Palestinian State – upgrading vs. damaging US interests or Western red carpet vs. Arab shabby rug?

by Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

The two-state solution
"President Biden underscored his strong commitment to a negotiated two-state solution as the best path to reach a just and lasting resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

"US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Washington backed a two-state solution to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians."

Would a Palestinian state resolve or exacerbate the Israel-Palestinian conflict?
Would a Palestinian state enhance or erode Middle East stability?
Would a focus on the Palestinian issue bolster or cripple the expansion of the Israel-Arab peace process?
Would a Palestinian state advance or undermine US interests?

The "two-state solution" policy is based on the following assumptions:

*The unresolved Palestinian issue is crucial for the Arab countries and the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict;
*The proposed Palestinian state would adhere to peaceful-coexistence with the Jewish State, and would not join the ranks of rogue regimes;
*Land-for-peace is a prerequisite for the resolution of the Palestinian issue, requiring an Israeli retreat from land (the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria), which is the cradle of Jewish history and pivotal to Israel's national security;
*A dramatic Israeli territorial concession, buttressed by a game-changing international financial package, would entice the Palestinians to abandon the goal to eliminate the Jewish State;
*The Palestinians are amenable to a permanent (not tactical) peaceful-coexistence with the Jewish State;

Are such assumptions consistent, or inconsistent, with the Palestinian track record?

Western red carpet vs. Arab shabby rug
Western governments are preoccupied with contemporary Palestinian diplomacy, according Palestinians red-carpet receptions. They prefer to speculate on future positive Palestinian behavior, rather than be preoccupied with the rogue intra-Arab Palestinian track record. They court the Palestinians, while pressuring Israel.

On the other hand, the history-driven Arabs – who neither forget nor forgive – are mindful of the Palestinian track record, and therefore accord Palestinians shabby rug receptions.

The Arabs have concluded that a Palestinian state would add fuel to the Middle East fire, while valuing Israel as a potent force against rogue entities such as Iran's Ayatollahs and the Muslim Brotherhood. Thus, they have expanded commercial and security cooperation with Israel, and refrain from flexing military or substantial financial muscles on behalf of the Palestinians.

In fact, no Arab-Israeli war erupted due to – or on behalf of – the Palestinians, and no Arab countries intervened militarily in Israel's wars against Palestinian terrorism in Lebanon, Judea and Samaria and Gaza.

The intra-Arab Palestinian track record has been a role-model of subversion, terrorism and ingratitude. In the mid-1950s and mid-1960s, they were involved in terrorism in Egypt and Syria; in 1970, they triggered a civil war in Jordan, attempting to topple the pro-US Hashemite regime; and in the 1970s, they were involved in terrorism and a series of civil wars in Lebanon. In 1990, they collaborated with – and publicly praised - Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, which was the most generous Arab host of 400,000 Palestinians, including Mahmoud Abbas and Arafat and their families. Hence, the expulsion of most Palestinians from Kuwait in the aftermath of the First Gulf War.

Notwithstanding Jordan's Hashemite regime talk on behalf of Palestinians, Jordan's military and security forces are aware that a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River would doom the Hashemite regime east of the River, triggering ripple effects which could topple all pro-US regimes in the Arabian Peninsula, adversely impacting the global oil market and US national security.

In addition, the Palestinian track record features systematic close ties with enemies and adversaries of the US, such as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Bloc, international terrorist organizations, Iran's Ayatollahs, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, China and Russia.

Land-for-peace or land-for-terror?
The 1993 Oslo Accord showered the Palestinians with unprecedented authority, which was not accorded to them by Jordan or Egypt, when the two countries occupied Judea, Samaria and Gaza. It established a five-year-venue to a Palestinian state. However, instead of land-for-peace, the relocation of the PLO headquarters from Tunisia, Lebanon, Sudan and Yemen to Judea, Samaria, Gaza and East Jerusalem introduced the concept of land-for-terror and land-for-hate-education.

Moreover, the 2005 Israeli uprooting of its civilian and military presence from Gaza has triggered four Hamas wars and a systematic wave of unprecedented Hamas terrorism.

Furthermore, in November 1947, the UN recommended the partitioning of the area west of the Jordan River between Jewish and Arab states, in violation of Article 80 of the 1945 UN Charter and the September 1922 League of Nations, which were committed to establishing a Jewish National Home in the entire area. The local Arabs and the surrounding Arab states rejected the 1947 Partition Plan and launched a war to annihilate the Jewish State.

In July 1937, the British Peel Commission recommended the establishment of a Jewish state over 18% - and an Arab state over 75% - of the area west of the Jordan River. The plan was rejected by the Arabs, who escalated terrorism.

Palestinian vision documented by education curriculum
Notwithstanding Palestinian diplomatic and public relations statements, the most authentic reflection of the Palestinian worldview, vision and territorial goal has been Mahmoud Abbas' K-12 education curriculum, which has become (since 1993) a most effective multiplier of terrorism, suicide bombing and anti-Jewish, anti-Israel and anti-peace fanaticism.

The 2020-2021 school textbooks of the Palestinian Authority highlight antisemitism, repudiation of Jewish history, dehumanization of Jews and the Jewish State, rejection of peaceful-coexistence with Israel, inciting to martyrdom and Jihad ("holy war") "in the service of Allah," heralding suicide bombers and terrorism in general, glorification of women-terrorists as role models, and promoting geographic maps with Israel replaced by an Arab Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Peaceful-coexistence with Israel?
On the eve of the September 13, 1993 signing of the Oslo Accord on the White House lawn, Arafat told the Jordanian TV that the accord was an interim agreement, consistent with the PLO's June 1974 Phased Plan. The latter legitimized the establishment of a Palestinian beachhead on any part of British Mandate Palestine, as a step to eliminate the Jewish State and takeover the whole of Palestine.

Mahmoud Abbas and Arafat reiterated the Palestinian Phased Plan on August 14, 2009, November 16, 1998, January 30, 1996 and May 10, 1994, drawing inspiration from Mohammed’s Hudaybiyya Treaty – a major precept of traditional and contemporary Islam and Arab policy-making.

The Hudaybiyya Treaty was concluded between Mohammed and his Mecca enemies in 628 AD. However, while the treaty was perceived by Mecca as a permanent peace, Mohammed considered it as a truce (not a final peace) and a means (not a goal) to achieve the Islamic imperialistic goal. Thus, Mohammed was able to regroup, breach the treaty and overwhelm the misled and tricked enemy. It has become a tactical role model for Muslim leaders, especially when confronting the "infidel."

Contemporarily, the Palestinian vision was codified by the charters of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah and PLO in 1959 and 1964 – before Israel regained control of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), East Jerusalem and Gaza – highlighting the goal "to liberate the whole of Palestine." In other words, the core issue has always been the annihilation – not the size – of the Jewish State, which is deemed illegitimate in "the abode of Islam."

The Palestinian vision is not driven by despair, but by a commitment "to liberate Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea."

The Palestinian issue and expanding the Israel-Arab peace process
The "Palestine Firsters" – who believe in the centrality of the Palestinian issue in the Middle East – introduced a litany of peace initiatives, which were crashed against the rocks of Middle East reality.

At the same time, Israel concluded a series of peace accords with Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and the Sudan, which bypassed the Palestinian issue, avoided the trap of a Palestinian veto and focused on Arab – not Palestinian - interests.

In conclusion
A wide gap exists between the Palestinian track record, on the one hand, and Washington's well-intentioned two-state-policy, on the other hand.

Contrary to the expectations of Washington's policy-makers, Middle East reality documents that a Palestinian state would add a rogue regime to the stormy region, intensify terrorism and war, inflame regional instability, exacerbate the Israel-Palestinian conflict, undermine the expansion of the Israel-Arab peace process, generate tailwind to rogue entities and cripple US interests.

An Israeli retreat to the pre-1967 8-15-mile sliver along the Mediterranean, dominated by the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria, would obliterate Israel's posture of deterrence, and would transform Israel from a unique force-multiplier - to a strategic liability – for the US, depriving the US of "the largest US aircraft carrier, which does not require a single American on board."

How BDS can be Totally Ineffective and yet Extremely Dangerous

by Victor Rosenthal

You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream – 1927 popular song

The decision of Ben and Jerry’s to stop selling ice cream in Judea and Samaria has galvanized diverse pro- and anti-Israel groups and individuals. The best reaction came from the Israeli lawfare group Shurat HaDin, which says that it will begin using B&J’s copyrighted trademark to sell ice cream in the areas that B&J will boycott, and invites the company to challenge it in court. The stupidest statement was made by B&J Board Chair Anuradha Mittal, who said (in reference to a disagreement with the parent company about the precise wording of the boycott announcement), “I can’t stop thinking that this is what happens when you have a board with all women and people of color who have been pushing to do the right thing.” Of course.

