Where, indeed does life seem to disappear?

by Rav Binny Freedman

It was our first Masah’, our first forced march. We were barely two weeks in the army, and Itzik, a sadistic little first sergeant who had made it his mission to make us, or rather, break us into soldiers, owned us for the night.

Whenever a unit in training goes out on any maneuver without an officer, the rule in the Israeli army is that the unit has to stay within sight of the base. Officers undergo intensive training in navigation and map reading, and the point is to be sure men don’t get lost out in the field. Theoretically, this should have been good news, as it meant the distance we could cover was limited. But as we soon discovered, Itzik was not to be deterred.

We were based in a miserable little hole not far from the Mediterranean shore, and unfortunately this meant there were lots of sand dunes for them to run us through. As we soon discovered, running in sand dunes is an exercise in futility. For every two steps forward, you end up taking one step back, and the weight of the sand pulling against each step is an ever-growing agony.

In addition to our regular gear, I was carrying a twenty-liter Jerry can on my back, and this dead weight added to the agony. As it was our first Masah, we didn’t know and had not yet been told that we could switch off and take turns at carrying the heavier loads. Nor did we realize, when Itzik decided that the heaviest soldier amongst us (probably about two hundred pounds…) was ‘wounded’ and needed to be carried on a stretcher resting on our shoulders, that we could signal each other to step in to relieve us at regular intervals. These were all things we learned later, and in fact, the point of the evening was to begin our education by teaching us all the mistakes a unit could make on a maneuver….

I will never forget that feeling of despair, struggling to reach the top of a fifty-foot-high sand dune that seemed endless, the stretcher pole digging into my neck (we hadn’t yet learned to take a piece of foam from a mattress and slip it under our shirt collars…) the jerry-can threatening to pull me back down the hill.

And I still remember the look of sheer misery on my closest buddy Pinny’s face, when we reached the top of that dune, with the illusion that we had somehow made it, and there, stretched out before us as far as the eye could see, was an endless sea of sand dunes just waiting for that sadistic drill sergeant to march us through. I was sure this was the darkest point of existence I could imagine; it couldn’t possibly get any worse. I was wrong.

What seemed like hours later (I had long since lost track of time…), we finally came full circle around the never-ending base fence and could suddenly see the main gate to the base ahead of us. At this point, Itzik began to run us double time towards the base and we could sense that salvation was at hand. As we neared the gate, panting and heaving under the weight of the stretcher, every muscle screaming in agony Itzik suddenly yelled at us:

“Nu, Tashiru!” “Sing!”

And, as we drew near the base gate, our first march now seemingly under our belts, we actually began to sing! And just as we were feet away from entering the base, tents and showers almost within our grasp, Itzik screamed out those two terrible words that I will remember forever:

“Yeminah…P’nei!!” “Right… Turn!”

We turned along the outside of the base, exactly where we had started our ordeal hours earlier, and proceeded to do the entire thing all over again.

I don’t recall a single experience in my entire army career that came close to matching the utter despair of that moment, as we realized we had no idea where we were going, how long it would be till we finished, and the depressing fact that Itzik the sadist could play with us as long as he liked.

So often in life, it seems like we are just running up and down sand dunes, and we find ourselves wondering: where are we going, and how did we end up in this seemingly pointless, endless journey?

We try to set goals for ourselves, and then seem to lose track of how to get where we thought we were headed, wondering what our goals really are, why we bother setting them, and whether they are really worthwhile after all?

Does Judaism offer a recipe for how to keep life on track, and ensure we don’t lose sight of living in the midst of the struggle we call life? How can we be certain we are really getting somewhere, especially when we feel like we are just plodding through a seemingly endless routine of details, with no beginning and no end, no point of departure or destination in sight?

In order to pursue what may be Judaism’s secret to dealing with this challenge of life, it is worth discussing a particular Jewish ritual in the Jewish calendar: the counting of the Omer.

Beginning with the second night (the beginning of the Jewish day) of Passover, we begin to count the days leading up to the Jewish festival of Shavuot, which commemorates the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.

For seven weeks (49 days), every evening between Passover and Shavuot, we recite the blessing thanking G-d for the mitzvah (commandment) of the counting of the Omer, and proceed to count the first night of the Omer , and then the second night of the Omer , and so forth.

What is this ‘counting of the Omer’? What exactly is it we are trying to achieve? Sadly, for many Jews, this nightly ritual has become a detail focused on recalling which particular night of the Omer it is, and has lost any of the meaning the mitzvah was meant to inspire.

Every mitzvah we have been given is meant to be a vehicle for inspiration and motivation, helping us to become better human beings and enabling us to achieve our purpose here in this world. What then, is the message and the meaning of this strange commandment?

There are a number of questions worth considering, in attempting to understand this mitzvah, and it may well be that hidden within the ritual of the counting of the Omer is one of the most crucial messages Judaism has to offer on the meaning of life and the challenge of living it to its fullest capacity.

First of all, what exactly is it that we are counting? What is the Omer, the first night and then the second, third, etc. nights we are counting?

The Omer was actually a sacrifice of barley (the beginning of the harvest of the grain) offered up in the Beit HaMikdash on the second day of Pesach. It is from the time of this offering that we begin to count the days until the festival of Shavuot, seven weeks later. But putting aside what the actual significance of the Omer offering was, why do we count the days of the Omer? If we are counting the days till Shavuot, why don’t we just count the days? Why not just count the first day till Shavuot, and the second day till Shavuot, etc.? What is the meaning of counting the days of the Omer, an offering that by the time we are counting the last day of the Omer had been offered seven weeks earlier?

Furthermore, if we are counting days until Shavuot, why are we counting up? Why not count down?

I remember the nightly ritual in the army of one of my veteran soldiers, Chaim Berro, who, like most of the veterans in the unit who were getting close to the day they would finish their regular service, had a huge chart with each day marked in a box till the last day he was due to get discharged.

Every night, he would gather his buddies together, and make a big ceremony of marking an X in the box of the day just passed. In fact, he patterned his ritual after the counting of the Omer, and would yell out:

“ HaYom Yom….” “Today is twenty seven days, which are three weeks and six days left until Chaim Berro gets out of Hell!!”

Why don’t we count down twenty days till Shavuot, and then ten days till Shavuot, building up the excitement at the approach of the day when 3,200 years ago we received the Torah? Why do we count up?

In fact, the source for this mitzvah appears in the portion of Emor, and it is worth taking a closer look at the way the Torah gives us this particular commandment.

“U’Se’fartem Lachem, Mi’Macharat HaShabbat, Mi’Yom Havi’achem Et Omer Ha’Te’nufah, Shevah Shabatot Temimot…” (Vayikra 23:15)

“And you shall count for yourselves, from the day after Shabbat, from the day you bring the waved Omer offering, seven complete weeks…”

It is interesting to note that the day we bring (and wave before the altar) the Omer sacrifice is called here Macharat HaShabbat, the day after Shabbat. Our oral tradition teaches, however, that Shabbat here refers not to the seventh day of the week, but rather to the first day of Pesach, also called Shabbat.

This important point was the source of great controversy in Jewish history. Over two thousand years ago, a sect of Jews who believed only in the literal translation of the Bible, known as the Sadducees, understood this verse to mean that the counting of the Omer always began on the first Sunday after Passover, a point bitterly contested by the Rabbis of the time.

So, if this wording became the source of such controversy, one wonders why the Torah chose to use such ambiguous terminology. Why not just say that the counting of the Omer begins on the day after Passover? Alternatively, as is done with each of the other festivals listed here in our portion, it could simply have said that the counting begins on the sixteenth day of the first month (of Nissan), which would have left no doubt as to the day specified.

Because the Torah uses this same term to describe this day in describing the Omer offering as Omeritself (v. 11), there must be some connection between this mitzvah of the Omer and the theme of Shabbat. So, what does Shabbat have to do with the Omer and for that matter with Pesach?

It is also worth noting that the Torah enjoins us to count “Lachem”, “for ourselves”. What does it mean that we are meant to count them for ourselves?

Lastly, the Torah, concluding its description of the mitzvah of the offering and counting of the Omer, continues on to the temple ritual of the festival of Shavuot, towards which we seem to be counting.

On the fiftieth day, the culmination of the journey begun on Passover, noted with the daily counting of the Omer, now concludes with the special Shavuot sacrifice, the She’tei Ha’Lechem. This sacrifice consists of two whole loaves of bread, offered up in the temple, and clearly the goal of the entire mitzvah of the counting of the Omer.

When one stops to consider this, it is nothing short of incredible! Just seven weeks earlier, one of the central mitzvoth, and indeed one of the most important mitzvoth not only of Passover, but also of the entire Jewish year, is the injunction against chametz, unleavened bread.

So total is this ban in the Torah that not only are we forbidden to eat chametz on Pesach, we are also forbidden to gain any pleasure from it, or even to keep it in our homes. We dedicate an enormous amount of energy to rooting chametz out in all of its various forms from our homes and environment. Walk into any supermarket in Israel the day before Pesach with a bagel, and watch how seriously the Jewish people take this injunction!

(I recall the year one of our children started pulling down the butcher-block paper covering the chametz still on the supermarket shelves though sold to a non-Jew for the holiday. It nearly started a riot…!)

So how is it that seven weeks later, the same chametz, which is so terrible, is now offered up in the form of two loaves of bread, as the central offering of Shavuot?

In fact, if chametz is so terrible, why is it that immediately after Pesach, we go right back to eating the same chametz we were immersed in right before the holiday? How can we be burning and destroying chametz one day and then back in the pizza store the next? What, in the end, did we accomplish? And isn’t this the same notion of plodding up and down the sand dunes, without seeming to get anywhere?

The mitzvah of the Omer is all about counting. We are counting days and weeks; but we are really counting time.

What does it mean to count a day? We live in an age where our inbox and notifications have turned our days into a list of ‘to do’s. We think a day is a project list, but in truth we have lost sight of what a day is really meant to be.

