Friday, March 29, 2024

Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook: Good News about the Expansion of the Yishuv

#205

Date and Place: 17 Sivan 5669, Yafo

Recipient: Mr. Dov Lubman

Body: I want to express to your honor my deepest thanks for the enjoyment and happiness that you showered upon me by sending me the charter of the establishment of the organization, The Agricultural Assembly of the Moshavot of Judea.

I experienced many emotions of happiness, and hopes for a bright future were awoken in my heart, when I saw the serious guidelines that were set. They highlight nicely the plan of the organization and its robust spirit.

I view in what I have seen the “outstretched arm of Hashem” in a favorable manner for His nation and His lot, as I see in all of the steps [of development] of the honorable and holy Yishuv. It is the beginning of the reestablishment of our ruins and the return of a positive spirit for our captives, to return the days of old. My spirit is churning within me with the churnings of a warm and complete love. I want to hug with the arms of true friendship all of those who are gathering together with good counsel and bravery, to expand the boundaries of Israel and to elevate the stature of our Desired Land, along the lines of all the new elements of life that have begun to be revealed.

I wish that your dear organization will accept happily my feelings of blessing and prayers for your success. May your endeavors give very blessed fruit, for the benefit of our nation and our Land, for now and for generations to come.

“When the Wine Goes In, the Fragrance Comes Out”

by HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

[Although we rejoiced in the simcha of Purim several days ago, we chose to present this article here for its interesting insights into the commandment to drink on Purim]

"A person is obligated to drink [Hebrew: lehitbasem] on Purim until he cannot tell the difference between 'Cursed be Haman' and 'Blessed be Mordechai'" (Megillah 7b; Orach Chaim 695:2). Seemingly we can ask: How can our sages require us to drink? Surely drunkenness causes great sin. Yet it is because the miracles performed for the Jewish People on Purim occurred by way of drinking parties. Vashti was removed from the throne by way of a drinking party, bringing in Esther. Likewise, Haman's downfall came about through a drinking party. Our sages therefore required us to drink enough that we should remember the great miracle by way of wine.

All the same, on Purim we are not commanded to get drunk, and subsequently, to allow our reveling to diminish our dignity to the point of rakish foolishness. Rather, we are commanded to drink only enough to achieve a pleasurable feeling of love for G-d and thankfulness for the miracles He performed for us. If, however, someone knows about himself that drinking will make him treat one of the mitzvoth lightly, such as ritual hand-washing or the blessing after the meal, or that it will make him skip mincha or ma'ariv, or behave frivolously, then better he should abstain. Let all one's deeds be for the sake of heaven. (Orach Chaim 695:2, Biur Halachah).

Seemingly we can ask, "Why do our sages use the Hebrew expression "lehitbasem" [literally to have a fragrance] for "to drink", rather than "lehishtaker", the normal expression for "to get drunk"? It is because, as our sages said, "When wine goes in, secrets come out." And what are the "secrets" that come out of a Jew who drinks wine on Purim? Only good words leave his lips, and, as our sages said, "'Good' can only mean Torah," or, "'Good' can only mean a righteous person."

The opposite occurred at the drinking feast of Achashverosh. There, the king's honorees, gathered together from amongst all the nations, sat and drank a king's share of wine, and their true faces were revealed, all lasciviousness and corruption, the opposite of the pleasant fragrance exuded by the Jewish People even when they drink wine.

Some forty-two years ago, on the 14th of Adar, the first day of Purim, our master Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook was taken to the celestial sphere. All his life he engaged in disseminating the Torah lights of his father. Those lights have spread a good and pleasant fragrance to the entire House of Israel and to the entire world. Rav Tzvi Yehuda was privileged to be the great educator who actualized the potential of his father's blessed light and raised-up numerous disciples who follow in his light.

Rav Tzvi Yehuda would customarily explain our sages' words, "The sanctification of G-d's name is greater than the Profanation of G-d's name [me'chullul Hashem] as meaning, "The greatest sanctification of G-d's name is one that emerges from the profanation of G-d's name." When a believing person merits to ascend in Torah greatness, and in the fear and love of G-d, he merits to see with his spiritual sight how truly everything is for the best. Then, even what seems at the time like the profanation of G-d's name, darkness and evil, turns out to be part of G-d's kingdom.

And perhaps that is the spiritual level that the person drinking wine on Purim must reach, such that "he cannot distinguish between 'Cursed be Haman' and 'Blessed be Mordechai'." Both stand beneath the watchful gaze of G-d, and "everything G-d does He does for the good."

The entire House of Israel caught a glimpse of this when they saw the reaction of the rabbis of Yeshivat Mercaz Harav and its yeshiva high school, as well as the bereaving families of the pristine children murdered by Arabs seeking to steal our land (6 March 2008 || ל׳ באדר א׳ תשס״ח). All of them reacted out of faith and valor, out of an all-encompassing vision of the intricate and complex reality faced by our nation and our country at this hour (for example, see last week's newsletter for Parshat Vayikra). How fortunate we are to have been privileged to learn and to teach Rav Kook's lights. We hope that those lights will illuminate the entire House of Israel, and that Israel will bask in their pleasant fragrance. And may we be the living fulfillment of Shir HaShirim 8:14: " Make haste, my beloved! Be like a gazelle or a young hart upon the mountains of spices."

Besorot Tovot,
Looking forward to complete salvation,
With the Love of Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael,

Shabbat Shalom.

The Yishai Fleisher Israel Podcast: THE ETERNAL FLAME

SEASON 2024 EPISODE 13: Yishai Fleisher is at top of Hebron and prays for strength in this challenging period. Rabbi Shmuely Boteach joins Yishai to discuss his appearance on Piers Morgan's show and to understand Senator Chuck Schumer's and President Biden's motivations. Then, Yishai comments on CNN's interview with Minister Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu. Finally, Ben Bresky on the history of Shaarei Tzedek Hospital, and Table Torah about the Eternal Flame.

Yeshivat Machon Meir: The Purpose of the Todah Offering (video)

The Kohen Gadol and the Metzora

by Rav Binny Freeman

I noticed the jeep in the distance almost immediately; it was impossible to miss, raising a dust column you could see for miles. We were on maneuvers deep in the Negev desert, and there wasn’t anything else around but us, so we knew immediately the jeep had to be headed our way. Sure enough, twenty minutes later the jeep pulled up alongside our tank and a man with colonel’s oak-leaves on his shoulders got out and stretched. Our commander jumped down for a hurried conference, and we were only too happy for the brief respite; I was in the middle of tank commander’s course, one of the most depressing experiences I have ever had, and any break from the grind was always welcome.

A moment later our commander ordered the gunner off the tank and told us that this colonel was going to be joining us in the tank and that we did not need to know why or what it was about, but that for the purposes of our training and maneuvers, we should “just treat him like one of the guys”. Yeah, right; a full bird colonel, one of the guys? I don’t think so. You have to understand we were not even sergeants yet, so our commander, the first sergeant overseeing our training, was the final word, and his commander, a lieutenant, was to us like the prince whose word is law. And his commander, who was the company commander with the rank of captain, was like the King. And his commander, the battalion commander, with the rank of major, was like G-d. So what did that make a full colonel whose rank was equivalent to ‘G-d’s commander’s commander (or the equivalent of a full brigade commander), G-d’s mother?

We did our best to stay out of this colonel’s way, though when you are sharing a tank that is not very easy. He was not a big talker, and didn’t mix much with us enlisted men, which was fine with us. Needless to say, at the end of the day’s maneuvers, he didn’t sleep in the tank with us, which at least meant we had a little more room than normal. We ended up sharing our tank with him for the better part of three weeks, though, so I did become fairly adept at learning how to sidestep any issues that might have been challenging with such a high-ranking officer on board. One day, however, it all finally came to a head.

We were on a maneuver, and I was acting as tank commander. There are four crewmembers in a tank, a driver, gunner, loader, and commander, and to become a tank commander, we had to become accomplished in each position, so we would switch off, in order to become familiar with all the different tasks of a tank crew. Every maneuver had to be repeated four times, so that each of us could train as commanders, and this was my turn.

