Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook: Torah Literature Published by an Old Friend

#217

Date and Place: 11 Menachem Av, 5669, Rechovot

Recipient: Rav Nisan Rabin, a childhood friend of Rav Kook.

Body: I am living in Eretz Yisrael and am presently spending time in the moshava of Rechovot, as I do every year during the harvest season of grapes, which are such lovely vineyards of the holy soil. I just read with bliss and was filled with satisfaction and joy of the heart, your valued present, the dear and pleasant book of your honored, brilliant father, my dear friend (Rav Moshe Yitzchak Rabin, a dayan in Ponevitch). You are so fortunate to have merited to be a son who brings honor to his father, especially in this great matter of spreading throughout the world the Torah thoughts of the pure heart and holy spirit of your father, the beloved, righteous scholar. Thank you so much for the great delight you brought me. May you merit to publish all of the writings of your father, whom I know to be of sound reason and deep intellect, which went along with his great diligence and the pure fear of Heaven that lit up his heart. This joined wonderfully with his love of truth, sharp intellect, broad knowledge, and righteous humility. All of these are a sure guarantee that his works are dear and the benefit to those who learn his Torah will be great. When many delve into them, knowledge will grow.

I also want to praise you for your pamphlet that you sent me (not yet published), which you wrote in a unique style. May you, my beloved, take this accomplishment and all matters of sound logic, which is based on the underpinnings of pure belief, and written in a style that can penetrate the heart of a certain segment of our generation’s young people, who are fainting due to [spiritual] thirst, and make sure that it is made available. It would be terrible to withhold the spirit of Hashem that it engenders. Whenever Hashem awakens one’s heart, whatever he can accomplish, whomever he can save, whichever hearts he can improve, whether many or few, the magnitude of the obligation is too great to express. [It would be enough] to just weaken the stench in the suffocating air of ignorant, chutzpa-full materialism, which is actually increasing specifically before its imminent demise.

It is proper for a writer of your great skill to insert into his theses the pure ideas of the idea of national awareness in its holy and truthful root. This would enable many hearts to be filled with a love of the Holy Land and the holy belief in the resurrection of Hashem’s nation in its Land. This is especially true at a time like this, when the movement of life and the flow of political and spiritual life indicate deep signs of Hashem’s imminent redemption of His nation, the glittering of the horn of Israel from the holy mountains. This finds expression in the beginning of the children’s return to their borders, and the elevation of the spirit of the nation to the heights of the holy mountains. When this reality enters the fabric of all of the thoughts that flood the world about questions of time and life, it gives all of them strength, a glow, a flash of sanctity, and the splendor of honor.

At this time, it is not just a matter of prophetic visions; matters are progressing and occurring. It is the obligation of all of us to not stand off in the distance, but to work with Hashem, each according to his abilities. Most importantly, it is an obligation of every talented writer who has the spirit of Hashem within him [to write]. I hope that you will succeed in this way, having a charm accompany your writing. May all who help you publish for the welfare of the masses of the dispersed nation of Hashem, which is under spiritual attack even more than physical attack [be blessed]. You should share the holy, lofty thought of the reawakening of the nation on holy soil. It is now its time to appear with many lights from different directions.

The Yishai Fleisher Israel Podcast: STATE OF FINKELSTEIN

SEASON 2024 EPISODE 20: Yishai and Malkah discuss the pain of Israel Memorial Day and the majesty of Israel Independence Day - which reflect the struggle and the miracle of Israel's rebirth. Then, Yishai goes into the lion's den to tackle known Israel-hater Norman Finkelstein on the Piers Morgan Uncensored show.

Light Against Darkness

by HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

The tehilim of Wednesdays, which the Levi’im would recite in the Beit HaMikdash, begins: “O L-rd G-d, to whom vengeance belongs; O G-d, to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth!” (Tehilim 94:1). Dovid HaMelech, suffering the nation’s pain, addresses G-d: “L-rd, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph.... They crush Your people, O L-rd, and afflict Your heritage. They slay widows and strangers, and they murder orphans” (verses 3,5-6). The evil do this, thinking that “the L-rd shall not see it, neither shall the G-d of Yaakov regard it” (v. 7). Truthfully, however, “The L-rd knows the thoughts of man, that they are vanity” (v. 11). The plans and designs of the evil against the People and Land of Israel will be nullified, “for the L-rd will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance” (v. 14). Moreover, G-d’s revenge will be fulfilled: “G-d will bring upon them their own iniquity; He will cut them off in their own wickedness. The L-rd our G-d will cut them off” (v. 23). Even if G-d tarries, He will surely destroy them (Metzudat Dovid, Ibid.).

Today, our enemies are rising up against us with the goal of stealing our land and destroying our state - It will never come to pass! Likewise, they go out to murder our men, women, and children - may G-d avenge their blood. Yet we must consider well and respond forcefully, turning back the battle to the gate. We must understand and recognize that we are at the height of a war for our survival, just as when our ancestors fought for their survival in their land during the First and Second Temple periods. We must ask and learn and recognize the source from which David drew his strength and faith when he set out to fight Goliath. From where did we derive the spirit and might to stand as the few against the many, a small country against great powers like Egypt, Babylonia, Greece and Rome?

The answer is that our ancestors possessed a clear awareness that the wars of Israel are wars of G-d. Israel’s wars are not just over territory, but over the revelation of G-d’s glory on earth, which is indeed revealed through Israel’s rising up and achieving independence in their land. The present war, as well, is a war of the children of light against the children of darkness. The Arabs, and those who support them, cannot bear the morning light that is being revealed more and more through the rebirth of the Jewish People in their land. True, “the rulers and kings of the earth take counsel together against the L-rd and against His anointed” (Tehilim 2:2), but “He who sits in heaven laughs, the L-rd mocks them” (v. 4). Quite the contrary, G-d addresses us with a request: “Ask of Me and I shall give you nations for your inheritance; the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession” (v. 8). Then, the tables will be turned: “You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (v. 9). May our constant entreaty be fulfilled: “Spare Your people, O L-rd. Let not Your heritage be an object of contempt, a byword among the nations” (Tachanun for Mondays and Thursdays).

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

Sichot with Rosh HaYeshivah Parshat Emor - Rabbi Dov Begon and Rabbi Menachem Listman (video)

An eye for an eye?

by Rav Binny Freedman

Visit the Synagogue of the Maharal (Rav Meir Leibush Lowe) of Prague (known as the Altneu Shul, in Prague), and you will immediately notice its most distinctive feature: with the exception of some Hebrew letters very high up near the ceiling, the walls are completely blank; devoid of any art or decorations. Standing in stark contrast to all the other Jewish Synagogues of Prague (not to mention all over Europe) this detail demands explanation.

There is an intensity to this shul with its history of hundreds of years; perhaps this is why:

On April 17, 1389, Easter Sunday, a Priest apparently leading a procession past the Jewish community of Prague was hit with sand thrown by a few Jewish children. (It may be some sand kicked up by a game they were playing landed on the Host (the Eucharistic wafer representing their Lord.)

Claiming they had denigrated Christianity and desecrated the Host, his incitement led the clergy to encourage the mobs to pillage, ransack, and burn the Jewish quarter for two days in what became known as the Prague pogrom. 3,000 Jews were murdered by their Christian brethren; all but the youngest children were murdered, with countless more injured and maimed, many of whom had their limbs cut off and eyes put out. Almost the entire Jewish community of Prague was wiped out.

As there were not enough able-bodied Jewish men left to give the dead proper burial in a short period of time, to prevent a further desecration of the dead, the 3,000 Jewish bodies were stacked in the shul until little by little they were able to be given a proper Jewish burial. By the time they were all buried, the blood from their bodies had seeped into the walls all the way up to the tops of the windows. For over two centuries this was how the walls were left; the red stained stones a constant reminder of the price the Jewish community of Prague had paid for their faith.

When the Maharal (Rav Yehuda Lowe) came from Poland to Prague in the latter half of the 16th century and saw the blood on the walls he immediately told the Jewish community they could not pray there as the blood needed burial. Eventually they compromised by plastering the walls to ‘bury’ the blood behind the plaster. (As the blood had seeped into the bones this was the only alternative to taking apart the entire building). But every 100 years or so the blood seeps through and the walls need to be re-plastered.

