Tuesday June 6, 2000 / 3 Sivan 5760
Wednesday, May 3 2000 / 28 Nisan 5760
It has been said that in each generation the Jewish People must prove anew the repentance of certain national sins and our "tikkun" (spiritual repair). One such sin was speaking evil against the Land that G-d gave to us.
"There are giants in the Land. We can't take it!" the generation of the wilderness declared. As punishment, the whole generation of adult men that had escaped the slavery of Egypt had to die in the forty years wilderness journey.
Today we are in the Land. Just as that generation that left Egypt, we have come home from all parts of the earth, as HaShem promised through the ancient Prophets of Israel. We are again faced with the decision of accepting the Land and proving ourselves worthy of our inheritance. Do we have the faith and courage, in which we are commanded to walk, to hold the Land and to stand against the enemies of our day? It seems we are again hearing the echoes of those quivering, fearful, slave-minded voices insisting that we do not have the strength nor the will. "We're tired." "It just isn't worth it." "Who needs it, anyway?" "Why should we and our children die--for WHAT?"
Now, in addition to the fear, we actually have leaders who verbally doubt the holiness of the Land, leading the people of Israel in disbelief and scorn, thereby underscoring and affirming our enemies' attack on our claims. "The Bible is not a book of deeds." "What is holy about Abu Dis?" This is something even the spies would never dared to have said, for they knew that that would be a lie the people of Israel would never, ever buy. Yet the principality of delusion tells our sophisticated leaders that the people of Israel in our day will believe it. The dissenters are branded "radicals", "inciters", and "extremists", rather than being acknowledged as adherents to the teachings of the Torah principles that have always defined our Nation. They are accused of pushing Israel to sure war and death, and of close-mindedly rejecting peace and the idea of brotherhood of man. Judaism, "halacha", and even Torah are portrayed as chauvinistic, out-dated ideas that have no place in public life in this modern world--certainly not in the "New Middle East".
The spies of the wilderness generation failed the test and were severely punished. They rejected the Land, because wanted the people to continue living in the wilderness, where they enjoyed the tangible Presence of HaShem and He miraculously provided their every need. Why are our leaders rejecting the Land? What do they want for our people?
Tuesday, May 9 2000 / 4 Iyar 5760
On 7 May 2000 in the Jerusalem Post Letters Mr. Yakov Barkam outlined a history that the people of Israel either have forgotten or just never learned.
When Prussia conquered Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark, it offered the Danes living there a choice: namely accept Prussian citizenship and all that entails, or sell your non-portable property at market value and leave.This what happened and it succeeded. This transfer wasn't deemed unfair or racist.
After the First World War, in 1923 1.5 million Greeks left Turkey, and 750,000 Turks left Greece. This transfer suceeded, and wasn't deemed unfair or racist.
In 1945, Poland expelled its potentially hostile German population (10 million). They remembered what happened in 1939. This wasn't deemed unfair or racist.
As the leader of the Arab student union confirms, she leads a potentially hostile element of society who wants to destroy Israel as a Jewish state.
Israel should do as Prussia, Greece, Turkey and Poland. Any non-Jew who isn't loyal to Israel, should be transfered with full compensation.
Then all the Arabs will be able to live happily in the 99.84% of the Middle East that they control.
This is exactly what Rabbi Meir Kahane z"l said over and over. Yet he was called "racist", and the very mention of his very name is now taboo among the "enlightened" of the lemmings of Israel. People even misquoted him, saying he advocated killing the Arabs, which he never said, but rather adamantly denied time and again. Israel had several chances--such as during wars, in which they openly sided with our enemies--to expel the hostile Arabs in just the civil, acceptable fashion of historic precedent, but failed to do so, fearing the reaction of the world. Not only did we not expel the ones we had, we brought more in--including some of the most horrible terrorists in the world. Now we are living in a time when the hostile dreams of this enemy people among us are becoming a realistic possibility. We are living the nightmare Rabbi Kahane described as a "future danger", and no one--just ten short years ago--ever thought it possible. Israel is shrinking, as we give and give, until soon there will be nothing left to give. Then what? Will the Arabs, who have openly said
Thursday, May 11 2000 / 6 Iyar 5760
Many people are asking why we are now seeing a pattern of decisions that look like the only end will be our destruction. How can our leaders be taking us down a path that is so obviously perilous? When we read the history of Israel after they entered the Land, we see a cyclic pattern of falling away from G-d, the enemies coming in and making life miserable, Israel repenting, and the enemies being defeated by the Hand of G-d. This is the Book of Judges in a nutshell. Later, the Prophets tell us that the people's sins became so grave and lasted so long that Babylon came, destroyed the Temple, and took the people captive. The Second Temple was similarly destroyed by the Romans. Was this because HaShem was being "mean"? No. It was the manifestation of the consequence of turning from Him and His Law that was clearly laid out in the Torah.
During the Gulf War 40 missiles were fired at Israel; 39 hit the country. While we did experience miraculous protection through that war, the significance of the numbers should not have been lost on us. Forty minus one was the number of lashes for disobedience of the Law. When the war was ended, the United States began to make plans for the Madrid Conference, the first step along the process of dismantling Israel that was called "peace". Ignoring history and Torah, Israel conceded, relying on the US, who reminded us of their coming to our defense with Patriot missiles, rather than returning to G-d, the One Who had truly protected us. At the conference the rules were laid down by the Nations--no discussion of history or the Bible would be accepted.
