Sparks From Israel

2007-07-12T00:02:00.000-07:00

Sparks from Israel

Pesach 2007
I was arriving at the old city of Jerusalem for Pesach when I passed a family with that hippie biblical look you see everywhere in Yehuda and Shomron. The father was carrying a baby goat over his shoulder and when I looked back the little goat was looking at me with a beautiful smile. It was as if he was saying ‘How lucky I am to be a Pesach offering. Every beast is returned to the ground, but my body will become elevated and my animal soul will become spiritual’.
It was so nice to see this vision, for it reminded me of what used to be. The whole Israelite Nation would arrive at this time and with each family group a goat. It made me feel that soon we will rebuild our temple. A half hour later I spoke to my brother in Canada and told him of my experience. He informed me that the army did not allow the family to make their Passover sacrifice. How was it possible that he knew about the family I had just passed on a road in Jerusalem. ‘It was on CNN’ he explained.
Some say that it’s the world outside that affects the tensions and the growth within our Nation while others say the opposite. It’s the tensions and the growth within our Nation that affects the very nature of the world. I’m inclined to believe the latter. Why else would a Nation of less than 1% of the worlds population be mentioned nearly everyday on the news around the world? Why is the world so interested in this one family who really wanted to fulfill the mitzvah of Pesach?
I think back to September 11th and wonder how 33 evil men managed to destroy so much and change the course of history. What could 33 righteous men build I wonder; maybe the Beit Hamigdash? At any rate it makes you feel like your part of something very important. The eyes of the world are always watching us. Are they waiting for us to become the Light unto Nations? Or do they fear that we will rebuild our temple and bring more Godliness into the world? I suppose their hopes and fears are similar to our own. The same forces within our Nation struggle between pleasing the world and pleasing G-d. I hope this Pesach brings true freedom to rebuild the eternal and tear down that which is already rotten. Chag Somayach

The Tribes of Israel
Shabbat has many faces, especially in Tel Aviv. To some it’s sipping a beer at the beach. To others it’s leaving work early and shopping on Shenkin or the Ports. Every where you look there are street fairs and street musicians. One group of drummers always begins their drum circle Friday afternoon on Nachalat Binyamin and people randomly jump in, dance wildly to the tribal rhythms, and then continue on their way. Another group meets each week for traditional Israeli dancing by the promenade.
The one constant theme in the ever changing pattern of events is Shabbat, the physical and spiritual day of rest. To some it’s more physical to others more spiritual. Each one finds his or her own tribe that gives expression to this idea of Shabbat. Whether it’s doing a tribal dance or dressing in white and reciting prayers, the tribes of Israel cannot help but mix with each other on this tiny Island in the Middle East.
There are those who never leave their tribe, those who rebel and change tribes and those like myself who have friends in all of them. One can find a wild uninhibited nature within the most observant, as well as a deep spiritual vision within the completely untraditional. We are all part of the same family, and always going through changes. It’s nice to be part of a somewhat unified nation made up of many tribes.

The Air Raid Siren
I haven’t yet had the experience of hearing an air raid siren in Israel. Although I was here in the last war the missiles fell short of Tel Aviv. In North America, an air raid siren is only heard in old movies and is completely obsolete. In Israel unfortunately they must be ready for any emergency. There is however a positive side to being a tiny country always under attack. To keep our air raid sirens in good working condition we pipe music through them every Friday before sundown with the traditional Shabbat song ‘Shalom Alechem’.
The effect is tremendous. Instead of the fear and tension that we would expect from an Air Raid siren, it is transformed into a warm feeling of brotherhood and a sense of security from above. The music reminds us that Shabbat is about to begin and even in the capitol of non-observant Israel it strikes a chord deeper than prayer or ritual. Through the speakers comes a memory that we heard before we were born and will continue after us. Today instead of missiles falling, peace will be ushered in. It’s time to stop working, light your candles, or meet your friends. And tomorrow ‘swords will be beaten into ploughshares’ and Air Raid Sirens transformed into Sound Systems.

The Table of Kings
There are angels above in the heavenly court that decide many things that occur below. These angels are purely spiritual beings and cannot act outside of their jurisdiction. There are physical humans below that can transform themselves into angelic beings of an even higher order. In fact it is they who influence the judge who then commands the angels above.
The court proceedings begin by transforming the synagogue into a banquet hall and placing the herring on the table. After more herring, salads, and three bottles of vodka the red faced rabbis are shaking heaven with their refutations about the true nature of what is constructive and what is de-constructive. They lash out at each other with pointed words in an expression of their love and how best to manifest it.
After kicking the weak leg of each argument and destroying them, another l’chaim is passed around and the opposing ideas are merged as one. As the vodka reaches its zenith, the Heavenly Judge, impressed with the verdict dispatches His angels forthwith.
There are those who rub shoulders with Generals and Kings, but I have the good fortune to sit at the court that determines their actions. Ours is not the only court. There are others that can be found, not in palaces or mansions, but in tiny synagogues in market places such as ours. I don’t understand the language too well, so I have no opinion, but the herring is very good.

Sparks For Israel

Prayer and Lag B’omer
On the 33rd day of the Omer, the plague that killed 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva stopped. It later coincided with the yorzeit of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and has become a day of celebration and an end to mourning. Hundreds of thousands flock to his gravesite in Meron and pray and petition the Tzadik to answer their prayers. There are some opinions that say the plague really alludes to the war against Rome. Rabbi Akiva enlisted his yeshiva students to fight this war and to bring Moshiach who he claimed was Bar Kochba. In the end they lost and were killed. One student who escaped death was Rabbi Shimon. The Romans heard of how he had fearlessly condemned them in a time when the Nation had been crushed and destroyed and to save his life he and his son hid in a cave for many years and lived from the fruit of a carob tree and a stream of water. Here is where he wrote the Holy Kaballa.
Before my trip to Meron on Lag B’Omer I enquired as to the meaning of prayer and the significance of the Tzaddik. Now I am very litvish in my thinking and the idea of someone interceding between me and Hashem sounds heretical to me for what could be greater than talking directly to ones father? It also makes the Tzadik out to be more merciful than Hashem and moreover suggests that the system above is run like the Knesset below with kombina (having friends in the right places). My research into prayer is ongoing and the book is not yet closed but here is a sketch of my current thoughts on prayer, for what it’s worth.
Heard three things
I have heard three ideas about prayer. Number one, it must be sincere and every sincere prayer is heard by Hashem, especially those that open the gates with their tears. Number two, for a minyan the gates of prayer always open. Even if you don’t feel worthy of approaching Hashem, in the company of ten other Jewish men, your prayer passes through with theirs. Number three the main idea of prayer constitutes the idea that you are truly standing before G-d.
Faith (Emunah in Hebrew) comes from the root word ‘Oman’ (artistry) and also related to ‘Imun’ (exercise). It appears that faith is something we are always shaping and developing like an art or a craft, or an exercise that develops our ever changing and growing relationship with the Almighty.
And so with each prayer I try to feel like a child standing before his father and asking for the things he desires in his heart, or to request guidance or to aide someone who is suffering. For me to mumble a few words alone I feel sometimes is not much more than mumbling words to myself. But with a minyan of ten I am in the company of others who are whispering their concentrated thoughts, and so mine become more concentrated too and have more weight. Even if I feel unworthy or Hashem seems too far and inaccessible to me, I know my prayers are carried together with the congregations of Israel when said in a minyan.
So what place does the Tzadik have in all of this? If we are sincere and standing before Hashem, why do we still need an interceder? If we are not worthy, isn’t the congregation worthy as a whole? The way I currently understand prayer is like this. Most people can find enjoyment from singing a song or playing a melody and connecting with the higher world of music. Those same people would stand in awe, however of a virtuoso who can sing or perform at the highest levels would demonstrate their ability in front of them. We are well aware that every virtuoso did not arrive at their place by accident, but with talent plus many years of hard work that helped them to shape their talent. We are inspired therefore, not only at the brilliance of his inspiration, but also the dedication that he must have made in order to arrive at this stage.
As sons and daughters of the covenant, we are all free men and even those enslaved are never permanently so. We all were impregnated by the Shechina. Willingly or unwillingly each of our lives creates an essential piece of the jigsaw puzzle that is the image of G-d. The ‘virtuoso’ in our example inspires us to bring out our own music through discovering our inner voice, which is part of Hashem’s voice, and dedicating our efforts that will channel it more beautifully and maximize our potential.
What is the work that the Tzadik has done that is rewarded by such a large gathering of the greatest sages of Israel? What is the place of the Tzadik in our prayers and how does he intercede? What was the work the Tzadik had done that preceded his inspiration to write the holy books that people study and bring on that memorial day?
The work that always precedes is self-sacrifice. He dared to say truthful things that were not popular but had to be said. He made himself a target by not allowing himself to be intimidated by Rome and fearing only Hashem. As his teacher Rabbi Akiva was, so was he. He was one of the fighters rebuilding the Temple despite all the odds. Even though 24,000 died and they lost the battle, and we still die and lose the battle today, Hashed is always counting. It is not the end result that matters but the deed itself and the ramification that follows. It is the courage to stand against adversity and wage Hashem’s wars, that endears Hashem and brings Him closer.
And so on this anniversary we remember not just a gifted miracle worker. We remember one who with his gift maximized his potential and crafted his faith by exercising it. Actions of self sacrifice for the sake of truth and the glory of Hashem, will always win in the end, against all odds. The end result of this sacrifice and lifetime of toil in Torah is the overflowing multitudes that are drawn to this light, and by their presence increasing it.
And so as I stand before Him sincerely and reflect on one of His very special souls I know that the gates of prayer are open wider than the opening made by ten Jewish men, but rather 300,000 Jewish souls. Even if I am not worthy, I reflect and submit my petition, that I should receive some of this inspiration and have the dedication and courage to implement the commandments of Hashem, to live by them and to improve my deeds before my maker.

2007-07-11T23:59:00.000-07:00

Chanuka 2005

Sparks From Israel

For Better or Worse
I told myself I would never write another Sparks from Israel. But tonight I am absolutely drunk, and it’s the 5th night of Chanuka and so I will tell you about the holiness of our nation, even though I still think we are a bunch of slaves and taskmasters.

At 3 am, after drinking all night in one club, I went to another club that was still packed, and lo and behold at 3 a.m. two men with black hats and beards had the DJ stop the music, as they lit the Chanuka candles, and the crowd sang along with the Chanuka prayers. I thought I was hallucinating, but no, this is Israel.

