Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook: The Importance of Vocational Training

#289

Date and Place: 6 Nisan 5670 (1910), Yafo

Recipient and Background: Rav Yonatan Binyamin Horowitz. Rav Horowitz was a product of the Chatam Sofer community, and originally served as a rabbi in Slovakia. After moving to Eretz Yisrael, he served as an administrator of communal funds (Kollels) and as a representative of Agudat Yisrael. He was, mainly later, a confidante of Rav Kook, who had a major part in organizing and documenting the trip of rabbis, including Rav Kook and Rav Zonnenfeld, through the New Yishuv.

Body: I have received your dear letter and impressive pamphlet (apparently about a vocational project with which he was involved). You, my friend, deserve a yasher koach for the contribution you are making for those who live in Zion. May it be His will that all will soon realize and know that we must follow the path of life with truth and leave the path of darkness (opposition to people working for a living). That path is the opposite of the path that Hashem commanded us to follow, which is to choose a life of honor and [vocational] skills.

Who is influential enough [in the eyes of Heaven] (see Moed Katan 28a) that he can create a prohibition against this great mitzva[of teaching a trade]?! After all, it is permitted to speak, due to this mitzva, about financial arrangements [for vocational training] on Shabbat (Shabbat 150a). [Let us look at] the simple language of the Talmudic passage. Rav Shmuel ben Nachmani says that it is permitted to go to a variety of mundane, public venues to inspect communal activities on Shabbat. The gemara then brings a Baraitathat one can make shidduchim for his child on Shabbat and can arrange his learning a craft. It would seem that the former opinion agrees with the latter (that it is permitted to arrange vocational training on Shabbat). The Yerushalmi (Shabbat 15:3) brings in the former’s name that Shabbat is specifically for eating and drinking, and because the mouth may start to smell, they allowed him to take part in Torah study. We see that even though he was so strict about speaking on Shabbat, to the extent he felt a need to find special justification to allow speaking divrei Torah on Shabbat, still he said that one can make monetary arrangements regarding vocations. We see that it is equivalent to Torah. Certainly, we cannot compare many involved in Torah to individuals doing so (apparently, group vocational training). Therefore, how is it possible to create prohibitions [against vocational training]? This is especially true in a time like this when it is necessary to take steps on Hashem’s behalf, to strengthen those who believe in Hashem in all ways they can be strengthened, such as in creating power in the ways of life.

I also wrote a few ideas about Shemitta; because of my preoccupation with various matters, I was compelled to be brief, and I ask your forgiveness.

What we are meant to do based on what we think Hashem wants of us in that moment

by Rav Binny Freedman

Zvika had just been given two weeks leave; Having been accepted to the prestigious Company Commanders course, he had been given two weeks leave and was at home on his Kibbutz Lochamei Hageta’ot near Haifa when, at exactly 2pm on the afternoon of October 6th, 1973, the Yom Kippur War began. Nearly two thousand Syrian tanks poured across the border in the Golan Heights while hundreds of thousands of Egyptian troops crossed the Suez Canal in the Sinai, and Israeli troops, suffering unspeakable losses, scrambled to try and hold back the onslaught.

Twenty-one year old Captain Zvika Greengold, a tank officer, sensed how bad things were and frantically started making his way across the country to the Golan Heights where he understood the situation was dire; Syrian tanks were just a few hours away from Tel Aviv and there was not much standing in their way.

Arriving at the IDF Command center in Nafach on the Golan, a couple of hours before Syrian tanks burst through the gates , he found the army in disarray; tank crewmen who had managed to get to the Golan to try and help had no idea what to do or where to go. Commandeering two tanks he hurriedly grabbed whatever tank crewmen he could find and within a few minutes was rolling out of the base with two tanks.

Not officially a unit with no assigned frequency, he called his unit ‘Koach Tzvika’ (Force Tzvika) and managed to make contact with troops fighting in the Southern Golan. As night fell, he set out on the tap-line route, the same road used by the Syrians to cross the border and enter Israeli territory.

Almost immediately he encountered an entire company of Syrian tanks advancing towards the Command center. Understanding that if the Golan fell, the entire coastal plain of Israel would soon follow, he advanced in the darkness towards the vastly superior Syrian force and by deft maneuvering and firing from multiple positions, was able to convince the Syrians that they were facing a far larger force of Israelis.

At one point, seeing a Syrian tank ten yards away he fired at point-blank range exploding the enemy tank just in time, but the blast hit his own tank knocking out his radio. So, he jumped off his tank in the midst of battle and commandeered the second tank in his unit to continue fighting. Sending the second tank’s commander back to his original tank with no communications he ordered him to simply follow him and fire at his own discretion. But in the darkness the second tank lost its way and Tzvika now faced the entire Syrian force all alone.

Moments later he saw an entire column of hundreds of Syrian tanks headed across the Golan along the road. Despite being outnumbered, he moved in and out of the darkness, firing on the Syrian tanks while remaining undetected. As the battle raged, he changed his position constantly, firing from different directions to give the perception of a much larger force. In an attempt to uncover the Israeli forces, the Syrian tanks turned on their searchlights but discovered nothing. The beams of light only helped Tzvika and his tank crew identify more Syrian tanks and inflict greater losses. The Syrian forces, stunned by the attacks, retreated to avoid further casualties.

All night long, as more Syrian tanks continued to pour over the northern border, Tzvika continued to attack the Syrians from various positions. At one point, a Syrian tank lit his tank on fire, badly burning his crew. Although he suffered from burns and shock, he ran to another tank and took command over its crew. He continued in this way for hours, striking at Syrian tanks and changing vehicles whenever his tank was disabled. When his gunner was wounded and overcome with shock and fatigue Tzvika simply took his place in the gunner’s position continuing to fire shells at the Syrian tanks.

All that night and into the next day, the Zvika Force continued with other troops along the Tapline Route to confront the Syrians, refusing to retreat lest the Syrians press their advantage and discover they had really already won. Eventually, Israeli forces gained the upper hand, repelling the Syrian forces just as they were on the verge of breaking Israel’s defenses.

After more than 20 hours of battle, Captain Greengold got off his tank in the middle of the Nafah base. Exhausted, he fell to the ground. An intelligence officer brought him to an IDF medical center, where he was finally treated for his injuries. It is estimated that during the course of that fateful night, he and his crew destroyed twenty tanks and many more armored vehicles; some say as many as sixty. At one point joined by eight tanks commanded by Lt. Colonel Uzi More they charged an entire Syrian Divison (three hundred and sixty tanks!).

Through the night, Tzvika would not say on the radio how bad things were nor even hint to the fact that he was only commanding one tank, afraid the Syrians might intercept his frequency and figure out he was all alone. Even his own superior Officers were fooled: Colonel Yitzchak ben Shoham commanding the 188th and later killed in the fighting, assumed he was commanding a force of at least a company of tanks…

After the Yom Kippur War, the IDF awarded Captain Greengold with a Medal of Valor for his extraordinary heroism. Sometimes, one man at the right place at the right time, can make all the difference.

This week’s portion of Shemot contains one of the most painful episodes in Jewish History as an entire people falls from grace in Egypt eventually finding itself enslaved, its children murdered with no end in sight. Then, when it seems as though there must be no hope left, G-d finally tells Moshe, after two hundred years, that it is time for the Jewish people to be redeemed; time for them to come home.

Moshe, in his famous encounter with G-d at the burning bush, is not at all sure he is the right man for the job, but eventually acquiesces to G-d’s command and leaves the safety and comfort of his home and family in Midian to journey back down to Egypt and confront Paroh.

Armed with a miraculous staff and the word of G-d, one would imagine Moshe must be sure their redemption will occur almost immediately, but it does not quite work out that way: Paroh refuses to accept Moshe’s demand to free the Jewish people, instead withholding the straw they desperately need to fulfill their quota of bricks, causing them to sink deeper into despair until they groan under the burden of their misery. Eventually the Jews turn on their would-be saviors Moshe and Aharon (ibid. 5:20-21) castigating them for making their situation even worse and doing nothing to hasten their redemption.

At this point, a most curious dialogue ensues between Moshe and Paroh, which concludes the portion of Shemot in what seems to be the middle of the story. Moshe seems to challenge G-d:

“… Why have you made things worse for this people, and why did you send me?”

And Hashem responds to Moshe (ibid. 6:1):

“…now you will see that which I will do to Paroh, for with a strong hand I will send them forth (free them from Egypt)…”

Rashi (ibid. 6:1) notes that Jewish tradition suggest that Moshe is being castigated by G-d:

“You questioned my ways? Says G-d: now you will see (the miracles I will do to Paroh when setting the Jews free) but later ( when I bring the Jewish people home to Israel ) you will not see ( i.e. :You will not enter the land.”

