HaRav Nachman Kahana on Parashat Beha’alot’cha 5773

BS”D 

Parashat Beha’alot’cha 5773

The world has always been a complex place for thinking people. RamBam composed “Moreh Nevuchim” (Guide to the Perplexed) as an aid to Torah observers in filtering out the static in their lives and to permit them to focus on what is true, relevant and the essential will of HaShem for His chosen people.

In the 1000 years since the RamBam, the world has become progressively more complex conceptually and practically, to the extent that the well-intentioned Jew stands paralyzed and perplexed before the supermarket of rabbinic decisions and directives, not knowing where to turn. Things have reached such a point that one can know beforehand what a particular rabbi will decide, allowing the questioner to shop for the answer that best suits him. If you want to eat a certain brand of tuna fish, you know who to ask and who not to ask. If you need encouragement, support and reassurance to ignore the miracles of our generation and remain in the galut, ask almost any rabbi in the galut.

Every rabbi speaks with the self-assurance and authority of one who has received a message directly from the Almighty. Each sect claims to have a monopoly on the Torah’s truth, so that one who does not subscribe to his hashkafa (outlook) risks eternal damnation. Chabad has no use for Breslav and Breslav has little respect for Lithuanians, and no one is armored with Satmar. And in every case, if your hat or shtreimel is not cut in the style of my sect, the kashrut in your home is questionable. In certain quarters, if your son serves or has served in the army, the fear that your daughters will live out their lives in spinsterhood is very real.

Should one be a learner or an earner?

Should one stand when Hatikva is played, or continue walking as an Arab, in total disregard of the words “Hatikva shnot alpayim” – our hope of 2000 years?

Should one live in the tuma of Boro Park rather than in the sanctity of Eretz Yisrael? I saw a recent photo of 13th Avenue in Boro Park, and immediately recalled a similar photo I had seen, with the caption “Warsaw 1938″.

So the question is: What can a Jew of pure heart do in order to discover the real and authentic Jewish way?

The answer I believe lies in the seemingly simple song “Ain kelo-hainu” we sing at the conclusion of our prayers: “Ain Kelo-hainu, ain kadonainu, ain kemalkainu ain kemoshi’ainu” – There is none like our Elokim, there is non like our Adon (Master), there is none like our monarch, there is none like our savior .

I will explain, but first two questions:

1) The Gemara (Pesachim 119b) relates that in the future HaShem will cater a great feast for the righteous at the end of which a cup of wine will be passed to Avraham Avienu in order to recite the birkat ha-zeemun (invitation to recite grace after the meal). Avraham will refuse on the grounds that he is not worthy because he brought the evil Yishmael into the world. The cup will be passed to Yitzchak, who too will refuse because he begot the evil Eisav.

Yaakov will receive the cup; he too will refuse because he married two sisters, which was destined to be prohibited by the Torah.

The cup will then be passed to Moshe Rabbeinu who will declare that he does not merit the honor because he did not enter Eretz Yisrael.

It will then be passed to Yehoshua, who will decline because he did not merit to have a male offspring to whom he could convey the mesora (tradition) of the Torah.

Finally, the cup will be passed to King David, who will welcome it and declare that he is worthy of the mitzvah.

Now, the question is: Why was King David deserving of this preferential status? Did he in fact possess not one fault as did each of the others, but all the faults of his predecessors! Did he not have several children he could not have been proud of like Avshalom and Amnon? King David had a problematic relationship with a wife, as did Ya’akov, and for a period in time David was forced to live in galut (like Moshe and Aharon) over which he suffered as recorded in tractate Ketubot 110b. And yet David was the preferred personage at this momentous meal to lead all the righteous of Israel in blessing Hashem.

2) In the Amidah (Shmoneh Esrai prayer) the names: Avraham, Yitchak and Ya’akov are mentioned in their status as the fathers of the nation. However, of all the other great Bible personalities only one other man is mentioned; and indeed twice – King David. What did David do to deserve the special treatment that was accorded him at the great feast and in the prayer that we recite three times daily ?

Let’s return to the “Ain Ke’lokainu” poem. It is centered around four major words: Elo-hainu (our omnipotent God), Adonainu (Our Master), Malkainu (Our monarch) and Moshi’ainu (our savior).

I submit that the author intended that each word represent a major period in history. Elo-hainu stands for the 2000 years from creation until Avraham, when idolatry replaced monotheism, as we find the name “Elo-him” used in the Torah as the characteristic of the Almighty when creating the universe.

“Adonainu” (our Master) or the non-possessive form “Adon” (Master) was first discovered by Avraham when he realized that HaShem did not create the world and then abandon His creations, but rather He is the ongoing Master of all that transpires in all the worlds.

The Adon period continued throughout the lives of the patriarchs, the period of slavery, the 400 years of tribal loyalty from the time of Yehoshua until Shmuel the Prophet.

Shmuel was sent by HaShem to anoint David son of Yishai from Bet Lechem as King of Israel. And it is the monarchy of David who created the awareness that HaShem is the direct monarch of the Jewish nation, with His capitol Yerushalayim and His sanctuary the Bet Hamikdash on the Temple Mount.

And the final period in world history as represented by the word “Moshi’ainu” our savior which is the period we are now experiencing.

Indeed, the life of David which saw the 12 tribes united as one people with a central spiritual and political capital overshadowed the accomplishments of his predecessors. King David will be the deserving personality when HaShem once again reveals Himself to His people in Eretz Yisrael.

To return to the dilemma of discerning the correct hashkafa among the potpourri of hashkafot proposed by the many contemporary spiritual leaders.

I believe that the authentic hashkafa is the one which is represented by King David. The world view that the Jewish people is not a shteible of 10 Jews in Uman, or the bet midrash of Ger or the Mir. Am Yisrael is every Jew, whether he or she is close to the Torah or far away. We are a nation of HaShem’s children, and a parent cannot divorce a child. Any group of any size which is isolationist in its essence, claiming that the Torah and Yiddishkeit is its exclusive possession, is invalidated to speak in the name of Judaism.

The State of Israel is the central authority of the land and the world acknowledged spokesman for the Jewish nation, whether some people like it or not. It is not perfect; but when one compares our society with that of the Kings of Yisrael or Yehuda of biblical times, we are far ahead in the race towards perfection. The prophets castigated the leaders of those societies on the injustices they perpetrated to their own people, whereas today the desire to do justice and charity is an integral part of the Israeli establishment and our people.

And the most compelling fact – the people here love the Medina, and most would protect her with their lives.

Part B:
King Solomon laid down the principle for educators (Mishlai 22:6):

חנך לנער על פי דרכו

Educate the young in accordance (in harmony) to his way (disposition, inclination and temperament).

A child who has aggressive tendencies or shows an aptitude for creativeness, the educator must fashion the methods and goals pursuant to the individual child’s inclination. With King Shlomo’s directive in mind, it might be correct to conclude that Aisav turned out the way he did because he received the same education as his spiritually minded brother, Ya’akov.

As it goes with individuals, so too does it go with groups of people and even with nations.

The national characteristic of a people has to channel the leadership in its ways and means.

The Jewish nation was commanded to fulfill three mitzvot upon entering Eretz Yisrael: to appoint a king, to destroy Amalek and to construct the Bet HaMikdash on the Temple Mount.

It took 400 years before Shaul was appointed as Israel’s first King, because this was the time it took to prepare the hearts of the tribal orientated nation to see the need for a central authority.

At the time of the prophet Shmuel, 400 years after entering the Land with Yehoshua Bin Nun, the tribal representative requested of him to appoint a king.