At 4 a.m. as I left that bar and staggered home, I stopped into the chips store, and asked the cook, what wisdom he could impart on the 5th night of Chanuka. He told me, that he always liked the passage regarding Yacov, that he worked for 7 years for Rachel but to him it seemed like only days. I kissed the Rav of the chips, and blessed him that his light should increase in the world.

Who would think the man who fries potatoes in oil all night would think of such passages of Torah. Such holy people, even though they worship America, and New York, and all that is there. Still in the middle of their parties and drunken stupors, they can light Chanuka candles and give divreh Torah.

There is no other people like the Nation of Israel, and in my mind, I don’t even have a choice to leave here. There is nothing like this land and I have absolutely no desire for a different land. Even if we lack vision and faith, still this is a land like no other. These are the sons and daughters of prophets, and the sons and daughters of slaves. There is absolutely no other choice in my mind. Better an Israel that is infected with foolishness, than an exile that dreams of a perfect Israel that will never be.

July, 2006

Sparks from Israel

Soldiers off to War
When you watch those old Hollywood movies of young people going off to war, it always seems so distant, like a far off time of romance and adventure. Here in Israel the war time past is always present. You see eighteen year old boys dressed in uniform, machine gun slung over their shoulder riding the bus with their girlfriend on their way to the base. You see them in love and kissing wondering inside if it will be the last kiss. Bravery and self sacrifice are part of the fabric of this society and distinguish it from the complacent and fearful worlds that exist in other places.

We are a strong and passionate people, an army of poets and scholars. Even though we stumble like a lion cub tripping over its feet I still feel proud to be part of this Nation. I heard in Seattle one crazed Arab went and shot some Jews. The city was immobilized. Every synagogue was locked. Although the military plans of our leaders may not accomplish the job, our brothers in the exile have no plan at all. There is no force that protects them except trying to look invisible.

I feel far safer here in the middle of the raging sea then alone in a world disconnected from the current of life. Certainly everywhere there is existence. But existence is not life. It’s better to be alive and living well in Israel than being invisible and safe in a lonely guarded palace.

A friend of mine who is a 16 year old chabbadnik recently got his drivers license. He has rented a car and gone repeatedly to the northern border to put tefillin on the troops. He described to me the deserted highways, the missiles falling all around, dodging the bits of shrapnel on the roads. For him and his friends it was a thrilling experience. He wondered jokingly what was a better way to die; by a Ketusha or by a Kassam. These are your people Israel, from soldiers to civilians. There is no fear, only duty, perseverance and prayers.

Rosh Hoshanna 2006

Sparks From Israel

Gush Katif a Year Later
On Rosh Hoshanna, a year after the Hitnatkut I sat at a Shabbat table with some exiled Gush Katif residents. We reflected on the teshuva the Nation had done over the year. Our host, who was a resident of Sfat, had lived through a summer of 600 katusha missiles falling in his back yard. He said he could not help thinking as the missiles were falling all around him, what his friends in the Gush had lived through for many years and realized that even he, who was sympathetic to their plight, could have felt more and done more.

Surprisingly some Tel Aviv friends of mine who were ardent supporters of the Hitnatkut where shocked when the Arabs had the audacity to bite the hand that gave them Gush Katif. They mostly have woken up to the realization that the Arabs are not interested in creating a Palestine, but rather in destroying Israel. I didn’t think one needed to be a rocket scientist to come to this conclusion, but some of my friends actually are rocket scientists, and they are still putting together the broken pieces of their delusions.

We spoke about the strange fate of Sharon, not alive and not dead from the moment the Hitnatkut began till now. A friend of mine heard from a Mekubal that the reason he has not died is because the earth does not want to take him. The man who disturbed the dead and unearthed so many Jewish graves may not have the privilege of being buried and like the rest of the Nation he too must go through a process of teshuva before being laid to rest.

When asked how the Hitnatkut had affected their faith, one of the exiled guests said some remarkable things. She said her faith had not been diminished even though she had fought to the last minute expecting a miracle. In retrospect, she said, one must also accept that this decree was Hashem’s will. She went on to say that one of the Rabbi’s of the Gush comforted the people by telling them that they had the privilege of being the Tzadikim who were sold in order to avert possibly harsher decrees against the whole Nation and like Yoseph who was sold to Egypt these perfidious events are still unraveling and leading us somewhere.

The most haunting image that she remembered was the teshuva she witnessed entering the hearts of even the hardest soldiers. They had been trained to expect an armed rebellion and were ready to shoot and possible kill their brothers. What they met were people dancing with Torah’s and singing and praying. They saw the heart and the soul of the Jewish people and no one had trained them for this experience. The children and grand-children of those who had escaped persecution had now become the persecutors and this was the family that they never knew. Many soldiers broke down and were sobbing.

She went on to say, that the effect that the Hitnatkut had to the Nation and the war that followed was profound. Not only did the whole Nation see that we are all Gush Katif but the seeds that were sown from those tears are still bearing fruit.

From the self sacrifice of the children of the Orange Revolution, the Tzadikim who’s homes and livelihoods were destroyed, the soldiers who found a crack in their armor just below their hearts, the masses of Northern refugees that suddenly became Gush Katif, the tears of the families of the fallen, the bubble of indifference and complacency that was shattered, the isolation and fear, which is the beginning of faith and wisdom, all of these pieces are finding their place in the puzzle as the new light of the year approaches. May it speed the way for us to rebuild all that which is broken.

Yom Kippur 2006

Sparks From Israel

The Quiz
In the old country before January 1st you might see some news shorts about people and their New Year resolutions, along with a list of places to party. In Israel, however, it is a little different. The day before Yom Kippur I was stopped on the street by a group of 12 year old kids. Their teacher was taking them on a Yom Kippur outing and their job was to interview people about Yom Kippur. They asked me if I planned to fast this year, and what was the meaning to me. Was their anything I would do differently this year? What was the meaning of the Yom Kippur prayers to me? What role does Hashem play? They wrote down my answers in their books and it felt so nice to connect with the children of our Nation on such a deep level regarding the meaning of prayer. Our New Year isn’t a party, but a re-awakening.

Outside and Inside
A late comer ran into the synagogue to say Kadish in a loud voice followed by a Baruch Hu. The congregation answered ‘amen’ and then one person said to him we don’t do ‘Baruch hu’ now, we have an order that we follow, you should come early. He yelled back at this man for embarrassing him and went on to say that he missed the Boruch Hu prayer and it’s the obligation of the congregation to respond ‘amen’ regardless, and then others began debating and the man said in a loud voice. ‘Is there anyone else who would like to publicly embarrass me the day before Yom Kippur, please, I invite you’.

Threatened with the prospect of divine retribution the crowd settled down and after a few more moments of bickering everyone was sitting at the same table eating a nice Kiddush sharing Vodka and words of Torah. I turned to my Canadian friend and said ‘you see how normal it is here? Where we come from people are polite and that person would have held his resentment inside for a week a month, maybe years, from one silly comment. Here people react, they get upset, they yell at each other, and then it’s forgotten and they are brothers again. It’s great to be Jew in a land of Jews and learn how to be the same outside as you are inside.

2006-07-15T03:05:00.000-07:00

Compilation from May 2005-June 2006

Sparks From Israel (May 28,2005)

My Personal Pesach

Often people ask me why I chose to come to Israel, especially at this time. I say I didn’t come I was ‘taken’.

There are times in ones life when one sees G-d’s hand in history and can’t ignore it. Take September 11th for example. On that day we all knew the world was a different place. The events of the world and the events in one’s personal life are not disconnected; they are all taken into account by the Creator who fashioned each of us and placed us in this moment. We are given the free will to recognize the moments, to hear Hashem’s whispers, and to trust our intuition.

A year after the events of September 11th and the series of plagues that followed and continue to afflict every place we consider to be ‘safe havens’, I was fortunate enough to recognize the road of my personal exodus and follow it.

In the siddur there are two expressions for G-d’s hand of redemption. ‘Yad chazaka’ and ‘Be Chozek Yad’. A year before my exodus I remember asking what the significance of these two expressions were, but the only answer I found was one is masculine and one is feminine. After living through my own personal exodus, I now have discovered a meaning behind these two expressions.

There were three factors that contributed into my hurried departure. The events of our times, a love interest in Israel, and a free trip that was offered to me. I arrived like a king during chol hamoed Pesach, staying in one of the best hotels and tasting the finest fruits of the Land of Israel. With hardly any money in my pocket I decided to extend my trip and found a yeshiva that gave me free lodging. I wanted to see if I could survive in Israel and continue to do the same business as I did in chutz l’aretz. I realized right away, that not only could I survive, I could do even better. Israel is a modern country, yet is thirsty for new things all the time; a perfect place for those with an entrepenurial spirit.

After my first week in Israel, I realized that the ‘love interest’ wasn’t for me, but there was a greater love that surpassed all previous romances; the love of the Land of Israel. From each perspective, as a king, as a pauper, with romance or without there is always a feeling of satisfaction each day and fulfillment. I realized it was the hand of Hashem that had lured me out and I was ‘taken’, for I followed. After a months time I returned to fill out the Aliyah papers, get rid of everything I didn’t really need, and then I returned. This time it was ‘I’ who made the decision, and instead of leaving secretly, I left with certainty and with a trust that comes from experience.

In every way, I see the story of Pesach as ‘my’ story. Just as the Jewish people celebrate the ‘times’ of Pesach when we were taken and the ‘times’ of Simchat Torah when we willingly accepted our marriage vows, I too celebrate two dates. The day I was taken with a feminine ‘Yad Chazaka’ and the day I left with a masculine ‘Be Chozek Yad’.

This will be the first year that I will do Birkat Hailanim, the blessing on two fruit trees during the month of Nissan. I see now the significance of Pesach and blossoming of trees that is short lived like the fragrance of inspiration. It’s a season that blooms without fail; a season that arrives whether we are ready or not. Just as Shabbat arrives with it’s motto ‘ stop the world of action and reflect’ Pesach arrives and ‘blooms’. We must (as my brother once so aptly put) ‘grow or die’.

There are times in all of our lives that the doors of exodus seem clearly open but the flame inside flickers as the winds of doubt find their opening. Once I stood frozen as a giant wave crashed down on me. My experienced friend and laughed and advised me not to be scared of how big the wave is. ‘Just jump into the wave and go under it and you will come out on the other side. He was right. I hope Pesach becomes a personal experience for all of you as well. Take the plunge. Chag somayach. (Pesach 2004)

Sparks From Israel (Aug7,2005)

Obstacles to Peace
Many of my closest friends are ‘obstacles to peace’. They weren’t born that way, they just happened to move into a new apartment on the other side of an imaginary line which made them an ‘obstacle to peace’. There are hundreds of small settlements and towns that dot the country side and from a travelers perspective one cannot tell which one of these beautifully designed neighborhoods are filled with peaceful citizens or ‘obstacles to peace’.

