in the book of Vayikra. And the sacrifices which were part of the service on the holidays are described in the book of Bamidbar, in the portion of Pinchas, with one exception.
For some reason, alongside all the clothing of the priests and their inauguration the Torah seems to switch gears, commanding us (Shemot 29:38-42) to offer the Korban Tamid, the twice-daily sacrifice, which was required as part of the daily service in the Mishkan (and later in the Beit HaMikdash ) .
Why is this dally sacrifice juxtaposed with the building of the Mishkan? Especially considering its natural place in the Torah should have been alongside the sacrifices delineated in the portion of Pinchas in the book of Bamidbar? Interestingly, only after the command to offer the daily Tamid sacrifice does the Torah tell us that (ibid. v. 43-44) that the Mishkan would be sanctified.
Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch explains that the construction of the Mishkan (and later, of the Beit HaMikdash) did not automatically ensure G-d’s presence; it was only with the actual offering of the daily Korban Tamid and with it the establishment of a routine, that Hashem’s presence finally rested on the Mishkan.
Bombastic and inspiring events, powerful as they may be, do not last; they are meant to set the stage for a routine which transcends the excitement of the moment and gives way to what really lasts in the day- in-day-out experience of a daily ritual.
As an example of this phenomenon, the Rambam in his Hilchot Deot, or laws of character development, describes in his first chapter an ideal of balance between extremes. But after delineating the need for a person to navigate between anger and apathy, arrogance and low self-esteem, and stinginess and giving too much, Rambam asks how one makes this balanced behavior a part of one’s life.
Surprisingly he does not suggest a person think about it extensively or understand it. Rather, he suggests practicing a desired form behavior again and again and again, until there is no longer any ‘torach’; no stress or resistance. (Hilchot Deot 1:7)
In other words, the Rambam is defining what a habit is: A habit is when one does a particular behavior so regularly, one no longer struggles with it. If a person decides to get back in shape and one morning wakes up at 5am to go for a run, he may find it very difficult to haul himself out of bed at such an hour. But if he does it every day, again and again, at some point it will no longer be an effort; it will become a habit.
I recall once, siting in the airport transit hall in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, with a few hours to wait for my connecting flight. It’s a huge hall with shops and restaurants and has the feel of a large mall. A fellow sitting near me whom I recognized coincidentally from the flight I had just been on, must have had the same moment of recognition and smiled at me.
As I smiled back, he stood, and took off his sweater, then his shirt and then his pants and shoes, and changed into a t-shirt, sweats and sneakers he had in his carry on and asked me if I’d watch his bag. Amused I nodded in the affirmative and he literally sprinted off across the hall. It was a huge hall, probably a good kilometer across and I watched as he became smaller, until after ten minutes I saw him running back. And as he got back to where we were sitting he ran past, got to the end of the hall turned around, and started all over again. He must have done about ten laps, and about an hour later, finally came back and began a stretching routine, all of which culminated in a ‘shower’ using fresh ones and a towel. When he was all done he got back into his clothes and sat down with a smile. Seeing my shocked expression, he said simply ‘Can’t live without my daily run’!
He had obviously been doing this every day for so long, not only was there no resistance, it was an established habit he could not live without!
Kind of like when I get up in the morning and place my Kippah on my head; I barely think about it, but could not walk around the house without it because it has become a habit. Will Durant once observed “We are what we repeatedly do; Excellence is not an act, but a habit” (Will Durant in The Story of Philosophy)
Indeed, for every action as it relates to a particular person there is a finite number of repetitions that will turn something into a habit. And the only question is: what habits do I want to acquire?
Imagine developing the habit to be silent for a few moments as soon as one feels annoyed or angry; how much would that reduce the words spoken in anger we wish we could take back? Or imagine developing the habit to exercise for thirty minutes in the morning first thing, every single day, or to spend an hour and a half without one’s smartphone upon entering the home at the end of the day, every single day….
Perhaps this then is the message of the Korban Tamid, the daily sacrifice in the Beit HaMikdash. Indeed, the word Tamid actually translates as ‘always’. Inspiration is indeed powerful, but it is the decision to create habits that actually changes our lives and the lives of those around us.
What remains is simply to decide what habits we wish to acquire and how much effort we are willing to make to acquire them. And be assured there is a finite number of times we need to practice any activity after which time it will indeed become a habit. And if the habit is worthwhile, then so is the effort.
Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.
The IDF prides itself on being prepared for any and every eventuality, and to that end, tank crews were trained to automatically respond in any given combat or stress situation. When such events actually occur, you don’t have time to think about what to do, you have to already have it down to a T. If there is a fire in the tank you can’t start debating who gets the fire extinguisher (or activates the spectronics system) and who opens up the engine doors, it all has to be automatic with everyone knowing exactly what they are meant to do, and even what to do in the event someone is injured and their role needs to be filled by someone else.
