After the Gulf War of 1991, after Madrid, after Oslo, after all the terror and death, Israel is now being told that she has no choice but to accept the "Road Map". The nations are delighted, insisting that this will bring peace to the region and to the world, as if this one area is the cause for the woes of the entire world. It has been pointed out that it would be the most cynical double standard for the United States, on the heels of punishing terrorism in a war with Iraq, to reward terrorism by creating a Palestinian state. Yet that is exactly what is transpiring at this time. And in Israel, after all the years of terror, death, and unspeakable pain, people are still espousing and listening to the same tired platitudes that put our feet on this road to destruction. Why?

There comes a point at which events surpass the normal level of the natural realm, and even the most material of people must admit that more is happening. Such is the case with the history of Israel. In this history we look back and see certain events that can be called milestones, or landmarks in time. Many of these, even in our modern history, can be seen in the words of the Tanakh .

Just before Yaakov Avinu died, he gathered the sons around him and told them that he was going to tell them what would be at the End of Days. Our sages say that he then lost his prophetic vision and did not tell them. However, perhaps the blessings hold secrets that we can discern as we come closer to those times. The first hint is in the manner in which Yaakov spoke to them, telling them to "assemble" themselves in the first sentence and to "gather" themselves in the second (Bereshit 49:1-2). When the sons of Israel would come together, it would be the "End of Days". In the End of Days the people of Israel will be gathered from four corners of the earth; they will assemble themselves, coming together as one people before Gd. Other hints of how that will occur are found in the blessings of each tribe, which is too involved to be presented here in depth.

The very last blessing was to Benyamin:

"Benyamin is a predatory wolf; in the morning he will devour prey and in the evening he will distribute the spoils." ~Bereshit 49:27

In 1996, after so many terror attacks (It got to a weekly basis.), the people of Israel were crying out for relief. Benyamin Netanyahu was elected prime minister. Interestingly, the gamatria for "Rosh Hamimshelah (head of the government) Sivan 11, 5756" matched a verse in I Samuel, about the anointing of Shaul, of the tribe of Benyamin, as king of Israel.

"At this time tomorrow I will send a man to you from the land of Benyamin; you shall anoint him to be ruler over My people Israel, and he will save My people from the hand of the Philistines~for I have seen [the distress] of My people, since its cry has come before Me."~I Samuel 9:16.

There are several outstanding characters and stories about the tribe of Benyamin~King Shaul, Mordechai, and Esther. There are parallels to our day to be drawn from these stories. King Shaul, head and shoulders over other men, failed to obey at a crucial moment and lost the kingdom. Many years later, Mordechai and Esther faced a villainous descendent of Agag, the Amalekite king spared by Shaul’s misplaced mercy.

One of the most disturbing stories of the Tanakh, found at the end of Shoftim (Judges 19-21), is of a Levite travelling through the territory of Benyamin with his concubine. She had left him to return to her father’s house. After four months, he went to Bethlehem to bring her back. They left late in the day and needed to find a place for the night. Passing a Jebusite city, the Levite said he did not wish to stay in a city of foreign people, but preferred to go on to Gibeah, a city of the Children of Israel. In the town, they met a man from Mount Ephraim, who insisted they not spend the night in the town square, but rather come home with him. Later that night, the men of Gibeah surrounded the house, demanding that the owner send out the man staying with him. The story is eerily similar to that of the visit of the angels to Lot in Sodom. Unlike that case, however, the Levite threw his concubine outside for the men of the town to ravage. In the morning, the woman collapsed and died at the doorstep "with her hands on the threshold." The man got up in the morning, opened the door of the house, and said to her, "Get up, let us go!" He put her on her donkey and took her home. When he arrived at his house, he cut her body into twelve pieces and sent them throughout Israel to rally the tribes against Gibeah. When the people of Benyamin were told to give up the offenders of Gibeah, they refused, and even went to battle on their behalf. Twice, after asking with Urim and Thummim if they should go up against Benyamin and being told "yes", the tribes lost. Only the third time were they victorious.

This is a very shocking story and difficult to understand.

• The Levite himself was sorely lacking in his affection and loyalty to this woman he supposedly loved.
• He cut up her body and sent it out.
• He bypassed a Gentile city in favor of an Israelite one, only to find there complete depravity, comparable to Sodom.
• The Benyaminites defended Gibeah.
• The tribes of Israel lost the first two battles.

