Friday, March 18, 2005
Sparks From Israel
Life is Loud
I have a good friend here who is also a new immigrant. We smile at each other when we see Israeli’s passing by dressed loudly, shouting to each other and behaving in what appears to be a primitive way. ‘Why must they scream and yell?’ I asked. My friend answered me. The Galut is very quiet. Here there is noise everywhere. The buses are loud, the people are loud; music blares out of speakers everywhere you go. But here is also the place where the world began. The stream of life is transmitted from the Light of this Nation to the world. And life is loud. It is the sound of building, the sound of protest, the sound of fighting for ones right to exist.
The Galut is quiet, and people try not to rock the boat. They are quite happy if they go unnoticed. They live comfortably in foreign countries and wish to be left alone to continue to live quietly as model citizens of their adopted countries. If the problems of Israel begin to affect their quiet lives, this concerns many and worries them.
Here on the other hand, if the problems of one group of Jews affect another group of Jews no one is quiet about it. If someone is pushed, they push back. Even if it involves foreign governments, world bodies, collaborators, even armies. No one goes down quietly. Life is loud and only death is quiet. Life changes rapidly, while death stands still.
We sat by the water to escape the noise but life was still loud all around us beating its drums and blowing shofars. Life is loud, but it certainly feels good to be alive.
Life is Loud
I have a good friend here who is also a new immigrant. We smile at each other when we see Israeli’s passing by dressed loudly, shouting to each other and behaving in what appears to be a primitive way. ‘Why must they scream and yell?’ I asked. My friend answered me. The Galut is very quiet. Here there is noise everywhere. The buses are loud, the people are loud; music blares out of speakers everywhere you go. But here is also the place where the world began. The stream of life is transmitted from the Light of this Nation to the world. And life is loud. It is the sound of building, the sound of protest, the sound of fighting for ones right to exist.
The Galut is quiet, and people try not to rock the boat. They are quite happy if they go unnoticed. They live comfortably in foreign countries and wish to be left alone to continue to live quietly as model citizens of their adopted countries. If the problems of Israel begin to affect their quiet lives, this concerns many and worries them.
Here on the other hand, if the problems of one group of Jews affect another group of Jews no one is quiet about it. If someone is pushed, they push back. Even if it involves foreign governments, world bodies, collaborators, even armies. No one goes down quietly. Life is loud and only death is quiet. Life changes rapidly, while death stands still.
We sat by the water to escape the noise but life was still loud all around us beating its drums and blowing shofars. Life is loud, but it certainly feels good to be alive.
Friday, March 11, 2005
Sparks From Israel
Oranges
I have a good friend who went home to London for two weeks. She said she missed her friends and family and the club scene. We met yesterday when she came back and she told me for two weeks all she thought about was Israel and her friends here. She was so happy to come home. It’s really odd when I think about it. She is somewhat traditional, but she is by no means a religious girl. In fact she dresses quite provocatively. Why is it I thought to myself some people just have the bug to come and live here and others simply don’t? I know many pious Jews who pray fervently each day about returning to the Holy Land of Israel, yet they don’t. What inspired us?
We waited for a bus to come. There were many Orange trees growing wild on the boulevard. I reached up and picked two giant oranges as we waited for our bus. We looked at each other and I asked her. Why were we so lucky to have found this? She munched on her Orange and looked back at me ‘Dunno’.
Oranges
I have a good friend who went home to London for two weeks. She said she missed her friends and family and the club scene. We met yesterday when she came back and she told me for two weeks all she thought about was Israel and her friends here. She was so happy to come home. It’s really odd when I think about it. She is somewhat traditional, but she is by no means a religious girl. In fact she dresses quite provocatively. Why is it I thought to myself some people just have the bug to come and live here and others simply don’t? I know many pious Jews who pray fervently each day about returning to the Holy Land of Israel, yet they don’t. What inspired us?