I suppose one way you can tell is when you notice 55,000 soldiers and hired goons waiting to evict you or beat you for non-compliance. I suppose sometimes only brute force and violence shocks one into the realization that the last 25 years of building bright horizons and raising well adjusted patriotic families was a crime that finally caught up with them.

The Times They Are A Changing
There is a protest movement going on in Israel, the old revolutionaries are now the establishment, and have no answers for the troubled times we live in. While many of their children took cues from their parents and exchanged whatever was left of tradition and ideology for the gods of materialism and moral relativism, another generation born of more traditional parents has begun a new revolution that is growing every day.

The Nation is being overturned in a way that America was overturned in the 60’s, but not for drugs, orgies, and pacifism. This revolution is based on brotherhood, idealism, and the struggle for justice. Their love is felt on every street corner where they hand out orange ribbons from the Temple Mount to Tel Aviv. One can see the light in their eyes reaching out to their brothers and succeeding in winning the hearts of many, especially the young.

As they stand in the Gush, face to face, a fence separating soldiers and protesters, they speak to each other, for after all they are brothers. Brothers engaged in enforcing evil decrees stand opposite other soldiers who are engaged in defending their homes and the Land that they love; a Land they both have sacrificed for. The soldiers talk to each other between the holes of the wire fence and they pray together from both sides. The Final Revolution has arrived and it has everyone fighting inside of themselves between all the grey areas we thought were black and white.

It only takes a small light to enter a large dark room for it to be enlightened. History has always been written by these lights, and the indifferent masses are simply shaped by the changing tides. Today the light is more refined, and the masses are not as dense as they used to be. It’s a good time to be living in, for here ‘The Times They Are a Changin’, very rapidly.

Sparks From Israel(Aug 12,2005)

The Other Side
All across the country one sees determined young people standing at busy street corners handing out orange ribbons. These kids who would normally be spending their summer vacation at the beach and traveling with their friends, have done something different this summer – they have made a revolution.

Even the threat of prison has not deterred thousands of young people from taking to the streets to protest on a regular basis throughout the summer. Recently public outcry forced the ‘democratic’ state to release three girls ages 14-16 after being in jail for forty days for their crime of civil disobedience.

Now there is a different color ribbon – the blue ribbon. This ribbon is worn by the side of those who support the apparently ‘necessary’ expelling of their brethren from Gush Katif. Although one sees predominately orange ribbons, even in Tel Aviv, I have seen the blue ribbon on a number of cars as well and sometimes blue and orange together.

There is one thing, however, I have not seen. I have yet to see a youngster, or anyone of any age, standing on a street corner handing out blue ribbons. Despite all the money and government support on the ‘blue’ side, I have yet to see one protester out on the street fighting for their cause. Why is that? Where are the determined youth of the ‘blue’ side? Why aren’t they spending their summer vacation opposing the opposition?

I suppose they are busy enjoying their summer and not thinking too much about ‘politics’ or ‘Zionism’. The revolution of Gush Katif is a revolution against apathy. Those who support the expulsion of their brethren are embarrassed to say so and believe it to be a necessary evil that will enable them to continue their private lives undisturbed. Strangely enough, they continue to be disturbed.

They are not so disturbed by future Arab missiles that they hadn’t thought of, or of throwing their ‘fanatic’ brothers out of their homes. They are disturbed by something else. They see the conviction, faith and love that their brothers demonstrate each day and I’m sure must ask themselves, where does this come from?

The ‘blue’ side is silent. They have no answers. When they speak it is in an apologetic tone, as they convince themselves that the rape and pillage will be done with sensitive hands. However, as a growing amount of their friends join the ranks of the underdog, they feel more ashamed and embarrassed of their position.

It is only a matter of time before Israel is transformed into the Nation that the world is waiting to see – the ‘Light unto Nations’. Although there are a few bulldozers who try to dowse this flame, the silent masses in between are slowly finding in themselves the courage to feel love and concern for their brothers despite the propaganda painting them as enemies of the state or messianic extremists.

Even those who lack any ideology or faith are attracted to these determined youth. People like to be on the winning side, and today it is clear that the future is being shaped by 14 year old girls who will be Directors of Foreign Affairs some day.

State of Judea(Sept 2, 2005)

Jewish Holidays
According to our traditions, after each holiday we begin to study the laws of the next holiday and prepare for it. After Purim, we begin to study the laws of Pesach, and after Pesach we begin to study the laws of Shavuot and so on. After Gush Katif, I suppose it’s appropriate to begin thinking about the return of Judea as Hertzel once dreamed of Israel. Hashem rewards everyone according to their merit and when their merit is spent, it is time for the greater merits of others.

The Midrash tells us that in Egypt there was a large group from the tribe of Ephraim that left a number of years before the Exodus. They were warned by the spiritual leadership not to go, because it was not yet time. They left for the glory of Israel and to escape their slavery, but unfortunately the whole multitude perished by the sword of the Philistines.

Although their cause was noble; the emancipation of a people, it was not for the cause and glory of the Torah which was waiting in the desert. This was their mistake. However, Hashem, the true judge, always rewards each of us for whatever good we do. When Yecheskel prophesied that the dead will come back to life he describes the scene of bones arising from the dead. The Midrash tells us that the bones Yecheskel refers to are none other than the bones of Ephraim.

These two midrashim seem to describe the merit of modern day Israel that had enough of persecution and rebuilt their Nation again, with or without God. With our own eyes we have witnessed the dead come back to life as Israel became a State again and what was once barren is now filled with gardens and cities and modern day life.

The merit has been repaid, and now it is a new time. The body has come back to life, and Hashem is now breathing a soul into it. It is a time of fixing the flaws and mistakes that invited a history of Holocausts upon us. The tribes of Israel were the first to be exiled, and (it appears) the first to return. The body is now intact but missing some vital organs. Today Judah is returning, and he is coming to fix the damage caused by an adolescent body and rejuvenate these vital organs.

With good examples the body will not become an addict and drive the soul out of him to his demise. With good examples the body will learn to be subservient to the heart and the soul and the brain and benefit from the proper balance. No doubt the brain must take over and battles may ensue, battles that most teenagers go through. But whatever way the course of events turn, the State of Judea is being formed and the subjects of this kingdom are arriving every day at Ben Gurion airport.

Bar Kochba
I never understood something about the story of Bar Kochba. Rabbi Akiva felt that he was the Moshiach, and they say he could have been the Moshiach but in the end it was taken away from him because he said we will win, ‘with or without’ Hashem’s help. The commentators describe this as arrogance, and because of this arrogance the would-be Moshiach was defeated.

Why are we left with this Midrash? If the Torah isn’t a history book, but a book of the present, then what are we to learn? Is it possible that this statement of Bar Kochba was left there like the achievements of champion athletes that remain forever, until someone comes to break his record? What did he achieve by this statement and what did he lose, and what do we learn from it?

Is it possible that what the rabbi’s call ‘arrogance’ was the result of a perfect ‘faith’ that had become tarnished through battle? Were there not many innocent and god fearing Jews that Bar Kochba saw suffer as he battled for the glory of Israel? In light of what we have witnessed in Gush Katif, could we not have some similar feelings?

Maybe there are those among us who feel that despite Hashem’s lack of intervention, we will continue. Whether He joins us or not, we will continue to build. It seems entirely possible to me that this may have been the ‘falling out’ of Bar Kochba and the ‘Bar Kochba’s’ to follow.

Was Rabbi Akiva’s praising Hashem while he was tortured to death, the antidote for this tarnished faith? Can one love Hashem even as He destroys everything you believed in including what you thought was redemption? I suppose this is a question we can ask Avraham as well, as he saddled his donkey to destroy everything he lived for.

Certainly we must continue to build and to rebuild, and I suppose Hashem is still observing at a distance for some unknown reason. I’m only a reporter below speculating on things beyond my understanding. But today Bar Kochba seems a little more human to me than before.

The State of Judea (Sept 9, 2005)

Katrina and the Jewish Problem
There is a concept that when the Nation of Israel accepted the Torah at Mount Sinai, they effectively re-accepted the mission of Adam, to rule the Earth below while serving G-d above. It was with this concept in mind that a religious friend of mine remarked to me during the Tzunami disaster that he felt somehow that Israel was responsible.

The idea is that if Adam ruled the world below, then all the forces of nature were also subservient to him. His decisions, for good or for bad, would affect the harmony and balance of the world that was created to serve him. This concept is further reflected in the morning Shma which is read by observant Jews daily as they bind themselves in Tefillin.

‘And it will come to pass that if you continually hearken to My commandments ….I will provide rain for your land in its proper time’. Followed by the warning:

‘Beware lest your heart be seduced and you turn astray and serve gods of others and bow to them. Then the wrath of Hashem will blaze against you...’

If Israel is the foundation and rock that sustains the world, along with its stiff necked priests, then when that rock is under attack and shaken up, the effects reverberate around the world. It was no surprise to me therefore when a large section of the foundation stone of Earth was uprooted, that it would have not only national and spiritual side effects but also natural and earthly ones.

Many people I have spoken to seem to feel that what happened in Gush Katif was the result of American pressure (personally I think were old enough to make our own decisions). But regardless, it seems that if this is so, then America is being punished by a natural disaster that may be rooted in a kabalistic way, by the by our own self-imposed disasters.

It is strange to see a huge city, thousands of times bigger than Gush Katif being forcibly evacuated against the will of its settlers. Didn’t we just see pictures of policemen forcibly taking people from their homes in Gush Katif and Homesh because it was ‘unsafe’ for them to stay there? The timing was interesting. On the day the cadavers of Gush Katif arrived to be re-buried in Jerusalem, death blew into New Orleans to bury it under a flood.

Maybe it’s all just coincidence. Maybe there is no connection. Regardless, I am certain that after some time New Orleans will be rebuilt and re-settled again. Gush Katif was settled twice already, before 1948 and after 1967. Certainly if New Orleans, a city that celebrates the annual ‘Decadence Parade’ can be re-built, than all the more so will Gush Katif be re-built one day soon, after the flood, in the State of Judea.

State of Judea(Oct 24, 2005)
The Editor requested an article

Even Though…
Even though I am still mad at our Nation of slaves that cannot refuse orders and taskmasters that are compelled to give them. Even though the only ‘free’ people in this Nation are now homeless, in jail or persecuted. Even though a self inflicted Hurricane came and erased huge Jewish communities as if they never had been there for 25 years.

