Trusting in GOD

by HaRav Zalman Baruch Melamed
Rosh HaYeshiva, Beit El

A CRITICAL MIDRASH
The midrash teaches that although God had told Moshe that Pharoah was not going to allow the Jews to leave Egypt (as it says in the verse in Shmot [3:19]: "And I [God] know that the King of Egypt will not let you go, and not even when I punish him with a strong hand...") Moshe remained oblivious. According to our sages, Moshe acted inappropriately when he responded to Pharoah's escalation of violence and oppression by turning to God and saying (Shmot 5:22) "Why have You done badly to Your people?" The midrash asks: "What right did he have to doubt God - especially since He told him earlier that He would harden Pharoah's heart as a punishment for ruthlessly oppressing the Children of Israel"?

It is for this reason, the midrash concludes, that the first verse of our Torah portion begins: "And Elokim spoke to Moshe". The name "Elokim" refers to God's attribute of strict judgement; its use in this context conveys Divine dissatisfaction with Moshe's impatient appeal to God. But, say the rabbis, since Moshe acted in response to the harsh suffering that the Jews were undergoing - midway through the same verse, God softens his stance by speaking to Moshe using the attribute of Divine compassion or mercy: "And He said to him: I am Hashem." This Hebrew four-letter name, according to Jewish mystical teachings, refers to God's quality of mercy and compassion.

TRUST IN GOD
We Jews are called upon to have a pure, simple faith in God. This pure faith is what the verse in Yeshaya 26 referred to when it said: "Trust in God forever, because God is the Rock of Ages." The renowned Maharal of Prague explains that the term used by the prophet calls upon us to have a boundless faith in God. Even when human reason would seem to dictate that there is simply no chance, no hope - that all is lost - that according to the rules of nature, there is just no way out - even then, "Trust in God forever." Why? "Because God is the Rock of Ages." He is the Creator of everything. Our sages tell us that God created both this world and the World-to-Come with the two letters of his shortest name, the Hebrew letters"yud" and "heh." All of nature is thus subject to His rule. If so, explains the Maharal, one who trusts in God links himself to an entity - God - who transcends the laws of existence as we have come to know it.

Many people probably ask themselves: "Even when we do trust in God at times, salvation does not necessarily come"!

Two responses can be offered to this query: First, each person must ask him or herself whether or not his or her trust in God was complete and absolute; only a complete sense of bitachon (trust) allows one to supersede the limits of mundane physical reality. Second, our trust in Hashem does wonders, even if it appears to us from our limited human perspective that it has been pointless. Superficially, the world seems to be deteriorating more and more - starvation, wars, nuclear armament, the diplomatic and security situation of the Land of Israel and the like. A broader perspective, however, indicates that even the most difficult periods of time are there to serve a greater long-term goal.

A LONG-RANGE PERSPECTIVE
In other words, it is misleading to analyze processes when they are only half-complete. "Trust in Hashem forever," the prophet advises. Trust in God must be absolute; we must be aware that God is good, desires only good, and is All-Powerful. All of the difficult circumstances that one finds himself in can be overcome via the power of the spirit. He prays to God to extricate him from both personal and national problems. When a person is full of trust, he brings about the bestowal of Divine bounty and improves the world. Sometimes results are evident quickly, while other times, they are perceptible only after a very long time. True "bitachon" in Hashem, means not to stop swimming in midstream, but to boldly continue onwards...

After the Holy One, Blessed be He, informed Moshe Rabeinu that He will harden Pharoah's heart, Moshe understood that God would cause Pharoah to refuse to let the Children of Israel leave Egypt. And yet, Moshe did not think that the situation would worsen! And even if it may be somewhat worse, it would never be this bad! Or so he thought. This is why, when the situation deteriorated, and Pharoah intensified his pressure on the Jews, Moshe turned to God and questioned and complained. The midrash quoted above reproves Moshe for this inappropriate attitude.

The midrash concludes by saying that since Moshe responded the way he did "because of the suffering that the Children of Israel were undergoing at the time." Even though Moshe spoke inappropriately, the Divine attribute of mercy overtook the Divine attribute of strict justice. Initially, "and Elokim spoke to Moshe" - the attribute of strict Justice appeared to reprove Moshe, and in the end, "And He said to him: 'I am Hashem'- a reference to the attribute of mercy.

SILVER LININGS
We sometimes encounter a particular Divine attribute only to misinterpret it. Moshe Rabeinu, for instance, sees that God is hardening Pharoah's heart, and believes that this is an example of the application of the attribute of strict justice. Hashem responds to him by saying: "You feel that the situation is too harsh? You're not understanding the depth of what is happening here! What you are witnessing is really the attribute of mercy disguised as the attribute of strict justice." Hidden within the immediate event of the hardening of Pharoah's heart, there is great compassion. Moshe failed to grasp that this mercy had to evolve slowly, through a chain of events, starting with the hardening of Pharoah's heart.

The obligation to look at events more "deeply" is really a call to express "bitachon" or trust in Hashem. "Trust in God forever." Even when we experience and witness hardships, we must always recall that God is the greatest of all possible goods, and everything that He does is for the best. This is true both on the universal and personal levels. This was true in the past, and remains true today. In line with the idea of history moving towards a process of redemption for the Jewish people and the rest of humanity. All of the challenges that have faced the Jewish people throughout the generations - though not to be minimized - have merely been the expression of the attribute of mercy disguised as the attribute of judgement. The greater the hardship, paradoxically, the more intense the mercy latent within.

THE TRUE TEST
The hardship that faced the Children of Israel at the very last moment of the exodus from Egypt was overwhelming. When you expect that eventually, you will be helped, it is hard, but possible to tolerate the present situation. But when Moshe Rabeinu came to the nation and informed it that Hashem had sent him to deliver the people, and the people already began feeling that redemption was imminent, it was - from that point on - significantly more difficult to endure hardships. "We thought that redemption was here, and all of a sudden - our plight worsens! " Although the intensification of the oppression coupled with the promise of redemption was devastating, this is how Divine Providence must sometimes work. We are expected to draw from the depths of our religious belief and trust in Hashem in those cases. No hardships can take away our trust in the Creator of the World. "Trust in God forever, without bounds"!

Our trust, or bitachon, must become more sophisticated than it is now. When someone trusts in God, he may think "that everything will be okay." People often imagine that it will be okay according to their own perceptions. If, for instance, I pray for a sick person to become well, and the patient does not get better, I think that things are not "okay." But this view constitutes a serious flaw in our understanding of what it means to trust in God. When things do not work out the way you expect, it is forbidden to think that your trust was in vain! It's just that, apparently, what you wanted was somewhat more than what Hashem was willing to give now. The reason that you weren't given what you wanted now - is not that your request wasn't heard, and your trust in God was for naught, but rather that you deserve actually more than you asked for! You will eventually receive much more - now it is hidden - but it will ultimately come. Whenever a person senses that his requests are not being granted, he should say to himself: "God presumably has better things in store for me..."

Changing My Mind

by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky

The Gemara (Masechet Sanhedrin 41a) teaches that approximately forty years before the destruction of the second Temple, the Sanhedrin exiled itself from the Chamber of the Hewn Stone on the Temple Mount so it would no longer adjudicate capital cases. This took place, as Rashi comments, when “murderers proliferated.” With a plethora of homicides, the Sanhedrin stopped executing criminals, something that is counterintuitive. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to increase the number of executions in order to preserve civil society rather than eliminate executions altogether at a time when society was in a state of collapse?

Apparently not. When the deterrent is no longer effective, and society is awash with violence, executions will not atone for crimes, deter future crimes and redeem that society. Other measures need to be taken. The system has to be re-thought from the ground up. It is not logical to keep doing the same thing when that no longer has the desired effect.