Nonetheless, as part of the compromise, the walls remained blank without decorations out of respect for those who lost their lives. (Eventually Rav Yechezkel Landau (the Noda Be’yehuda) convinced the community to decorate the tops of the walls with verses but only the first letters of each word.)

This past Friday night I had the privilege of experiencing Kabbalat Shabbat in the Altneu Shul of the Maharal in Prague. Having just heard this story, it recalled to my mind the verse spoken by G-d after Cain’s murder of his brother Abel (Genesis 4:10)

“Kol d’mei achicha tzo’akim elai min ha’adama…”

“The sound of the blood of your brother cries out to me from the earth …”

This week’s portion contains a famous verse (Vayikra 24:20) that gives one much pause for thought:

“An eye for an eye….”

If someone hits or attacks his neighbor causing him to lose an eye, he is ‘owed’ an eye. The verse seems to suggest that the consequence for the attacker or negligent damager is that he must forfeit his own eye. Our rabbis explain however (Baba Kama 83b-84a), that we are dealing with monetary value and not an actual eye.

Now this interpretation makes a lot of sense, especially as it would be difficult back in biblical times to ensure removing an eye did not kill a person, and what would one do if the attacker was already blind, and so on. But it leaves us with the question as to why the Torah did not simply tell us that the consequence for such an action would be to pay the victim the monetary equivalent of sight from one eye?

The Maharal of Prague (in his Gur Aryeh) explains that in reality a person should have had to pay with his own actual eye, to teach that no monetary equivalent could compensate a person for a living limb or organ, save that the Torah (Hashem) is merciful.

A person might come to mistakenly think that once paid, the debt is finished; he has completely ‘compensated’ his neighbor for the damage that was done. But in reality, such crimes can never be compensated for, and the damager must seek the forgiveness of the victim.

Think about who those 3,000 murdered Jews of 1389 would have been today. Imagine one couple in 1389 of that population were to have on average three children and assume of those 3,000 Jews there would have been at least 300 couples, which would have meant 900 children in 1430 who themselves would have had 2,700 children by 1470, who would have had 8,100 children by 1510, who would have had 24,300 children by 1550, and 72,900 by 1590, and 218,700 by 1630, and 656,000 by 1670, 1,968,300 by 1710, and 5,904,900, almost six million Jews, by 1740…. So how many Jews would have been born by 2016? (Even allowing for distant cousins marrying each other.)

We live in a generation that is seeing an attempt by some of the countries responsible for the most sinister destruction of a people in human history, attempt to make some compensation for those crimes. And as the Torah suggests, there is a need for and a value to attempting some level of monetary compensation. But at the same time it is important to remember why the Torah states the consequence as ‘an eye for an eye’, because we need to remember that such things can never be fixed.

This past Shabbat morning I was privileged to join the morning tefillah at Prague’s Jerusalem Synagogue. I got a bit lost on my way to shul and so finally joined the services a bit late, just in time for the barechu ‘prayer which requires a minyan (quorum of ten men).

When I walked in, the cantor looked extremely relieved as I had just ‘made the minyan’ as the tenth Jewish man. As it turned out we were praying in the ‘winter room’ a much smaller room that could be more easily heated. After services we were allowed to walk into the main sanctuary, a magnificent hall that seats nearly 1800 people. The echoes of the prayers still reverberate there, but the Jews who uttered them are no more, they were all deported to Terezin and eventually to Treblinka and Auschwitz. There were 56,000 Jews in Prague before the war; there were 1500 left in 1945.

The Czeck government in1989 when Communism left, announced they would return all Jewish property to the Jewish community, and we heard a number of times while in Prague that the Jewish community (as opposed to Jewish individuals) in Prague is one of the wealthiest in the world due to the properties they own and the rents they can charge. But we dare not forget that such crimes can never be compensated for, and the Jewish community will never regain the true riches it once had of Jews by the tens of thousands.

And of course, this need to strive to make amends while being cognizant of those things that can never fully be rectified exists for us as individuals as well. Deep in the midst of the mission of the Kohanim (Priests) who were meant to be Judaism’s educational role models, we are reminded of how important it is to be ever sensitive to the ‘blemishes’ we may sometimes inflict on our fellow human beings: physical, emotional and even psychological, that cannot always be fixed or healed so easily.

Shabbat Shalom.

Time

BS”D
Parashat Emor – Yom Ha’atzmaut 5784
by HaRav Nachman Kahana

Predicting the future is more precarious than walking on thin ice in June.

We deduce or produce our predications on an array of assumptions, statistics, historic precedents, psychological or religious-cultural orientation of the expert; but most often it’s just plain good guessing and luck. Experience has shown that in most instances things begin according to predictions, until suddenly something happens (oops or snafu) and we toss our learned charts and designs into the trashcan in order to begin a new set of predictions. What is that “suddenly something happens”? It is HaShem’s interacting in human affairs to direct future human traffic according to His original blueprint.

I am challenged by a repeating theme in our liturgy; in the kiddush over wine, in birkat hamazon, in the texts between Shema Yisrael and the beginning of Shemoneh Esrei, and more. The theme is the Exodus from Egypt and the death of the entire Egyptian army under the waters of Yam Suf.

To fortify the dilemma, I put forward the Gemara (Brachot 12b) that quotes the verse in Yirmiyahu to question the position that even after the Mashiach’s arrival we still praise HaShem for the miracles He performed for us at the Egyptian Exodus:

הנה ימים באים נאם ה’ ולא יאמרו עוד חי ה’ אשר העלה את בני ישראל מארץ מצרים, כי אם חי ה’ אשר העלה ואשר הביא את זרע בית ישראל מארץ צפונה ומכל הארצות אשר הדחתים שם!

Now, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer say, as surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt, but they will say, As surely as the Lord lives, He who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them. Then they will live in their own land (future redemption).

And the Gemara replies:

לא שתעקר יציאת מצרים ממקומה, אלא שתהא שעבוד מלכיות עיקר, ויציאת מצרים טפל

Yirmiyahu did not intend that the Exodus would be omitted from the liturgy, but that it would be secondary to our expressions of thanksgiving for the miracles HaShem will perform for us in the future redemption.

The problem here is that, in fact, the Exodus from Egypt commands a much more dominant position in the liturgy than any reference to future miracles, in contradiction to what the Gemara in Brachot explains regarding the verse in Yirmiyahu.

My understanding is:

If the nations in our region are left to their own designs based on cause and effect without HaShem’s direct involvement in their politics and national interests, the following will occur based on the teaching that “What was – will be again”, that our future redemption will be a repetition of the Biblical past.

Egypt will make war on Israel, either because of a civil revolution led by the Moslem Brotherhood or by some small spark in Azza which spirals into Egypt sending its very large army to the Sinai desert to face off with the smaller Tzahal.

There will be a moment when disaster will be imminent. But as in days of old, Egypt, will be destroyed by tens of millions of cubic meters of water cascading down the Nile Valley from the crumbling great Aswan Dam!

The masters of Yavneh (the Sanhedrin, authors of the basic liturgy) knew this. So, they introduced into the liturgy the past destruction of Egypt in order to hint to us of the future repetition of HaShem’s miracles.
Part two: A piece of good advice

I need not go into details of what is happening in western countries, especially in the US, in terms of Judenhass; they and their potential dangers to Jews are common knowledge. This coupled with the very real possibility of reinstating the military draft and other things are making daily life for Jews in the US uncomfortable.

If and when it becomes apparent that the “time has come” it could be too late to attend to your personal interests. You will want to sell your home, but so too will many other Jews and the price you get will not cover the cost of 2 rooms in Yerushalayim.

If I were in the States and owned property or a home, I would sell it now and go into a rented place. And with the money, purchase a home in Israel which I would rent out for a handsome sum.

It could save your life, if and when the galut roof falls in!

Think about it.

Shabbat Shalom,
Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5784/2024 Nachman Kahana

Rabbi Ari Kahn on Parashat Emor: the Perfect Merger (video)

The Kohen: Accessing the light for us

by Rabbi Pinchas Winston

THE WORD KOHEN is spelled, Chof-Heh-Nun. It is a word that means to officiate in some way or another, but its letters allude to something deeper. The first two letters, Chof-Heh, have a history of their own, as does the last letter, Nun.