HaShem appeared to Shmuel and affirmed the national desire by directing Shmuel to annoint Shaul , the son of Kish, from the tribe of Binyamin.

Shaul failed in his mission to destroy all of Amalek, and after his death, Shmuel was commanded by HaShem to anoint David, son of Yishai, as King.

David felt the pulse of the nation and was loved and admired (Book of Shmuel 1 29,5).

In his 40 years as King, David established Yerushalayim as the eternal capital of the Jewish nation, extended Jewish control over all the area designated by the Torah as Eretz Yisrael, laid the groundwork for the Bet Hamikdash, authored Tehillim and was a rabbinic posek (halachic judge).

David achieved greatness by being a man of the people. He sensed the needs and potential of the nation and saw the entire scope of the Jewish people. He did not retreat to a semi-hermitic life and let HaShem take care of matters. David was a great Talmid Chacham, the nation’s military leader, a pious Jew and initiator of the national agenda.

One hundred years ago, our spiritual leaders did not sense the flow of history which had gripped many peoples, as nationalism and love of country became the main issues of the day. Our nation was ready to a great degree to entertain the idea of returning en mass to Eretz Yisrael, and the leadership was taken over by secular Zionism.

Today in Eretz Yisrael the pulse of the nation is in protecting and building our great country.

The chareidi rabbinic leadership must acknowledge, what the religious Zionist rabbis have acknowledged, that the Medina is here to stay. The nation has gathered around the national leadership and loves the land.

Our rabbinic leaders will succeed in drawing the people to Torah not by being aloof and distant, but by acknowledging the reality of the Medina and being the nation’s leaders in all fields.

The most respected institution in Israel is Tzahal. By boycotting Tzahal the chareidi leadership has slipped away from the national consensus and driven away many potential people from clinging to the Torah.

The logic pruned from our history is:

חנך לנער על פי דרכו

Educate the young in accordance (in harmony) to his way (disposition, inclination and temperament).

The religious segment must enter all walks of life if we seriously desire a Torah state. We must fill the army with dati and chareidi soldiers and officers, as well as the industrial and managerial sectors.

It is up to the chareidi leadership to feel the pulse of the nation, like King David in his time, and to take part in the leadership process.

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana

Copyright © 5773/2013 Nachman Kahana

The War of Miracles

By Moshe Feiglin


5 Sivan, 5773
May 14, ‘'13

Israel’s government did not want to liberate Jerusalem. Or to be more specific, the Labor and National Religious Party ministers did not want to liberate Jerusalem. “Who needs that whole Vatican?” Moshe Dayan explained. Prime Minister Eshkol had an understanding with Hussein that there would be a bit of “pyrotechnics” in the Armon Hanatziv area of Jerusalem so that he could show Egyptian president Naaser that he was doing something.

But there was a Supreme Force that had other plans and the Six Day War became the war that military experts cannot logically explain. I call this war “The War of Miracles.”

One small aspect of these miracles became known to me by ‘coincidence’. I was driving home one evening approximately six years ago, listening to a radio interview with reserve General Avihu Ben Nun, who had participated in the war as a young pilot.

Ben Nun told the listeners how he had taken off with the entire Air Force, flying very low so as to keep off Jordan’s radar screens. When the entire air force takes off together in total radio silence, circles over the waves and reaches Egypt’s airports from Cairo without being detected and without hitting each other a major miracle has occurred. But something even bigger happened.


While bombing the Egyptian airfield as instructed, a heavy Egyptian bomber that was about to land in the airfield surprised Ben Nun. He was forced to choose between hitting the bomber or carrying out his original mission. He chose to stay with his mission. Other Israeli jets chased the bomber, but its experienced pilot managed to escape them with impressive aeronautical skill.

Years later, when Ben Nun was a civilian, he met a Jordanian businessman who told him that he was the air controller in the control tower that was monitoring Israel’s airports from Ramallah. During the days before the outbreak of fighting, Israel’s leadership begged Hussein not to join in the war instigated by the Egyptian despot. The young Hussein was nearly convinced, but at the exact hour that Ben Nun and his fellow pilots were bombing in Egypt, Naaser called Hussein and said to him, “Our airplanes are bombing Tel Aviv; Haifa is being shelled from the sea. Do you want to lose Jerusalem?” Hussein was suspicious, so he called the air controller in the control tower. 

“Hussein asked me if I see Egyptian planes over Tel Aviv,” the Jordanian businessman told Ben Nun. “I told him that I don’t see anything of the kind. Then, while we were still talking, my screen was suddenly filled with hundreds of Egyptian planes on their way to Tel Aviv. I excitedly reported the new information to the king.”

The air controller, who could not see the Israeli planes on their way to Egypt, could now see Ben Nun and his friends on their return flight to Israel after destroying the Egyptian air force on the ground. At this point, they were flying at the normal altitude. He thought they were Egyptian planes. That phone conversation convinced Hussein to enter the war, ultimately resulting in the liberation of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
If not for this wondrous “coincidence,” Jerusalem would have remained in Jordanian hands. But that’s not all: “The only thing that I didn’t do right on that day, ” Ben Nun finished the interview, “was when I decided not to go after the Egyptian bomber. It turned out that the Egyptian Chief of Staff and the entire army command was in that airplane.”

It was then that I remembered a different interview with Uri Milstein in the Nekuda magazine, which illuminated the same story from a different angle. Milstein did not mention Ben Nun, but he did say that in the merit of the mistake of the Israeli pilot who decided not to down the Egyptian bomber, the Egyptian Chief of Staff was saved. 

“That mistake turned out to be very fortunate,” Milstein explained. “The skillful evasion techniques of the Egyptian pilot shook the poor Egyptian Chief of Staff up, and while still in the plane he ordered his army to evacuate the entire Sinai Peninsula.”

The Egyptian armored forces were deeply entrenched in Sinai, Soviet-army style. Breaching that alignment could well have cost Israel many lives and significantly lengthened the war. But after the Chief of Staff’s directive, the Israeli jets refueled, took off again and attacked the retreating Egyptian armored forces. The war in Sinai basically turned into a pursuit of riffraff beating a hasty retreat. 

The miracles that took place in the battle for Jerusalem and its surroundings are to numerous to recount in one short article. But ultimately, Jerusalem was liberated – against the will of both the Arabs and the Jews. 
One must believe in atheism with religious fervor in order not to see the hand of Divine Providence in the wondrous miracles woven together with precision throughout the war, presenting the Jews with the Land of their forefathers on a silver platter. 

All that we can hope for on Jerusalem Liberation Day is for leadership that understands the significance of the gift that we received from our Father in Heaven – and does not turn its back on it.

Moshe Feiglin Debuts as Speaker of the Knesset

Wednesday was the FIRST day that MK Moshe Feiglin actively served as Speaker of the Knesset. 

30 guests from the AFSI (Americans for a Safe Israel) "Chizzuk" trip to Israel were hosted in the Knesset by Moshe and were on location to see the historic event. Cheryl Jacobs Lewin of AFSI reports: 



MK Moshe Feiglin as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset had his first time "at bat" today on of all days - Yom Yerushalayim. The 30 plus members of the current Americans for a Safe Israel Chizuk trip hosted a reception at the Knesset and Feiglin had to cut his presentation to AFSI short as in the Knesset rotation Yom Yerushalayim ended up as Feiglin's first time in the position. How fitting!!! The members of the AFSI trip were invited to the gallery following presentations by MK Tzipi Hotovely and Feiglin to watch and be a part of this truly historic moment. And together the AFSI members recited a special "Shechiyanu". 
 

