Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook: Joining Forces in Yafo Schools – #147

Date and Place: 17 Tammuz 5668 (1908), Yafo 

Recipient: The Mizrachi Organization, Western Bureau, who were in the process of establishing a school in Yafo.

Body: I must let you know that here in Yafo there is already a school, Tachkemoni, whose goals fit what you desire. They connect Torah with [secular] knowledge, along with proficiency in the Hebrew language, which is the language of instruction. It was established according to the desire of people who are loyal to traditional Judaism, so that it will satisfy all who fear Hashem and His word. It is just that because of a weak physical infrastructure, it has been unable to develop to the degree that our brothers are satisfied with.

That school’s administration has approached me with their desire to unify their operation with yours. We can trust them, as they fear Hashem and desire education based on sacred purity, teaching Torah and knowledge, and a proper preparation for life, filled with love of the nation, the Land, and the nation’s reawakening. Therefore, educational philosophy should not separate you.

Therefore, I recommend their serious offer to unify the efforts, whereby the first classes that you have agreed to found will join with those which Tachkemoni has already opened, and it will be called “The Mizrachi School.” If you like this idea, the benefits will come quickly. Things will develop in quantity and high quality, in a way that can make it a role model in the Holy Land and an honor for its community. Your agreement will solve your problem of a venue in an excellent manner, by joining Tachkemoni’s home. I await your distinguished response.

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself – Generalities and Specifics

by HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

“‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ (Vayikra 9:18) – Rebbe Akiva commented, ‘This is a major principle of the Torah.’”

Our sages, in setting out to delineate this mitzvah, bring the story of the non-Jew who, wishing to convert, approached Hillel ohave him teach him the entire Torah on one foot. Said Hillel, “That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow man. That is the entire Torah. Go learn the rest” (Shabbat 31a).

As Rashi explains, all of the mitzvot mentioned in the Torah are included in this. Moreover, Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto in his Mesillat Yesharim says of the saintly person who loves G-d, and whose entire interest is to bring contentment to his Maker, that he can accomplish this “by always doing good to one’s fellow men and not doing them harm, physically, monetarily or psychologically. Physically this means always striving to help them however one can, and to lighten their burdens… Monetarily it means helping out one’s fellow man as much as one can afford, and saving him from harm. Psychologically it means striving to bring him as much contentment as possible. This includes doing whatever one can to see that one’s friend receives respect, and certainly includes not distressing him in any way, and it also includes seeking to encourage harmony between people.” (Mesillat Yesharim, Chapter 19).

Indeed, Hillel’s advise, “love your neighbor as yourself”, was not just a private matter. It did not just concern that particular convert’s receiving instruction from Hillel that the entire goal of the Torah and of Jewishness is to make one a good person. Rather, the idea of goodness in the world, as revealed in the human being as an individual, is also a matter for the Jewish People in the aggregate. What distinguishes our people down through the generations, what sanctifies G-d’s name in the world, is our being a great and holy nation with a unique soul, as Rav Kook taught:

“The essence of being benevolent to all, without any earthly limit, whether in the quantity of those benefiting or in the quality of the benevolence, constitutes the inner kernel of the soul of the Jewish People. This is Israel’s inheritance, and their ancestral legacy.” (Orot 139)

The further we march on the upward path towards national rebirth, the more we will uncover the soul and the light of Israel. All mankind will then recognize and appreciate and respect the Jewish People, whose entire raison d’etre is to spread G-d’s light through the world, as torchbearers of the father of our people Abraham, who proclaimed G-d’s name in the world – a proclamation that continues on forever.

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

A Korban for Azazel

by Rav Binny Freedman

Some time ago, after a lecture on the ethical challenges of the seventh commandment (“Thou shalt not steal”), I was approached by a fellow from Vienna who was a Holocaust survivor.

“Why do you assume stealing is always wrong?” asked the fellow, “Sometimes, it is even an obligation.”

“I always had a strong desire to take things, and I never understood why,” he continued, “And it wasn’t that I necessarily needed the things I took; I just loved the prospect of being able to steal things out from under people’s noses. I became quite good at it, though my conscience always bothered me. Often, I was able to resist the temptation to take things that weren’t mine, but it was always a struggle. I often wondered why G-d had burdened me with this particular challenge. I knew it was wrong to steal, and never rationalized theft; I just loved the ‘thrill of the take’. Why did G-d create me with this challenge? It wasn’t my fault I loved to steal, G-d made me that way. It just didn’t seem fair.

“And then the Holocaust came, and with it the beatings and humiliations, the forced labor battalions, and the Gestapo, who would show up at your door in the middle of the night and cart you off to the police station, from where most people never came out. My skills at pilfering items kept our family alive, and somehow I was always able, despite the difficult conditions in the ghetto, to find enough for everyone to eat.

“One day, I received orders to report to the police station to have my papers reviewed. I had to make a terrifying decision. Did the Gestapo want me? Had they somehow discovered something I had done? Would I be allowed to leave the premises once I came in? My first thought was to run and go into hiding. But of course, they knew where the rest of my family was, and the consequences of my not reporting to the police were unthinkable, so I had no choice but to go to the headquarters of the Gestapo.

“I was standing in a waiting hall with many other people, and every few minutes, a person’s name would be called, and a policeman would take him or her off to one of the offices down the hall. You could hear the yelling, and the cries of the person being ‘interviewed’ and sometimes, you would see the person, bloodied and beaten, limping back down the hallway and out of the building. Sometimes, though, you didn’t seem to see the person come out of that hallway….

“After what seemed like hours, my name was called, and a policeman came to escort me to the rear. I found myself in an office with four or five ‘policemen’, all behind small desks ‘interviewing’ different people who were brought in. The fellow ‘interviewing’ (really, it was more like screaming at) me, barked out the questions, and it seemed even before I could give the answer, he would reach out with his arm and bat me on the head. He asked my name, and when I started to reply, he would hit me before I could finish answering. I wasn’t sure what to do, and then recalled hearing how all the Jews were being made to change their first names to Abraham or Sarah, so I answered ‘Abraham’, and sure enough the beating stopped. Eventually, with a little more beating, and some more questions, I was made to sign something and then told I would be ordered in the future to report for a labor battalion. Meanwhile, I could go home.

“At this point, a strange thing happened: It seemed all of the interviews were ending at around the same time, and as the Jews were each told the same thing and allowed to leave, the officers ‘interviewing’ them also walked out, perhaps for a break, or some coffee. By a strange congruence of circumstances, I found myself alone in the room. And I suddenly had a tremendous urge to steal something.

“I saw, on one of the desks, a large pile of papers, and next to it, an equally large pile of passports and identity papers. Clearly, these were Jews being made to report somewhere, and if this list was on a Gestapo Officer’s desk, it could not bode well for those people. Without thinking, I took the entire pile, and with a skill born of years of practice, walked right out of Gestapo headquarters with all of those papers under my shirt. Not only did I most certainly save seventy lives that day, but also, later in the war, we were able to doctor all those passports to save an additional hundred people.

“From that day, and since the war, I never had the desire to steal again, and I now realize that G-d gave me that desire, not as a curse, but as a blessing.”

So often in life, we struggle with desires and needs that seem to weigh us down. If only we didn’t so crave that chocolate fudge cake, wouldn’t it be easier to diet? How often do you know you have better things to do with your time, only it looks like such a great TV movie, and suddenly, two hours later, you wonder why you wasted a perfectly good evening on something so unproductive? Wouldn’t it be great if we could somehow remove those desires we know to be so wasteful? And, if we know we would be so much better off without these passions, why were we given these challenges in life to begin with? After all, if G-d hadn’t created people with an inclination for violence, there would be no violent crime.

This first of this week’s double portions, Acharei Mot, actually begins with a treatment of this topic that most people miss.

G-d tells Moshe to instruct Aaron, “after the death of his sons”, regarding the service in the Tabernacle, the Mishkan. (Vayikra 16:1) One would have expected, therefore, a topic, which directly relates to the trauma Aaron experienced in the loss of his sons.

Strangely, however, the Torah here begins a discussion of the two goat offerings, which form the central part of the service on Yom Kippur. Why is the Torah introducing the Yom Kippur service, something which will occur in the month of Tishrei, immediately after the death of Aaron’s sons (which occurred three portions earlier, in the portion of Shemini), which the Torah tells me occurred on the first day of Nissan?

Perhaps there is something hidden in the part of the Yom Kippur service described here, which may serve as a reaction or response to the death of Aaron’s sons, or even to death and tragedy in general. As such, it behooves us to examine this particular Yom Kippur ritual a little more closely.

In fact, the sacrifices described here (Vayikra 16: 5- 11) are perhaps the strangest and most challenging areas of service in all of Judaism, and arguably include the most bizarre korban mentioned in the Bible.

Aaron, as the Kohen Gadol, is told to take two he-goats as a sin, or Chatat offering. In truth, the concept of Chet, for which a Chatat offering is brought, is not really about sin; at least in the way most people understand it. Chet does not mean sin; it means a mistake. As such, when we make mistakes, these offerings are the opportunity to deal with those mistakes.

