Why I Choose To Come Home: Part I

Whenever I mention to a non-Jew that I am going to move home to Eretz Yisrael they invariably ask one of two things: "Are you from there?" and, "Isn't it dangerous over there?"

To the first question I answer, "Yes. My family got exiled from Jerusalem by the Romans and ended up in Spain. When we got kicked out of Spain we're pretty sure we ended up in Turkey, and then eventually crossed the Black Sea and settled in Ukraine until we moved to America in the early 20th century." Then they look at you for a minute while they take it in, and then say, "Wow, that's so cool," or something similar.

As to the second question, which is no doubt a question about terrorism, I answer that I have a far better chance of getting hit by an Israeli driver crossing the street than I do being killed by an act of terrorism.

The question they seldom ask, unless they are really curious, is, "Why do I want to move there?" Truth is that I have always known that at some point in my life I was going to make aliyah. I was just a matter of when.

There has never been a point in my life that Israel has not been at the center of my consciousness. My great-grandmother used to sew dolls and clothing for the children of the Halutzim back in the days of the Mandate. She and my grandmother were very involved in raising funds and awareness about both Shaare Zedek and Hadassah Hospital. And, speaking of bad drivers, most Israelis have no idea how close you came to losing Golda Meir when she came to our city back in the 50's on a fundraising tour for Israel bonds. My grandmother was responsible for chauffeuring her around town. No doubt when she returned to Israel Golda told harrowing tales of riding in a car with a short Jewish woman white knuckling it around corners on two wheels while sitting on top of a pile of phone books. I kid...a little. There weren't any phone books. Let's put it this way, when it came to driving, my grandmother, may the Holy One bless and keep her eternal soul, could have taken on anyone in Israel in a bad driving competition.

My mother carried on the tradition; raising money for the hospitals, UJA, Federation, you name it. I stuffed my blue JNF box, which I still have, with change and turned it into trees. When the UN voted in '75 that Zionism was racism, we were out in the streets. I'm pretty sure my mom still has our "Zionism is not racism" buttons.

I think you get the idea.

But the most important reason is obvious, at least it is to me. It's where I'm from. It's my home.

So you're probably wondering how it is I'm still in America at this point.

Don't rush me. I'm getting there.

I Will Make You A Great Nation There כִּי-לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל אֲשִׂימְךָ שָׁם

This past week I read something that I can't recall ever hearing out of the mouth of any Jew; that Israel does not have a religious claim on Jerusalem, only a nationalist claim, as it is the capital of Israel. I found it simultaneously disheartening, and maddening.

Dan Meridor was quoted as saying this in Der Speigel. Now I've read an account of the interview during which the statement was made, in which the "journalist" doing the interview was overtly belligerent, steering the interview in an attempt to make Meridor defend Israel as being racist, fascist, whatever the attack du jour was at the time. But what does it mean when a Jew says there is only a nationalist claim, not a religious one?

Isn't that the point of the Jewish people being in Jerusalem...Ir HaKodesh?

I saw this as an attempt to divorce the State of Israel from the spiritual connection that the People of Israel have with the land, with Jerusalem. I have felt for a long time that this attempted division has essentially been Israel's biggest problem; not the Arabs, not the Jew hating world community, but Israel's inability at the highest level to fully embrace the notion that Eretz Yisrael is the land of the Jewish people. It is not ours to give away, to divide ourselves from. It is ours to make bloom. It is ours because it is the one place over the last 3000 some-0dd years that we have had control of our national destiny...because it is our home. It is our home as it is the physical embodiment of our covenant with the G-d of Israel.

Refusing to say that is why we have successive governments ending up in negotiations with avowed killers of Jews while removing Jews from their lands, uprooting their communities, and destroying the work of their hands...instead of uprooting and destroying our enemies. This is why Olmert didn't lead the country in defeating Hezbollah, or Hamas, and why Israel allows Fatah, the PLO, the PFLP, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs, and the rest of the alphabet soup to continue to operate and exist. They were just allowed to hold their international Plot the Destruction of Israel convention in Beit Lechem, voted that destroying Israel is at the top of the "To Do" list, and yet the Prime Minister is still entertaining negotiations with them. To what end? They will commit a mass act of Tshuva and embrace Israel and the Jewish people?

Then I began to rethink Meridor's statement. He is right, we do have a nationalist claim to Yerushalayim...it is our capital. But our nationalist claim is our religious claim. It was then that I fully understood something. I had always seen the Jewish people of having a duel identity; as a nation, and as a religion. It's really a false division. There really is no Jewish "religion." We are in fact a nation. We live by a set of laws, like any other nation. But Am Yisrael's laws not only serve to guide us in issues of how we are to conduct ourselves, but are designed to establish and maintain our nation's relationship with the G-d of Israel.