Have you ever found yourself repeating the same script your parents were stuck in, that you swore you would never fall prey to? I think of this every time I ask my kids at the end of the day those meaningless four words: ‘How was your day?’

Has anyone ever really gotten a great answer to this question? When you ask your roommate or friend this question, do you even really want the answer?

‘Time is money’. Is this really what a day is? Is it just a unit of potential for more things, and more money? Judaism suggests that nothing could be further from the truth.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe once said that time is life. A day is a piece of life, but do we really see this? When we fall into bed at the end of another long day, do we really feel we have lived a piece of life, or have life’s endless trivialities and mundane details actually prevented us from really living?

I recall a long discussion with a housewife who finally decided to take some time for herself now that her youngest child had finished high school, and came to Isralight to join one of our summer programs in the Old City of Jerusalem.

There was one sentence that stands out in my memory. In describing what she called her mid-life crisis, and her challenge at deciding what to do with her life now that her kids were out of the house, she said:

“For thirty-five years I have been shopping, cleaning, wiping, packing, and car-pooling. So where did my life go?”

Where, indeed does life seem to disappear?

We long for purpose and meaning in our lives, and yet life somehow seems to get in the way of living! All the self-help books say you need to sometimes get away and make time for yourself, so you can really live. But is this really the answer? If two weeks a year I go on vacation, and finally get to live a little, that means that fifty weeks a year I am really not living! A sobering thought to say the least…

It is interesting to note that there is no word for vacation in traditional Hebrew, or in the Torah, perhaps because vacation isn’t something G-d created, it is something we created. In fact, the Modern Hebrew word for vacation is ‘chofesh’ or ‘chufshah’, whose root is the word cha’pes, which means to seek out, or look for something. Perhaps because many people who go on vacation, do so because their life is missing something, which they are looking for.

In fact, the reason ‘getting away’ is not really the solution, is because I can’t do away with all those mundane details in my life, even if that were the ideal. The laundry has to get done, and the dishes have to be washed, so how, within all of the seemingly mundane details of life can I make life meaningful?

How do I achieve my goals, remaining certain that those goals are good, without getting lost in the details? How do we get over all the sand-dunes, without getting so caught up in the hill above us and the weight on our backs that we completely lose sight of where we are headed and how to get there?

A fellow was taking a break to finish his prayers in the middle of his job. The foreman happened across him while he was in the midst of the Shema.

“What are you doing reading on the job?” he challenged the worker.
“I am praying”, responded the worker.

“Well, what are you doing praying in the middle of your job?” the foreman countered.

“Isn’t it interesting”, said the worker,
“That when I think of work in the middle of my prayers, no-one is bothered by it, so why can’t I think of prayer in the midst of my work?”

There is a beautiful Mishnah in Pirkei Avot, Ethics of the Fathers that says that if person, in the midst of learning Torah, happens across a beautiful tree and interrupts his learning to exclaim “Mah Na’eh Ilan Zeh”, “How beautiful is this tree!”, then “Mitcha’yev Be’Nafsho’ ”, His life is forfeit”!

In other words, allegorically, for interrupting his Torah study to admire a tree, he has lost the right to live! This is an incredible statement. What is wrong with admiring the beauty of nature, even in the midst of Torah study, after all, isn’t such a person admiring the beauty of how G-d created the world?

Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch suggests a beautiful idea: if seeing a beautiful tree is an interruption of a person’s Torah study, then he is missing the entire point. The beauty of nature is not an interruptionof my relationship with G-d; it is an extension of it.

Changing my children’s diapers, doing the laundry, and cooking dinner are not chores that prevent me from living; they are gifts, which are an essential part of the beauty of life.

And this is the secret of the Omer .

The Omer offering is an offering of barley, the coarsest of grains. Raw barley is actually animal fodder, and it is symbolic of all the seemingly mundane parts of daily living, which seem, at first glance to be a distraction from the joy of life. The challenge of the Omer , is to learn how to see all of my ‘barley’, all the chores and details which seem so insignificant, as much a part of the meaning of life, as the mountain views we love to escape to.

Imagine how different my day becomes, if, in the midst of changing my children’s diapers, I consider how many families in Israel, with an empty crib where a baby, now a victim of terror, once slept wish only for the joy and the gift of bonding with a child who needs their diaper changed. How many wives, longing for the husband who isn’t coming home anymore; wish they could be doing his laundry again, with only the dreariness of such a chore on their minds.

In fact, this may well be the meaning of the reference to Passover as the day after Shabbat. The first Mitzvah the Jewish people are given as a nation, is the mitzvah of the new moon, the lunar calendar. Because when, in the midst of leaving Egypt we became a free nation, the gift we were really given, was the gift of time.

As we have learned, a slave has no concept of the true value of time, because his time is not his own. Only when they became free did the Jewish people re-discover the gift of time. But time is not an achievement; it is a responsibility.

Now that we were given the gift of time, was what we were going to do with it. Freedom was not the goal, it was a challenge, and the festival of Pesach represents that challenge. It was not the end of the journey; it was, rather, a beginning. Hence, the day after Pesach, we begin counting the Omer . As if to say, in the midst of the headiness that must have accompanied the incredible events surrounding the exodus from Egypt, understand that life is not just the splitting of the Sea. It is also all the seemingly insignificant details represented by the barley; the animal fodder the Jews had to feed their cattle, even in the midst of the exodus from Egypt.

This of course, is the essence of Shabbat. Shabbat, more than any other part of the Jewish experience, represents the gift of time; of transforming every given moment in to the beauty of life. Shabbat is the opportunity, every week, to look back at my week, my life, and appreciate all the details.

So what is the counting of the Omer all about? I am offering up my barley, the most mundane aspects of my life, and I am marking life as a whole new experience, (a “Minchah Chadashah”, v. 16, a “New offering”), the result of appreciating the gift of the Omer .

For one week every year I desist from chametz , but only as a means to re-discover how much that very same chametz can be a gift to elevate my life. Eventually, after 49 days, I am ready to turn this chametz into loaves of bread on the altar of life.

What are these two loaves? Traditionally they represent the two types of bread: bread from heaven (“Lechem min Ha’Shamayim”), like the Manna, and bread of the earth(“Lechem min Ha’Aretz”). There is the bread in our life we have done nothing to earn. It is purely a gift from heaven. And then there is what we do with it, how we transform the gifts we are given, into gifts we give back; to those around us; to the world, and to G-d.

This is why we count up. Because the point is that we are growing every day, every minute, as a result of this relationship we can have with our ‘barley’.

Counting the Omer every night is really an enormous opportunity, to consider all the different pieces of ‘barley’ in our lives, and how much these things that seem to distract us from life, are really the essence of the beauty of every single day and every single moment.

And when one considers just how much richer our lives can be when embracing this idea, it becomes very obvious why this counting, as the Torah suggests really is “La’Chem”, ‘for us’. And, as with all the seemingly banal rituals that form the backbone of Judaism, this mitzvah is an incredible opportunity to better ourselves, to live every moment and every day to its fullest, and to make the entire world a better place to be.

May Hashem bless us that soon, all of us, as a people and as a world, may merit to see beauty in all that we do, and in everyone we are with, so that the dream of that day, when nation will no longer lift up sword against nation, may finally be realized.

Make every moment count.

Shabbat Shalom.

Harvard's Jew-Hate

All safe spaces are equal - but some are more equal than others.

by Ronn Torossian



Last month, Harvard Law School deemed Israel in a report to the United Nations as “an apartheid regime.” They issued a 22 page report claiming that Israel systematically discriminates against Palestinians and suppresses their civil and political rights.” Harvard’s report “finds that Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank are in breach of the prohibition of apartheid and amount to the crime of apartheid under international law.”

Now, the editorial board of the Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper at Harvard University, has endorsed the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. They also expressed support for Harvard’s Palestine Solidarity Committee, a student group that annually hosts an “Israel Apartheid Week” on campus. The editorial says, “We are proud to finally lend our support to both Palestinian liberation and BDS — and we call on everyone to do the same.”

One wonders if those behind said editorial of boycotting the Jewish state are concerned for their job prospects as they would be, say if they endorsed the KKK or any other form of racism. This is pure and unmitigated hatred and antisemitism. And its politically acceptable at Harvard apparently.

At Harvard Law School there is a spring 2022 class on “Law, Human Rights, and Social Justice in Israel and Palestine” taught by Ms. Salma Waheedi, who has signed a letter to “express solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom and self-determination. Israeli state violence has devastated Palestinian life through a combination of warfare, territorial theft, and violent displacement. Unwavering US financial, military, and political support has fueled an apartheid system that institutionalizes the domination and repression of Palestinians.”

For all this talk about “safe spaces” one wonders, is Harvard a safe place for Zionists and those who stand with Israel?

Today, I learned that Harvard graduate student, Cevin Soling wrote an open letter to Harvard University President Lawrence Bacow, as well as the school’s provost and two deans.

He asked why Harvard administrators have allowed its Jewish community members to be subjected to harassment and antisemitism. This includes openly permitting students to violate explicit written rules of conduct so that they could engage in various forms of provocation directed at Jewish students.

Soling, who will be receiving his fourth graduate degree from Harvard later this month is bravely one of the few standing up to Anti-Semitism at Harvard.

Soling noted,

Due to a very long history of persecution, many Jewish students and professors like to keep a low profile. Unfortunately, this approach has only emboldened antisemitic bigotry on campus. What started as clumsy activism founded on disinformation where the school failed to intervene despite students breaking of conduct codes, has evolved into something more insidious.

I had to sit through Cornel West’s final class knew that he was spewing antisemitic conspiracy theories before his lectures. Now with the Harvard Crimson editors believing their antisemitic bigotry is virtuous, things have gone off the rails. The student paper’s outsized presence combined with their editors’ self-righteous nescience is an embarrassment to everyone at Harvard whether they realize it or not, and school officials need to act.

Soling references Harvard Professor Cornell West’s claim that he was denied tenure for a position that did not offer tenure due to a cabal led by Harvard’s Jewish president, who he presumes objects to his support for Palestinians.