The Kohen Gadol then takes these two goats (verse 7) and stands before the Ohel Moed. (Eventually, every year on Yom Kippur, this will form the central focus of the Yom Kippur service, when the Kohen Gadol brings these goats before the entrance to the Beit HaMikdash in Jerusalem.

He then (posuk 8) picks lots for these two goats. According to Jewish tradition a bag with two notes in it is brought to him, and he reaches with both hands into the bag, choosing one note in each hand, and subsequently holding one hand over the head of each goat. On one of the notes was written the word “La’Hashem“, “For G-d”, and this goat was indeed offered as the central korban of Yom Kippur in the Beit HaMikdash.

On the second note, was written the word “La’Azazel” and thus the second goat was an offering to Azazel. The question is, of course, what or who is Azazel? The posuk (16:10) suggests, as Rashi explains, that this goat was taken into the wilderness, and ultimately cast off the desert cliffs, symbolizing the destruction of our transgressions before G-d. However, this understanding still leaves us with many questions:

Why, in order to attain forgiveness for the Jewish people (p.10) must this second goat be taken off into the desert? Why not offer it up in the Beit HaMikdash, like all other sacrifices?

Further, what is the significance of the lots drawn on these goats? What difference which goat is sent to the desert and which to the Beit HaMikdash? Why not just let the Kohen Gadol choose the goats? And what, in the end, does all this have to do with this episode being introduced immediately after the death of Aaron’s sons?

There is another opinion, as to the nature of this Azazel, to which this second goat is brought or offered. The Ramban suggests an idea which is so bizarre, and seems to be so at odds with all that Judaism seems to be, that it has been labeled by many as one of the most difficult and puzzling comments by any great commentator on the entire Torah.

The Ramban suggests that Azazel is really Samael, the “Sar Ha’Moshel Be’mekomot HaChurban”, “The Prince who rules in the places of darkness and destruction”. Indeed, continues the Ramban, on Yom Kippur, when we as a people find favor in G-d’s eyes, we need to appease this dark Prince; hence we offer him a special sacrifice, in the darkness of the wilderness, in the places of destruction!

What is going on? Can the Ramban, one of the greatest rabbis and commentators in Jewish history, be suggesting that we are offering sacrifices to the dark side? Is this Judaism? It actually smacks more of ancient Canaanite paganism! And what does all this have to do with Yom Kippur, much less with the death of the sons of Aaron?

It is also worth noting that the Ramban was more than aware of the opinion of Rashi, the great rabbi who preceded the Ramban by only 150 years. So, one wonders what it is about Rashi’s opinion, which seems to fit well within the context of the verses, does the Ramban find difficult to accept.

Years ago, in a sermon preceding Yom Kippur, my teacher, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, shared a beautiful way of looking at this Ramban, based on the teachings of Rav Soleveitchik, zatz”al.

There is a discussion in the Talmud (Yoma 86b) regarding the power of Teshuvah (repentance):

“Gedolah Teshuvah”, suggests Rav Shimon Ben Lakish, “She’ Zedonot Ne’he’fachot Le’Zechuyot”.
“Great is the power of Repentance, which causes pre-meditated transgressions to become merits.”

A rather challenging statement, which implies that if I purposefully transgress, and subsequently repent and regret my actions, not only is my slate wiped clean, and my past mistakes forgiven, but in fact these transgressions now serve as a merit to me in all of my future activities! How can this be? Indeed, the conclusion from this Talmudic text would make it worthwhile for all of us to go on a rampage, committing as many transgressions as possible, in order to subsequently repent and gain more merit! Obviously, such a suggestion would lead only to chaos. So, what is the meaning of this suggestion?

In fact, understanding this Talmudic truth, will serve to shed light not only the strange ‘Samael-worship ‘ of the Ramban, but also, on one of the most essential truths in Judaism.

There is a well-known comment of Rashi on a verse in the Torah concerning Yaakov and Esav. Yaakov, twenty-two years after fleeing the wrath of his brother Esav, is finally returning home to the land of Israel. He sends a messenger with offerings of appeasement to his brother, who himself is fast approaching with four hundred fighting men in tow.

“Im’ Lavan Garti…” “I have been living with Lavan,”(Bereisheet 32:4), says Yaakov.

This is a puzzling statement, as Esav has obviously known this for some time. The Rabbis see this as an allusion to the fact that despite Yaakov’s sojourn with the wicked and deceitful Lavan, (Lavan literally means ‘white’, representing the type of white collar deceit that is so easily glossed over in life..) he has managed to maintain his integrity. Indeed, Rashi quotes the rabbinic tradition as saying Im’ Lavan Garti…” “I have been living with Lavan, Ve’taryag Mitzvoth Shamarti, and I have succeeded in adhering to the 613 commandments.” (This is a play on words and numbers, the word Garti being the same letters as Taryag, or the 613 commandments.) “Ve’Lo Lamad’ti Mi’Ma’asav Ha’ra’im.” “And I did not learn from his wicked ways.”

Now obviously Yaakov could not have kept all 613 commandments, (for example, he was not a Kohen (a priest), nor did he live in the times of the Temple, and as such there were many mitzvoth he could not have fulfilled.) rather, Yaakov succeeded in living an ethical life despite being in the company of the wicked idolater, Lavan. And this is how most people view this comment. However, there is another way of looking at it: perhaps Yaakov is not proud of his achievement, rather, he may be lamenting a missed opportunity:

Despite living with Lavan, Yaakov did not learn to imitate the enthusiasm Lavan had for his passions, and emulate such motivation and desire in his own life.

Think about it. When there is a movie on Saturday night that starts at 9pm, watch how people rush and plan to be in their seats on time, to avoid missing even the free previews. But schedule a prayer service Shabbat morning for 9am, and how many people are in their seats when the first blessings begin?

I recall watching as a kid, the people lining up around the corner to get into the OTB (Off Track Betting) office on 72nd and Broadway, to get their bets in before the horse races at 8 o’ clock in the morning! I never saw such a line in the Synagogue.! If only we could find a way to be as motivated to do what is right as we are when we run to do what is wrong. If only, says Yaakov, I could muster up the same enthusiasm Lavan has for his way of life, which I should have for mine. Hence, what the Talmud in Yoma is saying is, if I have desires that serve to pull me down, I can turn those desires in to a merit, if I learn to channel them into better things.

But it goes much further than that. There is another way of looking at it. The Talmud elsewhere makes a challenging statement. If you have the desire to spill blood, say the Rabbis, become a butcher, and if you have the desire to steal (in other words to take hold of and possess) other people’s money, become a collector of charity. In other words, take the desire you have, and use it for a good purpose.

This is a crucial idea within Judaism. There are two aspects to who I am as a person: the gifts and desires I am given, and what I choose to do with them. Everything we are given in this world, however challenging this may sometimes be, is ours for a reason. We all go through life with our own little package, our own suitcase, full of our talents and skills, desires and foibles; all the things that bring us up, and all the things that bring us down.

There isn’t much we can do about that. Each of us has a suitcase, and whatever we think of it, it is ours to keep. Some are born tall, maybe they will become basketball stars, and some have musical talent, and others, the gift of knowing when and how to smile. Many of these talents we do not really earn, they are ours to develop. The question, however, is what we choose to do with them. And if everything comes to me from G-d, then even my weaknesses can be a gift, if I will only find a way to channel them for the good.

If I have a desire to steal, it must come from somewhere, and therefore there must be a way to make good of it. Our challenge in this world is how to do just that.

This, perhaps, is the offering to Samael, the “Sar Ha’Moshel Be’mekomot HaChurban”, “The Prince who rules in the places of darkness and destruction”, described by the Ramban. There is a place of darkness inside each one of us, that threatens to destroy us, to bring us down from the places of light we so long to reach. There are those who suggest that the only way to fully combat these desires is to retreat from the physical world so as not to grant them any place. If you have physical desires, live in a monastery, and desist from all contact with that physical world so you can put it out of your head.

Judaism, however, has a different approach entirely: Don’t deny these desires, embrace them! But do so in a healthy manner, channeling their energy to a good purpose, in a healthy fashion. This may well be the message behind all the gold used in the Mishkan and the Beit HaMikdash, despite the debacle of the Golden calf. ‘If you are going to seek to make me tangible in this world, says G-d, you have to do it my way, in the Beit HaMikdash, and channel that energy towards light, instead of darkness.

This is the secret of Yom Kippur, that day when for twenty-four hours we attempt to channel all the love and joy as well as the pain and anguish deep in our hearts, to a higher purpose. Yom Kippur is all about learning to see where my mistakes are, and not to ignore them, but rather to embrace them as opportunities for growth. Indeed, so often we allow guilt and remorse to control our lives, wallowing in the mistakes we have made, never finding the strength to set ourselves free. The Torah here is suggesting, that we are not supposed to ‘put the past behind us’; rather, we have the opportunity to give our mistakes their rightful and healthy place as vehicles for making us into better, more productive human beings.