So, on the one hand, there must be some legitimacy to Moshe’s claim that the Jewish people are suffering, for G-d says the redemption will begin, and you will see it. But he must have also said something wrong seeing as tradition here alludes to the fact Moshe will be punished and not allowed to enter the land of Israel.

So what part of Moshe’s claim was right, and what was wrong? Interestingly, Moshe actually asks G-d two challenging questions:Why have you, G-d, made things worse for the Jewish people? And:
Why, if things are worse for them, did you send me here?

At first glance, if we had to pick one of these questions which might be considered inappropriate we would probably assume the first question is a good question; after all a true leader is in pain when his people suffer, so perhaps it is good Moshe challenges even G-d: How can you cause even more suffering to this enslaved people?

But the second question might bother us, suggesting a certain presumptuousness above Moshe’s pay grade: Moshe is questioning why Hashem sent him to Egypt? Who are we to question G-d’s ways? Yet in fact it is this question which is praised in Jewish tradition and the first question, for which Moshe is taken to task: it is not for us to question why some people suffer and some don’t…

So, what then, is the nature of this second question? What is Moshe suggesting by asking why he was sent?

Rav Avigdor Nevehnsahl in his Sichot Le’Sefer Shemot suggests that while the end result is always in Hashem’s hands, our own role in it is another thing entirely.

As an example, when Moshe resists Hashem’s urgings to redeem the Jewish people (ibid. chapter 3) at the burning bush, one wonders how he could cause the redemption to be delayed, even for a moment.

After all, if he had not argued with G-d he would have begun the redemption that much sooner, so how could he cause the Jewish people to continue to suffer even for a day? But in truth, the redemption of the Jewish people was always meant to happen on the day it happened; the only question was what role Moshe would play. And if his hesitation was because he worried about whether his being chosen would cause pain to his older brother Aharon who had remained in Egypt all the many years Moshe was in Midian, ( see Rashi ibid. 4:13) then he was right to suggest that he wanted to be a force for redemption and not for pain.

What a powerful message: Moshe was willing to give up perhaps the most important role in history; the redemption of the Jewish people from Egypt and the receiving of the Torah at Sinai, simply to avoid causing pain to his brother! Because in the end we have to do the best we can to be doing the right thing at the right time and then we can leave it to G-d to ensure the result is as it should be.

Just like Captain Tzvika Gringold, who could not imagine, that with one tank, he would stop an entire Syrian Division. And indeed that was not his job; his job was to fight with every ounce of strength he had, in every moment, to stop the one tank in front of him, and leave it to Hashem to decide what the actual result of it would all be.

In whatever moment we find ourselves, we need only decide what we are meant to do based on what we think Hashem wants of us in that moment and be sure we do our best. After that we can trust that Hashem will make sure the result will happen as it was always meant to be…

Ultimately, the Jewish people will be redeemed, and they will come home to the land of Israel, just as it was always meant to be. And the only question is what role we get to play on that journey…

Shabbat Shalom from Yerushalayim.

The Yishai Fleisher Israel Podcast: HOW TO DEAL WITH A BAD DEAL

SEASON 2024 EPISODE 47: Yishai and Malkah contemplate Israel's hostage deal with Hamas and see much weakness which needs to be overcome. Then, Congressman Brian Mast fights the ICC. And two men in Gaza lay out a vision for the future. Finally, Ben Bresky on Aliyah missions from Yemen. Plus: Torah Time on the Light of Moses.

Yeshivat Machon Meir: Sichot with Rosh HaYeshivah Parshat Shemot - Rabbi Dov Begon and Rabbi Menachem Listman (video)

It Wasn't a Deal – It Was a Crime

by Alan M. Dershowitz

• The decision by the Israeli government to make significant concessions to the Hamas kidnappers should never be called a "deal." It was an extortion.... The kidnapping was a crime. And the extortionate demand was an additional crime.
• When a terrorist group "negotiates" with a democracy, it always has the upper hand. The terrorists are not constrained by morality, law or truth. They can murder at will, rape at will, torture at will and threaten to do worse. The democracy, on the other hand, must comply with the rules of law and must listen to the pleas of the hostage families.
• Especially complicit, with blood on their hands, are supporters of Hamas on university campuses who chant for intifada and revolution. Also complicit are international organizations, such as the International Criminal Court, that treat Israel and Hamas as equals.
• [L]et us put the blame for ALL the deaths in Gaza where it belongs: on Hamas and the useful idiots and useless bigots who support murderous terrorists.

The decision by the Israeli government to make significant concessions to the Hamas kidnappers should never be called a "deal." It was an extortion. Would you call it a deal if somebody kidnapped your child and you "agreed" to pay ransom to get her back? Of course not. The kidnapping was a crime. And the extortionate demand was an additional crime. Pictured: A Hamas terrorist holds two of the many Israeli children that Hamas murdered, or abducted and brought as captives to the Gaza Strip, on October 7, 2023. (Image source: Hamas/X [Twitter])

The decision by the Israeli government to make significant concessions to the Hamas kidnappers should never be called a "deal." It was an extortion. Would you call it a deal if somebody kidnapped your child and you "agreed" to pay ransom to get her back? Of course not. The kidnapping was a crime. And the extortionate demand was an additional crime.

So the proper description of what occurred is that Israel, pressured by the United States, capitulated to the unlawful and extortionate demands of Hamas as the only way of saving the lives of kidnapped babies, mothers and other innocent, mostly civilian, hostages.

This was not the result of a negotiation between equals. If an armed robber puts a gun to your head and says, "your money or your life," your decision to give him your money would not be described as a deal. Nor should the extorted arrangement agreed to by Israel be considered a deal. So let's stop using that term.

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And A New King Arose In Egypt - Israel, D.C. And The Hamas Surrender Deal

by Daniel Greenfield

"And a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph." Exodus 1:8

Every country fights Islamic terrorism alone. What should have been a world war against a common enemy has become a lonely battle in which each country strives separately against a global threat. And within each country, individuals have been abandoned by their governments to face sudden death.

This is not just Israel's story. It is all our stories. But it is most clearly seen in Israel.

Jews tend to view this as antisemitism and it's often in the mix. But it's not just antisemitism. It's cowardice. The world powers, old and new, recruit their own Jihadists, form their dirty deals for oil and blood, and sell each other out. That they sell out Israel is a given. What else would you expect of people who sell out their own children to grooming gangs and let mosques rise in every one of their cities?

The blood was hardly dry on the streets of the French Quarter before we had all officially moved on for the hundredth time. And there is every reason to think that we will go on moving on for the foreseeable future. People wait for some fundamental wake-up call that will break with the old corrupt blindness.

For now at least they have waited in vain.

Insurgent politicians arise, talking big, but offer only differences of style not substance.

The Surrender to Hamas Deal is a bipartisan betrayal of Israel in which the outgoing Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration got together to throttle Israel and demand that it accept a Hamas deal, overseen by its state sponsor Qatar, trading thousands of terrorists for hostages, live or dead, abandoning Gaza, and allowing Hamas under a fake 'technocratic' government to take it over again. Followed by an extended reconstruction that the United States will be paying for.

This is not "peace through strength", it's "war through weakness". It demonstrates once again that if Islamic terrorists take hostages, keep fighting and have their allies run information campaigns, they will win even if they lose. The Surrender to Hamas Deal sells out American interests along with Israeli ones. The next step is the Hamas-PLO unity government put together under Chinese and Russian aegis in Beijing and Moscow since Oct 7 which the United States will now have to arm, fund and recognize.

America has once again sold out allies and empowered enemies. The message once more is that it's better to be our enemies than our friends. And that the best possible strategy is to be a terrorist.

The old boys and the new boys in D.C. got together to carry out the same policy. When it came down to it, the only differences were style, not substance. And the policy is surrendering to Islamic terrorism. That has implications beyond Israel. And those implications are catastrophically bad for America.

"Well, the chances are against it, and the odds are slim/That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him/'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back/And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac," Bob Dylan sang a long time ago in Neighborhood Bully.

That may have been the old Israel. The one that dismissed the UN as 'Oom Shmoom.' The new Israel, the one of Netanyahu and Start-Up Nation. The one that sees Hasbara as an existential strategy cares very much. It waits around for someone to take its side and to see that truth that Dylan sang. It spends so much time arguing with the world that eventually it loses its belief in its own rightness. And gives in.

Then it waits once more for global support that will never come.