On a number of issues facing our community, I have changed my mind (a subtle reminder that I am not impervious to reason or good ideas). It has been building for a while and crystallized in the last few weeks. For some time now, we have heard that many of our youth are in a bad way – drinking, drugs, scandalous behavior – all of which have given rise to problems in schools. There have been conferences and seminars, calls for better education and improved communication. And the schools have generally responded to credible accusations of misconduct with a quick but somewhat selective trigger finger – especially in their use of expulsions. A number of people have reported to me about a party that took place recently in the metropolitan area that attracted a lot of teens and involved mass drinking and revelry, with the parents of the host conveniently out-of-town. (There were probably many other and similar parties of which I am unaware.) And the schools have dutifully responded with the range of disciplines at their disposal, and applied to the great variety of offenders under their dominion in inconsistent ways.

I have always been a law-and-order man; schools should have rules just like life has rules because otherwise there is chaos and anarchy. But I think we have gone too far in these situations to the extent that I have changed my mind. I used to think that it was appropriate for schools to monitor their students’ behavior even off campus and react when there is degenerate behavior, and in an ideal world that would still hold true. But I no longer believe that. Schools should monitor what students do on their premises, and that’s it. And off premises? That is the responsibility of the parents. Remember them?

Parents used to have primary responsibility for parenting, discipline, and instilling values in their children. Sometime in the recent past, parents abdicated that responsibility to the schools, and the results have not been pretty. For example: What parent lets a teenager go to a party of teenagers that has no responsible adult in charge? (I say “responsible” because not all adults are responsible.) You would have to be insane to allow such a thing. My children were trustworthy, but I would never let them as teens go to an unsupervised party. My wife and I would monitor, as best as possible, with whom our children would socialize. That is elementary parenting.

Forget the schools. As far as I am concerned, it’s none of the school’s business what happens off campus. It’s the parents’ business – and parents have to reclaim their role. Indeed, parents have many more disciplinary tools in their arsenal than schools do. They should use them, without fear of losing their children as “buddies.”

That being said, I have reconsidered something else. Schools have to stop these willy-nilly expulsions of students, which have become (1) a marketing tool (“Look at us! We expelled two students for unacceptable behavior. Problem solved. Send your children to us!”), (2) a deterrent that has clearly failed given the widespread misconduct that apparently exists and (3) a tacit admission that schools don’t have the time, interest or energy to deal with every child with a problem. I was slow to come around to this but I have realized that was once unthinkable has become normative, and again, quite selectively applied. A few months ago, I was sent a video a few months ago of Rav Moshe Weinberger (the Rav of Aish Kodesh) pleading with principals to remember their own youth. “What were you like when you were 17?” Why are they pretending that all was so perfect that now we can just dispatch Jewish children into the spiritual wilderness? (Listen to the whole shiur, but especially from minute 38 and on.)

My initial reaction was that it is easy for someone not in chinuch to make such a broad statement and encourage such a policy change – banning expulsions – but as I pondered his comments over the course of a few weeks, I realized that he was correct. Teens are teens, and even if the parameters of “acting out” have widened over the decades since I was a teenager, and mostly in very unsalutary ways, I do not doubt that there are today principals and Roshei Yeshiva, teachers and rabbis, who acted as teens in ways that they chalk up to adolescent hijinks. Yet, they – or their boards – do not want to give today’s children the same break or a compassionate hand. I certainly do not lay all the blame at the feet of the principals or administrators who are often confronted with conflicting pressures that cannot all be resolved to the satisfaction of all.

And then I started my research on my “Great Rabbis of the 20th Century” series and to my astonishment, I determined that these giants dealt with the same issues in a much more tolerant, loving and probably effective way. The Alter of Slabodka, for example, never agreed to expel a student. (Keep in mind that Slabodka had its share of students who desecrated Shabbat, who were Socialists trying to overthrow the Czar, who were students in the yeshiva who even rebelled against the Alter and tried to have him dismissed!) Yet, he would tell the Roshei Yeshiva, that we must look and find some good in them. He kept one student around, he told his colleagues, even though he wasn’t much of a student, because he liked to do favors for people. The Jewish people need that also. And when challenged about particular miscreants, he would cite the verse in Kohelet and the Midrash (Vayikra Raba 27:5) thereon: “‘G-d seeks out the pursued;’ even when the righteous pursue the wicked” G-d takes up the cause of the underdog. So find his good quality and help him. Don’t throw him away.

Similarly, Rav Ovadia Yosef said in an interview a year before he died that it is forbidden to expel a child from yeshiva. I quote: “Even if there is a student who behaves inappropriately, it is still forbidden to throw him out of school and instead we must exercise extreme patience… If we are patient with this student, one day he can grow up to be a talmid chochom. And if we send him away from the yeshiva where will he go? To a secular school and then what will become of him?”

And then he added: “What, are you throwing away a rock? These are precious souls! If you throw a child away, do you know what will be? Are you ready to take responsibility for what might happen?”

And in Rav Yissachar Frand’s Dvar Torah this week (the second essay) he made the same point. If all these great rabbis are addressing this issue, it tells me that there is a problem in Baltimore, Israel, the Five Towns, New Jersey – and everywhere else.

And who are we throwing away? The children of the Avot and Imahot of our people. Like Rambam says (Hilchot Sanhedrin 25:2), even the lowliest among us are “the children of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, the armies of G-d who took us out of Egypt with a great might and a powerful arm.”

I’m not an extremist. If a child is endangering another child, that is different. But short of that, there are other measures. Educate. Discipline. Suspend. Make a child repeat a class or a grade. (The thought alone of paying an extra year’s tuition will get the parents’ attention.) But don’t throw them away. G-d also took these children out of Egypt.

I would rather send my children to a school that deals with its children with problems than to a school that pretends it doesn’t have any children with problems.

And what should parents, now once again responsible for their children’s behavior, impress upon them? During the years of bondage in Egypt, we never lost our identity, our dignity, our sense of self-respect. We always knew, in the statement of the Mishna (Masechet Shabbat 111a), that “all Israel are the children of kings.” We are all princes and princesses. We never let the Egyptians, those debauched pagans, define us. We endured them, survived them and triumphed over them, and then the sense of inner freedom naturally emerged from us. It cannot be suppressed forever – in any of us.

That is the message for us and for our children. They should realize that all the attractions and allures of the world mean nothing compared to the great privilege of being part of a royal people. They need to be taught that when they act like reprobates, they have first and foremost let themselves down.

There is no greater deterrent to mischief than the realization that some conduct is beneath them and unworthy of them, of who they are supposed to be. When that realization sinks in, we will merit only blessings from all of our children.


For a specific message, I share with you a note sent by two dedicated parents in our shul to their teenage son and daughter, who both accepted it with love.

“As tonight is New Year’s Eve, I understand you both have intentions to go sleep by friends... We need to have a crystal-clear understanding of what our expectations are...

We are very trusting parents and feel we have made our values clear. I don’t think I need to repeat them. However, I recognize that despite your good intentions you might find yourselves in a situation you did not expect. There have been an alarming number of instances where underage drinking has taken place. I think some clear guidelines need to be established. If these guidelines are not 100% clear, or you have ANY questions now or in the future, I expect you to follow the rule of “when in doubt do without...” So here are our basic guidelines...

Under no circumstances may you go to a house (or any public place like a hall or hanging out on a street etc.) where you know in advance there will be alcohol being served. I get that sometimes these things occur and you don’t know about them in advance. So... if you are somewhere and after the fact alcohol is being served then I expect you to leave... We will pay for your Uber, no matter how far it is, if you can’t secure a lift immediately. No lingering, no phone charging, don’t even wait in the house... If it’s cold or raining then put your jacket on and wait at the entrance until your lift gets there. Further, I need a text IMMEDIATELY that you are in this situation and are following these directives and where you are going.