If this boycott is actually carried out, it will have absolutely zero effect on Israel’s economy. The present manufacturer of B&J’s ice cream in Israel, Avi Singer, refused to honor the boycott and will have his license terminated in a year and a half; he will have to scramble to rebrand and reformulate his products, which are made a few miles down the road from here in Beer Tuvia, within the pre-1967 boundaries of Israel by Jewish and Arab employees. It will cost him something, but Israelis have responded by buying a lot of ice cream from him and the company will survive.

But the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions movement is not really an attempt to wage economic warfare. Rather, it is another weapon in the cognitive war that is being pressed against Israel by her enemies worldwide. And in the cognitive theater of operations it is having a great deal of success.

The function of the BDS movement is to frame the antisemitic worldwide Arab/Muslim/European/Leftist campaign to erase the Jewish state (and for some, the Jewish people) as a struggle for human rights for an endangered minority, the “Palestinians.” It is to change a large-scale ongoing pogrom into a cause that right-thinking, moral, caring people can get behind, with their money and their votes. The Palestinian Arabs, the point of the spear aimed at the Jewish state, are transformed by BDS into a plucky band of “natives” who are oppressed and even mass-murdered by technologically advanced (but morally deficient) Zionists.

The BDS movement takes the false Palestinian narrative as a given, muvan m’eilav, and moves on to motivating its adherents to take action on their behalf. The debates on college campuses and corporate boards do not deal with the question of who has aboriginal rights to Eretz Yisrael or whether Jewish communities east of the Green Line are legal under international law, or whether the land is actually “occupied” by Israel. Nobody asks about the Jordanian occupation of Judea and Samaria from 1948-1967. Everybody knows, it is implied, the answers to these questions.

This is a trick known to every good car salesman, who wants his customer to argue over the size of the monthly payments rather than the total amount he will end up paying.

There is also what I call “the argument from South Africa:” apartheid South Africa was guilty of crimes against an oppressed group which were inseparable from the regime; only replacing the regime by one dominated by the oppressed group could fix it. This was accelerated by international pressure (combined with terrorism, but never mind). The boycotters are calling for the same kind of pressure against Israel, and so therefore Israel must be as evil as apartheid South Africa – and the same remedy applied. I don’t think I need to explain why this argument is fallacious!

Once it’s established that “Palestine” is a good cause, then the more that a person aspires to moral goodness, the more anti-Israel they become. It doesn’t hurt that preexisting antisemitic conditioning, subliminally present in both non-Jews and Jews, makes it easy to see Israel as evil.

Every time there is such a debate, the basic premises are restated, and never challenged. And that, in my opinion, is the raison d’être of the BDS movement: its actions themselves are of little consequence; it’s the injection of the false narrative into the collective consciousness that is significant.

This implies that the passage of various anti-BDS laws, with the debates and court fights that are entailed by them, is actually counterproductive. And there will be more legal battles coming. BDSnik Lara Friedman, of the misnamed Foundation for Middle East Peace, says that court tests of these laws so far have been resolved on technical issues, and their constitutionality hasn’t been decided.

This also implies that the proper strategy to fight BDS is not to challenge it on the enemy’s terms, that is, not to argue that boycotts are illegal, or that BDS hurts Arabs as much as Jews. Rather, we should attack the premises that it rests on: the supposed aboriginal rights of the Palestinian Arabs, the denial of Jewish sovereignty on either side of the Green Line (the Palestinian Narrative denies the legitimacy of a Jewish state of any size anywhere in Eretz Yisrael), and the allegations of oppression, apartheid, and other crimes.

Finally, we should expose the moral failings of the Palestinian culture, its misogyny, homophobia, and obsessive violence. We should draw attention to the viciousness of Palestinian terrorism. We should note that where Palestinian Arabs govern themselves, there is endemic corruption and oppression of the population. And of course we should point out that the accusations of Israeli atrocities and war crimes are mostly false, exaggerated, or lacking relevant context.

So, although I applaud the legal action of Shurat HaDin to create overwhelmingly negative consequences for the boycotters, this isn’t the solution to BDS. The real answer is for the State of Israel to very publicly make the case for the sovereign right of the Jewish state to all of Eretz Yisrael, including a direct refutation of the poisonous Palestinian Narrative.

The Consequences of Intermarriage

by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky

(First appeared as an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post, July 25, 2021)

A few years ago when new Israeli president Yitzchak Herzog first assumed the chairmanship of the Jewish Agency, he commented off-handedly that intermarriage among American Jews is “mamash mageifah,” a veritable plague. Chastised by the leadership of American Jewry, he quickly apologized and explained that he didn’t mean “plague” as a pejorative but rather as an expression of prevalence.

He need not have apologized. It is a plague, a plague that is destroying American Jewry.

Shortly thereafter, newly minted Minister Rav Rafi Peretz said with great sadness that intermarriage in America is producing a “second Holocaust.” He too was forced to apologize for that accurate sentiment, forced primarily by secular Jewish apologists for intermarriage who predominate in the organizational leadership of American Jewry. He too need not have apologized. It is a second Holocaust, Jews willfully destroying their own lives and posterity rather than having Nazis do it. The soldier who rips off his uniform and flees the battlefield is as lost to his side as the soldier who dies in battle.

American Jewish leadership doth protest too much.

Certainly, we all believe in romance, love, free choice and human rights, which is not to say that some expressions of love and other poor choices have catastrophic consequences. But we should not be oblivious to the political ramifications of the choice of intermarriage in American Jewish life, where most Jews who marry these days happen to marry a non-Jew.

Pew recently reported, to the great horror of many people, that one-quarter of American Jews deem Israel an “apartheid state,” with the percentage of young Jews holding that false and repugnant opinion even greater. A fifth of Jews under the age of forty, according to this survey, declared that “Israel does not have the right to exist.” A whopping 38% of American Jews felt no “emotional attachment” to Israel.

Perhaps more pointedly, the Jerusalem Post (July 9) published a segment of that poll that indicated that Jews between the ages of 18-29 professed themselves to be “Jews of no religion,” with 33% of Jews aged 30-49 defining themselves similarly – as opposed to Jews 50-64 (19%) and Jews over 65 (16%).

These polls have engendered much finger-pointing, depending on the pundit’s political perspectives. Some blame Israel’s policies for the severed connection between American Jews and Israel – on the peace process, settlements, or defense against terrorism and so advocate for more concessions. Others blame the Orthodox establishment and the lack of pluralism in marriage, divorce and definition of Judaism, and so advocate for liberalization and the separation of Torah and state.

What these jeremiads miss is the answer that is staring us in the face and over which we have no control or solution. The loss of identification with Israel among the young Jews in the United States is a direct result of the spiraling intermarriage rates in the last half-century. It has nothing to do with politics, Netanyahu, negotiations, Gaza, the Chief Rabbinate or the like. There is no Israeli policy or change of policy that is going to matter.

Simply put, polls that purport to measure American Jewish public opinion on any issue invariably count people who identify themselves as “Jews” to the pollsters, whether or not they are in fact Jews according to halacha. They are the products of intermarriage and they may consider themselves on some level “ethnic” Jews. They may have a Jewish father or grandfather. They may even have a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father and still be considered Jews according to halacha, but their Jewish identity is tenuous and clearly not based on the features of Jewish life that bind all Jews – Torah, Mitzvot, love of Israel and the people of Israel, etc.

Indeed, the generational increase of Jews who self-identify as “Jews of no religion” as indicated above tracks neatly with the rate of intermarriage in American Jewish life over the past six decades. As the rate of intermarriage has exploded, the percentage of “Jews” who feel no Jewish identity, no bond with Israel or the Jewish people, and whose real religion today is woke progressivism has increased proportionately.

It should be no surprise that American Jews’ support for Israel is declining but it has much to do with the decay of American Jewry and little or nothing to do with what happens in Israel. Rick Jacobs, the Reform rabbi who leads the American movement, conceded that most Reform Jews today are probably not Jews according to Jewish law. It is invariably true that the loudest Jewish but anti-Israel voices in America today – on campuses, in the media and elsewhere – are usually the children and grandchildren of intermarriage.

There are three prescriptions for Israelis that may be useful in countering the effects of intermarriage and even arresting it. The first is to stop taking seriously polls of “American Jewry” which disproportionately include people who are not Jews and have no share in Jewish destiny and exclude Orthodox Jews who are the most committed to Judaism’s present and Israel’s future. Second, take seriously (without distorting his words) Ambassador Ron Dermer’s recent comment that the basis of political support for Israel in America is not the Jewish community but the evangelical Christian community. That is true, even if people do not want to hear it.