Breakthrough on Temple Mount

In a huge breakthrough triggered by Moshe Feiglin’s principled stand on the Temple Mount, the Knesset Interior Committee met on Jerusalem Day for a special meeting on Jewish prayer on the Mount. Deputy Director of the Religious Affairs Ministry Elchanan Glatt appeared before the committee to discuss the details.

In addition, as reported by Israel’s Channel 10/Nana news site:

MKs Demand of Netanyahu: Allow Feiglin to Ascend to Temple Mount

By Shai Doron, Nana 10 News

On the backdrop of tension between Israel and Jordan over the Temple Mount and Jerusalem Day celebrations, 17 MKs from the coalition sent a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu on Wednesday, calling upon him to remove the ban on MK Moshe Feiglin that prohibits him from entering the Temple Mount. MKs from the various parties signed a letter to Netanyahu, that will be handed to him when he returns from his trip to China. Among those who signed the letter are MKs Tzippy Hotobeli, Miri Regev, Gilah Gamliel, Chaim Katz and David Rotem from Likud Beiteinu, Orit Struck and Shuli Mualem from the Jewish Home and Elazar Stern from The Tnua.

"As an ordinary citizen prior to his election to the Knesset," says the letter that reached Channel 10, "Feiglin visited the Temple Mount hundreds of times. It is unthinkable that a person's election to the Knesset will impair his freedom of movement instead of affording him immunity and freedom of movement as is dictated by the law." The letter also says that "surrender to the demands of the representatives of the Moslem wakf not to allow his visit is a serious blow to our sovereignty in Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount, and a serious blow to the sovereignty of the Knesset."

"The MKs from the various parties who signed the request to the PM to remove the ban that he placed upon me under pressure from the wakf are brave MKs who understand the severe nature of this restriction," said Feiglin to Nana 10 news. "When the wakf determines which MKs will or will not ascend to the Temple Mount - the very heart of Jerusalem - that means that the Temple Mount is not in our hands and the Knesset is not the sovereign in Jerusalem."

Moshe Feiglin’s “politically un-savvy” move to suspend himself from voting with the coalition until his legal right to visit the Temple Mount is reinstated is proving to be savvy, indeed. Ever since Moshe’s move, the issue of Jewish sovereignty on the Temple Mount has remained in the news and on the Knesset agenda. More in the Jerusalem Post article below. 


Jerusalem Post: Ministry to arrange Jewish prayer on Temple Mount

HaRav Nachman Kahana Parashat Bamidbar 5773

BS”D 

Parashat Bamidbar 5773

Part A:

Chapter 1:1-4

א) וידבר ה’ אל משה במדבר סיני באהל מועד באחד לחדש השני בשנה השנית לצאתם מארץ מצרים לאמר

ב) שאו את ראש כל עדת בני ישראל למשפחתם לבית אבתם במספר שמות כל זכר לגלגלתם

ג) מבן עשרים שנה ומעלה כל יצא צבא בישראל תפקדו אתם לצבאתם אתה ואהרן

ד) ואתכם יהיו איש איש למטה איש ראש לבית אבתיו הוא

1) HaShem spoke to Moshe in the the Sinai desert, from the Mishkan, on the first day of the second month (Iyar) of the second year after exiting Egypt.
2) “Take a census of the whole community of Israel according to their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one.
3) All the men in Israel who are twenty years old or more and able to serve in the army, count them, you and Aaron.
4) And together with you shall be one man from each tribe, each of them the head of his tribe

Verses 17-19

יז) ויקח משה ואהרן את האנשים האלה אשר נקבו בשמות

יח) ואת כל העדה הקהילו באחד לחדש השני ויתילדו על משפחתם לבית אבתם במספר שמות מבן עשרים שנה ומעלה לגלגלתם

יט) כאשר צוה ה’ את משה ויפקדם במדבר סיני פ

17) Moses and Aaron took these men whose names had been specified
18) and they gathered the whole community on the first day of the second month, and the people registered their ancestry by their clans and families of these who were twenty years old or more
19) as HaShem commanded Moshe. And so he counted them in the Desert of Sinai

And Rashi comments:

הביאו ספרי יחוסיהם ועידי חזקת לידת כל אחד ואחד, להתייחס על השבט

Each individual one by one - brought his book of genealogy and witnesses to prove the authenticity of his lineage

We can only imagine the exhilaration of each person while standing individually before Moshe, Aharon and the 12 tribal heads of Israel, when after the inquiry he received the acknowledgment that he was a bona fide, authentic son of Am Yisrael. Standing face to face with HaShem’s messengers to the world, who spoke to each individual and blessed him with a hand shake and a kiss, was a far greater emotional thrill than receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor or even being accepted to Cooperstown’s baseball Hall of Fame.

After such an experience, no one could feel that he was just another “face in the crowd,” just one more anonymous former slave freed in the rush to leave. He was now a totally committed and recognized son of Israel, who presence was appreciated and respected.

Part B:

About a week or two ago, the OU (Orthodox Union) sponsored its annual Jewish Communities Fair at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Pavilion. Over 1000 people were there in search of new communities in places like Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Jacksonville, Florida and Louisville, Kentucky; Southfield, Michigan and Chesterfield, Missouri. There was no booth showing the possibilities of living in Eretz Yisrael. The OU sponsors made it clear that they were interested in supporting the American scene.

People were searching for affordability in the form of cheaper housing and cheaper education, and a high quality of life at an affordable price. There were communities who gave incentives like a $20,000 gift for a down-payment on a home, and free tuition.

From a religious Zionist point of view, such as mine, there are many sad aspects to this happening, but I wish to concentrate on one particular facet which is not only sad – it borders on the tragic.

Once you have put your down payment of the house of your dreams in Jacksonville, Florida; Southfield, Michigan or Chesterfield, Missouri or any of the 40 other offerings at the fair, you will have condemned yourself and your children to a life of dull, insignificant,undistinguished, uninspired mediocrity. You will get your home, your cheap education and that warm, fluffy feeling of living in a close knit orthodox community, but the price… the price.

But there is a flaw in what I have stated above. The sad fact is that a life of dullness, insignificance, and an undistinguished, uninspiring existence is not limited to the small shtetlach of America’s hinterland – they are present even in the great metropolises from New York to L.A.

You will make money, but as the clock ticks into middle age and beyond, there will appear that gnawing feeling from deep down of, “What have I done with the years HaShem has given me?”But by then it will already be too late. Another life vanished in anonymity.

Part C:

In Eretz Yisrael the reverse is true. You might not get the big house like in Chesterfield, Missouri and the dollar symbol will change to a shekel, but here you will leave your anonymity behind. Just like each Jew who stood before Moshe, Aharon and the 12 tribal leaders and attained his individuality as a full fledged member of Am Yisrael, when you live in Eretz Yisrael,no matter what you do, you are an important partner with HaShem in the rebuilding of His people’s future in the Holy Land.

The Torah states (Devarim 11,12):

ארץ אשר ה’א-להיך דרש אתה תמיד עיני ה’ א-להיך בה מרשית השנה ועד אחרית שנה

A land the Lord your God requires; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.

Here HaShem relates to you by name; one is not like a drop in a cloud as the individual is in chutz la’aretz.

The difference can be illustrated as follows.

Last night, my wife and I were at a concert in honor of the of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in honor of the 46th anniversary of the re-unification of the Holy City.

The music was beautiful, as was the ambiance and the feeling of a common destiny and zechut (merit) among all of us to have been chosen by HaShem to live in Yerushalayim.

During a concert one’s eyes pass from musician to musician. From the string instruments which are close to the conductor, to the brass and keyboard instruments, from there to the percussion and woodwinds. After an hour of this, one begins to acquire a sense of closeness to each musician, by recognizing how he or she sits, and their agility and alertness. I imagine that one who has a season’s ticket to the symphony increases his feeling of intimacy with the genius of each artist.