The old Israel understood that leaders who sell out their own countries to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and that ilk can hardly be expected not sell out Israel. It isn't that they're antisemites. They can hardly be expected to do for Israel what they will not do for America, England and France.

The old Israel understood that it had to stand alone because no one would stand with it. Knew that it had to believe in itself because no government, whatever promises were made during election campaigns at rubber chicken dinners, would stand with it.

The new Israel keeps winning wars and losing faith. It waits for a better day, but no better day is coming. And unless the world wakes up and fights back, the demographic trends and political radicalization will not make the western world any friendlier to Israel.

The early days of January should have made it finally clear that there is nothing to wait for. Perhaps the day will come when an American government wakes up and takes a stand against Islamic terrorism.

And perhaps the L-rd and all His angels will sweep the enemy from the field.

It is difficult to know which day will come sooner.

This Shabbat, Jews all over the world will read the story of Exodus or Shemos which begins with the rise of a new Pharaoh who does not know Joseph. That Pharaoh dies and the Jews welcome the news of a new ruler. But when their enslavement does not change, they cry out to G-d as they never had before because now they know not to put their trust in any prince. Now they know that their one king is G-d.

And then G-d hears. And then G-d acts.

For now Israel stands alone. It stands faced with a crisis caused by a generation of giving in to pressure from D.C. politicians. The process that began with Prime Minister Shamir agreeing to take back Hamas terrorists and negotiate, however indirectly, with the PLO over a Palestinian State, that continued with the Oslo Accords, the withdrawals from Lebanon and Gaza, negotiation after negotiation, that has nurtured, armed and created an enemy state inside Israel is the greatest threat to its survival.

'Palestinianism', not Iran, is the greatest threat to Israel. The answer is not geopolitics of regional accords, it's the defense of the land and its borders against an enemy that lies within them.

Israel, like America and Europe, has fallen for the absurd internationalist nonsense that the primary problem is to cope with international affairs in international forums rather than to clean house.

In America and Europe that means mobs of migrants flooding across the border while their governments are concerned about geopolitical problems. In Israel that meant treating the Abraham Accords like the greatest thing since Sinai while ignoring the enemy armies preparing across the border in Gaza.

Israeli leaders have spent too long looking to America for hope when they should have looked to their own people. The future of Israel does not lie in making apps or in lobbying D.C., but in the settlements where armed family men stand watch against the enemy. And if there is any hope to be found for confronting Islamic terror, it will not be in D.C., but in those small settlements.

And perhaps out of those small villages will come the hope of not only Israel, but the world.

210 Years

by Rabbi Pinchas Winston

WHY 210 YEARS? That’s what my chavrusa asked me recently. He understood why there had to be slavery, especially kabbalistically. He just hadn’t seen any explanation for the length of the exile, and wanted one.

Fortunately, I have. The Arizal addressed this issue in Sha’ar HaPesukim in Parashas Shemos. He says:

The duration of the Egyptian Exile, from the time the Jewish people arrived there, was 210 years. During the first 130 years, the “branches” began to reincarnate into the Jewish people and the Erev Rav. They were refined and cleansed, good separated from the bad. Their separation was not complete until the end of the 130 years…After they completed their reincarnations and separations, Moshe Rabbeinu was born. As known, Moshe was 80 years old when they left Egypt, and 130 plus 80 is 210. It was not possible for Moshe, who was the Da’as itself, the good to come, [to be born] until his sparks were separated out, good from the bad. When their separation was complete, he was born. This is the reason for what our rabbis z”l write (Sotah 12b) that on the day Moshe was thrown [into the Nile] the decree to throw the males into the river was annulled. They (the rectified souls) had finished coming [into the world]. (Sha’ar HaPesukim, Shemos, q.v. A Kew King)

It is always amazing how something on a Pshat level can seem so random and on a Sod level be so specific. The Torah does not even mention the 210 years in any direct manner, though it really is the key to why the exile had to occur in the first place, and had to be so harsh. The origin goes back to Adam HaRishon’s 130 years of teshuvah after leaving Gan Aiden (Eruvin 18b), the generation of the Flood, the tower, and of those born into both the Jews and Egyptians. It was all part of a major historic rectification of mankind on the way to making the Jewish people who would eventually lead it.

But that’s not all. There is additional significance to the 210 years:

The Da’as of Zehr Anpin has ten Hovayos from the level of the Da’as of the Yesod of Abba, which has a gematria of 260, and ten names of Eheyeh from the Yesod of Imma have a gematria of 210. The reason for the exile of the Jewish people in Egypt has already been explained on the verse, “A new king rose up” (Shemos 1:8), that the entire generation was sparks of the destroyed seed of Adam which flowed through the brain of the Da’as literally, and were very elevated souls. Since they came from there, they needed to be in exile for 210 years, which is ten times the name of the Eheyeh in the Da’as from the side of Imma, as mentioned. This is what Ya’akov hinted to his sons, “Go down—Raish-Dalet-Vav (200+4+6)—there” (Bereishis 42:2). (Sha’ar HaPesukim, Shemos, q.v. An Angel of God Appeared to Him).

Da’as is a sefirah, which you can read about online these days. The word itself means knowledge, but it refers to a particular kind of Divine light that acts as the soul of the six sefiros of Chesed, Gevurah, Tifferes, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod, otherwise known as Zehr Anpin. That may mean absolutely nothing to you, but you should know that all that has happened through the last 5,785 years, and what will happen until 6,000, is because of the light of these six sefiros with the Da’as inside of them. They represent the Divine script for human history.

A Hovayah is one four-letter Name of God. It is too holy to say these days as written, so we shuffled the letters to produce the word Hovayah instead to refer to it. Just as everything physical is made up of elements, everything in all of existence (including the elements themselves) is made up of Hovayos, spiritual packets of Divine light. They are the means by which God shares His light and implements His will.

Just as there are ten sefiros in general, each of the sefiros have ten sefiros, each one being a Hovayah-unit of spiritual light. Just like Hovayah is a Name of God, so is Eheyeh, which we are introduced to in this week’s parsha (Shemos 3:14). Its gematria is equal to 1+5+10+5, or 21.

All of this may still mean very little to you, unless you take the time to more fully understand what the Arizal has written above, but it isn’t the point I was trying to make. The only point I am making is, that the 210 years we spent in Egypt, 116 of which were the years of slavery, were not incidental. Nothing ever is. On the contrary, they were precise for the sake of levels of world rectification we may not know about but we are nevertheless a part of.

The complete will of God is so unfathomable, and even what we’re able to grasp is only revealed to us in stages and over time. Torah gives us insight into that will and mitzvos help us to work with it even when we don’t understand it. The only thing we know for sure is that everything that God does is for the good because He can do no evil, no how much history seems to argue the opposite.

Figure out what you can about whatever it is that bothers you. But where you fall short, use trust and faith in God’s goodness to carry you through life. This is what has carried us as a nation throughout history until today.

I have just published my new Haggadah, b”H, called “The Wise Son Says.” You can see it here: https://www.shaarnunproductions.org/lwise-son-says-haggadah.html, and take advantage of the special offers available at this time. Pesach is closing in on us fast, b”H, so please check out my new Haggadah while the specials lasts. It’s Torah for the entire year…and possibly life-altering.

Iran’s Ayatollahs Expand Encroachment on US Hemisphere (the Caribbean Sea)

by Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

Will the Monroe Doctrine be revitalized in the face of the growing military, economic and diplomatic entrenchment of Iran’s Ayatollahs throughout Latin America?! The Ayatollahs aim to undermine the strategic posture of the US in its own “soft underbelly,” and bring “The Great American Satan” to submission. Against this alarming background, can the US afford to persist in its diplomatic option toward Iran, or revert to President Trump’s maximum pressure economic sanctions, which were proven reversible, while refraining from the irreversible regime-change?!

*”After more than four decades of systematic penetration of Latin America, Iran is reaching its full geopolitical potential in the Western Hemisphere, prepositioning military assets and armaments in the region. Tehran’s goal is to bring the fight to the United States.... Venezuela’s Armed Forces is the first Latin American military to have armed drones in its inventory, courtesy of Iran. In 2021, Venezuela began receiving shipments of Iran-made precision-guided short-range missiles that will likely be used to arm the drones...."

*The Warsaw, Poland-based Defense Industry Europe reports that “Iran’s supply of military systems to Venezuela creates grave concerns in South America. Iranian-made Zolfaghar-class missile boats (a modified version of the North Korean IPS-16) armed with Nasr-1 anti-ship missiles were observed during a July 24, 2023 naval parade in Venezuela [Do the Ayatollahs intend to export the Houthi piracy in the Red Sea to the Caribbean Sea and the Venezuela-Guyana territorial conflict?]. The Iranian defense industry is using straw companies to obtain dual-use components used in their locally manufactured military systems.... Iran is using Venezuela as its front base in South America, intending to target American interests....”