Third, another truism that people do not want to hear, is that intermarriage is a “plague” and a “second Holocaust.” We need to say it. And we need to reckon with the consequences for they are now upon us. Facts may be stubborn and even unpleasant, but they remain facts.

Rav Kook's Igrot Hare’aya – Yerushalayim First and Foremost

Letter #39 – part II

Date and Place: 3 Marcheshvan 5667 (1906), Yafo

Recipient: Rabbi Yehuda Leib Felman, an uncle of Rav Kook

Body: [Last week we saw Rav Kook’s disappointment over tensions among kollelim and the beginning of his thesis that Yerushalayim’s historic/spiritual centrality should find expression even in regard to practical matters of financial support.]

[Based on what we have seen,] the status of Yerushalayim is greater than that of all other places, as does the mitzva to build it precede and surpass that of the other holy cities. A proof for this is the gemara (Berachot 6b) concerning participation in a wedding: “If you bring joy to the groom, it is as if you built one of the ruins of Yerushalayim.” It did not talk about building the ruins of anywhere in Eretz Yisrael, even though this is implied by the pasuk cited (“… as I will return the captives of the Land” – Yirmiyahu 33:11). It must be because building the ruins of Yerushalayim is a greater mitzva than doing so for other cities, and so they mentioned the more prominent one.

One should not think that the early righteous people could have settled in Yerushalayim and preferred another city in Eretz Yisrael. We see these days, as well, that all of the Torah scholars and righteous people desire to settle in Yerushalayim specifically. Many travel to visit it and pray on special days at the Western Wall (may it be built quickly in our days) with sanctity and incredible inspiration. Rather, the yoke of exile has been very heavy in Yerushalayim because of the traditional hatred of the non-Jews.

Only now, in ikva d’meshicha (the stage preceding the coming of Mashiach) do we see good omens – Hashem is treating us in a manner of salvation and mercy. Thank G-d, some of our Jewish brethren are distinguished in the eyes of the officials, in the Holy Land in general and Yerushalayim specifically. Thank G-d, things are now safe, and there is no fear.

One should not ask about the greatest righteous people – why did some choose to live in other holy cities, even when they could have lived in Yerushalayim? Certainly every location in Eretz Yisrael has its own individual root and element of sanctity, as is discussed at length in Chessed L’Avraham.

Even on a simple level, every place has its own special holy appeal. For example, my location of Yafo is special in that it is on the border specified in the Torah (“the border of the sea” – Bamidbar 34:6), and it is the place the prophet Yonah came to, which certainly embedded in it special spiritual characteristics that have remained over the generations. It is also the place where the rafts made of cedar wood were brought to land to be used in building the Beit Hamikdash (see Divrei Hayamim II, 2:15). According to the Yerushalmi, a miracle happened to Nikanor in its port.

Therefore, although Yerushalayim is very beloved, it has the most all-encompassing sanctity, and there is a precedence to live there, still whoever felt in the root of his unique soul a connection to a certain city’s special individual sanctity would decide to live there.

The Land was divided among tribes, and therefore there were prophets from different tribes and locations. Although most were in Yerushalayim, which is why it was called the “valley of visions” (Yeshayahu 22:1) and when a prophet’s city is not mentioned he can be assumed to be from there (Petichta 24), a minority lived in other places. These are specific matters, but generally there is certainly a greater mitzva to live in Yerushalayim than anywhere else, despite the beloved nature of every place. To this day, elders who have lived in Eretz Yisraeland try every day to travel in new paths within it because of their great love for the Land, still try their best to live in Yerushalayim. It is just that many are forced by their situation or their finances to live elsewhere.

Shabbat of Comfort

by Rav Binny Freedman

Is there any comfort? It’s been fifteen years and many of us have moved on, since that terrible summer of 2006 and the Second Lebanon War. But for the families whose loved ones never returned, it is like yesterday, and the heroes whose larger-than-life stories fill our hearts, still occupy empty chairs and shattered dreams, as if they had only just walked out the door.

Such a hero was and is Michael Levin. Absolutely refusing to take no for an answer and determined to enlist in the IDF and fulfill his dream of becoming a paratrooper, he actually climbed in to the draft center through a second floor window to get his papers. (The enlistment officer told him he was sometimes responsible for ensuring draftees did not illegally get out of the army, but had never seen a recruit avoid the guards in order to get in to the army!)

When the second Lebanon War broke out Michael was actually on a long awaited and well-earned leave in California with his family, which he immediately cut short; it was not in his nature to see his comrades go to battle while he stayed home….

Michael indeed fulfilled his dream as a paratrooper crossing the border into Lebanon to defend his beloved Israel; a battle from which he never returned. Thousands of Israelis from all over the country honored his sacrifice and hoped that it would serve as some small comfort to his family, honoring the boy who may have been a lone soldier, but died as the brother and son of us all.

Here we sit; fifteen years later; are there any real words of comfort left?

This Shabbat, also known as Shabbat Nachamu, we read the portion of Va’Etchanan, which is always read on the Shabbat after Tisha B’Av. Indeed, the Haftarah (prophetic portion) read this Shabbat begins with Yishayahu (Isaiah)’s famous words:

“Nachamu nachamu ami”; “Be comforted, so comforted, my people, says G-d…”

Giving this Shabbat its name: Shabbat of comfort.

Which makes the choice of the beginning of Va’Etchanan so interesting; Moshe, speaking with the entire Jewish people on the banks of the Jordan River in his farewell soliloquy, shares that he begged G-d to enter the land of Israel, but G-d did not heed his request, denying him entry in one of the most tragic vignettes in the entire Torah.

Why would a portion meant to be comforting to the Jewish people after the commemoration of the destruction of both temples (on Tisha B’Av, the ninth of the Hebrew month of Av) begin with a request denied? How can Moshe’s sharing this tragic ending to his career be comforting?

There is a detail to this story noted by the Talmud which may perhaps provide us a fascinating insight not only regarding this question, but to the way in which Judaism deals with the pain of loss in general.

“Rabbi Simlai expounded: A person should always praise G-d before he prays (literally; before he is ‘mitpalel’). How do we know this? From Moshe who first praises G-d and only then entreats him to enter and see the land of Israel…” (Tractate Berachot 32a)

The verses referred to here form the beginning of our portion of Va’Etchanan (Deuteronomy 3:23-26): First Moshe praises G-d and only then prays that he might enter the land.

This actually raises a fascinating question: If Moshe was such a great Prophet, did he not know that G-d had ordained that he would not enter the land? And for that matter what was the nature of this prayer? It seems Moshe was trying to change G-d’s mind; but of course that would be ridiculous! In fact, this would seem to be one of the central difficulties regarding prayer in general: If we truly believe in G-d (Hashem)’s omnipotence, how can we constantly ask G-d for things which would seem to imply that we want G-d to change His mind? If someone is poor it must be because G-d has decided he should be poor, and G-d already knows whether this person will ever become wealthy so why do we pray for sustenance and bounty?

In fact the idea that we should ask G-d for the things we want is itself heretical; after all, G-d knows what we want even before we know what we want! So how could Moshe ask G-d to enter the land, knowing that G-d already knows the answer to the question? What is the purpose of such prayer?

The truth is, Jews do not believe in prayer; prayer is a Christian word which means to beg or entreat, implying we are nothing. Prayer would have us throw ourselves before the mercy of the court hoping that the great Judge will change the verdict, effectively changing His mind. But Hashem (G-d) does not change His mind; indeed G-d is as unchanging as He is all knowing.

The Hebrew word for prayer is tefillah which may have an entirely different meaning.

When Joseph comes to visit Yaakov on his deathbed (Genesis 48: 11) he says “Re’oh phanecha lo philalti”, which according to Rashi means ‘I never imagined (or wished) to see your face again’. (Thinking Joseph was dead, Yaakov explains he never imagined he would ever merit to see him again…) Thus the root palel (the same root as le’hitpalel’) means to wish or want….

Indeed, le’hitpalel which takes the reflexive form according to Rav Kook may mean to struggle with what we really want. We are not asking G-d to change; we are struggling with how we can change, which is what Jewish prayer is all about. What we want is really who we are, and Jewish prayer challenges us to struggle with what we really want.

What do we really want? Is what we want what we should want? Is it what we believe Hashem (G-d) really wants us to want?

In fact, where does what we want really come from? Why do some want to play guitar while others want to build bridges? It is difficult to imagine that all our wants and desires are simply the product of our environment. Truth be told much of how we came to want, whatever it is we want, is a mystery; it is a gift given us by Hashem. And our challenge, indeed the essence of Jewish prayer, known as Tefillah, is to struggle to understand what we really want and what to do with it. And in so doing we connect with the true source of our ratzon, our deepest longings.