We wear tefillin, pray three times a day, keep kosher, celebrate certain festivals, not because the nation of Israel created a religion, but because it is prescribed that our nation do these things. These are things the nation of Israel just does, or is supposed to do anyway. So, when a Jew is asked what religion they are perhaps it is more accurate to say that he or she does not have a religion, but that they are of the nation of Israel. The only problem is that most goyim are not going to have any idea what you're talking about so you're going to have to give them an explanation like I just did.

I have a feeling that if the Jewish state operated more like the Nation of Israel it would be less difficult for goyim to understand, and Israeli politicians wouldn't be so willing to discount or misrepresent the relationship between Israel and Jerusalem, and the Land of Israel.

Shavuah Tov

Loaner Tefillin

My local Chabad rabbi, and dear friend, has leant me a pair of tefillin while I wait to have my parshiyot inspected. If they're still kosher they will get enclosed in new gassot batim, akin to the pair I am using now.

I've never worn gassot before. Let me tell you, it's like I'm wearing tefillin for the first time. Some serious cages are going to be rattled with these things on.

Thank you Rabbi for all your help, and lending these tefillin to me. L'chaim!

When I picked up the tefillin from him we talked a bit about the Haftorah for Shoftim, how incredible it is, like a shockwave that knocks your soul into gear.

In that brief chat I realized something that I hadn't really put into words. I love Torah. It's so laden with treasure, for me mostly undiscovered. But the Naviim...that's where I feel the soul of HaShem unfiltered, unmasked, speaking to us directly through these amazing avatars.

On Shabbat we touched on the question of why there are no prophets now, why is HaShem not speaking to us? In other words, where are the Yeshayahus, the Yechezkels? So I anwered that the problem is not that HaShem is not speaking to us. The issue is our ability to hear what the G-d of Israel is saying to us.

I need to make more time for that.

Where Is Nachshon?

In her latest post at Shiloh Musings, Batya decries the spinelessness of the Israeli government in its failed attempts to secure the release of Gilad Shalit, who is about to celebrate another birthday in captivity this Wednesday.

No one from the Red Cross has seen him in all the time of his captivity, and let's be honest, people make more of an effort to say "G-d bless you" to a sneezing stranger than the Red Cross has made to try and see Shalit. But then, he's just a Jew, right?

She goes on wondering why it is that Israel in turn coddles her enemies in her prisons with internet access, television. Even Barghouti is allowed regular contact with his henchmen via telephone. The world tears clothes and dons sackcloth and ashes for these murderers, while Shalit, who was on the Israeli side of the border, not even engaged in a combat situation when he was kidnapped, doesn't even register on the roster of human rights organizations, nor is his name uttered by the Resident in the White House, or his Secretary of State while she announces the US is transferring $200 million into the pockets of his kidnappers' enablers in the Palestinian Authority.

Successive Israeli Governments have just been embarrassments and failures. It's time to stop and use the strength G-d has given us. Nachshon, where are you?

Batya is right. The Israeli government, regardless of who has led it, has failed to stand up for the Jewish people, our right to our land, our right to be free of violence and genocide, and for the freeing of our soldiers.

But who is Nachshon?

The Sefer HaAggadah tells us that when the Israelites were pinned between the oncoming chariots of Pharoah and Yam Suf, the tribes were bickering among themselves as to who would be the first to enter the water. In the midst of this Nachshon ben Aminadav of the tribe of Yehuda took it upon himself to enter the water. When the water reached his nose the waters receded and the whole of Israel entered.

Is there a more appropriate reference to what Israel requires now? The politicians argue back and forth, the games get played over and over. Meanwhile the international community, led by a racist baffoon in the White House, bears down on the Jewish state, and her enemies on her borders lick their lips, waiting for the opportunity to end Israel once and for all. While Israel once again stands between the chariots and the sea, who among the nation will take the leap of faith required to undo the schemes of our enemies, and help clear a path to achieving the kind of Israel the Jewish people want, and that HaShem desires?

Do we wait for a Nachshon to instigate the parting of the waters, or does that spirit reside in all of us? The Midrash goes on to say that while all this was happening Moshe was praying. G-d asks why he is wasting his time praying when the people are in mortal danger. Moshe replies that he doesn't know what else to do. HaShem tells Moshe to bid the people to enter the water, and to lift his rod. Essentially G-d tells Moshe to lead. There are leaders in Israel with the vision, but in the end it is up to the people to rise up, to leap into the waters, and clear the path, to do what the politicians cannot.

Here in the States, the American people face the same dilemna. The Constitution is assaulted and people wonder who is going to lead them to take it back. Now they are finding they will have to do it themselves. Israel is no different.

One person can make a difference. One person can set events in motion, have the vision, but the will must live in the hearts of the people. The love of Eretz Yisrael, and the love of G-d that dwells in the heart of Israel must emerge, without fear, and make the waters part. In that place Nachshon will be found.

Maybe it's this guy. We'll see. Regardless, the People of Israel are going to have to release the power of their love of the land, and of HaShem, to see the changes that need to be made, to see the liberation of her captive sons, and the liberation of the land.

