the light of 15 Sivan 5781 | Full moon
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I pray with a siddur just like this one, at home. It helps me keep focused on where I am and why I'm here.
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Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Lod On Fire | Part 3: What can we do, and what is best left to HQB"H?
I know this might seem counterintuitive, but hear me out: We probably can accomplish a lot more from where we are than from where our authorities are. After all, on the ground, more depends on how well we can work together with our neighbors and friends than on the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of the laws of the state, depending on their validity.
And where do we get our measure of validity? From the Torah: the same source our Prophets got theirs, and that our Writers extolled.
This is one area which the Jewish nation is expected to excel, more than the other nations. And, it is the most attacked by the government. I expect that it feels it has the right to do so because of the money they throw at the religious establishment here, basically to keep them quiet. We know it was done in the beginning because there was such a small population, particularly of haredim, due to the Devastation* after World War II, that the government then didn't think they would thrive. Little did they know.
Am I reading this correctly? If so, I'm sure there's more where that comes from.
Besides that, in addition to the wisdom we get from the air in Eretz Yisrael, the smell of the corruption from the major organs of the state rises like that of rotten eggs, and it is encouraged by the way certain laws are enforced only against Jews, and no one else. If it hasn't become clear in the last few decades, it should be obvious just last week, when the cops and soldiers weren't defending the places where Arabs attacked Jews on the streets less than an hour from Tel Aviv for days on end.
I don't think this is because we don't know what's going on. It's because we, the Jewish people of Israel, feel helpless to do anything about it.
This is how we know that something has been wrong in Jerusalem these last 74 years. Maybe the right thing to do is insist that our government act like Mashiah, then wait for them to admit they can't?
Or, maybe they won't admit that they can't, they'll be proud that they won't?
Do they really want to preside over a living Jewish state, or over its death?
You really have to ask questions like this if you want anything in Israel to make sense, from pleading with Arabs to stay and benefit from the Jewish state in 1948, to more than one eviction of Jews from places in the Land of Israel that they refuse to administer (1982, from the Sinai and 2005 from Gush Qatif and northern Shomron are two that come off the top of my head; and I seem to recall writing about a more recent one as well), to not only refusing to defend Jews under direct fire on the streets of Haifa, Lod and other places near Tel Aviv, but actually arresting individual Jews who were defending themselves, just a week ago. Keeping Israel small, and Jews here and around the world defenseless and confused, doesn't help keep this people viable. It keeps us perpetually on the edge of extinction.
***only ha qadosh baruch hu keeps us alive and viable ***
In addition, our government has become the bearer of broken promises and has become a glaringly obvious and embarrassing joke. The
multi-national hodgepodge of a system we have does not serve the nation,
and at this point we should consider abandoning it. We have been
patient with it long enough.
Do we really need all this to get us to return to the Creator of the Universe, to keep His laws, to be unashamed to call ourselves a Malchuth, with a real king, a descendant of Melech David, and not a Medinah? If we do, and we want to live to see the end of this, we have to do it NOW. And not just go to yeshiva or seminar (women's version) and learn the usual things that Jews learn the world over — our learning has to be deeper and encompass the land and the instruments of governance so that ALL of the Torah of Moshe Rabbenu can be kept here when the time comes and Mashiah is revealed.
...and may it come quickly!
Pride and smirking should not be on the faces of those who, whether openly or secretly, run this country. They've proved that they can't even run a "normal," regular country, let alone the Nation of Israel, whose surviving people came straight from the Devastation* to their homeland. Or at least that's what a lot of people claim. In fact, the process of reestablishing our homeland in its place has been a long one and is still ongoing (and, no thanks to those who are directly involved in delaying us). At some point, we will have to turn our national elections, going on part 5 at this point, into a vote on which system we are going to live under. And the Biblical kingdom model had better be on the ballot.