The attitude of the Levite was "as long as I’m safe…", and he did not care to defend his "wife". Isaiah 28:15 reflects this attitude among the rulers in Jerusalem, as they made a pact with the enemies of Israel: "We have sealed a covenant with Death and made a compact with the Grave; when the surging staff [of punishment] passes through IT WILL NOT COME TO US…" Oslo was agreed with this attitude; the idea of "land for peace" is a reflection of this attitude. And the results have been disaster. The people of Israel, who were bound to that agreement by their "husband" leaders, were ravaged and killed. Oslo was presented as merely a trial, yet after the dismal failure of that trial, the concessions continue to be pushed forward. As the concubine is not beloved enough to be a true wife, the territories of Yehudah, Shomron, and Azza are not considered truly "Israel proper". Somehow the sacrifices of the residents of these areas are insignificant, other than to further the interests of certain parties.

The grisly picture of the Levite cutting the concubine’s body into pieces further shows his indifference to her~even to the point of not giving her a decent burial. More than any sense of justice, he was motivated by his own purposes. Now, like the concubine, the land is being divided for political interests of parties who care more for the opinions of foreign governments than for the lives of their own people. As there was a reckoning over this incident, Gd promises there will be a reckoning over the division of the Land:

"…I will gather all of the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Yehoshaphat and I will contend with them there concerning My people and My possession, Israel, that they dispersed among the nations, and THEY DIVIDED UP MY LAND, and they cast lots upon My people…"~Yoel 4:2

The Levite assumed that an Israelite city would not have the dangers of a Gentile city. In Israel today we hear this kind of thinking: that behavior among Jews is superior to that of goyim. Is it?

The Benyaminites seemed to have a very hard time with tshuvah. Shaul could not admit he had erred when Shemuel asked him why he had not killed all the inhabitants and their animals in the battle with Amalek. The Benyaminites later defended Gibeah, even in the face of the evidence of abominable sin. How this is like our current attitudes as we defend wrong-doing by preaching tolerance and condemning "judgment". Shaul lost the kingdom. The Benyaminites were almost wiped out. It is a terrible mistake to assume that there is no penalty for sin, that somehow Heaven lets some people slip by. Is the Torah still valid today?

Also very disturbing is the fact that the tribes lost the first two battles~even after being told to go up by Gd through the Urim and the Thummim. How could this be? Looking back at the story of the battle of Ai, the answer seems to be that there was sin in the camp. Yes, they were punishing unrepentant sin, as they were told to do. Yet there was something amiss within their own ranks that prevented their immediate success. They were suffering blows, just as the Benyaminites. And the question cries through the ages: "Why?" Even the good suffer and die in our violent times. The lights go out around us, one by one, leaving us alone in the dark to try to find Gd in a less enabled way. We struggle with the question, make excuses for our short-comings, and cry: "Why?" The formulas do not seem to work; prayers seem not to be heard; because the answers are not manifesting as we think they should. Could it be that the tribes needed to look inward more at their own areas of tshuvah?

When Benyamin was born, Rachel was dying and named him Ben Oni, "Son of my sorrow" (Bereshit 35:18). When he finally met Yosef again, after all the years of separation, he told him how he had named each of his ten sons for the various missed events of Yosef’s life. There was an unmistakable element of sorrow in Benyamin, of something missed, of expectation not quite fulfilled, the beseeching hand, still on the threshold. Shaul could not completely obey all Shemuel had told him to do; his lack caused him such sorrow that he became insane~unable to find solace or peace. The sorrow of the disappearance of the tribe of Benyamin effected the whole of Israel, who came to regret their vow to not give them their daughters. Mordechai and Esther did the tikkun for Shaul, defeating the descendent of Agag; this resulted in wondrous joy that we still celebrate every year at Purim. The tribes brought Benyamin back into the nation at the annual Tu’b Av celebrations at Shiloh. Yosef brought Benyamin back into a place of fullness and joy in their reunion. We, too, can relate to this feeling of not quite making the mark, of missing something just slipping from our reach. And there is a deep sorrow connected with the dissatisfaction, as we make concessions on important issues, as we make excuses for our sins. As hard as Yosef’s life was in Egypt, he refused to compromise the principles of his father. Just as he saved Benyamin, may we come through this sorrowful period, as well, to the place of completion and hope promised in Yaakov’s blessings of Yosef:

" …from the Gd of your father and He will help you, and with Shaddai ~ and He will bless you [with] blessings of heaven from above, blessings of the deep crouching below, blessings of the bosom and womb. The blessings of your father surpassed the blessings of my parents to the endless bounds of the world’s hills. Let them be upon Yosef’s head and upon the head of the exile from his brothers." ~Bereshit 49:25-26

May Benyamin thus truly be delivered from his sorrow and become the "Son of my (Yaakov’s) right hand," entering into the fullness of Moshe’s blessing of the tribe:

"May Hashem’s beloved dwell securely by Him; He hovers over him all day long; and rests between his shoulders." ~ Dvarim 33:12