Soling, a former fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, noted, “For the past 15 years, there has been a deficit of quality leadership at Harvard. The administration allows manufactured problems to fester and only responds reactively. By that time, their resolutions typically satisfy no one. The school needs to accept its past mistakes and set principled precedents. This should begin with condemning the antisemitic statements of the Crimson editors followed by soul-searching to understand how Harvard students could take vocal positions on many issues they quite evidently know precious little about yet, nevertheless, think they do.”

Soling goes on to note that last year Harvard Hillel was vandalized two separate times, and a organization, Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine (HOOP), has been staging protests demanding that hummus made by Sabra be removed from dining halls. In addition, stickers have been placed on Sabra snack cups in the dining hall which read, "Warning! Sabra funds Israeli apartheid and the murder of Palestinians." He asks, “Are students free to sticker food in the student cafeteria with antagonistic political messages? If no disciplinary action is taken against the students who stickered the food, but action is taken in the future by other students with an agenda, what message do you think that sends about the permissibility of statements that target Jews?

“Occupied Palestine” is a contentious term that is offensive to many in the Jewish community. What are the school rules about naming student organizations? Are students free to name their student organizations as they choose even if the names are mendacious and conceived to target a specific people?

Shame on Harvard. Anti-Semitism seems to be one of the few forms of racism allowed. In today’s era of political correctness is Anti-Semitism allowed? Donors to Harvard should examine if they want to continue to help an institution which is increasingly standing against Israel.

The Yishai Fleisher Israel Podcast: Who was the Blasphemer?

Season 2022 Episode 19: Rabbi Yishai on the mysterious roots of the Biblical Blasphemer and why we all need to repent for that sin. Then, a simple question: where is the world heading?

Rav Kook on Parashat Emor: Kohanim and the Illusion of Death

“God told Moshe, ‘Speak to the kohanim, the descendants of Aharon. Let no [kohen] defile himself [by contact] with a dead soul among his people.” (Vayikra 21:1)

Why are kohanim not allowed to come in contact with a dead body? Why does the Torah refer to the dead person as a “dead soul"? After all, it is the body that dies, not the soul!

The Parable of Twin Brothers
In his book on mourning practices, Gesher Hachaim, Rav Tukachinsky used the following parable to explain the Jewish view on life after death:

Twin brothers, fetuses in their mother’s womb, enjoyed a carefree life. Their world was dark and warm and protected. These twins were alike in all aspects but one. One brother was a ‘believer': he believed in an afterlife, in a future reality much different from their current, miniature universe.

The second brother, however, was a skeptic. All he knew was the familiar world of the womb. Anything besides what he could feel and sense was only an illusion. The skeptic tried to talk some sense into his brother. He warned him to be realistic, but to no avail. His naive brother insisted on believing in an extraordinary world that exists after life in the womb, a world so immense and fantastic that it transcends their wildest dreams.

The months passed, and the fatal moment arrived. Labor began. The fetuses became aware of tremendous contractions and shifting in their little world.

The freethinker recognized that “this is it.” His short but pleasant life was about to end. He felt the forces pressuring him to go down, but fought against them. He knew that outside the womb, a cruel death awaited, with no protective sack and no umbilical cord. Suddenly, he realized that his naive brother was giving in to the forces around them. His brother was sinking lower!

“Don’t give up!” he cried, but his twin took no heed. “Where are you, my dear brother?”

He shuddered as he heard the screams from outside the womb. His poor brother had met his cruel fate. How naive he had been, with his foolish belief in a bigger, better world!

Then the skeptic felt the uterine muscles pushing him out, against his will, into the abyss. He screamed out ...

“Mazal Tov!” called out the doctor. “Two healthy baby boys!” 

The Illusion of Death
Rav Kook wrote:
“Death is a false illusion; its defilement is due to its deceptive nature. What people call ‘death’ is in fact the intensification of life. Because man wallows in pettiness, he pictures this increase of life in a pained, black fashion, which he calls ‘death.'”

The kohanim in their holiness are able to rise above this falsehood. Yet, falsehood and deception rule over the world. In order to overcome the illusion of death, the kohanim must limit their exposure to death. They need to protect themselves from those images that impress the soul with deceiving messages.

The word “soul” in the verse does not refer to soul of the dead person. It refers to the soul of the kohen. This is how the verse should be understood: “For the sake of the soul, the kohen shall not defile himself among his people” — for the sake of the kohen’s soul, he must distance and protect himself from death and its illusions.

(Gold from the Land of Israel, pp. 207-209. Adapted from Orot HaKodesh vol. II, p. 380, by Rav Chanan Morrison.)

"Return in mercy to Your city, Yerushalayim"

by HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

From the 5th of Iyar, Yom Ha'Atzmaut, we ascend in holiness to the 28th of Iyar, Yom. And from “With love You led the people you redeemed” (Shemot 15:13), we arrive at the higher spiritual level of “With might, You led them to Your holy shrine” (ibid.) -- Jerusalem, site of our Temple.

Yerushalayim is the heart of Eretz Yisrael, the center of its life, and it is linked to all of Eretz Yisrael. Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook, zt”l, who merited to be among the first to arrive at the Western Wall on the day of its liberation, was requested on that exciting historic occasion, to make a radio address, expressing a few words to the world. In his confident, roaring boys, he proclaimed: Let it henceforth be known to the entire Jewish People, to the entire world and all who inhabit it once and for all, that on orders from the Creator of the universe, on orders of Him who knows all human history in advance, we have arrived and returned home, and we will never leave here!!!"

Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook zt”l, with his deep and penetrating vision, foresaw the opposition -- from within and from without -- that would arise against Israel's returning to the Kotel and Har HaBayit, and his cry has echoed from then until today.

Today, the war over Yerushalayim has not ended. Our enemies have not resigned themselves to Jewish rule over Yerushalayim, and they continue to fight us, with their struggle always taking different forms. Sometimes, it involves an all-out war, like the Yom Kippur war. Sometimes it involves an intifada, and sometimes, they stealthily employ a “peace attack”, like the wretched Oslo Accords, whose purpose was the destruction of the State of Israel. And now, the current US administration plots a division of Yerushalayim.

Our enemy’s goal is to snuff out the light of the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael, and in Yerushalayim specifically. The Rabbis said, "Yerushalayim is the light of the universe," and the war over Yerushalayim is not just a physical war, but, first and foremost, a war over the revelation of G-d's light in the world. Whoever settles in Yerushalayim, building it and defending it, increases light and goodness in the world. The Jewish people and our political and military leadership need to and have an obligation to learn what Yerushalayim is, and what value it has for the Jewish people and for the entire world. Moreover, they must learn what the essence of Yerushalayim's soul is. By such means, they will draw the strength and fortitude required to face up to the struggles and battles over Israel and over Yerushalayim. On Yom Yerushalayim, we must learn and delve deeply into its meaning. We have to recognize and connect ourselves to it, and we had to go up to Yerushalayim and to rejoice in its happiness. And may we be the living fulfillment of the prayer: “Return in mercy to Your city Yerushalayim, and dwell in it as You have promised” (Shemoneh Esreh).

Looking forward to salvation,
With Love of Israel,
Shabbat Shalom.

Iran's Ayatollahs in the US' own backyard

by Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

"…. Iran is helping Venezuela build combat drones…. Iranian precision-guided missiles are being delivered to Venezuela to be fitted into advanced Iranian [predator] Mohajer drones and similar models…. Iran could provide Venezuela with parts for a future combat drone that would have an even longer range than the Mohajer-6 [reaching the shores of Florida]…."

Iran's Ayatollahs in Latin America – Quo Vadis?
*Since their February 1979 toppling of the Shah of Iran, Iran's Ayatollahs have considered Latin America, all the way to the US-Mexico border, the soft underbelly of "The Great American Satan." Hence, their intense collaboration – along with their proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas - with the leading drug cartels of Mexico, Columbia and Bolivia, Latin American terror organizations, and all staunchly anti-US governments in South and Central America: Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile. In fact, Iran's Ayatollahs have contributed to enhanced coordination among the anti-US Latin American governments. They have co-led the effort to establish joint anti-US Latin American intelligence facilities. In addition, they have recruited Latin American terrorists, training them in Iran.

*While some Western democracies have attempted to isolate Iran, the latter has entrenched itself in the US' own backyard – Latin America – upgrading its terrorist, TOC (transnational organized crime), military and para-military, intelligence and security presence there. These undertakings have been advanced by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard, its Al Quds Force (which collaborates with anti-US international terror organizations) and by Hezbollah.

*While the Western establishment assumes that Iran's Ayatollahs are a potential good-faith negotiator, Iran's Ayatollahs regard Latin America (especially Venezuela) as a platform of money-laundering, skirting financial sanctions, and facilitating access to banned materials of weapons-of-mass-destruction and nuclear (e.g., mining tantalum in Bolivia, thorianite in Guyana and Suriname and uranium in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador).

*While the Western establishment maintains that Iran's Ayatollahs are amenable to peaceful-coexistence and departure from their fanatic, global vision, Iran's Ayatollahs have been preoccupied with subverting, terrorizing and attempting to topple every pro-US Arab regime. Moreover, they have considered the destabilization of Latin America, and the erosion of US stature there, as a top priority in their anti-US strategy. They have leveraged the vast lawless areas (e.g., the trilateral border areas in South America and the jungles of Venezuela) and the widespread anti-US sentiments in the region, in order to further entrench themselves at the doorstep of the US mainland.

*The close bilateral strategic relations between Iran's Ayatollahs and the anti-US governments of South and Central America have demonstrated that an effective anti-US bloc may be established between revolutionary Islam (e.g., the radical Shiite, theocratic and repressive Iran) and Communism and radical socialism (e.g., the repressive, secular Venezuela and Cuba).

*The 40-year-old entrenchment of Iran's Ayatollahs in Latin America has brought Iranian Shite terrorism, as well as Iranian drug and ballistic technologies trafficking, closer to the US mainland.