*The Riyadh-based Journal for Iranian Studies indicates that “Iran’s significant and growing presence in Latin America, [is noticed] among governments with adversarial relationships with the United States. [There is] a progression of Iran-Latin American cooperation from diplomatic, cultural and commercial ties to the signing of military agreements and the export of Iranian military technology, notably drones.... to Latin America, which represents a critical region for US national interests and security.... A drone production factory was established [in Venezuela] over a decade ago during Hugo Chavez’s tenure.... These commercial and military agreements help Iran circumvent international sanctions and the 2007 UN arms embargo, providing a venue for Iranian companies affiliated with the [US State Department terror-designated] Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to establish a presence beyond Iranian borders, notwithstanding the sanctions.... Bolivian Defense Minister, Edmundo Novillo, disclosed that the [Iran-Bolivia] agreement entailed provisions for acquiring drones and boats aimed at monitoring regional borders.... [He] underscored Bolivia’s need for maintenance services for its aircraft and helicopters [paid for by lithium], acknowledging the technical expertise offered by Iran in this regard....”

*According to the NYC-based The Latin Times, “Iran is increasing its military presence in Venezuela…., establishing a [predator] drone development base at the El Libertador Air Base, where training is carried out for Venezuelan military personnel…. Iran’s Mahan Air, makes direct flights between Caracas and Tehran, violating international sanctions by transporting Venezuelan gold in exchange for Iranian oil….”

*Iran’s Ayatollahs have expanded their Latin American footprint toward the Caribbean Sea in collaboration with Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, militarily, economically and diplomatically, supporting Maduro’s territorial claim in Guyana (in defiance of an 1899 US-led arbitration agreement), which Maduro considers as a US proxy. In fact, the accelerated US-Guyana military cooperation, has been in response to Venezuela’s growing military presence along the border with Guyana, which includes Iranian assistance with the construction of an airstrip and training ground next to the Guyana border.

*Iranian (as well as Russian and Chinese) support has bolstered Maduro’s military threat to occupy Guyana’s Essequibo region, which is the size of Florida (2/3 of Guyana’s area). Essequibo’s territorial waters have a bearing on the access from the Caribbean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, and the illicit maritime trade conducted there with the involvement of Iran’s Ayatollahs and Hezbollah.

*Essequibo is rich in off-shore oil and natural gas deposits (mostly discovered in the mid-2010s), gold, bauxite, diamonds and additional natural resources. As reported by a 2023 report of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, significant ExxonMobile’s oil discoveries are projected to make Guyana the world’s 4th largest offshore oil producer by 2035, surpassing countries like the US, Mexico and Norway. In addition, Guyana’s oil has a major competitive advantage in the hydrocarbon market, with most of its oil resources being light crude with lower-than-average carbon emissions and low extraction cost.

*46 years of the self-destructive US diplomatic option toward Iran’s Ayatollahs, and 40 years of reversible economic sanctions against Iran, including President Trump’s maximum pressure crippling sanctions, have failed to moderate Iran’s Ayatollahs. This failure has demonstrated that the only way to end the Ayatollahs’ rogue conduct, and thus minimizing the level of wars and terrorism, is through an irreversible regime-change.

Jihad Must Have No Place in the West

by Guy Millière

• That the attacks are jihadist is rarely mentioned, or only briefly. Then everything gets forgotten until the next jihadist attack.
• In many American universities, tenured professors have openly supported radical Islam for years, described Hamas as a liberation movement, supported terrorism, shown their hatred of the United States and brainwashed students. Radical imams in many US mosques have incited their followers to hate and even murder Jews, and appear to be trying to legitimize jihad.
• Political Islam, support for Islamic terrorism and incitement to jihad -- Islamic holy war -- need to be squarely faced and defeated.
• It is hoped that the Trump administration will allow no place for jihad in the US or the West.

The jihadist attack in New Orleans on January 1, in which 14 people were murdered by an American convert to Islam, should come as no surprise. In many US universities, professors have openly supported radical Islam for years, described Hamas as a liberation movement, supported terrorism, shown their hatred of the US and brainwashed students. Radical imams in many US mosques have incited their followers to hate and even murder Jews, and appear to be trying to legitimize jihad. Pictured: Police investigators surround the truck used by the terrorist in New Orleans, on January 1, 2025. (Photo by Matthew Hinton/AFP via Getty Images)

The jihadist attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on January 1, 2025, in which 14 people were murdered by an American who converted to Islam and became an Islamist, should come as no surprise.

This was not the first time that a jihadist in the United States or Europe had attacked in "vehicular jihad." The Islamic State (ISIS) appears to have "encouraged" it in 2010. ISIS even recommended that to cause "maximum carnage," it be used preferably in "pedestrian only" sites.

In the US, jihadist attacks, vehicular and other, include 9/11/2001, the Boston Marathon bombing, the Fort Hood slayings and the New Orleans attack (for more, see Appendix 1).

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Qatar's Al-Jazeera, Bullhorn for the Muslim Brotherhood, Promotes Jihad, Radical Islam, Terrorism. Even Israelis and Palestinians Agree!

by Khaled Abu Toameh

• ""Among the Islamist terrorist organizations that Qatar and Al-Jazeera have supported over the years are the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hizbullah, the Al-Nusrah Front/ Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham, ISIS, Hamas, and even the Shiite Iranian proxies in Yemen, Ansar Allah (the Houthis)..." — MEMRI, May 6, 2024.
• "The Al-Jazeera TV network is an arm of the Qatari regime. It is owned by the government and carries out its foreign policy by means of indoctrination of the Arabic-speaking masses worldwide. Al-Jazeera, therefore, should not be discussed as a means of telecommunications, but instead as an unyielding and forceful political tool of Qatari foreign policy under the guise of a mass media network." — MEMRI, May 6, 2024.
• "Al-Jazeera was the prime power for toppling the secular authoritarian regime in Egypt, when Qatar, by means of Al-Jazeera, supported the Muslim Brotherhood in ousting then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Al-Jazeera, the single most significant platform for mainstreaming jihadi and Muslim Brotherhood ideology, was the power that accorded [Muslim Brotherhood member] Mohamed Morsi his victory [in Egypt's 2012 presidential election]." — MEMRI, May 6, 2024.
• Al-Jazeera's role in providing a platform for promoting extremist Islamist ideologies goes back decades: "The case of promoting Al-Qaeda is of particular interest.... Al-Jazeera's official role in the current Israel-Hamas war is nowhere more evident that its exclusive broadcast of Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif... at the very time that Hamas terrorists were carrying out their mega-terror attack in Israel... Deif declared the launch of 'Operation Al-Aqsa Flood' and incited all Palestinians to join the war, using all means in their possession – guns, knives, Molotov cocktails, and vehicles." — MEMRI, May 6, 2024.
• They [Israelis and Palestinians] have both come to the conclusion that Al-Jazeera's goal is to promote radical Islam and terrorism. It now remains to be seen whether the US and other countries will follow suit and stop the Qatari-owned TV station from supporting terrorism, poisoning the hearts and minds of millions worldwide, and ravaging global security.

They Israelis and Palestinians have both come to the conclusion that Al-Jazeera's goal is to promote radical Islam and terrorism. It now remains to be seen whether the US and other countries will follow suit and stop the Qatari-owned TV station from supporting terrorism, poisoning the hearts and minds of millions worldwide, and ravaging global security.Pictured: The headquarters of Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Karim Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images)

The Palestinians have finally discovered that Qatar's Al-Jazeera television network -- which has long been serving as a mouthpiece for the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and virtually all other Islamic terrorist groups -- is "broadcasting inciteful content, spreading misinformation, and interfering in internal Palestinian affairs, which [the Palestinian Authority Ministerial Committee] claimed stirred division and instability."

On January 1, the Palestinian Authority (PA) announced the suspension of Al-Jazeera's broadcast operations in the West Bank, ordering the temporary suspension of work by all journalists, staff and associated channels affiliated with Al-Jazeera, adding:

"The decision will remain in effect until the network resolves its legal status, which was deemed in violation of applicable laws and regulations in Palestine.