One of the rules which is taken very seriously in tanks, is what is called “gevulot gizrah’”, or the limited field of the firing range. You could only fire in a certain direction, and there were always markers to denote where the field of fire actually was. Not only was it forbidden to actually fire outside the permitted field of fire, it was even prohibited to allow your tank gun to stray out of this field once there was a shell in the breach for fear of accidental misfire.

This is an issue the army takes very seriously, given the fact that a shell fired in the wrong direction could easily land in a local town or village, so the punishment for even allowing the tank gun to stray outside the field of fire was the loss of the entire crew’s weekend pass.

Now this becomes a challenging affair because generally speaking, your job as a commander is to seek out the ‘enemy’ and bring the main 105mm cannon to bear on the target, at which point the gunner takes over to line up his sights and fire. And while you can see the entire horizon from atop the commander’s turret, the gunner looking through his magnified sights from inside the tank, can only see the limited field of vision that appears in his scope. So, if you haven’t managed to place the gun exactly on target, he will begin to sweep the main gun sideways in search of the target. And if he is moving the gun in the wrong direction, he may continue searching, not realizing that the gun is turning the wrong way. In fact, when he uses his controls to turn the gun sideways, the entire turret of the gun turns with him such that he is not aware that he is turning completely around, and along with him not only the main gun, but all the machine guns as well.

So on this particular day I was acting as tank commander, and this colonel was practicing his gunnery. And sure enough, he began to rotate the tank gun in search of target acquisition, and I could see the gun was heading outside the field of fire. Years later, especially once you are an officer commanding many tanks, the prospect of commanding one tank crew is a relatively simple thing. But when you are first learning to command a tank, it seems as though there is a tremendous amount to do. Remember that the tank is moving very fast, and you have to make sure the driver is headed in the right direction (the prospect of 52 tons of tank rolling off the side of a hill because you didn’t pay attention to where the driver, who can only see minimally through his scope, was going, is a frightening thought….), not to mention keeping the loader’s machine gun as well as your own facing in the right direction, ensuring the proper ammo is in the main gun, speaking on the tank radio with your platoon or company commander, making sure you are not falling behind or getting too far ahead of the other tanks, etc.. In fact, the way things work, you don’t even have a hand free to take the controls over from the gunner, because one hand is holding the radio switch, and the other is firing your machine gun. So the armored corps has developed a simple system to let the gunner know he has to release the gun controls and stop rotating: as his seat is forward of your legs, deep in the belly of the tank, you simply kick him in the helmet! And he gets the message.

But what do you do when the gunner is a full bird colonel? I screamed into the radio intercom, but to no avail; with all the noise of heavy machine gun fire and the tank engine, he just couldn’t hear me.

Finally, in desperation, I decided I wasn’t giving up my weekend pass for anyone, so I kicked him in the back of his helmet, and sure enough he immediately figured it out: I heard a grunt that sounded something like “ugh!” over the tank intercom, and he released the controls.

Later, when we all got out of the tank, I discovered he had a huge welt in the middle of his forehead; seems I kicked him so hard his head slammed into the gunner’s console…!

I was terrified that somehow I would pay a price for this over-reaction, but never heard another word about it.

And it was only months later that I discovered whom this fellow really was: his name is Shaul Mofaz, and I next ran into him as the base commander when I showed up for officer’s course…! He also happened to have been Yoni Netanyahu’s second in command on the famous Entebbe mission, where Israeli commandoes flew thousands of miles deep into the heart of Africa to rescue Jewish hostages from terrorist hijackers in Uganda, and he would eventually become the Israeli defense Minister.

During the course of the few months (in officer’s course) I served under his command that single moment remains with me as a model of what leadership can be. Here was a full colonel, basically kicked in the head by a private, who offered forth no more than a grunt. Not a curse, no formal reprimand or stockade time, not even so much as a dressing down. In that moment we were just two soldiers doing their job…

This week, we read the portion of Tsav, which includes the anointing of Aharon and his sons as Kohanim for the first time. To anoint them Hashem tells Moshe to:

“… take the blood from the slaughtered animal and place some of it in the middle part of Aharon’s right ear, upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the big toe of his right foot” (Vayikra 8:23).

Some take this to mean that a leader has to learn how to listen, know what to do, and be able to choose a clear direction (path on which to walk…).

Interestingly, this very same procedure is applied to the purification of the Metzorah, the leper who according to tradition is being punished with a spiritual malady due to his transgressions including slander and evil speech.

How can the same process anointing Aharon the Kohein Gadol, a person supposedly on the highest level, be applied in exactly the same fashion, to the metzora who was obviously on a much lower spiritual level? Can it be that two people with two extremely different levels of holiness undergo the same procedure?

There is an interesting discussion in the Gemara of Berachot which may shed light on this anomaly.

Chazal (Berachot 2b) are discussing the exact point at which day becomes night. Clearly until the sun has set it is still day, and once the stars have come out it is night, the question is what the status of twilight is.

Rebbi Yossi is of the opinion that “Bein hashmashot ke’heref ayin”. The transition from day to night is the blink of an eye; it’s a split second; there is no middle ground; it is either day, or it is night.

And R Avraham Yitzchak HaKohein Kook in his Ein Ayah commentary explains what Rebbi Yossi is suggesting:

Imagine a person is trying to lose weight. The first thing he does is to weigh himself and imagine he discovers that he is 300 lbs., and realizes he needs to lose 100 lbs.!

So he decides he will start eating healthier and exercising. After three days of daily walks and lots of fruit and vegetables, he weighs himself and discovers he has lost a pound. To everyone else, suggests Rav Kook, nothing has changed yet; no-one can tell the difference between a 300 lb. fellow and one who weighs 299 lbs.

But he knows the entire world has changed, because has turned things around, and is heading in a completely different direction.

Obviously, the Kohein Gadol and the Metzorah are in two completely different spaces, but they share in common the fact that both are trying to grow, to elevate themselves spiritually, and in that moment they are viewed equally.

Perhaps the Torah is teaching us that when two people are trying to grow, Hashem does not see them as totally different. Just like that moment in the tank: such a high-ranking officer being kicked in the head by a simple private, might have been expected to curse, or at least glare at a simple soldier. But I concluded in that moment that he was making sure we knew we were both just soldiers doing our job.

It was a valuable lesson on what a Kohein, a leader, is really meant to be…

Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Feminist Silence: Hamas's Sexual Violence

by Nils A. Haug
  • In November 2023, it was reported that the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, Reem Alsalem, notwithstanding overwhelming evidence to the contrary, claimed the evidence against Hamas "was 'not solid' enough to warrant a statement" -- to which London's Victims' Commissioner, Claire Waxman, replied: "How can we talk about eliminating violence against women and girls if we are tacitly saying its acceptable to rape Jewish ones?"
  • Alsalem, from Jordan, claims the charges against Israeli forces are "reasonably credible," but refuses to divulge the source. In reality, no credible or proven instance of this behaviour by Israel's forces in Gaza since October 7 has been publicly recorded.
  • "Organizations that fight for LGBT rights condemned the country that allows freedom, and marched for a terrorist organization that punishes gay people with death." — Jared Kushner, townhall.com, March 7, 2024.
  • "Above all, we must at all times remember what intellectuals habitually forget: that people matter more than concepts and must come first. The worst of all despotisms is the heartless tyranny of ideas." — Paul Johnson, historian, thepublicdiscourse.com, January 23, 2023.
  • Early women's liberation movements, forerunners to present feminist activism, were founded to proclaim women's rights to social equality. Radical feminism, as a narrow expression of the original movement, fails spectacularly in exemplifying society's moral and ethical precepts. Its advocates appear to prioritize narcissistic, egocentric identity ideologies over the sanctity, dignity, and ontological security of the individual woman.
  • "We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." — Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, December 10, 1986.


For all advocates for women's welfare, especially in the area of sexual violence, the crucial concern at this time should be the terror perpetrated on defenceless females of all ages through acts of sexual depravity, torture, and death by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Pictured: A demonstration outside of United Nations headquarters in New York City on December 4, 2023, labeled "#MeToo unless you are a Jew," protesting the UN's silence about sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas terrorists against Israeli women and girls. (Photo by Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

In November 2023, the UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy penned a poem, "We See You," celebrating the triumph of female soccer players. Success of women in traditional men's sports is certainly something to celebrate. Even so, a Poet Laureate's task is surely also to reflect deep contemporary issues affecting the nation. Duffy, a devoted feminist, gender activist, and supporter of the oppressed, has yet to address the most seminal issue of the moment for women's welfare: the horrific and systemic gender-based violence suffered by innocent Israeli girls and women, many raped to death, abused, tortured, massacred, with their sexual organs carved from their bodies by Hamas murderers on October 7, 2023. Perhaps she still might comment or pen an emotive poem, perhaps not.