On that note... I pay lots of money every month for you to have WORKING cellphones. You get to enjoy using them pretty unencumbered (meaning I don’t totally dictate what you can and cannot do on it, even though I pay for it...) the quid pro quo (what I get in return) is 100% access to your whereabouts... You are my children and I am responsible to make sure you are safe, so like it or not I need to know where you are. So, if your phone “isn’t working” or is off or you have no service, I need to know where you are going BEFORE you go and WHEN you are going to be home or the next acceptable location. This is BEFORE you leave. There was a time many centuries ago when kids didn’t have cellphones. I know it’s crazy to imagine but it’s true. The above rules worked for thousands of years... your generation has not earned the right to be independent and “aloof” without parental knowledge or consent...

Needless to say, if there are other “inappropriate” things going on, under the same conditions as above, for example smoking, illicit behavior (look it up if you aren’t sure what that means) or even at a home where there is chilul Shabbat etc. the same standards apply. You need to leave!

Finally, there is a curfew EVERY night. Understandably on non-school nights that time can be later. But it is not fair to me who sleeps with a phone next to his ear to go to bed not knowing that all my children are safe and at home at an appropriate hour. I prefer to be the LAST one asleep AFTER all my children are tucked in bed and sleeping. I understand that it may not be realistic all the time. But that needs to be the exception and not the rule. If you aren’t 100% sure how this applies to you then please get it clarified, in writing.

If for half a second you are thinking that these conditions are unfair or unrealistic then I am sorry... Please don’t confuse the fact that we trust you with the fact that we do not want you in an environment where the above goes on. Those are our values and until you are independent (out of the home and supporting yourselves) we make the rules.

To summarize:

1) You may not go anywhere you know inappropriate activities will be taking place.

2) If you are somewhere and this is happening you need to contact us immediately and leave.

3) When you aren’t where we know you will be you need to tell us before you leave where you are going (if your phone isn’t or won’t be available).

4) We expect you home for curfew (if you aren’t sure when that is then it’s a lot earlier then you think...) IF you want to extend your curfew you need to ask BEFORE you even leave the house AND get an answer.

We love you and care about your health and well-being. We have many more years of experience and have had other teenagers before you. I know that “times change”. We have and can be flexible, when appropriate but most of the above are guidelines with zero flexibility.

One more thing. Needless to say, participating in any of these acts themselves isn’t allowed... I am referring to the drinking, smoking and illicit behavior. In those areas we do TRUST you guys and you have not let us down. As you get older we recognize that the peer pressure to “try this” or even hold a drink or cigarette (not even inhaling) will likely occur. These social pressures can be overwhelming. We know it’s out there. We know it’s not isolated. We don’t want to question your judgment or question our trust... It’s VERY hard to always “do the right thing...” but that is why we TRUST you...

Please acknowledge and accept these guidelines.”
All good advice!

Fear G-d, Not Men

by Moshe Feiglin

“And the midwives feared G-d and they did not do as the King of Egypt said to them and they kept the children alive.” (From this week’s Torah portion, Shmot, Exodus 1:17)

Time and again, fear of G-d ensures life. The Israelite midwives in Egypt are not willing to murder the baby boys who they help deliver. But it is not their natural mothering instincts that compel them to defy the directive of the Egyptian tyrant. It is a different quality that saved the babies – fear of G-d.

When Joseph calms his frightened brothers before he imprisons Shimon, he provides them with a guarantee that he will not kill them: “And Joseph said to them on the third day, Do this and live, I fear G-d.” (Genesis 42:18)

When Avimelech asks Abraham why he didn’t tell the truth about his wife, Abraham answers with complete honesty: “And Abraham said, ‘Because I said, just that there is no fear of Gd in this place and they will kill me due to my wife.'”

Where there is no fear of G-d, there is murder.

Fear of Heaven is the cure for all the shocking murders that plague us.

But we also learn something else from the midwives. “And they did not do as the King of Egypt said to them.”

Where there is fear of Heaven, there is no fear of the cruel king. A person who has fear of the true King is not afraid and does not obey the criminal orders of a king of flesh and blood. Blind obedience is actually a lack of fear of Heaven.

There is another lesson that we learn from the short story of the midwives. For some reason, Pharaoh does not punish them. Pharaoh is a precursor of Hitler, may his name be blotted out. Our Sages’ depictions of his cruelty are hair raising. But the midwives – two women who defy the king – get out unscathed. Why?

“And all the nations of the earth will see that the Name of G-d is called upon you and they will fear you.” (Deuteronomy 28)

When a person fears Heaven, the nations of the world fear him. Even the all-powerful Pharaoh does not dare harm the midwives.

Shabbat Shalom.

Rabbi Ari Kahn: Forgetting -and Remembering -Yosef (video)

The Yishai Fleisher Show: Rage Against the Regime

God could make Redemption come about by Himself if He wanted to - He can do anything! But God wants mankind to choose Redemption, to want it themselves. Rabbi Mike joins Rabbi Yishai to usher in the Book of Exodus, and the first great redeemer - Moses!

What is the Problem with Moshe Feiglin? Debate on Limits of Protest (video)

Excellent piece. Moshe at his best.  Be sure to turn on the captions icon at the bottom of the screen. The answer to the question in the title is at 7:56, if you're in a hurry.  

Video: Moshe Feiglin on Fascism and the Rule of Law (eng subs available)

Fulfilling the Torah as a Nation and Letters from my Critics

BS”D 

Parashat Shemot 5778
by HaRav Nachman Kahana


HaShem appears to Moshe at the “burning bush” with a message of hope and salvation (Shemot 3:7-8):
(ז) ויאמר ה’ ראה ראיתי את עני עמי אשר במצרים ואת צעקתם שמעתי מפני נגשיו כי ידעתי את מכאביו:
(ח) וארד להצילו מיד מצרים ולהעלתו מן הארץ ההוא אל ארץ טובה ורחבה אל ארץ זבת חלב ודבש אל מקום הכנעני והחתי והאמרי והפרזי והחוי והיבוסי:
7) And HaShem said, “I have indeed seen the suffering of my people in Egypt. I have heard them cry out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.
8) So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the present place of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites…


In this initial revelation to Moshe (3,7-8) HaShem refers to the people and to the land. The spiritual Torah factor is alluded to only in verse 12:
(יב) ויאמר כי אהיה עמך וזה לך האות כי אנכי שלחתיך בהוציאך את העם ממצרים תעבדון את האלהים על ההר הזה:
And HaShem said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
Then again in verse 17 HaShem refers to the people and to the land but with no mention of Torah:
(יז) ואמר אעלה אתכם מעני מצרים אל ארץ הכנעני והחתי והאמרי והפרזי והחוי והיבוסי אל ארץ זבת חלב ודבש:
And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the place of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’

The message HaShem is resonating is obvious: In order for HaShem’s holy Torah to be fulfilled in this material world there are two priorities: a people who are spiritually orientated, and a specific land where the Torah will be fulfilled in all its glory, not as individuals but as one nation under HaShem.


The challenges and failures of leaders

Misrash Raba, Shemot chapter 5, informs us that Moshe and Aharon, together with the “Zekainim”, the elders of the Jewish people, made their way towards Paro’s palace to present their demands. However, one by one the elders left, each with his cowardly excuse, so that in the end only Moshe and Aharon confronted the evil and dangerous Paro.

The Midrash relates that HaShem exacted punishment on the elders when they ascended Mount Sinai with Moshe and Aharon to receive the Torah. HaShem commanded the elders to descend and stand at the foot of the mountain with the “common” people. They experienced disgrace, embarrassment and degradation for having previously deserted the people they were chosen to lead.


Letters from my critics

Following are extracts from three critical messages which I received in the last few days in response to my weekly articles (I also receive complimentary letters at a ratio of about 100 to 1 in my favor).