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Rabbi Ari Kahn on Parashat Shmot: The Birth of Redemption (video)

Rabbi Doniel Glatstein on Shemos: How We Were Able To Take the Blessings of Eisav and Yishmael By Going Down To Mitzrayim (video)

Rav Kook's Ein Ayah: The Danger of Accusing Scholars of Ulterior Motives

(based on Berachot 3:28)

Gemara: What is an example of one who speaks negatively about a talmid chacham (Torah scholar) after his death? It is as is found in a mishna: He [Akavya ben Mehalalel] said: The special sota waters are not administered to a convert or a freed slave. The Rabbis said that they are administered. They brought a proof from the story whereby a freed maid servant from Karakamit had sota waters administered to her by Shmaya and Avtalyon. Akavya answered: doogma they gave her to drink. They placed a ban on him, and he died with the ban upon him.

Ein Ayah: Rashi explains that doogma means that they gave her to drink because they were similar to her (they were from the families of converts).

The idea of speaking negatively about deceased talmidei chachamim refers to cases where someone assumes a suspicion that certain rulings of rabbis were motivated not by the depth of their understanding of the Torah’s laws or the true traditions they received but by personal interests, Heaven forbid. Actually, even if the critics were right, we would still be obligated to follow their rulings, for the Torah was not given to angels. Once someone is a decisor of Torah and his words were accepted by the rabbinical courts of the time, the Torah law to not stray from the words of the Rabbis applies. It is not for us to decide whether their intentions were pure from the outset regarding the case and whether the ruling was purely to get to the truth, which is certainly the case, or whether there was a matter of interest that sways the intellect. In any case, once the halacha is set, it becomes an entire element of Torah and woe unto us if we destroy it and weaken the hands of those who hold the tree of life [that the Torah is]. Rather we must fulfill with love and with holy trepidation all the words of the Rabbis and the fine inferences that the scholars make.

However, in the area of general morals, this bad [critical approach toward the Rabbis] makes many breaches by removing the foundation of the element of respect and honor for great people according to their holy and exalted value. This is along the situation that the prophet bemoans: “the youngster will be insolent to the elder” (Yeshaya 3:5).

Any society in which this phenomenon exists stands to be ruined even in the short term. This is certainly the case for the “vineyard of the house of Israel,” which is totally “planted” and reliant upon the foundations of Torah and wisdom, and the spirit of Hashem is forever its strength. The only source from which one can draw knowledge and fear of G-d is the wellspring of wisdom that comes from the scholars, who explained the Torah in a literal and in an expansive manner to set the path of life base on wisdom and fear of Hashem. Thus, one who attributes their words to personal inclinations or self-interest weakens the recognition of the lofty value and honor that should be attributed to the Rabbis and their rulings and sayings. Doing so will bring on an immediate moral loss and a weakening in practice and action over time as well.

This is why the gemara explains the foundation of speaking negatively about a deceased scholar by giving the case of accusing Shmaya and Avtalyon of giving a woman sota water to drink because she was similar to them. This would be an example of mixing in concern for their own dignity [by not distinguishing between their lineage and that of standard Jews] into their Torah rulings.

How out of hand is our generation in this regard of accusing the Rabbis of ulterior motives! May Hashem purify our wayward impulses and see to it that Hashem sees to our salvation, so that we will recognize the greatness of the fathers of our national goals, as the pasuk says: “Eating too much honey is not good, but the more one uncovers the honor [of the wise] is honorable” (Mishlei 25:27).

Three "Beliefs"

by HaRav Mordechai Greenberg
Nasi HaYeshiva, Kerem B'Yavneh

At the beginning of his mission to Bnei Yisrael, Moshe argues: "But they will not believe me." (Shemot 4:1) Hashem responds: "My children are believers, sons of believers," as it says: "The people believed, and they heard that Hashem had remembered Bnei Yisrael and that He saw their affliction, and they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves." (Shemot 4:31) Am Yisrael's faith repeats itself on the shores of the Red Sea: "They believed in Hashem and in Moshe, His servant." Their belief appears again a third time at the time of Matan Torah: "Behold! I come to you in thickness of the cloud so that the people will hear as I speak to you, and they will also believe in you forever." (Shemot 19:9)

Why was there a need for belief at Mt. Sinai after the Torah already states that Bnei Yisrael believed in Egypt and at the Red Sea? The Rambam (Hil. Yesodei HaTorah 8:1) writes that the initial belief was not absolute because it was based only on the miracles that occurred in Egypt and at the Red Sea:

Someone who believes because of miracles, there is doubt in his heart ... When did they believe in Him? At the Revelation at Sinai, where our own eyes saw, and our own ears heard ...From where do we know that the Revelation at Sinai is the only proof that [Moshe's] prophecy is true, that it holds no doubt? Because it says: "Behold! I come to you in the thickness of the cloud, so that the people will hear as I speak to you, and they will also believe in you forever." This implies that before this they did not believe in him with a trust that could last forever, but a trust that leaves room for consideration and thought.

The Maharal, on the other hand, writes (Gevurot Hashem ch. 47) that these events are not different levels of belief; they are three foundations of belief:

1. The belief in Providence, as opposed to the denial that argues: "High above all nations is Hashem, above the heavens is His glory" (Tehillim 113:4), that Hashem does not know and is not interested in what occurs on the earth below.

2. The belief in Hashem's existence, that not only does he exist, but also that he is the Creator and Omnipotent, and that there is no existence without Him. He is not dependent on anything, whereas everything else cannot exist on it's own and is dependent upon Him.

3. The belief in G-d's connection with man, that He spoke to him and gave him the Torah.

In Egypt Bnei Yisrael believed in Providence after they realized that Hashem saw their misery and remembered them. At the Red Sea they believed in Hashem's existence after He changed the sea to land, and they realized that the entire existence is dependent upon Him, and that He changes creation as he wishes. Rachav said: "For we have heard how Hashem dried up the waters of the Sea of Reeds ... For Hashem, your G-d, He is G-d in the heavens above and in the earth below." (Yehoshua 2:10-11) During Matan Torah they saw the voices and believed in prophecy and Matan Torah, as they said: "This day we saw that Hashem will speak to a person and he can live." (Devarim 5:21)

This is symbolized by the holidays, the three regalim (lit., feet). They are called regalim because "They are the feet of the religion, upon which the religion stands." Pesach indicates Hashem's ultimate existence and His ability to change the laws of nature. Shavuot corresponds, obviously, to the belief in Matan Torah. Succot, meanwhile, teaches about Divine Providence, as a reminder that Bnei Yisrael dwelled under the clouds of glory while Hashem guarded over them.

According to Sefer Ha'ikarim, Judaism is built on these three foundations, as opposed to the Rambam who mentions thirteen principles. Sefer Ha'ikarim writes:

What seems to me the correct path in counting the principles, which are the roots and foundations of the Divine Torah, is that the crucial and encompassing principles to the divine faith are three, and they are: Hashem's existence, Providence regarding reward and punishment, and that the Torah is from Heaven. These three are fathers to all the other principles of the Divine teachings.

Rav Kook on Parashat Shemot: Moshe's Love for Am Yisrael

Was Moshe's complaint appropriate?

When his initial efforts to free the Jewish slaves only resulted in Paroh issuing even harsher decrees, Moshe complained bitterly to God:

“God, why do You mistreat Your people? Why did You send me? From when I came to Paroh to speak in Your name, he made things even worse for these people. You have not rescued Your people!” (Shemot 5:22-23)

The Midrash says that the Middat haDin, sought to punish Moshe for his harsh words. But God saw that Moshe only spoke for the sake of the Jewish people, and he was not punished (Shemot Rabbah 5:27).

What exactly was Moshe's’ sin that he deserved to be punished? And what did God ’see’ that determined Moshe was not in the wrong?

The Sick Friend
Rav Kook explained the incident with the following parable:

Once there were two good friends, but one friend was seriously ill. His doctor determined that he could only save his life by performing a very painful operation.

During surgery, the doctor did not hold it against the patient when he moaned and wept. The poor man was in great pain, and his response was to be expected.

But when his healthy friend also wailed and cried out — the doctor ordered him to quiet down. The doctor interpreted his cries as a lack of faith in his medical skill, and even questioning the need for the painful procedure.

Feeling Their Pain
The Jewish slaves, Rav Kook explained, were like the ill patient. Divine providence decreed that the Jewish people needed to undergo Paroh’s harsh decrees in order to be redeemed, like a painful operation necessary to save the patient’s life. When the Jews cried out under the oppression and persecution of Egypt, that was understandable.

But Moshe — why was he complaining? Did he not have faith in God’s ability to redeem Am Yisrael? The Middat HaDin objected to Moshe’s complaints; this lack of faith should be rebuked and punished.

But the One who “searches the heart and examines the mind” saw into the depths of Moshe’s heart. Moshe was like a dear friend who cannot help but share in his friend’s pain. When the doctor operated on his friend, he felt as if the knife was slicing his own flesh.