But often, we tend to forget that it all comes from G-d and that it is not about changing G-d’s mind, but rather about changing ourselves. And as Rav Kook suggests in his Ein Ayah commentary on tractate Berachot (quoted in the introduction to his Olat Ha’reiyah), this is the essence of Rav Simlai’s aforementioned idea: the reason one should always praise G-d before tefillah (Jewish prayer) is because once we are truly in awe of Hashem’s greatness, we will realize how absurd it would be to imagine understanding, let alone changing, Hashem’s mind.

The portion of tefillah we refer to as Shevach (praise) is all about filling ourselves with awe of the magnificence and endless greatness of Hashem; if we could really understand that Hashem is the source of all reality, we would be ready to understand that prayer cannot be about changing G-d, it must be about changing ourselves.

Indeed, there is a balance between the values of struggling to understand Hashem’s world, while at the same time recognizing how limited our intelligence must be relative to the source of reality. There is a certain freedom in knowing we can never, will never understand how and why Hashem directs or planned the world. All we can hope for, is to take note of the world with all its wonder and all its challenges and hope to change ourselves, and perhaps a little bit of the world in the process…..

Even Moshe, before he struggles with why he so longs to enter the land of Israel, given that he will not be allowed to do so, will first praise Hashem and remind himself of the awe of the reality of Hashem to ensure he will not fall into the trap of thinking that even he, the great Moshe, will ever fully understand the ways of G-d. And in a way, that is his greatest comfort.

Perhaps for us as well, this is the greatest comfort in a world after Tisha B’Av and all the requisite pain and tragedy that followed: the belief that even though we can never comprehend the ways of Hashem, that nonetheless there is a larger picture we can never understand, directed by Hashem who loves us enough to allow us, after two thousand years of dreaming to nonetheless come home to the land we love and lost so long ago….

And perhaps, in some small way, when thousands from across the religious and political spectrum came to honor Michael Levin’s sacrifice on that afternoon fifteen years ago, it gave voice to what all of us truly want for all of us. And maybe that can remain as some small comfort.

We owe it to so many to search deep inside of ourselves for the good and pure things we all want to make this land and this world a better place; soon. That is the greatest comfort of all.

For any who might want to see a short yet powerful movie sharing the story of Michael Levin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbEBUBJ4AbY

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.

“Comfort My people - for G-d’s word will endure forever”

by HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

The Prophet Isaiah (Chapter 40) addresses the prophets and sages in every generation and asks, “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people! Bid Jerusalem take heart” (verse 1). And what is the consolation Isaiah offers? “Proclaim unto her that her time of service is accomplished, that her guilt is paid off; that she hath received of the L-rd’s hand double for all her sins” (verse 2).

In other words, the time earmarked for her in exile has passed. The end of the exile has arrived, for she has received twice the punishment coming to her in the Babylonian exile and in the 2,000-year-long exile. The atonement for her sin has been completed.

In the stage of actual redemption, Isaiah addresses them and says:

“O you who tell good tidings to Zion – get you up into the high mountain. O you who tell good tidings to Jerusalem – lift up our voice with strength. Lift it up! Be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah: ‘Behold your God! Behold, the L-rd G-d will come as a Mighty One” (verses 9-10).

Those nations that will see fit to fight us will be like a drop in the bucket, like dust on a scale, as it says, “Behold, the nations are as a drop in the bucket, as the small dust of the balance. Behold the isles are as a mote in weight. Lebanon is not sufficient fuel, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for burnt offerings. All the nations are as nothing before Him; they are accounted by Him as things of naught, and vanity” (verses 15-17).

Lebanon is here compared to a forest of trees all aflame. Isaiah addresses the skeptics, those weak in their faith, and he says: “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel: ‘My way is hidden from the L-rd; my right is passed over from my G-d’? Did you not know? Have you not heard that the everlasting G-d, the L-rd, Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, nor is weary? His discernment is unfathomable. He gives power to the faint, and to him, that has no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait for the L-rd shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.” (27-31)

Today, with our own eyes we see Isaiah’s words being fulfilled in our day. After two thousand years of exile, after our having undergone the calamitous Holocaust, we are rising to rebirth in the land of our life’s blood. Millions of Jews are being gathered homeward, as Isaiah said, “Even as a shepherd who feeds his flock, who gathers the lambs into his arm, carrying them in his bosom, gently leading nurslings” (verse11).
We can see with our own eyes how the land is developing with great strides. Roads and train tracks are being laid out, and Isaiah’s words are being fulfilled:

“‘Hark!’ one calls: ‘Clear in the wilderness the way of the L-rd, make plain in the desert a highway for our G-d.’ Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the rugged shall be made level, and the rough places a plain” (verses 3-4).

The nations are rising up against us to fight us, and these nations are likened to grass: “The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the L-rd blows upon it – Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our G-d shall endure forever” (7-8).


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

Yeshivat Machon Meir, Parashat VaEtchanan- How to comfort the people of Israel? (video)

Success blinds people to the messages of God

by Rabbi Pinchas Winston

FRIDAY NIGHT
TORAH GLADDENS THE heart, so we are limited when it comes to learning Torah on Tisha B’Av, especially when it comes to gemora. One of the sections that is permissible is in Maseches Gittin, beginning on 55b, because it recounts the events that led up to the destruction of the Second Temple.

The section begins like this:

Rebi Yochanan said: What is illustrative of the verse, “Happy is the man that fears always, but he that hardens his heart shall fall into mischief” (Tehillim 28:14)? The destruction of Jerusalem came through Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, the destruction of Tur Malkah came through a cock and a hen, and the destruction of Beitar came through the shaft of a leather.

Rashi explains the fear mentioned in the verse is a concern about the potential future consequences of a current action. As the gemora says elsewhere, a wise person is one who sees what is being born (Tamid 32a). They project the present into the future to decide a prudent course of action now.

This is the introduction to a section that will end with the following:

Come and see how serious it is to embarrass a person, for God helped Bar Kamtza and destroyed His House and burnt His Temple. (Gittin 57a)

Remarkable, truly remarkable. Punish an entire nation because one insensitive party-maker embarrassed his enemy?

A certain man had a friend Kamtza and an enemy Bar Kamtza. He once made a party and said to his servant, “Go and bring Kamtza.”

The man went and brought Bar Kamtza. When the man [who gave the party] found him there he said, “See, you tell tales about me; what are you doing here? Get out.”

Said the other: “Since I am here, let me stay, and I will pay you for whatever I eat and drink.”

He said, “I won’t.”

“Then let me give you half the cost of the party.”

“No,” said the other.

“Then let me pay for the whole party.”

He still said, “No, and he took him by the hand and put him out.”

Said the other, “Since the Rabbis were sitting there and did not stop him, this shows that they agreed with him. I will go and inform against then, to the Government.”

Help an evil person destroy the Temple because he was embarrassed by someone? Brutally destroy entire cities because of a hen, or some kind of shaft? The accounting doesn’t make any sense.

SHABBOS DAY
I ONCE HEARD a shiur that explained the role of Rebi Zechariah’s humility. As per Bar Kamtza’s advice to the Romans, they sent him with a sacrifice to see if the Jews would offer it up on the Temple altar. Bar Kamtza put a blemish in it so they wouldn’t to make it look as if they were rebelling against the Roman government.

The Rabbis were inclined to offer it in order not to offend the Government. Said Rebi Zechariah ben Abkulas to them: “People will say that blemished animals are offered on the altar.”

They then proposed to kill Bar Kamtza so that he should not go and inform against them, but Rebi Zechariah ben Abkulas said to them, “Is one who makes a blemish on consecrated animals to be put to death?”

Rebi Yochanan remarked: “Through the humility of Rebi Zechariah ben Abkulas, our House has been destroyed, our Temple burnt, and we ourselves exiled from our land. (Gittin 56a)

Being a Gadol b’Torah, he was part of the Sanhedrin. The rule of the Sanhedrin was that when a judgment was put to a vote, they began hearing opinions from the lesser talmidei chachamim, so that they would speak freely and not be intimidated by the opinions of those greater.

Rebi Zechariah, in his humility, did not think much of himself, so he spoke his opinion early as if one of the lesser members of the Sanhedrin. The problem was that others on the Sanhedrin thought very highly of him, and once he spoke, they were uncomfortable contradicting his opinion. So they didn’t, and his opinion carried the day.

But as Shmuel HaNavi told Shaul HaMelech, “You may be small in your own eyes, but you are the king of the Jewish people!” As such, he had to act his position for the sake of the people, no matter how uncomfortable he was doing it. Humility at the wrong time can be more deadly than a lack of it at the necessary time.

But how could Rebi Zechariah not have seen the fault in his own logic, and the potential consequences of his decision? The answer to that question is on the back side of the page:

“As for your question,” [Rebi Yochanan ben Zakkai answered Vespasian], “why if you are a king, I did not come to you until now, the answer is that the Biryonim (Jewish rebels) among us did not let me.”