We waited for a bus to come. There were many Orange trees growing wild on the boulevard. I reached up and picked two giant oranges as we waited for our bus. We looked at each other and I asked her. Why were we so lucky to have found this? She munched on her Orange and looked back at me ‘Dunno’.
Friday, March 04, 2005
Sparks From Israel
How Do You Know You Are In Israel?
I was sitting in a café at 2am on a corner where there are quite a few dance clubs. All of a sudden I heard some loud funky dance music with Chassidic chanting. Everyone stopped and looked. It was the Rabbi Nachman van. The van parked on the busy street corner and a troupe of Rabbi Nachman Chassids jumped out with their white cotton kippas. They got everyone dancing on the street, even on the roof of the mini-van.
I used to think there was a big separation between secular and religious, but now I understand there are a lot of grey areas in between. No one is really totally ‘secular’ and our religion has also gotten a lot ‘groovier’.
Blame It On Syria
Every time our leaders proclaim 'a new era' of Peace and release prisoners and relax borders the world rejoices while I expect tragedy. Therefore I was not altogether surprised when I heard the deadly explosion that took five more innocent Jewish lives. Of course the terrorist could not have been among our cousins who we just made peace with. Everyone knows that they suddenly have changed. They wear tailored suits now and they shaved their beards. Therefore, it must be Syria.
It was Syria who gave the order to send the local Arab resident through the newly relaxed checkpoints, or maybe Iran, or Hamas. It doesn’t really matter much to me who gave the order, or even if it was just another pious Muslim wishing to wed 70 virgins. The point is, when the Arabs and the world are angry with checkpoints and walls and terrorist assassinations, I feel safer. When our leaders collaborate with those who seek our demise and sell our birthright for a pot of lentils, I feel less secure. I would much rather be alive with animosity and condemnation than dead with the 'new era' of peace and world sympathy.
Alas, Israel is a work in progress, and I love it dearly. The day after the bomb, the beach was crowded with people, and life goes on. Less than a week after the attack at ‘Stages’, the club was redecorated and re-opened and there were twice as many people lined up outside waiting to get in. I suppose this is an indication of the indestructible spirit of our people. Israel will outlive corrupt politicians, terrorists and indifference, because its future is an interactive prophecy that we all participate in. Each of us chooses their part and none of us can undo its rebirth, only stand in its way. I still feel lucky to have been given such a good seat in the center of it all.
How Do You Know You Are In Israel?
I was sitting in a café at 2am on a corner where there are quite a few dance clubs. All of a sudden I heard some loud funky dance music with Chassidic chanting. Everyone stopped and looked. It was the Rabbi Nachman van. The van parked on the busy street corner and a troupe of Rabbi Nachman Chassids jumped out with their white cotton kippas. They got everyone dancing on the street, even on the roof of the mini-van.
I used to think there was a big separation between secular and religious, but now I understand there are a lot of grey areas in between. No one is really totally ‘secular’ and our religion has also gotten a lot ‘groovier’.
Blame It On Syria
Every time our leaders proclaim 'a new era' of Peace and release prisoners and relax borders the world rejoices while I expect tragedy. Therefore I was not altogether surprised when I heard the deadly explosion that took five more innocent Jewish lives. Of course the terrorist could not have been among our cousins who we just made peace with. Everyone knows that they suddenly have changed. They wear tailored suits now and they shaved their beards. Therefore, it must be Syria.
It was Syria who gave the order to send the local Arab resident through the newly relaxed checkpoints, or maybe Iran, or Hamas. It doesn’t really matter much to me who gave the order, or even if it was just another pious Muslim wishing to wed 70 virgins. The point is, when the Arabs and the world are angry with checkpoints and walls and terrorist assassinations, I feel safer. When our leaders collaborate with those who seek our demise and sell our birthright for a pot of lentils, I feel less secure. I would much rather be alive with animosity and condemnation than dead with the 'new era' of peace and world sympathy.