The Nun is easy, because it usually refers to the Nun Sha’arei Binah, the Fifty Gates of Understanding referred to here:

The world was created with fifty gates of understanding… (Rosh Hashanah 21b)

The Nun Sha’arei Binah are one of the most important concepts, especially in Kabbalah. They are the basis of Torah knowledge, and something we’re supposed to be trying to access daily. They are also the basis of ours souls, the Neshamah spelled, Nun-Shin-Mem-Heh, which can be read: Nun shamah, fifty is there.

The Chof-Heh is less obvious. Pronounced koh, the word shows up often in Tanach, often to introduce a prophecy. But perhaps one of the most famous occurrences is here:

You stay here—poh—with the donkey, while I and the lad will walk until there—koh, bow down and then return to you. (Bereishis 22:5)

This is what Avraham told Yishmael and Eliezer who had accompanied him and Yitzchak to the Akeidah. When they finally arrived at the location God had intended, Avraham saw the Shechinah as did Yitzchak. But Yishmael and Eliezer did not share their vision, which Avraham took as a Divine sign to leave them behind at that place referred to as “poh—here.”

In Gematria Kollel, when one is added to the total, poh (85) becomes 86, which is the numerical value of the Name of God, Elokim. Similarly, koh (25) becomes 26, the gematria of God’s Ineffable Name, the Shem Hovayah. In effect, Avraham told the two lads, “You stay here on the spiritual level of Elokim Who works through Nature, while we go to the level of Hovayah, which operates supernaturally.”

Not coincidentally, koh is used regarding Birchas Kohanim, the blessing of the people by the kohanim:

God spoke to Moshe saying, “Speak to Aharon and his sons and tell them: ‘Chof-Heh—this is how you will bless the Children of Israel…’” (Bamidbar 6:22)

The Ba’al HaTurim explains:

This alludes to the merit [of the Akeidah when Avraham said] “I and the lad will walk until there—Chof-Heh” (Bereishis 22:5), and “thus—Chof-Heh—will be your seed” (Bereishis 15:5), and “as God has blessed me thus—Chof-Heh” (Yehoshua 17:14). Koh has the numerical value of 25, which is the amount of letters in Shema Yisroel. As well, the language of blessing occurs in the entire Torah 25 times, as does the word shalom—peace. (Ba’al HaTurim)

But the real significance of the number 25 appears here, explaining why it is associated with blessing:

God said, “Let there—yehi—be light!” (Bereishis 1:3)

The word yehi means let there be. But it is also a gematria, 10+5+10, or 25. This would make the verse read, “25 is the light.” And not just any light, but the Supernal Light of Creation regarding which it says:

God saw that the light was good, and God separated between the light and the darkness. (Bereishis 1:4)

He saw that the wicked were unworthy of using it, and therefore set it apart for the righteous in the future time. (Rashi)

He made a separation in the illumination of the light, that it should not flow or give off light except for the righteous, whose actions draw it down and make it shine. However, the actions of the evil block it, leaving them in [intellectual] darkness. This itself was the hiding of the light. (Sefer HaKlallim, Klal 18, Anaf 8, Os 4)

Any righteous person can access this wondrous light, but it was specifically the job of the kohanim to access it and draw it down to the people. It is only with this light that a person can access the Nun Sha’arei Binah, and ascend gate-by-gate. That’s why there are so many laws regarding kohanim, especially when it comes to maintaining a state of spiritual purity.

Rabbi Doniel Glatstein on the View of the Michtav M'Eliyahu of the Return to Eretz Yisroel After the Holocaust (video)

Rav Kook's Ein Ayah: Awe and Fear of the King

(condensed from Berachot 4:36)

Gemara: When Rebbi Yochanan ben Zakai became seriously ill, his students came to visit him. When he saw them, he began to cry. They asked him why he was crying, and he answered: “If they would take me before a human king who - today is alive and tomorrow will be in the grave, if he gets angry at me, his anger is not eternal and if he incarcerates me, the incarceration is not eternal, if he kills me, the death is not eternal, and I can appease him with words and bribe him with money - still I would be afraid. Now that they are bringing me before the King of kings, the Holy One Blessed Be He, who - if He gets angry at me, His anger is eternal, and if He incarcerates me, the incarceration is eternal, and if He kills me, the death is eternal, and I cannot appease Him with words or bribe Him with money, and furthermore, there are two paths before me, one to Hell and one to the Garden of Eden, and I do not know in which path they will take me - should I not cry?”

Ein Ayah: Crying is linked to the spirit and the emotion. When one realizes that he will have to stand before someone far greater than he in ability and level, even if he has no logical reason to be afraid, it is still fitting for him to be overcome with emotion and awe while contemplating the encounter. If one did not feel that way before going before Hashem, it would be a sign that he did not recognize Hashem’s greatness. Certainly, just as truth can emerge from logic and intellect, so can it emerge from actions and emotions. When an emotion is missing, something cognitive is also missing. Only when moved by the upcoming encounter with the Divine can a person approach the truth of Hashem’s greatness. Even before a human king, one should be awed by his ability to mete out punishment, even if one is logically confident that he has done nothing to expect punishment. If one’s logical confidence cannot overcome his emotion of awe and fear regarding a human king, all the more so before the King of kings, whose capabilities are limitless.

Regarding the areas of completeness (shleimut), one can identify three relevant areas: shleimut in actuality, in freedom, and in love. Shleimut in love is the highest level, as it engenders full happiness and brings with it the goodness of wisdom.

Corresponding to these areas, Rebbi Yochanan mentioned three things about the king’s potential treatment of him. The matter of anger corresponds to the opposite of love, which, in such a central relationship as with the king, is an important matter. Incarceration relates to the loss of the shleimut of freedom, and death relates to the loss of the shleimut of existence. None of these matters needs to be so terrifying if the power to cause the loss can be neutralized. One can fix things in different ways. Appeasing relates to removing the reason for the anger, as it can put the king’s anger, which is the danger, to rest. Externally, one can give a bribe and remove a harsh decree, despite the king’s intrinsic desire to carry it out. However, if it is Hashem who has made a decree because of reasons of justice so that an area of human shleimut is at risk, there is no intrinsic or external way to overcome it [without one doing something to give him new merit]. Facing such a potential danger, one should be awe-struck, even if he logically realizes that his situation should be safe.

However, there is also a logical reason for concern. That which we consider righteousness or evil has a lot to do with our subjective nature, including our physical side. It is possible that one thinks he has sufficiently fulfilled his obligations because he did not succeed in elevating himself sufficiently. If one opens his eyes, he might see that which is wrong about him. Thus, Rebbi Yochanan had both an emotional and a logical fear of what could await him from his encounter with Hashem after death.

Doing the Will of G-d

by HaRav Mordechai Greenberg
Nasi HaYeshiva, Kerem B'Yavneh

"You shall count for yourselves – from the morrow of the rest day ... seven weeks, they shall be complete." (Vayikra 23:15) Chazal comment, "When are they complete? When Israel does the will of G-d." What does it mean, to "do the will of G-d," and what is its connection to Sefirat Ha'omer?

It says in Masechet Brachot (35b):

"This Book of the Torah shall not depart from your mouth." Could it be that this is meant literally? Thus, it says, "gather in your grain" – act in a normal manner. [These are] the words of R. Yishmael.R. Shimon b. Yochai says: Is it possible that a person plow at the time of plowing, plant at the time of planting, etc. – Torah, what will be of it? Rather, when Israel does the will of G-d their work is done by others [i.e., non-Jews] ... and when they do not do the will of G-d their work is done by themselves, as it says, "gather in your grain."

Tosfot asks, how is it possible that this parsha of "Vehaya im shamoa" is when they do not do the will of G-d? After all, the parsha begins, "It will be that if you hearken to My commandments!"

The answer is that "doing G-d's will" and "not doing G-d's will" does not mean observing the Torah and violating the Torah. The Ramban writes in Parshat Kedoshim that a person can observe the entire Torah, and still be a "naval b'reshut haTorah" (immoral within the framework of the Torah). A person can be immersed in the lust of his own wife, be a glutton and drunkard with kosher food and wine, and speak foul language, since this prohibition is not mentioned in the Torah. Thus, he will be immoral – without violating the Torah!

It is possible nowadays, for example, to prepare a timer before Shabbat, and to benefit from many electrical appliances without transgressing. Even so, this is not "doing the will of G-d." Although he doesn't sin, he is not acheiving the desire of G-d, the Divine intention.