Letter #1:

“I read your comment about fake Jews or real Jews with fake beliefs. You lambasted those who had not yet made aliyah as having fake beliefs. May I tell you, please, that this does not help anyone, nor is it toradich. Yes, there are many sincerely observant Jews in galut, particularly in USA, who have not yet made aliyah. Many many who love Israel and would like to but feel that they are unable. For you (and others) to lambast them for not doing so, and for unjustly and wrongly criticizing them for “fake beliefs’ is a serious lashon hara. You are certainly not looking for their good points as we are advised by the great tzadik, Rebbe Nachman m’Breslev …. if you want geulah…and if you want Jews to make aliyah, then honey is more effective than vinegar…. Do you want to know what really helps is reaching out to our fellow brothers and sisters with ahavat Yisrael, even ahavat chinam, which is what will build the 3rd temple mamash. Finding their good points, encouraging them in Torah umitzvot and in traveling to visit Israel and hopefully make aliyah. Reaching out to them that way is what will really build the temple within our hearts and then it can be built in Jerusalem B”H.”

Letter #2

“In your op-ed two days ago you are condemning so many Jews who still live in galut. You may not be aware of it, but very many of us are very eager to come, and we are nowhere as rich as you seem to think. It is very difficult to make aliyah through the normal process, and even harder for people who are older than 40. We are told that it is almost impossible to find paid work, and we need to bring a small fortune to be able to subsist… Please do not condemn all of us, some people may be reluctant because they have a very comfortable life style in the Western countries, but that is not the situation for all of us.”

Letter #3

“Rabbi Kahana,

Please allow me to speak my truth (with enormous respect for your work and you).

I must state for a record, that I fully disagree with your statement in your late article where you suggested that nothing should be done for Jewish in Galut and this (Eretz Yisrael) is only matter of love (not of convincing), as love for a panting.

No. No. No. Why? I am that Jew from Galut. And this is not ONLY a matter of love. But a matter of education. Matter of knowledge. Matter of understanding as well.

By the grace of Hashem you were born into the family who always ” knew” about what does it means to be Jewish, about G-d, and about Israel. Consider yourself lucky, fortunate or any way you wish. Privileged???

But in that “silver spoon” upbringing as a Jew….do not forget millions and millions of others….someone like me. Who were brought up in total darkness.

Do you want to know my truth of how I know about Israel?

First time I learned about Judaism was at age 15, when at school boys cut my new coat that my dad just brought from his business trip to Baltic’s republics. It was a beautiful red leather coat.

But they not only ruined my coat. They also left a note that said: ” Hey Shidovka (Jew) get out from our land. Go home to your Israel”.

They knew that my home was in Israel. I did not. They did. Fair? Right? Learning by hate! Well, hate of others can be a very powerful teacher.

I learned about your work and you much later. Your work gave me, to my husband so much support.

That is why I am asking you today to reconsider your statement and corrected it. On behave of Jews like me ….and I believe there are many of us …you must revise it.

We must keep calling, educating and most of all keep loving them and showing them a way to Home.

You may not understand it fully …but you are a lighthouse for someone like me. And… The Lighthouse should never stop being a beacon for those who are lost at the sea!!! Never!

May Hashem has a mercy on all of his children, on all of us. May we all be at Home and at peace with each other. May we all be written on the good (credit) part of the book.

Thank you for listening.”


A personal reply to my critics

Dear friends who have taken the time to express your feelings on the critical issue of aliya and the tone and text of my messages.

Life in not a kindergarten where the teacher strokes the heads of the sweet little kiddies and gives them sweets. Life is a very short and narrow bridge; where a slip could send one hurtling down into the rapids from which return is very improbable. Eighty percent of our forefathers in Egypt chose not to leave and they died. Six hundred thousand men refused to enter the land with the Meraglim and they died. Great numbers of Jews who could have left Europe and come here in the twenties and thirties did not do so, and they died.

I don’t live on the moon, nor in a closed cave somewhere in the Judean desert. I am perfectly aware of what is happening in the galut of America, having been born there and gone through the best Torah education that they could have offered.

My wife and I came on aliya in 1962; five years before the Six Day war. Our way was not paved with roses, nor were we welcomed on a red carpet. We came with 1800 dollars, and lived in a third-rate wooden hut in Moshav Nechalim. The hut was hot in summer and freezing in the winter. We entered the hut and saw that grass had grown through the floor so the first day we spent with scissors in hand.

We experienced wars (I served 22 years in the reserves) and difficult economic times, which are a thing of the past in today’s modern Israel. No oleh today will have to experience what we went through. My wife Feige, who was born and grew up on the West Side of Manhattan is one of the most courageous and loyal people I know. Never once in our 55 years in Medinat Yisrael did she ever voice a complaint; but has always been a bulwark of support and strength.

But to be frank, I understand and even empathize with the call for moderation in my messages. The rank and file of Jews in the galut are not the true target of blame. The real blame is a repeat of what we experienced in Egypt; with leaders who fled their responsibilities. Each one retreating to the comforts of their lives rather than joining with Moshe and Aharon in implementing their responsibilities as Jewish leaders.

There is a popular saying that when the owner is angry with his flock of sheep he blinds the lead sheep, which then leads them all over the cliff.

The accordance of Eretz Yisrael to a secondary status by contemporary religious leaders in the galut is the greatest hindrance to the Jewish nation’s spiritual advancement since the time of the Meraglim (spies, scouts). In the best of cases, religious education in the galut presents living in Eretz Yisrael as a mitzva of choice, rather than one which is incumbent upon each Jew.

This one single issue of aliya to Eretz Yisrael and the negative, and in the best case, ambivalent attitude of religious leaders in the galut serves as the lock that denies entrance for countless numbers of Jews to an authentic Torah life.

For many Jews, the message is clear (albeit incorrect). They reason that if the gates to Eretz Yisrael are open, and yet such religious people refuse to enter, it must mean that Judaism is a “pick and choose” religion. God gave us the Holy Land, according to the Bible, so if these holy people prefer to remain in the galut, the conclusion is that the whole Torah is “pick and choose”. Hence, one may choose not to abide by Shabbat, or choose not to adhere to the laws of kashrut, or to marry a gentile. Just as long as he remains a good Jew. Reform and Conservative Judaism are super-sensitive to the nuances arising from the Orthodox communities in the galut, where Torah is studied. Chassidic sects pitch their tents where great citadels of learning Torah dot the land.

Another conclusion arises from the Orthodox leadership in the galut. If one presents you with the keys to a brand-new Lexus, but you refuse to enter it, you either reject the giver or reject the gift, and probably both.

HaShem presented the Jewish nation with the majestic gift of Medinat Yisrael. But if you do not reside here, the conclusion is that you reject the Giver or you reject the gift. Both are very bad choices.

Shabbat Shalom,
Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5778/2018 Nachman Kahana

Rav Kook on Parashat Shemot: "I Will Be Who I Will Be"

Moses was not happy that he had been given the task of leading the Jewish people out of Egypt. He foresaw many of the challenges involved, including the difficulty in gaining the trust of the Hebrew slaves.

“So I will go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers sent me to you.’ They will ask what His name is - what should I tell them?”

God replied to Moses:

“'I Will Be Who I Will Be.’ This is what you should tell the Israelites: ‘I Will Be’ sent me to you.” (Ex. 3:13-14)

What do these peculiar names - “I Will Be Who I Will Be” and “I Will Be” - mean? Also, it appears that God gave Moses two different answers. Which name was Moses to use in identifying God to the people?


I Will Be With You
The Talmud in Berachot 9b explains God’s response as follows:

“Go tell the Israelites, ‘I Will Be Who I Will Be.’ ‘I Will Be’ with you in this exile, and ‘I Will Be’ with you in future exiles.”

Moses exclaimed,

“Master of the Universe, we have enough problems already! Why mention future suffering?”