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Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Biden Administration's Terrorist Pier in Gaza: The Trojan Horse For Terrorists to Take Over the Region

by Bassam Tawil
  • Placing Qatar -- rather than, say, the United Arab Emirates -- in charge of the Gaza pier entrenches a terrorist-sponsoring Trojan Horse at Hamas's beck and call. Qatar will use the pier to supply Hamas with more money and more powerful weapons. The port will also undoubtedly be used to smuggle Islamist jihadis from all around the world into the Gaza Strip to launch more massacres against Israelis.
  • Qatar has a long history of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist offshoots, but also Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah and the Al Nusra Front.
  • If Qatar really wants an end to the Israel-Hamas war, all it has to do is order its Hamas puppets immediately and unconditionally to release all the Israelis kidnapped by Hamas terrorists October 7 and held hostage in the Gaza Strip. Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal, who are based in Doha, would not be able to refuse. Qatar is their lifeline.
  • The Qataris, however, are evidently in no rush to pressure Hamas: Qatar is clearly facing no pressure from the Biden administration. On the contrary, the Biden administration just agreed to extended Qatar's ability to host America's Al-Udeid Air Base, the headquarters of CENTCOM, for another ten years – for nothing in return.
  • "Congress must weigh in and cancel the 10-year extension of the military base in Qatar... The U.S. should seize assets tied to individuals and entities in Qatar for supporting terrorist groups, especially those tied to Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism.... It's time to put Doha on notice that they are jeopardizing their relationship with the U.S. by providing material support to designated terrorist groups. Qatar is clearly acting like a state sponsor of terror and should not be allowed to use the U.S. banking system to bypass existing, though not enforced, sanctions on funding Iran and its terrorist proxies." — Former US intelligence officer Michael Pregent, The Hill, January 22, 2024.
  • The US should definitely start withdrawing from Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
  • Thanks to the Biden administration -- which is also pressuring Israel not to eliminate the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah -- Qatar and its Hamas pawns are having the last laugh. In light of the Biden administration's decision to turn itself into an ally of terrorists and their supporters, such as Hamas and Qatar – instead of strengthening US relations with Israel and its allies in the Gulf who are fighting terrorism -- it is a very long last laugh, indeed.

Placing Qatar -- rather than, say, the United Arab Emirates -- in charge of the Gaza pier entrenches a terrorist-sponsoring Trojan Horse at Hamas's beck and call. Qatar will use the pier to supply Hamas with more money and more powerful weapons. The port will also undoubtedly be used to smuggle Islamist jihadis from all around the world into the Gaza Strip to launch more massacres against Israelis. Pictured: Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal meets with Qatar's then Crown Prince (today's Emir) Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani at the Royal Palace in Amman, Jordan on January 29, 2012. (Photo by Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images)

At the request of the Biden administration, Qatar has agreed to take charge of operating and financing a temporary pier in the Gaza Strip. Qatar agreed to run the port on condition that the construction work go to a company controlled and sponsored by Hamas, according to Israel's Channel 14.

The Biden administration's decision to involve Qatar, Hamas's major funder and ally, in the project is akin to putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop. This is a big, deliberate finger from the Biden administration not just in the in the eye of Israel but also in the eyes of America's allies in the Gulf who do not support terrorists, as well as for US national security.

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Israel losing land, sovereignty, identity to illegal Palestinian construction


JUDEA — In land supposedly set aside by Oslo Accord agreement, by Israel and Palestinian Authority agreement, by international consensus, as a “No Construction” zone and that at one time was part of the Area C classification of property in Israel — meaning, controlled by the Jewish people, not Palestinians — stands a host of houses both finished and unfinished; a newly paved set of roads and a freshly laid brick block rotary, alongside which run water lines; and signposts with telephone numbers to call for those interested in building and locating to the area. What’s happening here?

The Judean Desert Nature Reserve is becoming a go-to home — illegally, according to international law — for Palestinians.

The Palestinian Authority, fueled by money from the United Nations, the European Union and yes, even America, has taken on the task of expanding Arabs’ footprint into Israeli lands by building homes on property that is supposed to be left au naturel. It’s a quiet way for Palestinians to stretch their presence into Israel — to settle and seize Israel’s lands — to ultimately squeeze Israel’s sovereignty. And all without firing a shot.

In 2023, Israel National News wrote: “Palestinian Authority constructing new illegal city which threatens Gush Etzion … in area marked as a nature reserve by treaty.”

That was then. It’s grown worse now. It’s grown worse since the Oct. 7 terror attacks against Israel.

Call it the story that media outside Israel rarely cover.

In a ride through the land with Regavim International Director Naomi Kahn as a host — Regavim being an organization dedicated to preserving the culture, history, land and sovereignty of Israel — the view is clear: The PA-pushed construction is not just continuing; it’s ratcheting. And sometimes, rather craftily.

According to Kahn, the curious bales of materials located at spots along the land are actually home-building supplies placed purposely by the Palestinian Authority, alongside P.A.-established water sources, to entice Bedouins who feed their flocks on the sprawling acreage to stay, to set up camp, to abandon their normal nomadic ways and to build more permanent homes.

Those homes become the public relations platform by which the Palestinian Authority can then call for international aid to make sure these people — these Bedouins and their children — are properly provided for; voila, make way for the water lines, the sewage, the roads, the infrastructure. Make way for the schools. Make way for the construction of whole Arab communities

Make way for more Palestinian chips into Israel’s land.

“These roads weren’t paved by Bedouins on donkeys with a spoon,” Kahn said, pointing to the freshly paved areas of the reserve.

No. They weren’t. But the fact that Israel’s own government is standing idly by as the forces who have hatred for the Jewish people go forth and build — go forth and multiply — on property that’s a) supposed to be kept as natural land and b) that’s under Israel control, is not only a source of frustration and fight for Kahn and her Regavim organization. It’s also a dangerous situation for all of Israel.

“That’s a good question,” Kahn said, when asked why Israel’s own government allows the construction without a fight.



“International pressure,” she added, in reference to the hostile atmosphere Israel faces from the United Nations, the European Union, from other governments — and she didn’t say, but the Biden administration certainly fits into this chamber of anti-Israel sentiment. Team Biden’s latest move was to abstain from voting for a U.N. resolution that called for an immediate Israeli military cease-fire against Hamas, ostensibly in exchange for the terror group’s release of hostages. Israelis largely see this no-vote as a go-ahead for Hamas. So, too, others around the world.

“The US just stood up to Israel at the United Nations,” The Guardian crowed in one headline, in the hours after the vote.

When America fails to stand strong as Israel’s ally, Israel’s enemies take notice — and act.

The building on the supposed “no-building-allowed” land of Judea is a perfect example of how Israel’s enemies are experts at exploiting political realities.

Fact is, it’s hard to see a way for Israel to reclaim the nature reserve property where homes now stand — where bulldozers now raze to build more homes — where roads and water lines and infrastructure are being built. It’s difficult to see how even changing political heads might clear the land of homes and return the property to its agreed-upon blank-slate state. It’s tough to see how Israel might turn back the clocks of development and infrastructure placement and community-building and recapture the Jewish ancestry and history and claim of ownership to the land.

And that’s exactly what Israel’s enemies want.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.

Rabbi Ari Kahn on Parashat Tzav: Holy Vessels (video)

Rav Kook's Ein Ayah: Why to Learn Torah

(condensed from Ein Ayah, Berachot 6:37)

Gemara: We read the pasuk with the double language of “shamoah tishma” (Shemot 15:26) as follows: If you listen to the old, you will listen to the new, and if your heart turns away, you will subsequently not listen.

Ein Ayah: It is possible to have a love of Torah knowledge in two ways. One is based on valuing the Torah and the shleimut (completeness) it brings. The second is that some people naturally love knowledge, in general.