“ Moshe is speaking for the Jewish people,” God pronounced. He did not deserve to be punished. The “faithful shepherd” cried out spontaneously, in his great love for his people.

This is the model for a true leader. The people are not a stepping stone to attain high office. They are the goal of public service.

As chief rabbi, Rav Kook was keenly aware of his duty to serve the people. Often he would sign his letters, עבד לעם קדוש — “servant to a holy nation.”

(Adapted from Mo'adei HaRe’iyah, pp. 233-234 by Rav Chanan Morrison)

The Divine Hand

by Rabbi Dov Berel Wein

The Torah leaves us basically unprepared for its description of the events that are recorded for us in this week’s parsha. When we last left the family of Israel at the conclusion of last week’s parsha of Vayechi, the Jews found themselves comfortable, affluent, protected and settled well in the land of Goshen.

The Torah does not describe to us the process by which this situation so radically changed into becoming a slave state for the Jews. It only tells us of a new king who didn’t know Yosef and, for reasons not explicitly mentioned in the Torah, became a hater and persecutor of the Jews.

The Torah seems to indicate that this is almost a natural state of affairs – to be expected. The Egyptian exile begins on a high note, deteriorates into abject sorrow and attempted genocide and ends with miraculous redemption. The Torah does not dwell upon any motives for the occurrence of this pattern of events. What did the Jews do wrong? Why was the Pharaoh such a hater? What were the economic or social factors of the time that allowed for such a dramatic worsening of the Jewish position in Egypt?

The Torah addresses none of these issues. It is almost as if the Torah wishes us to understand that these things happen blindly in human history. And, particularly in Jewish history, that the attempts of historians and sociologists to explain these irrational events and behavior patterns are really useless.

As has been often pointed out, all subsequent Jewish exiles – Babylonia, Spain, France, Germany, Eastern Europe, the Moslem Middle East – all seem to eerily conform to this original Egyptian template. As usual the Torah leaves us with more questions than it provides answers for. In effect, that is why the Torah is called the book of human life.

We are also unprepared to recognize the savior of Israel in the person of Moses. We are told how he was miraculously saved from the crocodiles of the Nile by the daughter of the Pharaoh and raised in the royal court. He sympathizes with the brutalized Jewish slaves, defends them, and is forced to flee from Egypt.

We hear nothing regarding Moses for the next sixty years until he reemerges as a shepherd in Midian, married to the daughter of Yitro, the local religious chief who, at this time, is still a pagan. Hardly the resume’ that one would expect for the leader of Israel, the greatest of all prophets and the teacher of all human kind.

Where did his holiness and greatness stem from, how was it developed, who were his mentors and what were his experiences over those long decades of separation from his people? The Torah gives us no clue or answer to these questions. It effectively points out that greatness oftentimes comes from unexpected sources and from people and leaders who operate outside of the usual establishment circles.

All of life is a mystery and certainly the Jewish story remains in its base an inexplicable one. This sets the stage for everything else that will now follow in the Torah. It is why the Jewish people, when accepting the Torah pledge to God that "we will do and then perhaps try to understand," if we wish to understand first we will never come to do. The Divine hand guides us but it is never subject to our rational thoughts and explanations.

Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook: A Public Letter on Observance of Shemitta – part I

#287 – part I

Date and Place: 4 Nisan 5670 (1910), Yafo

Recipient and Background: This letter for the public was apparently published in the newspaper “Hacherut” on 4 Nisan 5760 (halfway through the Shemitta year). As is clear from the letter, Rav Kook became aware of farmers who “took liberties” that his rulings forbade, and there was concern this would continue or increase over the spring/summer.

Body: Beloved, respected brothers! I feel an obligation to express something to you about the way the obligations of Shemitta should be handled this year, which by tradition is the Shemitta year.

There is no need to make pronouncements about what you already know – due to the difficult situation, for quite some time, rabbinic leaders who are beloved by the nation and love it with their whole soul, worked hard and agreed to push themselves into a very small space (i.e., a difficult leniency) based on the correct approach to Torah that gives [great weight] to the need to protect the dear Yishuv. This is the way Israel approaches rendering rulings in the case of hugely important need, in this case giving rise to the customary system that uproots the laws by means of the sale of the land. True, many and great rabbis, some of the greatest Torah scholars, who also excel at holy fear of Hashem and are well respected, criticized those who gave this lenient ruling. However, just like those who rule strictly, those who rule leniently do so with a pure heart with intention to act for the “sake of Heaven,” for the benefit of the nation and the Land. They act with authority, and it is appropriate for them to act according to the holy path they believe in.

Those great rabbis who took the yoke of this ruling on their shoulders drew the line in a manner that we should distance ourselves as well as we can from violations of Torah-level law. In other words, the leniency is arranged to apply only to those actions for which there are strong grounds to believe that their obligation is of a Rabbinic level; only in such matters, difficult situations warrant us to uproot the laws based on the system of selling the fields.

If we embrace this approach of the righteous, as the great majority of people in the Yishuv have done, then we will maintain the mitzva in the form that it existed [based only] on Torah law, and our offspring will not forget the existence of the mitzva. According to the degree the Yishuv in the Holy Land will expand, the situation can increasingly improve in regard to the sanctity of Shemitta as well, for the benefit of our nation and holy land, as well as the comfort of the spirit and [national] pride, until we reach the point when a new light, of redemption, will spread over Zion.

With this perspective, we should know how bad and bitter are the actions of individuals, who act without proper thought, to remove all guardrails and violate the rules with which the leniency was formulated. They desecrate the sanctity of Shemitta by means of actions that are forbidden by Torah-level law, which we did not include in the lenient ruling that accompanies the selling of the Land. These people are ruining the whole arrangement, which is a bad disservice for our Yishuv, the “young nursing baby” that requires so much care and supervision. This is because people start saying that the Yishuv as a whole tramples matters of sanctity and that matters of religion, Torah and mitzvot are discarded. When such irresponsible behavior spreads, Heaven forbid, it perforce increases the inclination of all rabbinic leaders to disallow support for the leniency of removing the sanctity and fight to implement the standard laws of Shemitta. How can we expect them to see that under the guise of a leniency based on uprooting, a system that was undertaken with concern and carefulness, large abuses that disrespect the Torah unabashedly exist? Understand how serious this is, considering how unfeasible it is for the Yishuv to survive without the leniency, which must be done according to the law by expert rabbis who are known for Torah and fear of Hashem.

Lights of Unity

by HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

On Chanukah, we publicize the miracle of the victory over “the kingdom of Greece, which stood against Your people Israel to make them forget Your Torah and to have them transgress the laws of Your will.”

There are those who seek to project the struggle of the Maccabees from those days onto our time – viewing the conflict between the conservative approach and the new liberal approach, which rejects religion and tradition, as a direct continuation of the Maccabees’ wars against the Greeks. This perspective carries a tremendous danger of division and hatred, and could, G-d forbid, lead to a cultural war that could bring the worst of all – a civil war, Heaven forbid. Many ask themselves whether it is even possible to prevent a cultural war between religious and secular people. The answer is unequivocal – yes! Not only is it possible to prevent a war between Jews, but moreover, we can bring them to love one another. Therefore, a great responsibility rests upon us to prevent the stirring of the fires of division.

We must dispel the darkness by increasing the light, as Rav Kook, of blessed memory, said. Let us contemplate the Chanukah candles, which hint at lights of love and faith, lights of unity.

Currently, the forces acting today to make us forget the Torah and oppose the “laws of Your will” come, so to speak, in the name of progress and freedom, in the name of a developing and changing modern world. This destructive trend must be abolished by understanding that progress and freedom in no way contradict Judaism. On the contrary, our holy Torah views human freedom, as well as technological and scientific progress, as values that must be nurtured and encouraged, while simultaneously instilling in this world eternal spiritual and moral values that are unchanging. A human society cannot exist without the eternal Jewish values of justice and truth, of striving for peace and unity. The world would be pitch dark without the eternal values of Sinai, as recorded in the Torah of the Chumash and the Gemara.

Let us walk in the path of Rav Kook who said: “The purely righteous do not complain about wickedness, but add justice. They do not complain about heresy, but add faith. They do not complain about ignorance, but add wisdom.”

In this way it is possible and necessary to prevent a cultural war, and through this true enlightenment, we will all merit together to embrace a new light upon Tzion, speedily in our days, Ahmen.