And lastly, perhaps this is why this message is given here, to Aaron, so soon after the death of his sons. There is no force in this world with more potential to swallow us whole into the darkest depths of depression, than death. Confronted by the incontrovertible wall of our own mortality, we easily succumb to the idea that there is no purpose, no meaning, only an all too often untimely ending.

But if Hashem, G-d, truly loves us, and only gives us opportunities to grow, perhaps, however painful, death too, is such an opportunity.

We are living in challenging times. The people of Israel, and with them the entire Jewish world, continues to fight a war for survival. Greater still, we have lost, as a people, the desires that fueled us in the direction of so much goodness in the world. What are our desires, as a people? Are we happy with what we want?

Hidden within the collective pool that is the passions and desires of the entire Jewish people, perhaps Hashem will bless us to at long last, to harness all of that energy for light, instead of darkness. And what an incredible light that would be.

May Hashem bless us, each and every one of us, to get started, one person at a time.

Shabbat Shalom.

The Yishai Fleisher Israel Podcast: 4000+75 Years Old!

SEASON 2023 EPISODE 16:  Yishai returns to Israel just in time for Yom Haatzmaut, Israel's Independence Day. First he speaks with Malkah Fleisher on the deeper meaning of the IDF Airforce fly-over and Israel's religious global potential. Then Josh Reinstein, Alex Traiman, and Simcha Gluck, fire up the grill in celebration of Hashem's gift of the Land of Israel. And finally, Leah and Elazar Fleisher on the young people's perspective of the rebirth of the Jewish State. Plus: Rabbi Shimshon Nadel on hearing God's historical knocks.

Rabbi Ari Kahn on Parashiot Aharaie Mot Kedoshim: A Nation of Kohanim (video)

Our blessing can also be our curse

by Rabbi Pinchas Winston

Friday Night
TRYING TO COMFORT people who have suffered a great loss is daunting, especially if the loss seems very tragic like the death of young brothers and sisters in separate terrorist attacks. This of course does not mean that the “early” and violent death of adults is any less tragic and painful. However, the cutting down of youths just starting out in life strikes an especially sad chord, for the parents who had such high hopes for them, and clearly for most of the nation as well.

Is such comfort even possible? One Gadol HaDor at the shivah for the loss of a child said nothing. He just held the father’s hand and cried together with him until he had to leave. Only “HaMakom,” was said. He knew, as does any truly sensitive individual that with respect to some losses, words make things worse, not better.

There is another added element of pain in these cases for many. It feels so close to the final redemption, as hard as it may be to believe at this time. To lose so much so close to the end increases the hurt even more. On one hand, we know that redemption is not free, and we have paid great prices in the past. On the other hand, we’re not sure if such losses and the pain they cause are part of that, or how.

Before speaking to that, it is important to know a few things, just for perspective’s sake. They make a difference, even if they do not provide much comfort at this time.

The way a person is taken is not necessarily why they were taken. Everyone is here for personal tikun, and that is achieved by learning Torah, the performance of mitzvos, and when necessary, suffering which includes the way a person dies. We like the idea of going peacefully in our sleep after 120 years of life, but that does not necessarily help with personal tikun as much as a sudden or “unfortunate” death.

Rebi Akiva’s death was one of the worst deaths possible, but it guaranteed him straight passage to the World to Come without passing through Gihenom (Brochos 61b). The Gemora says that no one can reach the level of the Ten Martyrs in the next world (Pesachim 50a), and Ketia bar Shalom, an unwitting convert earned the World to Come because he was executed by the Roman government (Avodah Zarah 10b). There are many more examples of the same idea.

It should also be noted that our blessing can also be our curse. The Gemora speaks of Marta bas Baysos, a wealthy and pampered woman who died because she stepped on something that might disgust anyone, but not kill them (Gittin 56a). It was a time of famine, and she had to go out looking for food for the first time, leaving her vulnerable to elements of the “outside” world:

Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai read concerning her: “The tender and delicate woman among you who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground” (Devarim 28:56). What we are experiencing today would have been considered mild compared to what used to occur in Europe 200 years ago. But we’re coming off a very peaceful and prosperous period of history, and we would have liked to transition to Yemos HaMoshiach in the same way. But just because the flight was turbulence free doesn’t mean that the landing will be too.

Shabbos Day
THEN THERE IS the matter of dying in Eretz Yisroel. People are afraid to make aliyah because they think it increases the odds of an early death. With few exceptions, no one dies before their time, regardless of where or how they live. The only issue is the meaningfulness of a person’s death, and how much it will help them in terms of the next world.

If a person dies in Eretz Yisroel, they automatically die a Kiddush Hashem. As long as they do not reject Eretz Yisroel as a God-given land, or live there against their will, they automatically have this merit, even if they have yet to realize the truth of Torah and mitzvos. This is not the case for a Jew who lives in the Diaspora, even if they keep all of Torah and mitzvos.

Dying in Eretz Yisroel automatically atones for a person’s sins, which is not so for a person who dies outside the land. Being buried in Eretz Yisroel helps, but it is not the same as if the person lived in Eretz Yisroel and later died there. All of this and more is in the sefer, Tuv HaAretz by Rabbi Noson Shapiro, based upon the teachings of the Arizal. Read this sefer and the only thing that will scare you is having to leave Eretz Yisroel. As Bilaam said, “May my soul die the death of the upright and let my end be like his” (Bamidbar 23:10).

Regarding the larger picture, one that incorporates all of Jewish history from its beginning until the final redemption, there is the following gemora:

Once Rabban Gamliel, Rebi Elazar ben Azariah, Rebi Yehoshua, and Rebi Akiva were walking along the road, and they heard the sound of the multitudes of Rome from Puteoli at a distance of 120 mil. The other rabbis began weeping but Rebi Akiva was laughing. They asked him: “Why are you laughing?”

Rabbi Akiva asked them: “Why are you crying?”

They told him: “These gentiles, who bow to false gods and burn incense to idols, dwell securely and tranquilly, and for us, the House of the footstool of our God is burnt by fire, and we shouldn’t cry?”

Rebi Akiva said to them: “That is why I am laughing. If for those who violate His will it is so, for those who perform His will, all the more so.”

On another occasion they were ascending to Jerusalem. When they arrived at Mt. Scopus [and saw the site of the Temple], they tore their clothes [in mourning]. When they arrived at the Temple Mount, they saw a fox that emerged from the Holy of Holies. They began weeping, but Rebi Akiva was laughing. They said to him: “Why are you laughing?”

Rebi Akiva asked them: “Why are you crying?”

They answered him: “This is the place of which it is written: ‘And the non-priest who approaches shall die’ (Bamidbar 1:51), and now foxes walk in it. Should we not cry?”

Rebi Akiva told them: “That is why I am laughing, as it is written: ‘And I will take to Me faithful witnesses to attest: Uriah HaKohen, and Zechariah ben Yeverechyahu’ (Yeshayahu 8:2). What is the connection between Uriah and Zechariah? Uriah lived during the First Temple period, and Zechariah lived during the Second Temple. Rather, the verse established that the prophecy of Zechariah is dependent on the prophecy of Uriah. In Uriah it is written: ‘Therefore, for your sake Tzion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become rubble, and the Temple Mount as the high places of a forest’ (Michah 3:12). In Zechariah it says: ‘There shall yet be elderly men and elderly women sitting in the streets of Jerusalem’ (Zechariah 8:4). Until the prophecy of Uriah was fulfilled, I was afraid that the prophecy of Zechariah would not be fulfilled. Now that the prophecy of Uriah was fulfilled, it is evident that the prophecy of Zechariah remains valid!”

They told him, “Akiva, you have comforted us; Akiva, you have comforted us.” (Makkos 24a)

How? How did Rebi Akiva comfort his colleagues with a drush that may not have been true, or would come until long after their own deaths? He did it by showing them how to transcend the moment and their immediate suffering. He showed them how current loss was the threshold to future gain, an end that, in its time, would nobly justify the means.

Shalosh Seudot
SIMILARLY THE GEMORA says elsewhere:

Upon their return, they (the Romans) found Rebi Chanina ben Teradion sitting and teaching Torah. He had gathered many people, and the Sefer Torah was on his lap. They brought him and wrapped him in the Sefer Torah, surrounded him with branches and set them on fire. They placed wet wool over his heart so that he should not die quickly. His daughter cried to him, “Father, that I should see you like this!”

He told her, “If it was only me burning, it would be difficult for me. However, I am burning together with a Sefer Torah, and the One Who will avenge the disgrace of this Sefer Torah will avenge my disgrace as well.”

His students asked him, “Rebi, what do you see?”

He answered them, “The parchment burns, but the letters fly up to Heaven.” (Avodah Zarah 18a)

The heroics were so amazing that even the Roman executioner converted, jumped into the fire, and went to the World to Come. But what about the people Rebi Akiva and Rebi Chanina were leaving behind? What was their comfort?