To this end we practiced endlessly what to do in the event there was a fire, or the tank was about to overturn, or we had to get the tank under camouflage, and a variety of other possibilities. Each possible scenario was its own day which entailed half an hour of instruction and discussion followed by a tank crew practicing said activity as many as thirty or forty times, until they got it perfect, which meant it was completed in an impossibly small amount of time. And we had to practice not only as tank crews but as infantry squads, in the event we had to abandon our tanks and were forced into infantry combat situations.
This meant clambering out of the tank, removing the 12 kg. heavy machine gun from its position, handing it over to a second crewman who had already jumped down and was ready to receive it, then grabbing two extra heavy ammo boxes, jumping off the tank, and running up the hill they had us practicing on.
Then, mid-run, being told we were under fire which meant hitting the ground in a combat roll and responding with fire after which we had to resume our climb up the hill until we reached the top with all our gear and were able to set up the machine gun post. Our commander would yell out our time which was inevitably not even close to good enough, after which we had to run down with the gear, jump back up on the tank, re-attach everything, put the ammo back in its place and then do it all over again, and again and again… all in the sweltering heat of the desert Middle-Eastern sun…
It was only years later, as a combat officer responding to an actual situation in Lebanon, that I realized as we came under fire and every one of us hit the ground in a perfect combat roll, just how valuable those hours and hours of training actually were. In my mind I took back every negative thought I had considered about our seemingly sadistic commanders; their refusal to accept anything less than perfect absolutely saved my life.
This week’s portion, Tetzaveh, continues the explanation of the commandment to build the Mishkan and all its vessels, with the depiction of the clothes the Kohanim were required to wear during the service in the Mishkan.
Interestingly, the different sacrifices which Jews were meant to offer in different situations in the Beit HaMikdash (and the Mishkan) are described and delineated in the book of Vayikra. And the sacrifices which were part of the service on the holidays are described in the book of Bamidbar, in the portion of Pinchas, with one exception.
For some reason, alongside all the clothing of the priests and their inauguration the Torah seems to switch gears, commanding us (Shemot 29:38-42) to offer the Korban Tamid, the twice-daily sacrifice, which was required as part of the daily service in the Mishkan (and later in the Beit HaMikdash ) .
Why is this dally sacrifice juxtaposed with the building of the Mishkan? Especially considering its natural place in the Torah should have been alongside the sacrifices delineated in the portion of Pinchas in the book of Bamidbar? Interestingly, only after the command to offer the daily Tamid sacrifice does the Torah tell us that (ibid. v. 43-44) that the Mishkan would be sanctified.
Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch explains that the construction of the Mishkan (and later, of the Beit HaMikdash) did not automatically ensure G-d’s presence; it was only with the actual offering of the daily Korban Tamid and with it the establishment of a routine, that Hashem’s presence finally rested on the Mishkan.
Bombastic and inspiring events, powerful as they may be, do not last; they are meant to set the stage for a routine which transcends the excitement of the moment and gives way to what really lasts in the day- in-day-out experience of a daily ritual.
As an example of this phenomenon, the Rambam in his Hilchot Deot, or laws of character development, describes in his first chapter an ideal of balance between extremes. But after delineating the need for a person to navigate between anger and apathy, arrogance and low self-esteem, and stinginess and giving too much, Rambam asks how one makes this balanced behavior a part of one’s life.
Surprisingly he does not suggest a person think about it extensively or understand it. Rather, he suggests practicing a desired form behavior again and again and again, until there is no longer any ‘torach’; no stress or resistance. (Hilchot Deot 1:7)
In other words, the Rambam is defining what a habit is: A habit is when one does a particular behavior so regularly, one no longer struggles with it. If a person decides to get back in shape and one morning wakes up at 5am to go for a run, he may find it very difficult to haul himself out of bed at such an hour. But if he does it every day, again and again, at some point it will no longer be an effort; it will become a habit.
I recall once, siting in the airport transit hall in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, with a few hours to wait for my connecting flight. It’s a huge hall with shops and restaurants and has the feel of a large mall. A fellow sitting near me whom I recognized coincidentally from the flight I had just been on, must have had the same moment of recognition and smiled at me.
As I smiled back, he stood, and took off his sweater, then his shirt and then his pants and shoes, and changed into a t-shirt, sweats and sneakers he had in his carry on and asked me if I’d watch his bag. Amused I nodded in the affirmative and he literally sprinted off across the hall. It was a huge hall, probably a good kilometer across and I watched as he became smaller, until after ten minutes I saw him running back. And as he got back to where we were sitting he ran past, got to the end of the hall turned around, and started all over again. He must have done about ten laps, and about an hour later, finally came back and began a stretching routine, all of which culminated in a ‘shower’ using fresh ones and a towel. When he was all done he got back into his clothes and sat down with a smile. Seeing my shocked expression, he said simply ‘Can’t live without my daily run’!