However if one would sit in the concert hall but not see the artists, he would hear the same music but would not connect with the artists.

The pasuk:

ארץ אשר ה’א-להיך דרש אתה תמיד עיני ה’ א-להיך בה מרשית השנה ועד אחרית שנה

A land the Lord your God requires; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.

is telling us that HaShem hears and sees the music of our Torah life in Eretz Yisrael, day by day, minute by minute, artist by artist – every man, woman and child in a very personal way. With the implication that the music of Jewish life in the galut reaches the heavens but the “eyes of the Lord your God are not continually on you”.

The two paths are very clear: a life of partnership with our Father in Heaven and the feeling of being part of the eternal history of the Jewish nation, or a life of dull, insignificant,undistinguished, uninspired mediocrity.

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5773/2013 Nachman Kahana

WE are the Moral Compass

By Moshe Feiglin


28 Iyar, 5773
May 8, ‘13


Translated from Makor Rishon

The importance of the caucus on organ harvesting in China, sponsored by our Liberal Lobby in the Knesset last week, cannot be exaggerated. On the surface, the topic of the caucus seems odd. Knesset Members and other VIPs were called together to discuss horrors being perpetrated by the Communist regime in China against what the government there calls “regime opponents.”

Hundreds of thousands of peaceful citizens in China are imprisoned in camps, tortured in the most inhuman ways and worst of all – their organs are harvested while they are still alive and sold for transplants throughout the world. Apparently, the human bodies in the grotesque Body Show recently exhibited in the Holy Land, were also supplied by these prisoners.

“You don’t have any more issues left here in Israel?” many people asked when we began publicizing the event.
“You don’t have anybody but China to start up with?”
“You don’t understand that you are harming Israeli interests? And what do you think, anyway? That anybody among the billion Chinese really cares what exactly you are talking about in the Knesset?”

It is not about the Chinese. It is about us and how we perceive the essence of the Jewish Nation and the Return to Zion. 

We have become so accustomed to the moral finger-wagging in our direction; being blamed by holier-than-thou nations the world over for all sorts of “ethical lapses”; we have become so accustomed to the leftists in Israel who join the chorus – that we haven’t even thought of the possibility that perhaps – just the opposite is true. Perhaps the moral compass of the entire world is the People of the Bible; the nation that brought the world faith in the One G-d; the nation that, on the foundation of its belief in G-d heralded the message of liberty for all mankind. We haven’t dared to think that the message of justice and liberty does not emanate from the Hague – but from Jerusalem.

Despite the fact that deep in its consciousness, humanity recognizes and even expects to hear this message from Zion, the Israelis have become grasshoppers in their own eyes – and thus – in the eyes of the world. This is the root of the condemnations and the relentless pressure brought to bear on Israel.

In other words, when you don’t fulfill your universal. ethical role, somebody else usurps it and you turn from the judge into the judged. If there is no construction being allowed today in Jerusalem, it is because Jerusalem is not fulfilling its universal role. If we are being pressured to apologize to Turkey and pay remands to their wounded from the Mavi Marmara, it is because when it was uncomfortable for us, we ignored our universal ethical role and did not take a stand against Turkey’s denial of the Armenian holocaust.

“We dreamed of a place where the new Book of Books would be written in preparation for the redemption of the world, for you, after all, are a treasured nation,” British intellectuals explained Israel’s demonization to Professor Ze’ev Tzachor. “The world had expectations, and now look what you have done.” (From an interview with Meir Uziel in Makor Rishon).

The Chinese actually were very displeased with our Knesset caucus. They put pressure on me and on other Knesset Members in an attempt to torpedo the conference. But they did not succeed. For things that may be difficult for us to understand here, are very obvious in China. While Communists do not believe in G-d, essentially making everyone there slaves (China is one giant prison camp) they do have a long tradition of spirituality. They perfectly understand the value of the “treasured nation” status of the Jews. An ethical stand that emanates from the parliament of the People of the Book is less financially troubling than a similar stand coming from European parliaments, but its ethical weight is much greater – and the Chinese understand that. 

Knesset Members from across the political spectrum: Right and Left, Haredi and secular, honored the caucus with their presence. The Chairman of the Jewish Agency, Natan Sharansky and Rabbis Uri Cherki and Elyakim Levanon also attended and spoke at the event. The audience heard shocking testimony from a survivor of those camps and watched filmed testimony on what takes place there.

As the caucus progressed, I began to realize that it was a watershed event. The large audience, the media interest and the focus of the caucus on Jewish ethics created a new reality. The State of Israel has begun to position itself as the moral compass for the world - as befits the People of the Book."

Related News:
Epoch Times: Israeli Politicians Call for End to Organ Harvesting in China
Israel National News: MK Feiglin Hosts Forum on Strengthening Family Unit 

How to deal with Mosquitos

By Shmuel Sackett


28 Iyar, 5773
May 8, ‘13
My three daughters (ages 14, 17 and 24) share a bedroom and last Shabbat, I went into their room to wake them up for shul. (Side note: Yes, I believe that unmarried girls have an obligation to be in shul just like men. The only permission they receive is when they have babies to take care of, not when they are simply tired. Sorry, ladies.) Back to my story: I entered their bedroom and – to my surprise – none of the girls were there! I was a bit startled but quickly found all three sleeping beauties; one on the couch, one in my home/office (sleeping on a mattress on the floor) and the third in a sleeping bag in the kitchen! I woke up one of the girls and asked what happened. "There was this mosquito driving us all crazy last night. He kept buzzing in our ears and we tried everything to get him away. Finally, we gave up and all moved out of the room to get some sleep."

Dearest readers: This is a true story.
During our Shabbat meal later that day I pointed out a very sad fact to my three daughters; A little, tiny mosquito defeated – what I thought was – three tough Sackett girls. I am not kidding when I said, "three tough Sackett girls". Consider this: 31 years ago I married a young lady who was the former head of Rabbi Meir Kahane's JDL Women's "Chaya Squad". Before I ever met her, she was arrested 5 times on different JDL actions back in the 70's. I'm talkin' TOUGH! Then, 20 years ago, my oldest daughter, became the only girl on Israel's national little league baseball team and was once thrown out of a game for beating up the opposing 3rd baseman (a guy twice her size!) I'm talkin' TOUGH! Yet today, a little buzzing noise from a mosquito the size of a chocolate sprinkle and three girls run for cover. Oh how the mighty have fallen!

Yet, all kidding aside, when I sat down to think about this – I realized that this is EXACTLY what is happening right now in our very own society. Mosquitoes are defeating Giants. The entire city of Boston was shut down because of 2 little mosquitoes. Hundreds of thousands of Jews sleep in bomb shelters in cities in southern Israel because of some Hamas mosquitoes and the entire world is shivering because of a North Korean mosquito with a bad haircut.

Why do we let these mosquitoes bother us? Why can't our modern, powerful, hi-tech armies squash these little annoying bugs? I agree that the North Korean mosquito is a lot different from the others I stated but how did we let it get to this point? How is it possible that in the world of super-spying-satellites we let mosquitoes turn into guerrillas? All of a sudden the world is amazed and shocked that North Korea has the atom bomb? Will they be just as shocked when Iran has their "Grand Opening" as well?

The message is clear – one does not run away from a mosquito. One swats, steps on, squashes and kills a mosquito while he is still a mosquito! If you run to sleep in the kitchen – or build bomb shelters in Sderot and Ashkelon - those mosquitoes will grow and prosper. Today's mosquito is tomorrow's wasp which ultimately becomes an entire country of poisonous snakes that will need a lot more than a fly swatter to solve the problem!