Even though the sound of children playing in the street has been replaced by the sound of jackals howling from the ruins. Even though all that is left of hundreds of the finest and most loyal communities is an orange ribbon I wear on my knapsack. Even though I had expected Hashem to notice the sons correcting the sins of their fathers as they trekked through the night with full faith in their hearts. Even though there was no miracle.

Even though we have the sensitivity of a donkey, as we stare blankly and say life goes on. Even though we are like the generation of Mitzrayim that is too weary with our labor. Even though we have a courageous army that trembles in front of a puny Goliath. Even though we allow ourselves to be bullied and our leaders represent our weak hearts. Even though I cannot understand why such a strong people is such a frightened people.

Even though I cannot understand why we divorce such a beautiful wife and are obsessed over such an ugly one. Even though I said to myself I would not write any more about such idiots. Even though the Arabs run wildly now through Tel Aviv on Ramadan, without any fear insulting and cursing their self-defeated enemies. Even though many Jews no longer go to their synagogue in Jaffo for fear of being mugged by Arab gangs.

Even though the ‘capo’ Jews of the past, who willingly beat their brothers for an extra piece of bread, still exist in the ghetto of Israel today, and are still willing. Even though before the Holocaust the rabbis who said don’t go to Israel were wrong. Even though the rabbis that said nothing would happen to Gush Katif were wrong. Even though my belief that this was the beginning of the redemption was also wrong.

Even though I still believe with perfect faith that Moshiach will come, not today or tomorrow, but probably after we feel suffering in our own living rooms, which may be the day after tomorrow. Even though I am still mad at the director for breaking His own rules and not explaining Himself. Even though in the end I must accept that this was His decision.

Even though I have many questions about the Divine. Even though I have no illusions about what His children are capable of. Even though I know that my disappointment comes from a tremendous love of G-d and His nation and His Land. Even though I have every right to be mad and upset..still…How can I be angry when a little girl shoves a plate of apples and honey in front of me and I look up to see an army of school children offering similar plates to commuters at the Central bus station? How can I be mad when a Chassid finds me walking the streets at midnight and then prepares a beautiful meal in his succah for me?

How can I get mad at the magical synchronicity that still exists within this chaos? How can I get mad at the picture of a full moon over Mount Meron? During all this time, did I even think for a second of leaving Israel who I married for better or worse? Did I ever wish to hear a foreign bird singing in my window? Is there another Nation I would trade for my dysfunctional family?

How could I remain mad at bitter opponents who still greet each other with hugs? How can I get mad when I hear 10.000 Cohanim blessing me, or dancing together on Shabbat? How can I remain upset when so many others feel the same way as I do, from bus drivers to businessmen who still call each other ‘Ach Sheli’ – ‘My brother’.

Ill get over it and Hashem will get over it, and the Nation will get over it, and something will grow from these wounds. As the storm clouds approach, one can still see the light at the other end. The light comes from ones choices, to be free or to be a link in the chain of indifference. To serve the one above though He remains hidden, or to serve the State that already knows everything about you. For now I suppose we must be like Avraham who woke up early to sacrifice his son, without understanding why suddenly everything is upside down. You can call this a spark from Israel, a dull glitter, or a raging fire, they are all true.

State of Judea (Nov5, 2005)
Formerly Sparks From Israel

Nachamu, Nachamu
This article is dedicated to those who have felt disappointed and disillusioned by the events of this summer. The after shock of those who had expected victory has left its mark. Many who have felt secure now feel that their own future is uncertain. A dangerous precedent has been set encouraging more terror, more retreat, and more betrayal. But there is yet hope.

Personally this is not the first time that I have felt this kind of devastation. It happened once before with a leader that many felt was on the verge of bringing the redemption ‘gloriously’. One who appeared more like a prophet than a politician, who's gaining popularity threatened to overturn the feudal establishment of Israel and so the barons banned him and later he was assassinated. His name was Rabbi Meir Kahane.

A similar devastation happened eleven years later, when his son who continued his work, was also assasinated. In those days I had expected terrible tragedy to follow and it did, but not in the way I had thought. Meir Kahane was murdered a block away from the twin towers and I expected the ground to shake. The ground did shake, but it was not until eleven years later, in the year his son was assassinated; a year that became famous as the year of September 11th.

Just like the twin towers, the two giants who once stood were no more. The two giants who warned of such possible events were foolishly silenced, as if silencing the messenger would stop the storm from arriving. The storm arrived and it took the twin towers down and thousands of other victims of Arab terror since, whose untimely deaths could have been prevented.

Who would fight the battle now, I thought? The great generals are no more, only a small handful of the broken hearted faithful. Who had the talent and courage to lead and to speak so eloquently? The future looked terribly bleak and redemption was only a story book idea in the far away future.

These days, with the events of the summer, I remember that devastation. But on Simchat Torah I found comfort. A thought I had in the back of my mind was confirmed. I sat at the table of a Chassid in the old city who had been friends with the Rabbi I never met, that great visionary whose last words emanated from ground zero. We spoke about Rabbi Kahane and his son Binyamin Kahane.

The Chassid knew both of them well. He was now a principle of a school in Yesha and he told me that in every child’s school book is a picture of Rabbi Kahane. ‘The generation before used to speak about Rav Cook’, he said, ‘but today it’s only Kahane’. The principle looked me in the eye and told me that these children never heard Rav Kahane speak; they were born long after he died, but if it wasn’t for Rav Kahane, the whole orange movement would not exist. The ideological leader of the protest movement in Israel is Rabbi Kahane. He was the first to protest for Russian Jews and from his almost single handed efforts many thousands were freed from Russia. His words gave me comfort.

A Tzadik lives long after his years. This Rosh Hoshanna I heard there were 2 million people in Uman celebrating at the grave of Rabbi Nachman. Two hundred years after the death of a tzaddik his popularity has become greater than anyone would have ever have imagined. It has only been 15 years since Meir Kahane was taken from us and the country was almost overturned by children; children who were motivated to protest from his example. Thousands went out into the street every day, to demonstrate their love and concern, to expose the fraudulent, and to re-establish Torah justice and patriotism.

As Leonard Cohen writes in one of his songs ‘I have seen the future and its murder’. Yes, it is, there are dark days ahead, but the forces of good will win, just as they did in ‘48 and ’67. The next war, however, will begin from within the heart of every Jew and will overturn that which oppresses us more than any gentile from without. The self-hate within our hearts will be expelled along with every other enemy that seeks our demise.

Gush Katif is only the beginning, and the government trembled. A new Jewish heart is being formed from the ashes of September 11th, to the dust of Gush Katif. Although we saw glimpses of this potential when Rabbi Kahane was alive, and his son, and the massive Orange protest this summer, Hashem has His own timetable. I have been disappointed each time I saw glory trampled and beaten and buried because I thought it would change the world, but it didn’t-or maybe it did. Maybe the seeds that were buried are still growing and are beginning to bear their fruit.

Those who have been waiting in their seats are upset because they came on schedule but the show hasn’t begun on time. Some say it is because the manager is trying to accommodate the thousands of late comers and make sure they get a seat too. Maybe this is the reason for the delay. Maybe this is a reason to find comfort. There are many sparks in Israel but our life blood beats from Judea and soon the two will be united. Soon the theatre will be full. May we all live to see the curtain opening and none of us should lose their seat. Shabbat Shalom

Sparks From Israel II(Dec 12, 2005)

After the Plague
A chapter in my life has now closed and a new one begun. The starry eyed oleh chadash who wrote about the Holiness of Israel from surfers to Satmars is no longer starry eyed. Yes, I am embarrassed and ashamed, and disgusted, because I had expected more of this Nation and I am disappointed because I was waiting for a miracle that never happened. What good is left from a redemption process that seems to have been reversed? What can one harvest from fields that were burned down by their owners? I have no answers.

The painful pictures of our own Jewish thugs pulling the holiest Jews of Zion out of the homes they had built and paid for with their blood was too devastating for me to watch. The name tags on the soldiers were removed so that their violence could not be reported, but one could see a prosecuting angel on the shoulders of each one writing his and her name down in an accounting book in Heaven.

There was another counting taking place as well. In the Torah, there are a number of places that Hashem counts His people after a plague. We are told this is because each Israelite is precious to Hashem, especially after He has suffered a loss. Well, in retrospect, over this summer, we certainly have counted many who tied the orange ribbon to their bags and cars and street signs. Judging from the predominance of this color in every city of Israel it is clear that what happened in the Gush did not reflect the Nation. Despite this tragedy, an accounting of goodness has also been registered above.

Not only is this a new chapter in my life, but this is a new chapter in the Land of Israel. Just as precedence’s were broken from the sacred cow of democracy, revealing it’s true face of tyranny, precedence’s among the Nation were also revealed. Hundreds walked for many hours under the cover of darkness, eluding police to arrive at the Gush. Millions crowded the squares and Kotel for demonstrations never before seen. Like the Israelites of old, who walked into a desert with nothing but faith, the generation of Moshiach is coming of age.

The Jewish spirit has been revived. The ‘Jewish’ soul of Israel is emerging at the very moment that the forces of assimilation seek to extinguish it forever. Yes it’s a black day in Israel, and I suppose Hashem was also in mourning. Maybe He is saving the big miracle for another day. Maybe the ranks of goodness must swell even more. Maybe the tyranny must be let loose for us to recognize its face and beg forgiveness for our neglecting its rise to anarchy. I have no answers.

I just wanted to point out that there is more good than bad, and now is a time when good people must rise to the occasion and be counted.

Sparks from Israel (May4, 2006)

Here’s to Jewish Heroes

It was a great sign for all to see. Hanan Dayan, a staff seargent being decorated on Yom Haatzmaut for outstanding service refusing to shake the hands of the Ramat Kal. Of all the heroic actions Hanan has participated in, this one was most glorified and most significant. It was the glory of a true Jewish soldier serving a higher authority; a Jewish soldier that cannot betray his brother at any price and cannot shake the hand of the architect or foreman of evil.

This was a fine example of a true Jew, and a true descendent of the line of David, to which his family claims a connection to. His action gave me hope that there is still a glimmer of fire that burns in the bosom of this Nation. May his fire increase, and may it light up the eyes of this Nation sick with apathy and self indulgence. May those who seek darkness depart into the night and not delay the dawn from approaching. May those who simply ride on the bandwagon of the most popular parties be convinced that goodness is better than selfishness and strength is better than weakness. Protecting ones honor better than accepting defilement.