Besorot Tovot,
Shabbat Shalom and Chanukah Sameach,
With love of Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael

Yeshivat Machon Meir: Sichot with the Rosh HaYeshivah Parashat Miketz (video)

When the setback is part of the journey

by Rav Binny Freedman

It was one of the darkest moments of my life. In retrospect it seems almost trivial; so insignificant against the backdrop of the significant events one experiences in life: marrying the girl of your dreams; the birth of your children; walking your daughter down the aisle at her wedding or holding your grandchild for the first time…. But at the time it seemed like my life had entered a dark cloud and I could not begin to fathom why it was happening.

After completing two months of basic infantry training, two months of tank school training to become a tank driver followed by the armored corps’ grueling twelve-week field training course, and then successfully completing tank commander’s course I was invited to IDF Officer training. This is a course by invitation only; no matter how much you want it the army has to decide you are worth the spot. I recall struggling with the decision as it meant signing up for a lot more army time, with no guarantee I would finish. As it turned out, I did not know the half of it.

There were two hundred and fifty of us who had been invited to try our hand at getting into Officer’s course and we were assembled for a month-long ‘mechin’ or prep course. The armored corps only had eighty spots for Officer’s course, and they wanted to be sure the cadets they chose would make it through. I was by then a tank commander with the rank of sergeant, and the temptation to let it go and finally enjoy army service as a soldier with rank, was almost overpowering. But I reasoned that if I had been offered a chance for a spot I had to try; maybe it was all part of Hashem’s plan….

I can still remember, after an intense month of constant tests, exhausting runs, navigations, and a variety of training exercises designed to see how we would fare under pressure, the day the names were called out. We were assembled on the parade ground (misdar) standing at attention while the eighty names were called out in what is known as a misdar de’maot or ‘parade of tears’; tears for the one hundred and seventy cadets who would not be going on to officer’s course.

Four months later after an even more painfully difficult IDF officer’s course at the infamous Bahd Echad, (IDF training base One) I can recall every moment of the day we received our IDF Officer oak leaf-and-sword pin.

Now there was only one course left; four months of one of the most grueling courses in the IDF was all that stood between me and receiving my second lieutenant’s bars: the IDF Tank platoon commander’s course.

And after three months and twenty-seven days, averaging three hours sleep a night, having slept in an actual bed for no more than seven or eight of those days, with just three days left to the course, a tribunal consisting of my company commander, battalion commander and the base commander, explained that they did not feel in good conscience they could send me out into the field to command men under fire.

I remember feeling it had all been like a whirlwind; perhaps it was my Hebrew which was still not up to snuff, or the fact that after so many courses one after the other I had not had enough field experience to run my maneuvers smoothly enough, but after the company commander had personally overseen one of my maneuvers followed by the battalion commander on a subsequent maneuver, my scores were apparently not high enough.

I had been given due notice throughout the course that my scores were borderline, but we had actually completed the course and were in the process of preparing for the final ceremony, practicing on the parade ground, giving back the gear we had signed off on, cleaning the tanks, and I could already taste it; I had allowed myself to think I was done, when they had sent word I was to appear that evening in dress uniform for a tribunal reviewing my course status.

They told me I was good; I just wasn’t good enough. And ten minutes later I was done; told I was free to leave the base and report for a new unit as a tank commander, the thought of spending the night on base watching all my buddies joking around and preparing for the ceremony was too much to bear.

Which was why I found myself at ten o’clock at night on a lonely stretch of road outside the base in the middle of the Negev desert, desperately waiting to hitch a ride, any ride and get as far away as I could from what I was now desperate to put behind me. For six hours I stood on the lonely road beneath the night sky full of stars with my kitbag and gear trying to figure it all out; if I was not meant to be an officer then what was the point of all the hell I had just been through? It was absolutely one of the darkest nights of my life….

This week’s portion of Miketz offers us a glimpse into just such a moment in the life of Yosef: beloved and favored son of Yaakov.

After being sold as a slave and eventually plucked out of the pit of Egypt’s Royal prison system, Yosef, literally overnight, finds himself standing in front of no less than Pharaoh himself being asked to interpret his dreams.

The seven fat healthy cows consumed by the seven sickly cows along the Nile, and the second dream of seven healthy wheat stalks consumed by seven moldy stalks all mean there will be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.

And we all know how the story plays out: Paroh, impressed by Yosef’s wisdom and humility (“it is G-d who provides the interpretations of dreams…”) appoints him to be the viceroy over the entire Egyptian empire, and in a moment, the lowly slave has become the second most powerful person in the world.

But there is one fascinating and seemingly insignificant detail in the story that begs a question: Paroh has two dreams, and they both seem to be identical. So why the need for both dreams?

Yosef actually explains this puzzling detail:

“That Paroh has dreamed this twice means that G-d is firmly resolved regarding this plan and is speedily setting it in motion.” (Bereisheet 41:32)

And one wonders how Yosef knows this? It may well be that G-d has shared with Yosef a prophecy to that effect, but the Torah usually shares such information as prophecy; here, there is no ‘and G-d spoke to Yosef…’ so one has to wonder.

Think about it: Paroh is not the first person to have two dreams; Yosef himself had two dreams many years earlier, which seemed to be the prelude for everything that happened subsequently as the favored son of Yaakov, dreaming of wheat bushels and even the sun moon and stars bowing down to him, suddenly found himself in a pit and then as a slave in darkest Egypt wondering what had happened.

It is hard to imagine Yosef standing before Pharaoh, not recalling his own dreams as well, and one wonders if Yosef suddenly began to realize he was finally getting a glimpse of the bigger picture.

It must have been devastating for Yosef; one minute he was the favored son of Yaakov, gifted with a beautiful technicolor coat as a symbol of his father’s love and dreaming of great things; even the sun moon and stars would bow down to him!

He must have felt G-d was guiding his path: he was destined for greatness.

And in a whirlwind of events he found himself in a pit of despair. First the pit his brothers threw him in, and later the pit of Egyptian servitude. Gone were his delusions of grandeur as the years snuck by and no salvation seemed imminent.

His beloved father Yaakov was not coming to save him and no one seemed to care as he languished in the pit of despair; even the butler whose life he had saved had long forgotten him.

But the Gemara tells us:

“Yeshuat Hashem ke’heref ayin”

“The salvation of Hashem (G-d) can come like the blink of an eye”

And as Yosef stands before Paaoh, perhaps he finally starts to realize this was all part of a bigger picture. It was not the brothers who had thrown him into that pit all those years ago; Hashem had placed him in that pit; indeed, Hashem had been guiding his journey all these years.

In fact, it is fascinating to note that Yosef as a young lad dreamed of wheat bushels bowing down, and Paroh dreamed of wheat stalks being consumed, and it was through the storing of wheat and its later barter that Yosef becomes the instrument for G-d’s plan causing the brothers to eventually come down to Egypt.

And of course, the brothers’ coming to Egypt leads to the eventual servitude of the Jews in Egypt which itself leads to the eventual Exodus which of course leads to the giving of the Torah and the Ten Commandments and the Jews’ eventual return to the land of Israel… because it’s all part of Hashem’s plan….

Perhaps Yosef realizes: that pit was not a setback at all; it was all part of the journey.

And that pit was what allowed Joseph not just to stand before Paroh, but to stand before him with humility which was probably why he was appointed viceroy….

Sometimes we find ourselves in the pit of life, and things all seem to be headed in the wrong direction. But there is always a bigger picture; we just don’t usually get to see it. And though it may seem the wrong direction to us, Hashem is a pretty good navigator, and if we wait long enough, sometimes we get a glimpse of where that journey was really taking us.

They had told me, just before dismissing me, that although normally when a cadet is dismissed from Officer’s course he is never allowed to return (having been found unworthy), in my case, given the circumstances, I would be allowed to repeat the entire course form the beginning; but I had only until Sunday morning to decide….

I thought they were nuts; and in that moment, could not imagine doing it all over again. But after a long tortuous weekend, I decided I had to try if only so I would not spend the rest of my life thinking ‘I should have…’

Which was why, four months later, I finally found myself, nearly two years after first donning an IDF uniform, on the parade ground on that same base in the Negev desert, this time under a bright sun, squinting up at Moshe Levy, the IDF Chief of staff as I received my lieutenant’s bars at last.

It would take a while longer, on a lonely stretch of road in Lebanon, before I finally started to glimpse why I needed those extra months in Officer’s training and why sometimes ‘good’ was actually not good enough. But then, that’s another story….

Shabbat Shalom and Chanukah Sameach from Yerushalayim.