Their comfort came from sharing the vision of their teachers. Though Amalek can’t necessarily create despair, he greatly amplifies it by making people focus on the loss as it appears in its time, cut off from the past and blind to the future. He uses people’s intellectual and emotional shock and confusion to cause hopelessness and distancing from God, his ultimate goal.

He doesn’t create vulnerabilities, just takes advantage of existing ones. People who have yet to fully develop trust and faith in God because they haven’t needed it much until the crisis all of a sudden find themselves without the necessary spiritual “muscles” to withstand the pressure from within and without. People with bitachon and emunah can survive almost anything because they completely trust the Divine process, no matter how convoluted it may appear. People who are weak in both have difficulty surviving anything that disrupts their sense of calm.

An important component to being able to trust the process is understanding what the process is, and why it has to be this way. Over the course of more than three millennia of history the Jewish people have accomplished so much, survived so much, but always at a tremendous cost. Does it always have to be that way?

Perhaps not always, but certainly a lot of the time. This was part of God’s message to Avraham Avinu at the Bris Ben HaBesarim:

And He said to Abram, “You shall surely know that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and oppress them, for 400 years.” (Bereishis 15:13)

Though the commentators look for reasons for what seems to be a punishment, none of the answers fully work. What could Avraham Avinu have done to warrant 400 years of oppression, and for his children that had yet to be born, let alone sin? And was this supposed to have been good news?

Ain Od Milvado, Part 48
The answer to this question, and really all questions about Jewish history, is primordial, even pre-dating Creation itself, and therefore, kabbalistic. It was the answer Moshe Rabbeinu was seeking, and denied, when he asked:

…that the ways in which God conducts the world be revealed to him…as it says: “Show me Your ways” (Shemos 33:13)…Rebi Meir said: Two [requests] were granted to him, and [this last] one was not granted to him.” (Brochos 7a)

The Gemora says that Moshe Rabbeinu asked God the classic question of all history, about why righteous people suffer and evil people prosper, and all the other combinations as well. But that is just the cover story for all the anomalies of history that make people wonder who, if anyone, is running the world.

Moshe wasn’t answered, but not because he was unworthy of the answer, but because he was incapable of handling it. It was information, which is really Divine light, that was on a very high and hidden level of Creation, something Kabbalah calls the Moach Stima—Closed Mind, and is the product of something called Sheviras HaKeilim, or the Breaking of the Vessels. And all of it was just to create a world that could support the existence of man, give him free will, and eternal reward for making the right moral choices.

Everything else that makes up history is just the playing out of all of this, something most people don’t know and the few that might take for granted. Every last detail, from the smallest to the largest, from the saddest to the happiest, is the result of this pre-ordained reality that is the result of Sheviras HaKeilim, and the tohu—chaos—that followed it.

We’re like someone dressed in gold and spilling money from our pockets obliviously walking through a poor and violent neighborhood on a sunny day. Enjoying the sunshine and relative quiet, we have no idea of the danger lurking in the shadows ready to pounce at the right moment. We’ve had a wonderfully pleasant and successful exile for about seven decades, and hope and expect it to continue though it never has in the past.

We can’t run from it, and we can’t buy our way out of it. The only thing we can do, which is always the only thing we can do, is strengthen our bitachon and emunah in God so that we can trust His process, not just intellectually, but emotionally. And it really helps, whenever possible, to better understand what that process is. This is also part of ain od Milvado.

That was “vayidom Aharon” (Vayikra 10:3). Moshe told his brother that his sons’ death was more than just two important people dying. It was two great people dying for something much grander than the sum of their lives. It’s not a sacrifice any parent wishes on their children, but one they are proud of if it is thrust upon them. We get that from Avraham Avinu and the Akeidah, and the ability to trust the process especially when it doesn’t make sense to us.

Bitachon and Emunah not only make it easier to deal with disappointment or worse, God forbid. They don’t only rectify the person and the world and make miracles more possible. They elevate a person above the everyday reality, giving a person a more Godly perspective that results in yeshu’os of all kinds.

At the end of the day, the only true source of comfort is God Himself, as we say, “HaMakom yenachem eschem besoch shaar avelay Tziyon ViYerushalayim—May the Omnipresent comfort you among the rest of the mourners of Tzion and Jerusalem.” It’s because only He knows what talks to the heart of every individual, what can truly comfort them on a personal level, which is not always the same for each person. And He wants to, if we let Him.

May we merit to reach such levels, and Moshiach Tzidkaynu and the geulah shlaimah without any further pain and suffering.

Redemption and Comfort

BS”D
Parashiot Acharai-Kedoshim 5783
by HaRav Nachman Kahana

Yeshayahu 66:12-13

יב: כִּי כֹה אָמַר ה’ הִנְנִי נֹטֶה אֵלֶיהָ כְּנָהָר שָׁלוֹם וּכְנַחַל שׁוֹטֵף כְּבוֹד גּוֹיִם וִינַקְתֶּם עַל צַד תִּנָּשֵׂאוּ וְעַל בִּרְכַּיִם תְּשָׁעֳשָׁעוּ:

יג: כְּאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר אִמּוֹ תְּנַחֲמֶנּוּ כֵּן אָנֹכִי אֲנַחֶמְכֶם וּבִירוּשָׁלִַם תְּנֻחָמוּ

12 For thus says HaShem: I will extend prosperity to her like a river and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream, and you shall nurse and be carried on her arm and bounced on her knees.

13 As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

The Navi (prophet) cites the word comfort three times in one verse. I understand that HaShem’s intention is to bring comfort, solace, cheer, contentment, and inspiration to the exiled Jewish nation by restoring our presence in the holy land and in its spiritual center of Yerushalayim on three different occasions. If so, what are the differences between these three historical episodes of redemption and comfort?

In parashat Bechukotai (Devarim chapter 26:42), the Torah states the paragraphs of the tochacha (reproach, admonition, and exhortation) that set before Am Yisrael, what their fate would be if they sin. Among the verses is the following reaffirmation of the eternal commitment between the Creator and His creations:

‘וזכרתי את בריתי יעקוב ואף את בריתי יצחק ואף את בריתי אברהם אזכר והארץ אזכר’

‘And I shall remember my covenant with Ya’akov, and also my covenant with Yitzchak, and also my covenant with Avraham, and I shall remember the land’.

There are blatant difficulties with this pasuk:What is the verse reaffirming HaShem’s eternal commitment to Am Yisrael doing in the paragraphs of the threatening tochacha?

Why do the names of the forefathers appear in reverse order rather than the chronological order Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya’akov?

The theme of this verse is the covenant between HaShem and the Jewish nation, so why is the “land” mentioned, and in such an incidental manner?

I submit:

The word “briti” (my covenant) in this pasuk refers to the sign of the covenant – brit milah (circumcision) imbedded in the flesh of a Jewish male.

Avraham’s grandson Ya’akov was born miraculously “mahul” (circumcised), without the need for a surgical act.

Avraham’s son Yitzchak experienced a rather ‘conventional’ brit on the eighth day of his life according to the standard halachic requirements.

In contrast to the above, the brit of father Avraham was neither miraculous nor conventional, but rather a painful and even life-threatening procedure that occurred when Avraham was at the advanced age of 99 years old. In parashat Vayeira, HaShem even appears to Avraham on the most painful third day of the brit. Hence, the verse records the three covenants (britot) in the order of their desirability – the miraculous of Ya’akov, the conventional of Yitzchak, and last, the one of Avraham beset with great difficulties and physical pain.

The verse ends with a reference to the “land” (“and I shall remember the land”) which will be similar to the three ‘britot’ of our forefathers, as follows:

The Jews entered Eretz Yisrael three times as a nation.The first was under the leadership of Yehoshua bin Nun, which transpired through miracles – the crossing of the Jordan River, the victory at Yericho, and subsequent miraculous victories over the following seven years. This entrance to the holy land was parallel to the miraculous covenant of Ya’akov as stated above.

The next time we entered the land was seventy years after the destruction of the First Temple with Ezra and Nechemia who built the Second Temple. This was not a period of miracles, since our return was ratified and endorsed and even initiated internationally through a charter granted to the Jewish nation by Cyrus, King of Persia. This parallels the covenant of Yitzchak, which was performed in the conventional manner.

The third time we returned to Eretz Yisrael is the current historical period, paralleling the covenant with Avraham. He was advanced in years, and we too are an ancient people. It was a very painful experience for Avraham, and our return today is beset with strife and pain.

After 2000 years of wandering in the galut, and after the crucible of the Shoah, and 75 years of statehood, and many wars, one could hope for serenity and peace within Jewish life. However, it appears that HaShem’s agenda for our nation does not stop with a thin strip of land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.