God agreed. “Go tell them ‘I Will Be’ sent me to you.”

This explanation, however, creates new difficulties. Did God need Moses to explain human psychology to Him? Did Moses understand the people better than their Creator?


A Guide for All Times
God’s message to the Jewish people was that the Torah and its mitzvot would enable them to attain their highest state of being. The Torah would guide them throughout history, in all situations, whether they were a subjugated people in exile or a free people in their own land.

God wanted the people to know that the redemption from slavery in Egypt was not a one-time rescue mission. They were leaving Egypt in order to receive the Torah at Sinai. The Divine name “I Will Be Who I Will Be” was meant to convey a fundamental message: the Torah is a guide for all times, a path that would sustain the people even during future exiles and troubled times.

God never intended, however, that Moses would use this name. Moses was not supposed to explicitly mention future exiles and further dishearten a downtrodden people. Rather, Moses was to tell them the shorter name, “I Will Be.” The subjugated nation would be informed that God is with them now - “I Will Be” with you in this exile, and I will redeem you. And they would understand that the Torah will also guide their lives when they will live as an independent nation in their own land.

Implicitly, however, the name “I Will Be” contains a deeper message. As a free people in the Land of Israel, the Torah would prepare them to be an eternal nation, overcoming the challenges of future exiles. “'I Will Be’ with them in this exile; and ‘I Will Be’ with them in future exiles.”

Obama Betrayed the Iranian People; Trump Stands with Them

by Majid Rafizadeh

• As a long-time Iranian, I can tell you that the support of the US and President Trump is invaluable to the ordinary Iranians: they feel helpless and alone in the face of the monsters who have been oppressing them for so long.
• On Persian social media outlets and apps such as Telegram, which is extremely popular among Iranians, people are cheering the US support. People are asking the US to support them in other ways as well, in addition to helping them bypass the internet-blocks and shut-downs that the Iranian regime recently implemented.
• If the Iranians succeed in changing this Islamist regime, it will bring down the highest state sponsor of terrorism, the leading regime in human rights violations, the top state sponsor of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitic propaganda. Iran, with its current regime, is a danger not just to its long-suffering people, but to everyone. These protesters, who are flooding the streets and demanding that their voices be heard, are committing acts of heroism that will be felt throughout the world and throughout history.

Protesters on Valiasr Avenue in Tehran, Iran this week. (Image source: VOA)

Remember, just eight years ago, that the people of Iran rose up in their millions against their Islamist dictatorship. The US administration at the time stayed abhorrently silent. People on the streets chanted, "Obama, Obama, are you with them [mullahs] or with us?"

Washington did not offer support. The administration's dismissal not only enabled the mullahs brutally to crush the demonstrations with impunity; the mullahs were even rewarded with a deal that would enable them to have a legitimate nuclear weapons capability down the road, as well as billions of dollars.

Obama and the Iranian regime sold the world the idea that the nuclear agreement, appeasement policies towards the mullahs, and the lifting of UN sanctions would supposedly help the Iranian people and make the Iranian government a constructive player. All facts show, then as now, that the opposite took lace

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Palestinians: Always on the Wrong Side

by Bassam Tawil

• Palestinians also took to the streets to celebrate the 9/11 attacks carried out by al-Qaeda.
• Another sign of Palestinian support for dictators and terrorists emerged in August 2017, when President Mahmoud Abbas sent the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-Un, a telegram congratulating him for "Liberation Day."
• Something good has come out of the fiasco surrounding the Palestinian ambassador's association with a global terrorist: The Indians realize now that Israel is their ally in the war on terrorism -- certainly not the Palestinians, who again and again align themselves with those who seek death and destruction.

Tarek Fatah, a Canadian-Indian writer and liberal activist who was born in Karachi, Pakistan, tweeted: "Palestinian Ambassador to Pakistan, Walid Abu Ali, joins wanted jihadi terrorist Hafiz Seed on stage. Was the Palestinian Authority aware that Hafiz Saeed is the man who ordered the 2008 Mumbai attacks? Did the Palestinian Authority authorize this validation of India's enemy No. 1?" (Image source: Tarek Fatah/Wikimedia Commons)

The Palestinians have an old and nasty habit of placing themselves on the wrong side of history and aligning themselves with tyrannical leaders and regimes. Every time the Palestinians make the wrong choice, they end up paying a heavy price. Yet, they do not seem to learn from their mistakes.

The latest example of Palestinian misjudgments surfaced last week when the Palestinian Authority "ambassador" to Pakistan, Walid Abu Ali, shared a stage with UN-designated terrorist and Jamat-ul-Dawa leader Hafiz Saeed.

The two men appeared together at a rally that was held to protest US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Thousands attended the rally in Rawalpindi, which was organized by the Defense of Pakistan Council, an alliance of religious parties dominated by Saeed's group.

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The Notion of a Palestinian “Nation” is Now Dead- Dr. Mordechai Kedar (eng. video)

In this video I explain how the notion of a Palestinian "Nation" was born dead and now, after Trump’s official recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, it is totally dead.

Achieving Physical and Spiritual Wholeness

by HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

“The king of Egypt spoke to the chief Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shifra and Puah” (Exodus 1:15).

Rashi explains: “‘Shifra’ -- This is Yocheved, called Shifra because she would put the newborn into good physical condition [meshaperet]. ‘Puah’ -- This is Miriam, called Puah because she would call aloud [po’ah] and speak and croon to the newborn just as women do when soothing a crying baby.”

In other words, Shifra would tend to the newborn’s physician needs, and Puah would tend to the newborn’s spirit, ensuring that it receive warmth and love.

Not just infants need both their physical and spiritual needs to be met. Rather, all people, just because they are human beings, need to watch their health and simultaneously to illuminate their souls and to strengthen their spirits -- a healthy spirit in a healthy body.

Today, not just the individual must strengthen his body and spirit, but the whole Jewish People. It is true that in our generation, with the ingathering of the exiles and national rebirth, the main preoccupation of the generation has been on “rebuilding the national body,” i.e., a state that is economically and militarily strong. Even so, let us not neglect the nation’s spiritual side. Surely it was through that spiritual side that our nation survived for thousands of years, through hard times when there seemed to be no hope, and surely it is through its spiritual side that our nation will survive forever. Thus, education towards Jewish values must be strengthened on both the individual and the national level, so that all can benefit from those timeless axioms of the Torah which were passed down through the generations. Likewise, we are duty-bound to increase love and faith, for these as well are essential to our flourishing.

Through these efforts, we shall merit to see with out own eyes the realization of Ezekiel’s word (36:25-26): “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean.... A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.”

Looking forward to complete salvation,
Shabbat Shalom.

Three "Beliefs"

by HaRav Mordechai Greenberg
Nasi HaYeshiva, Kerem B'Yavneh

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Daughter of Pharaoh, the Daughter of G-d

by Rabbi Dov Berl Wein

We find many instances in the Torah where strangers, seemingly bystanders who are unconnected to the main characters and events of the narrative, play a pivotal and decisive role in the unfolding of the story. In a sense they become the catalyst for all that occurs later. The escaped refugee who comes to tell Avraham about the capture of Lot, the man who finds Yosef wandering lost in the fields in search of his brothers are but examples of this recurring theme throughout biblical narrative. In this week’s parsha the daughter of the Pharaoh plays this unknowing role in Jewish history and world civilization. Going down to the Nile with her maidservants she espies the small floating crib of the infant Moshe and she reaches out for it before the crocodiles can get to it. She thereupon sees the crying infant and even though the baby is from the Jewish slaves she takes pity upon him and secures a wet nurse for him and eventually brings him home to the palace itself where she raises him as her son. And out of this strange and unlikely sequence of events the great Moshe emerges to eventually lead the Jewish slaves out of Egyptian bondage and to bring them to Torah and eternity at the revelation at Mount Sinai. And though it is certainly God that oversees the unfolding of all human scenarios, it is through human beings making choices and decisions and behaving according to those choices that the story of humankind continues to unfold. Nothing compelled the Pharaoh’s daughter to be compassionate towards a defenseless Jewish child in danger. It was her choice and out of that choice the fate of all humanity is allowed to take a positive turn.