*Since their rise to power on February 1, 1979, Iran's Ayatollahs have considered the US as "The Great American Satan," the mega obstacle on the way to advance their megalomaniacal goal, which transcends the Persian Gulf and the Middle East. Their goal – as reflected through their systematic anti-US terrorism, subversion, proliferation of ballistic technologies, school curriculum, mosque sermons and mass public processions - has been to dominate the Islamic World and bring the West, and especially the US, to submission.

Iran's Ayatollahs – anti-US Venezuela
Venezuela was one of the first countries to recognize the Ayatollahs' takeover of Iran. Iran's Ayatollahs and Venezuela have collaborated in the development of nuclear and ballistic technologies, have financed their activities through narco-trafficking and money-laundering, and have conducted joint terrorist training. Both countries have strong ties to Hezbollah and Hamas terrorists.

"….Iran’s relationship with Venezuela makes for a more dangerous Iran…. Since 2006 Iranian military advisors have been embedded with Venezuelan troops. Asymmetric warfare, taught to members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Hezbollah and Hamas, has replaced U.S. Army field manuals as the standard Venezuelan military doctrine.

According to a report published in December 2008 by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Venezuela has an estimated 50,000 tons of un-mined uranium. In the area of mineral exploration there is speculation that Venezuela could be mining uranium for Iran…. a number of Iranian-owned and controlled factories have sprung up in remote and undeveloped parts of Venezuela…. The lack of infrastructure is offset by what experts believe to be ideal geographic locations for the illicit production of weapons…. in December 2008, Turkish authorities detained an Iranian vessel bound for Venezuela after discovering lab equipment capable of producing explosives packed inside 22 containers marked “tractor parts….” There is little reason to doubt Venezuela’s support for Ahmadinejad’s most important agenda, the development of a nuclear program and long-range missiles, and the destabilization of the region. For Iran, the lifeblood of their nuclear and weapons programs is the ability to use the international banking system to make payments for banned missile and nuclear materials. The opening of Venezuela’s banks to the Iranians guarantees the continued development of nuclear technology and long-range missiles…."

"…. Iran has provided drone technology to Venezuela since 2007…. Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano said in November that Hezbollah militants active in neighboring Venezuela posed a threat to his country…. Several Colombian militias opposed to the Colombian government are active in Venezuela…. The U.S. State Department’s 2020 Country Reports on Terrorism, published in December, said that Venezuela remained a permissive environment for known terrorist groups…. It is very probable that these [Iranian] drones can end up in their hands…. Venezuela and Iran have signed deals to boost cooperation in defense and security….

Iran's Ayatollahs – anti-US Cuba
The Cuba-Iran connection began following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, when Fidel Castro was one of the first heads of state to recognize the anti-US regime of Iran's Ayatollahs.
Furthermore, an anti-American Russia-Cuba-Iran alliance was established to injure the US stature in Latin America and undermine US pressure on Cuba.

"….Iran has compensated Cuba directly for allowing it to engage in electronic attacks on the US from the island…. Iran has never failed to support Cuba on the international front in return for its intelligence services…. By the end of the 1990s, it had moved beyond simple exports to transferring medical biotechnology and, along with the technical know-how, capabilities for developing and manufacturing industrial quantities of biological weapons.

"…. Of more strategic significance is the possibility that Iranian scientists are enriching uranium in Venezuela for shipment to Iran.…Tehran’s and Havana’s shared interest in Venezuela is another source of potential concern to the West. Venezuela’s strategic position and considerable resources make it a potentially greater threat to U.S. interests in the region than the one posed in the 1960s by the Castro regime. Venezuela’s alliances with Iran, Syria, and other anti-American countries and its support for terrorist groups…are as formidable a challenge as the Cuba-Soviet alliance…. Iranian as well as Cuban personnel are advising, protecting, and training Venezuela’s security apparatus….

"Geographically, Cuba’s strategic location enabled the Islamic Republic, on at least one occasion, to clandestinely engage in electronic attacks against U.S. telecommunications that posed a threat to the Islamic regime’s censorship apparatus…. The jamming was traced to a compound in the outskirts of Havana…. Iran expanded this credit line for bilateral trade and investment projects…. This infusion of Islamic capital has strengthened the Cuban regime’s stability and reduced the risk of economic collapse…."

Cuba cooperated with Iran, to help build security architecture to protect Venezuela. The expeditionary wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Quds Force, worked alongside Cuban intelligence in Venezuela to consolidate the regime’s hold. Since 2005, Iran has extended €1 billion in loans to Cuba and is heavily involved in several projects there, including a shared intelligence station to block US radio broadcasts.

*Suspending sanctions imposed on Iran's Ayatollahs, would enable the latter to substantially bolster their support of the anti-US Latin American governments and terrorist groups, intensifying a clear and present threat to the homeland and national security of the US.

Palestinians Lie to Murder Jews; U.S. Rewards Them

by Bassam Tawil

• The terrorists and their families are saying that they actually believe the lies of the Palestinian leaders that the mosque is being attacked, violated and desecrated by Jews. They are saying that this is the reason they are sending Palestinians to murder Jews on the streets of Israeli cities.
• Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, with whom the Biden administration is currently talking, even had the gall to repeat the blood libel against Israel and Jews when he issued a statement "condemning" the murder of Israeli civilians in Elad.
• Please note: in the very same breath that Abbas "condemns" the murders of Israeli civilians, he continues to push his people to murder Jews for allegedly desecrating the holy sites in Jerusalem.
• Palestinian leaders not only normally lie to their people about the fictitious "danger" facing the mosque; they also lie to the Americans and Europeans, who continue to believe that Abbas and his team are sincere about making peace with Israel.
• Americans and Europeans additionally fail to grasp that by using the Aqsa Mosque as a pretext for terrorism against Jews, the Palestinian leaders are also aiming to rally Muslims against Western "infidels" around the world.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said that the Jews "have no right to defile with their filthy feet" the Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. "We salute every drop of blood spilled for the sake of Jerusalem. This blood is clean, pure blood, shed for the sake of Allah, Allah willing. Every martyr will be placed in Paradise, and all the wounded will be rewarded by Allah." Pictured: Abbas speaks on PA television, September 16, 2015. (Image source: MEMRI)

The Palestinian terrorists who used axes to murder three Israeli Jewish men in the city of Elad on May 5 have cited the recent violence at the Aqsa Mosque compound (Temple Mount) in Jerusalem as their main motivation for the attack. The violence began when Palestinian rioters attacked Israeli police officers at the compound with fireworks, stones and other objects during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The goal of the rioters: to prevent Jews from conducting peaceful walking tours of the Temple Mount, as has long been officially agreed.

The rioters attacked the police because Palestinian leaders had told them that Jews were planning to "storm into the mosque" during the Jewish holidays.

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Count for Yourselves

by HaRav Mordechai Greenberg
Nasi HaYeshiva, Kerem B'Yavneh

It says regarding the mitzvah of sefirat ha'omer (Vayikra 23:15-16):

You shall count for yourselves – from the morrow of the rest day, from the day when you bring the omer of the waving ... and you shall offer a new meal-offering to Hashem. From your dwelling places you shall bring bread that shall be waved, two loaves...

There are a number of unique elements here that are not found in other offerings: "the omer of the waving," "a new meal offering," "two loaves," and the command, "you shall count for yourselves." What is the message of the omer?

On the pasuk in the beginning of Shemot, "They did not heed Moshe, because of shortness of breath and hard work" (Shemot 6:9), Chazal say: "They did not heed Moshe" – to abandon their idolatrous practices. This is what Yechezkel said: "No man of them cast away the detestable [idols] of their eyes, and they did not forsake the idols of Egypt." (20:8) This interpretation is difficult, since the Torah says that they did not heed Moshe because of shortness of breath, whereas Chazal teach that it was because they were immersed in idolatry!

The sefer Gelilei Zahav explains that social nature and a national bond is something natural to every human society, in contrast to animals, where each individual cares only for itself and is willing to kill another to fulfill its personal needs. In human society, though, each person has a strong feeling to associate with his nation, and many times is even willing to give up his life for the nation's rights.

When Am Yisrael were in their land, this feeling was strong, and they would give their lives for the good of the nation and its land, more so than other nations, because this feeling among Jews, at its source, is spiritual and Divine. Chazal say that regarding Esav it says, "the souls (nafshot – pl.) of his household," whereas about Israel it says, "seventy soul (nefesh – sing.)." Israel, who serve one G-d, is one soul; the other nations, since they worship many gods, are many souls. However, from the time we were exiled from our land, the nationalistic feeling has been weakened, and everyone concerns himself only with himself and his family. Therefore, Chazal say on the pasuk, "Curse Meroz ... for they failed to come to aid [the nation of] Hashem" (Shoftim 5:23), that one who helps Israel is like one who helps Hashem. In contrast, one who is affected with the trait of self-centeredness, even if he is involved in the service of Hashem, but his intention is only for himself – it is like he is worshiping idols.

Chazal say: "Whoever lives outside of Israel is like one who does not have a G-d." Outside of Israel a person does not have nationalistic feelings, and the concern only for oneself is like idolatry.

This is what was lacking in the exile in Egypt. Each person was steeped in his own self-interests. They did not know what nationalistic feelings were, and therefore, they did not want to leave. It therefore says, "With a strong hand [Pharaoh] will send them out," because they did not want to leave by themselves. This was Moshe's concern, that they would prefer the conveniences of exile to life in Israel.

This is Chazal's intention that they did not heed Moshe to abandon their idolatry; they were steeped in the trait of self-centeredness, and did not want to throw away the idol of self-centeredness. This is what Yechezkel complained about, that, to this day, "No man of them cast away the detestable [idols] of their eyes, and they did not forsake the idols of Egypt." They repeated the sin that they did in Egypt, and did not succeed in understanding the importance of the community. Chazal say: "The son of David (i.e., Mashiach) will not come until the prutah (lit., penny) is gone from the pocket" – until the pratiut (individualism) is gone from the pocket of the heart.