The destiny of our nation – the only real “manifest destiny” which has ever existed – is the re-establishment of a Torah society within the borders stated in the Torah from the Euphrates to the Nile. A society governed by Halacha under the Sanhedrin whose seat will be in the Bet Hamikdash, where kohanim and levi’im will serve and the Davidic monarchy is restored.

In such a pure Jewish society, there will be no place for a foreign people who claim ownership or even partnership in the Holy Land.

To return to our original question on the verse in Yeshayahu 66:

יג: כְּאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר אִמּוֹ תְּנַחֲמֶנּוּ כֵּן אָנֹכִי אֲנַחֶמְכֶם וּבִירוּשָׁלִַם תְּנֻחָמוּ

As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

The Navi (prophet) cites the word ‘comfort’ three times in one verse. What are the differences between these three historical episodes of redemption and comfort, and when did they occur?

Answers: The first “comfort” was when the Jewish nation, led by Yehoshua, entered the land accompanied with fantastic miracles, paralleling the ‘brit’ of Ya’akov.

The second ‘comfort’ was when we returned to the land with Ezra the Scribe to rebuild the second Bet Hamikdash and by permission of two Persian kings, Cyrus and Darius II (Queen Esther’s son), paralleling the brit of Yitzchak.

The third ‘comfort’ parallels Avraham’s brit. We are an ancient people, and after 2000 years of exile to all the world’s latitudes and longitudes, we returned home. Despite the fact that we are still struggling to establish our presence here, we are comforted with the knowledge that we are again sovereign over Yerushalayim for the first time in over 2000 years. It is as the Navi Yeshayahu said, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

Presently, secular media headlines appear in bold red ink; and leftist demonstrators put no limits on their anarchistic conduct, because they are incapable of perceiving HaShem’s intervention in our daily lives. In contrast, HaShem is present in stillness and serenity, as the pasuk (Melachim 1 19:11-12) relates when Eliyahu was on Mount Sinai:

וַיֹּ: אמֶר צֵא וְעָמַדְתָּ בָהָר לִפְנֵי ה’ וְהִנֵּה ה’ עֹבֵר וְרוּחַ גְּדוֹלָה וְחָזָק מְפָרֵק הָרִים וּמְשַׁבֵּר סְלָעִים לִפְנֵי ה’ לֹא בָרוּחַ ה וְאַחַר הָרוּחַ רַעַשׁ לֹא בָרַעַשׁ ה’

יב: וְאַחַר הָרַעַשׁ אֵשׁ לֹא בָאֵשׁ ה’ וְאַחַר הָאֵשׁ קוֹל דְּמָמָה דַקָּה:

He (HaShem) said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before Me, for I am about to pass”. Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before HaShem, but He was not in the wind, and after the wind a tremor, but He was not in the tremor, and after the tremor a fire, but HaShem was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of sheer silence…

And then HaShem spoke to Eliyahu from out of the silence.

HaShem has restored us to our Holy Land never to be in galut again. And He will comfort us… “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem”.

In this auspicious week, have a meaningful Day of Remembrance for our holy soldiers who through their sacrifices enable us to live here. And a meaningful Yom Ha’atzmaut for which we have waited 2000 years.

Shabbat Shalom,
Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5783/2023 Nachman Kahana

Six Additional Knocks

by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky

This is reprinted with permission of Mizrachi magazine.

On Yom Haatzmaut in 1956 – Israel’s eighth Independence Day – Rav Joseph Ber Soloveitchik zt”l presented a memorable address later published as Kol Dodi Dofek (“The Voice of My Beloved Knocks”). The Rav highlighted six divine “knocks” on our communal consciousness to which Jews should pay attention– knocks precipitated by the establishment of the State of Israelthat revealed God’s hand in history.

There was the “political” knock in which, uncharacteristically, the United States and the Soviet Union in the early years of the Cold War both voted in favor of a Jewish state in the land of Israel; the “military” knock, in which a tiny outnumbered Israel prevailed over its powerful neighbors; the “theological” knock, in which the new State of Israel refuted Christianity’s theory of the eternal wandering Jew; the knock on the hearts of our youth, who perceived the divine role in history and redemption after the concealment of the Holocaust; the knock of “self-defense,” in which our enemies realized for the first time in two millennia that Jewish blood is not cheap and Jews will fight back aggressively; and finally, the creation of a refuge for Jews and the beginning of the end of the Exile.

The Hand of Providence was already visible then. In the ensuing decades, and now as we celebrate Israel’s 75thanniversary, it is appropriate to highlight six additional knocks in which God’s presence in Israel’s history and statecraft has been manifest.

The first knock was the capture, trial and execution of Adolph Eichmann, the architect of the Holocaust. It was a brilliant operation that defied international legal norms and was denounced by the United Nations and the New York Times. But it established a new norm: the State of Israel is the custodian of Jewish history, represents all Jews, and will exact justice against our past tormentors.

The second knock is perhaps the most obvious as it has shaped Israel’s history ever since: the Six Day War. It was a miraculous victory of the few against the many that followed several weeks of dread and apprehension across the Jewish world as Arab armies massed on Israel’s borders. But the Arab nations were maneuvered into a series of fatal and foolish mistakes and Israel regained control over its biblical heartland and the Old City of Yerushalayim. That we have unfortunately squandered many fruits of that victory and more than 90% of the territory does not detract one iota from the feelings of exultation at witnessing the triumphs of the Ba’al Milchamot,” the true Master of War.

Nine years later came the third knock – the miraculous raid on Entebbe. After an Air France plane that departed Israel was hijacked and diverted to Uganda, Israeli special forces swooped into Entebbe Airport and rescued the hostages. UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, later revealed to be an ex-Nazi, condemned the rescue as a “serious violation” of Ugandan sovereignty, not having lifted a finger to save one Jew. But Israel did, reinforcing the notion that Israel is responsible for the fate of all Jews across the world.

The fourth knock is so blatant that we tend to gloss over it: Kibbutz Galuyot, the ingathering of the exiles. As pious Jews continue to pray for the realization of this majestic, prophetic vision, it is actually happening before our eyes. Jews have returned to the land of Israel from well over 100 countries and forged a society that can get raucous at times but has become a melting pot of Jews of different backgrounds, customs and historical experiences sharing one common denominator: we are Jews who have come home, precisely as was prophesied by Yeshayahu, Yirmiyahu, Yechezkel, Zechariah and many others.There is no louder knock that should cause us to open our eyes and behold God’s wonders.

The fifth knock is the religious revival that has occurred. Israel’s Socialist founders assumed that devotion to Talmud Torah and observance of Mitzvot would wane in a generation or two to be replaced by the new Jew, a secular Israeli. But the Yeshivot Hesder program began in 1953 and the Haredi world was rebuilt and the religious population exploded. The Six Day War catalyzed a teshuvah movement that brought myriads back to Torah. There are more Jews learning Torah today in Israel than at any time in any place in Jewish history. And the full integration of halacha in a modern society in well underway but still a work in progress. Nonetheless, the unanticipated renaissance of Torah evokes Yechezkel’s vision (36:26) of the returnees to Israel being implanted with a “new heart…and a new spirit.” It is a Torah revolution that is only gaining strength and adherents.

The sixth knock is the Start-Up Nation, Israel as an economic and technological powerhouse that benefits the world with our creativity and drive. This too was unexpected though prophesied. There is no surer sign of redemption that when Israel will yield its produce again (Sanhedrin 98a) and Rav Kook foresaw that reborn Israel would expand and innovate in all worldly matters (Orot Hatorah 9:5). Israel is a world leader in hi tech, all so that the Torah can be brought to full expression in the modern world.

The voice of my Beloved “knocks” – in present tense! There are certainly additional manifestations of God’s providential hand knocking on our doors. The questions are: do we hear it? And how do we respond?

Happy Yom Haatzamut!

“Foreign Aid” to Israel is bonanza for the US

by Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

The U.S. does not give foreign aid to Israel — the U.S. makes an annual investment in Israel, giving US taxpayers a return of several hundred percent.

While Israel is a grateful recipient of U.S. military systems, it also serves as a battle-tested, cost-effective laboratory for the U.S. defense and aerospace industries, (employing 3.5 million Americans). This enhances U.S. performance on the battlefield and the U.S. economy, national security and homeland security.

Here are a few examples.
In defense: The Israeli Air Force flies the U.S.'s Lockheed-Martin’s F-16 and F-35 combat aircraft, providing both Lockheed-Martin and the U.S. Air Force with invaluable information on operations, maintenance and repairs, which is then used to manufacture a multitude of upgrades for next-generation aircraft. Just the F-16 itself has been improved by several hundred Israeli-driven upgrades, sparing Lockheed-Martin 10-20 years of research and developments, which amounts to billions of dollars.

Israel is the Triple-A store for Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, G.D., Northrop Grumman, and many other U.S. defense and aerospace companies. This enhances the image of these companies abroad and multiplies their export markets, because other countries assume that if Israel — with its unique national security challenges — uses these companies’ products, they must be of high quality.

