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Monday, October 27, 2008

Continuing the Mapai traditions

From ben-chorin:

Event 1: At 10:00 PM, PM Livni announces that negotiations with Shas have reached a deadlock and we are headed to elections.
Event 2: At 1:00 AM, by order of DM Barak, hundreds of troops destroy Noam Federman's house near Hevron with no warning and a maximum of violence and cruelty (press barred) predictably leading to local hotheads making an ugly scene (press invited) predictably leading to the usual suspects condemning all settlers and fanning the flames of hatred.

If you think this is a coincidence, ask yourself: cui bono?

Sunday, September 28, 2008

וּנְתַנֶּה תּקֶף







We shall ascribe holiness to this day.
For it is awesome and terrible.
Your kingship is exalted upon it.
Your throne is established in mercy.
You are enthroned upon it in truth.
In truth You are the judge,
The exhorter, the all‑knowing, the witness,
He who inscribes and seals,
Remembering all that is forgotten.
You open the book of remembrance
Which proclaims itself,
And the seal of each person is there.
The great shofar is sounded,
A still small voice is heard.
The angels are dismayed,
They are seized by fear and trembling
As they proclaim: Behold the Day of Judgment!
For all the hosts of heaven are brought for judgment.
They shall not be guiltless in Your eyes
And all creatures shall parade before You as a troop.
As a shepherd herds his flock,
Causing his sheep to pass beneath his staff,
So do You cause to pass, count, and record,
Visiting the souls of all living,
Decreeing the length of their days,
Inscribing their judgment.
On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed,
And on Yom Kippur it is sealed.
How many shall pass away and how many shall be born,
Who shall live and who shall die,
Who shall reach the end of his days and who shall not,
Who shall perish by water and who by fire,
Who by sword and who by wild beast,
Who by famine and who by thirst,
Who by earthquake and who by plague,
Who by strangulation and who by stoning,
Who shall have rest and who shall wander,
Who shall be at peace and who shall be pursued,
Who shall be at rest and who shall be tormented,
Who shall be exalted and who shall be brought low,
Who shall become rich and who shall be impoverished.
But repentance, prayer and righteousness avert the severe decree.

For Your praise is in accordance with Your name. You are difficult to anger and easy to appease. For You do not desire the death of the condemned, but that he turn from his path and live. Until the day of his death You wait for him. Should he turn, You will receive him at once. In truth You are their Creator and You understand their inclination, for they are but flesh and blood. The origin of man is dust, his end is dust. He earns his bread by exertion and is like a broken shard, like dry grass, a withered flower, like a passing shadow and a vanishing cloud, like a breeze that blows away and dust that scatters, like a dream that flies away. But You are King, God who lives for all eternity! There is no limit to Your years, no end to the length of Your days, no measure to the hosts of Your glory, no understanding the meaning of Your Name. Your Name is fitting unto You and You are fitting unto it, and our name has been called by Your Name. Act for the sake of Your Name and sanctify Your Name through those who sanctity Your Name.