He had obviously been doing this every day for so long, not only was there no resistance, it was an established habit he could not live without!
Kind of like when I get up in the morning and place my Kippah on my head; I barely think about it, but could not walk around the house without it because it has become a habit. Will Durant once observed “We are what we repeatedly do; Excellence is not an act, but a habit” (Will Durant in The Story of Philosophy)
Indeed, for every action as it relates to a particular person there is a finite number of repetitions that will turn something into a habit. And the only question is: what habits do I want to acquire?
Imagine developing the habit to be silent for a few moments as soon as one feels annoyed or angry; how much would that reduce the words spoken in anger we wish we could take back? Or imagine developing the habit to exercise for thirty minutes in the morning first thing, every single day, or to spend an hour and a half without one’s smartphone upon entering the home at the end of the day, every single day….
Perhaps this then is the message of the Korban Tamid, the daily sacrifice in the Beit HaMikdash. Indeed, the word Tamid actually translates as ‘always’. Inspiration is indeed powerful, but it is the decision to create habits that actually changes our lives and the lives of those around us.
What remains is simply to decide what habits we wish to acquire and how much effort we are willing to make to acquire them. And be assured there is a finite number of times we need to practice any activity after which time it will indeed become a habit. And if the habit is worthwhile, then so is the effort.
Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.
How the US Abandoned Israel under Biden
by Robert Williams
Biden, clearly, seems not that intent on making Israel or the Free World a safe place again. At least not if it might compromise his reelection. Pictured: US President Joe Biden meets with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
"I come to Israel with a single message: You are not alone," US President Joe Biden said right after the October 7 massacre by the terrorist organization Hamas of Israelis, Muslims, Americans, Europeans, Filipinos and Thai visitors enjoying a Saturday holiday in southern Israel. "As long as the United States stands — and we will stand forever — we will not let you ever be alone," Biden continued.
"It has brought to the surface painful memories and scars left by a millennia of antisemitism and the genocide of the Jewish people. The world watched then, it knew, and the world did nothing. We will not stand by and do nothing again. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. Israel must again be a safe place for the Jewish people. And I promise you: We're going to do everything in our power to make sure that it will be."
Continue Reading Article
- "Israel must again be a safe place for the Jewish people. And I promise you: We're going to do everything in our power to make sure that it will be." — US President Joe Biden, October 18, 2023.
- It did not take long, however, for the Biden administration to completely turn that promise on its head. The reversal began with US demands on Israel to scale down military operations, which were already scaled down....
- "Israel implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other nation in history.... Israel's use of real phone calls to civilians in combat areas (19,734), SMS texts (64,399) and pre-recorded calls (almost 6 million) to provide instructions on evacuations is also unprecedented." — John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, United States Military Academy West Point, newsweek.com, January 31, 2024
- The only relevant country that has apparently not been invited to the "urgent" discussions [to reward terrorists unilaterally with a soon-to-be-militarized Palestinian State] is Israel.
- Biden, clearly, seems not that intent on making Israel or the Free World a safe place again. At least not if it might compromise his reelection.
Biden, clearly, seems not that intent on making Israel or the Free World a safe place again. At least not if it might compromise his reelection. Pictured: US President Joe Biden meets with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
"I come to Israel with a single message: You are not alone," US President Joe Biden said right after the October 7 massacre by the terrorist organization Hamas of Israelis, Muslims, Americans, Europeans, Filipinos and Thai visitors enjoying a Saturday holiday in southern Israel. "As long as the United States stands — and we will stand forever — we will not let you ever be alone," Biden continued.
"It has brought to the surface painful memories and scars left by a millennia of antisemitism and the genocide of the Jewish people. The world watched then, it knew, and the world did nothing. We will not stand by and do nothing again. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. Israel must again be a safe place for the Jewish people. And I promise you: We're going to do everything in our power to make sure that it will be."
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Wednesday, February 21, 2024
The Report of the Jews' Death 'Has Been Grossly Exaggerated'
by Lawrence Kadish
Mark Twain, circa 1900. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin misquoted Mark Twain about the Russian president's cancer: "The rumors about my death were greatly exaggerated," Putin was quoted as saying about his cancer by Fortune and The Guardian. Mark Twain had actually said about an illness: "The report of my death has been grossly exaggerated." The same assessment by Mark Twain also applies to the Jews and the great American author's view of them, as in his remarkable article, "Concerning the Jews," published by Harper's Magazine in March, 1898:
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Mark Twain, circa 1900. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin misquoted Mark Twain about the Russian president's cancer: "The rumors about my death were greatly exaggerated," Putin was quoted as saying about his cancer by Fortune and The Guardian. Mark Twain had actually said about an illness: "The report of my death has been grossly exaggerated." The same assessment by Mark Twain also applies to the Jews and the great American author's view of them, as in his remarkable article, "Concerning the Jews," published by Harper's Magazine in March, 1898:
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