There is a special condition regarding Torah that one must have a special love for it based on its holy value. That is why we expect one to love even the ideas he already heard and treat them as if they were new. Only if he accomplishes that will Hashem bless him with the gift of fully understanding new information as one who learns Torah with noble intentions. This is the gemara’s intention: by hearing the old, out of love of Torah, he will hear the new.

In contrast if one turns away from Torah that is not new, he lacks true love and has only coarse love of knowledge in general, and he will not understand. This is because the Torah will not shine its countenance on him, and he will not be able to properly accept it. Ultimately, he will not even enjoy learning Torah intellectually, for “Hashem wants those who fear Him” (Tehillim 147:11).

Rai'ach Nichoach - A Pleasing Fragrance

by HaRav Mordechai Greenberg
Nasi HaYeshiva, Kerem B'Yavneh


Despite the fact that the true meaning of sacrifices transcends our understanding, the Rishonim attempted to bring the matter within our grasp. The Rambam (Moreh Nevuchim 3:46) writes that since the Egyptians worshipped the constellation Aries (a lamb) they prohibited the slaughter of animals, as Yosef said, "All shepherds are abhorrent to the Egyptians." (Bereisheet 46:34) Hence, the Torah obligated us to slaughter animals and to offer them as sacrifices, in order to transform what the Egyptians considered the peak of disobedience into a manner of service to G-d.

The Ramban, however, sharply criticizes the Rambam, and accuses him of explaining the commandments as if they were intended just to discredit wicked and foolish idol-worshippers. The Torah, however, refers to the daily sacrifice as, "a pleasing fragrance to G-d" (Vayikra 6:14), which implies that sacrifices have an inherent value, and are not merely a protest against the erroneous beliefs of the nations. He therefore explains that the concept of a sacrifice is that a person who sins with his body and spirit, should imagine that all that is done to sacrifice deserves to be done to him, body in lieu of body and spirit in lieu of spirit.

The Ritva defends the Rambam, and writes that the Ramban ignored the Rambam's own words (Moreh 3:32) that sacrifices were not intended merely to discredit the belief of the Egyptians, but rather to wean Israel from idolatry and to guide them towards the service of G-d. A person has a natural longing for closeness to G-d, which was commonly expressed in those times through sacrificial offerings in a Temple building by a priestly clan. If Israel were to be told to abolish these practices completely, it would be like telling someone in our times, "Do not pray, and worship G-d through meditation alone!" Such a command would negate the nature of man, who cannot change his accustomed practice abruptly. Therefore G-d left them to follow this manner of worship, but directed only toward Him, as it says, "Let [Israel] bring their [sacrifices] before the L-rd ... to the entrance of the Ohel Moed ... and they will no longer offer their sacrifices to the demons that they stray after." (Vayikra 17:5-7)

These explanations offered by the Rambam and Ramban, however, are not intended to be the exclusive reasons. The Ramban explicitly concludes by saying that although this is an attractive, aggadic, explanation, there is a "sod" (hidden meaning) regarding sacrifices in the kabbalistic teachings. Likewise, it is possible that Rambam offered his reason only as a plausible rationale to the perplexed, as his habit in the entire work of Moreh Nevuchim. However, even he concurs with the Ramban that the matter of sacrifices is rooted in the hidden realm. In his halachic work, at the end of Hil. Me`ila (8:8), he writes:
A person should delve into the laws of the holy Torah, and to understand them to best of his ability. Nevertheless, he should not belittle something for which he cannot find an explanation and does not know a purpose ... Regarding "chukim" (statutes), which are commandments whose reason is not known, the Sages commented, "I established statutes for you, and you have no right to question them." The entire matter of sacrifices is included in the category of "chukim," yet the Sages said that the world endures on behalf of them.

It is possible that the "sod" that the Ramban mentions, and the "chok" that the Rambam speaks of, are both rooted in that "sod" that the Rambam hints to in Parshat Tetzaveh. On the verse, "I took [Israel] out of the land of Egypt to dwell amongst them" (Shemot 29:46), the Ramban comments that there is a great "sod" in this. The goal of the exodus from Egypt, to have G-d dwell in Israel, is not for their benefit alone, but also for the purpose of the Divine. Namely, G-d linked the entire creation and its continuation with the sacrificial worship of Israel. Thus, Midrash Tanchuma (Tetzaveh:2) states that although G-d sustains the entire world, he commands his children, "Be careful to offer Me My sacrificial food ... in its proper time." (Bamidbar 28:2) This is perhaps also the Rambam's intention in his conclusion to Hil. Me`ila, "The Sages said that the world endures on behalf of sacrifices."

Some explain in this same vein Rashi's comment on the verse, "a pleasing fragrance" - satisfaction before Me, that I SAID and My WILL was fulfilled. (Shemot 29:18) The world was initially created with ten statements, and after having created the world through speech, G-d's will continues to be fulfilled by Israel through their worship. Perhaps this dispute between the Rambam and the Ramban is connected to the dispute between the Sforno and the Ramban regarding the Mishkan. The Sforno views the Mishkan as a remedy for the sin of the golden calf, whereas the Ramban considers it the culmination and peak of the redemption! The Ramban therefore views the issue of sacrifices as something independent and ideal, with no connection to idolatry. The Rambam, however, may share the opinion of the Sforno that the entire notion of sacrifices comes as a response to the sin of the golden calf, and he therefore links it to the sin of idolatry.

The US abstention at the UN Security Council – acumen

by Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

*The March 25, 2024 UN Security Council resolution 2728 came in the aftermath of the murder – by Hamas - of 1,300 Israelis on October 7, which is equal to 40,000 Americans murdered on a single day!

*A US abstention facilitated the passage of resolution 2728, which aims to snatch Hamas Palestinian terrorists from the jaws of obliteration, while establishing a Palestinian state. Therefore, it was enthusiastically welcome by Iran’s Ayatollahs, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

*The US abstention reflects the dominance of the cosmopolitan worldview of the State Department in the shaping of US foreign policy and national security policy, subordinating unilateral US national security action to multilateral cooperation with the inherently anti-US UN and the vacillating and terrorist-appeasing Europe.

*The State Department worldview ignores Hamas’ role as the core cause of the current war, an inspiration for Iran, al-Qaeda and ISIS-supported Islamic terrorists, who are planning Hamas-like terror assaults against all Arab regimes, the West, and especially the US, increasingly from Central America.

*The military and political survival of Hamas – compliment of resolution 2728 - would be, rightly, interpreted in the Middle East as a major victory for Islamic terrorism, and a severe blow to Israel’s posture of deterrence, which would yield an Iran-led terrorist tsunami against Israel and all pro-US Arab countries (e.g., a repeat of the October 7 horrific terrorism, Hezbollah, Intifada’ # 3 in Judea and Samaria which could reach Tel Aviv, radical Israeli Arabs, and a domestic upheaval in Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco). Moreover, an erosion of Israel’s posture of deterrence would injure the peace process with Saudi Arabia, which has been induced by Israel’s viable posture of deterrence in the face of the mutual threats of Iran and the Moslem Brotherhood.

*According to Blinken, a key component of Security Council resolution 2728 – in addition to “a ceasefire, hostage release and increased humanitarian aid” - is the establishment of “a clear pathway toward a Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel... long-term peace and security....”

*However, Blinken’s scenario of a peacefully-coexisting Palestinian state is based on moderate Palestinian diplomatic and media talk and speculative future Palestinian behavior. But, Middle East reality documents a rogue Palestinian walk (especially vs. Arab countries), which stipulates that the proposed Palestinian state would add fuel, not water, to the Middle East fire. It would undermine the interests of the US and all its Arab allies, while advancing the interests of all US’ rivals and enemies.

*Contrary to Blinken’s eagerness to establish a Palestinian state, all pro-US Arab countries’ walk reflects their view of the Palestinians as a role model of intra-Arab subversion, terrorism and treachery.

*Blinken’s addiction to the proposed Palestinian state as a venue to peaceful coexistence overlooks the volcanic ramifications of a Palestinian state contiguous to Jordan’s explosive domestic scene: a stormy relations – including a civil war - between the pro-US Hashemite regime and the Palestinian majority; a deeply entrenched Moslem Brotherhood; 2 million Syrian refugees in northern Jordan; intensified Iranian subversion through Iraq and Syria; and deeply fragmented Bedouin community. Thus, a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River would doom the pro-US Hashemite regime east of the River, transforming Jordan into an arena of rival terrorist organizations, posing a lethal threat to all pro-US oil-producing Arab regimes in the Arabian Peninsula, jeopardizing the exportation of Persian Gulf oil and global trade, rendering a bonanza to Iran’s Ayatollahs, the Moslem Brotherhood, Russia, China and North Korea, and dealing a blow to the US economy, national and homeland security.