וּנְתַנֶּה תּקֶף קְדֻשַּׁת הַיּום
כִּי הוּא נורָא וְאָיום
וּבו תִנָּשֵׂא מַלְכוּתֶךָ
וְיִכּון בְּחֶסֶד כִּסְאֶךָ
וְתֵשֵׁב עָלָיו בֶּאֱמֶת.
אֱמֶת כִּי אַתָּה הוּא דַיָּן וּמוכִיחַ וְיודֵעַ וָעֵד
וְכותֵב וְחותֵם וְסופֵר וּמונֶה.
וְתִזְכּר כָּל הַנִּשְׁכָּחות,
וְתִפְתַּח אֶת סֵפֶר הַזִּכְרונות.
וּמֵאֵלָיו יִקָּרֵא.
וְחותָם יַד כָּל אָדָם בּו.
וּבְשׁופָר גָּדול יִתָּקַע.
וְקול דְּמָמָה דַקָּה יִשָּׁמַע.
וּמַלְאָכִים יֵחָפֵזוּן.
וְחִיל וּרְעָדָה יאחֵזוּן.
וְיאמְרוּ הִנֵּה יום הַדִּין.
לִפְקד עַל צְבָא מָרום בַּדִּין.
כִּי לא יִזְכּוּ בְעֵינֶיךָ בַּדִּין.
וְכָל בָּאֵי עולָם יַעַבְרוּן לְפָנֶיךָ כִּבְנֵי מָרון.
כְּבַקָּרַת רועֶה עֶדְרו.
מַעֲבִיר צאנו תַּחַת שִׁבְטו.
כֵּן תַּעֲבִיר וְתִסְפּר וְתִמְנֶה וְתִפְקד נֶפֶשׁ כָּל חָי.
וְתַחְתּךְ קִצְבָה לְכָל בְּרִיּותֶיךָ.
וְתִכְתּב אֶת גְּזַר דִּינָם:
בְּראשׁ הַשָּׁנָה יִכָּתֵבוּן
וּבְיום צום כִּפּוּר יֵחָתֵמוּן
כַּמָּה יַעַבְרוּן וְכַמָּה יִבָּרֵאוּן
מִי יִחְיֶה וּמִי יָמוּת.
מִי בְקִצּו וּמִי לא בְקִצּו
מִי בַמַּיִם. וּמִי בָאֵשׁ
מִי בַחֶרֶב. וּמִי בַחַיָּה
מִי בָרָעָב. וּמִי בַצָּמָא
מִי בָרַעַשׁ. וּמִי בַמַּגֵּפָה
מִי בַחֲנִיקָה וּמִי בַסְּקִילָה
מִי יָנוּחַ וּמִי יָנוּעַ
מִי יִשָּׁקֵט וּמִי יִטָּרֵף
מִי יִשָּׁלֵו. וּמִי יִתְיַסָּר
מִי יֵעָנִי. וּמִי יֵעָשֵׁר
מִי יִשָּׁפֵל. וּמִי יָרוּם
וּתְשׁוּבָה וּתְפִלָּה וּצְדָקָה
מַעֲבִירִין אֶת רעַ הַגְּזֵרָה
כִּי כְּשִׁמְךָ כֵּן תְּהִלָּתֶךָ
קָשֶׁה לִכְעס וְנוחַ לִרְצות
כִּי לא תַחְפּץ בְּמות הַמֵּת
כִּי אִם בְּשׁוּבו מִדַּרְכּו וְחָיָה
וְעַד יום מותו תְּחַכֶּה לּו
אִם יָשׁוּב מִיַּד תְּקַבְּלו.
אֱמֶת כִּי אַתָּה הוּא יוצְרָם
וְאַתָּה יודֵעַ יִצְרָם
כִּי הֵם בָּשָׂר וָדָם.
אָדָם יְסודו מֵעָפָר, וְסופו לֶעָפָר
בְּנַפְשׁו יָבִיא לַחְמו
מָשׁוּל כְּחֶרֶס הַנִּשְׁבָּר
כְּחָצִיר יָבֵשׁ וּכְצִיץ נובֵל
כְּצֵל עובֵר וּכְעָנָן כָּלָה
וּכְרוּחַ נושָׁבֶת וּכְאָבָק פּורֵחַ
וְכַחֲלום יָעוּף.
וְאַתָּה הוּא מֶלֶךְ אֵל חַי וְקַיָּם
אֵין קִצְבָה לִשְׁנותֶיךָ. וְאֵין קֵץ לְארֶךְ יָמֶיךָ
וְאֵין לְשַׁעֵר מַרְכְּבות כְּבודֶךָ.
וְאֵין לְפָרֵשׁ עֵלוּם שְׁמֶך
שִׁמְךָ נָאֶה לְךָ. וְאַתָּה נָאֶה לִשְׁמֶךָ.
וּשְׁמֵנוּ קָרָאתָ בִּשְׁמֶךָ.
עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן שְׁמֶךָ. וְקַדֵּשׁ אֶת שִׁמְךָ עַל מַקְדִּישֵׁי שְׁמֶךָ
בַּעֲבוּר כְּבוד שִׁמְךָ הַנַּעֲרָץ וְהַנִּקְדָּשׁ
כְּסוד שִׂיחַ שַׂרְפֵי קדֶשׁ
הַמַּקְדִּישִׁים שִׁמְךָ בַּקּדֶשׁ
דָּרֵי מַעְלָה עִם דָּרֵי מַטָּה
קורְאִים וּמְשַׁלְּשִׁים בְּשִׁלּוּשׁ קְדֻשָּׁה בַּקּדֶשׁ.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Some common ground

There is not much common ground between my approach to Torah and that of, let's say, a yeshiva student from Ponovitch. However, in the spirit of Elul, I do think that there is common ground. In 1990, Rav Shach zt"l gave a famous speech which became known as the "speech of rabbits and pigs." In this speech, he gave what has been called the single clearest expression of the gulf between the identity of the chareidi world and that of the secular one. Now, there is little common ground between my hashkafa and that of Rav Shach. In approaches to nationalism, military strength, politics, chabbad, secular studies, and many other areas, we are on opposite ends of the spectrum. However, I find myself agreeing with the main thrust of this speech:


"אלפיים שנה אנחנו לבד בידיים ריקות, אין לנו נשק. איך אפשר לעמוד? ואנחנו ניצחנו - אנחנו עומדים וקיימים. מה הסוד בזה?... המופת היא: אני יהודי ואני חזק יותר מהם. יהרגו אותי, אבל בניי יישארו בחיים. אני לא ניתקתי מורשת אבותיי... אני אלך בדרך האבא, בדרך הסבא ובדרך הסבתא... אני אלמד את חוכמתי שלי, את הקולטורא שלי"
...
"אתה גם יהודי, אתה נימול, אבל אתה יודע את הקולטורא שלך? מה הקולטורא שלך? אנגלית? זה הקולטורא שלך? ... אתה פותח את החומש אתה יודע פירוש המילות?"
...
"אם יש קיבוצים שלא יודעים מה זה יום כיפור, לא יודעים מה זה שבת ולא יודעים מה זה מקווה. מגדלים שפנים וחזירים. יש להם קשר עם האבא שלהם? ... מערך? מערך זה דבר קדוש? הם ניתקו את עצמם מכל העבר שלנו ומבקשים תורה חדשה. אם אין שבת ואין יום כיפור, אז במה הוא יהודי?"
...
"יש כאלה שיאמרו שהדברים שאני אומר הם דברים של פאנאטיקער, דברים אלטע זאכן. אבל התורה הקדושה אומרת: 'כי היא חוכמתם ובינתכם לעיני העמים' ומעידה שהתורה היא חוכמת היהודים בעיני האומות".


For 2000 years we were alone with empty hands and without weapons. How can one stand [in such a situation]? And yet we were victorious - we are alive and standing. What is the secret? ... the wonder is: I am a Jew and I am stronger than them. They can murder me, but my children will still live. I have not cut myself off from my heritage... I go in the ways of my father, in the ways of my grandfather and my grandmother... I will teach MY wisdom, MY culture
...
You are also Jewish, you were circumcised, but do you know your culture? What IS your culture? English? That is your culture? when you open the Torah, do you understand the words?
...
If there are kibbutzim who do not know what Yom Kippur is, don't know what Shabbat is, and don't what a mikva is. They raise rabbits and pigs. Do they have a connection to their father? ... Labor [the political party]? Labor is something holy? They have cut themselves off from our past and they want a new Torah. If there is no Shabbat and no Yom Kippur, what makes them Jewish?
...
There are those who will say that my words are those of a fanatic - of an old man. But the Holy Torah says: 'She [the Torah] is your wisdom in the eyes of the nations' and testifies that the Torah is the Jewish wisdom in the eyes of the nations.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

'84% of Palestinians back Mercaz attack'

How dare the Jerusalem post publicize such a racist article that makes such gross generalizations about Arabs? In case, you don't know what I am talking about, please see the following article:
'84% of Palestinians back Mercaz attack'

Don't they know what advertizing such racist drivel will do? It will reinforce the right wing's delusional assertion that the Arabs as a nation are at war with the Jews and make peace IMPOSSIBLE, c"V, c"V, c"V.

Please write to jpost and to the NYT and tell them how you are disgusted that they would advertize such racist articles! Well at least the US commander in chief still understands that Islam is a religion of peace and that the real obstacle to peace is Israeli insistence on defending her citizens. b"H that Israel has such a good friend in the white house! One who truly understands that the 16% of Arabs who are against the murder of Jewish kids represent the true tradition of the noble Arab people. b"H.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

On the Kedoshim from Merkaz HaRav

I have delayed posting regarding the massacre in Merkaz. Its very painful to me every time I begin to think about it. I have even avoided as much as possible joining in on the blog discussion on the matter - emotions run too deep. There are those Jews out there who want to see everything through a universalist lens. I can never be one of them. I see the universal as well, but only through the particularism of being a member of a chosen nation.

This is my symbolic system, my truth, the way I look at the world is through the divine as communicated to me by the Torah as understood by the tradition of the Jewish people - and I refuse to make even the smallest of concessions to western sensibilities that would strip me of this way of seeing the world.