The tradition of the Jews is that this daughter of the Pharaoh was named Batya - the daughter of G-d Himself, so to speak. She is remembered in that her name has been given to myriad Jewish women over the thousands of years of Jewish existence. The continuing custom of naming Jewish women after her expresses the gratitude of the Jews for her life saving act and her human compassion. The Talmud teaches us that the crib floating in the river was seemingly out of her reach and yet she stretched forth her hand to attempt to bring it to her. When human beings do all that they can for a noble cause or kind deed then many times Heaven takes over and therefore her hand somehow became elongated sufficiently to bring the crib to her reach and the baby’s salvation. Again, it is this almost mystical combination of human choice and Heaven’s guidance that accomplishes this forward thrust in the story of humankind. And the Torah emphasizes that it was not sufficient for Batya to temporarily save the infant from death but that she pursued the matter of the child’s welfare to the utmost even finally raising him as her son in the royal palace of the Pharaoh. Many times we do good and compassionate deeds but we do them partially not really completing the task. The Talmud teaches us that "If one begins a mitzvah we say to him: ‘Complete it.’" Batya’s immortality is assured amongst all of Israel for her complete and voluntary act of compassion, goodness and mercy.

The Less Understandable Request

by HaRav Shaul Yisraeli zt"l

Hashem told Moshe and Aharon to tell Paroh that they want to travel for three days into the desert and bring sacrifices to Hashem (Shemot 5:3). Was there a need for Hashem to hide the fact that they were to be leaving permanently and not just bringing sacrifices and returning? Certainly Hashem was capable of getting Paroh to agree to anything. In fact, he even had to harden Paroh’s heart so that he would not agree earlier.

Perhaps the idea was not to use this approach as a way to get Paroh to agree but to teach a lesson. It was important that Bnei Yisrael should be liberated not just as an ethnic group of slaves being freed but that they were being freed as the Nation of Hashem. They also needed to know that Hashem is the one who runs His world. The idea was to break the Egyptian conception of how things are supposed to work. The Egyptian standard of success and their confidence in their civilization had to be broken. Their deities had to be slaughtered as sacrifices to the true G-d. They had to recognize that Hashem’s demands of them were just and that they were prepared to agree to His will. Even Paroh would have to acquiesce to the dictates of the King of kings.

Had Bnei Yisrael just asked for freedom from slavery, it is possible that Paroh would more easily have found the humanitarian appeal to have logic and merit. Maybe he would have found the moral basis to be gracious. Then there would not have been a theological element to the struggle between Bnei Yisrael and Egypt. It was specifically the theological basis of the conflict that needed to be the driving force in the emergence of the Nation of Israel. The world had to see that Paroh had given in to Hashem in this struggle.

Perhaps the above explains what Moshe meant when he said, amidst a bad start to his mission of freeing the nation: "From the time I came to speak in Your name, the situation for this nation has deteriorated" (Shemot 5:23). Moshe felt that the things he said, invoking Hashem, made things worse. Perhaps asking for freedom on humanitarian grounds would have been better. Paroh cannot accept, "Send My nation and they will serve Me," as this is a contradiction to what he presumed one would view as liberty.

Hashem answered Moshe: "With a strong hand, he will send them" (ibid. 6:1). It is not up to Paroh’s desires; he will be forced. Thus, the less the process of liberation makes sense, the more desirable it is.

The View From Above

by HaRav Zalman Baruch Melamed

Rosh HaYeshiva, Beit El

TZADIKIM AND YESHARIM
"And these are the names." Rabbi Abahu said: "Any time the Torah uses the term, 'these are' - it intends, in the passage that follows, to draw a line of separation between it and that which preceded it. However, when the Torah uses the phrase, 'And these are,' the personalities or subject matter next mentioned represents a continuation of, and actually an improvement on, the subject mentioned before".

In line with this principle, the verse in the Torah’s account of creation - "These are the generations of the heavens and the earth" - represents a break from the state of chaos that preceded that verse. But when it says in the Torah, "And these are the names," (at the start of the book of Shmot) the Torah is offering additional praise of the seventy souls of Ya'akov's family mentioned earlier, noting that all of them were "Tzadikim" - righteous people.

Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook notes that our forefathers are referred to in several places as "yesharim" - literally: "straight" or "upright" - people, and notes that the status of the "yesharim" is higher that the status of "tzadikim." This superiority is evident in the verse (elsewhere) that says: "A light is sewn for the Tzadik - and those of an upright heart are joyous." Rav Kook explains that Tzadikim regularly find themselves engaged in internal moral battles in which they struggle with, and eventually overcome, the pull, or inclination, to do the wrong thing. Through this process, Tzadikim succeed in ultimately performing God's will. For the Tzadik, the light is "sewn." This means that, just as a seed planted in the ground, through a path of slow growth, successive victories over tugs in the opposite direction permit the Tzadik to continually improve himself...

The lives of "Tzadikim" are thus fundamentally different than that of the "yesharim"; the latter are blessed with the ability to serve God in response to their strong natural internal desire to do good; they are people who have succeeded in turning their evil inclinations into good ones, who serve the Creator with their good and evil inclinations simultaneously. They have "arrived" in a sense, having already achieved their goal of reaching the state of joy referred to in the verse above. If, then, our forefathers were in fact "yesharim," what more can be said of them? Why must the Torah say, "And these are the names..." and thereby indicate that they were also Tzadikim?

THE PARADOX
Rav Kook explains: Although it is true that the yesharim serve the Creator out of complete, absolute cleaving and devotion, and that this is a wondrous and complete type of service of God - such people paradoxically perhaps, suffer from a lacking; that is, they lack the experience of undergoing spiritual struggles. Put another way, they have little contact with the privilege of serving God through overcoming obstacles. Thus, the Tzadik's service of God has its own special, revered, status: "And these are the names..."

Rav Kook adds that Moshe and Aharon possessed a synthesis of these two qualities - knowledge of God, which is characteristic of the yesharim, and the proper exercise of free choice, which characterizes the Tzadikim. Aharon, for instance, was a Tzadik. The symbol of this quality came in the form of his wearing the "Choshen Mishpat" on his chest; this garment represents the "dayan," the judge, who must possess the ability to properly apply his personal judgement to rule on a particular case. Moshe and Aharon were fit to be the leaders that would help redeem the Jewish people, who would serve as a bridge between the forefathers who were on the level of "knowing" God - as yesharim - and the children, who regularly, as Tzadikim, had to resolve matters through the appropriate use of their free will.

COMPARABLE TO THE STARS
The midrash also notes: "'And these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt, with Ya'akov, everyone came with his household...' Israel is comparable to the heavenly hosts: The verse at the opening of Shmot refers to 'names'; 'names' is a term used in reference to the stars, as well, as it says: 'He counts the stars by number, and gives them each a name.' So too, when the Jews descended to Egypt, the Holy One Blessed Be He counted them by number, and like the stars,called them each by name..."

Stars constitute a world unto themselves; each star is a massive entity. To us, from such a great distance, the star looks rather tiny, but in reality, each star is a giant world. The Jewish people are comparable to the stars. In our eyes, we sometimes look at a Jew and, because we are not particularly impressed by his behavior, ask: "Is he really a Jew?" But the soul of each Jew is so lofty, so profound, that when we look at him, we are really looking at him from a "great distance." As such, each Jew may look rather small, though he is really greater than an entire world. Because of the distance between our ability to perceive and the actual essence of his soul, the soul merely appears less significant...

