Friday, March 04, 2005
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
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