I am not a great poet but I am a great lover of poetry and the poem which best captures my feelings regarding the martyrs of Merkaz HaRav is one written by Uri Zvi Greenberg in 1948, presumably with regard to the fallen soldiers of the war of Independence:

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The Ponevezh of old

I visited heichal shelomo last week for my eldest daughter's celebration for the recieving of her first sidur. While there, I visited the museum which includes among other wonderful things, an exhibit on Rav Itzchak Isaac Herzog zt"l. I found there a wonderful treasure:



Here is my translation:

A certificate of honor


to the brilliant chief of the all the Rabbis of Israel

Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac HaLevi Herzog Shlit"a


~ on his seventieth birthday (and many more to come) ~


our holy yeshiva proudly and with honor bequeaths

A gift from the sanctuary of the Torah



A place of honor reserved for his name next to the holy ark in the sanctuary of the yeshiva


Signed,

Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman


Wow, I wonder if this will make it into the artscroll biography.

New Biography of Rav Kahane

Here are some excerpts from the back cover of Libby Kahane's wonderful new 761 page biography of Rav Meir Kahane zt"l hy"d, Rabbi Meir Kahane - His Life and Thought, Volume One: 1932-1975:

"When the chips are down. you know who's going to fight for the Jew? Only the Jew. And it's about time we understood this." (1971)

"Jewish survival and redemption are proof eternal and ultimate that the world is not governed by logic, by sanity or by man. It is controlled and decreed by God." (1975)

"...The Jew who makes his body bend to his will is a man who has no chains on his arms. The Jew who hears the cry of fellow Jews and casts off from himself the vanities and nonsense of money and sterile status ... and leaps into the waters of duty - this is a man who has come out of Egypt." (1975)

Saturday, March 08, 2008

R' Moshe Shternbach: The majority of gedolim supported the creation of a Jewish state

R’ Moshe Shternbach, one of the leading rabbis of the extremely anti-Zionist edah haHereidit in EY, actually admits in one of his books that the majority of Gedolei Israel supported the idea of a Jewish state even before the state was created. Yes, another instance of Chareidi historical revisionism is contradicted by their own internal sources (תשובות והנהגות ח"ב סי' ק"מ):

"... ולכן טען אז ואמר (הגרי"ז זצ"ל מבריסק) הרי בכנסיה התאספו רוב גדולי הדור, והקב"ה נוטה בתר רוב, והרי הסכימו על עצם מדינה, רק חלקו אם מותר לוותר על חלקי ארץ-ישראל, ואמר אז (בשנת תרצ"ו) חוששני שיתקיים שהרי אינו קשר רשעים והם מן המנין"


"And thus he (the Brisker Rav – haGriz) said, in the convention met most of the gedolim of the generation, and Hashem tends to go after the majority, and they all agreed regarding a state in essence, they only disagreed whether it is allowed to give up parts of the land of Israel. And then he said (in 1936) ‘I fear that [the state] will be established since it was not a convention of the wicked and they are counted as part of the congregation."

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Say what?

From jpost:

Israel has informed foreign diplomats that it would reoccupy Hamas-ruled Gaza if necessary, though it prefers not to do so, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, as the IDF operated against defiant Gaza rocket squads.


So my question is: WHY THE !@#$% did you kick 10,000 Jews from their homes and destroy whole cumunities?!?!?

Can you losers ever admit you were wrong?

When we made aliya, a certain high ranking polititian got up in the welcome cerimony and started pontificating on the importance of aliah. I didn't have the guts to heckle him but if I did I would have yelled out that we are making aliya in spite of this disgraceful governement and that he has no right to preach about Jewish values to anyone.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

The absurd war imagined by Natan Alterman

Continued from here.

Here is a poem by Natan Alterman which forshadows the tragedy that is sderot. As a friend pointed out to me, alterman was a Jeremiah in a country which was enamored only with the prophesies of Isaiah:


נתן אלתרמן, הטור השביעי, תשט"ו (1955)

נְשַעֵר כִּי תּוֹתָח עַרְבִי אֶחָד,
תּוֹתָח קָט, בֶּן-בְּלִי-עֵרֶךְ, יוֹרֶה נִים-לא-נִים
יְרִיָּה רַק אַחַת, לְשָבוּעַ בִּלְבַד,
אֶל שֶטַח מַעַרְכוֹת הָעִתּוֹנִים.

נְשַעֵר כִּי עוֹרְכֵי-עִתּוֹנִים לִישִיבָה
מִזְדַּמְּנִים בְּמִקְרֶה, וּבְשוּבָם לְעֵת-עֶרֶב
אִיש רֵעוֹ שוֹאֵל: אֵיךְ אֶצְלְכֶם בַּסְּבִיבָה?
וּמֵשִיב הַנִּשְאָל: הַטְרָדוֹת קַלּוֹת-עֶרֶך…

הַטְרָדוֹת שֶל שִגְרָה. הַסְּבִיבָה דּוֹמֵמָה.
רַק מִפַּעַם לְפַעַם, בְּאֶמְצַע הַמְּלֶאכֶת,
יוֹרֵד אֵיזֶה פָּגָז עָלוּב שֶל מַרְגֵּמָה
בְּשֶטַח מַזְכִּירוּת-הַמַּעֲרֶכֶת.