The U.S. is also trained by Israeli experts in neutralizing car bombs, suicide bombers and IEDs, and US combat pilots benefit greatly from joint maneuvers with their highly experienced Israeli counterparts.

In intelligence:
According to a former head of the U.S. Air Force Intelligence, Gen. George Keegan, the U.S. would have to establish five CIAs to procure the intelligence provided by Israel (the CIA’s annual budget is around $15 billion).

According to the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, (Chairman of the Senate Appropriations and Intelligence Committees), the scope of Israeli intelligence shared with the U.S. exceeded that provided by all NATO countries combined. Israeli intelligence helped foil sinister plots against the U.S., secured airliners and airports and provided vital data on advanced Soviet/Russian military systems.

Israel is a unique force multiplier for the U.S., helping to extend America’s strategic reach, so it can secure vulnerable pro-U.S. Arab oil-producing regimes and deter wars and terrorism. With Israel’s help, the U.S. can do this without deploying additional troops, which is not the case with countries like Japan and South Korea, in addition to 100,000 US troops in Europe.

Gen. Alexander Haig, who served as NATO’s Supreme Commander and U.S. Secretary of State, and Adm. Elmo Zumwalt assessed that “Israel is the largest U.S. aircraft carrier, which does not require American soldiers on board, cannot be sunk and is deployed in a most critical region – between Europe, Asia and Africa - sparing the U.S. the need to manufacture, deploy and maintain a few more real aircraft carriers and additional ground divisions, which would cost the U.S. taxpayer some $15 billion annually.”

In tech: More than 200 top American high-tech companies — such as Intel, Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Apple, Johnson & Johnson, Google and Facebook — have established R&D centers in Israel. They use Israel’s brainpower to increase production, exports and employment. They realize that Israel is a critical partner in sustaining their edge over China, Russia, Europe and Japan in the development and manufacture of tech.

The U.S.-Israel strategic relationship constitutes a classic case of a mutually- beneficial two-way street; one that enhances the economies and defense of both countries and benefits Israeli and American taxpayers alike.

Israel is Fighting the World's War

by Daniel Greenfield

The dead included a 6-year-old boy and his 8-year-old brother killed in a car ramming attack in Jerusalem, a British mother and daughters gunned down on the road, a 27-year-old from Connecticut traveling to a wedding, and an Italian tourist run over on the beach.

In some countries, the soldiers fight wars, in Israel, they fight to stop a genocide.

Islamic massacres are often defended with some variation of “the occupied have the right to resist”. The Muslim occupiers keep resisting the indigenous Jewish population by killing women and children, and random foreigners whose only crime is being non-Muslim in a land that the terrorists want to reclaim for Islam.

Ever since the “throw the Jews into the sea” era, the agenda has never changed.

After the shooting of two brothers driving through the occupied village of Huwara, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research conducted a poll asking the Arab Muslim settlers if they approved of the terrorist attack. 71% of them supported the killings.

When Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, arrives on Monday evening, it finds a nation at war against a genocidal enemy that has half the world under siege.

In the past several weeks, five terrorists were arrested in Sweden, four in France in yet another plot to carry out an attack the Champs-Elysées, a teenager in the UK will be tried for plotting an attack at the Isle of Wight Festival and an Islamic terrorist leader in Australia was sentenced to 15 years in prison for planning to behead a non-Muslim and drape his body in the ISIS flag.

Stories like these have become so routine and overshadowed that we no longer pay any attention to them. Islamic terrorism unites us all. Its victims include America and Europe, India, China and Russia. It crosses the world from Africa to Asia and ends up on our doorstep.

With so much of the world under siege, it is a wonder that a tiny country so narrow you could walk its width has been the finger in the dike, holding out against a tide of death flooding the world.

The Jihad did not begin in Israel, but it was a warning to the world of what was to come. The prediction that we would one day all be Israelis, that Islamic terrorism would become a part of our everyday lives and we would go on while trying to ignore it, has long since come to pass.

But, as Israel enters its memorial day and red poppies known as the ‘blood of the maccabees' mark the fallen, followed by Yom HaAtzamut, its independence day, there are still things, both good and bad, that we can learn from the Jewish State. The connection between the two Israeli commemorations, memorial day on Monday night and independence day on Tuesday night, is a powerful reminder that independence can only be maintained through a willingness to fight.

Surrender is not an option, but it has never been an option in a country where it would mean the mass murder, with occasional side mass rape, of the population. Israel has retreated, it has negotiated, but it has never surrendered. The terrorist attacks serve as a constant reminder of an enemy that obsessively kills women and children because its mission is total extermination.

Only 38% of the Israelis killed in Islamic terrorist attacks in 2023 were military age men. 27% were female and 22% were children. The murdered included 6-year-old and 8-year-old boys run down in the street, a 14-year-old boy on the way to synagogue and a 15-year-old British girl traveling with her family.

This is why the Israeli soldier serves. He is there to put his body on the line between Islamic terrorists and the most vulnerable and innocent children whose lives they lust to take.

Islamic terrorists don’t kill children by accident, they see it as their highest calling.

House Democrats recently protested the arrest of Sheikh Rashid Ghannouchi, of Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda Movement, who had called for “unceasing war against the Americans”.

“There are no civilians in Israel. The population—males, females and children—are the army reserve soldiers, and thus can be killed,” Ghannouchi had also declared.

The Islamic cleric has often been described as a “moderate” by the media. Moderate Muslim clerics believe in exterminating all the women and children. What do the “extremists” believe?

Despite Israel’s turbulent politics, Yom HaZikaron, the commemoration of the fallen, briefly clarifies the stakes.

And the stakes are the children. And the world.

The Muslim world convinced the international community to pressure Israel by promising that the Jihad would stop there. “Give us Israel and it will end,” they urged. Despite all those promises, the Islamic war against civilization has spread across the world. Most of the world’s major nations and some of the minor ones have their own Islamic insurgency that plays by the same rules: alternating political demands with brutal massacres in the name of Islamic rule.

Generations of Israelis have gone to an endless war, sacrificed sons and daughters, to hold back the tide. They did it in defiance of the ignorance, hostility and pressures of the world.

They did it because they believed, they did it because they refused to die and they did it because surrendering to an enemy that gleefully butchers children was unthinkable.

Despite everything that has happened in the last generation, the world has learned little. But the Israelis have learned that peace is an illusion and that all they can do is hold the line.

When the torches are lit and loved ones weep, when the ‘blood of the maccabees’ blooms, a nation reckons again with the price that it pays for survival. Whatever myths pacifists may harbor and anti-war activists preach, there is no escape for any nation from paying that price.

Some nations have it paid by others, as the United States of America has done for so much of the globe, but in a world where evil is a reality writ in the black ink of the Koran, there can only be temporary refuges from the reckoning.

Israel still relies on a draft army. The price paid for war is a shared burden, but so is the price paid for appeasement. The fallen and their families come from all walks of life. These men and women, grandmothers, sisters, sons and nephews, have paid the world’s price in tears. They did not do it for the world, but their nation’s memorial day is nonetheless a lesson for the world.

Paying the price for freedom has long since become a cliche. Israelis do not pay the price for freedom. They pay it so that their children, their loved ones and their people are not eradicated from the earth by a brutal enemy that has no concept of mercy and worships barbarism.

The Israelis have come up against a choice that we will all have to make sooner or later. They chose not to die. The day will come when we may face that choice as starkly as they do.

Let us hope and pray that we choose well.

Palestinians: The Real Human Rights Violations

by Bassam Tawil 

• When Palestinians commit human rights violations against Palestinians, the European Union and the UN are beyond indifferent. It is only when Israel takes a decision to defend itself against terrorism that we hear their supposedly righteous cries.
• The Europeans and the UN seem to be more concerned about the rights of organizations that are affiliated with terrorism than the rights of organizations that speak out against human rights violations perpetrated by Palestinians.
• The PFLP, in fact, has long been a headache for Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority (PA). That is why the closure of PFLP-affiliated organizations in the West Bank actually serves the interests of the PA: it weakens its political rivals.
• Recently, even Abbas himself decided to punish the PFLP, which is part of his own Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). He cut off all funds to the organization.
• While he has been accusing Israel of targeting Palestinian NGOs, he has ordered his security forces to crack down on Lawyers for Justice, an independent Palestinian group of lawyers based in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinians.
• Lawyers for Justice works to support Palestinian human rights activists and political prisoners detained by the Palestinian Authority. It also monitors and documents human rights violations committed by the PA security forces.
• In one of its recent reports, Lawyers for Justice revealed that the number of Palestinian political activists arrested by the PA has significantly increased, while peaceful demonstrations and assemblies were being suppressed.
• It is no wonder, then, that Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are trying to get rid of Lawyers for Justice.
• Palestinian leaders do not tolerate any form of criticism. They do not want to hear complaints about human rights violations committed by the Palestinian security forces. They do not want any human rights organizations that challenge them in public and demand an end to the suppression of freedoms.
• The only human rights organizations Palestinian leaders want to see are those that direct their hate against Israel, or those that are affiliated with terror groups such as the PFLP, or those that focus their time and energy on defending the rights of terrorists who carry out attacks against Jews.
• According to Lawyers for Justice, there is no Palestinian Authority law that prohibits lawyers in their individual capacity or within a framework of a civil company from providing free legal services. The new measure against the group is unlawful...
• "This will impede its [Lawyers for Justice] work by blocking its ability to enter into contractual agreements with local or international organizations, or have a bank account. The efforts of the Palestinian Authority to hinder the human rights work of Lawyers for Justice has been ongoing for multiple years. The group has been subjected to different forms of targeted harassment [by the Palestinian Authority], including judicial harassment and defamation campaigns." — Front Line Defenders, an Irish-based human rights organization. Global Analysis, 2022.
• Without valid registration, Lawyers for Justice will not be able to access its bank accounts and could have its offices shuttered and staff arrested. — Muhannad Karajah, head of Lawyers for Justice, hrw.org. April 13, 2023.
• By staying silent about the human rights violations committed by the Palestinian Authority, the UN and many Western countries are doing a terrible injustice to the Palestinians, who will continue to suffer repression and suppression under the PA while the international community, obsessed only with defaming Israel, looks the other way.