*Secretary Blinken, who is a role model of the State Department worldview, assumes that terrorism should be confronted diplomatically, not militarily, since it is supposedly driven by despair and not by a fanatic ideology. Notwithstanding the 1,400-year-old violently unpredictable, shifty and anti “infidel” Middle East reality (which has yet to experience intra-Moslem peaceful coexistence, and irrespective of the rogue, anti-US track record of the Ayatollahs’ and Palestinian terrorism, Blinken is convinced that dramatic diplomatic and financial gestures (“money talks”) could induce terror regimes to abandon their ideology, accept peaceful-coexistence and good-faith negotiation.

*Secretary Blinken attempts – once again – to appease rogue Middle Eastern entities, by ignoring Middle East precedents, which have documented that terrorists bite the hand that feeds them, as demonstrated by Iran’s Ayatollahs, Afghanistan’s Mujahideen, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Libya’s Islamic terrorists, Palestinian terrorism, etc.

*In defiance of Middle East reality and the Moslem Brotherhood charter and track record since 1928, the State Department refuses to recognize its terroristic nature. Thus, Hamas is a branch of the Moslem Brotherhood, whose vision is to topple all national Moslem regimes, establish a universal Islamic society, with Islam as the only divinely-ordained legitimate religion, and to bring the “infidel” West to submission. Hamas is also a proxy of Iran’s Ayatollahs, whose 1,400-year-old vision mandates the destruction of “the Great American Satan.” Also, the Moslem Brotherhood and Iran’s Ayatollahs have their machetes at the throat of every pro-US Arab regime.

The bottom line
*Will the State Department’s conventional wisdom keep ignoring – or recognize - the march of facts, which has exposed the costly detachment of Foggy Bottom from Middle East reality?

*Will the State Department persists in preferring the multilateral cooperation with the UN and Europe over an independent, unilateral US national security action?

*“Those who experience wake up calls usually discover, in hindsight, that they had received plenty of warning before the poop hit the propeller, but they chose to disregard it…. Whether a wake-up call becomes a boon, or a bane, depends on what you’re willing to learn from it, and whether you’re willing to be moved by experience.” (Greg Levoy, a psychologist and an author).

How can eternal Mitzvos ever not exist?

by Rabbi Pinchas Winston

Friday Night
THIS SHABBOS IS also Parashas Parah. As we learn in Parashas Naso, a person who has become defiled by contact with the dead (no, not through a séance) is ineligible to eat from the Korban Pesach. By being sprinkled with the water of the Parah Adumah (Red Heifer) was the process a person underwent to become ritually pure again. Hence, we recall that halachah in advance of Pesach.

The Parah Adumah is the quintessential chok—statute. This means there is something about the mitzvah that defies human logic, but apparently not why a red heifer is the animal of choice, as Rashi explains:

A red cow: This can be compared to the son of a maidservant who dirtied the king’s palace. They said, “Let his mother come and clean up the mess.” Similarly, let the cow come and atone for the calf. (Rashi, Bamidbar 19:22)

Thus, the red heifer is the Divine response to the golden calf. Had they not built and worshipped the calf, the Jewish people would have remained immortal. The calf caused death and the impurity that results, so its “mother” has to clean up the “mess.”

It’s a nice explanation. It’s also problematic. It sounds as if the mitzvah of Parah Adumah would not have existed had the Jewish people not sinned with the golden calf. But that is not the case since every mitzvah is eternal by definition, which means there always had to be such a mitzvah. How does this work with Rashi’s explanation?

The Leshem, when talking about the eternity of mitzvos, deals with a similar question. According to the Gemora, mitzvos will be battel—nullified—in Yemos HaMoshiach, the Messianic Era (Shabbos 151b). But how can eternal mitzvos ever not exist?

What the Gemora means, the Leshem explains, is not that the act of a mitzvah will no longer be performed. Rather, a mitzvah won’t seem then like a mitzvah seems now, like a yoke and an obligation. With the yetzer hara gone completely (Succah 52a), a mitzvah will become second nature (Drushei Olam HaTohu, Chelek 2, Drush 4, Anaf 12, Siman 12).

The yetzer hara is basically bodily instinct, and mitzvos tend to go against it. This is how mitzvos help to spiritually refine a person. It’s the Torah’s way of taking a person’s life’s steering wheel out of the hands of the body and giving it to the soul, so they can become a Tzelem Elokim and live in the “image of God.”

But the opportunity to achieve such refinement through our free will choices will end with the death of the yetzer hara and bodily instinct. At least the kind of instinct that tends to make personal comfort a priority over spiritual growth.

Shabbos Day
RASHI ALLUDES TO this same idea at the beginning of this week’s parsha, on the verse:

Command—Tzav—Aharon and his sons, saying, “This is the law of the burnt offering…” (Vayikra 6:2)

Rashi comments:

The Torah especially needs to urge [people to fulfill mitzvos] where monetary loss is involved. (Rashi)

The fact that money is involved in a mitzvah instigates the yetzer hara of a person. The yetzer hara will spend all kinds of money on things that give the body instant gratification. But why spend money on a mitzvah, for which the reward won’t follow until the World to Come? Not an easy sell to the yetzer hara.

That creates bodily resistance. It can be subtle, so subtle that even the person themself doesn’t realize they are being affected and held back. But on some level, a little less of the person is used for the mitzvah than is ideal.

Even for someone like Moshe Rabbeinu. There is a Shalsheles cantillation note above the word for, “and he slaughtered it” (Vayikra 8:23) towards the end of this week’s parsha. In the three other places it occurs in the Torah, it hints to some kind of hesitation in the heart, something not recognized on the outside of the person.

Like Lot not wanting to leave Sdom with the angel despite its impending destruction.

Like Yosef not wanting to run from the wife of Potiphar despite the sin involved.

But what reason did Moshe have at the inauguration of Aharon and his sons into the Temple service, to hesitate?

Because he had known, ever since Parashas Tetzaveh, that great people were destined to die on that day to sanctify the Name of God. He had assumed, until next week’s parsha, that that was supposed to have been himself and Aharon. Could that not have easily been somewhat of a distraction during the mitzvah, a subtle one that we could only know about because of the Shalsheles?

As the Leshem explains, we learn Torah and perform mitzvos primarily to spiritually refine our bodies while rectifying our souls. This means training the body to stop resisting both, like teaching a child to grow up and do the more responsible thing for their own good and development. That takes will, lots of will.

But it won’t any longer the moment God dispenses with the Sitra Achra and yetzer hara in Yemos HaMoshiach. Then the body will be happy to do any mitzvah. It will no longer have to be commanded.

Shalosh Seudot
THIS RAISES A question: If the Parah Adumah was always meant to be a mitzvah, was the golden calf destined to occur? This could suggest, yes:

Go and see how The Holy One, Blessed is He, when He created the world created the Angel of Death on the first day as well…Man was created on the sixth day, and yet death was blamed on him. What is this like? A man who decides that he wants to divorce his wife and writes her a document of divorce. He then goes home with it and looks for a pretext to give it to her.

“Prepare me a drink,” he tells her.

She does, and taking it from her he says, “Here is your divorce.”

She asks him, “Why?”

He tells her, “Leave my house! You made me a warm drink!” to which she replies, “Were you able to know that I would prepare you a warm drink in advance that you wrote a divorce document and came home with it?”

Similarly, Adam told The Holy One, Blessed is He, “Master of the Universe, the Torah was with You for 2,000 years before You created the world…yet it says, ’This is the law when a man will die in a tent’ (Bamidbar 19:14). If You had not planned death for Your creations, would You have written this? Rather, You just want to blame death on me!” (Tanchuma, Vayaishev 4)

In other words, the Midrash says, as much as Adam HaRishon seemed to have the choice to avoid sin and death, he didn’t. He was destined to eat from the Aitz HaDa’as and to bring death into the world.