He said to him: “If there is a serpent wound around a jar of honey, would they not break the jar to get rid of the serpent?(i.e., get rid of the Biryonim to save Jerusalem and its people)?

He could not answer him. Rav Yosef, or as some say Rebi Akiva, applied to him the verse, “[God] turns wise men backward and makes their knowledge foolish” (Yeshayahu 44:25).

In other words, it wasn’t Rebi Yochanan’s own shortcoming that caused him to ask for the wrong things from Vespasian. It was God Who put it into his mind what to ask for, which sounds like a reason for concern. We rely upon our Torah leaders to get help from God to always make the right decisions on our behalf, even miraculously if necessary. Does this not say that they aren’t as reliable as we thought they were, because God can deliberately send them in the opposite direction than the one that benefits us?

If so, yikes?

SHALOSH SEUDOT
MOSHE MENTIONS IN this week’s parsha how God rejected his plea to enter Eretz Yisroel, saying, “But God was angry with me because of you” (Devarim 3:26). There are different Hebrew words for angry, but Moshe chose “vayisaber,” which Rashi explains to mean “became filled with wrath.”

The Arizal saw in this word usage a hint to a very important point about Jewish leadership, especially Torah leadership, though it involves some Kabbalah:

As known, just as Zehr Anpin has the levels of Ibur—impregnation, Yenikah—nursing, and brains of Gadlus, so too do all souls have these [three levels]. The Holy One, Blessed is He, gives wisdom to the leader of the generation based upon the merits of the generation. Therefore, when the Jewish people sinned they caused their leader, Moshe, to return to the level of Ibur, and to lose the rest of the illuminations he had in the beginning, [the levels of] Yenikah and Gadlus. He was left with only the illuminations of Ibur. Then he forgot all those laws that he knew, as it is known, because the level of Ibur of Zehr Anpin is [when it ascends to inside] Imma Ila’a, called “Yovel”…The Hovayah in this verse is b’sod Imma, and this is “vayisaber—and God became angry with me,” and “because of you,” since it is the sins of the generation that cause this to happen to the leader. (Sha’ar HaPesukim, VaEschanan)

Without a background in Kabbalah, this will make little sense other than the last line. Simply, a Torah leader is not only about their depth of knowledge, but also about the depth of the divine insight they receive to help them understand a situation they must make a decision about. A certain amount of this will be the result of their own merit. The “extra” they might receive to better lead the nation will be in the merit of those people they have to lead.

Hence, Moshe Rabbeinu’s complaint. He was telling the people that, due to their own spiritual shortcomings, he was spiritually demoted, as Rashi states here by the episode of the golden calf:

God said to Moshe: “Go, descend, for your people that you have brought up from the land of Egypt have acted corruptly.” (Shemos 32:7)

Descend from your high position. I gave you this high position only for their sake. At that time, Moshe was banished by a decree of the heavenly tribunal. (Rashi)

In Kabbalah, the level of prophecy to which Moshe had reached is called Gadlus. The level to which he descended because of their sins is called Ibur, the root of the word vayisaber in the parsha used for “became angry with.” In one word, Moshe Rabbeinu alluded to the net effect on him of their sinning and his ability to lead the nation.

This is how the Maharsha explains the verse from the gemora as well. He says that Rebi Yochanan did not think to ask to save the Temple or Jerusalem, because the people inside were not worthy of being saved. Had they been, then God would have put it into his head to ask for their salvation, and Vespasian would have been compelled to grant it.

Likewise, had the people been worthy of it, then Rebi Zechariah would have realized a better answer to save the nation. The series of events that led to the Churban were a reflection of the nation, not of Rebi Zechariah. They reflected the decree against the people, as the next piece of gemora makes clear.

MELAVE MALKAH
ONCE THE ROMANS bought Bar Kamtza’s argument, they sent legions against Jerusalem to begin what would become a disastrous siege and eventual destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem around it.

He [the Emperor] sent against them Neron the Caesar. As he was coming he shot an arrow towards the east, and it fell in Jerusalem. He then shot one towards the west, and it again fell in Jerusalem. He shot towards all four points of the compass, and each time it fell in Jerusalem. He said to a certain boy, “Repeat to me [the last] verse you have learned.”

He told him, “And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of My people Israel” (Yechezkel 25:14).

He said: “The Holy One, Blessed is He, wants to lay waste His House and to lay the blame on me!” (Gittin 56a)

As they say, the die was cast. Neron may have received his marching orders from Rome, but he was being sent by God. The destruction had been decreed on high, and the Roman general was meant to carry it out, and that disturbed him to the point of turning to a Jewish child for confirmation.

How did Neron know? Because of the fourth arrow he shot in the direction of Jerusalem that landed in Jerusalem. Had it been the first shot, he wouldn’t have taken note of it. But after sending arrows in other directions and they fell in Jerusalem, the fourth should have gone somewhere else if the entire incident was just some kind of weird omen. The fact that it too landed in Jerusalem meant that Jerusalem was in fact the target, and that the people lacked the merit to survive.

It shook Neron up so much in fact that rather than be emboldened by the divine encouragement, he declined the advantage, deserted, and converted. He had read the divine sign and had not liked what he read. Curiously enough, the gemora felt compelled to tell us that, as a reward, he became the ancestor of the great Rebi Meir. For allowing his eyes to be illuminated by divine signs…for projecting into the future what he saw in the present…he was blessed with a descendant who illuminated—meir—the eyes of his generation.

Which brings the gemora to the next part of the story about Rebi Tzaddok. He was the one who fasted for forty years to try and avert the destruction of the Temple. How did he know it was coming? Because he paid attention to the divine signs, and responded to them.

Therefore it was no coincidence that the very wealthy and pampered Marta bas Baysos accidentally ate the fig of Rebi Tzaddok, and died because of it. After forty years of fasting failed to avert the decree, Rebi Tzaddok was nursed back to health by sucking the juice out of a fig which he later disposed of. Desperate for food during the siege despite being rich, she picked the fig up, ate it, and was disgusted to the point of dementia from it.

How could she have such resources and yet be caught so unprepared for the famine that came up? The Torah answers in next week’s parsha, where it warns that success will be breed overconfidence which will lead to the forgetting of God. The gemora also says that the generation of the flood and Sdom only forgot about God because of all the success He gave them.

Success blinds people to the messages of God.

This leads to a reduction of merit.

That leads to a reduction of leadership.

And that leads to destruction.

The consolation? We haven’t reached that point yet in our history. If we break the chain of negative events, we can reverse the trend and save ourselves before things become as bad as they did in the gemora.

Rabbi Ari Kahn on Parashat Vaetchanan: Revealing the Hidden

The Yishai Fleisher Israel Podcast - Ben & Jerry's Gate

On the road, Yishai monologues about the power of the Biblical narrative in the lives of average people - and Israel's lackluster promotion of that narrative - which results in the Ben and Jerry’s edict against Judea. Also, some key verses in the Torah portion of Va'etchanan including an explanation of what Jewish wisdom really is.

Israel’s Second Struggle for Independence

by Victor Rosenthal

The USA has been Israel’s greatest friend and supporter in recent years.

It is also Israel’s biggest problem.

Our dependence on American military aid has sharply limited our freedom of action, distorted our decisions about procurement of weapons, crippled the development of our own military industries, corrupted our decision-makers, and damaged our standing as a sovereign state.

It is true that on some occasions Israel has acted against America’s wishes, such as the bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981. It is also true that far more frequently, Israel has been forced to bow to US demands, even when they are not in her best interests. In several wars and smaller operations, cease-fires have been dictated by American pressure, although Israel would have preferred to continue fighting longer in order to achieve a decisive victory. During the Gulf War, the US prevented Israel from retaliating for Iraqi Scud attacks. In peacetime, US pressure has prevented Israel from building in Judea and Samaria, and forced Israel to accept Palestinian demands for the release of prisoners. American opposition was a major factor in the decision not to attack Iranian nuclear facilities in the 2010-2012 period.

Israel’s relationship with the US has been better or worse depending on the direction of political winds there, but pressure to reverse the outcome of the 1967 war has been a constant ever since – with the notable exception of the Trump administration, which for the first time recognized Israeli rights to Jerusalem and the Golan heights. But now it seems that the US is taking a turn in the other direction; and this time – thanks to Israel’s conclusive loss of the cognitive war for the consciousness of American elites, the partisan division of attitudes toward Israel, and the new strength of the radical Left in American politics – our time in the wilderness may turn out to be much longer than before.

The inroads being made by elements hostile to Israel into the American educational system, previously limited to higher education, but now reaching into high school and even grade school levels, are troubling. The “intersectional” connections being made between every progressive cause, and the politicization of almost every field of endeavor, have injected the issue of Israel vs. the Palestinians into places where it was not found before.