When our sages compared the Children of Israel to the stars, they were understating their case, by making use of a comparison that is within human perception - the vastness and greatness of the stars; in truth, however, the sages mean to say that the Jewish people are at least as great as the stars. The greatness of Israel, must be measured on a completely different scale, however: We, unlike the stars, possess great spiritual powers.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Just as the stars have names, "He counts the stars by number, each one he gives a name," so too, each Jew has a name: "And these are the names of the Children of Israel..."

Rav Kook points out that in one point in the Torah, the verse states: "He accounts for the hosts by number, and calls them all by a name." The stars have one name that unites them all. Elsewhere, the Torah says: "He calls them all by names." This means that they have many names - each star boasts its own name. Rav Kook explains that the same is true for the Children of Israel: from one angle, the Jews are all part of one nation; it is for this reason that there is one name for all of the Jewish people. From another perspective, though, each tribe, and each individual, has its own independent identity...

Our portion's opening verse literally reads: "And these are the names of the Children of Israel who came to Egypt, with Ya'akov, each came with his household." Regarding this (underlined) phrase, the Zohar asks: "Since it says that the Jews arrived, it did not have to add that they came with Ya'akov, since he is part and parcel - and the leader of - the Children of Israel." The Zohar answers that the Torah is not talking about the Jewish people in the physical sense of the word, but is rather relating to the spiritual aspect of the tribes. The names of the tribes express their common roots, that the souls of their members are connected to the heavenly hosts, to the lofty Divine chariot. When the Jewish people begins its period of enslavement in Egypt, the Shechina (Divine Presence) descends there with them. God's dedication to the Children of Israel parallels his promise to their father, Ya'akov: "I will descend with you to Egypt, and I will ascend from there with you..."

EVERYWHERE, IN EVERY SITUATION
The Shechina accompanies the Jewish people everywhere, in every situation. Even in the most difficult of times, when it seems that God is not with them, He is. Even when the Egyptians are busy drowning Jewish babies, and sealing them into the walls of buildings; when terrible national traumas, even holocausts. befall us - still, and perhaps most intensely then - the Shechina is with us.

The Zohar asks: Why did the prophet Yechezkel reveal everything that he saw in his grand prophecy of the Divine Chariot? The secrets of the Divine chariot are not something that should be made available to everyone!

The Zohar responds by noting that the exile of the Jews to Babylonia was more difficult than their descent to Egypt. Life was difficult before the Egyptian exile - in fact, life in Ya'akov's home was by no means simple: He first had to deal with Lavan, then Shechem, etc. Ya'akov seems to continuously be embroiled in conflicts and struggles!

As a result, the Jews began the Egyptian exile with a wealth of experience in what it means to face challenge and conflict. In contrast, the Babylonian exile began after an extended uplifting Jewish stay in the Land of Israel, a life that surrounded the Beit Hamikdash (Holy Temple) - where the reality of an ongoing set of ten miracles was accepted as a matter of routine! Divine Providence clearly manifested itself through the fire on the altar never waned, the continuous burning of the Ner Tamid, the eternal light. Consequently, the descent into the subsequent Babylonian exile was especially shocking and unsettling for our people.

God thus appears to Yechezkel, making him aware that He is with him in his exile - even though He seemed "hidden." Had the prophet stated that he saw a chariot, without giving details as to what he exactly saw, his words would not have been compelling, and the Jewish people would not have been sufficiently strengthened and encouraged by the prophecy. Thus, says the Zohar, it was imperative that the prophet become privy to - and report on - all the grand images that he witnessed. In a similar way that He relates to the stars - on both the "macro" and "micro" levels - God has tied His destiny to the Jewish people as a whole and to each and every Jew in particular, accompanying us through all the crises and difficulties that each individual must face.

Time to Start Imagineering a Post-Ayatollah Iran

A concerted effort on the part of Iranian citizens rioting, backed by cyber warfare, American air-power, and Israeli counterintelligence operations, would succeed in taking down the brutal Iranian regime. The hour of truth is now. It’s time to start imagineering a post-ayatollah Iran.

Over the years, I’ve written about Jewish indigenous rights to the Land of Israel, and how Israeli foreign policy should support the non-Arab/Muslim indigenous minorities throughout the Middle East and North Africa – such as the Kurds – and roll-back the 7th century Arab/Muslim imperialist conquest of the region. To help create a New Middle East.

Now, because the Iranian people are voting in the streets, it’s time for it’s corollary, a post-ayatollah democratic Iran. Something that would greatly benefit the Iranian people, America, Israel, the West in general, and all the peoples of the region. And, disengage Iran from North Korea; George W. Bush’s “Axis of Evil.” See my “North Korea: The Israeli Connection” to better understand their relationship.

The last couple times there were large protests against the government in Iran in 2009-2010 and again in 2011-2012, the Obama administration wasted its opportunity to help liberate the Iranian people from the mullahs, and put the nuclear facilities in the hands of level-headed people.

Judith Miller, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and adjunct fellow of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, in a recent interview stated, “...that might have happened in 2009 if Pres. Obama had lent any support. Pres. Trump is now in this. I’m hoping the Iranian people get rid of this regime...this is the most serious set of protests since 1979.”

Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Bush and Obama agrees, Retired Adm. Mike Mullen, wants the Trump administration to not make the same mistakes as the Obama administration, and fully back protesters in Iran.

Reza Pahlavi – Crown Prince of Iran and son of the late Shah – see’s the historic opportunity and has called on the people of Iran to participate in acts of civil disobedience, similar to Lech Walesa/Poland, Nelson Mandela/South Africa, and what occurred during the fall of the Soviet Union and Berlin Wall.

Alireza Jafarzadeh, an active dissident against the Iranian government, formerly the chief congressional liaison and public spokesperson for the US office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, and best known for revealing the existence of clandestine nuclear facilities in Iran in 2002, stated that, “riots have broken out in over 80 cities throughout Iran.”

In a recent interview, Jafarzadeh explained that the riots started because of the economic situation, and accusations of corruption against the regime, and quickly morphed into an anti-Khamenei, anti-Rouhani, anti-regime movement. He stated, “people see the money that came from America, from Obama’s Iran deal, that the regime had promised would help improve people’s economic situations, going instead, to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, to Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain, Gaza and Lebanon.”

Jafarzadeh said the Iranian people do not support the foreign interventions and terrorism that the government has been involved in. He claimed that, “The situation now is more serious than in 2009, because, leaders of the regime are divided themselves.” He called on the West to designate the leaders of the regime as, “major violators of Human Rights,” and weaken the regime further by applying new sanctions to it.

The Trump administration can do a lot to bring about regime change in Iran, and they shouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of this G-d given window of opportunity.

“Big protests in Iran,” Trump tweeted. “The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any longer. The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations!”

And then Trump tweeted, “Iran is failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama Administration. The great Iranian people have been repressed for many years. They are hungry for food & for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted. TIME FOR CHANGE!

Israeli PM Netanyahu echoed Trump’s sentiments in a video posted to his Facebook page saying, “Brave Iranians are pouring into the streets. They seek freedom. They seek justice. They seek the basic liberties that have been denied them for decades. Iran’s cruel regime wastes tens of billions of dollars spreading hate,” in the region. “This money could have built schools and hospitals.” Netanyahu continued, “This regime tries desperately to sow hate between us. But they won’t succeed. And when this regime finally falls, and one day it will, Iranians and Israelis will be great friends once again,” (as before the 1979 Islamic Revolution).

US Vice President Mike Pence also tweeted support for the protesters, saying “We will not let them down.”

But, ‘vicious’ tweets and Facebook videos won’t do it. In his recent national security speech Trump said, “To counter Iran and block its path to a nuclear weapon, I sanctioned the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for its support of terrorism, and I declined to certify the Iran Deal to Congress.” With Iranians now rioting in the streets, America must step-up to the plate and commit itself to absolute victory in Iran, using it’s massive firepower, for the good of the world.