Not only this, but the Midrash continues:

It was similar concerning [the sale of] Yosef…Rav Yudan said, “The Holy One, Blessed is He, wanted to carry out the decree of, ‘Know that you shall surely be (strangers)’ (Bereishis 15:13), and set it up that Ya’akov would love Yosef [more] so the brothers would hate him and sell him to Arabs, and they would all [eventually] go down to Egypt…” (Tanchuma, Vayaishev 4)

On one hand, this information is a relief. It takes away the need to find a good explanation for, how such great people could commit such not-so-great acts. On the other hand, it is disturbing because it implies that we can be railroaded by Divine Providence down the wrong path…against our will.

One could argue that perhaps this idea only applies to specific events with great impact on Jewish history. Or, perhaps it is a deeper insight into free will itself, and how we’re meant to use it.
Melave Malkah

ONE THING IS for certain, we have free will. God told us so, and tradition teaches that we will be judged for our choices. You can question what free will is, or wonder if we have any. But when it comes to life, it would be wise to assume you have it and use it responsibly.

Something else we can be certain about is that though we have free will, we do not have absolute free will. Many choices are made for us by life itself, imposed upon us since so many things are out of our control. But then again, does that take away anything from the choice I made, as long as I believed at the time my choice could make a difference?

Let’s face it, history is not random. God made it with a specific purpose in mind, and with a master plan to be fulfilled. He knows the future and doesn’t make mistakes, so whatever He had in mind was as good as done once He started to think about it. This is true right down to every person who will ever exist and every decision they will ever make.

At the end of the day, though a person makes all kinds of plans, there is a good chance that they will not turn out as anticipated. We don’t know the future, which allows us to live with the perception that our decisions can make a difference and direct the course of history. It’s all we need to be able to make choices for which we will be held accountable.

This does not completely solve the mystery of free will, but who says we can at this time, or that we should? The Parah Adumah is a mitzvah with a message, and it reads: Some things you can understand while others you cannot. Understand what you can, but don’t get bogged down and distracted by what you can’t. Recognize the free will opportunity of every moment, and utilize it meaningfully. It will save you in this world and reward you in the next one.

For essays on the current situation, go to www.shaarnunproductions.org.

Good Shabbos,
Pinchas Winston.

2024 artificially inflated Palestinian demography

by Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

Palestinian demographic numbers are highly-inflated, as documented by a study, which has audited the Palestinian data since 2004. For example:

*500,000 Arabs, who have been away for over a year, are included in the census, contrary to international regulations. 325,000 were included in the 1997 census, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, and 400,000 in 2005, according to the Palestinian Election Commission. The number grows steadily due to births.

*350,000 East Jerusalem Arabs are doubly-counted – by Israel and by the Palestinian Authority. The number grows steadily due to births.

*Over 150,000 Arabs, who married Israeli Arabs are similarly doubly counted. The number expands steadily due to births.

*A 413,000 net-emigration (since the 1997 first Palestinian census) is ignored by the Palestinian census, overlooking the annual net-emigration since 1950. A 23,445 net-emigration in 2022 and a 20,000 annual average in recent years have been documented by Israel's Population and Migration Authority in all international passages.

*A 32% artificial inflation of Palestinian births was documented by the World Bank (page 8, item 6) in a 2006 audit.

*The Judea & Samaria Arab fertility rate has been westernized: from 9 births per woman in the 1960s to 2.9 births in 2022 (In Jordan - similar to Judea & Samaria), reflecting the sweeping urbanization, a growing female enrollment in higher education, rising marriage age and the rising use of contraceptives.

*The number of deaths is under-reported for political and financial reasons.

*The aforementioned artificial inflation of 1.7 million documents a population of 1.55 million Arabs in Judea and Samaria, not the official 3.25 million.

In 2024: a 69% Jewish majority in the combined area of Judea, Samaria and pre-1967 Israel, benefitting from a tailwind of fertility and net-immigration, while Arab demography is westernized. In 1947 and 1897: a 39% and 9% Jewish minority.

No Arab demographic time bomb; but, a Jewish demographic momentum. More data in these articles and this short video.






Tuesday, March 26, 2024

How Israel Lost the Information War

by Victor Rosenthal

Yesterday I was listening to a news program on the radio while preparing dinner. The host asked his subject – I don’t recall who it was, probably an opposition member of the Knesset – this question: how can it be that world opinion has become solidly anti-Israel only a few months after the worst pogrom since the Holocaust, in which more than a thousand Jews were murdered in the most brutal fashion imaginable, in which hundreds of women were raped and children tortured to death? The predictable and stupidly self-serving political answer was that it was the fault of the Netanyahu government, which had “mismanaged” the war. But what is the correct answer?

The real reason is that Israel, while successful in the “kinetic” aspects of the campaign against Hamas, has been overwhelmingly defeated in the less visible theater of information warfare.

The roots of this defeat go back decades. There was as yet no “mismanagement” on the day after the Hamas invasion, when there was an outburst of anti-Israel demonstrations and attacks on Jews around the world while the rampage was still continuing in parts of southern Israel. The ground was prepared as far back as the 1970s, when a wave of Arab petrodollars, guided by the Soviet KGB, flowed into a massive project of psychological and diplomatic warfare against the Jewish state. It wasn’t so difficult for them – the built-in antisemitism of the West, temporarily suppressed after the Holocaust, found a new outlet. It was easy, too, to nurture antisemitic elements in the Muslim world. In the West, the educational systems were infiltrated and subverted, starting with the “best” universities and continuing down to textbooks and curricula for elementary schools. A reality-inverting identification was made between Zionism and Western colonialism and racism, benefiting from both the anger of the formerly colonized and the guilt of the colonizers.

Funds for anti-Israel initiatives also came from the network of charities associated with George Soros, starting around the beginning of the 1990s. This money nourished many of the NGOs and human rights groups that became centers of anti-Israel propaganda, and continues to support them.1

In the diplomatic realm, the invention of the Palestinian Refugee after Israel’s War of Independence (a war of national liberation in which the formerly colonized Jews fought Arab proxies of the British Empire!), provided Hamas with the troops it needed, fed and educated to the point of fanatic hatred with Western money. Hamas combined the multi-faceted indoctrination against Jews and Israel, pioneered by the PLO after Oslo, with religious jihad. Both the West and the Muslim world were primed and ready to blame Israel for the murder, rape, and pillage of her people. And the great-power rivals of the US, Russia and China, were only too happy to join in the take-down of what they see (correctly?) as an American satellite, an outpost of the US in an important zone of contention.

Given the fertile soil, the propaganda offensive of Hamas and its supporters when Israel counterattacked blossomed into a worldwide flourishing of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish expression. The Palestinians, who have developed the technique of exploiting their supposed victimhood, sometimes by exaggeration, sometimes by invention (as in the alleged shooting of the boy Mohammad al Dura in 2000, probably the most blatant yet effective “Pallywood” production ever), and sometimes by deliberately putting their people in harm’s way, pulled out all the stops. Soon the horrors of October 7th were drowned out by the suffering of the Gazans affected by the war that their leaders had started. Western media and humanitarian organizations slavishly repeated Hamas propaganda about civilian casualties with proforma disclosures that their only source was Hamas.

Mismanagement on the part of Israel also goes back decades. It includes overdependence on the US and consequent weakness in the face of pressure from unfriendly administrations, inability to overcome wish-fulfillment illusions about Palestinian motives and plans, weakness in the face of domestic pressure (for example, the release of more than a thousand imprisoned terrorists in return for one kidnapped soldier), and the tendency to prioritize internal political issues over serious external threats. A very serious failure has been our sporadic, inconsistent, and poorly funded actions in the information arena, while our enemies have implemented a long-term, carefully planned and meticulously executed campaign.

Al Jazeera, began broadcasting in Arabic by satellite in 1996, and since then has added multiple languages, including English. Based in Qatar and very influential in the Arab world, it has been in the forefront of anti-Israel propaganda ever since. In wartime, it specializes in inflammatory stories and photos of “atrocities” allegedly committed by the IDF (pictures from Syria and natural disasters are sometimes used). Left-leaning Western media, like the British Guardian newspaper have always followed an anti-Israel line; and the BBC is far from impartial. More recently, mainstream media in the US like the NY Times and Washington Post newspapers, the NPR radio network, CNN, and others – staffed by the products of “good” universities – have become more than merely biased: at their worst (which is often), they are mouthpieces for Hamas. Pro-Israel media in the West are rare and marginal. Some of Israel’s own media – in particular the English edition of Ha’aretz, which is widely read throughout the world – is only slightly less toxic than Al Jazeera. Israel is overwhelmed on social media as well, in part by botnets, but also by individuals and anti-Israel NGOs which dedicate staff to this function.