Yesterday, not far from the resting place of Yosef Ha'Tzaddik, a beautiful father of 5 small children (the oldest is just 7 years old!) was knifed to death by a 20 year old Arab. This Arab beast recently spent 3 years in an Israeli hotel, excuse me – Israeli jail, where he ate 3 hot meals a day, slept in an air-conditioned cell, prayed in a carpeted mosque inside the prison, received a free education and watched cable TV on a plasma screen with his fellow beasts. This beast – who started out as a buzzing, annoying mosquito - checked out of this hotel less than 6 months ago. Was there any question that he would want to return to the hotel – this time as a powerful wasp - with a dead Jew to his credit - as opposed to the little rock-throwing mosquito he was the first time around? Did anybody in the world, except some leftist professors from Columbia University really believe that he was "rehabilitated" and would no longer be a buzzing nuisance to sweet and innocent Jews?

Three years ago, this rock-throwing 17 year old teenager should have been thrown out of the country – together with his entire family. Rocks kill and if you don't believe me, speak to my dear friends Benny and Batsheva Shoham who buried their son Yehuda after he was hit by a rock near the Biblical city of Shilo. After that, you can call Adva Bitton who is maintaining a bedside vigil next to her comatose daughter, Adelle, who was also hit by a rock. This means that 3 years ago, this 17 year old mosquito attempted to kill Jews and instead of doing what needs to be done to annoying bugs, we fed him, clothed him and actually helped his dream – of killing Jews – become a reality. To make matters worse, our wonderful Israeli doctors and nurses are now working round-the-clock to save his life!

This must stop immediately before any more Jewish blood is shed in our Holy Land. Any Arab that attempts to harm a Jew – in any way – must IMMEDIATELY be deported from Israel with every member of his family. This punishment must be swift and without chance of appeal. What will happen when professors from Columbia University object and scream about this inhumane treatment? Simple. Move these mosquitoes next door to where THEY live. This way, we solve TWO problems! 

Jerusalem day, 2013

By Tuvia Brodie

Think about the city you live in. In all probability, it’s a lot like most other cities—people, parks, jobs and schools. If it’s big enough, it might even still have a ‘downtown’ just like Jerusalem.

But your city is not like Jerusalem. First of all, your city isn’t old enough. Jerusalem is more than 3,000 years old. It has been destroyed twice, attacked more than 50 times, and captured-recaptured more than 40 times.

Chances are, your city probably hasn’t ever been destroyed. It’s probably never been captured or recaptured, either,  except perhaps by sports fans fighting their police after the occasional great victory by a local sports team.

That doesn’t compare to Jerusalem. Jerusalem isn’t about sports. It’s about religion. It’s about G-d. It’s so important, three religions want it as their own.

Judaism, the oldest of the three religions, claims Jerusalem. Judaism was first. It has provenance.

But both Christianity and then Islam claim they’re the new-and-improved versions of religion. They also want Jerusalem. For them, Jews don’t count.

Each claims Jerusalem for itself.

So it is that Jerusalem takes stage-center. Nations and religions kill to control it.  Somehow, through it all, Jerusalem remains holy—and, incredibly, Jewish.

The Jews have never gone away.

Jerusalem is Zion. She embodies the essence of the Jewish nation. She is the heart of Jewish history.

Jerusalem: this is where King David lived and King Solomon built our Holy Temple more than 2900 years ago.

Jerusalem: this is where close to 2,000 Jews were ethnically cleansed in 1948 after Arabs conquered the city’s Jewish Quarter.

Jerusalem: this is where, in 1967, Jews died to free our Temple Mount and Jewish soldiers felt the presence of G-d as they fought.

Jerusalem: this is where the Temple Mount, for the first time in 2,000 years, stands ready to offer freedom of worship to Jews (according to conditions set by Jewish law).

The G-d of Israel has been kind to Jerusalem, even as Man has not. When, after almost 2,000 years of exile, the United Nations gave Israel the right to become a modern State, it did not give Jerusalem to the Jews. It kept Jerusalem for UN control; the UN plan was that the Jews would not get their heart, their Zion. But then, two self-defensive wars later—less than 20 years after Independence--the G-d of Israel returned to Israel her heart, her Zion. Jerusalem and her Temple Mount became Jewish again, just as the Jewish G-d had promised thousands of years before.

Jerusalem is more than a city. It is the resting place of G-dliness. But it is also the battlefield for those who would destroy that G-dliness. The 28th day of the Hebrew month, Iyar (this year, May 8) may indeed be Yom Yirushaly-em—Jerusalem Day—when we remember those who died to unify under Jewish control this greatest of Jewish cities; but it is also a day to understand that our work is not yet done.

Jerusalem is still a battlefield. For example, this is Israel’s capital. But those who hate Jews claim it is the capital of Arab ‘Palestine’. 

Jerusalem is the home of the Temple Mount, Judaism’s Holiest site. But those who hate Jews prohibit Jews from worshipping there—and Israel’s government supports that hate.

Jerusalem is so holy, even prayer has become a battlefield. Wherever a Jew lives, he turns to Jerusalem to pray. Three times a day, he turns to Jerusalem. Those who hate Jews claim that Jerusalem is their exclusive Holy city. But when they pray, they show their backsides to Jerusalem.

We celebrate this day. But we do so knowing that Jerusalem is not yet free. According to at least one Waqf representative (representing the Muslim leadership of ‘Jerusalem’), the Temple Mount does not belong to Jews. It belongs to the Waqf—and Jews aren’t allowed there.

Today, some of Jerusalem’s neighbourhoods are Judenrein—Jew-free.

Today, it is legal for Arabs to sit in Jerusalem’s Knesset and support terror against the State of Israel. But today it is illegal  for Jews to move their lips  at their Holiest place, the Temple Mount.

Today, many Jews in the police, civil administration and  criminal justice system--those who rule us on a daily basis--see Jews as usurpers. For these anti-Jewish Jews, this city does not belong to Jews; it belongs to the Arab. Today, these anti-Jew Jews prefer to protect the Arab more than the Jew; and they now tell Jews that they don’t belong on what they apparently have decided is anArab Temple Mount.

Even as we celebrate, the enemies of Jewish Jerusalem literally take stage-center, as one of the main singers scheduled for Jerusalem Day events is to be an singer who advocates dividing Jerusalem and giving the Temple Mount to the Arab.

Despite this on-going battle, we celebrate our ‘Jerusalem Day’ with joy. We do that because we are Jewish, this city is Jewish—and our Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest place, is Jewish.

I Cannot Continue as if Nothing has Happened

The following is a letter that Moshe Feiglin wrote to his Likud MK colleagues after he was barred from ascending the Temple Mount earlier this week:
 
21 Iyar, 5773
May 1, '13

Dear Friends,
(Caricature by Asher Schwartz at the JewishPress.com)

I will not be able to make the following clarifications at the faction meeting, so the right thing to do is to send them to you in writing. I will be happy to add details on a personal basis. The following facts are supported by documents and recordings.

For over a decade, I ascend to the Temple Mount – usually on the 19th of every Hebrew month – and guide the visitors there. Over the years, a basic core group has formed, whose members wait for our monthly ascent to the Temple Mount with my guidance. Two months ago, I visited the Mount for the first time as a Knesset Member. When I requested entry to the Dome of the Rock (as opposed to the El Aktza mosque, the Dome of the Rock is not a mosque) which has always been a tourist site, a friendly wakfmember blocked my path and explained that entry is permitted to Moslems only. I did not argue with him and asked to call in the local police commander. To my amazement, the officer explained to me that for all practical purposes, the place is under the sovereignty of the Moslem wakf. In an answer to a letter that I sent the same day to the Chief of Israel Police, the police essentially admitted that this is the state of affairs. In other words, Israel’s sovereignty at the innermost core of Jerusalem was secretly transferred to the Moslem wakf – with no Knesset decision on the matter being made.