R. Shimon b. Yochai's statement that one who is involved with his sustenance is "not doing the will of G-d" does not mean that he is sinning, but that he is not fulfilling G-d's desire. Therefore, although it says in the second chapter of Shema, "It will be if you hearken to My commandments" – this alone is not G-d's desire.

The Gerer Rebbe, the author of the "Imrei Emet," explains this idea more deeply. The Ran writes that when G-d said to Moshe, "When you take the people out of Egypt, you will serve G-d on this mountain," Israel asked, "When?" Moshe said to them, "In another fifty days." Israel began counting the days, so G-d established this count as a mitzvah.

This mitzvah grew out of Israel's love and desire to serve G-d, which impacted G-d's will, so that he made it a mitzvah. Thus, Israel "made" the will of G-d; they formed it.

This is the difference between the two chapters of Shema. In the first one it says, "You shall love Hashem, your G-d, with all your heart" – with your two inclinations, and afterwards, "These matters that I command you today shall be upon your heart." First love, and then G-d's command. In this way, Israel are the ones who "make" the will of G-d; they cause His will to be revealed.

In the second chapter, the order is reversed: "It will be that if you hearken to My commandments ... to love Hashem, your G-d" – first the command and then the love. This is "not doing the will of G-d," since they do not make His will, but rather His will is revealed prior to their love.

These two explanations are one idea. When Israel achieve the Divine intention, then G-d reveals His will.

The time of Sefira is a time of character self-improvement, which is divided into forty-nine traits. "Derech eretz" precedes Torah. Therefore, "Seven weeks, they shall be complete" – when all of the traits are rectified, and the person makes himself conform to the will of the Creator – then His will is revealed through Matan Torah.

"They shall be complete" – when they do the will of G-d, and then, "The Torah of Hashem is complete." (Tehillim 19:8)

Rav Kook on Parashat Emor: Agents of Kedusha

The Gemara in Nedarim 35b describes the kohanim as sheluchei didan, our agents. When they perform the Beit HaMikdash service, the kohanim act as our emissaries.

Yet this idea — that the kohanim act as agents for the Jewish people — appears to violate the legal definition of a shaliach. An agent acts on behalf of the one sending him (the principal), executing his wishes. The agent, however, can only do that which the principal himself is authorized to do.

So how can the kohanim perform the Temple service on our behalf, when we as non-kohanim are not permitted to serve there?

Potential vs. Actual
The parasha opens with a set of special directives for kohanim: “God spoke to Moshe: Tell the kohanim, the sons of Aharon...” (Vayikra 21:1). The text appears repetitive — “the kohanim, the sons of Aharon.” Why does the text need to emphasize that the kohanim are descendants of Aharon?

These two terms — “kohanim” and “sons of Aharon” indicate two different aspects of the special kedusha of kohanim. The first is an intrinsic kedusha, passed down from father to son. The phrase “sons of Aharon” refers to this inherent kedusha.

The second aspect is an additional layer of kedusha as expressed by a kohen’s actual service in the Beit HaMikdash. This aspect is designated by the term “kohanim.” The verb le-khahein means “to serve,” so the word “kohanim” refers to their actual service in the Beit HaMikdash. Thus the term “sons of Aharon” refers to the kohanim’s inherited potential, while “kohanim” refers to their actualized state of kohanic service.

The Chalal
Usually a kohen will have both potential and actual kohanic-kedusha. Yet there are certain situations that allow us to distinguish between the two.

A kohen is forbidden to marry a divorced woman. Should he nonetheless marry a divorcee, his son falls into a special category. He is called a chalal, from the word chilul, “to defile holiness.” Despite his lineage as the son of a kohen, a chalal may not serve in the Beit HaMikdash.

Yet if a chalal went ahead and offered a korban, his offerings are accepted after the fact (Rambam, Bi'at Mikdash 6:10). This is quite surprising. In general, a chalal has the legal status of a non-kohen. If a non-kohen brought an offering, his service would be disqualified. Why are a chalal’s offerings accepted?

The distinction between potential and actual kohanic status, between “sons of Aharon” and “kohanim,” allows us to understand the unusual status of a chalal. Due to the fact that he is the son of a divorcee, he has lost the actualized sanctity of a functioning kohen. But he still retains the inherited sanctity as a “son of Aaron.” 1 This intrinsic sanctity cannot be revoked. Therefore, while a chalal should not serve in the Beit HaMikdash, his offerings are accepted after the fact.

The Sages derived this ruling from Moshe's blessing of the tribe of Levi:

“May God bless his strength (cheilo), and favor the acts of his hands” (Devarim 33:11).

Even the acts of those who are chulin, who have lost part of their kohanic sanctity, are still acceptable to God (Kiddushin 66b).

Our Agents
We may now understand the description of kohanim as sheluchei didan, “our agents.” How can they be our emissaries in their Beit HaMikdash service when we ourselves are forbidden to perform this service?

In fact, the Torah speaks of the entire Jewish people as “a kingdom of kohanim” (Shemot 19:6). And Yishayahu foresaw a future time in which “You will be called God’s kohanim. They will speak of you as the ministers of our God” (Isaiah 61:6).

Non-kohanim may not serve in the Beit HaMikdash, for they lack the holiness of actual kohanim. Yet every Jew has the quality of potential kohanic kedusha. Because this inner kedusha will be revealed in the future, the entire people of Israel are called “God’s kohanim.” And it is due to this potential holiness that the kohanim are able to serve as our agents and perform the Beit HaMikdash service on our behalf.

Israel’s Future Kedusha
This understanding of the role of kohanim sheds a new light on the ceremony of Birkat Kohanim, the special priestly benediction (as described in Bamidbar 6:23-27). The purpose of their blessing is to awaken the latent kohanic kedusha that resides within each member of the Jewish people. As the kohanim extend their arms to bless the people, they reach out toward Israel’s future state of kedusha. Their outstretched arms — their zero'a netuyah — point to a future era, whose seeds (zera) are planted in the present.

“Via the established sanctity of kohanim in the nation, the entire nation will come to be a complete “kingdom of kohanim and a holy people” (Olat Re’iyah vol. I, p. 61)

(Sapphire from the Land of Israel. Adapted from Shemuot HaRe’iyah, Emor(1930) by Rav Chanan Morrison)
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1 That a chalal falls under the category of “the sons of Aharon” but not “kohanim” is seen in the Midrash Halachah quoted by Rashi: “One might think that chalalim are included. Therefore the verse says, ‘the kohanim’ — excluding chalalim [from the special laws of kohanim].”

The Chosen Tribe

by Rabbi Dov Berel Wein

One of the central themes in this week's Torah reading concerns the special and unique laws and commandments that pertain to the kohanim – the family of Aharon who became the kohanim of Israel. While the people of Israel did not democratically elect them to serve in that exalted role, they were, rather, appointed to their duties and status by the will of Heaven, as expressed through Moshe.

We have seen earlier in the Torah that there was hesitancy on the part of Aharon to accept his role of kohen. Nevertheless, at the insistence of Moshe and the direction of Heaven, the family of Aharon became the everlasting chain of kohanim that exists within Jewish society even until today.

It is obvious that the Torah was aware of the pitfalls of choosing the kohanim instead of electing it through the medium of the will of the people of Israel. Later in the Torah, a rebellion was mounted against this notion and Moshe's leadership, and one of the main complaints against them would be that somehow Moshe was guilty of nepotism in choosing his brother Aharon as the first and founding member of the kohanim of Israel. Yet, the Torah did not flinch from establishing Aharon and his family as the kohanim of Israel, and that choice has weathered all storms, and remains valid and vital, even in current Jewish society, thousands of years after Moshe and Aharon are no longer with us.

Truly, human beings have many thoughts, plans, and ideas, but eventually it is the will of the Lord that will prevail and survive. All human choices are, by their very nature, subject to fallibility and mistakes. But the will of Heaven always has the imprint of perfection and infinity upon it.

Aharon and his descendants have a special place in Jewish life. They are entitled to financial support, social favor, and status. The laws that we read in this week's portion still apply to them. In my experience, I have noticed that kohanim possess a special pride in their heritage and in their uniqueness. Judaism, which always is a meritocracy, nevertheless, creates an aristocracy to the priesthood of Aaron and his descendants. Scholarship, piety and even leadership are fields that are open to each and every Jewish person, without regard to ancestral advantage. However, the service of bridging the gap between God and the Jewish people, between the practical and mundane parts of life, and that of the Beit HaMikdash service with the exalted infinity that the Beit HaMikdash was meant to encompass, was a task that was left those that were chosen by Heaven for the fulfillment of that very role – Aharon and his family.