The combination of governments, international institutions, NGOs, media, academic institutions, and the arts all promulgating the carefully nurtured myths of Palestinian victimization and Israeli malevolence have overpowered Israel’s woefully inadequate attempts at a response.

In short, Israel has been and continues to be outgunned in the realm of information warfare. There have been sporadic attempts to improve the situation, but the funds for such a massive undertaking have never been available, nor would there likely be agreement on precisely what the message should be and how it should be presented. And we don’t have decades to lay the groundwork and gradually uproot the deep-seated antisemitism and hatred of the state of the Jews that has developed over time, even if we knew how to do it.

The best strategy in the face of this defeat therefore will be to depend on the human tendency to cheer for the winner: to be the “strong horse” that everyone bets on. Israel will need to defeat its enemies on the physical plane, to humiliate them and strike fear into the ones that are left. Rather than a picture of “responsible citizenship” that the world has been conditioned to disbelieve, our image should be that of a violent and dangerous player. In an environment where we can’t create warmth, we should at least inspire trepidation.
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1 Alexander H. Joffe, “Bad Investment: The Philanthropy of George Soros and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, How Soros-funded Groups Increase Tensions in a Troubled Region: May 2013
https://www.ngo-monitor.org/soros.pdf

Rav Kook on Parashat Tzav: Animal Sacrifices in the Third Beit HaMikdash?

[Rav Kook’s views on the Beit HaMikdash service are sometimes misconstrued. A superficial reading of a passage in Olat Re’iyah (vol. I, p. 292) indicates that only grain offerings will be offered in the reinstated Beit HaMikdash service. To properly understand Rav Kook’s approach, it is necessary to read a related essay from Otzarot HaRe’iyah.]

What will the rebuilt Beit HaMikdash be like? Will we really offer animal sacrifices once again?

Protecting Animals
Some people object to the idea of sacrifices out of concern for the welfare of animals. However, this objection contains a measure of hypocrisy. Why should compassion for animals only be expressed with regard to humanity’s spiritual needs? If our opposition to animal slaughter is based not on weakness of character, but on recognition of the issue’s fundamental morality, then our first step should be to outlaw the killing of animals for food, clothing, and other material benefits.

In the world’s present state, the human race is weak, both physically and morally. The hour to protect animal life has not yet arrived. We still need to slaughter animals for our physical needs, and human morality requires that we maintain clear boundaries to distinguish between the relative value of human and animal life.

At this point in time, to advocate the protection of animals in our service of God is disingenuous. Is it moral to permit cruelty towards animals for our physical needs, yet forbid their use for our spiritual service, in sincere recognition and gratitude for God’s kindness? If our dedication and love for God can be expressed - at its highest level — with our willingness to surrender our own lives and die al kiddush Hashem, sanctifying God’s name, then certainly we should be willing to forgo the life of animals for this sublime goal.



The Return of Prophecy
Currently, however, we are not ready for an immediate restoration of the sacrificial service. Only with the return of prophecy will it be possible to restore the Beit HaMikdash order. In a letter penned in 1919, Rav Kook explained:

“With regard to sacrifices, it is more correct to believe that all aspects will be restored to their place. ... We should not be overly troubled by the views of European culture. In the future, God’s word to His people will elevate all the foundations of culture to a level above that attainable by human reason.

It is inappropriate to think that sacrifices only reflect the primitive idea of a worship of flesh. This service possesses a holy inner nature that cannot be revealed in its beauty without the illumination of God’s light to His people [the return of prophecy] and a renewal of holiness to Israel. And this will be recognized by all peoples. But I agree with you that we should not approach the practical aspects of sacrifices before the advent of revealed divine inspiration in Israel.” (Igrot HaRe’iyah vol. IV p. 24)

The Future World
In the writings of the Kabbalists, we find a remarkable description of how the universe will look in the future, a world vastly changed from our current reality. All aspects of the universe will be elevated. Even the animals in that future era will be different; they will advance to the level of people nowadays (Sha’ar Hamitzvot of the Ari z"l). Obviously, no sacrifice could be offered from such humanlike animals. At that time, there will no longer be strife and conflict between the species. Human beings will no longer need to take the lives of animals for their physical, moral, and spiritual needs.

It is about this distant time that the Midrash makes the startling prediction, “All sacrifices will be annulled in the future.”1 The prophet Malachi similarly foretold of a lofty world in which the Temple service will only consist of grain offerings, in place of the animal sacrifices of old:

“Then the grain-offering of Judea and Jerusalem will be pleasing to God as in the days of old, and as in ancient years.” (Malachi 3:4)

Hints to the Future
Even in the current reality, we may feel uncomfortable about killing animals. This does not mean that the time for full animal rights has already arrived. Rather, these feelings come from a hidden anticipation of the future that is already ingrained in our souls, like many other spiritual aspirations.

Hints of these future changes may be found in the text of the Torah itself. Thus, it says that offerings are slaughtered on the northern side of the altar. Why this side? The north traditionally represents that which is incomplete and lacking, as it is written, “Out of the north, the evil shall break forth” (Yirmiyahu 1:14). In other words, the need to slaughter animals is a temporary concession to life in an incomplete world.

Furthermore, the Torah stipulates that sacrifices must be slaughtered לִרְצֹנוֹ — “willingly” (Vayikra 1:3). The Temple service must correspond to our needs and wants. As the Talmud in Erchin 21a explains, one must be able to say, “I want to bring this offering.” When the slaughter of animals is no longer generally acceptable to society, this condition will not be fulfilled.

Finally, the Torah describes a person offering an animal sacrifice as adam (Vayikra 1:2). This word indicates our current state of moral decline, a result of the unresolved sin of Adam, the first man. An individual offering a grain offering, on the other hand, is called nefesh, or soul (Vayikra). The word nefesh implies a deeper, more essential level of humanity, independent of any temporary failings.

(Gold from the Land of Israel pp. 173-176. Adapted from Otzarot HaRe’iyah, vol. II, pp. 101-103; Olat Re’iyah vol. I, p. 292 by Rav Chanan Morrison)
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1 Tanhuma Emor 14, Vayikra Rabbah 9:7. The Midrash writes, however, that the Todah offering will always be brought. Perhaps Rav Kook believed that the Todah offering in the future will only consist of the 40 loaves of bread, as this is its unique and defining feature, unlike other offerings that stress the animal component.

A Long Run

by Rabbi Dov Berel Wein

The Torah reading of this week concerns itself with the tasks of the Kohanim in the Beit HaMikdash, regarding the sacrifices which were the centerpiece of the entire Temple service. The instructions that are given to the Kohanim are exact and detailed. In fact, the Hebrew word "tzav" which appears at the beginning of the reading and is where the Parsha gets its name, indicates a command.

The strength of the word is that it is not a matter of negotiation, suggestion, or persuasion. It is simply a command that must be heeded and fulfilled. Part of the problem that always exists regarding religious worship service is that there is little room left for changing times and society that might influence the structure of the command itself.

To a great extent, for instance, Jewish prayer service, which inherited aspects of the sacrifices in the Beit HaMikdash, has basically remained the same from the time of Ezra to our day. Naturally, it has been tweaked and adjusted, and prayers have been added and deleted as per the custom of the different Jewish communities scattered throughout the exile. However, it is the consistency of the prayer service itself, and the retention of its basic structure by all communities and groups, that Jewish life survived over the long centuries of persecution, and exile.

It is not that innovation is necessarily contrary to established prayer service. It is, rather, that over the centuries, very few innovations have been able to attract more worshipers or more Jews, to be of true spiritual value and of lasting quality and interest. The problem with innovation, as with all things modern and current and up to date, is that in the society dedicated to the new and to innovation, almost automatically introduces ideas and practices that become obsolete in a very short period of time. They do not have staying power, and Judaism is always built for the long run and not for the short moments of seeming pleasure or current correctness.