The idea of sefirat ha'omer is to correct his fault. Therefore it says, "Count for yourselves," i.e., for that negative trait which is "for yourselves," your self-centeredness. You should take the barley, animal food, which cares only about itself, and wave it and rise from this low trait. Then bring a new meal-offering, which comes from wheat, human food, which has social feeling, and is concerned not only for himself. Therefore, two breads are brought, one for him and one for his friend, after correcting the seven traits, when each trait blends with the others, forty-nine in all. In this way, man rises from low depths to great heights, from the trait of an individual animal to the trait of a social person, and brings a new meal-offering, since he is made a new person.

Holy of Holies

by HaRav Shaul Yisraeli, zt"l
Rosh HaYeshiva, Mercaz HaRav
Rosh Kollel, Eretz Hemdat
Chaver, Beit Din HaGadol Yerushalayim

based on Siach Shaul, p. 340-2 

The first half of our parasha is dominated by the special laws that apply to the kohanim. The heart of these laws is summed up: "It shall be holy for you, for I am holy, I am Hashem who makes you holy" (Vayikra 21:8). This follows Parashat Kedoshim, where the entire nation is commanded to act in holiness since Hashem sanctified the entire nation (ibid. 19:2). Thus, the kohanim have an even higher level of sanctity and expectations for appropriate behavior than the rest of the holy nation.

The essence of Judaism is separation and sanctification, as the pasuk says at the end of the previous parasha: "You shall be holy … and I separated you from the nations to be for Me" (ibid. 20:26). There is separation based on nature (inherited) and sanctification based on nurture (the actions we are required to perform and refrain from). The two together make us a special group within mankind.

Judaism does not believe in absolute equality, if that includes blurring differences. Distinctions are that which enable the world to develop, and the ability to distinguish is at the root of all wisdom (Berachot 33a). We contrast, in Havdala, between light and darkness, Shabbat and weekday, and between Israel and the nations. Only these distinctions are responsible for the multi-faceted and creative elements of the world. There is a need for a nucleus of sanctity within mankind in order for the latter to function normally.

Within the holy nation, there is a group that stands out for its even higher level of sanctity. It started with Aharon, who was singled out as holy of holies (Divrei Hayamim I:23:13), first himself and continued with his descendants. When Hashem addressed the "kohanim, the sons of Aharon," it relates to their natural selection. But it does not stop at that, as they became responsible for a slew of requirements and prohibitions. These, not nature, are that which serve to fill the kohanim’s lives with sanctity. They must avoid impurity and choose their spouse with extra care and restrictions. If they do so, then "they will be holy."

Just as the existence of Israel as a special nation is not just for themselves but for the whole world, so too the kohanim’s status is for the purpose of the whole nation. That is the reason that the non-kohanim must treat the kohanim with the honor due to sacred people. The existence of kohanim is the guarantee that the whole nation will be sacred. They are needed as teachers and role models (see Malachi 2:7).

A classic example of this arises in our haftara, as the family of Tzadok is singled out as guarding the Temple, apparently both literally and figuratively, as Bnei Yisrael and other families of kohanim faltered spiritually. This is what protected the whole nation and made them worthy of distinction and reward.

What's in a Word?

by HaRav Zalman Baruch Melamed
Rosh HaYeshiva, Beit El

The Torah study is dedicated in the memory of R. Avraham ben-tziyon ben shabtai

Pure Words
On several occasions, we've spoken of the midrash at the opening of this week's Torah portion; just as we review the parsha each year, it is also fitting to review the midrash.

"'Say to the Kohanim the sons of Aharon.' Rabbi Tanchum the son of Chanilai stated: The verse in Tehilim reads: 'The words of Hashem are pure.' Does this mean to say that merely the words of God are pure, but the words spoken by people are not? Normally, when a human king arrives in a particular town to visit, all of the residents show up to greet him, showering him with honor and praise. He promises to build them bathhouses and new community facilities. But that night, he dies in his sleep. What of him and his pledges? The promises issued by flesh and blood may go unfulfilled, but the words of God, the Creator of the Universe - remain forever. This is the intention of the verse in Yirmeyahu, chapter 10, which asserts: 'Hashem, God, is True".

Short but Sweet
In the next portion of the midrash, the sages teach that it is fitting for people to speak in clean, appropriate language:"' The words of Hashem are pure'...In the Torah, God chose to write eight extra words in order to avoid using terminology which was not 100% 'clean. In the Book of Bereishit, for instance, Noach is told to choose for the ark from among 'the pure cattle and from the cattle that is not pure...' [- instead of referring to the latter group using the Hebrew term for ritually impure beasts, " Tameh." ] In disqualifying the rabbit as a pure animal, the Torah does not say that the impurity derives from the fact that the rabbit does not have split hooves, [though this is true] but rather that the rabbit is impure because it [only] chews its cud. (Vaykira 11)" The clear message of the midrash: when unpleasant things are uttered, they must be expressed in the cleanest, most honorable manner possible.

Careful: "Words Ahead"
The midrash continues:

"Rabbi Yossi of Malchiah, Rabbi Yehoshua of Sachnin in the name of Rabbi Levy said: 'During the reign of King David, there were children who, even before they sinned for the first time, knew how to engage in complex analyses of Jewish legal problems. David prayed for them, 'Guard them God' he would say, 'and save them from this generation...' - from the generation that is deserving of being wiped out. [Despite the fact that the adults and children were quite advanced in their Torah learning, we are told, the male soldiers of the Jewish population at the time often fell in war. How is this possible? It was due to the fact that there were many people among them who spoke improperly. Among them were children, real scholars, who knew how to learn Torah well, but because of gossip, the nation had a poor war record. But the generation of Achav was entirely idolatrous, but because they did not utter 'lashon hara' (gossip) - they were victorious in battle".

When we talk about being careful about speech, we're talking about two different issues. What to say, and how to say it.

First of all, it is important not to say things that need not be said. When something is in need of being said, it should be expressed using clean, appropriate language. I've mentioned on several occasions that Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook (of blessed memory) was very cautious with his words, always carefully weighing what he had to say before he said it. He would never say things in the negative, but would always couch his ideas in positive terms.

An Anecdote
When I was a teacher in the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, I was asked my opinion of a particular young man, and whether I thought he would be a suitable match for a young woman. I was a little harsh when I responded that he was an unruly, almost wild person. I later spoke to Rav Tzvi Yehuda, and asked him whether the term I used was proper or improper. The Rav knew the young man, understood what kind of person he was, and then told me that I should have said: "The boy needs to improve his personal qualities." The same idea was conveyed by this expression but it constituted a more delicate way of addressing the issue.

When one is speaking of a person who is ill, it is improper to say: "he is seriously ill" - but rather that he is in "real need of a refuah (remedy.)" The content is the same, everyone understands the person's condition, but - once again, such terminology is more delicate. When Rav Tzvi Yehuda's sister was very ill and the family knew that these were her last moments in this world, the Rav inquired regarding her condition by asking: "Does she still have some contact with the living"?

King Finds Middle Ground
On the verse later in the parsha, "An ox or sheep or goat that gives birth.." - the midrash tells of Alexander Mokdon, who arrived in a certain country in the continent of Africa, and there, he was greeted with gifts of gold by local residents. He assured them that he was not interested in gifts, but in learning how the people there adjudicated their legal cases. "Soon, two people came before the King to have a case judged." One said: I bought a plot of land, ploughed it and found a buried treasure. I came to the seller and offered him the treasure, pointing out that it rightfully belonged to him, since I purchased land, not a treasure".

"The seller refused to accept the treasure: 'Just as you are in fear of transgressing the prohibition of stealing, so am I. I sold you the land including all that was in it. 'The King asked one of them: 'Do you have a son?' He answered in the affirmative. The King then asked the other, 'Do you have a daughter?' He, too nodded his head. The King thus decided that the two children should be wed and receive the treasure as a gift. Alexander Mokdon was astonished. The King asked him: 'Why are you so surprised? Did I not decide correctly?' Alexander responded: 'You decided very correctly.' The King asked: 'How do they decide such cases in your area?' Alexander: 'Back home, the two sides would kill each other, and the treasure would be awarded to the King. The King asked: 'Does the sun shine where you're from?' Alexander: 'Yes.' 'The rain fall?' 'Yes.' 'Do you have sheep?' 'Yes.' The King said: 'Maybe it's because of the sheep that you have rain, since rain would not fall simply on behalf of people like you, nor would the sun shine for you'".

I have to say that on our yishuv, we often confront similar cases to the one above. A person comes and asks - after his neighbor has waived his own rights to some money that was at issue between them and there is no longer a disagreement - "Are you sure that I do not have to pay him?" I am regularly asked questions associated with the benefiting from money that is not ours. This is a wonderful thing, and highly praiseworthy.

The Chosen Tribe

by Rabbi Dov Berel Wein

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

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

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

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

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

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

The more you give, the more you get…as long as you give not on the condition to get

by Rabbi Pinchas Winston

Friday Night
THERE IS AN old joke that maybe you never heard, you heard but forgot, or you don’t mind hearing again. It’s about a man who who wanted to be a kohen, and approached a rabbi to ordain him for money. “You can’t buy your way into the kehunah—priesthood!” he told the man with resolve, who promptly left and went looking for a more lenient rabbi. However, the second rabbi, though tempted to take the man’s money and let the fool think he was kohen, was overwhelmed by his conscience in the end, and told the man the same thing. Frustrated, the man who would be a kohen went looking for the least scrupulous rabbi he could find, and repeated his request for the third and final time. To his delight, the so-called rabbi before him did not hesitate and granted him immediate access to the sacred kehunah by uttering some random Hebrew words the man did not recognize. The man, elated, took out his checkbook to pay his entrance fee when the rabbi asked him, “Tell me, why was it so important for you to be a kohen that you were willing to pay so much for it?” The man finished signing the check, sat back in the chair, sighed, and said, “You see rabbi, my grandfather was a kohen…my father was a kohen…so I wanted to be a kohen as well!”