Not every kohen was necessarily fit for the task, nor did he live up to the responsibilities of being a kohen. However, as a group and as a class, it is obvious that even until today, the family of Aharon is deservedly held in high regard throughout Jewish society, and remains a constant reminder of the will of Heaven as expressed in our own societal lives.

Egypt's Duplicity, the World's Silence

by Bassam Tawil

• "A one-hundred-dollar bill does wonders with an Egyptian police officer at a Sinai roadblock who intercepts a truck packed with 'pipes.'" — Efraim Inbar and Mordechai Kedar, BESA Center, January 22, 2009.
• This is just another example of how, when Palestinians become victims of oppressive measures taken against them by their Arab brothers, the world does not care a bit. About a decade ago, when Egypt demolished dozens of houses and buildings in Rafah as part of a campaign to combat terrorism, no one said a word against the Egyptians -- or even bothered to look.
• If the Egyptians actually cared about the Palestinians, instead of blocking the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip, they could easily coordinate with Israel though alternative border crossings such as the nearby Kerem Shalom terminal.
• Evidently the Egyptians would rather see the Gazans starve; then, the international community, as usual, would hold only Israel responsible.
• That is the real problem: Where is the demand from the international community for Egypt to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip? Where are social media posts, the US college campus protests, and the op-eds condemning Egypt for deliberately withholding aid from Gaza's Palestinians?
• Why doesn't the Biden administration pressure Egypt, and not just Israel, to allow aid to enter Gaza for the Palestinians?
• Egypt has, in fact, been imposing a blockade on the Gaza Strip for the past 15 years.... Where are the protestors calling to stop the billions in aid to Egypt? They do not, of course, exist. The protests were never about helping Palestinians. They were always only about attacking Jews.
• This is the same Egypt that been displacing thousands of Palestinians from Rafah after demolishing their homes and is now blocking aid to the Palestinians, that has piously decided to join the South African case against Israel at the ICJ.
• Now that Israel is attempting to dismantle a terrorist group whose primary objective is the elimination of Israel, the Biden administration and many in the international community suddenly claim they are "outraged."
• If they really want to help the Palestinians, they could begin by filing cases against Egypt and the Arab states in the region that, for many decades, have turned their backs on the Palestinians and paid billions to their governments to keep on mistreating them.

If the Egyptians actually cared about the Palestinians, instead of blocking the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip, they could easily coordinate with Israel though alternative border crossings. Evidently the Egyptians would rather see the Gazans starve; then, the international community, as usual, would hold only Israel responsible. Pictured: Egyptian army soldiers stand guard at the Rafah crossing on Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip on October 20, 2023. (Photo by Ali Moustafa/AFP via Getty Images)


On May 12, Egypt announced that it will support South Africa's case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where Israel is accused of "genocide" for defending its citizens against Hamas's murderers and rapists who invaded Israeli communities on October 7, 2023. The announcement came in response to the ongoing Israeli military operation against Hamas terrorists and bases, especially in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

If the South Africans had any decency, they would not only call out the Egyptians for being hypocrites and liars, they would also file a case with the ICJ against Egypt for its role in transforming the Gaza Strip into a weapons depot and continuing to deprive the Palestinians there of humanitarian aid.

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Israel Declares Independence from Biden

by Daniel Greenfield

As Israel marks its 76th Independence Day, instead of a day usually filled with parades and fireworks, the Israeli people will buckle down to the business of a nation at war.

Too much of the population is either deployed in the field or may soon be, displaced from their homes near the Gaza border or aware that at any moment rocket alerts could sound for incoming missiles from Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen or Iran. This year, Yom HaZikaron, Memorial Day annually observed for the fallen, will overshadow Yom Ha’atzmaut or Independence Day.

Much like America’s Greatest Generation, the men and women who scrappily fought for Israel’s independence using crude weapons and WWII surplus gear are passing out of history. Few now remember a time when Israel did not exist and some have come to take it for granted. While Israeli Air Force jets won’t be doing flyovers for the 76th, the leftist protesters, some backed by foreign interests, will still continue their rallies and riots that only serve to aid Hamas.

And yet Israel did declare a new kind of independence before its latest Yom Ha’atzmaut.

After nearly half a year of pressure campaigns to end the war, the Biden administration followed through by announcing an embargo on offensive weapons to Israel. It’s not the first time. In 1947, the Truman administration had imposed an arms embargo on Israel. Truman, like the current Democrat in the White House, had played a familiar double game, offering diplomatic recognition to Israel and enthusiastic speeches to Jewish voters, even while privately promising Muslims the opposite and making sure that Israel would not have the weapons to defend itself.

When the Republican Party platform declared that it took “pride in the fact that the Republican Party was the first to call for the establishment of a free and independent Jewish Commonwealth” and condemned the “vacillation of the Democrat Administration”, Truman shot back angrily claiming that he supported the Democratic platform and its call for “the revision of the arms embargo to accord to the State of Israel the right of self-defense.” This was a lie.

Truman had supported the arms embargo from the beginning. Three months before the Democrat platform had been adopted, the administration had backed a UN resolution that included an arms embargo. Truman was saying one thing and doing another. Like Biden, Truman had been following political considerations. That was why diplomats had been warned to stay away from making any anti-Israel moves at the United Nations before Election Day.

Even under the arms embargo, Israel survived an invasion by five Muslim nations.

“You just don’t understand. Forty million Arabs are going to push four hundred thousand Jews into the sea. And that’s all there is to it,” Secretary of Defense James Forrestal had predicted.

Three generations later, Israel is still here.



Israel’s 76th Independence Day has come around again. Once again the Jewish State is fighting for its survival against Islamic genocidal violence and a corrupt political class in Washington D.C. It’s relearning the old lesson that presidents say one thing for public consumption and do another. And that independence is not just aspirational, it’s a simple matter of survival.

Biden’s betrayal of Israel was inevitable. The blindness of Israeli leaders to that eventuality, their conviction that if they followed every single guideline from the White House, they would have the support they needed to finish off Hamas in Gaza was a delusional fantasy. Israel’s best bet lay in quickly doing what it needed to do. Everything the Biden administration wanted only slowed down the war effort and doomed the very support that Israel had been counting on.

A day after delivering a speech at the Holocaust Museum about his support for Israel, Biden told CNN that the support was gone. But Truman had pulled a similar trick with a rally at Madison Square Garden when he told New York’s Jewish voters that he was responsible for setting up Israel “as a free and independent political state” even while it was fighting for its survival.

The Truman administration continued backing worthless UN truces (the predecessors of today’s equally duplicitous ceasefires) which allowed the Islamic terrorists of the Muslim Brotherhood (the parent organization of Hamas) to continue attacking Jewish towns and massacring Jews.

While Truman was telling one thing to Jewish voters in New York City ahead of Election Day, Israel was evacuating children as part of ‘Operation Baby’ from front line communities under siege by terrorists during the latest ‘truce’. In Kibbutz Manara, the children had to be evacuated from the mountaintop in vegetable crates in a scene later recreated in the movie ‘Exodus’.

Manara had to be evacuated again after the Hamas attacks of Oct 7 and it’s estimated that half the homes in the community have been destroyed after Hezbollah Islamic terrorists have shot a rocket every day at the village. The people living there can’t go home. But unlike the Hamas supporters crying in Gaza, you won’t see their faces on the evening news.

After the 1948 election, not only weren’t there any arms sales, but the White House was upset that Israel had begun winning. The Egyptians had not only failed to push the Jews into the sea, but the Jews were now pushing them back into the Sinai.

A month after the election, in which 75% of Jews had voted for him, Truman demanded that Israel immediately withdraw or his administration would “re-examine” its mostly non-existent relations. Truman, who would later claim credit for creating Israel, had done little more than provide de facto (not de jure) recognition to Israel, while still maintaining the arms embargo.

Truman’s move allowed Egypt to control Gaza and turn it over to the Muslim Brotherhood for regular terror raids on Israel. And that led directly to the rise of Hamas and the current war.

It’s also why Truman ought to get more credit for creating Hamas than for creating Israel.