This is a problem, because our enemies – particularly Iran – are taking advantage of the less pro-Israel climate in the US. The Biden Administration, which has already significantly released the pressure on Iran, appears to be galloping toward a full removal of sanctions, whether or not it will gain significant leverage over their nuclear weapons program. Trump’s sanctions had sent the Iranian economy into a tailspin, which helped energize the Iranian opposition to the repressive and backward regime of the Ayatollahs. Even today, Iranians are in the streets protesting against the regime. But the removal of sanctions will not help them; the regime will funnel cash into its nuclear program, into the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, Yemen, and Syria, and to build up Israel’s most dangerous enemy, Hezbollah.

At the same time, the Biden Administration, which has staffed its echelons dealing with the Middle East with people less than friendly to Israel – including some with a history of anti-Israel activism (see here, here, and here) – has already restored funding to the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA, plans to re-open the Jerusalem consulate, the unofficial “US Embassy to the State of Palestine” in Jerusalem, and to allow the PLO to restore its embassy in Washington.

A recent poll shows that the Democratic Party, which now controls the House, Senate and the Presidency, has moved significantly away from its formerly solid support for Israel in recent years, with sympathy for Israel among Democrats maintaining a slight edge of only 3 percentage points over sympathy for the Palestinians. The “liberal” wing of the party is far worse, with the Palestinians holding a 15% margin over Israel. Younger respondents also were more likely to favor the Palestinians, which argues for a continuation of the trend. And there is a very vocal contingent in the US Congress that is strongly anti-Israel, and not at all constrained from giving voice to the most extreme anti-Israel propaganda.

The Israeli leadership must come to understand that the continued expectation that Israel will receive military and diplomatic support from the US is unrealistic and dangerous. Israel needs to take action now, to reduce its dependence on the US, to increase its freedom of action, and to build up its own resources in important areas.

There is only one way for a small country in a strategic area to obtain independence from the various empires that wish to make it a satellite, and it is difficult and precarious. That is to play the empires off against one another, and to make alliances with other unaligned nations. I believe that Binyamin Netanyahu understood this, and made small but steady progress in this direction. It remains to be seen if the present government, whose foreign policy appears to be in the hands of the obsequious Yair Lapid, can pull this off.

From the military standpoint, Israel needs to be its own main source of supply. That has implications for the kind of military forces it can field. For example, it may be unrealistic to try to maintain a large fleet of the most sophisticated manned combat aircraft. Drones and precision-guided missiles are far less expensive than F-35s, and while they can’t entirely replace conventional aircraft, a small country will find it more practical to produce and maintain them.

There are also economic considerations. Iron Dome is a wonderful thing, but if it costs $100,000 to intercept a $500 rocket, then massive-scale use of it will bankrupt us. It is much less expensive to deter rocket attacks with the threat of forceful reprisals than to depend on antimissile systems to ward them off. The former strategy is more appropriate for a smaller country whose defense budget is not bottomless. I don’t suggest doing away with antimissile systems entirely, just changing our strategy so that we will not need so many of them.

I recommend that we start moving in this direction now, by agreeing with the US to a gradual phase-out of military aid. At the same time, we will have to revitalize our domestic military industries. Barack Obama very cleverly did not decrease the level of military aid we received, to maintain the maximum leverage over our actions. But the percentage of that aid that could be spent outside of the US was set to gradually drop to zero over the next few years. This had the effect of increasing the subsidy that aid to Israel provided to US defense contractors, and weakening Israel’s home-grown industry. This made us more dependent and at the same time reduced the competition to American weapons suppliers in the world market. A win-win-win for the US, but a loss for us.

America is changing in ways that are not good for America, and not good for us. I hope that the political/cultural pendulum in the US will swing the other way. Probably it will, if the nation survives the present storm intact. But here on the other side of the world, Israel’s enemies are not waiting with their hands folded. She will either adapt to the new situation or find herself in deep trouble.

Rav Kook on Parashat Va'etchanan: In Mind and Heart

The Aleinu prayer, recited at the conclusion of every prayer service, contains the following verse:

וְיָדַעְתָּ הַיּוֹם וַהֲשֵׁבֹתָ אֶל־לְבָבֶךָ:
כִּי ה’ הוּא הָאֱ-לֹהִים בַּשָּׁמַיִם מִמַּעַל וְעַל־הָאָרֶץ מִתָּחַת, אֵין עוֹד.

“Know it today and ponder it in your heart: God is the Supreme Being in heaven above and on the earth below - there is no other.” (Deut. 4:39)

What is the difference between “knowing it” and “pondering it in our heart”?

Two Stages of Acceptance
Sometimes, people admit that there is a gap between what they know intellectually and what they are ready for emotionally. They will say, “Yes, this makes sense. This is a better way, a healthier way, a truer way. Still, it’s not for me. It’s too hard; I cannot do it.”

Therefore, the Torah emphasizes the importance of two steps. First, we need to recognize the truth. This is the initial cognitive stage of וְיָדַעְתָּ הַיּוֹם, “know it today.”

This stage is critical, but it is still only on a theoretical level. It must be followed by the second step: to internalize that which the mind comprehends. We need to accept emotionally the ramifications of this understanding and be willing to act upon it. That is the second stage, וַהֲשֵׁבֹתָ אֶל־לְבָבֶךָ, “ponder it in your heart.”

The second stage of practical acceptance should be rooted in the initial step of intellectual comprehension. As the Sages taught (Berachot 13a), “First accept the kingdom of Heaven, and then the yoke of practical mitzvot.”

Above and Below
The verse continues by stating that God is supreme in both “the heaven above and on the earth below.” What does this mean?

This does not refer to God’s unity in the universe, but to our own inner unity when we accept His reign. “Heaven” and “earth” are metaphors for our two major faculties: the mind and the heart. We need to be consistent so that how we act is not detached from what we believe.

In summary, we should accept God’s kingship on both levels:

To understand intellectually - in the “heaven above” - using our minds, in cognitive thought and belief.
And to act upon that wisdom on a practical level - “on the earth below” - with our hearts and our will, by implementing our intellectual understanding in the realm of deed and action.

(Gold from the Land of Israel (now available in paperback). pp. 299-300. Adapted from Olat Re’iyah vol. I, pp. 324-325 by Rav Chanan Morrison)

A World Without Aisav

BS”D 

Parashat Va’et’chanan Shabbat Nachamu 5781
by HaRav Nachman Kahana

Deadly Flooding in Germany
A Berlin newspaper: “Following a day of frantic rescue efforts and orders to evacuate towns rapidly filling with water unloosed by violent storms, the German authorities said late Thursday that after confirming scores of deaths, they were unable to account for at least 1,300 people.

That staggering figure was announced after swift-moving water from swollen rivers surged through cities and villages in two western German states, where the death toll passed 90 on Friday in the hardest-hit regions and other fatalities were expected.

With communication badly hampered, the authorities were hoping that the missing people were safe, if unreachable. But the storms and the floods have already proved deadly.”

A Childhood Memory
I was born one year, three months and 16 days before the outbreak of World War II.

At my birth there were about 18 million Jews in the world; when I entered grade one in 1944, there were 12 million! Six million of our people had been murdered in the Shoah, including a million and a half Jewish children just like me.

Despite my young age, I was very aware of what was happening. My brother Meir HY”D was an avid collector of news items. He would cut out relevant articles from the daily papers and paste them in a scrapbook album. When it was filled, he would place the album in a suitcase and start the next one. Very often he would read or tell me what was happening in the war against the Jewish nation. As the years rolled on, I was better prepared to appreciate to what extent we had suffered and what could have happened to us all had Germany not been defeated.

Justice
On the Ninth of Menachem Av, I sat on the tayelet (promenade) in Talpiot overlooking the Temple Mount, while reciting Kinot.

My book of Kinot included lamentations composed by rabbis who had experienced the Shoah and tried to convey what was perpetrated against our people at the hands of the Aisavic-Amalek Germans and their allies all over Europe.

They described the boundless sadistic cruelty. Like beasts in a wild frenzy attacking herds of timid sheep; they tore from limb-to-limb millions of our brothers and sisters; men, women and children in frenetic hate.

The fortunate were murdered immediately by shooting; others were forced to dig their own graves and were buried alive, the less fortunate had to live on. Buried alive, tortured in insane sadistic manners beyond the imagination of even the Satan.

Hundreds of thousands, even millions, were shipped to the murder camps in rail cars not fit for animals. They were unable to sit because of the crowding, in unbearable summer heat and the paralyzing European winter cold. At the camps they were herded out of the rail cars with whips and bludgeons in front of savage hungry dogs. The hand movement to the left meant the gas chambers and crematoria; to the right meant body-breaking work, disease, and medical experiments. Stripped naked, hair cut off, and gold removed from their teeth to enrich the lusts of their tormentors in Berlin, London, Basel and the wealthy, “aristocratic” first families of America, as recorded in history books.