Those who even call it a mitzvah to denigrate oneself, as they spiral into nothingness and grasp at radical philosophies of self-loathing. Let they without backbones, who follow the majority that do terrible things, let them stumble into the notion that the right way has become the easiest and accepted path. Let it be that those who kindle the sparks and blow on the coals, ignite the half-dead and hypnotized into blindly following a new trend of Jewish love and love of the Land. Let fools stumble on the truth for a change and usher in a new world initiated by heroes who refuse to accept the unacceptable. Let the lambs be led after so many years of wandering by a true shepherd who cares for his flock.

Sparks From Israel(Oct 1, 2006)

For Better or Worse
I told myself I would never write another Sparks from Israel. But tonight I am absolutely drunk, and it’s the 5th night of Chanuka and so I will tell you about the holiness of our nation, even though I still think we are a bunch of slaves and taskmasters.

At 3 am, after drinking all night in one club, I went to another club that was still packed, and lo and behold at 3 a.m. two men with black hats and beards had the DJ stop the music, as they lit the Chanuka candles, and the crowd sang along with the Chanuka prayers. I thought I was hallucinating, but no, this is Israel.

At 4 a.m. as I left that bar and staggered home, I stopped into the chips store, and asked the cook, what wisdom he could impart on the 5th night of Chanuka. He told me, that he always liked the passage regarding Yacov, that he worked for 7 years for Rachel but to him it seemed like only days. I kissed the Rav of the chips, and blessed him that his light should increase in the world.

Who would think the man who fries potatoes in oil all night would think of such passages of Torah. Such holy people, even though they worship America, and New York, and all that is there. Still in the middle of their parties and drunken stupors, they can light Chanuka candles and give divreh Torah.

There is no other people like the Nation of Israel, and in my mind, I don’t even have a choice to leave here. There is nothing like this land and I have absolutely no desire for a different land. Even if we lack vision and faith, still this is a land like no other. These are the sons and daughters of prophets, and the sons and daughters of slaves. There is absolutely no other choice in my mind. Better an Israel that is infected with foolishness, than an exile that dreams of a perfect Israel that will never be.

Sparks From Israel (June 27, 2006)

The Promenade
There is a tiny shul tucked away inside the Promenade where artisans, shmata traders and tourists walk by. Tonight on my way to my usual afternoon prayer I thought to bring along my new Talmud book. There is a reward for coming to shul, a reward for praying in shul, and a reward for learning in a shul. I thought to myself, even if I don’t find time to learn while the rabbi’s gather the minyan, at least I will begin a good new habit of bringing a book with the intent of learning. I recently saw a man who had not been in a shul for a long time, wave his hand across the book section and kiss his hand, as if to say ‘I love these books, and I wish I had time to study them, let it be that even though I don’t have the time, that their wisdom should somehow enter into me’. I have felt like that too. Judaism has many levels to it, learning is one of them, and service is another. I have grown accustomed to do at least the minimum of trying to make the afternoon minyan each day but of course there is no end to calling of a Jew. Today was one of those days where one is reminded that a Jew is called upon to interrupt his day to participate in a group activity that involves at least nine other Jews. To me this seems like the source of my religion. Even though prayer is a meditational practice that gives one a great spiritual satisfaction, there is pre-requisite practice that one must do before this meditation; gather the minyan. To me the minyan represents the nucleus of our religion which is not really a religion; it is a National Service that begins at home. It is not a lifestyle choice that you chose to do at your leisure, but a National Service that interrupts your quiet day to fulfill an obligation whose end result brings you much more than peace, it brings fulfillment. A person who’s peace and communion is dependant on gathering nine other souls, is a person who has the good fortune of seeing the divine presence each day. To understand this idea in a more practical sense let me return to the Promenade.

Today, as I arrived at the shul and saw a small handful of people and the sun rapidly setting, I realized that there would not be any time for study, and if I didn’t jump into action, there may not even be a minyan. I stood outside and asked passersby who shook their heads. Above the promenade on a second floor balcony were a group of young men who sat there drinking beer and whistling to the women on the street, inviting them up to party with them. As the day grew darker, and the usual minyan men where nowhere to be found, I yelled up to the party boys to come help us with a minyan. They laughed and said, ok. At the last second the minyan came together with more than ten men, and the young men in Bermuda shorts and bare feet prayed with fervor. The prayer books and the prayers were not foreign to these men for they were Jews too, and it was part of their National Service to interrupt their party and assist a minyan. The feeling of being needed and obligated to help out is a necessary pre-requisite that easily opens the gates of heaven where collectively each ones meditation is received. Although this is a wayward nation always on the brink of destruction, it is this improvised symmetry of spiritual needs and obligations that disturbs our day and rectifies many evil decrees. These actions endear us to our Father in Heaven, who in turn disturbs Himself and goes out of His way to protect us and annul thousands of evil decrees against us, so that we can have a peaceful Shabbat.

2005-07-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sparks of Israel

Moshe and the Rock
I recall the weeks before Pesach when I was visiting the old country. A famous learned rabbi was speaking and someone asked how they are supposed to fulfill the requirement of feeling as if we were slaves in Egypt? I suggested that to understand what happened at that time, we could think about our brothers at this time, who are having a Pesach Seder in Gush Katif.

The same overwhelming odds against this small group, and the same expectation of a miracle might inspire our Seder tables so that we can better appreciate the original Exodus and make it happen again in our own time. The Rabbi didn’t agree, and was resigned to the fact that this Jewish expulsion was inevitable and was the product of anti-religious propaganda from an anti-religious state.

What made me recall this story at this time? Parsha Chukat- where Moshe gets angry and hits the rock and is condemned to not enter the Land of Israel. Even though water eventually came gushing out of this rock, the water of Torah that poured forth was Torah of the exile, that had lost its meaning. Moshe had lost touch with the people, and instead of being angry at them, he had an opportunity to bring out the best in them and raise them to a new level.

The same rock that sustained Hagar, the mother of the Ishmaelites, condemned Moshe who gave us the Torah. Even the Ishmaelites who took possession of a Land that was not given to them, understood its miraculous powers better than those who were never troubled by their disinheritance from it.

Those who love the Land, understand that the Land speaks, and water pours forth even from a rock. The Land will not tolerate its children being torn from them, and its children will not tolerate being separated from her. One doesn’t need to be a rabbinical student to understand this he only needs a new heart formed in the Land of Israel.

Despite leaders that accept the unacceptable, and continue to lash out at their arch-enemies, instead of speaking to the hearts of the people, the hearts of the people will speak to them and alone, they will bring forth miracles from above. A new generation has already entered the Land and despite all the Pharaohs of Egypt and our own Meraglim and Korach’s and rock hitting rabbis, the revolution has begun and from here you can smell the salt of the sea beginning to part.

2005-07-08T05:58:00.000-07:00

Sparks From Israel

Good News and Bad News
First the bad news
A young protester showed me a note that was sent to the wives of the policemen who are being trained to remove the residents of Gush Katif. The note asked the wives to be patient because their husbands would not be coming home for a few months, when they begin their holy work.

It goes on to explain how there will be four policeman for every citizen of Gush Katif. They will insure the safety of these residents and remove infants from the arms of their hysterical mother’s before proceeding to remove the parents and their belongings. They recognize that this may be a traumatic experience for some, and so they are enlisting the help of Druze and Bedouin policeman who of course will not have the same trauma as our soldiers, and might even enjoy this kind of work.

Is this Germany? Stalinist Russia? No, it’s Israel 2005.

And the good news
This same 15 year old protester belonged to a yeshiva, which together with his friends succeeded in bringing highways to a halt, closing down bus stations and an assortment of Gush Katif pranks that stunned the police department. This activism is not limited to the religious sector. On Shabbat walking along the beach of Tel Aviv, there were Gush Katif protestors, with megaphones that the police could not remove, because the sun bathers began marching with them.

For thousands of years, Jews have been at the mercy of our host countries, and for the most part sat quietly, relying on our leaders to barter for our best interests. That Jew died in the Holocaust and a new Jew was born. Not only the Jewish soldier, but the Jewish activist was born.

In the 60’s Jewish protest began with Meir Kahane and the Jewish Defense League. This handful of Jews succeeded in bringing the Russian Empire to its knees and ultimately releasing over a million of our brothers from behind the iron curtain. Meir Kahane paid a great price for his activism on behalf of the people he loved.

He was murdered a block away from the twin towers warning of terrorism that could happen, and not by coincidence did happen, 11 years later on September 11th in the same spot, by the same people. Nine months before September 11th Meir Kahane’s son was also murdered for his activism and just as the world changed on that fateful day when these two towers crumbled, so did something within the Jewish body.

Those towers of activism who alone led the conscience of the Jewish people were no longer. But from the ashes young seeds of fire were born, and today their orange light burns brightly. The police push and shove the peaceful orange protesters, they spray them with water cannons and they throw these youngsters in jail, but they cannot stop the tides from turning.

Finally yeshiva students are putting their chulent spoons down and getting arrested for civil disobedience (as my young protester friend says, the food in prison is kosher and you can study all day). Finally Jews regardless of their level of observance are demonstrating Ahavat Israel that even ‘frum’ Rabbi’s from the exile, couldn’t come close to.

The good news is that ‘the times they are a changing’ and our great Nation is about to give birth once again. The generation of young Jewish soldiers, who also have young idealism and passion for their people are coming of age. The generation of self-serving politicians and self-hating Jews has already ended. The generation of true leadership that comes from sacrifice, concern, and love for one’s people, has begun.

As the day of the earthquake approaches and the tremors are felt throughout the Land, I can’t help but feel incredibly lucky to witness these new pages of the Torah being written before my eyes, and to taste the future before it arrives. Some resign themselves to studying a Torah that has no connection to the present, but as far as I can see, the best pages are yet to be written.

2005-06-17T12:42:00.000-07:00

Sparks From Israel

The Birds
If you look westward you can spot them arriving one by one. Then they come in larger numbers, like a stream trickling through tunnels and alleyways. Finally there is a rushing river, as they flood the marble floor of the Temple wall all the way across the large open plaza, up to the stairways at the other end. As the sun rises you can see them all, like birds. A hundred thousand Jews all huddled together for the morning prayer of Shavuot, after being up all night learning Torah, which is the Jewish tradition.

I have one friend who was at the original Sinai in the dessert and felt the vibe, another who was in Sfat receiving the kabala, and then there was me who stood witness in Jerusalem to the flock of black, white and multi-colored Jews doing their prayer dance together in improvised assemblies. What an interesting species these people are.

As I stood off in the distance taking in the sight of these multitudes I could hear the Song of the Hebrews calling to their G-d. I understood the language of this species and I too could return a call, in the same voice. After all I guess I'm a bird too.