Truman did not actually begin selling weapons to Israel until 1950, well after it had survived the war, and only in order to also be able to sell weapons to its Arab Muslim enemies as part of an agreement with the UK to “maintain a rough balance of power between Israel and the Arab states.“

American Jews have long lived with the comforting “Eddie Jacobson” myth that Truman had intervened on behalf of Israel because of a plea from his longtime friend and business partner. The truth is that the Truman administration had opposed statehood, until Israel had gone ahead and declared it, had opposed any Israeli presence in Jerusalem, and blocked the pathway to victory, until Israel had gone ahead and won not because of Truman, but despite him.

Since then history has repeated itself again and again. And too many Israelis, who used to know better, bought into the silly myth that their country existed because Truman “liked” them. Millions of Jews were murdered in Europe despite all the politicians who claimed to like them, but then did nothing for them. Hundreds of thousands of Jews in Israel held off armies and built a state, not because politicians liked them, but because they fought for their independence.

The Oslo accords, made so that Israel would be liked, brought it to the brink of destruction. If Israel is going to undo that and the entire ‘palestinian’ colonial project, it has a limited time in which to act. Even after Oct 7, it was too consumed with being liked to do what had to be done.

Like America, Israel wants to be liked after Islamic terror attacks, when what it needs is to win.

On the 76th anniversary of its independence, Israel has once again been forced to declare its independence from a White House Democrat who publicly promised support while privately stabbing it in the back. Going into Rafah and finishing off Hamas will be a more meaningful celebration of Yom Ha’atzmaut or Independence Day than any flag-waving parades.

Independence is not in the fireworks you shoot off, it’s in taking independent action.

Contrary to popular myth, foreign aid to Israel isn’t proof that Jerusalem controls D.C. but that D.C. controls Jerusalem. What’s often misleadingly described as aid isn’t a big check, it’s an entanglement with the U.S. defense industry that prevents Israel from fighting an extended war without permission. Since the War of Independence and the 1956 Suez Canal War, the priority has been to make sure that Israel won’t be able to unilaterally pursue a military campaign. Once denied weapons, Israel has been given them in exchange for being put on a leash out of D.C.

Oct 7 has become the ultimate test of Israel’s independence. And this Memorial Day and Independence Day will determine whether a nation of nearly 10 million is truly free to do more than mourn its dead, but once again take independent action to protect its living future.

Biden’s turn from Israel crashing world into chaos

By Cheryl K. Chumley

President Joe Biden, over the objections of some of his party’s biggest donors, and while ignoring the calls for his impeachment that are growing among Republican ranks in the House due to his warnings to Israel, has made it clear that if Benjamin Netanyahu orders the IDF into Rafah, his White House will deny congressionally approved shipments of weapons to the Jewish nation.

Oh, say it ain’t so, Joe.

Could it truly be that America is finally turning its back on Israel?

These are the end of times — these are the end of times. As Zechariah quotes God as saying: “All the nations will gather against [Jerusalem] to try to move it, but they will only hurt themselves.”

Turning against Israel doesn’t bode well for any nation, including America.

“US paused shipment of bombs to Israel amid concerns over potential use in Rafah incursion,” CNN wrote.

That was after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed during recent congressional testimony, CNN reported. He said that while America would continue to support Israel’s use of the Iron Dome, no “high-payload munitions” would flow from the U.S. to Israel.

His remarks: “We’re going to continue to do what’s necessary to ensure that Israel has the means to defend itself, but that said, we are currently reviewing some near-term security assistance shipments in the context of unfolding events in Rafah,” Austin said. He also added the White House as “been very clear” — there’s a bit of a lie, right? — “that Israel shouldn’t launch a major attack into Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians that are in that battle space.”

Thing is, this White House hasn’t been very clear at all when it comes to supporting Israel. For about a blink after October 7, when Israel was brutally and savagely attacked by terrorists, Team Biden stood strong and fast in the camp of the Jewish people, stating their right, nay, their responsibility, nay their America-supported, globally-supported duty to their citizens to go in, get Hamas, get the terrorists, and kill ‘em all.

Then came October Later.

Then came the criticisms of Israel when Israel actually did start going into Gaza and getting all the terrorists, and killing ‘em all. Suddenly, the very Palestinians who voted for Hamas and who cheered the butchery of Jews by Hamas and who continued on October Later to stand by Hamas as their great and dear leader — suddenly these very same Palestinians became the victims of oh, those evil occupiers called Israel.

Suddenly, Israel didn’t have as much right to defend itself as previously stated.

This is where we’re now at on the war against Hamas.

Israel is still trying to kill an enemy that is determined to wipe its people off the face of the map. And Biden, and the global governments, and the politicians of the West are trying to tell Israel to stand down, strike a deal with the terrorists and learn to live peacefully side by side with them. Love it or lump it.

This will be America’s great shame. Actually, according to biblical truths, this will be to America’s great detriment.

“Joe Biden’s Rafah Red Line Upends US-Israel Relationship,” Newsweek wrote.

Yes. Because Biden is now implying that he’s grown weary of Israel’s insistence to eradicate evil.

“I made it clear that if they [Israel] go into Rafah — they haven’t gone in Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that problem,” Biden said in a recent CNN segment.

Now here are the problems with Biden’s stance.

First off, Congress has authorized the funding for weapons Biden now wants to deny Israel — and that leads to questions about impeachable offenses, like quid pro quos and the like.

“The House,” Rep. Cory Mills said, to Fox News Digital, “has no choice but to impeach President ‘quid pro Joe’ Biden. … Biden is pressuring Israel, our biggest ally in the Middle East, by pausing their funding that has already been approved in the House, if they don’t stop all operations with Hamas. It’s a very clear message, ‘this for that.’”

It’s also, Mills said, a message that Democrats saw as an impeachable offense against Donald Trump, for Ukraine.

Second off, telling Israel to quit a ground operation in Rafah to dig out the well dug-in Hamas and kill them is nothing more than a gift to the terrorists.

Israel has already been showcasing its moves and operations to the terrorists for months now, largely out of concern for the civilians in Gaza. The IDF’s been dropping flyers, announcing evacuations, giving civilians heads-up notifications to leave certain areas — all before launching attacks in those certain areas. The natural consequence of this care and compassion for the civilian sector has led to the compromise of Israel’s ability to speedily and in many instances, safely, take out the terrorists. If Hamas knows where the IDF is attacking, Hamas knows where to take shelter, where not to take shelter and moreover, where to hide behind civilians so as to secure the next propaganda photo of a terrified child.

Now, they’re in Rafah.

The terrorists are busily regrouping in Rafah.

Israel wants to go in Rafah and get them — but the Jewish nation’s supposedly biggest ally in the world is saying no, don’t do it.

How Hamas must be cheering.

How the Palestinian civilians must be seeing Hamas with renewed stars in their eyes because of the group’s ability to stand off Israel.

You can’t straddle lines with people who want to live in peace and people who want to kill, kill, kill. Persuasion is not an option with evil. Diplomacy doesn’t always work.

And one more simple truth: Biden is not so much a friend of Israel as he is an enabler of terrorists.

This is a dangerous situation for Israel, for America, for the West, for all of civilized society. Terrorists love nothing more than a feckless and weak White House.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.