Ha-ha. I often wonder how people think of such jokes, which seem kind of clever. I suspect that they start with the punchline, which came up at some point in real life, and then built the fictitious joke around it.

This last Shabbos I too bought my way into the kehunah, being only a Levi. Not really. There was no kohen in shul for Krias HaTorah, and it was a shul where they auction off the aliyos, so I bought the first aliyah. But as the gabbi made sure to call out, I was only bimkom kohen, in place of a kohen. I was still not entitled to have terumah (tithes) for Kiddush, only ma’aser rishon meant for Levi’im.

Kohanim were, are, a special breed of people. Though the Temple does not stand and kohanim cannot function in their divinely designated roles, they are still treated differently. For example, they are called up first to the Torah, they lead the bentching when there is a mezuman (at least three men over Bar Mitzvah who ate bread together), and you really should not ask them to take your garbage out for you.

Special people require special measures. It’s certainly not all fun and games for the kohanim, as this week’s parsha begins to detail. If the man in the joke knew what it meant to be a practicing kohen and how curtailed their activities were, he would have had to be paid to become one. Eisav was so disenchanted with the kehunah that he sold it, and all of its attendant rights in this world and the next one, to Ya’akov for a bowl of lentils. He lived to regret his decision, but he clearly was never cut out for the job from the start. If anything, he was the antithesis of the kehunah.

Shabbos Day
WHAT DOES IT mean to be cut out for the kehunah? There are different ways to answer this question, but the best way is to find a non-kohen who did something to become a kohen. The only person we know like that was Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aharon HaKohen. He did have to “buy” into the kehunah, even though his grandfather and father were kohanim. Since he was already born when God officially designated Aharon and his sons, and those born henceforth, kohanim, Pinchas was excluded.

But money wasn’t going to work to change the status of Pinchas. The currency to buy kohanship was of a different nature altogether.

The Torah tell us what that currency is right here:

Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aharon HaKohen has turned My anger away from the Children of Israel by his zealously avenging Me among them, so that I did not destroy the Children of Israel because of My zeal. Therefore, say, “I hereby give him My covenant of peace. It will be for him and for his descendants after him [as] an eternal covenant of kehunah, because he was zealous for his God and atoned for the Children of Israel.” (Bamidbar 25:11-13)

There you have it, succinct and specific. A kohen is someone who turns God’s anger away from the Jewish people, the main role of the service in the Temple. A kohen must be zealous on behalf of God; there is no place for selfishness or laxity in the service of God. In short, though God owns everything, He really owns the kohanim. They have to separate themselves from all else to serve Him.

Thus, the main trait of the kohanim is mesiras Nefesh, self-sacrifice for God, which is also in this week’s parsha:

You shall not desecrate My Holy Name. I shall be sanctified amidst the Children of Israel. (Vayikra 22:32)

What do we learn by the Torah adding “I shall be sanctified, etc.?” Surrender your life, and sanctify My name…And when one sacrifices oneself, one shall do so with the willingness to die, because anyone who sacrifices themself anticipating a miracle, God will not perform a miracle for them… (Rashi)

As my Rosh Yeshivah, Rav Noach Weinberg, zt”l, used to tell us, it is easy to die once for God than it is to live every day for Him, but that’s what the kohanim had to do. The average Jew might do that at different points during their day, if that. The average kohen during Temple times had to do that all day, even when he wasn’t on duty.

When Pinchas went after Zimri to end the profanation of God’s name, he did it without expecting a miracle. He could have easily been killed by Zimri in self-defense or by one of his guards along the way, but that didn’t deter him. Even worse, he could have killed Zimri at the wrong moment and been deemed a murderer, not a savior, but that didn’t stop him either.

All that mattered to Pinchas was doing what he could in the moment to fix a terrible situation on behalf of God, and on behalf of the Jewish people. And for acting like a kohen, he became a kohen, he and all of his descendants after him. And not just any kohen…

Shalosh Seudot
EVERYONE KNOWS WHO Pinchas is, and everyone knows who Eliyahu HaNavi is. But how many know that Pinchas was Eliyahu HaNavi?

The Ba’al HaTurim points this out at the beginning of Parashas Pinchas, but it is the Arizal who revealed the spiritual mechanics behind it in Sha’ar HaGilgulim, Introduction 32. He explains that after Pinchas killed Zimri and brought him out on his spear, a mob formed to lynch Pinchas. “How dare Pinchas kill a prince of the Jewish people!” they said in anger. Apparently, it was enough of a shock for Pinchas to cause his soul to temporarily leave him, though no one actually saw him temporarily die.

But when his soul returned, it did not come back alone. It returned with other souls, most notably the souls of Nadav and Avihu. The addition of their souls, since they had been kohanim when they died, already conferred kehunah on Pinchas, though it had to be officially reported and confirmed by God Himself.

The new and expanded version of Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aharon HaKohen didn’t stop there. Two more souls joined the holy mix, once called Eliyahu HaTishbi and another called Eliyahu HaGiladi. Eliyahu may have been one person, but his soul had two parts. Both of them were necessary to reincarnate into Pinchas to transform into Eliyahu HaNavi.

This is not the main point, but it needs to be explained. There are two types of reincarnation. The main one most people know occurs when a person dies and their soul returns in a new body in a different life. As long as the soul remains in the body, the person lives. When God takes it back, the person passes from this world.

The second kind of gilgul—reincarnation is less known, called ibur. The “new” soul is not the person’s, but someone else’s. This one comes while a person is already living and can leave without killing them, though the host will feel a serious spiritual letdown when it happens.

Ibur, which is what Pinchas experienced, is either to help the host person fulfill mitzvos they can’t on their own, or for the ibur soul to perform mitzvos they might have missed out on during their own lifetime. In Pinchas’s case, the ibur was clearly for him and Nadav and Avihu, who also achieved tikun through Pinchas’s life (and other iburim after him). It’s all in Sha’ar HaGilgulim and Sha’ar HaPesukim.

It’s quite ironic, is it not? Pinchas was prepared to give up his life early for the sake of God, and even did momentarily, and ended up living forever! Pinchas as Eliyahu lived for hundreds of years. After he died, he became an angel and comes back for every bris. He joins us every Pesach Seder, and he will eventually return to announce the arrival of Moshiach.

Everyone else who does not sacrifice for God all that much dies a normal death and that’s it. They might get some Heavenly help from time to time, and reincarnate without any knowledge of who they are or why they came back. Well, that’s not entirely true. We may not know exactly what to rectify, but we do know that the currency of the World-to-Come is mesiras Nefesh. And like with everything to do with God, the more you give, the more you get…as long as you give, not on the condition to get (Pirkei Avos 1:3).

Melave Malkah
Lat week was the most controversial week in the entire Jewish calendar. In the beginning the controversy was only in the Jewish world, but then in recent decades it spread internationally. It seems, historically, that when we do not resolve our internal conflicts in a timely manner, God brings outside nations to mix in to the fray.

I’m talking about Yom HaAtzma’ut, Israel Independence Day, regarding which there are many opinions. Secular Israelis celebrate it as a national holiday from work and make a lot of barbecues. Thank God they moved passed bopping each other on the head with noisy plastic hammers.

Religious Zionists celebrate the day as an integral part of the final redemption. Once they might have thought it was the redemption itself, but too much negative history has happened since then to make that seem logical. But in their minds, getting back Eretz Yisroel in 1948, even if it was built up by non-God-believing Jews. It was God giving the land back to his people after 1300 years in Arab hands.

The Charedi world has even more opinions, ranging from seeing the secular state as the work of the Satan, to complete indifference, to yes, it is a part of the redemption, but who knows which? My opinion is no secret, if you have read at least one of the books I have written on the topic of Eretz Yisroel and redemption.

For now, I am just going to share something that was shared with me recently. You may know it already, and I may have mentioned it in the past and just forgotten that I did. In any case, this is it.

One of the most famous verses to do with redemption is this one from Yeshaya:

The least one shall become a thousand, and a smallest one a strong nation; I God will hasten it in its time. (Yeshaya 60:22)

See the Gemora on Sanhedrin 98a about how this verse is understood regarding an early or last-minute redemption.

This is the interesting part. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions, in favor of the Partition Plan, while making some adjustments to the boundaries between the two states proposed by it.

What makes this vote by the United Nations so significant is what the GR”A (Vilna Gaon) said hundreds of years ago. If the Jewish people merit the final redemption through teshuvah and good deeds, then Eretz Yisroel will be handed over to them on a silver platter, and the Messianic Era will begin. If not, then it can only be given to the Jewish people by the nations of the world, as happened, the Gaon said, in the days of Koresh (Cyrus). The GR”A based himself on a verse from Shir HaShirim.

In Koresh’s time, it was only a matter of getting one ruler to sign on to allowing the Jews to return back to the land of their fathers. In 1947, there were a lot more nations to get to agree to allow the Jewish people back to their land. How was that going to happen? The Brisker Rav at that time was quoted as saying that the only reason why the UN came into existence was to make this vote possible.

The significance of the vote is greater than this when you consider the backstory as well, which I detail in my book, “Drowning in Pshat.” The undeniable Hashgochah Pratis blows the idea of it being the result of the Satan clear out of the water, especially when you consider just how convoluted Jewish history has been until now. It’s not that we lose the right to redemption. It’s that we lose the right to see how what God is doing is part of that redemption.

In any case, it turns out the gematria of “hasten in its time—achishenah b’ittah” is 850. If you recognize this number, it is because it is two less than the gematria of the word v’noshantem, 852. As Rashi explains, if God had waited until the 852nd year since entering Eretz Yisroel, the Jewish people would have been destroyed because of their sins. Instead, God destroyed the Temple and exiled the people two years earlier so they could be saved, and eventually redeemed (Rashi, Devarim 4:25).