As Trump said, “A nation that is not prepared to win a war is a nation not capable of preventing a war.”

Open US support for the Democratic Revolution in Iran, the protesters, backed by American air-cover to prevent Iranian security from mowing them down, would go a long way. Add to that, missile strikes against selected command-and-control systems, nuclear facilities, government media outlets, and other selected infrastructure, and you have a lethal combination, to empower the Iranian people to overthrow their ayatollahs.

Israel’s contribution can be significant too. Remember Stuxnet, the malicious computer worm – uncovered in 2010 by Kaspersky Lab – it was responsible for causing substantial damage to Iran’s nuclear program up to that point. The worm was believed to have been a jointly built American/Israeli cyberweapon. Israel is one of the acknowledged world leaders in cyber warfare.

And, according to Ronen Bergman, senior correspondent for military and intelligence affairs for Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s Mossad, has been carrying out counterintelligence operations for some time in Iran, including sabotage and the assassination of nuclear scientists and others, involved in Iran’s nuclear program. Bergman in the past justified the operations, citing former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who regularly said that Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth. Ayatollah Khamenei and others continue in his footsteps.

Bergman said, refering to Meir Degan, the former chief of the Mossad, “… he hung a photograph behind him, behind the chair of the chief of Mossad, And in that photograph you see – an ultra-orthodox Jew – long beard, standing on his knees with his hands up in the air, and two Gestapo soldiers standing beside him with guns pointed at him. One of them is smiling...Degan used to say to his people and the people coming to visit him from CIA, NSA, etc, ‘Look at this guy in the picture. This is my grandfather just seconds before he was killed by the SS,’ we are here to prevent this from happening again.’”

So, one can understand Israel’s high motivation to bring down the mullah regime in Iran.

Supporting the creation of a pro-western independent Kurdistan bordering Iran, as a bulwark to help prevent a pro-Iranian Shiite Crescent, from Iran through Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, to the Mediterranean, should be of immediate interest to policy makers in America, Israel, the Sunni Arab Coalition, and the West. So too, should they actively resist, Iranian penetration of neighboring states, support for international terrorism, and the development of nuclear weapons.

Better yet, it’s time to start imagineering a post-ayatollah Iran. A democratic Iran, denuclearized, and welcomed back into the family of civilized nations, good to its citizens, and at peace with its neighbors. The hour of truth is now, enough poli-talk, it’s time to act!

Ariel Natan Pasko, an independent analyst and consultant, has a Master's Degree specializing in International Relations, Political Economy & Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites and in newspapers. His latest articles can also be read on his archive: The Think Tank by Ariel Natan Pasko.

(c) 2018/5778 Pasko

The Book of the Upright

by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky

To the consternation and dismay of Yosef, his father Yaakov “maneuvered his hands” to place his right hand on the younger son Efraim and not the first-born, Menashe, when Yaakov blessed both of his grandsons. Yosef protested, and Yaakov explained that he knows exactly what he is doing. Menashe will be great, but “his younger brother will be even greater and his name will be renowned across the nations” (Breisheet 49).

Efraim’s greatness, as Rashi explains, is that the world be astounded when his descendant Yehoshua stops the sun and the moon in the famous battle for the land of Israel that occurred at Bet Choron.

Indeed the narrative of that event is one of the two times in the Bible in which the book of Breisheet is referred to as “Sefer Hayashar,” the Book of the Upright. When Yehoshua defeated the Emori¸ the most powerful tribe in the land of Canaan – G-d rained on them heavy stones from heaven – Yehoshua beseeched G-d for the sun to stand still. And it did, for almost a full day, an event recorded in contemporaneous accounts of the Aztecs and the Incas, as “the day the sun didn’t rise” (read all about it in my “A Prophet for Today, Contemporary Lessons from the Book of Yehoshua;” if the sun doesn’t set in Israel, it won’t rise in the Western hemisphere). And the book of Yehoshua records (10:13): “And the sun and the moon stood still until the nation took vengeance on their enemies, behold this is written in the book of the upright.” Rashi there quotes the Gemara (Avoda Zara 25a) that the “book of the upright is the book of our forefathers, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov.” And where is this event recorded in that book? “It is written in the Torah, as Yaakov told Yosef that the descendants of Efraim would fill the nations” with discussions of their miraculous exploits.

Two questions are worth asking: why were our forefathers called “yesharim” – the upright - such that the book of Breisheet bears this name? And why was this miracle of the sun standing still in Givon so profound that even Yaakov referred to it prophetically? The truth is that it was unnecessary. The Emori were already defeated, and the miracle did not directly affect the tide of battle. Some say that Yehoshua stopped time because it was Friday (we all know the feeling of wishing the sun would stand still Friday afternoon) and he didn’t want any of the battle to carry over into Shabbat as he was now fighting for the Givonim. So why was this important?

Rav Eliezer Kastiel notes that no nation on earth has been able to sustain its nationhood and homeland without war. It’s just the way it is. And in war, each side thinks it is right and just, and usually the victor thinks it is more right and just than the loser. But this war was something else – the war for the land of Israel was the ultimate in justice and righteousness. So much so that Yehoshua wanted nature itself to testify to the world that something unnatural – the Jewish people separated from its land – was about to be rectified. Only nature itself could verify to the world that the Jewish people were home. The rotation of the earth stopped – and only restarted when this climactic battle for the land of Israel was concluded. Creation began anew. It is as if nature itself waited for the Jews to come home and establish their kingdom based on divine morality and integrity.

When it comes to “uprightness,” the world is still waiting for the Jewish people to be uniformly exemplars of rectitude. Count me in the group of people that thought Shalom Rubashkin was railroaded, selectively prosecuted, and punished more harshly because he was Jewish. And I even wrote about this injustice years ago. (See here for wonderful article about the history of this case.) But count me as well among those who found the singing, dancing and drinking celebrating his release a bit unseemly. This was justice being done – for which we should all be grateful, especially to the President – but not a hero returning home after victory in combat overseas. Notwithstanding his personal qualities, he is not Yosef Mendelevitch or Natan Sharansky. This is when we have to remind ourselves that tzni’ut (modesty) is not limited to sleeve length or skirt length but is a way of life, a value system. “Walk humbly with your G-d” (Micha 8:8). Bentch Gomeland go home to family and friends proud that you conducted yourself with dignity and faith even in prison. But it is not as if someone just discovered the cure for cancer or won the World Series.

The book of Breisheet is the book of the upright because it tells the story of our forefathers who were paragons of integrity. That is how they made their reputations, so to speak, among their contemporaries and that is their primary legacy to us, their descendants. There is a difference between yashar and tamim, upright or wholehearted. The Maharal (Netivot Olam 2:11) writes that the tamim know instinctively what to do; they walk with G-d without any calculation. Their ethical sensitivity is innate. A yashar is different. His ethical sense is honed by his sechel, by knowledge, by wisdom. He thinks before he acts – like Yaakov who “maneuvered his hands” with intelligence – and hones his moral compass.

There are very few temimim. We have to strive to be yesharim.

Our forefathers, like all of us, were placed in challenging situations that demanded rigid adherence to a core set of values as well as the consciousness that they were always standing before G-d. We have those set of values in our Torah toolkits, even if we don’t always embrace them fully. What we need more of is the consciousness that we are always before G-d, and the occasional hostility of those biased against Jews does not change that.

This is the test of our lifetimes. It is the measure of our personal lives and of the homes and communities that build. Like nature waited for the Jewish people to return home and ratified it in Givon and the valley of Ayalon, so too nature and the world await our natural embrace of integrity as the essence of the Jewish personality. Then the world will again by astonished by our goodness and the day of G-d’s kingdom on earth will be ever closer.