As I sat overlooking the Temple Mount on the 73rd year of Medinat Yisrael, the morning news came to my mind regarding the Germans who died by the torrential rains; equal to about three minutes in Treblinka.

I felt no remorse for them. On the contrary I thought as I have done many times before, where is HaShem, the Master of justice and holy revenge, to bring some semblance of satisfaction for the remaining victims. What? Only 1300 Germans are estimated to die in the floods? Why not 6 million to begin with?

And then the pasuk from Ovadya (1,21) came to my mind:

כא: ועלו מושעים בהר ציון לשפט את הר עשו והיתה לה’ המלוכה

The deliverers (redeemers) will rise up on the Mountain of Zion to judge the Mountain of Aisav, and then the kingdom will be HaShem’s.

Meaning: when the great day of judgement arrives, it will not be the revenge of an individual Jew to his specific tormentor, or a natural event as heavy rainfall killing 1000 people. It will be the entire Jewish nation, sons of Ya’akov, who dwell in Mount Zion – Medinat Yisrael, who will devour all the sons of Aisav. And the world without Aisav will admit that HaShem is the Creator, the Holy One Blessed Be He, who has chosen the Jewish nation to be His favored possession.

Those who rise up on the Mountain of Zion will be under the flag of Medinat Yisrael, the messenger of Hashem to the world. And the Mountain of Aisav are the Christian nations of Europe, beginning with Portugal to the west continuing with Spain, England, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and all the rest who have red in their national flag (the symbol of Aisav) down to and including Russian Siberia.

Germany is not Aisav; they are but one limb of the diseased and infectious body of Aisav. How will it evolve that miniscule (in area and population) Medinat Yisrael will bring down the largest Jewish cemetery in the world, called Europe? We have difficulty interpreting hind-sight history much less “future-sight”; so, no one can predict how it will happen; but it surely will. Medinat Yisrael by some twist of history, with HaShem pulling the strings, will be responsible for the destruction of the descendants of Aisav on an international scale.

As the Prophet Ovadya verse 18 states:

‘והיה בית יעקב אש ובית יוסף להבה ובית עשו לקש ודלקו בהם ואכלום ולא יהיה שריד לבית עשו כי ה

And Ya’akov will be a fire and Yosef a flame; Aisav will be stubble, and they will set him on fire and destroy him.

There will be no survivors from Aisav. HaShem has spoken.

Conclusion
Don’t be confused or befuddled by the fact that the Europeans of today are not the murderers of yesterday. HaShem knows the evil thoughts of men. The German, and Pole and all the former allies of the destroyed Third Reich are the children and grandchildren of the murderers of yesterday, and they will be the murderers of tomorrow. One does not become more moral by losing a war.

So, as I overlooked Mount Zion (the Temple Mount) I saw in my mind’s eye a beautiful new world whose center is the Third Temple of HaShem, HaShem’s answer to the Third Reich. It will be a world where the evil doers of all sorts will not be participants.

Shabbat Shalom,
Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5781/2021 Nachman Kahana

The Shamrak Report: Temple in Flames - Final Battle for Jerusalem and more..

Jews from around the country flocked to Jerusalem on the anniversary of the destruction of the first and second Temples. In addition, hundreds of Jews arrived at the entrance to the Temple Mount. Arabs rioted and threw stones at police forces on the Temple Mount.

"There are things that require us to remember that our enemies have not left the world, we must always remain united and learn the lesson of the destruction of the Temple so that God forbid the same reasons that led to the destruction of the Temple will not strike us again at this time," said President Isaac Herzog.
The Jewish people twice had a Jewish state on the Land of Israel, and both times we did not succeed to complete the eighth decade as an independent state, because of internal wars and baseless hatred, wrote the Prime Minister Bennett

Freedom of Religion not for Jews
After more than 1,600 Jewish visitors ascended the Temple Mount for prayers marking the Tisha B Av fast day, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry demanded Israel refrain from taking any actions that will lead to escalation, while highlighting the need to revive the Israeli-Palestinian Arab peace process based on the related international resolutions within the framework of the two-state solution.

The Ra am party, a coalition partner which represents the Southern Islamic Movement in Israel, condemned the Jewish prayers on the Temple Mount, warning Jewish worshippers on the holy site could cause Arab riots and ultimately spark a religious war.

It also claimed the Temple Mount, which it referred to as a mosque courtyard , is under full Islamic ownership. (Fake friends and internal enemies do not feel that Jews have the right of Freedom of Religion even in Israel, their ancestral land)

Biden Gives $135 million to UNRWA
The United States transferred $135.8 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In April, the Biden administration announced the restoration of $235 million in U.S. aid to Palestinians, including $150 million to UNRWA, restoring part of the $360 million in U.S. funding to the agency cut by former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018. The Trump administration had determined that UNRWA was an irredeemably flawed operation.

Biden and Bennett will Talk about Iran
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will fly to Washington next month for his first face-to-face meeting with US President Joe Biden. Iran will reportedly be the most pressing item on the prime minister's agenda for his White House talks, including Israeli concerns about Iranian hard-line president-elect Ebrahim Raisi. Israel has repeatedly voiced its opposition to a US return to the Iranian nuclear deal crafted by President Barack Obama in 2015.

Iran won't Resume Nuclear Talks
Iran is not prepared to resume negotiations on coming back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal until Iranian President-elect Ebrahim Raisi's administration has begun, probably not before mid-August. US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that the United States will not impose a deadline on a seventh round of talks with Iran, adding that Tehran can determine when talks will resume. (The aim of the Iranian nuclear program is to annihilate Israel! The new Iranian president is not in favour of any negotiation. Each day of delay in dealing with Iran brings the Islamic state closer to become a nuclear power)

Traditional Antisemitism is still Strong
Senior European ambassadors to Israel, including German and French officials, boycotted the July 4th ceremony at the US Embassy in Jerusalem. Ambassadors and officials from Romania and the UK, as well as Kosovo, Australia, Norway, and Canada did attend the event.

Most Terrorists are Educated
The Israeli army had arrested between 20 and 30 Palestinian students from Birzeit University in the West Bank it accused of being "terror operatives" of Islamist group Hamas. An Israeli army statement said: "Some of the apprehended terror operatives were directly involved in terror activities, including money transfers, incitement and the organization of Hamas activities in Judea and Samaria". (Most of the Islamic terrorists, including the ones who committed 9/11 attack on the US, are well-educated)

Israel to Deduct 'Pay to Slay' Millions
Israel will deduct NIS 597 million ($183 million) from the tax money it collects and transfers to the Palestinian Authority for exports from Gaza. The amount the PA gives to families of terrorists jailed in Israel or killed while carrying out attacks on Israelis - so-called 'pay to slay' funds are reward for or incentive to commit violence. The funds will be frozen on a monthly basis out of payments that Israel transfers to the Palestinians. (The blood money' must be used to compensate families of Jewish victims of the terror. Israel also needs to withhold funds to compensate the cost of fighting terror and economic loses - Any money to Gaza must FIRST pay Israeli victims, then restock Iron Dome)

Iranian Prince Appeals to Jews
Iran s exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi met with 50 American Jewish organizations "to use their influence in Washington to continue to exert pressure on the Islamic Republic and to show maximum support for the Iranian people. He also spoke about the ties between Persians and Jews dating back 2,500 years and the fact that it was Persian King Cyrus the Great who ended the Babylonian captivity of the Jews.

The UN Funds Terror-Linked Palestinian NGOs
From 2016 to 2020, the United Nations (UN) has funnelled at least $40 million to radical Palestinian Authority (PA) NGOs that have ties to terrorist organizations and promote BDS. Eight of 19 PA NGOs that receive funding from the UN have ties to Hamas or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror groups. ( This is the old news - member states of 'Ugly Nazi do not care)

Quote of the Week:
The Opposition, led by Bibi and Tibi, failed to topple the government, but together they managed to directly harm Israel s security and surrender its borders. As far as Bibi is concerned, if he isn t in the government, the whole country can go up in flames for all he cares." - Ayelet Shaked (Yamina), Interior Minister, said after Netanyahu (Likud) joined with Arab MKs and blocked the law limiting Arab family reunifications in Israel When will Likud change its leader ? After four inconclusive elections, isn t it time? Does the party have leadership material that would remain true to Zionist aspirations of its founders?

Hideous Political Correctness
by Steven Shamrak
Not long ago political correctness was introduced to the West with very good intentions. It was needed to make a transformation from a barbarian and bigoted society to one that pretends to be civilised, where all are equal. Therefore, Blacks have become African Americans; the Hispanics and Chinese ethnic minorities; Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims - religious minorities; Men and women are called persons.