What is also significant is that the Jewish date of the UN vote was Kislev 16, 5708. If Kislev is spelled with a Yud, as it is supposed to be and is here:

The words of Nehemiah the son of Chacaliah. And it came to pass in the month of Kislev [in] the twentieth year that I was in Shushan the capital. (Nechemiah 1:1)

The gematria is 16 (day) + 126 (Kislev) + 708 (the year less 5000 which we ignore since that number only changes every millennium), or 850, the same as the gematria of achishenah b’ittah. (As an aside, Nechemiah was the appointed governor of Eretz Yisroel during the beginning of the Second Temple period. He was instrumental in rebuilding the defenses of Jerusalem, and provided stability and management to the returning Jews from Bavel, where the Jews were first exiled.)

What does this mean? What should it mean?

That will depend upon which group you subscribe to regarding the events of Jewish history over the last 100 years or so. Actually, you might as well go back over the last 4,000 years, because it’s all one history, quite convoluted, and filled with many examples of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The knowing heart will get its facts straight before forming an opinion and choosing its reaction. At the end of the day, you only have to answer to God, Who was the One who apolitically said:

I am God, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be a God to you. (Vayikra 25:38)

Hamas Must Be Destroyed

by Victor Rosenthal

Whoever has a gun should prepare it, and whoever does not have a gun should prepare his cleaver, axe, or knife. – Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, 30 April 2022.

Nothing characterized Jewish life everywhere during the two millennia of diaspora more than the contingency of it. There were good times, bad times, and worse times, but unless some non-Jewish power protected them temporarily – and it was always temporary – anything could be done to the Jews. Their property could be stolen, their women violated, their homes burned. Over and over.

In her article Nostalgia for a Slaughterhouse, Phyllis Chesler contrasts the reality of the turn-of-the-century shtetel with the sentimental picture of Anatevka presented in Fiddler on the Roof, and quotes researcher Irina Astashkevich’s description of the second day of the pogrom, after the Cossacks and the Jews’ gentile neighbors had already stolen everything of value:

The carnival of violence, complete with scenes of torture, rape, and murder, played out on the second day of the pogrom as ‘celebratory street theater.’ Pogrom perpetrators purposefully drove Jews into the streets and hunted down their victims … acts of torture took place in front of an audience of pogrom perpetrators, the local population, and frightened Jews. The ritualized violence reiterated the previous pogroms, but often in a more grotesque and horrifying form. The elderly couple, Yudko Gurshevoy, aged seventy-five, and his wife Bruckha, mad with fear, were stripped naked and forced to run through the streets as hunted animals, cheered by the Cossacks. Pogromschiki bayoneted their victims, careful not to kill them, but to leave the wounded to suffer and bleed to death in agony that lasted sometimes for several days. Elderly parents were left to die, while their families were not allowed to help them … Pogromschiki made sure that all the apothecaries were wrecked, and there was no medical assistance; the only remaining non-Jewish medical practitioner was strictly prohibited to provide any help to the Jews on pain of death.

Astashkevich notes that in the Pale of Settlement during the period 1917-21 there were “over a thousand pogroms in about five hundred localities.” Anyone who has even a sight acquaintance with Jewish history knows that similar happenings were common everywhere and at any time in the Christian and Muslim worlds that the Jews inhabited, always as a powerless minority. Blood libels that triggered anti-Jewish riots were common during the medieval period, and have continued into the 21st century.

In June of 1941, Jews had lived in Iraq for more than two millennia, since the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. The Babylonian Talmud was composed here. But here too, Jewish life was always contingent. And in June of 1941 it came to an end in the Farhud, a bloody pogrom inspired by a pro-Nazi regime. Official estimates of the number of Jews murdered are in the range of 100-200, but more recent evidence indicates that the true number may be closer to 1000. The number of raped and maimed is unknown. In any event, it was the beginning of the end for the Jewish presence in Iraq; and in 1952 almost all of the remaining Jews were ransomed by the Israeli government and airlifted to Israel, forced to leave behind (as always) their possessions, including businesses and real estate worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The custom, indeed the institution, that it is always open season on the Jewish people, reached its zenith with the Holocaust, which industrialized the impoverishment, torture, degradation and murder of Jews. We were treated like insects, even exterminated using a product originally intended for fumigation.

The phrase “Never Again,” if it means anything, should mean that the state of imminent victimhood in which Jews have found themselves since 586 BCE must never be allowed to recur. One of the purposes of establishing the Jewish state, which required a massive sacrifice of Jewish lives, was to accomplish this.

But we have not succeeded. Pogroms occur even here in the Jewish state, small scale ones that we call “terrorism,” and larger ones like the “riots” of May 2021 when our Israeli Arab neighbors attacked Jews in the streets, burned their homes and synagogues, and murdered them. On a continuing basis, the small-scale terrorism of rock-throwing and crime-as-jihad happen every single day, wherever Jews and Arabs come into contact with one another.

From time to time, the Jewish state is attacked with barrages of deadly rockets, which kill just a few Jews each time, because the vaunted Jewish intellect and great chunks of Jewish money have built domes of iron (and now, laser beams) to hide behind while our enemies take their potshots at us. Our carefully measured military responses take exquisite care to protect enemy civilians, and always stop before actually defeating the enemy. And afterwards, we avert our eyes as Gaza receives cash from Qatar and cement from Israel, ostensibly to help civilian victims of the conflict, but in fact is used by Hamas to dig more tunnels and build more rockets.

All our wars since 1948 have been, in a political sense, defensive. Even in 1967, when the IDF took control of great swaths of territory, including the heartland of the Land of Israel, one of the first acts of our leadership afterwards was to return the heart of the heartland, the Temple Mount, to Muslim Arab control. In following years, instead of a massive drive to settle the liberated and conquered lands and to drive our enemies out of them, our politicians tried to find ways to return them to our enemies in return for “peace.”

The message that we have been broadcasting non-stop for the last few decades, and that our enemies have been receiving loud and clear, is that “we will defend ourselves, but only just enough to stop your immediate assault.” So naturally, as soon as they can, they try again. And the same goes for our response to terrorism, both large and small-scale. Apprehended terrorists, even mass murderers, are temporarily incarcerated in institutions that they to a great extent control, while their families are richly rewarded by the Palestinian Authority, with money that comes from Israel, Europe, and the USA.

So yes, the situation of the Jews is better today in Israel than it was in Kishinev in 1903, or Iraq in 1941-52. But the basic nature of our response is the same: pay the ransom if possible, and ward off the blows if not. What we do not do is change the perception of the Jew as the victim-in-waiting. What we do not do is discredit, for once and for all, the idea that it is normal to try to kill Jews.

On the evening of 4 May 2022, a few days after Yahya Sinwar exhorted them to use their knives and axes, two terrorists entered the town of Elad in central Israel, murdered three Jews and injured seven others – with knives and axes, as instructed. This continues a streak of terrorism that began in March in which a total of 19 Israelis (including Druze and Christian Arabs) have been killed by Palestinian terrorists.

This is nothing particularly out of the ordinary. The messages that come from the official media of Hamas and the groups that make up the PLO (which constitutes the Palestinian Authority), is that killing Jews is praiseworthy, murderers are heroes, and that continued violent “resistance” will bring about the removal of the Jews from every bit of the land from the river to the sea. This message also permeates social media, mosques in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza (including the al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount), the educational systems of the PA and UNRWA, and every aspect of “Palestinian” culture.

It is time, for the first time since the end of the War of Independence, to permanently end the pernicious perception of Jews as appropriate victims. It is time for all of our enemies to understand that killing Jews or even trying to do so is not an option, because the cost will be astronomical for them. It is time to finally actualize the promise inherent in the slogan “Never Again.”

Today we have a golden opportunity to do this, to demonstrate that finally, after more than two millennia, it is not normal to try to kill Jews.

MK Itamar Ben Gvir of the Otzma Yehudit faction, responded to the terror attack in Elad, saying “in a normal country, an Air Force flyover would now be dropping missiles on the house of [Hamas leader] Yahya Sinwar, who called for attacks with weapons and axes, and killing him. This is how you cut off terrorism.” Some call Ben Gvir an extremist, but numerous other politicians and media personalities agreed with him. The argument against killing Sinwar is that he would be replaced, and terrorism would continue. And Hamas has threatened that if he or any other Hamas official is harmed, they would respond with “immediate war,” including suicide bombings in Israeli cities, like those that took hundreds of Israeli lives during the Second Intifada.

But Israel should assassinate Sinwar tomorrow, and as many of his associates in the leadership of Hamas as possible. And she should preempt the threatened war with a war of her own, on Hamas in Gaza as well as its cells in Judea, Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, and anywhere else they are found. The operation should be carried out in accordance with international law; that is, so that collateral damage to civilian lives and property is proportional to military necessity – as opposed to the previous policy of attempting to achieve military objectives with close to zero civilian casualties.

The operation should have a twofold objective: one goal should be purely military – and it should continue until Hamas (and associated factions like Palestinian Islamic Jihad) in Gaza and Judea and Samaria cease to exist. The other should be in the information arena, to declare to the world that Israel will no longer tolerate attempts to murder Jews. Israel must make it clear to her enemies and allies alike that – as Ben Gvir said – we are a “normal country,” and if you try to murder our citizens, you will pay dearly.

Israel has many enemies, and Hamas is only one. There are many areas in which she has lost the sovereignty so painfully obtained in 1948 and 1967. All of these enemies must be deterred or destroyed, and sovereignty recovered – at the Temple Mount, Joseph’s Tomb, Hevron, and even the Negev and the Galilee. There is a long road to follow to take back what has been given up over the years, and to educate the world that the conditions of diasporic oppression that the State of Israel inherited no longer hold. The destruction of Hamas can be the first step on this journey.

The Chief Rabbinate and the Question of Conversion

by HaRav Eliezer Melamed
Rosh HaYeshiva, Har Bracha

Recently, I have clarified the position of our rabbis, that in order to prevent assimilation, it is correct to convert someone who in principle accepts the mitzvot, even though chances are he most likely will not lead a religious lifestyle. Various allegations have been made against this. One of them is that the Chief Rabbinate has authority in this matter, and our Mentor and Teacher, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook was very careful about guarding the status of the Rabbinate, and a public position that runs contrary to the Chief Rabbinates’ position should not be expressed.