This is the place to explain that the wakf allows any Jew to ascend the Mount as a tourist, but doggedly fights against any show of non-Moslem affinity or sovereignty there. Any citizen or MK can ascend the Temple Mount with a camera and sunglasses, as if he had just arrived on a charter flight from Japan. But if the “tourist” will dare pray a non-Moslem prayer (thus expressing the connection of the Mount to other religions) or to stand at attention during the Memorial Day siren – or any other exhibition of non-Moslem sovereignty on the Mount – the wakf custodians will instigate pandemonium.

As I was blamed for not coordinating my visit to the Temple Mount (an action that was never demanded before) and in order to prevent derogatory remarks – I wrote to the Police Chief, to notify him that I planned to ascend to the Mount on the Sunday of Chol Hamoed Pesach – even though I am not legally required to do so. After receiving my notification, Interior Minister Aharonovitz called a meeting in his office attended by the David District Commander and legal advisors. After various clarifications, it was agreed that I would indeed ascend to the Mount on Pesach, on the date that I had requested. I arrived (with my son) happy and light-hearted on Chol Hamoed Pesach, ready for my festive ascent to the holy place. In light of the agreements with the police, I was convinced that there would be no problems and that this time – the police were prepared to make it possible for me to actualize my legal right as a citizen - and even more so – as a Knesset Member.
Sure enough, the police allowed all the Jews who had gathered that morning to enter the Temple Mount. But they asked me to wait for the District Commander. Initially, I thought that perhaps the District Commander wanted to accompany me on my visit. But instead of accompanying me, the District Commander told me that he prohibits me (and only me) from ascending, due to wakf threats of violence if I would enter the Mount. I asked the District Commander why he was surrendering to threats of violence, punishing those who conduct themselves according to law. Moreover, I am a Knesset Member, which affords me legal immunity. The District Commander’s answer was, “That’s the way it is.”

That time, as well, the police blamed me, strangely claiming that they were forced to prevent my ascent because I announced my planned visit on my Facebook page. That is a preposterous claim. I am not a private person and I do not ascend to the Temple Mount as such. I am a Knesset Member – a public representative – and it is unthinkable to demand that I conduct myself in secret.
Nonetheless, at a chance meeting with the Minister of Internal Security in the Knesset, I agreed with a heavy heart not to announce my next ascent on the 19th of Iyar on my Facebook page. I explained to Minister Aharonovitz that the media know full well that I ascend on the 19th of the month, but that I would not initiate any announcement.

This Sunday, the 18th of Iyar, the Commander of the David Region called me and told me that by “direct instruction from the Prime Minister,” I would not be allowed to ascend to the Temple Mount the following morning.

At this point, the final mask has been lifted. I could no longer evade the issue and blame lower level officials. Nobody attempted to claim that there was a local security problem. After all, I was notified the day before my planned ascent, when the Mount was completely quiet. The situation became crystal clear: The Moslem wakf terrorizes Israel’s government, decides which MKs will ascend the Mount and which will not – and it is none other than the Prime Minister who implements their directives.

This is not a personal issue. Today, the police informed the Knesset Interior Committee that was scheduled to tour the Temple Mount next Tuesday, the 27th of Iyar, Jerusalem Day Eve, that it will not be able to visit on that day or any other day – due to the wakf’s objections. Whoever represents the sovereignty of the State of Israel in the eyes of the sovereign on the Mount – the wakf, is not allowed to visit there. Once again, the wakf demand is implemented by the government of Israel.

I do not have to explain the severe significance of these events to the Knesset Members of the National Movement. All the red lines of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem have been trampled and breached. This is in addition to the infringement of the law inherent in these decisions, the violation of the Jerusalem Basic Law and other Basic Laws. These decisions make a mockery of the immunity and sovereignty afforded to Israel’s Knesset Members. We are facing a new reality that obligates us all to act in an unconventional manner.

I would like to make it clear that the last thing that I want is to find myself in a conflict with the Prime Minister, who I highly respect and am careful to honor. I clearly have nothing to gain from that. Clearly, I do not wish to create difficulties for the rest of the members of the faction. Just the opposite: When I was elected to the Knesset I made no demands. I was happy to accept the duties and tasks that were offered me and I believe that it was obvious to all that I have put every effort into giving the maximum for our common goals.
But what is all my work in the Knesset worth if the Knesset, as it turns out, surrenders Israel’s sovereignty in the heart of Jerusalem?

Who is the sovereign in Jerusalem when the Moslem wakf determines which Knesset Member is allowed or not allowed to ascend to the most holy of places – to the Temple Mount? Who exactly are we fooling? Have we forgotten our vow, “If I forget thee, Jerusalem, may my right hand be forgotten”? What is this vow worth if we ignore the terrible reality in which the wakf dictates to Israel’s government what to do on the Mount, in defiance of the law?

If we could have deceived ourselves until now that we are the sovereign and the wakf acts as an extension of our sovereignty, it has now become clear that it is the government of Israel that acts as an extension of the wakf. We are paving the way for them to rule the entire Land, as the poet of the National Movement, Uri Tzvi Greenberg, warned: “He who rules the Mount rules the Land.”
A red line has been crossed. It was forced upon me with no chance for discussion and does not allow me (and in my opinion, does not allow you, either) to continue to conduct “business as usual.” How can I face myself if, for the good of my political future, I will abandon the Temple Mount?

With a heavy heart and totally converse to my original intent, I am forced to suspend all my regular parliamentary activity. I know that we have just begun this Knesset term and we all have goals and ambitions to accomplish as much as possible. But there are moments in life when one must put everything aside and act according to his conscience. The Temple Mount, the rock of our existence, is calling us. This is the moment.


Respectfully,

Moshe Feiglin

HaRav Nachman Kahana on Parashat Behar and Bechukotai 5773

BS”D 

Behar and Bechukotai 5773

During these very days, 46 years ago in 5728 (1967), the Medina was in the midst of a three-week period of preparation for a life-and-death struggle against the Arab-Amalekites surrounding us. The Arab world was sharpening its swords and their diatribes against the Jewish State, eagerly informing the indifferent and apathetic world what awaited every Jewish man, woman and child here.

It was a time when HaShem was testing the loyalty of His people. “Do you believe that the Galut has ended?” HaShem asked, “and that I have brought you back to Eretz Yisrael until the end of days, or is your skepticism stronger than your beliefs?”

While families were being separated from their fathers, sons and brothers who were called to report for active duty, other families were reporting to the various airline desks at Ben Gurion to make sure that they would leave before the bombs descended.

Years later, I had the opportunity to befriend an intriguing gentleman whose name was Ezer Weizman, who at the time of the Six Day War served as the Assistant Chief of Staff of Tzahal and later as President of the State.

At our first meeting, we sat for over three hours while he told me his incredible life story. Among many things, he told me about the life-and-death gamble the Medina made at the onset of the Six Day War.

Tzahal knew that we had to destroy the air forces of the Arab nations from Egypt to Iraq, which was logically and militarily a “mission impossible”. Tzahal had to factor in the distances between the Medina and the enemy air bases, the limited number of attack planes at our disposal, the moment of surprise and our defense system to deal with the enemy’s counter attack.