The Europeans and the UN seem to be more concerned about the rights of organizations that are affiliated with terrorism than the rights of organizations that speak out against human rights violations perpetrated by Palestinians.
Pictured: Plain-clothed Palestinian Authority (PA) security officers beat a man in Ramallah on June 26, 2021, during a demonstration to protest the death of human rights and political activist Nizar Banat while in the custody of PA security forces. (Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images)

Last year, Palestinians and their supporters around the world were up in arms after Israeli security authorities closed down seven Palestinian NGOs that had ties to the terror group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Nine European countries published a joint statement in which they rejected the Israeli move and announced that they would continue to cooperate with the Palestinian organizations.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas also weighed in on the Israeli decision, dubbing it "unacceptable and rejected." Abbas said that the Palestinian leadership was reaching out to the relevant parties "to stop these Israeli provocations against our institutions that operate in accordance with international law and human rights."

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Rav Kook's Ein Ayah: A Tzaddik not being influenced by a Rasha and not noticing Wicked Actions

1. A Tzaddik Not Being Influenced by a Rasha

(based on Ein Ayah, Berachot 1:149)

Gemara: [The Shunamit said about Elisha:] “… he is holy” (Melachim II, 4:9) [from which we can infer that] his attendant [Geichazi] is not holy.

Ein Ayah: As long as one is not powerful in his shleimut (completeness), he is liable to be influenced by negative things that occur around him. Therefore, the companionship of a destructive person can damage him and take away from his level of shleimut. However, Elisha’s level was lofty and strong, to the extent that he did not sense at all Geichazi’s moral shortcomings, even though Geichazi was close to him and served him on an ongoing manner. This continued until the time that Hashem put a stumbling block before Geichazi, regarding the story with Na’aman, in order to reveal his disgrace and separate him from the tzaddik.

This gives a wonderful view of the power of Elisha’s righteousness and shleimut. For if he could have been lowered even slightly in his level by being close to the rasha, he certainly would have felt it and separated himself from Geichazi. However, his great level caused that he could not have any light or sanctity taken away from him due to the association, and so he did not feel Geichazi’s flaws. Another possibility is that he knew of his shortcomings but thought that he could bring Geichazi to repent, in which case, his talents, which were apparently good, would be a blessing. In any case, the fact that Elisha was not affected by Geichazi is a testament to his extremely high level.

2. A Tzaddik Not Noticing Wicked Actions

(based on Ein Ayah, Berachot 1:150)

Gemara: “[Geichazi] came forward to push her away” (Melachim II, 4:27). Rabbi Yossi, the son of Rabbi Chanina, said: this teaches that he grabbed on to the grandeur of her beauty (based on a play of the Hebrew words for pushing, grandeur, and beauty).

Ein Ayah: Through the negative behavior of the rasha we can see the praise of the tzaddik and the power of the sanctity of his spirit and his lofty clinging to deliberation about the Divine, without turning even for a moment to other things. Only in this way can we explain that Geichazi, the rasha, would be confident that he could get away with doing an indecent, promiscuous act in Elisha’s presence. It must be that, through his familiarity with Elisha by experience, he knew that because his lofty spirit was involved only in higher things, Elisha would be unaware of the unsightly things that were going on in his presence. This is because his eyes and heart were focused on important intellectual thoughts to which his generous spirit was connected.

[It is interesting what Rav Kook would have responded to what respectful critics of his connection to Jews who did not keep all the Torah and mitzvot had to say about him. They said that Rav Kook was such a great tzaddik that he was unable to pick up on the problematic nature of some of his acquaintances. Interestingly, this is similar to what Rav Kook had to say about Elisha, for whom Rav Kook saw the matter as a compliment. Presumably, Rav Kook would have said that he was not on Elisha’s level and that he was aware of the problems with some of the people that the times made it necessary and fruitful to interact with.]

Our Obligation to Be Good

by Rabbi Dov Berel Wein

The Torah reading for this week is a double portion, which together contains the largest number of commandments that appears in any one section of the holy Torah. One question which has challenged Judaism throughout the ages is why do we need so many commandments to fulfill our obligation to be good, kind, and faithful? Is it not sufficient that we understand the general principles as outlined in the Ten Commandments, which permeate all Jewish life and scholarship?

Since we are aware of the goal – namely that of being a good, honest, and compassionate human being – shouldn’t that realization suffice and not require all of the particular details that make up the bulk of this week’s Torah reading. Even though we understand, as any lawyer will tell you, that the devil is in the details, at first glance and even with a superficial understanding, it seems completely superfluous to have these many instructions hurled upon us, to achieve the goal that we are all aware of.

By the way, this has always been the contention of some factions in Jewish life through history - that the details of the commandments were not really that important, but as a Jew, it was crucial to be a good person at heart. This was the contention of the ancient Sadducees in second Temple times and continues to be the philosophy of all those groups that deviated from Jewish tradition and observance of the Torah Commandments throughout the ages. It remains, even today, the banner of the non-Orthodox groups that loudly proclaim and justify their essential non-Jewish Jewishness. To them, the details are unnecessary, burdensome and of little value. Just be a good person, they proclaim, and that alone is the essence of Judaism.

But human history teaches us differently. As has been famously articulated: the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and good intentions often lead to tyranny over others, and even to murder and genocide. Without the details, how are good intentions to be fulfilled. We cannot rely upon human judgment to guarantee that those good intentions will ever be realized.
The worst dictators and murders of the past few centuries such as Napoleon, the Kaiser, and even Hitler and Stalin always proclaimed that they had good intentions for their country, and, in fact, for all of mankind. They maintained that to achieve those good intentions they were entitled to use force and coercion against millions of others, to actualize their good objectives.

In our current world society, good intentions alone, without the restraint of the commandments and details, led to the murder of millions of unborn but living fetuses, concentration camps, gulags, the cancel culture, and the tyranny of the majority over the minority, no matter how slight the margin of majority in terms of numbers and popularity.

Good intentions without the restraint of details and commandments are, in fact, a danger, and not a boon to human society. Through the Torah commandments, Judaism offers instructions as how to become a good person and maintain a moral life. It teaches us that oftentimes it is the minority, not the majority, that is correct.

Even though the goal of being a good and holy person should never be forgotten – for otherwise the observance of the details would be of little value, as is noted by Ramban, that one can be a wicked person while believing oneself to be within the purview of the Torah. It is the balance between the great ultimate goals and the details of how to achieve that. which makes Judaism unique, vibrant, and eternal. This balancing act is the secret of the survival of Judaism and the Jewish people throughout the ages.

Rav Kook on Parashat Kedoshim: A Letter for the Neturei Karta

“Do not take revenge nor bear a grudge against the members of your people.” (Vayikra.19:18)

During the British Mandate, there was no more unity among the Jews living in Israel than there is today. Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook and his followers maintained friendly relations with the secular Zionists. On the other hand the Neturei Karta bitterly opposed and denounced the Zionists, and were therefore hostile toward Rav Kook.

The daughter of a Neturei Karta leader once became stricken with a difficult and dangerous illness. The doctors who examined her concluded that she needed to be sent abroad and treated by a certain professor, the world-renowned specialist in his field.

The father made inquires, and learned that this professor was an extremely busy man. A great number of patients made demands on his time. If his daughter came to this renowned physician as just another patient, it was unlikely that he would give her case much attention. Moreover, the fee required was far beyond the family’s means to pay.

But the girl’s father was told that the professor was a great admirer of Rav Kook. If he would receive a personal request from Rav Kook to treat the sick girl, he would put his other cases on hold and devote himself to curing her.

The girl’s father was now in a quandary. If he approached Rav Kook directly and ask him for a letter to the professor, he would die of embarrassment and shame. As a leader of the Neturei Karta, he had subjected Rav Kook to public disgrace more than once.