Traditional Jewish prayer has often been accused by the modernists as being too rigid, and without proper flash and excitement. Non-Orthodox movements constantly change their prayer books to reflect current events over the years, and decades that are the here and now of that society. However, any objective observer of these changes can testify that all the innovation: guitars, women cantors, political quotations, and other innovations that are part of modernistic local prayer services, have proven to be unable to attract worshipers to the synagogue and to any form of intense and meaningful prayer.

Tampering with the old and creating the new has, in effect, destroyed the true concept of Jewish prayer and the spiritual satisfaction that one can gain only with the authentic words of prayer, that have been part of Jewish life for thousands of years. This is the essence of being commanded. It tolerates no major deviations, and by its consistency and historic resonance, creates spiritual connection and the pursuit of holiness. Couple this with the fact that Hebrew as a language does not easily translate into other languages, and that all sense of nuance is usually lost, no matter how good the translation may be, one can, understand why Judaism insists on prayer in its original language and in its original formal form and substance.

Israel alone: Weep for America

by Melanie Phillips

In my article here last week, I wrote that America was abandoning Israel. Last week, the Biden administration wrote its name in the annals of infamy by openly joining the axis of evil against those defending civilisation.

The UN Security Council has passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for the remainder of Ramadan, and the immediate and unconditional release of Israeli hostages.

Breaking with its historic policy by vetoing hostile resolutions at the UNSC to protect Israel against those working for its destruction and the defeat of the west, the US abstained today and so the resolution was passed.

Even more appallingly (if that’s possible) the UK, the Biden administration’s poodle and whose Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron, has been threatening Israel with an end to arms sales unless it does what he and the US State Department are demanding, actually voted for the resolution.

So both the US and UK are now aligned with the west’s foes Russia and China against Israel, the sole defender of the west in the Middle East. What a disgrace.

The resolution is obnoxious because it fails to condition a ceasefire on the release of the hostages, thus destroying the chances of the latter actually occurring.

Last Friday, the US brought forward a draft resolution which said the UNSC “unequivocally supports ongoing international diplomatic efforts to secure such a ceasefire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages” (my emphasis). That resolution’s linkage between a ceasefire and the release of the hostages was the reason it was vetoed by China and Russia. On that occasion, America’s ambassador to the UN ambassador declared:

We should not move forward with any resolution that jeopardises the ongoing [hostage] negotiations.

What a difference three days make. Today, the US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby claimed that America’s abstention on today’s UNSC resolution didn’t amount to a shift in the US requirement that a ceasefire must be obtained through a hostage deal. “We have been consistent in our support for a ceasefire as part of a hostage deal,” he told reporters.

But today’s resolution does not make a ceasefire dependent on the release of the hostages. It says instead that the UNSC “demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire, and also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”.

Either Kirby doesn’t understand the meaning of language, or he is lying.


Queue for rationed food in Jerusalem under siege, Israel War of Independence 1948

The US and UK have thus now voted for Israel to lose the war and for the hostages to remain in captivity. An immediate ceasefire would mean Hamas is able to regroup and fight on. America’s now open opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza means that Hamas has zero incentive to agree to the hostage deal currently under negotiation. As if to underscore the point, Hamas fired a barrage of rockets at Ashdod today after a lull of two months.

The UN has lost all credibility as a dispassionate world body committed to peace and justice. It stands revealed instead as a front for Hamas and an enemy of the Jewish people. Its Secretary-General, António Guterres, blamed the October 7 Hamas pogrom on Israel’s behaviour. More than five months on, the UN has still failed to condemn those mass atrocities perpetrated against Israeli civilians. In stark contrast, the UNSC immediately condemned Friday’s deadly terror attack at a Russian concert hall.

Despite the discovery that every hospital in Gaza has been used as a Hamas base, and despite the hundreds of Hamas terrorists arrested or killed these past few days in Gaza’s Shifa hospital — from whose emergency room and burns unit, no less, they were firing at Israeli troops — the UN has failed to condemn any of these abuses of medical facilities as the war crimes they indubitably are.

Instead, thousands of its own UNWRA employees have been revealed to be Hamas members or supporters. And the UN has been parroting as reliable the Hamas death totals of Gaza civilians, even though these are patently ridiculous.

The Biden administration and the UK have not only failed to push back against the UN’s Hamas ties and lies; they have themselves bought into Hamas propaganda. Refusing to acknowledge that most of the aid they’ve been pushing into Gaza has been stolen by Hamas for its own ends, the US and UK have been falsely blaming Israel for blocking aid supplies.

On the basis of the ludicrous Gaza death numbers dreamed up by Hamas, the UK and US have been accusing Israel of causing a humanitarian catastrophe. Yet as Professor John Spencer of West Point military academy and the former British army commander Richard Kemp have both observed, with an estimated ratio of 1.5 civilians for every one combatant killed Israel has achieved a lower total of civilians killed in war than any other army in world history.

By endorsing the demonisation of Israel based on the lies told by genocidal fanatics and their panders in the UN, Cameron and the Biden administration are not just exhibiting a malevolence they display towards no other country on earth. They are also fanning the flames of the antisemitism roaring out of control in their own countries and over which they so falsely wring their hands.

America has turned against Israel in this way because the Biden administration is determined that the IDF should not bombard Rafah. The fact that Israel cannot defeat Hamas unless it destroys the four remaining Hamas battalions hunkered down in the tunnels beneath Rafah is dismissed. The fact that if Israel doesn’t defeat Hamas more Israelis will face being butchered and taken hostage as they were on October 7 is of no concern to the Biden administration. It doesn’t care if Hamas survives to slaughter more Israelis. What concerns it is Israel’s refusal to lose this war in the way the US wants it to.

America is punishing Israel for a catastrophe that the Biden administration itself facilitated. The atrocities of October 7 that started the war took place because Hamas’s patron, Iran, correctly perceived that America would ultimately abandon Israel rather than itself get stuck in. If the Biden administration hadn’t shown such weakness in defending the interests of the free world from Afghanistan to Yemen and Iraq and Ukraine, Hamas would not have been unleashed on October 7.

After the war started, despite the two aircraft carriers the US dispatched to the region, the Biden administration responded to continued attacks by Iranian proxies — even against its own interests — with a mere limp wrist. It has done nothing to deter Iran’s proxy army Hezbollah from bombarding northern Israel from Lebanon with hundreds of rockets and anti-tank missiles.

It could have stopped the war in its tracks by telling Hamas’s protector Qatar that, unless it instructed Hamas to release the hostages and surrender, the US would end its profitable relationship and treat Qatar instead as a global pariah. Instead, the US is not only feeding Israel to its mortal enemies; by failing to use its muscle to end this war, it is also facilitating Hamas’s war crimes against the civilians of Gaza by using snuff movies of their distress to incite hysterical hatred of Israel in the west.

Biden and Cameron fail to acknowledge that Israel is fighting in this manner because it has no choice. With Hamas almost entirely underground, Israel cannot get at it in any other way. If it doesn’t defeat Hamas, Israel will continue to face genocidal attack. Only by defeating Hamas and killing or capturing its Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar, does Israel have any chance of getting any of the hostages back. Only by defeating Hamas does Israel have any chance of avoiding an infinitely more terrible all-out war with Hezbollah.

This is the rupture with America that some of us have seen coming for a very long time. But the US and UK don’t realise what they have now done. This isn’t just about Israel. It’s also about them.

The October 7 pogrom was a clear inflection point for the west. Would it support Israel in the battle for civilisation against barbarism? Now we have the answer.

But there’s a deeper question. The UK is busily destroying itself by making a bonfire of its historic culture and values. Its public administration has all but collapsed, its indigenous people are dying out and it has lost control of its borders.

In the US vicious culture wars are raging, there are unbridgeable political and social divisions, its elites have torn up its historic global mission of exceptionalism — and it has also lost control of its border.

Do the US and UK actually want to survive, or are they now in a death spiral?

Throughout centuries of persecution, the Jewish people have survived against impossible odds — while every civilisation that has tried to destroy them has disappeared. Whatever horrors lie ahead, Israel will survive. The same certainty cannot apply to Britain and America. Today has demonstrated that they don’t even know how to do so.