The reality of our situation left no choice but capitulation or fight. The decision was taken to use every available plane to attack, while leaving no planes to defend the country. It was an authentic biblical situation where HaShem leaves no choice but to do His bidding.

People were streaming out of the country, and there was a bittersweet joke that the last one out should turn off the lights.

HaShem’s angels attacked on the morning of June 5. Our planes reached every enemy air base, destroying their planes on the ground. Israel set a world record in refueling and rearming the planes, as they returned and very quickly were in the air again.

The outcome of the Six Day War had been decided in the first few hours of that Monday morning. As the day went on, our ground troops swept into Shomron and Yehuda. Every newscast was as if the reporter was reading from the Book of Yehoshua. “Our troops have just liberated Yericho. Our troops are entering Beit Lechem. The Tank Corps has just liberated Shechem. Our troops are advancing rapidly in the Sinai Peninsula towards Sharem Al Shech.

Then on Wednesday morning at 10 AM, the most significant event of the last 2000 years occurred. The radio announced that the Old City of Yerushalayim had returned to Am Yisrael, and we were now the masters of the Temple Mount and the Kotel.

Thursday and Friday were left to complete the liberation of the Sinai Peninsula and the entire area west of the Jordan River.

On Shabbat our troops did the impossible. They scaled the Golan Heights and in a few hours of fighting decimated the Syrian army and liberated the entire Golan Heights.

This was not a war between soldiers. It was a war between angels and mortal men.

HaShem rolled out the red carpet for the Jewish nation. He invited every Jew in the world to come home and rejoice in His glory and the glory of His people Yisrael.

The gates of Shechem, Yericho, Beit Lechem and Chevron were open for all of HaShem’s children. “Come, take it. It is all yours. Come in your millions, there is room for all,” cried out the Voice from heaven.

HaShem is ready to start a new beginning with His nation. All is forgiven. The sins of the fathers have been cleansed for the sake of the children.

Peace in the family has been restored. Eretz Yisrael, Yerushalayim, Har Habayit, Chevron City of the Patriarchs, Yericho the lock (man’ul) of Eretz Yisrael has been opened, Shechem which was purchased by Ya’akov – it’s all there for the taking.

HaShem for His part was preparing to cleanse the Temple Mount from the Moslem abominations.

The land was prepared to absorb millions of its sons and daughters in the mountain areas of Judea and Binyamin, in Yerushalayim, in the beautiful rolling hills of Shomron, in all the land. The land of Israel was ready to embrace all the Jews in the world. A Medina of 12-13 million Jews living in every area of the land, with nary an Arab to be seen, because they would finally understand that the God of Israel has returned His people to their homeland.

The table was set, the aroma of culinary mastery filled the air, the bottles of fabled wine were opened – but the invited guests did not come.

The millions of Jews in the galut turned their backs on their loving Father in Heaven and closed their ears to His supplications to come home.

The vast majority of their religious leaders in the galut continued in the tradition of the miraglim of biblical times, who led the nation in sharing their beloved wilderness with its snakes and scorpions.

In the tochacha (admonition) in parashat Be’chukotai, after every wave of punishment on the unrepentant nation, HaShem intensifies the next wave of punishments, until the Jewish nation wakes up.

The snubbing by the goyim and derogatory name-calling of Jews did not move them towards Eretz Yisrael, so HaShem sent the pogroms. The pogroms did not move the Jews to come home, so He sent the warnings of the early 1930s. They also did little to move the Jewish people, so then came the unspeakable Shoah which brought a large number of Jews home. But there are still millions who do not recognize the hand of God in our contemporary history.

No one can say if there will or will not be another physical Shoah, although we are undergoing a very real spiritual Shoah and losing the war against assimilation. But I do see a horrible punishment for the Jews who do not wake up to HaShem’s call to return home, especially for the religious leaders who do nothing to encourage aliya – and quite often even discourage it.

What is that punishment?

As a young boy, I was never physically punished, even when it was justified. My parents were too smart for that.

The method that worked best for me was a surgically sharp rebuke of three words from my father. It happened when I would bring home a less-than-acceptable report card. My father simply would say, “You disappointed me”.

The low point in my life was to disappoint my parents.

HaShem expects the Jewish people to act like the chosen of nations that we are – to be one nation under HaShem and the Torah, living in the Biblical Holy Land.

He will not punish the Jews of the galut and their pulpit rabbis, roshei yeshiva, chassidic rabbis, and authors of musar and hashkafa books; but when each person’s time comes, HaShem will say, “You invested your energies and Jewish genius in prolonging the despicable and hated galut. You disappointed Me”!

Shabbat Shalom
Nachman Kahana

Copyright © 5773/2013 Nachman Kahana

Secular Curriculum in Hareidi Schools

By Moshe Feiglin

I am completely with the Haredim (ultra-Orthodox) who reject the State attempt to compel them to add a secular curriculum to Torah studies in their schools: Responsibility for the education of a child lies with the parents - not the state. The state may decide to whom it will award a matriculation certificate. But it is the full right of any individual to forgo that certificate.

Let's say that tomorrow, UTJ's Porush will be Prime Minister and will force you to learn a page of Talmud in the framework of a government-backed curriculum. What would you say? He thinks Talmud is more important than English. (I agree). If he would try to prevent you from getting government funding because you don't learn Talmud, I would oppose him. But if he would say that without Talmud, you don't get a matriculation certificate, that would be his democratic right.

I do not want - and am not allowed - to tell Ahmad Tibi what to teach his son. Or Litzman, or Dov Hanin.

Personally, I think that math, science and English are important. As a rule, a broad education is important. Furthermore, our Sages teach us that "a person must teach his son a trade." In other words, not teaching one's children these basic subjects comes close, in my opinion, to a breach of Jewish law. But it makes no difference what I think; what matters is what the parent thinks. They are not criminals and they can have a different opinion than me or the Education Minister.

Please do not confuse the issue by saying, "They don't have to learn the basic curriculum, but they will also not get government funding." The state is not doing anybody a favor. The money that it allocates is money that it has taken from the citizens. When the state allocates funds, it is essentially returning them to the people. If the government announces that it will no longer tax Haredim or any other group, then the totalitarian approach above would be reasonable. But to take and not to give, to take (by coercion) on one hand and to make the benefit from taxes paid conditional on adopting the state's world view - is a lapse into very dangerous totalitarianism. Truly Thought Police. It reminds me of the guy who robbed my friend of his coat on the subway in New York (it was 20 degrees below zero) and then demanded 5 dollars to give it back...

So Where's the Money?

By Moshe Feiglin

22 Iyar, 5773
May 2, ‘13

Translated from Makor Rishon

Finance Minister Yair Lapid asked, “Where’s the money?” The answer is that it is in the defense budget, the Israel Lands Authority and the printing presses of the Israel Bank.

The largest slice of Israel’s budget – before education and health – is mostly kept secret. But we all know that there is no such thing as big money left in the dark for years that does not trickle over to unworthy uses. Thus, under the cloak of “secrecy” and under the cover of the security “ethos”, the great robbery of public coffers is taking place.

This week, a brave former army officer publicized what everybody already knows. The IDF pensions are robbery of the public coffers. “The pension that I receive when I finish my army service – before I begin a new civilian career,” explained the officer, “can only be earned by the average person through long and hard years of labor.”

But that is only small change. The IDF of the Six Day war was built on a population of two and a half million Jews and on a two and a half year term of military service. The army was fighting all the regular Arab armies with methods that were essentially no different from the methods employed in World War II – methods based on manpower. The situation was basically the same during the Yom Kippur War.