Alas, Israel is a work in progress, and I love it dearly. The day after the bomb, the beach was crowded with people, and life goes on. Less than a week after the attack at ‘Stages’, the club was redecorated and re-opened and there were twice as many people lined up outside waiting to get in. I suppose this is an indication of the indestructible spirit of our people. Israel will outlive corrupt politicians, terrorists and indifference, because its future is an interactive prophecy that we all participate in. Each of us chooses their part and none of us can undo its rebirth, only stand in its way. I still feel lucky to have been given such a good seat in the center of it all.
Sparks From Israel
The Yellow Brick Road
My friend is a soldier. He was coming home once from Gaza looking tired and scuffed up. People got up to let him sit down. He ordered a shawarma and the man would not take his money. This is Israel, a country where everyone has been a soldier and understands what it is like to serve your country. I’m sure many of those who leave because they are looking for a simpler life will always feel that they traded a part of their soul for something that is partly empty. It’s good to be needed and to protect your family.
In the exile, one relies on the laws of other Nations for protection. However no matter how hard a Jew tries to assimilate anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment seems to be rising. I suppose one finds himself increasingly having to defend his opinions about Israel or take up the cause of anti-Israel sentiment to be politically correct. I wonder what fear could ever turn a person against his brother. I’ve never had this feeling so it’s foreign to me, but I would venture to say that its cure can be found in ones Native Land.
Just like the lion who traveled the yellow brick road, to discover the courage that was always inside of him; from here one can feel the undercurrent of our strength as a people. It is a family of many tribes, dependant on each other. Here is the place they all come together and form themselves into a Nation. Everyday soldiers who defend the country they love and reap its abundant harvests while at the same time excelling in the market places of the world. It’s a wonderful feeling to have left the final exile and come home to a world where one can truly build their permanent home; from the hills of the Golan Heights to the shores of Gush Katif.
The Yellow Brick Road
My friend is a soldier. He was coming home once from Gaza looking tired and scuffed up. People got up to let him sit down. He ordered a shawarma and the man would not take his money. This is Israel, a country where everyone has been a soldier and understands what it is like to serve your country. I’m sure many of those who leave because they are looking for a simpler life will always feel that they traded a part of their soul for something that is partly empty. It’s good to be needed and to protect your family.
In the exile, one relies on the laws of other Nations for protection. However no matter how hard a Jew tries to assimilate anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment seems to be rising. I suppose one finds himself increasingly having to defend his opinions about Israel or take up the cause of anti-Israel sentiment to be politically correct. I wonder what fear could ever turn a person against his brother. I’ve never had this feeling so it’s foreign to me, but I would venture to say that its cure can be found in ones Native Land.
Just like the lion who traveled the yellow brick road, to discover the courage that was always inside of him; from here one can feel the undercurrent of our strength as a people. It is a family of many tribes, dependant on each other. Here is the place they all come together and form themselves into a Nation. Everyday soldiers who defend the country they love and reap its abundant harvests while at the same time excelling in the market places of the world. It’s a wonderful feeling to have left the final exile and come home to a world where one can truly build their permanent home; from the hills of the Golan Heights to the shores of Gush Katif.
Sparks From Israel
The ‘Hood’
I was visiting a high school for troubled teenagers in Tel Aviv. It was a special school for students who had been kicked out of other schools and most of the students had problems at home. Many of them worked and some, instead of living at home, lived in hostels.
Amid the noise of students yelling at each other the teacher tried to conduct a class. I was assigned to two talented young rappers and helped them to translate their Hebrew rap into English. The teacher explained to me that she was fighting a losing battle, with no budget for books, and students that only show up once in awhile for class.
Although these young people were tough and streetwise; with all of the gelled hair, baggy pants and sideways baseball caps there was one thing that one wouldn’t see overseas in the ‘Hood’. Each time the bell rang, and students left their class, at least 50% of them would raise their hand as they passed the classroom door, to touch the mezuzah and kiss it. Only in Israel.