Millions of Christians Are Under Islamist Assault, so Pope Francis Targets the Jews

Perhaps he believes that pointing a finger at the Jews will divert Muslim rage from the Vatican.

by Charles Jacobs and Uzay Bulut

• The Jews are not committing genocide against Muslims in Gaza, whose population grew almost 3% last year. Muslims, however, are committing mass murder via jihad against Christians in Africa. Yet the Pope cowers from defending his own flock.
• The number of Christians intentionally murdered, let alone tortured, raped, kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam far exceeds the number of Gazans killed unintentionally as Israel directs its fire at terrorists who hide behind civilians. Indeed, Israel is defending its population from the very same jihadist assaults faced by African Christians.
• Ahsan Raja Masih, a young Pakistani Christian, has been sentenced to hang for his faith over false "blasphemy" charges. The Catholic Bishops of Pakistan have recently joined the Christian community's outcry against the death sentence. Where is the Pope?
• By turning reality on its head, the Pope's shameful defamation of the Jews complements his passivity in the face of Islamic jihad against Christians. Perhaps he believes that pointing a finger at the Jews will divert Muslim rage from the Vatican. Surely, it distracts the world from his own cowardice and failure to protect Christians.

"Nigeria is the most violent country in the world for Christians. Every two hours, a Christian is killed in Nigeria," according to Open Doors. Pope Francis has not called for an investigation of the jihadists and their sponsors. Pictured: State officials walk past wounded survivors of a jihadist attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo State, Nigeria, in which they murdered 50 Christians, on June 5, 2022. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

Christians face persecution, discrimination, forced conversion and even mass murder for their faith in many parts of the Muslim world, yet Pope Francis, in his upcoming book called Hope, calls for an investigation to see if the Jews are committing a "genocide" against Palestinian Muslims in the Gaza Strip.

The Jews are not committing genocide against Muslims in Gaza, whose population grew almost 3% last year. Muslims, however, are committing mass murder via jihad against Christians in Africa. Yet the Pope cowers from defending his own flock.

Africa has become the epicenter of radical Islamic terrorism. Murderous jihad attacks against Christians abound in Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Niger, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon.

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How Israeli Arab Leaders Betray Their Own People

by Khaled Abu Toameh

• "For the longest time, I struggled with my identity. A Palestinian kid born inside Israel. Like...wtf. Many of my friends refuse to this day to say the word 'Israel' and call themselves 'Palestinian' only. But since I was 12, that did not make sense to me. So, I decided to mix the two and become a 'Palestinian-Israeli.' I thought this term reflected who I was. Palestinian first. Israeli second. But after recent events, I started to think. And think. And think. And then my thoughts turned to anger. I realized that if Israel were to be 'invaded' like that again, we would not be safe. To a terrorist invading Israel, all citizens are targets.... And I do not want to live under a Palestinian government. Which means I only have one home, even if I'm not Jewish: Israel." — Nuseir Yassin ("Nas Daily"), Israeli Arab blogger, the day after October 8, 2023.
• These [Arab Israeli] leaders will do anything to grab the attention of the media – even if that means inciting against Israel. They know that when they deal with the real problems facing their Arab constituents – such as unemployment and poverty – no one will write about them in the media. Yet, when these leaders make fiery statements against Israel, they often win headlines and front-page stories. As far as they are concerned, "I don't care what you write about me as long as you spell my name right."
• By engaging in anti-Israel incitement, these Israeli Arab leaders are causing huge damage to their own constituents. These leaders make the Israeli Arabs look as if they are a "Fifth Column" -- an enemy within. These leaders are stoking fear and mistrust between Jews and Arabs inside Israel, while ignoring that most Israeli Arabs say they feel comfortable living in the Jewish state.
• If Israeli Arabs want to secure a prosperous future for themselves and their children, they need to get rid of extremist Arab leaders who speak and act against the interests of the Arab community inside Israel. If these Arab leaders are unhappy living in Israel, they are welcome to move to the West Bank, Gaza Strip or any Arab country -- where they will quickly miss Israel's democracy and freedom of speech.

While the attitudes of the Israeli Arabs toward Israel are encouraging, some of their leaders continue to act against the interests of their own people. These leaders, including current and former members of the Israeli Knesset (parliament), have long been taking advantage of the country's democratic system to engage in anti-Israel rhetoric, causing huge damage to their own constituents. Pictured: Arab Israeli Members of Knesset Ayman Odeh (L), Ahmad Tibi (R) and Aida Touma-Suleiman in the Knesset chamber, in Jerusalem on July 10, 2023. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)

The Iran-backed Palestinian Hamas terrorist group has long been seeking to spark a civil war between Israel's Arab and Jewish citizens. Over the past few years, Hamas has called on the two million Arab citizens of Israel to revolt against their own country and join the Jihad against Israel.

Hamas's attempts were partially successful in May 2021, when some Arabs attacked their Jewish neighbors. The assaults occurred at the same time as an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip. That operation was launched in response to rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups at Israel. Fortunately, the violence that erupted in 2021 ended quickly.

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Yosef’s encoded message

by Rabbi Pinchas Winston

I have mentioned several times in the past that when Yosef, as Viceroy of Egypt, accused his brothers of being meraglim—spies, it was a coded message. Each of the Hebrew letters—Mem-Raish-Gimmel-Lamed-Yud-Mem—stood for a different word, the coded message being: M’Immi Rachel genavtem, l’Midianim Yishmael mechartem—from my mother Rachel you stole me; to Midianites, Arabs you sold me. Not bad, eh?

And the brothers were supposed to figure that out off the bat? They had just gotten down to Egypt and it was the first thing to go wrong. That the man standing before them dressed and acting Egyptian and wielding so much power was Yosef was the last thing they could have imagined at that point. So what was the point of Yosef’s encoded message?

It wasn’t for that moment. It was for later, after they had gone through enough to make them start to question what was really going on, which they began to do once they found their money in their sacks on their way back home. Until that time, they were still in their own world and only asked the questions they wanted to. Freaking them out with weird events forced them to start asking questions they didn’t want to.

After all, “necessity is the mother of invention.” Why invent something new when the old works well enough? It’s only once people suffer for reasons they can’t figure out that they go looking for answers, answers that often lead to other questions and then other answers.

And not just for things that are currently happening, or will in the future, but also retroactively. The brain has a remarkable way of doing that, of taking new information and using it to solve old puzzles, sometimes even unconsciously. When Yosef accused his brothers of being spies, he was planting the seeds of future revelations.

Still, even if the brothers had begun to suspect that the Viceroy was Yosef, a big leap of faith to begin with, breaking the world meraglim down into six separate words that told the tale of his sale and enslavement was an even bigger leap. It would have been like figuring out the winning number of a lottery in advance using mathematics. It might be possible, but the odds are heavily against being right, even for the smartest person in the world.

But you can’t believe how many things you enjoy in life whose discovery had similar odds. Some were just the result of trial and error, lots of trial and error. Others were discovered more quickly because of some “lucky” circumstance. But since we don’t believe in luck at all, because everything is a function of Divine Providence, we have to assume that God decided to give the discoverer a break by speeding up the right result.

It works the same with insights as well. If I had a dollar for every time an insight came to me because of some unplanned circumstance, I could almost retire. I’m talking about getting the idea for a parsha sheet or an entire book because I happened to be thinking about something at a bus stop while a bus went by with an advertisement on the side. The advertisement had nothing to do with the idea I was thinking about, but seeing it at exactly the same time I was thinking about an idea somehow led to a new insight.

Yosef had known that if he got his brothers started, they would ask the questions, maybe even do a little teshuvah and warrant the necessary Divine Providence to work out the puzzle. In fact, one of the best ways to know if you’re going in the right direction in life is how God helps you connect the dots in whatever you’re doing right. Somehow life, history, a book, a person, or even the most unusual thing will make some impression on you to move your thinking in the right direction.

Because knowledge is just light, Divine light. But being holy, it can only flow to people according to their level of holiness. The more fitting a vessel is spiritually speaking, the greater and more insightful the light will be. The higher a person ascends spiritually, the higher the spiritual light they can access will be.

This is what it means that the Ohr HaGanuz, the Primordial Light that God hid on Day One of Creation from the evil history, can be found in the thirty-six Ner Shel Chanukah. Obviously, it is not a physical thing, but a spiritual one, not something seen with the physical eye but the mind’s eye. And the thing about the mind’s eye is that it opens only as wide as a person’s heart does for truth.

Countless times throughout history, people have come to know far more knowledge than they actually learned, more sophisticated knowledge than they should have been able to. We don’t notice it much in our own lives because most people never try to know or understand much more than they need to in order to get by in life. So God says, “If they don’t want to know, why should I tell them?”

Want to know, so God will tell you…and you will be more than amazed by what He has to say. A freilechen Chanukah.