A Nation of Prophets
I was coming back on the bus from the Kotel with two Israeli guys I had just met over Shabbat. One had a business idea he was speaking to me about, and his Temani friend was an inspired yeshiva student who only spoke about Torah. We managed to find three seats on the bus, and then his friend suddenly stood up and started to give the bus riders a lecture on the Importance of remaining silent in the Beit Knesset.

Imagine the scene; a Sephardic young man with a black kippa lecturing to a bus load of Ashkenazi rabbi’s with black furry striemels and women in kerchiefs. At first they smiled to each other, but as the bus rolled along, he continued, and they became engrossed in the lecture. While he was speaking, I turned to my friend and asked him if he does this everywhere, he nodded.

When we arrived at our destination, I hurried to catch the last bus to Tel Aviv. I looked back and saw the Bus Rebbe surrounded by new fans asking for his telephone number. On the bus back to Tel Aviv, he asked the bus driver if he could use the microphone and give a Torah lecture. He was flatly denied and we continued home with the radio playing Russian ballads and Trance music. I guess it must have been similar in ancient times.

The Academy of Questions
On Shabbat in Tel Aviv, I can only understand about 60% of the lectures because my Hebrew is not that good yet. It’s a treat for me to visit Yerushalayim where there is so much learning in English, and Shavuot is the holiday where we traditionally stay up all night long learning Torah.

There were a hundred different classes to choose from in the Old City, and a friend recommended a Talmud class that began at 2:30 am. He advised reviewing the material for a few hours before the lecture, because it was very deep stuff and the regular students have already spent a week reviewing it. So I sat with an old friend from this yeshiva and we struggled through it for a few hours until the Rabbi arrived.

He spoke for two hours and I must say, that instead of the 60% I usually understand in Hebrew, this time I understood about 10%, and it was in English. This academy of intellect was so refined that one could hardly make out the subject of the question that was extracted from the previous question that was concealed within the statement that was really another question.

Now I understand why the great yeshivas are such a big weapon for Israel. They are splitting the atom every day here and it creates a tremendous force field of impenetrable light.

Heavy Metal Chulent
Just as I had unpacked my things and was settling into a nice spiritual Shabbat in the Old City a 7-foot tattooed biker entered the room. He took off his spiked boots and Metalica T-shirt, stretched his legs passed the bed and with the moan of a giant lied down. The thought occurred to me, to put my valuables in the office safe. Jerusalem attracts all kinds of unusual people.

Another roommate arrived with a friend and they were discussing the laws of the Shavuot Festival. The rocker who hadn’t yet fallen asleep turned to them and in aristocratic English explained the detailed differences between the laws of Shabbat and the laws of the Festivals. Everyone was stunned, and he went back to sleep.

Later, I spoke with this gentle giant and discovered that his father was a rabbi, whose advice to him was to always question everything. His questioning led him around the world and back to Jerusalem. I suppose he will continue to question as his father did and there is a good chance that he will follow in his fathers footsteps and become a rabbi himself one day; maybe a Heavy Metal Rabbi. You can’t judge a book from its cover, especially in Israel.

2005-06-07T12:39:00.000-07:00

Sparks From Israel

Yom Yerushalayim
Outside of Israel reading the Torah seems like reading a history book. Here in Israel that history comes alive. On Shabbat we read Bamidbar which described the formation of the first Israeli army and the Nation under its various tribal flags. The next day was Yom Yerushalyim and I watched the parade down Yaffo street full of flags and floats from every tribal area of Israel along with army platoons and marching bands.

It was an overwhelming sight to see the banners of Zevulon and Binyamina followed by thousands of young people in colorful costumes from their provinces and settlements. I just read about these people in the Torah, and there they are before me marching through history.

The groups in orange T-shirts received the biggest applause along with the army. It’s these two groups that we seem most proud of; those who settle our land and those who defend it. It’s these two groups that make up the very fabric of our society.

Like a classical score our ancient script is interpreted by new directors in every era; the same themes, with new characters and a backdrop of tension and glory. Next week will be a new chapter in our Torah and I can’t wait to see what new revelation will be manifested and watch with my own eyes, as the music comes alive.

2005-06-02T12:37:00.000-07:00

Sparks From Israel

The Contract
As one travels through this vast and mysterious land one cannot help but notice how quickly topographies change and alter. In one moment one is in a desert with rocks and caves, then rolling hills with lush gardens and flowers. It is as if the whole world was folded up into a small little concentration of land and water.

Whatever country you originate from, from Canada to Africa, you will find a part of that land, right here in Israel. As individuals return to rebuild their small section, that concentrated area expands and is beautified not only here, but reflexively in a corner of the world somewhere. The world is rooted in the Land of Israel, and we are the gardeners.

A visitor remarked how she never saw such beautiful bouquets of flowers growing wildly. There is a sense of blessing and abundance that emanates from the places that we have returned to, as if there is another gardener adding to our own efforts.

One can understand the Midrash of Sarah whose body transformed from a dried up woman of 90 to a youthful young maiden when it was time for the prophecy to arrive. Today, we are the prophecy, and we are arriving each day. Sarah gave birth in her old age and today the Land of Israel has become young in its old age and is being reborn every day.

Just as the figs drop like honey from the sky and fruit trees bear three fruits for every seed one can see the people of Israel blessed with children running wildly through the streets and pregnant mothers wherever one turns.

Amid this backdrop I heard a friend of mine say that we must ‘give back’ some of these lands. How absurd this sounds. ‘Giving back’, implies that we took something that doesn’t belong to us. Who can return his inheritance? And to whom would he give it; to robbers and thieves?

If one reads the will and testament left to us by our father in heaven, he will see that the only stipulation in receiving this abundance is to enjoy it, appreciate it and honor it with its sabbaticals. There is of course an insanity clause, as in many contracts.

If for some reason we go mad and want to divorce ourselves from paradise, curse all of this wealth and run away from our responsibility to tend this garden, then the inheritance will be passed on to another child who will protect this inheritance from both robbers and the momentary madness of his brother.

In the end, the decree of the Creator will stand and be enforced upon all of us, in all of its severity and no one can escape it. The ultimate commandment will be administered despite ourselves: Thou shalt be blessed!!

How Do You Know You Are In Israel?
In the old country, they have couriers that come in courier uniforms, take your package and give you something to sign and then leave in a hurry. Here a man arrives casually dressed, calls me by my first name and asks me if there is music on the CD’s he is delivering for me. I told him ‘no, they are video clips, why do you ask?’ ‘I was going to listen to it in the car along the way’, he answered me. Only in Israel.

2005-05-29T12:35:00.000-07:00

Sparks From Israel

The Fires of Lag B’Omer
Lag B’Omer is a night where great bonfires dot the landscape. As I stood next to the largest bonfire I have ever seen it was as if I discovered fire for the first time. Huge streams of fire where rushing up into heaven and disappearing into sparks as they were swallowed by the night. Water also flows in streams downward to the sea, and is swallowed by the sand. The stream of water is constant and water makes up most of our being. Fire is unusual and man-made, but a large fire, has a current and flows like a raging sea upward and then just like the sea, it disappears into the air, as if it was never there.

The first fire they say was made by Adam after Shabbat, and this is one of the reasons we light the Havdalah candle. The ability to make fire is one of the things that distinguish man as Gods emissary here on earth. The soul of man is also like fire and we light yortzeit candles to commemorate the neshama, and invite the spirit to fill the room once again with their light. Our history is made up of great souls that reached for heaven like fire and brought heaven down to us like rain. The temple was destroyed with fire, and they say it will also be rebuilt with fire. But how does one rebuild with fire?

Just as there are currents in the sea that appear to have a form there are currents of time that are real and then swallowed by eternity. But the current of the sea brings something to the shore, as the current of fire brings something to light in the world. The wave of Jews that fill the kever of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is a sea of elbows and arms that lifts you and carries you like a current that you are helpless to fight against. Inside, the current swells in circles as Jews lose their identity and become a bonfire reaching towards heaven in song. Each face is one face and the ‘one’ face has a multitude of variations.

Who was Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and why does this sea of fire continue to burn and to grow? He was the author of the mystical Zohar. But why was he the man to receive this most mystical book from Hashem’s secret library? Was he a man who sat in a study hall contemplating the universe? It seems that he was, but also much more than that. He was also a rebel, who like his teacher Rabbi Akiva, was not afraid of the authorities, but only of the higher authority of G-d. He, like his teacher, was engaged in the physical battle against the anti-Israel forces and the spiritual battle to bring the Melech Moshiach. He became a legend for evading the forces that tried unsuccessfully to put out his fire.

My friend Yecheskel pointed out that we can see how even a modern day cave dweller has become a legend among his people for humiliated his American captors by constantly eluding them. Shimon Bar Yochai became a legend for the Israelites by eluding the Roman authorities and continuing to fight the revolution of the Moshiach that according to some opinions say succeeded on the 33rd of the Omer, the same day of his yorzeit.

The same commentators say that the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva died not by a plague, but in this war similar to the Macabees, who fought against forces a thousand times greater than themselves, and won. Although the victory was short lived, the battle continues, even into our own times.

Meron was not only lit with bright orange fires, but also with bright orange t-shirts, the symbol of Gush Katif. The battle for the Land of Israel is a battle for the soul of Israel, and throughout history, the battle always has had the same odds, a thousand to one. But our ‘One’ cannot be defeated, only refined.

The deepest mysteries of the Zohar are only given to those who build a fire inside for Hashem, His people, and His Land. Without all three, the fire doesn’t reach high enough. When it does, he may be entitled to a library card from Hashem’s secret library. The currents of time have brought the building materials to the shore, and the fire that needs to be kindled is increasing. It is the fire of sacrifice and devotion and love. This is the fire that will be kindled one day soon in the Beit Hamigdash.

2005-05-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

Sparks From Israel

Macabee did it again!
Tonight Macabee (Israel’s Basketball Team) won the European championship for the second year in a row. Within minutes Kikar Rabin (City Hall) was filled with thousands of people dancing wildly, beating drums, and singing into the midnight hour. The Breslov Trance-Music Vans were parked there and gave away their books and glow in the dark buttons. Vendors set up impromptu popcorn stands and candy floss machines. Everyone marveled at how little Israel once again conquered all of Europe.

Many say the victory was a direct result of the coach of the team who started to keep Shabbat a month before last years victory. This year he went to the Kotel and got a bracha from a Rebbe and gave away tzedaka before the final game. Only in Israel would you hear such a story and would the fans be cheering not only for victory of a basketball team but for our coach in Heaven who stands behind us.