Salsa
I heard some Latin music as I was walking home late at night from a gathering. I entered and found a club full of Latino’s dancing wildly. I never saw such great dancers. In the summer I was also suprised to see a dance contest in a shopping center with dancers doing moves that would put Micheal Jackson to shame. It was hard to believe that Israeli kids could dance like that. In the Latino club I overheard people speaking Spanish and Portuguese and Hebrew. I asked a Brazilian looking woman if most of the people here are from South America. She answered in a thick Russian accent, 'no, mostly Israeli'. How is it that these Israeli's look more Latin than the Latino's and dance blacker than homies from the ghetto? I thought of Woody Allen's movie Zeilig. Wherever the Jewish people go, we seem to adapt to the culture we find ourselves in and take it further. It seems to be part of our nature and part of Hashem's plan to scatter us to the four corners of the world to absorb its various elements.
I remember once when I spent time in a Yeshiva in Yerushalayim you would enter the study hall and hear students sitting in pairs arguing in ten different languages. Their was a buzz of Torah being shaped and redefined and extracted like sparks of holiness that had been hidden among the cultures of the world. This energy was like a nuclear power plant of positive thought.
We have always been at risk of losing our identity by the allure of the surrounding cultures but something always prevents us from being completely assimilated. There is a saying that goes, 'when the Jews stop making Havdalah, the nations make it for us'. However, as we have become inoculated by the challenges that have faced our Nation over the years, now it is a time of gathering. The skin has been discarded and the fruit remains.
As each spark returns to the Land carrying various parts of the world on their shoulders the pieces are assembled like a microcosm of the universe. Each one another letter of the Sefer Torah, from the halls of the Yeshiva to the Latin nightlife, the letters dance and come together as a unified nation of many streams. As the pieces return to their origin a picture is formed of the many faceted jewel of Israel and it's light is magnificant.
The ‘Hood’
I was visiting a high school for troubled teenagers in Tel Aviv. It was a special school for students who had been kicked out of other schools and most of the students had problems at home. Many of them worked and some, instead of living at home, lived in hostels.
Amid the noise of students yelling at each other the teacher tried to conduct a class. I was assigned to two talented young rappers and helped them to translate their Hebrew rap into English. The teacher explained to me that she was fighting a losing battle, with no budget for books, and students that only show up once in awhile for class.
Although these young people were tough and streetwise; with all of the gelled hair, baggy pants and sideways baseball caps there was one thing that one wouldn’t see overseas in the ‘Hood’. Each time the bell rang, and students left their class, at least 50% of them would raise their hand as they passed the classroom door, to touch the mezuzah and kiss it. Only in Israel.
Salsa
I heard some Latin music as I was walking home late at night from a gathering. I entered and found a club full of Latino’s dancing wildly. I never saw such great dancers. In the summer I was also suprised to see a dance contest in a shopping center with dancers doing moves that would put Micheal Jackson to shame. It was hard to believe that Israeli kids could dance like that. In the Latino club I overheard people speaking Spanish and Portuguese and Hebrew. I asked a Brazilian looking woman if most of the people here are from South America. She answered in a thick Russian accent, 'no, mostly Israeli'. How is it that these Israeli's look more Latin than the Latino's and dance blacker than homies from the ghetto? I thought of Woody Allen's movie Zeilig. Wherever the Jewish people go, we seem to adapt to the culture we find ourselves in and take it further. It seems to be part of our nature and part of Hashem's plan to scatter us to the four corners of the world to absorb its various elements.
I remember once when I spent time in a Yeshiva in Yerushalayim you would enter the study hall and hear students sitting in pairs arguing in ten different languages. Their was a buzz of Torah being shaped and redefined and extracted like sparks of holiness that had been hidden among the cultures of the world. This energy was like a nuclear power plant of positive thought.
We have always been at risk of losing our identity by the allure of the surrounding cultures but something always prevents us from being completely assimilated. There is a saying that goes, 'when the Jews stop making Havdalah, the nations make it for us'. However, as we have become inoculated by the challenges that have faced our Nation over the years, now it is a time of gathering. The skin has been discarded and the fruit remains.