I think we could be considering next steps, now that clarity has come to a great many of us that the Arabs among us have never intended to live in peace with us. Finally, at last, we get that. But it's not only the Arabs, it's also the Christians who take advantage of poor and struggling Jews to bring their "good news" to them. The Arabs hate us to death physically; the Christians love us to death spiritually.
There are reasons that G-d, who gave the Jewish people this precious Land, didn't want us to allow idol worshipers and others who live foreign lifestyles to live here permanently; in Hebrew it's called, lo techanem (do not have compassion — from Deuteronomy/Devarim 7:2). We are seeing the results of that now. When are we going to acknowledge reality, even to the point of risking the opposition of the rest of the world?
Why not consider a kingdom, backed up by a Great Assembly of 120 men and a Kohanic system of 24 watches and a House to do their holy work and Levi'im to back them up with song?
But first, we need to make sure HQB"H is really the King in our lives.
When we pray and whatever else we do, particularly those of us who live in Eretz Yisrael, we must keep ourselves oriented to the fact that we are here in our Holy Land, regardless of where and what traditions we come from.
I have an illustrative picture of the siddur I pray from at home in this post for a reason, and I wanted to write about it many months ago. Perhaps I still will, but at least this is a beginning.
We must not put up with injustices supported by our "justice" system. The Land can't stand it, and neither should we.
A couple of recent examples:
- "To this day, no one has told me how my father lost his life." - Shai Tzfarti, who lost his father Moshe in Meron. And what about the families of the other 44 qorbanot? Where is the justice???
Also, you can now download the explosive new investigative report that the government doesn’t want you to read:
Meron: Accident or Murder? (PDF)
- We are at war today (cease-fires don't mean the war's over, by the way) because the government evicted every single last Jew — even the dead ones — from Gush Katif in 2005 and gave the land to the Arabs, who destroyed all the things they left for them. They've had a great place to shoot us from and otherwise make war for the last 16 years. And the High/Low Court can't bring itself to decide to resolve the decades-old problem in the Shimon haTzaddik/Sheik Jarrah neighborhood of Yerushalayim, whereby ARABS won't lower themselves pay rent to the mere JEWS who only own the property!!! - giving said Arabs the excuse to continue the war they've been waging, both openly and clandestinely, for the last 74 years.
Don't forget that Yitzhak Avinu lived in the Aza area during his lifetime, and he was commanded never to live outside of Eretz haKodesh because he was a living sacrifice!
When the Arabs quit their jobs or even look at their bosses funny, it should be remembered that Lavan the Wicked started looking at Yaacov Avinu strangely too, before Yaacov realized that he should leave and go home.
In our case, we are home, so we should, as more than one business owner did on the "day of rage" that occurred on Isru Hag Shavuot, fire the Arabs who decide not to come to work, and look for Jews to replace them.
This is our last stand. We are home, and we're not going anywhere.
One last word:
Don't exaggerate the situation, but don't underestimate it, either...
...לא להגזים במצב, גם לא לזלזל בו
*direct translation of Shoah שואה (the Hebrew word for Holocaust). I am using the term "Devastation" in English because 1) it is one of its original Biblical meanings (see here and here) and 2) the word holocaust means "a sacrifice consumed by fire" (the implication being that the murder of as many Jews as possible was a "holy" project — an offensive description indeed; besides which, most of the murders were either shootings or gassings.) Thankfully, as the proverb says, we got up yet again...and, with G-d's help, we will keep getting up.
More reading:
What about Israeli civilians? | Covid-19, the Meron Tragedy, Hamas Missile Attacks, Rioting Yishmaelim,
the Bleacher Tragedy in Givat Zev—What's the Underlying Message? | Rambam and Aliyah to the Temple Mount | Israel is Stuck. | What's Next? | Wake Up, Israel! | Sovereign or Satellite? | No Doubt in My Mind | The State of Israel: G-d's
Hand or Satan's? Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 | Intended Consequences | A Letter to our Prime Minister and all 120 Knesset Members |