In this column, I will explain via two stories the position of the Chief Rabbinate, at the time it fulfilled its role as an independent Chief Rabbinate not subject to the secular government or the position of the Haredim, but outlined its path according to Torah values for Clal Yisrael.

Amos Ben-Gurion and Mary
During World War II, Amos, the middle son of the first Israeli Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, enlisted in the British army that fought the Nazis, and served as an officer in the Jewish Brigade. During his service, he fell ill and was hospitalized in a hospital in Liverpool. There, he was cared for by a woman named Mary, an Irish-Anglican nurse. The two fell in love and wanted to get married. Paula, Amos’ mother, strongly opposed her son’s marriage to a non-Jew. However, Mary was already pregnant, and with the blessing of Ben-Gurion, they were married in the spring of 1946 in a civil marriage.

Ben-Gurion tried to arrange an Orthodox conversion for Mary, but to no avail. To please Paula, Mary was converted in the summer of 1956 by Reform Jews, and Paula was told that the conversion was done according to halakha, by rabbis. The couple returned to Israel and established their home in Haifa. They had three children. Amos served in the police force and advanced to the rank of Deputy Inspector General of Police, after which he served as CEO of the Ata Factory.
Registration of their Daughter’s Marriage

Years later, their daughter Galia, an officer in the medical corps, was about to marry Rafi Ron, a paratrooper officer. However, when they came to register with the rabbinate, it became clear that they could not marry kedat Moshe ve’Yisrael, since her mother Mary’s conversion was not according to halakha.

Amos Ben-Gurion turned to the Chief Rabbi of the IDF, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, and asked him to convert his wife Mary and their children according to halakha. He also requested to hide this from his parents, so as not to upset them when they heard that until now the conversion of their daughter-in-law and grandchildren had not been arranged according to halakha.

Rabbi Goren turned to Rabbi Yehoshua Kaniel, the Chief Rabbi of Haifa, one of the eminent rabbis in the country at the time, and one of Rabbi Kook’s most distinguished students. Rabbi Kaniel made sure that they would study the basics of Judaism, and converted the mother and her children in 1968. Rabbi Kaniel kept the conversion certificate until his death in July 1970.

Wedding of Ben-Gurion’s Granddaughter
Their wedding took place in the spring of 1968, not long after the death of her grandmother, Paula. The grieved grandfather, David Ben-Gurion, for whom the IDF uniform symbolized the Israeli statehood and all the good in the State of Israel, asked the groom, Rafi, a paratrooper officer, in honor of the State of Israel, to wear an army uniform at his wedding. The groom agreed, and thus, beside the bride who wore a customary white dress, the groom stood in an IDF uniform, donning a beret. Many dignitaries attended the wedding.

For those wishing to know which rabbinate Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda honored, I will mention the words which Rabbi Goren delivered when the canopy was held, as quoted in the press the following day: “This is a triple joy – your joy as a couple who contributed to the IDF and the nation, the joy of the parents, and the joy of the people. After all, everyone sees himself as like a son-in-law and connected to this joy because of the great-grandfather, the architect of the State of Israel. We all owe him a handful of gratification, which, unfortunately he has been missing lately, since Grandmother Paula passed away.”
The Haredi Arguments

After the wedding, Haredi rabbis complained about Rabbi Goren for converting the bride by military rabbis in violation of the law and halakha, in order to flatter those in power. About three years later, on September 7, 1971, at a rally for the sake of ‘shleimut ha’am’ (unity of the nation) against conversions by the Rabbinate, Rabbi Zolti made serious allegations against Rabbi Goren, claiming: “Where can one find such a patent, to marry a gentile with a Jew.”

Rabbi Goren was forced to publish the issue of the conversion, which had been done according to halakha by Rabbi Kaniel, who also registered the couple for marriage. In his remarks, Rabbi Goren said that the bride and her mother had learned the basics of Judaism, and the bride and groom promised that after their marriage “they would run their home as a kosher home.” Rabbi Goren knew that they would not be religious, but he acted like many of the eminent rabbis, who believed that in sha’at dachak (times of distress) and in times when many Israelis are secular, in order to prevent assimilation, it was enough for a convert to accept the mitzvot in general, and commit to “run a kosher home”, i.e., to keep the tradition, and avoid eating unclean species like pork, and not to cook meat and milk.

The Helen Seidman Affair
One of the biggest controversies in matters of religion and state was over the conversion of Helen Seidman. Helen Shannon, a doctor of biology and genetics, was born in the United States to a non-Jewish family. Out of love for the Jewish people, she immigrated to Israel with her daughter in 1964 as a tourist. After a while, she met the secretary of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, who invited her, as being an expert in genetics, to move to the kibbutz and help with new crops there. Helen asked to convert, and despite warnings from a woman from Nahal Oz, who told her there was no chance she would be converted while living in a secular kibbutz, she went to Tel Aviv and studied with a rabbi. Acquaintances claimed that she wanted to convert in the rabbinical court in Ashdod and was denied, but the secretary of the court in Ashdod claimed that Helen had never opened a case in the court. Apparently they did not want to deal with her case because her partner was a kohen, who is forbidden to marry a convert (incidentally, there was a tradition in the rabbinate, which was passed down discreetly according to Rabbi Frank and other rabbis, that in practice, a non-Jewish woman living with a kohen can be converted, but not married; however, in Ashdod, they apparently were not aware of this). In July 1967, she married in a civil marriage in Mexico to a member of Nahal Oz, Benjamin Seidman. Shortly afterwards, their first son, Yehuda Seidman, was born. In October 1967, she converted to Judaism in a Reform court in Tel Aviv and applied to register as a Jew in the Ministry of the Interior.

The Ministry of the Interior, headed by NRP leader Haim Moshe Shapira, refused to register her, and with the help of secular organizations turned to the Supreme Court. Attorney General Meir Shamgar did not agree to represent the Minister of the Interior, because according to the Shalit ruling, registration in the Ministry of the Interior depends mainly on the “self-definition” of the citizen. It was clear that the Supreme Court would oblige the Ministry of the Interior to register her as a Jew, since there is no law stipulating that conversions should be solely in accordance with halakha. The issue of ‘who is a Jew’ rocketed to the top of the national agenda. The NRP representatives threatened that if the Supreme Court approved her registration as a Jew based on a Reform conversion, they would resign from the government.

Tensions between the religious and secular in the country increased. The secular camp awaited a Supreme Court decision that would ultimately determine that the Chief Rabbinate does not determine the question of Jewish identity in the State of Israel. Various figures in the religious community tried to influence Helen Seidman to withdraw her petition, or convert according to Orthodox conversion, and thereby, solve the problem.

Rebbetzin Dr. Naomi Cohen
A solution came from Rebbetzin Dr. Naomi Cohen, who was born in the United States, and understood Dr. Helen. The Rebbetzin was sent on a mission by Rabbi Goren, her brother-in-law, to Nahal Oz, and succeeded in convincing Helen to convert according to halakha.

The day before the Supreme Court decision was published, Helen converted to Judaism by Rabbi Goren, and canceled her petition to the Supreme Court. Most of the public and its leaders breathed a sigh of relief that a solution had been found to the big controversy. Our mentor and teacher Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda was also pleased with the solution.

It is fitting at this time to mention Rebbetzin Dr. Naomi Cohen z”l, who recently passed away, on the third of Adar I. The Rebbetzin was the youngest daughter of Rabbi Dr. Chaim Shimshon Goldstein, who was president of the Rabbinical Association of America, and granddaughter of the philanthropist, Harry Fischel. At the age of nineteen, a year after the establishment of the State of Israel, she immigrated to Israel and studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and merited marrying Rabbi She’ar Yashuv, the son of Rabbi David HaKohen HaNazir, one of the greatest disciples of Maran HaRav Kook ztz”l who, on his behalf, edited “Orot Ha-Kodesh”. After Rabbi Kaniel passed away, Rabbi She’ar Yashuv served as Rabbi of Haifa for approximately thirty-six years. Rebbetzin Naomi supported the growth of Torah study for women wholeheartedly.

The Petition to the Supreme Court
For both factions the conversion was very difficult. On the one hand, the anti-religious camp had hoped the Supreme Court would finally determine that the Rabbinate does not determine who is a Jew, and Helen’s halakhic conversion sabotaged this. On the other hand, the Haredi camp resented Rabbi Goren, who claimed to have converted Helen within a day in contradiction to halakha. Representatives of these two bodies appealed to the Supreme Rabbinical Court against Helen’s conversion.

Rabbi Elyashiv, Rabbi Yisraeli, Rabbi Zolti and Rabbi Goldschmidt sat in the court session. The Chief Rabbis, Rabbi Nissim and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, chose not to participate. The court ruled that Rabbi Goren, as the Chief Rabbi of the IDF, had no authority to convert on behalf of the Chief Rabbinate; rather, his Beit Din was a private Beit Din, and thus, the official rabbinical court of the Rabbinate did not need to hear an appeal of the conversion, which was not on their behalf. They noted that if Helen converted in an official court, her conversion would be valid, and added that her acceptance of mitzvot should be verified.

The next day, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who was the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, convened an official Beit Din, in which Rabbi Shlomo Goren and Rabbi Shalom Mizrahi participated, and together, approved Rabbi Goren’s previous conversion.

Later, in an interview with Shlomo Ishon, Rabbi Goren explained that Helen Seidman’s conversion complied with halakha because she “makes sure to light Shabbat candles, and is careful about forbidden foods, despite her membership in a secular kibbutz. In reality, it is not difficult for her to be careful in matters of kashrut, as she is a vegetarian according to her worldview.”

Once again, we find that in practice, the eminent Chief Rabbis would convert those who accepted all the mitzvot in general, but in actuality, committed to behave as masoriti (traditional Jew).