Two days from now the Kikar again will be packed with thousands who will not dance but sit and mourn those who were sacrificed this year in battle or from terrorism. Yom Hazikaron is a solemn night where there are no vendors selling food, only videos on a large screen of parents and friends talking about loved ones who are no longer with us, mixed with live performing artists singing solemn ballads without applause at the end. It is a moment when the whole Nation cries together.

The next night, the square will again be overflowing with its citizens, this time dancing again and waving flags for Israel’s Independence Day. The greatest entertainers will fill the stage and perform in all their glory, one after another.

How can one describe this place called Israel that rejoices one day and mourns the next; that is constantly being destroyed and rebuilt? This tiny Nation that has such a vast history and such tremendous influence on the planet. In comparison the world seems to be hardly rotating. There is no moment wasted in Israel, nor day without meaning. It is an ancient country that grows younger each day as it continues to flower. I cannot describe the intensity of life here in Israel. All I can say is that whatever way you look at it, one cannot help but see the reflection of the Divine shining through it from every direction.

Israel - Fifty Seven but looks Twenty Five
Israel is not a Nation. It is a family that has become a Nation. In only 57 years there are huge metropolises exporting all the latest hi-tech inventions to the world and teaching other countries how to make deserts bloom and armies run more efficiently.

There is one area however, that although it has been exported over the years, will soon explode in a huge industry. Which industry do I speak of? The industry of light! The light of the Nation is growing and there is a growing thirst in the world to receive it. The light of the spirit, through words, dance, film, and especially through music is breaking into the world stage in a rapid pace.

Every year I go to Kikar Rabin to see the fireworks and hear some of Israel’s top performers. Every year I am more impressed than the year before. The world class bands are better than what I see on MTV with lyrics that are deep and come from Jewish souls dressed in many different colors. Israeli bands from Rap to Heavy Metal, to Reggae are touring the world and receiving standing ovations wherever they go.

Here in Rabin Square is the home they return to and the source of their inspiration. The music begins in the early evening with children running wild spraying their friends and the crowd with foam. There is so much foam that the streets are slippery to walk on and you see cute little kids that look like snowmen chasing after each other. The music is interspersed with sets of fireworks from the roof of City Hall. At midnight the mayor gives his blessing and the final round of fireworks goes on for at least 15 minutes.

This year the fireworks were set to Mizrachi/Ska music and Reggae Dub. When I lived abroad I used to see the world competition of fireworks each year, but I never saw fireworks orchestrated this well to music and with such spectacular design. Now I understand why the country is bankrupt. They spend all their money on fireworks.

The concert goes on far past the children’s bedtime as some of the top rock bands perform. I noticed in the crowd some people with orange shirts and orange kippas, a sign of those who support the people of Gush Katif. I also saw a chassid in a black hat dancing in the crowd. Although there are extreme divisions in our country, it doesn’t seem to stop us from dancing together.

Certainly there are deep divides within our Nation, and the next few months will be a big test for us. However, whatever side of the line one places himself, on the other side of that line facing us in a fur hat, an orange shirt, or dreadlocks - is a mirror. We are a Nation faced against each other and with each other and next to the window of Heaven this makes beautiful rainbows. Chag Somayach!

2005-05-06T12:29:00.000-07:00

Sparks From Israel
(at the Boombamela Music Festival)

‘How Goodly Are Thy Tents Oh Yacov’
I couldn’t help but think of this prayer when I attended the Boombamela Music festival during Chol Hamoed Pesach. Imagine a tent city of 20,000 people living by the seashore, with a shanty town built over night. In the evening bond fires, guitars and drum circles, as well as many stages of rock, reggae and world music. There is a place for those who wish to dress with fig leafs like the Garden of Eden and there is a place for the Dosi hippies who dress in biblical robes.

So this is what the bible must have looked like; Woodstock with both the Golden Calf and the Torah. A tribal multitude made up of the best parts of the whole world, connecting to each other in our collective path that leads in all directions. There are deep divisions within the body of the Nation, but this is counter-pointed with a love and responsibility for each other that we all feel, in different places in our hearts. It’s nice to have a tribe to come home to. Hine matov umanayim, shevet achim gum yachad.

The Burger Ranch Rav
I was at my brother’s place during Pesach and asked him if he had any mustard in his fridge. He said that he couldn’t find any kosher for Pesach mustard in the ‘glatt- kosher’ grocery store. When I returned to Israel during Chol Hamoed I went for my special Pesach treat; a Pesach hamburger at Burger Ranch. I asked the burger purveyor for a package of mustard and she replied that she was sorry but ‘mustard is chumatz’.

Now I understood why we couldn’t find any kosher for Pesach mustard in the grocery store. Imagine learning this obscure Halacha from a 17 year old Burger Ranch employee. Only in Israel!

The Market
I live in a market place. All day you hear the vendors shouting their bargains and selling their wares. On the surface one would think that they are simple folk that work hard and at the end of the day come home to watch television and drink a beer. Maybe they do, but as the sun begins to set, I see many of these vendors in my local synagogue for the afternoon prayers. There are maybe fifty other synagogues in the immediate area as well.

Between the afternoon prayer and the evening prayer, someone will get up and speak a few words of Torah. The discussion between the congregants and the one leading the discussion I would compare to great rabbinical discourses I have read about in books. The level of their knowledge is astounding.

The next day as I questioned one of the congregants about a question he had asked, he clarified it for me and then pointed to the tomatoes. ‘Take four for 5 shekels, it’s a better deal’. He stuffed the tomatoes in my bag and continued shouting. Where I come from Torah is something studied in academies. Here it flows through the marketplace, where some of the greatest masters teach it while selling tomatoes.

2005-03-18T12:24:00.000-08:00

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.

2005-03-11T10:09:00.000-08:00

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’.

2005-03-04T03:08:00.000-08:00

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.

2005-03-04T03:07:00.000-08:00

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.

2005-03-04T03:06:00.000-08:00

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.

2005-03-04T03:05:00.000-08:00

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

2005-03-04T03:03:00.000-08:00

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

2005-01-08T15:32:00.000-08:00

Sparks From Israel

The Twilight Zone

I work in an Industrial Area in South Tel Aviv, which is one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. At night, I took a break and sat in a corner pizza parlor.

Sitting at another table was a disheveled looking man who had had a few drinks. Across from him sat a large man with missing teeth and grease stained T-shirt from the truck he drove. If I was in my native land, I could imagine the drunkard cursing the Jews about something or other and the truck driver laughing back with a mouth full of pizza. But as I sat there I was startled to hear the man full of booze blurt out the following words in Hebrew:

‘The Song of song’s of Solomon:
Communicate Your innermost wisdom to me again in loving closeness, for your friendship is dearer than all earthly delights. Like the scent of goodly oils is the spreading fame of your deeds; Your very name is Flowing Oil, therefore have the nations loved you...’

The tuck driver added:
‘Upon perceiving a mere hint that You wished to draw me, we rushed with perfect faith after You into the wilderness. But you’re not supposed to recite Psalms in the night.’

The drunk responded ‘That’s not Psalms that’s the Song of Song’s and where did you get that ridiculous idea that you cannot recite Psalms in the night time? My father (rest his soul) read all of the Psalms every Friday night.’

The truck driver replied, ‘Well your not supposed to’.

As the pizza delivery man put his motorcycle helmet on the drunk grabbed his arm. Yossi, he said, my father (rest his soul) read the whole Psalms every Friday night and this ‘rabbi’ here (pointing to the truck driver), said you can’t read Psalms at night, what do you say?’

Yossi took off his helmet. ‘Well, there is a tradition with some people not to recite Psalms between sundown and midnight, however, even those who hold by this tradition read Psalms on Friday night, because Shabbat is considered ‘day’, this is why we don’t say goodnight on Friday night, we say Shabbat Shalom.

‘Oh..the drunk continued. ‘Though I am black with sin, I am comely with virtue, O nations who are destined to ascend to Hevron..’

‘ To Yerushalayim, not Hevron’..said the beer drinking truck driver.
‘No. it’s written Hevron’ said the man with a hiccup.
‘Ahh..your drunk, said the truck driver, ‘you don’t know the difference between Hevron and Yerushalayim’..

As I walked out, they continued to argue. Here in Israel, even the salt of the earth is not salt, but gold.

2004-12-20T16:16:00.000-08:00

Sparks From Israel

Chanuka in the Hills of Samaria
Imagine walking through a Munk painting where you can see emotion in the clouds and the skies are spread out in all of their majesty. The colors of the brownish green hills are the same as they were two thousand years ago and each tiny rock is Holy. The view around the yishuv is breathtaking and perfectly peaceful.

I once heard someone say that all of the Jews could not possibly fit into the tiny Land of Israel. This is not true. There are great expanses of land unpopulated, and more than that. The hills of Yehuda and Shomron are like a blanket waiting to be spread out and filled once again with her people.

Just as Yerushalayim expands like a beautiful quilt upon the landscape, so too will the provinces grow. ‘The voice of Hashem convulses the wilderness’ (Tehillim 29). You can actually see it, how the mountains move and make way for their princes and queens arriving each day. Even a stone in this Land is alive and filled with an expansive energy.

I suppose it is this very Holiness; the source of all existence, that challenges the world. The war of Israel is a war of houses and homes. Each Jewish family that returns to these hills and beautifies them beautifies the source of Creation.

In adolescence the body and the soul often war with each other. But through this struggle a man emerges. Today we live in the times of Chanuka, where the soul emerges victorious over the body and becomes its driving force. As Israel comes of age in our times every Jew has an important role to play. There may be a storm ahead, but it may also dissolve as the light increases. May we see the world come of age soon, and may we all be there at the Bar Mitzvah, and may there be pickled herring! Amen

2004-12-04T08:29:00.000-08:00

Sparks From Israel

Economic Hardship and Divine Abundance
They say it’s hard to find a job in Israel. I suppose this is true, however on the other hand, we experience miracles in abundance. Everyday miracles as common place occurrences are simply not factored into the equation outside of Israel. Divine intervention is such an ever present part of life here that in comparison it is as if there is no G-d outside of Israel.

In other Nations there are simply natural forces that have been set in place so that one doesn’t often feel the need to rely on a G-d when he can rely on the welfare state or his family, or the abundance of opportunities. Because one feels much more at the mercy of G-d here, I’m certain that He too is quite happy to be a significant part of our lives and livelihoods. All those who dwell in the Land cannot help but feel an interaction with the Divine that simply does not exist with the same intensity outside of Israel, regardless of the level of one’s ritual observance.

I personally have felt the warm hand of someone guiding me throughout my sojourn here. Something I never felt so assuredly before. As a small example I went from being fired from a lowly job and feeling destitute to being hired to a management position with all of the management perks. All of this took place within 48 hours.