The Betrayal of Israel by the US Administration Is Almost Complete

by Guy Millière

• The Biden administration does not appear ever to have issued the slightest threat, warning or ultimatum to the authors of the war: Hamas, Iran or Qatar.
• US Senator Chuck Schumer, after declaring himself a friend and defender of Israel, suggested overthrowing Israel's democratically elected prime minister, and -- as if Israel, and not America, were within his jurisdiction -- called for new elections.
• Meanwhile in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where anti-government demonstrations began again, one of their leaders, Ami Dror, revealed on social media that the demonstrations and riots are part of a plan by the Biden administration to bring down the Netanyahu government.... The US State Department has, for more than a year, been providing financial support for protests hostile to the Netanyahu government.
• Biden, it seems, is frustrated that Netanyahu is objecting to humanitarian aid -- which basically resupplies Hamas. Hamas, Israel's argument goes, released hostages only after unremitting pressure. Relieving that pressure by backing Hamas makes the probability of seeing any more hostages released less likely. Biden is also reportedly frustrated that Netanyahu, for some inexplicable reason, objects to the creation of a terrorist Palestinian state next door.
• One cannot leave aside that the Biden administration, through ignoring sanctions on Iranian oil, has allowed the Iran's regime to earn up to an estimated $100 billion... Without those funds, the massacre of October 7 would not have been possible, Hezbollah would not have been able to fire so many missiles into Israel from Lebanon, and Iran itself would not have been able to launch more than 300 drones and ballistic missiles at Israel in April, and to attack US troops more than 150 times on, just since October 7, 2023 -- evidently in an attempt to drive the US out of the Middle East.
• The Biden administration, it seems, does not want a definitive end of the conflict -- as with Ukraine as well -- especially if the end would entail the defeat of Hamas or Russia. Hamas is a protégé of Qatar and Iran, the world's two leading state sponsors of terrorism. The Biden administration has been rewarding them -- Iran with money and Qatar with renewing its protection by Al-Udeid Air Base, headquarters of America's CENTCOM, as well as controlling the new terror pier the US has built in Gaza At the same time, the Biden administration is falsely accusing Israel of violating human rights.
• The Biden administration may even be complicit in the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other Israeli officials that might be issued by the International Criminal Court – possibly as a way to dispense with him.
• The mullahs are, in effect, using their proxies – Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and so on -- as their "human shields".
• The Biden administration has placed the existence of Israel in danger to protect Biden from the dangerous voters of Michigan.
• Worse, with the Biden administration now having come down squarely against Israel and on the side of Iran, Qatar and Hamas, they have to feel no inclination to agree to anything. Why should they? Iran's mullahs have a new proxy, the United States, backing their terrorism for them.
• Even worse, at almost the same time as the US told Israel it was withholding arms shipments that Congress had already approved (a move for which Democrats tried to impeach then President Donald Trump), the Biden administration waived sanctions for arms purchases by Lebanon, Qatar and Iraq -- countries that host groups working to destroy Israel.
• Worst of all, if you are Ukraine, Taiwan, China, Russia, Japan – just about any US ally or foe -- you probably cannot avoid thinking something like: We have watched the supposedly mighty US surrender Afghanistan, its ally of 20 years, to a bunch of terrorists, the Taliban. Now we are watching the US surrender its closest ally in the Middle East, Israel, the only democracy there, to terrorists: to Hezbollah in Lebanon with 150,000 rockets and missiles pointed at Israel, and to Hamas in Gaza by sending "humanitarian aid," that will used by terrorists.
• Where are any prosecutions or sanctions by the UN and international courts for war crimes and human rights violations on countries such as Qatar (here and here), China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Nigeria, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Yemen and Sudan?
• Currently, the Biden administration appears to want three things: Netanyahu OUT – reportedly to be replaced by a puppet who will do whatever the US tells him; a terrorist Palestinian state IN, and to preserve Iran and Qatar's client, the terrorist group, Hamas. So far, all the pressure from Washington has been on Israel, none at all on Hamas or on its patrons, Qatar and Iran. The fighting could indeed stop tomorrow if either of them or the US seriously ordered Hamas to stop fighting and immediately return the 132 remaining hostages.
• Did the Biden administration even ask?

The Biden administration, it seems, does not want a definitive end of the conflict -- as with Ukraine as well -- especially if the end would entail the defeat of Hamas or Russia. Hamas is a protégé of Qatar and Iran, the world's two leading state sponsors of terrorism. The Biden administration has been rewarding them. 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)

The genocidal anti-Semitic attack on October 7, 2023 by the Islamic terrorists of Hamas at first aroused horror throughout the Western world. It took only a few hours, however for the horror to fade -- long before Israel had even begun to respond. Demonstrations against Israel, and in support of the terrorist group, Hamas -- sometimes "cleaned up" to be labeled "pro-Palestinian" -- exploded just hours later on October 8, before hundreds of charred bodies had been removed from their homes. These well-planned and well-funded professional demonstrations, complete with instant Palestinian flags and, later, instant identical tents -- rapidly metastasized throughout North America and Europe.

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American Pressure

by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

Israel has been constrained for months by the golden shackles of American support – a Hobson’s choice of the provision of US weapons conditioned, essentially, on Israel not using those weapons for the purpose of vanquishing its enemy. The pressure is intense, originates in the White House and State Department, and has enlisted Israeli politicians such as Yair Lapid to do America’s bidding. That pressure has also coopted Jewish Democrats who have been quick to turn on Israel under the guise of contempt for Israel’s Prime Minister. Perhaps they are unaware that Israel’s Prime Minister serves because he reflects the views of most of the Israeli public and has a majority in the Knesset. Their contempt is thus for the Israeli voting public – or for Israel itself.

Thus, President Biden first directed Israel not to launch a ground invasion of Gaza and recently has threatened Israel with a variety of sanctions if Israel invades Rafiah, conquers Gaza, and defeats Hamas. Massive pressure, to which Netanyahu has a pattern of succumbing in every way except rhetorically, has led to an interminable delay and possibly undermined a chance for victory. The pressure always includes carrots and sticks and sounds so plausible that leaders are often enticed to act against their own country’s interests in deference to this pressure. This week’s tiptoe incursion into Rafiah will likely lead to Hamas demanding a cease fire, dangling the hostages as bait, hoping to save itself and win the release of thousands of murderers so as to better murder and abduct more Jews in the future. A better negotiating tactic for Israel would be hardball: every hostage released in exchange for a temporary cease fire – and nothing else. We should not exchange innocent citizens wrongly held in violation of international law for terrorist murderers justly held because of their enthusiastic murder of Jews. The alternative for Hamas is their immediate destruction. We should not play their game nor should we negotiate ourselves into a defeat, regardless of American pressure.

Yet, history teaches us that succumbing to American pressure is often unwise and occasionally fatal.

In 1946, Chiang Kai-shek, leader of Nationalist China, began a military campaign to defeat the Communist insurgents, led by Mao Zedong and General Lin Biao. The Communists were situated in mineral-rich Manchuria in the Mainland’s northeast. Within a month, the Communists were routed from southern Manchuria, and prepared to abandon the major city of Harbin, the key to the security of northern Manchuria. They were utterly desperate, but with Chiang’s army poised to enter Harbin, he suddenly stopped. His army never again advanced.

“What explains Chiang’s action? In two words: American pressure” (“What If?” edited by Robert Cowley, pages 379-380). General George C. Marshall, then the US Special Envoy to China having finished his service of Chief of Staff during World War II, coerced Chiang into halting his advance and abandoning this battle. Why? One reason, eerily similar to today, is that Marshall and other American leaders detested Chiang, and did not want him to succeed.

It is more reasonable to suggest that Marshall did not want to provoke a conflict with the Soviet Union which was supplying and supporting the Communists Chinese. Marshall even naively suggested that Chiang form a unity government with the Communists. That never happened, but Chiang unhappily agreed to stop his assault, later calling his failure to pursue this invasion the worst mistake he ever made in dealing with the Communists.

Eventually, the Communists regrouped, rearmed, and began a guerilla campaign against Chiang’s forces. Nationalist China suffered a major defeat in 1948 – that year should sound familiar to us – and by 1949 Chiang and his forces were completely driven off the mainland and established their political center in what today is called the island of Taiwan. By heeding Marshall and American pressure, Chiang forfeited the greatest opportunity he had to defeat Mao and end the Communist insurgency.

By that time, of course, Marshall was gone from office, and even his brief tenure as Secretary of State was over, characterized by a fanatic opposition to an independent Israel which to him also seemed like a reasonable policy. Marshall even threatened to vote against President Truman in the 1948 election – and publicize that he would do so – if Truman recognized Israel. Truman did, Marshall didn’t, and so much for idle threats. Marshall may have had a great Plan, but he was often wrong on global strategy.

The ramifications were profound. Counterfactual history is always tantalizing and other factors could have intervened and produced unforeseeable outcomes. But if the Communists had been driven from China with Mao defeated, there would have been no Korean War; Kim Il Sung was energized by the Communist victory to invade South Korea a year later. There would have been no Vietnam War; absent Communist Chinese support, Ho Chi Minh could never have invaded South Vietnam. Without a Communist China, the Cold War would have had a completely different complexion – and without those wars, American society would not have deteriorated into an angry assortment of warring factions distrustful of their government. And all because of American pressure that thwarted Chiang’s advance into northern Manchuria and the defeat of the Communists.