As each spark returns to the Land carrying various parts of the world on their shoulders the pieces are assembled like a microcosm of the universe. Each one another letter of the Sefer Torah, from the halls of the Yeshiva to the Latin nightlife, the letters dance and come together as a unified nation of many streams. As the pieces return to their origin a picture is formed of the many faceted jewel of Israel and it's light is magnificant.
Sparks From Israel
Karioke
I went to an interesting bar last night. The DJ would play the latest music from Rap to Rock to House and the audience would jump on the stage and the tables and dance completely uninhibited. Every so often the DJ would stop the music and give the audience a chance to sing Karioke. Now in America, if you were into ‘rap’ or if you were a ‘rocker’ you would usually have a certain attitude. There would be an image of toughness or aloofness that might go along with this music. But here, all of those attitudes that go along with the current music trends although they undoubtedly influence the Israeli youth, when the music stops and the Karioke begins the songs that these rappers and rockers choose to sing is not what I would have thought.
All I heard were traditional and sentimental Israeli pop songs. Suddenly the sexy MTV crowd transformed into a folk crowd singing and swaying arm in arm. Although Israeli’s are always thirsty for the latest world trends in music and pop culture, the attitudes and mannerism’s that manifest themselves in the west wash off like moss over here, to reveal the solid rock that lies underneath the current waves.
The influence of western culture is a serious challenge to the Jewish Nation, just as ‘Hellenism’ was to the Macabees and the ‘Enlightenment’ was to European Jewry. The alienation caused between our own roots and culture and the ‘times’ has always been the friction that was in the backdrop of our history. Today, these frictions continue, but are now contained within a Nation that needs each other in order to survive.
The young Sephardic man who after praying left the synagogue and put his kippa back in his pocket and the ‘rappers’ and ‘rockers’ who forgot their attitudes for a moment to sing folk songs describes the common ground to me that exists somewhere between religion and MTV. It’s more than Nationalism. As my British friend remarked to me in the Karioke bar, ‘We are a complex people, aren’t we’. I suppose so, especially when the Nation is beginning to come of age.
Every Day Heroes
Life is so full in Israel and so much fun. Israeli’s love to go out and they love to sing and dance and live. In my work place at least once a week many of the staff including the bosses, go out for drinks. This is not unusual. When they are not at work or going out, each one has their special interest. One is a DJ who spins records, another studies art and multi-media. Another plays pro-league soccer and one stunning woman studies languages and has traveled to over 20 countries in her 24 years. One day the artist received a letter that made him light up. What is it I asked him? He told me the army has called him up for service.
Every year soldiers return for a few weeks or a month of the year to train or to upgrade their skills, or even for action. He was excited to be reunited with his paratroop battalion
Karioke
I went to an interesting bar last night. The DJ would play the latest music from Rap to Rock to House and the audience would jump on the stage and the tables and dance completely uninhibited. Every so often the DJ would stop the music and give the audience a chance to sing Karioke. Now in America, if you were into ‘rap’ or if you were a ‘rocker’ you would usually have a certain attitude. There would be an image of toughness or aloofness that might go along with this music. But here, all of those attitudes that go along with the current music trends although they undoubtedly influence the Israeli youth, when the music stops and the Karioke begins the songs that these rappers and rockers choose to sing is not what I would have thought.
All I heard were traditional and sentimental Israeli pop songs. Suddenly the sexy MTV crowd transformed into a folk crowd singing and swaying arm in arm. Although Israeli’s are always thirsty for the latest world trends in music and pop culture, the attitudes and mannerism’s that manifest themselves in the west wash off like moss over here, to reveal the solid rock that lies underneath the current waves.
The influence of western culture is a serious challenge to the Jewish Nation, just as ‘Hellenism’ was to the Macabees and the ‘Enlightenment’ was to European Jewry. The alienation caused between our own roots and culture and the ‘times’ has always been the friction that was in the backdrop of our history. Today, these frictions continue, but are now contained within a Nation that needs each other in order to survive.