The only problem with my new job was that because there was more responsibility, there were also more demands on my time. When the time arrived for the afternoon prayers which I prefer to do in a synagogue with a minyan (a quorum of 10 men), there was not synagogue to be found, nor enough time to travel to where I might find one.

One day, I slipped away from work and turned down a side street in the industrial area of my workplace hoping to find a secluded spot to pray. Lo and behold in the middle of this abandoned area was a synagogue full of congregants that seemed to have been placed there for me like a mirage. The next day, when my supervisor was relying upon me to prepare a brief that was needed immediately I noticed that it was getting dark outside and like the salmon that instinctively returns to the stream, I slipped away to the corner mirage and joined the minyan.

I realized that it was a little risky to disappear at such a time, but I said to myself if a job is so consuming that I cannot afford my fifteen minutes of meditation to the supervisor of all supervisors, then it’s not the right job for me. I felt relieved to do my quick prayer and hurried back to the office. As I entered I passed my supervisor who noticed me entering from outside. I continued to the photocopy room and a few minutes later he approached me.

I could see it coming. He was going to ask me why I took a break at such a time when our overseas client was about to call and I was to brief him on the details. He would be disappointed and reprimand me.

As he approached he looked me in the eye and said. ‘I just want to tell you that I’m really very happy that you are with us and to thank you for doing such an excellent job’.

As he left I looked up at my supervisor in Heaven and smiled, ‘You have such a clever way of demonstrating your love for me.’ I said. He smiled back.

It may be difficult to find work sometimes in Israel, but that’s because the purpose of our lives is not merely to make a livelihood, but to recognize the source of our livelihood. Hidden beneath the surface of a poor economic situation is a proximity to the Divine that flows abundantly and visibly. I wouldn’t exchange this privilege for all of the fatness and delusion the world has to offer.

Greetings
In the exile when you purchase an item the clerk says ‘Have a Nice Day’. In Israel, the clerk might say, ‘What accent is that? Where are you from?’ And after talking for a few minutes will say ‘Shalom Achi’ (Goodbye my brother). Or he might charge you 50 shekles instead of 54 and say ‘Lchvod Shabbat’ (In honor of Shabbat). Here, we have rules but were not clerks. Just like the King who lives in close proximity, the sons of that King also behave like small kings, who can bend the rules and alter things according to their disposition. ‘Have a nice day’ is good, but ‘See you my brother’, it’s a different level of existence.

2004-11-27T08:27:00.000-08:00

Sparks From Israel

Riding the Bus
Imagine giving a motorcycle gang member a bus license and saying, go ahead, have fun. Sometimes riding a bus, especially in the night when there is less traffic is a thrilling experience. Overseas when you get stuck behind a bus you complain because they go slow and stop everywhere. In Israel they swing to the left and right barely missing people, and other buses, stopping only for pit stops as people hurry on and the race continues. One night as the bus zigzagged through traffic at lightning speed the bus drivers friend started to beep the horn ‘yahoooo’. They laughed and I also was amused.

Another night, I was coming home and the bus driver detecting my English accent asked me to help him translate a line from a Beatles song. We enjoyed talking with each other so much that he missed his turn and took the bus on a different route. I told him that this was actually closer to my place, and so he happily dropped me at my corner. We shook hands and parted.

As my brother once said, in Chutz Le Aretz we have ‘I’ ‘It’ relationships. We relate to people more as things and objects. Here it is an ‘I’ ‘Thou” relationship, and we relate to each other regardless of our station in life, as family, brothers and cousins. It’s really such a huge difference.

That’s it for this week. Oh yes, I heard another famous terrorist passed away. I couldn’t really care less, but I went to the Shiva and I brought a deli plate. There will be more of them I’m sure, just like mosquitoes or hornets in the summer, but it won’t stop me from building my corner of the Promised Land. I hear they are also opening a new hotel in Gush Katif. Kol hakavod! Shabbat Shalom

2004-11-20T08:26:00.000-08:00

Sparks From Israel

Shuk HaKarmel
Luckily I wasn’t at my local market the day of the Shuk Hakarmel attack, but the next day as I sat in the shuk I was impressed to see something unusual. As I ordered my boreka’s a famous singer flanked by a camera man pushed a microphone past me to the owner of the shop.

He was making a video clip and going through the market singing ‘Am Yisrael Chai’ and reminding the people that Israel is ours ‘Yisrael Shelanu’ to bolster the spirits of the shop owners who had just been the victims of a terrorist attack. They clapped along and sang. It was quite a sight to see, how a day of darkness was transformed into an indestructible day of light.

More than that, this famous Israeli singer was a Black man from America who had moved to Israel 30 years ago and become the master of Chassidic music with a blues twist. Amazing to see how the sparks of Holiness from all the different Nations of the world have returned to rebuild our ancient homeland.

I still thank G-d every day for bringing me here and giving me a place. I feel very fortunate to be here with my brothers, despite the war. As for those who think Israel is being sold for a bowl of lentils, don’t worry the story isn’t over. This is only another chapter in the unraveling story of the divine plan. Leaders can make all sorts of proclamations, but in the end it is the Big Director who decides. And from what I can understand of the story it has a happy ending.

2004-11-13T08:24:00.000-08:00

Sparks From Israel

The Revolution
It’s embarrassing sometimes to be part of such a Holy Nation and to be led by heroes who are small in their eyes. Leaders reminiscent of Saul who rage at those who have everything that he lacks, and in his rage labels the builders of the Nation of having a ‘Messianic complex’ to cover up his own ‘complex’. It’s obvious that their strength makes his own lack of self-esteem more acute and so ‘the accuser accuses with his own blemish’.

How can we be part of such a great nation of courageous soldiers and everyday heroes, yet we allow ourselves to be bullied by modern day Nazis, their International supporters, and our imprisoned leadership. All of the courage and machismo of our indestructible Nation turns into jelly without one essential ingredient – faith.

When one has faith, one marches through life confident that all adversity is meant to strengthen us and to teach us that there is a force that has created this design and is always with us, as long as we are with Him. Despite the apparent dangers, if we steer our ship with integrity, the rough waters will subside and we will be protected. This is freedom.

On the other hand, one who lacks this faith sees himself as a tiny dot standing alone against giants who wish to destroy him, and lacking integrity, he is willing to sell and barter his heritage and even his family, for the shallow promise of security from the Gestapo’s of the world. This is slavery. With this perception, even the finest soldier can be reduced to the level of a ruthless drug addict.

But what is a revolution if not a popular uprising from among the people? It is we who choose to be led or misled. It is we who pay the price for complacency, just as Job did. It is we who burned in Europe when our spiritual leadership said ‘stay’, or today say ‘soldiers obey your orders’. Don’t blame the shepherds for getting fat from the sheep. Stop being sheep and demand real leaders. Be David’s who saw the brave soldiers being conditioned each day by the taunting of Goliath on the CNN of their day. Slay him and be done with it.

Stop whining about an imaginary Moshiach and bring him by protesting and demanding a leadership that at the very least has the best interest of his people in mind and is not afraid of a world that is always against us anyway. Despite the imaginary pressure and the bear hugs, and the outright threats against us, if we continue to build the Promised Land, and punish the guilty instead of the innocent, we will build peace not only in Israel but in the entire world.

Let’s stop being embarrassed by our leaders who are on their way out with the rest of this desert generation. It’s time for the generation of Yehoshua to take over. It’s time to grow up and stop whining about where was G-d and ask ourselves, where were ‘we’ then and where are ‘we’ now?

2004-10-21T17:35:00.000-07:00

Sparks From Israel

The Times of Moshiach
And it will happen on that day that there will be neither clear light nor heavy darkness. This will go on for a whole day-understood only by Hashem-neither day nor night; but toward evening it will be perceived as light. (Zecharia 14:6)

We are all waiting for Moshiach to come, but in Sfat he has already arrived. When we say we are waiting for the times of the Moshiach, what exactly are we waiting for? The times of Moshicach are supposedly a time when the light of Torah will be revealed and the world will return to its original condition. The delight of such a world one can feel in Sfat where sometimes you walk into an empty shop and must wait for the owner to return in order to buy something. Or a Jew might come dancing out of a Beit Knesset and grab your hands and dance with you as he continues on his way. Certainly we are still in the middle of a war, and the battles that Joshua left unconquered are still being waged by his children. But when one needs a rest from the state of darkness that emanates from the valley of Schem and hovers around the globe, one can slip into the future for a few days and visit the dreamy city of Sfat. Then one can return to the war with purpose and knowledge of a time that awaits us. Every battle and revolution brings us closer to that day that is neither light nor dark, but something we have never known before.

My Kind of Tzaddik
The ‘Tish’ (banquet) of Shmini Arzeret is a time of lots of Lechaim’s (words of Torah accompanied by shots of Vodka). Of course, if Chabad didn’t invent the Lechaim tradition, they certainly perfected it. I was in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City at this festive occasion that marks the culmination of the days of awe. There was a very distinguished speaker at the head table who had written many scholarly books that I remember from my youth. It was exciting to see this great Rabbi and even more exciting when he greeted me in the most unorthodox fashion.

As I sat at the corner of the table trying to discuss some idea with the students across from me among the noise of 60 Jews eating, drinking, and schmoozing I felt the splash of vodka on my head. We stopped talking and turned to the main speaker Rabbi Steinsalz who had just thrown a plastic cup of vodka at the three of us and smiled sweetly like a lovable grandfather. ‘Shudd up over there..Shush..Im trying to speak’.

This was my introduction to Rabbi Steinsalz. As people tried to ‘shush’ the crowd, he continued to discuss the meaning of Shmini Atzeret and explained that it was not a time to learn Torah, but to celebrate with our bride – The Torah. Afterwards I went over to him and asked him, ‘Isn’t that more appropriate for Shavuot, the anniversary of when we received the Torah for the first time, and were not so aware of what was contained in it? Don’t they say now it’s like a second marriage, this time one with more knowledge of who it is we married? He gave my face a gentle slap and answered with his Albert Einstein voice ‘Ve are in love, silly, the commandment now is to be happy and to dance with your bride..He continued to slap me..your in love!’…Ok, I guess I understood.

Now that’s my kind of Tzaddik, a man who can throw vodka at you and then slap you on the face. Sometimes those things are more meaningful than another speech.

A Picture on the Wall
There is nothing like being at the kotel for the climax of the chagim, When you see all of the diverse streams of Judaism mixed together in a soup of souls dancing beneath the angels as the birds fly in circles above it makes you feel like a tiny drop which seen from afar becomes the face of the Almighty.