Tefillah on Har HaBayit

Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, of the Temple Institute, led a group of Jews to the Har HaBayit today to pray at our holiest site. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa naturally attacked the rights of Jews to pray there.

From Arutz Sheva:

[Moussa stated]"For the first time since '67, Jews are holding prayers in Al-Aksa during Ramadan in violation of international law, and we condemn it." He called the prayer "a hard blow to the [Muslim -ed.] holiness of the place, with no connection to it being during the month of Ramadan or another day."

Why is it that when Arabs and Muslims choose to condemn the Jews they always invoke non-existent international law? There is no international law banning Jews from Har HaBayit at Ramadan, or any other time. Muslims would do well to remember that they even have access to their mosques due to the policies of the Israeli government.

When a political or religious body denies the Jews access to their holiest sites for contrived reasons that are purely based in racism toward, and hatred of the Jewish people they themselves demonstrate they are unworthy of having access to the site themselves, the Jewish blood they have on their hands aside.

When Jordan joined the Arab armies in invading Israel in 1948 they divided the city of Jerusalem for the first time in its history, forcibly evicting the entire Jewish population to the western side of the city. Our holy sites were desecrated and Jews were of course forbidden to enter. Now the world stupidly believes the Arab lie that there were never any Jews in Jerusalem, and that there was never a Temple.

When Israel forced the Jordanians out of Judea and Samaria, Jewish lands the Arabs claim as "Palestinian," Jerusalem was reunited and the Temple Mount reclaimed. But even in victory, and in the face of this miraculous event, Israeli leaders decided to kowtow to the Arabs and give the administration of the Temple Mount to the Muslim Waqf.

Now the Arab League invents the new lie of a fictional international law preventing Jewish worship on Har HaBayit.

When will we have leadership in Jerusalem that will remove Waqf control? It is an afront to HaShem that we have given over this place to the Muslims who seek our death. No prayer on Har Habayit? A synagogue should be built there as the first steps to rebuilding the Temple.

While we wait Jews should pray on Har HaBayit. They should go in greater and greater numbers. How can we merit rebuilding the Temple when too many of our people are afraid to go there, when the leadership of Israel will most likely allow Jews to be assaulted for turning out in great numbers to pray there?

The Torah teaches that one must not do what is hateful to oneself to others. The corollary to this must be that one who treats others with hatred, racism, and contempt, should not expect to receive kindness and respect in return. I expect the Muslims to gnash their teeth, spit, and curse when a Jew takes their rightful place on Har HaBayit for tefillah. It is hateful to me that the government of Israel serves as an additional obstacle to Jewish prayer. Let the Waqf be banned from there and let the Muslims petition us for permission to come to a place that is not even mentioned in the Koran.

!הִתְעוֹרְרִי הִתְעוֹרְרִי, קוּמִי יְרוּשָׁלִַים

What Would The World Be?

In The Sabbath, Abraham Joshua Heschel asks:

What would the world be without Sabbath? It would be a world that knew only itself or G-d distorted as a thing or the abyss separating Him from the world; a world without the vision of a window in eternity that opens into time.

So enjoy the view, and Shabbat Shalom!

Shoftim

This Shabbat we will read parshat Shoftim, on the establishing and structure of just courts, and other legal issues. But at the moment I am more interested in the Haftorah, which comes from Sefer Yeshayahu, a reading particularly appropriate for Rosh Chodesh Elul.

הִתְעוֹרְרִי הִתְעוֹרְרִי, קוּמִי יְרוּשָׁלִַים, אֲשֶׁר שָׁתִית מִיַּד יְהוָה, אֶת-כּוֹס חֲמָתוֹ

Awaken yourself! Awaken yourself! Arise O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of HaShem the cup of His fury...

We are three weeks out of Tisha b'Av, the darkest period of mourning and now, as we enter Elul, when we move to purify ourselves, to shake off complacency, and sound the shofar to stir the soul to teshuva, the Navi calls on us to awaken, and though we faced the wrath, it is Hashem that will be our comfort...

כֹּה-אָמַר אֲדֹנַיִךְ יְהוָה, וֵאלֹהַיִךְ יָרִיב עַמּוֹ, הִנֵּה לָקַחְתִּי מִיָּדֵךְ, אֶת-כּוֹס הַתַּרְעֵלָה--אֶת-קֻבַּעַת כּוֹס חֲמָתִי, לֹא-תוֹסִיפִי לִשְׁתּוֹתָהּ עוֹד.

HaShem takes the cup of fury from our hands, and we will never drink of it again. And then, in the final verses of the reading

כִּי-הֹלֵךְ לִפְנֵיכֶם יְהוָה, וּמְאַסִּפְכֶם אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל

HaShem will go before us, the G-d of Israel will be our rear guard.

Not a bad way to walk into Elul, the time when we renew our relationship with HaShem. And something to look forward to...