Then the man had an idea. He knew that there was a strong bond of friendship between Rav Kook and Rav Aryeh Levine, the well-known tzaddik of Jerusalem. So he approached Reb Aryeh and asked him to kindly serve as a ‘go-between’ and speak to Rav Kook for him. Needless to say, Reb Aryeh readily agreed, and went post-haste to the renowned rabbi’s house.

A Second Letter
Once Rav Kook understood the problem, he immediately agreed. “Of course I am prepared to write a letter to the professor for him. What does this have to do with the difference of opinion between us?”

Rav Kook took paper and pen and wrote the letter, taking pains to depict the sick girl’s father in favorable terms — precisely because he had reason to resent the man. This way, he explained to Reb Aryeh, “I will let no personal bias influence me as I write this.”

Precious letter in hand, Reb Aryeh left the room, in high spirits that he had successfully served as a go-between for such a great mitzvah. Leaving Rav Kook’s house, he met two distinguished rabbis who, he knew, could never forgive the extremist pious Jews of Jerusalem for their hostility toward Rav Kook. He greeted them pleasantly and went on his way.

As he walked along, Reb Aryeh suddenly heard his name being called from Rav Kook’s house. He was being summoned to return. In momentary confusion, he feared that the two rabbis whom he had met at the entrance might have persuaded Rav Kook to take back the letter.

For a moment, Reb Aryeh stood there hesitating, irresolute. Then he decided, “I cannot demur. If the rabbi calls me, I must go.” With a trembling heart, he returned to the house.

“I had another thought,” Rav Kook told him. “The trip abroad is very expensive. I remembered that there is a shipping line which honors my requests, and gives a substantial discount in fare to those in need. Let me provide a letter to that company as well...”

(Adapted from “A Tzaddik in Our Time” by R. Simcha Raz, pp. 115-116)

The Atonement of Yom Kippur and Eretz Yisrael

by HaRav Mordechai Greenberg
Nasi HaYeshiva, Kerem B'Yavneh

The parsha opens with the holiness of Yom Kippur and the atonement of the two goats, and finishes with the passage of the forbidden relationships, which is also connected to the subject of Eretz Yisrael, as it says: "The practice of the land of Egypt ... and the practice of the land of Canaan to which I bring you do not perform.'" (Vayikra 18:3) It also ends: "Do not become contaminated through any of these; for through all of these the nations that I expel before you became contaminated. The land became contaminated and I recalled its iniquity upon it; and the land disgorged its inhabitants." (18:24-25) And, later on: "Let not the land disgorge you for having contaminated it as it disgorged the nation that was before you." (18:28)

The Yom Kippur atonement is rooted in the distinction between Am Yisrael and the rest of the nations of the world. "The foundation of Jewish thought is the awareness of the Divine value of the nation's soul." (Nechamat Yisrael, by Rav Kook zt"l) Due to this, the perspective on sin is different.

If the inner content is G-dly, then the evil deeds are external and do not cling to the soul. "But you who cling to Hashem your G-d." (Devarim 4:4) Chazal ask: "But it says, 'who were attached to Baal Peor?'" They answer: "'Who were attached to Baal Peor' – as a bracelet is attached to a woman's hand; 'But you who cling' – really cling." (Sanhedrin 64a) Even the sin of idol worship is viewed as something external that does not reflect the inner reality. Therefore, wiping clean and atonement are possible.

This is not the case with the rest of the nations of the world, whose external actions are compatible with their inner content and are derived from it. Therefore, when Hashem wished to give them the Torah, they asked to know what was written in it and then refused to accept it. The descendants of Esav refused the Torah because it says: "You shall not murder." Yishmael's descendants refused because it says: "You shall not steal." Amon and Moav refused because it says: "You shall not commit adultery." Only Am Yisrael said: "We will do and we will obey," since the Torah's dictates are compatible with their inner selves.

Chazal provide a beautiful parable on the pasuk: "Do not view me with contempt, despite my swarthiness (Shir Hashirim Rabbah 1:6):

Once there was a noblewoman who had a Negro maid that went to draw water from the well, she and her friend. [The maid] told her friend: "Tomorrow, my master will divorce his wife and marry me." [Her friend] said: "Why?" [The maid answered:] "Because her hands were black with dirt." [Her friend] said to her: '"Oh, great fool, let your ears hear what your mouth is saying! If his wife, whom he loves very much – you said that because her hands were black with dirt for the moment he wanted to divorce her; you, who are dirty and black from your mother's womb your entire life – how much more so!"

Thus, since the nations of the world taunt Israel and say: This nation exchanged its Glory, as it says "They exchanged their glory" – Am Yisrael say to them: "If for [worshipping the golden calf for] the moment, we were liable thus, you [are liable] all the more so!"

The Maharal explains that the hands are busy with external things, so that even if they become dirty it is possible to wipe them off. The same is true for is idol worship among Israel. They are "attached" like a bracelet to a woman's arm, that can be worn and removed. This is not the case with the nations of the world, who are black from the womb and from birth and there is no possibility of removing the blackness.

Yom Kippur is the day where Am Yisrael's Godly virtue is revealed. They are above the natural order, and therefore abstain from the five corporeal activities:

Man is on the level of angel. His sin must be removed until he is like an angel ... Therefore, He commanded [man] to afflict himself. All this to remove and minimize the body until it becomes as holy as an angel." (Drashot Maharal for Shabbat Shuva)

Therefore, all the deeds of Yom Kippur come to teach the value of Am Yisrael and their devotion to Hashem. This is why the Kohen Gadol enters the innermost sanctum, and sprinkles eight times, one upwards and seven downwards to show Am Yisrael's connection to the supernatural world that is signified by the number eight. Seven represents the natural world, and eight is above nature, and from this comes the atonement.

This is the sacrificial goat that is sent to the wilderness, because the goat symbolizes Esav and the evil inclination, as the word "sa'ir" (goat) has the same numerical value as the word "hayetzer hara" (evil inclination).

We have already said that Yaakov is pure and holy by his own merit, just that the sins come from outside to Yaakov, from the evil inclination, and therefore he gives the sins to Esav his brother...

The sins of Israel are not inherent, only from the outside do they come, i.e., from the evil inclination, and something that comes from the outside – it is possible to send away from him. (ibid.)

Now we come to the end of the parsha: "Do not perform the practice of the land of Egypt in which you dwelled." The Egyptian self is attached to prostitution and everything that is despised, and therefore they are naturally drawn to prostitution and despicable actions. Israel, however, their self is faithful, holy and separate from all illicit relationships, as it says: "The tribes of Y-H, a testimony for Israel." G-d testified with His name that they are the sons of their fathers ... Thus, Israel is the opposite of Egypt; the Egyptians are attached to prostitution, whereas Israel is separated from nakedness and adultery. (Maharal Gevurot Hashem Chapter 4)

Eretz Yisrael is the "Sanctuary of Hashem," the land that is "before Hashem." The Ramban writes at the end of the parsha: "The land that is Hashem's respected estate will disgorge anyone who contaminates it, and will not suffer idol worshipers and illicit relations." (He writes many beautiful things there about the uniqueness of Eretz Yisrael).

The Maharal writes (Gevurot Hashem chapter 8):

The land that Hashem gave to Avraham is a holy land that is different from the rest of the earth. Therefore, when Hashem promised about giving [it], [Avraham] wanted to know through what merit would they inherit the holy land. (This is what Avraham asked "By what shall I know that I am to inherit it" – inheritance, implying through a natural relationship). [G-d] answered him that on this account they will inherit the land, in the merit of atonement. As you understand the deeper meaning of the atonement that Hashem gave to Israel, which indicates that Israel are holy in their essence, separate from any lowliness. If it were not for this, then when they would add to the lowliness, atonement would be impossible for them. Now that they inherently are separate from any lowliness, they are worthy of atonement, since sin is not associated with them, and their inherent self is without sin, and therefore they are worthy of atonement ... just as the holy land does not tolerate any sin due to its holiness, as it says: "Let not the land disgorge you, etc.'' Therefore, the land relates to Israel in this matter, because the land is holy in its virtue that is separated from lowliness and repugnance, and so are Israel...

It is similar to someone who is inherently pure and handsome, so if he were to become dirty by mud – he immediately reverts to his purity because he himself is pure. However, someone who is polluted and loathed, the dirt never leaves him, for dirt is just added on to dirt. Therefore, in this merit they will inherit the holy land, because according to the appropriateness – man has a place. Thus, when Hashem gave the holy land to Israel, certainly it was because they were worthy of it. So, too, to each and every nation He gave a land according to whom they are, and everything has a place according to its nature and worthiness. Thus, according to the worthiness of Israel who have a separate holy virtue – they also have a holy land. This is the outcome of the virtue that is evident on Yom Kippur: the connection to Eretz Yisrael on the one hand, and, on the other hand the disgorgement from it for sins like illicit relationships, even though they are not dependant on the ground.