The young Sephardic man who after praying left the synagogue and put his kippa back in his pocket and the ‘rappers’ and ‘rockers’ who forgot their attitudes for a moment to sing folk songs describes the common ground to me that exists somewhere between religion and MTV. It’s more than Nationalism. As my British friend remarked to me in the Karioke bar, ‘We are a complex people, aren’t we’. I suppose so, especially when the Nation is beginning to come of age.
Every Day Heroes
Life is so full in Israel and so much fun. Israeli’s love to go out and they love to sing and dance and live. In my work place at least once a week many of the staff including the bosses, go out for drinks. This is not unusual. When they are not at work or going out, each one has their special interest. One is a DJ who spins records, another studies art and multi-media. Another plays pro-league soccer and one stunning woman studies languages and has traveled to over 20 countries in her 24 years. One day the artist received a letter that made him light up. What is it I asked him? He told me the army has called him up for service.
Every year soldiers return for a few weeks or a month of the year to train or to upgrade their skills, or even for action. He was excited to be reunited with his paratroop battalion
Sparks From Israel
Betrayal
There is a Midrash that describes how the spiritual leadership followed Moshe and Aaron to Pharaoh’s palace. One by one, they disappeared leaving in the end, only Moshe and Aaron.
This reminds me of something Meir Kahane (z’tl) once said of supporters who used to claim they were behind him -- and he would respond 'yes they are behind me-very far behind me.'
The spiritual leaders of Egypt, who abandoned Moshe, eventually received capitol punishment from Heaven for their inability to stand on principle and for their betrayal and lack of faith. The spiritual leadership of the exile that remains ritually pure while at the same time ‘biting’ the Hand of Redemption has caused untold suffering in every generation that stands at the edge of glory.
‘Against the great men of the Children of Israel, He did not stretch out His hand – they gazed at G-d, yet they ate and drank. ‘(Shmot 24:11)
The Gadol HaDor of the exile will never be the Gadol HaDor of the redemption. They will prefer to receive manna from heaven than to conquer the Land of Israel. Certainly it is Hashem’s plan to humble the arrogant Pharaoh, while at the same time redeeming the Nation of Israel. No army in the world can alter Hashem’s plan. Our free-choice is simply whether it will be a seven day journey home, or a tragic forty year blunder.
Today we have a Jewish Pharaoh who says, "Those who call for defying orders or for forcibly or violently opposing are subversive, mistaken and endanger our actual existence in this place,"
Of course one can read through these lines quite easily and see that he means ‘his’ political existence that is endangered, and he will stop at nothing to persecute and jail those who uphold Hashem’s law’s and disobey ‘his’ laws.
The decrees of a dictator who sends brothers to uproot brothers would be a fallen dictator had it not been for the Gadol HaDor’s of the exile, who put principle aside, in preference for the stipend of manna in the desert yeshiva.
In the end, these holy men of the Midrash were replaced by a new Sanhedrin. The government of redemption that Moshe picked was made up of Jewish taskmasters that had previously distinguished themselves by preferring to take beatings themselves than to hand over Jews who could not fill their quota of work. These leaders did not spend their days of redemption in the academies of Goshen, but like Moshe who went out of the palace, they led the people out of their suffering, from within it. Those who sit and wait for the Beit Hamigdash to fall from heaven while they are eating chulent will see it fall on top of their heads, while those who build it from below, will enter it.
The leaders who were persecuted and killed in the past; the Meir Kahane’s (z’tl) and Binyamin Kahane’s (z’tl), and those who are persecuted today for their love of Israel, by encouraging soldiers to defy their treacherous orders will become the Gadol HaDor’s of the future.
It is those who take the beatings, and allow themselves to become targets, because of their love of their people, their Nation, and their G-d, who become true leaders and shepherds that bring about redemption while betrayal only delays it.
The truth is we have nothing to fear, from the threats of the Arabs, or the threats of Washington, or the United Nations. They mean absolutely nothing. The only thing that stands in the way of our redemption is ‘us’. It has always been this way. But it’s getting clearer for us to see.