Where does that leave Israel today? The Americans (the State Department and even for a time Harry Truman) pressured Israel not to declare statehood. Israel did anyway, and Israel still flourishes. The Americans pressured Israel not to launch a preemptive strike in 1967 on the eve of the Six Day War. Israel did anyway and won a great victory. The Americans pressured Israel to withdraw from Sinai (in 1956 and then again in 1979). Israel did and we are paying the price for that today. The Americans pressured Israel not to destroy the Iraqi nuclear reactor. Israel did anyway and in retrospect spared the world a nuclear nightmare. The Americans are now pressuring Israel to acquiesce in the survival of the terrorist entity that committed atrocities against it, and then agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state that would reduce Israel, now roughly the size of New Jersey, to roughly the size of Delaware, Biden’s home state.

The list of American pressure ignored goes on but the point is clear: the United States generally operates according to the perception of its own interests, and that is how it should be. When American and Israel interests converge, it is good for the world. When they don’t, then Israel, like any self-respecting country, should operate in line with its own interests. Sure, American supply of armaments is important but Israel has enough of its own weapons to wage a quick and decisive war, especially without the restrictions hypocritically applied only to the conduct of Israel’s wars and to that of no other country. Bear in mind that the Iron Dome, for example, is a technological marvel, but essentially a defensive system that intercepts the enemy’s rockets and missiles launched against our civilians. That brilliant but insane and should be unacceptable. The appropriate response should be the eradication of those who are firing the rockets and missiles rather than the projectiles themselves. We have for too long accepted this ridiculous situation because of our technological prowess. We should tolerate it no longer, which then renders impotent the American threat to stop replenishing the Iron Dome.

Note that Israel has stayed its military might to protect the not-so-innocent civilians of Gaza, presumably to avoid international recriminations. As should have been anticipated, Israel’s invasion was thus blunted, less effective than it could have been – and the international recriminations have come anyway, fast and false, furious and spurious. The battles to come should prioritize the lives of our soldiers.

The broader problem is that Israel has long been slow in adjusting to shifting alliances. Our diplomacy refuses to acknowledge that Turkey is today an avowed enemy of Israel, and one of the most vehement in the world, simply because Turkey was once an ally. America’s interests are usually aligned with Israel’s but not always, and such should be remembered as well.

Almost twenty-five years after Marshall’s misguided advice to Chiang Kai-shek, the United States finally abandoned Taiwan and recognized Communist China as “China.” Since then, the Americans have tap-danced around their relations with Taiwan – calling it “strategic ambiguity” – and currently leaving Taiwan exposed to the predations of the Communist China. Would the US intervene to save Taiwan? If there was an invasion, there would likely be passionate threats hurled at China along with demands that Taiwan exercise restraint, de-escalate, and rely on diplomacy to ward off (or accept) its demise.

America’s foreign policy does change because the personalities in charge of it change. South Vietnam was cajoled by the US into accepting a flawed treaty that left North Vietnam on its territory, the Shah of Iran was abandoned which led to the takeover of Iran by radical Islam that imperils the world today, and the surrender of Afghanistan to the viciousness of the Taliban is still fresh in our minds. All were American allies – until they weren’t. All accommodated American pressure and all paid the ultimate price for it.

There are other examples as well. Israel would be wise to act in its own interests and destroy Hamas, which at this point, for whatever reason (perhaps electoral, perhaps because of the continued flirtation with Iran, perhaps anti-Jewish animus in certain circles, or perhaps some combination of all three) is not America’s or at least Biden’s interest. In President George W. Bush’s letter to then PM Ariel Sharon (April 14, 2004), and grateful for Sharon’s impending expulsion of Jews and withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, Bush wrote: “Israel will retain its right to defend itself against terrorism, including to take actions against terrorist organizations. The United States will lead efforts, working together with Jordan, Egypt, and others in the international community, to build the capacity and will of Palestinian institutions to fight terrorism, dismantle terrorist organizations, and prevent the areas from which Israel has withdrawn from posing a threat that would have to be addressed by any other means.”

With the passage of years, and despite the obvious obtuseness and catastrophic harm of Sharon’s plan, according to the Biden administration, Israel’s “right to defend itself against terrorism” is limited, not retained, and the US is not leading any effort, international or otherwise, to “dismantle terrorist organizations,” especially Hamas which on last October 7, murdered, kidnapped, raped, and wounded thousands of Israelis. The “areas from which Israel” withdrew have posed a threat to Israel since Israel withdrew. It is all words, empty but soothing words.

So much for presidential promises, in fulfillment of the verse in Psalms (146:3): “Do not put your trust in princes,⁠ in a human being, for he has no salvation.” The United States can weather its bad policy choices; it is big country protected by two oceans. It rarely pays any price for its diplomatic follies. That price is paid by its erstwhile allies pressured into acting against their own interests.

We the people, and our leadership, are forewarned.

Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook: Forming a Council in Wadi Hanin

#209,210,214,215

Date and Place: 23 Tamuz – 10 Menachem Av 5669 (1909), Rechovot

Background: Part of the city of Ness Tziona is situated on land that Reuven Lerer, a religious Jew from Odessa, purchased in 1882 in an area called Wadi Hanin. Over the years, others joined him and bought land from him. At the time, the community was called the Moshava of Wadi Hanin. The letters make it clear that they were experiencing growing pains. On his trip to the moshavot, Rav Kook stopped by and took action to help them.

Letter #1: To Mr. Brill, supervisor of moshavot for the Jewish Colonization Association.
I am honored to inform you that I was in Wadi Hanin and found it necessary to call for the choosing of a council, as the moshava is in tatters, after being without a council for quite a while. A council was formed based on the vote of participants based on the announcement, according to the law and Torah rules.

I therefore request of the secretariat to recognize the council’s authority to run properly the moshava’s affairs.

Letter #2: To the residents of Wadi Hanin.
I request of the residents of Wadi Hanin that all who agree to the council that was chosen at this past Motzaei Shabbat’s meeting, should sign the meeting minutes to confirm the council’s authority. This will enable the moshava’s proper administration, from a position of peace, for at least a month, until another two members will be added to the council, if it is deemed important, as I expressed my opinion this week, with the council’s permission.

Letter #3: To the Council of Wadi Hanin.
I received your letter and am very pained by the confusion in the moshava.

I am hereby informing publicly that I do not want to get involved in any moshava in matters that did not come to me through the council. However, that is true when the moshava acts like moshavot, with anorganized council. When I found the moshava without one, I was compelled to do what I did. However, even now, if by majority decision of the moshava’s general assembly, they will choose a different council, I will not go against the will of the community’s majority. Unless the general assembly chooses a council, there is no one to whom one can give the moshava’s seal and ledgers. However, if a choice will be made based on the path of peace, I trust you that you are interested in the moshava’s welfare and you will strengthen the peace by handing the seal and books at that time to the certified council, chosen by majority.

This is what I advise you to do, for your good and the general good of the moshava.

Letter #4: To the Moshava of Wadi Hanin.
I requesting of you honorable people to join together in unison to make order and a united leadership for the moshava. I was compelled to certify the council I arranged to be chosen at the meeting I called when I was in the moshava not because of an inclination toward asserting power over any moshava’s internal affairs. I am happy being a servant of Hashem’s nation who live in Zion, and I want only that they have honor and an improved situation. Only when I saw the moshava in ruins, without leadership, was I compelled to get involved.

I now request that if the community wants to choose a different council, they should organize a general assembly of the residents. Whatever they choose, so shall it be; may Hashem grant your efforts success. You should also try to keep Tel Aviv (a neighborhood of laborers in the moshava) in contact with the moshava. We must show the whole nation that our interest is in unifying and connecting the members of our nation to the Holy Land, not dividing brethren. Therefore, the general assembly should incorporate members of Tel Aviv in the council. Only then, when the general assembly forms a council will the present council hand over the seal to the incoming, chosen council. Until a new council is confirmed, no individuals may take control of the books and seal without the community’s authorization.

The Yishai Fleisher Israel Podcast: US-ISRAEL DISTANCING?

SEASON 2024 EPISODE 19: Yishai and Malkah Fleisher discuss the Biden weapons embargo and hear from Israel-defenders Senator Lindsey Graham and Congressman Brian Mast. Then, Yishai speaks with Knesset Member Ohad Tal, who sits on the Foreign Relations and Defense Committee, about the real war: the fight for Jewish identity! Finally, Ben Bresky on the story of the founding of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Plus: Table Torah on Parshat Kedoshim.