Political correctness is not a new invention. According to the unofficial codex of intelligencia of Tsarist Russia, A member of the intelligencia must not admit or show his anti-Semitic tendencies. It was never about not having them.

Now political correctness has reached new levels of absurdity. For example, blind and short people are called visually and vertically challenged or impaired. Political correctness has become a tool of aggression and intolerance in a quite slippery, joking , passive-aggressive way.

The current TV series Commander in Chief has topped them all in its sophistication of subliminal, hammer-like, presentation of political correctness . It is meant to be a substitution for the highly intelligent and professionally made The West Wing series. But, with an independent, female president, an African American as a Chief of Staff of the White House and an Arab Palestinian as her most trusted staffer, it can only be described and viewed as a spoof. No wonder the show has rating problems. Next, they will probably make the science fiction movie George Bush and Democracy on Mars . It will be a more likely scenario than the creation of true democracy in Iraq, Iran& or in any Muslim country during this century.

In International politics, political correctness plays a big role when oil is concerned. Everyone is so deliberately polite and considerate toward the most often, fake and even obnoxious claims and behaviour of the Arabs and Muslims. At the same time there is no interest and a complete disregard for Jewish National rights and aspirations. Jews and Israel are used as an international scapegoat in order to divert public attention from domestic or world issues! The political correctness and careful diplomacy - used by the UN, ICC and many other international Jew-loving organisations - is not applied to Jewish state.

For centuries the Jewish leadership, so-called official Jews , have been playing games of appeasement and conformity with their masters. Even after the creation of the Jewish State, the Jewish leaders seem unable to shake off the Galut mentality: the mentality of the slaves of Egypt that has been enforced by centuries of abuse, hatred and anti-Semitism. They are not truly able to represent the dreams and aspirations of the Jewish people.

Is there no Jewish leader who would give a direct answer to the question What is the Jewish land? Instead, they will go on and on, but would never tell it straight and simple that the League of Nations allocated the land called Palestine for the Jewish state and gave a temporary mandate to the United Kingdom to carry out the Leagues resolution. Or, simply, they would pull the Israeli coin of 10 Agorot out and show the engraved image of Eretz Israel. If they can t perform such a simple act of personal bravery by telling the world where the Jewish land is, why do they occupy the position of leadership, but instead lead Jewish people nowhere? By their inaction are they deceiving and destroying the Jewish nation?

Discontent at the Kotel

by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky

Could we please stop referring to each person’s bête noire as Sinat Chinam?

The latest perversion of this philosophical concept came in response to the alleged disruption by religious youth of the egalitarian, anti-Torah worship services at the extension of the Kotel. Like it or not – it was surely impolite and violated the revered Western doctrine of “live and let live” – it was not Sinat Chinam, which is not baseless hatred as much as it is self-destructive hatred. It is hatred that destroys the hater as much as it does the target of his hatred and is thus ultimately self-defeating.

To the lay eye and tendentious thinker, Sinat Chinam has apparently deteriorated into any type of hatred. In essence, if you dislike what I like, then you must be guilty of Sinat Chinam. Hence the accusations of Sinat Chinam against these passionate and politically incorrect youth who brought a mechitzah to the new “egalitarian” section of the Kotel and thereby disturbed the serenity of the worshippers.

It is odd, but I don’t recall accusations of Sinat Chinam being leveled against the Israelis who loudly protested against former PM Netanyahu for years, sometimes nightly, disturbing the peace of the neighbors and interfering with their quality of life, especially the right to a quiet night in their residential neighborhoods. And those demonstrations involved petty politics – not hallowed principle. Once we get past the cliché of Sinat Chinam it is easier to understand the Kotel rally as young people defending the honor and sanctity of a holy place, something that the worshippers studiously ignore in their echo chamber of virtuous self-aggrandizement. That is not Sinat Chinam.

For all the hypocritical pieties of those who lambasted the “demonstrators” as desecrating the Kotel, it has become an unfortunate truism that protesters, even sometimes, sadly, violent protesters, usually get their way in Israel and across the Western world. It is as if the possessors of a media-favored grievance automatically have moral superiority. Thus rioters in recent years in Yerushalayim, Tel Aviv, Lod and elsewhere change policy and influence decision-makers. Limitations are placed on Jewish worshippers – indeed, on Jewish builders of homes across Judea and Samaria – for fear of Arab rioters. The Kotel demonstrators have learned that lesson well. If we have learned anything from America in the past year, it is that anarchy works and the politicians usually follow along hoping to salvage some measure of stability (and retain their electoral viability), until the next demand is made. Whatever the merits of the argument, it is surely unhealthy for a polity to have its policy makers driven by fear of the mob.

But it is the substance of their complaint, if not their tactics, that deserve our attention. We would be hard-pressed to think of the holy site of another religion being forcibly co-opted by those of a different faith or even stream. St. Peters Square does not accommodate a Protestant Church and even Chabad has not set up shop in Mecca. Those who look to the past treatment of Jews at the Kotel – when the Kotel was under the control of Muslims or Christians – as a template for today are shamefully denigrating Jewish sovereignty over the area. Those who nonchalantly embrace or even tolerate the idea of non-Orthodox worship of the Kotel – the retaining wall of the Second Temple, in the shadow of the holiest place on earth for Jews – do not understand the deviations of the non-Orthodox movements and thus the sacrilege at the Kotel.

If you judge by all the surveys taken over decades, and substantiated by more recent ones, few non-Orthodox Jews believe in God as the Creator and moral Authority of mankind, and even fewer believe in the divine origin of the Torah. Only a tiny minority yearns for the rebuilding of the Temple and in many cases these movements have removed such requests from their prayers. It is ironic, isn’t it, that they have made this place the focal point of their drive for legitimacy. In truth, most see it less as a place of prayer to God than as a national historic site of some significance, and only want to pray there because, well, the Orthodox pray there. But so did generations of Jews of all backgrounds and ideologies who realized the sanctity of the place and the religious sincerity of those who preserved it, and simply, properly and respectfully complied with the norms of the place. These worshippers should do the same.

Here is the greater irony. We derive the necessity for a mechitzah from the practice that existed in the Bet Hamikdash itself (Masechet Sukkah 51b) and was then extended to all permanent places of Jewish prayer. In other words, the non-Orthodox Jews are engaged in the very sort of egalitarian worship that was prohibited in the very place they purport to honor with their presence and their prayers. How is that for a lack of spiritual self-awareness?

This movement is part of a general trend to seek legitimacy for the deviant streams of Judaism even as their numbers drastically decline and their rate of intermarriage soars. And the desire for mutual respect and tolerance that underlies the accommodative nature of some of the politicians involved is also understandable, even though (for some, especially because) it tramples on the sensitivities of religious Jews. It won’t work because most faithful Jews do not regard the non-Orthodox streams as legitimate expressions of Judaism. Most are reluctant to say it – decorum has its place – and certainly it won’t be said by those organizations whose donor base includes many non-Orthodox Jews.

It needs to be underscored that many of our brothers and sisters in these movements want to be good Jews and assume that what they have been taught is just a different but equally valid expression of Judaism. They have been misled by their teachers and rabbis. Many love Israel. But the inherent weakness of these movements has been proven by the astronomical intermarriage rate such that a large number (in the Reform movement in America, it is probably a majority) are no longer Jews according to halacha. Naturally, that necessitates cries to change the rules, make them Jews, accept intermarriage as a way to “increase” our population, alter the Torah, accept the reality of the sad state of Diaspora Jewry and import it to Israel.

Will the egalitarian section soon host intermarriages as well?

It is fascinating that the Wall Street Journal reported this week on the growing fears of a new schism in the Catholic Church over differing approaches to the issues of – you guessed it – same-sex marriage and ordination for women. That should ring a bell for Jews, as well as remind us that the pressures on tradition in our context are also coming from secular, Western, and non-Jewish sources.

The gist of the problem is that God gave the Torah to the Jewish people. He did not instead give each Jew a mirror and say to him or her: “just look in this mirror and you will be able to ascertain My will. Because My will is whatever you say it is.” There are no such holy mirrors. There is a holy Torah, holy days and holy places. No group has the right to usurp control of even part of a holy place and claim it as their own, nor does such usurpation gain any more authenticity if it is supported by secular authorities. Here, mutual respect calls for the newcomers to desist from defiling the sanctity of the Kotel and worship there as did their ancestors.

For sure, the Torah world is not monolithic but these are not radical views. These are mainstream views held by people who seek to be welcoming and open to every Jew. Tolerance that flows in one direction only is just intolerance that has elitist and media support.

And it is not Sinat Chinam to point that out.