Today, there is no regular army facing Israel on its borders, except for the Egyptian army, which received new American weaponry in Israel’s merit. (If not for the “peace accords” with Egypt, its army’s condition today would be similar to that of the Syrian army and the Egyptian tanks and planes would still be Soviet leftovers from Yom Kippur.) Most of the Egyptian army is on the other side of a demilitarized zone.

The battlefield of the future will mostly be based on hi-tech and elite units. In other words, the army will need much less manpower. But, paradoxically, many more soldiers are drafted into the army today, they serve for three years and even women enlist for combat duty.

What does all of this mean?

It means that there is concealed unemployment in the IDF – in amazing proportions. No financial institution would be able to survive it for a more than a month. Now the Finance Minister wants to add thousands of Ultra-Orthodox to the ranks of the IDF unemployed.

We can convince ourselves that the immense military budget is earmarked for “defense”, but what we are really paying for is “The People’s Army Ethos”. This is detrimental to Israel’s security.

The following is an outline of my Volunteer Army Proposal:
Every Israeli should be drafted into the army for basic training for no more than two months. This basic training would prepare the inductees to carry out security assignments and home-front services, while freeing them to study and work as they please. Those who choose to volunteer to serve in the professional army would be offered a track similar to what the air force offers its volunteers today: Highly professional training, university studies, a good salary and most of all – social status. There is no doubt that the young people’s demand would outstrip supply. The IDF would be able to choose exactly who it wants and needs. In case of war, all those who received basic training would be drafted.

Simply put, not only would this plan save a lot of money, but it would also vastly improve the professionalism of the IDF and the quality of Israel’s security.

Most of the MKs with whom I discussed this plan, from all the political parties in the Knesset – both Left and Right – did not accept it. It kills the “equal burden” horse on which everyone is currently riding. But they all admitted that their opposition was not due to security concerns. It is simply difficult for them to part with the military melting pot. Every side believes that through the army, it will “melt” Israeli society into agreeing with its stand. The Left presents the main opposition to this idea. But the religious Zionists oppose it, as well. “We thought that we would become part of Israeli society through the army. Don’t take that away from us!” they say.

It is the army’s job to provide security. The melting pot must be based on Jewish identity.

The wastefulness in the military budget extends to other areas as well: weapons deals for equipment such as the F-35 for which we have no use. Nobody really knows what interests motivate these purchases. Just like German reparations, US aid leads to major corruption.

While the military budget directly drains money from Israel’s coffers, there are also deep processes that erode Israel’s economy. The major drain is the most fearsome of cartels: Israel’s Land Authority. The Land Authority controls 93% of land for construction, doubling the price of housing in Israel. The nation’s land should be distributed to the nation: to every Jewish family in Israel.

Another money drain is the creeping inflation: the cumulative effect of printing money. There is no difference between a state that prints money out of thin air to a private counterfeiter who prints some bills and buys a car or house. In both cases, the counterfeiters gain and everyone else has to work longer and harder to fund them. That is the reason that our generation works longer hours than our parents’ generation to attain the same standard of living. 

Jews on the Temple Mount: that's illegal, right?

By Tuvia Brodie

When the United Nations voted in November, 1947 to create a two-state solution for Arabs and Jews, Jerusalem received special attention. This was done deliberately, to establish Jerusalem “as a corpus separatum under a special international regime”. Jerusalem would not be a part of the two-state solution. Instead, it would be carved out. It would be an ‘international city’ to be administered by the UN.

UN Resolution 181 created two states, Jordan for the Arabs and Israel for the Jews. The concept was to create a ‘Partition—with Economic Union’ between the two states. In separate ‘Parts’, the Resolution detailed issues pertinent to “the Arab State, the Jewish State, and the City of Jerusalem (Part 1A3)”  In Part III, Sections C-1a; 12-a,b; and 13-a,b,c, the UN specified requirements for Jerusalem’s Holy sites: (1) all holy sites are to be protected and preserved; (2) Jerusalemites are to have freedom of religion and worship; (3) there shall be no discrimination of any kind on the grounds of race or religion; (4) rights to holy places, sites or buildings shall not be denied or impaired; (5) there shall be free access and the free exercise of worship for all; and (6) no act shall be permitted which may in any way impair a holy site’s sacred character.

According to Wikipedia, what happened next was, ‘a Civil War’. While this might be technically correct, it misrepresents actual events: the Jews accepted the UN Resolution and the Arabs rejected it. They attacked the Jews. If you read contemporaneous news accounts of these attacks—and the war that ensued—you discover that this was not a matter of two peoples vying for the same national homeland (as many would like you to believe). The Arab rhetoric of the day was not nationalism; it was genocide—to kill the Jews and drive them into the sea.

By 1949, this first anti-Israel war ended without a peace agreement. Boundaries were drawn--and because Arabs won major parts of Jerusalem, the city did not become an international city. Instead, all Jews were cleansed from Arab-controlled sections, Jewish holy sites (synagogues and Yeshivot (seminaries) were destroyed, and the Temple Mount was sealed off from Jews.

Arab rule of Jerusalem lasted 19 years. During that time, no Jew had access to the Temple Mount. No Jew had freedom of worship within Arab-controlled areas.

In 1967, in a war of self defense, Israel won back Jerusalem. As part of their victory, Israel allowed the Waqf of Jerusalem—Muslim’s religious leader for the Jerusalem ‘area’—to remain ‘manager’ of the Mount. Since that Jewish victory, all requirements for Holy sites described in Part III of UN Resolution 181 have been enforced by Israel, for all  religions.

The Waqf, however, has violated every one of those requirements. Specifically, no Jew can worship on the Temple Mount; Jews approaching the Temple Mount are discriminated against because of their religion (their presence on the Mount is heavily restricted); Jewish rights to the Temple Mount are regularly denied and impaired; Jews are refused free access to the Mount; Muslims have committed heavy damage to the Jewish integrity of the Mount (removing perhaps 15,000 tons of Temple Mount dirt, including  thousands of archaeologically rich Temple-era artifacts); and the Muslims have not preserved or protected the Jewish character of the Temple Mount. They have, in fact, desecrated it by aggressively removing evidence of Jewish reality on the Mount—and have now begun to declare (after all the damage they have done) that there is no evidence of Jewish life existing on the Mount.

Someone has recently desecrated the Temple Mount by chipping the word, ‘allah’ into  one of the large stones there.

All of this becomes important in May, 2013 because MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud), who has been ascending to the Temple Mount once a month for years, has now been blocked from ascending by (it has been reported) the Prime Minister (PM) himself. Feiglin insists that a Jew has a legal right to walk on the Temple Mount—and that it is illegal to forbid him to do so.

He’s right. When Israel won back the Mount in 1967, the Knesset realized the site’s religious significance. Just weeks after victory the Israeli Knesset passed the ‘Protection of Holy Places Law’, which made it illegal to (1) desecrate holy places; and (2) violate freedom of access to holy places.

Feiglin has the right to ascend the Mount.

But on a visit to the Mount in early March, 2013, he learned that Israel’s law is not being enforced. On that visit, a representative of the Waqf told MK Feiglin, ‘only Muslims may enter here’--a direct violation of law. Then, when the police showed up, they told Feiglin, ‘The place [the Temple Mount] belongs to the Waqf.’

Now, the PM along with the attorney general of Israel forbids Feiglin to go there out of "security concerns".

In case you missed it, there has been no change of law. The Mount does not ‘belong’ to the Waqf. They and the PM have no legal right to restrict access or worship.

So why does the Prime Minister and attorney general break the law?  Ask the Waqf or ask the PM. But unfortunately, don't be surprised if the answer is the same.