Today we are ruled by people who have made the conscious decision that Israel is a secular state, completely separate from Torah and G-d. The Land that G-d called "holy", His very Throne on the earth from which He will one day judge the world, is considered just another piece of property by the men in our government, finding no dilemma in giving it away. The judges in our supreme court make public statements and decisions, scoffing the Laws of G-d and ridiculing adherents to Torah, puffing themselves up as being more moral than the G-d of Israel. In other words, we are in a state of confusion and chaos, in which people do not know what they believe and values have become distorted and eschewed . This opens our nation to every kind of unbelievable, shocking injustice. This is simply a principle set down in the Torah. Like it or not, as the people of the Torah, these things, like our history, are inescapable for us. Yes, turning away from the Law of G-d does lead us down the path to destruction. The only thing that can truly save us, just as Israel of old in the Book of Judges, is national repentance.
Monday, June 5 2000 / 2 Sivan 5760
Last night the news covered the controversy of the "women of the Wall". It seems that, like everything else in Israel, this subject is being completely blown out of proportion. (Doesn't anyone wonder what people outside our country think, as we scream about issues, such as rudeness in traffic, while our country is being dismantled piece by piece? Well, here's another one.) The men interviewed at the Wall were angry that these women were praying in tallis and tefillin and reading from the Torah. One of them said: "They aren't Jews; they're "lesbians." Since when does prayer and reading from the Torah fall under THAT definition?! Now other angry men in the Knesset are wanting to pass a law that will allow them to sentence a woman guilty of this "offense" to seven years in prison. We should calm down and look at this thing for exactly what it is.
First of all, only men are REQUIRED to pray in tallis and tefillin. However, while a woman does not fulfill any mitzva in doing so, neither does she violate any. Some would say that this is "dress of men" and therefore a violation. There is precedent, though, in Rashi's daughters, who are known to have laid tefillin. If a woman decides to take up the practice of wearing tallis and tefillin, it is permitted, as far as I understand, but she must then do so faithfully everyday. I know there are rare cases of women in the women's section of Orthodox synagogues who do follow this practice. The reason given that woman are not required to do this, as men are, is that the time required on mothers would become a problem. Make no mistake, though, a woman IS supposed to pray.
In an Orthodox congregation men and women worship separately. Women do not come into the men's section and go up to the Torah. This is a responsibility that the men carry for the community. Also, there is an issue of modesty. The women of the Wall are a congregation strictly made up of women. They are not usurping the responsibility of men in a congregation, because there are no men in this congregation. There is nothing immodest about it.
The men complain that they hear the women singing at the Wall. Men sing and dance at the Wall. No one complains; it's accepted as normal practice in Judaism. When the people of Israel had just crossed the Sea, Moses led the men in singing and dancing. Miriam led the women in singing and dancing. The men could probably hear the women, yet this was not a problem. They knew that this was praise to G-d, just as their own was. Why is it a problem at the Kotel? Have we fallen so far from the precepts of Torah that we can't see this?
People love to point fingers and call names. Maybe some of these women have ulterior motives; maybe they don't. For those who do have an ulterior motive, if there was no issue made of it, they'd quickly lose interest. But I have news for you--there are other congregations of women, and these women are only interested in the service of prayer and Torah reading for its own sake. The angry men at the Kotel and in the Knesset are making a terrible mistake in the judging these women, for only G-d knows the heart of each one of us.
Wednesday, July 6 2000 / 3 Tammuz 5760
There has been much talk over the years about unity in Israel--something we have yet to achieve. For many this means going along with them and their ideas. "We could be unified, if only THEY weren't so bull-headed." There is a lot of finger-pointing and back-biting in Israeli society, a lot of blaming the other guy for our collective problems. WE, or I, must always be right.
For there to be true unity there must be a starting point of agreement. I was recently involved with a group that was a real cross-section of Israeli society. There was one common factor--love of HaShem. With this in common, it seemed that outward appearances disappeared. There was true oneness in the genuine seeking of a higher relationship with the Gd of Israel. As a natural result, through sharing and talking about this, a nurturing of that spark inside each one, the group developed into one of mutual respect. It became easy to see how from the shared love of Avinu Malkenu (our Father, our King), from our shared desire to know and grown in Him more, could develop the love that is so necessary to a strongly unified "Am"--with all its varieties and levels.
Israel faces some very serious external problems today. However, the most serious problem, which could be the real cause of our external ones, is the hatred we have for each other; and the cause of this problem could be that we don't really understand about HaShem's love for ourselves individually and for our people as a whole. I believe this needs to be a starting place for each one of us in Israel, in order to come to the national healing that we so desperately need.
Pay attention to what is being said!
Monday, July 31 2000 / 28 Tammuz 5760
Amos Oz and other peace activists in Israel are disappointed in the Palestinians. They were so certain that they would agree to the two state solution and live happily ever after alongside Israel. All would be well in the Middle East. Boker tov! Over and over we are seeing in the newspapers, in the letters to this forum, and in every other media that these people are not the least bit interested in an end to the conflict. Arafat has said it time and again in speeches to his own people and all over the world. We make excuses not to listen, not to believe what we're being told quite plainly. The PA school curriculum is not preparing their children for peace. They do NOT want peace--they want victory. Victory for Palestine means the total annihilation of Israel. Nothing has changed except the method. Israelis and Jews worldwide better wake up and realize we are in a battle for our lives, and we do not have any true allies among the governments of the Nations. Get out of your denial and pay attention to what is being said!
With blessings from Zion,
~Miriam~
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