I pray that soon the prophecy of Yechezchel will come true, when he envisioned the unification of the tribes of Yehuda with the tribes of Ephraim ‘like a single wooden tablet, and they shall become one in your hand’. (Yecheskel 37:15-17). In this weeks Parsha the plagues began and the Israelites sat back and watched it all. If we rise to the occasion, we too can witness the redemption in all of its glory and lead ourselves out of Mitzrayim. Shabbat Shalom
Betrayal
There is a Midrash that describes how the spiritual leadership followed Moshe and Aaron to Pharaoh’s palace. One by one, they disappeared leaving in the end, only Moshe and Aaron.
This reminds me of something Meir Kahane (z’tl) once said of supporters who used to claim they were behind him -- and he would respond 'yes they are behind me-very far behind me.'
The spiritual leaders of Egypt, who abandoned Moshe, eventually received capitol punishment from Heaven for their inability to stand on principle and for their betrayal and lack of faith. The spiritual leadership of the exile that remains ritually pure while at the same time ‘biting’ the Hand of Redemption has caused untold suffering in every generation that stands at the edge of glory.
‘Against the great men of the Children of Israel, He did not stretch out His hand – they gazed at G-d, yet they ate and drank. ‘(Shmot 24:11)
The Gadol HaDor of the exile will never be the Gadol HaDor of the redemption. They will prefer to receive manna from heaven than to conquer the Land of Israel. Certainly it is Hashem’s plan to humble the arrogant Pharaoh, while at the same time redeeming the Nation of Israel. No army in the world can alter Hashem’s plan. Our free-choice is simply whether it will be a seven day journey home, or a tragic forty year blunder.
Today we have a Jewish Pharaoh who says, "Those who call for defying orders or for forcibly or violently opposing are subversive, mistaken and endanger our actual existence in this place,"
Of course one can read through these lines quite easily and see that he means ‘his’ political existence that is endangered, and he will stop at nothing to persecute and jail those who uphold Hashem’s law’s and disobey ‘his’ laws.
The decrees of a dictator who sends brothers to uproot brothers would be a fallen dictator had it not been for the Gadol HaDor’s of the exile, who put principle aside, in preference for the stipend of manna in the desert yeshiva.
In the end, these holy men of the Midrash were replaced by a new Sanhedrin. The government of redemption that Moshe picked was made up of Jewish taskmasters that had previously distinguished themselves by preferring to take beatings themselves than to hand over Jews who could not fill their quota of work. These leaders did not spend their days of redemption in the academies of Goshen, but like Moshe who went out of the palace, they led the people out of their suffering, from within it. Those who sit and wait for the Beit Hamigdash to fall from heaven while they are eating chulent will see it fall on top of their heads, while those who build it from below, will enter it.
The leaders who were persecuted and killed in the past; the Meir Kahane’s (z’tl) and Binyamin Kahane’s (z’tl), and those who are persecuted today for their love of Israel, by encouraging soldiers to defy their treacherous orders will become the Gadol HaDor’s of the future.
It is those who take the beatings, and allow themselves to become targets, because of their love of their people, their Nation, and their G-d, who become true leaders and shepherds that bring about redemption while betrayal only delays it.
The truth is we have nothing to fear, from the threats of the Arabs, or the threats of Washington, or the United Nations. They mean absolutely nothing. The only thing that stands in the way of our redemption is ‘us’. It has always been this way. But it’s getting clearer for us to see.
I pray that soon the prophecy of Yechezchel will come true, when he envisioned the unification of the tribes of Yehuda with the tribes of Ephraim ‘like a single wooden tablet, and they shall become one in your hand’. (Yecheskel 37:15-17). In this weeks Parsha the plagues began and the Israelites sat back and watched it all. If we rise to the occasion, we too can witness the redemption in all of its glory and lead ourselves out of Mitzrayim. Shabbat Shalom