חוּץ מִזֶּה כִּמְעַט אֶפֶס. מָטוֹס מַנְמִיךְ-טוּס,
וְעִם-שַחַר צְלִיפוֹת אֲחָדוֹת אֶל הַדְּפוּס.

וְאוֹמֵר הַשֵּנִי: סְבִיבָתֵנוּ גַם לָהּ
אֵין עִילָּה לִתְלוּנוֹת. רַק אַחַת לִשְבוּעַיִים
יוֹרָה אֵלֵינוּ מִין בָּזוּקָה אֻומְלָלָה
הַיְשַר בַּחַלּוֹנוֹת וּבַדְּלָתַייִם.

לִפְעָמִים אֵיזֶה הוֹביצֶר בָּנוּ הוֹלֵם.
אַךְ אֵינֶנּוּ עוֹשִׂים מִזֶּה עֵסֶק שָלֵם.

וְאוֹמֵר הַשְּלִישִי: כֵּן, אַחִים, יִהְיֶה רַע
אִם נַגִּיב הֲגָבוֹת עַל מִקְרִים שֶכָּאֵלֶּה.
תְּמוֹל אֶצְלֵנוּ כִּמְעַט נֶהֶרְסָה הַתִּקְרָה, -
אֲבָל מֵילָא.

כַּךְ דִּבְּרוּ הָעוֹרְכִים, וְלִבִּי (שֶנִּימַת
אַקְטִיבִיזְם-מֻובְהָק לא נִימַת יְסוֹדוֹ הִיא)
סָח לִי חֶרֶש: רְאֵה כִּי שֻוכְנַעְתִּי כִּמְעַט
מִן הַיַּחַס הַזֶּה הַסְּטוֹאִי.

וְרַק רַחַש סָפֵק בִּי שָאַל, אִם אָמְנָם
לֹא הָיָה מִתְעַרְעֵר מְעַט קַו הַשִּכְנוּעַ
לוּ שָכְנוּ בֶּאֱמֶת עִתּוֹנֵינוּ אֵי-שָם
וְהָיוּ מְקַבְּלִים "רַק" פָּגָז לְשָבוּעַ…

רַק פָּגָז לְשָבוּעַ – לֹא כֵן? – עִם צְלִיפוֹת
אֲחָדוֹת בְּכָל-יוֹם אֶל חֲדַר הַיְשִיבוֹת…

יִתָּכֵן כִּי הָיוּ הֵם דּוֹרְשִים אָז בְּקוֹל
לְסַלֵּק וִיהִי-מָה כָּל עֶמְדָה שֶל טִיוּוּחַ…
יִתָּכֵן וְהָיוּ דּוֹרְשִים זאת בְּלִי כָל
הִסְתַּיְּיגוּת… מִי יוֹדֵעַ אֶת דֶּרֶךְ הָרוּחַ…

הָעִיקָּר לִפְעָמִים (זאת הִרְגַּשְנוּ מִכְּבָר)
אֵינוֹ כֵּן-אַקְטִיבִיזְם אוֹ לֹא-אַקְטִיבִיזְם…
הָעִיקָּר הוּא שֶקְּצָת בְּרִחוֹק מִן הַסְּפָר
קַל לָדוּן בַּדְּבָרִים מֵעֶמְדָה שֶל כְּתִיבִיזְם…

זֶה מַשְפִּיעַ.. מַשְפִּיעַ אוּלַי עַל שָורְשָן
שֶל דֵּעוֹת. טוֹב דִּיוּן שֶצָּלוּל וּמַקִּיף הוּא,
אַךְ נִקְבַּעַת אוּלַי הַשְקָפַת הַפַּרְשָן
גַּם לְפִי הַמָּקוֹם שֶמִּמֶּנּוּ מַשְקִיף הוּא.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The Shofar Blower

From God's Middlemen: A Habad Retrospective : Stories of Mystical Rabbis:

By Reuven Alpert

He was known in Jerusalem simply as the "baal tokeya," the "shofar blower."
When the British forbade Jews from blowing the shofar at the Wailing Wall, he was the young man who had the guts to sound the traditional ram's horn at the conclusion of Yom Kippur. He was promptly imprisoned by the mandatory authorities and subsequently freed only after the personal intervention of Rav Kook, the chief rabbi. Rav Kook threatened not to break his fast until the "offender" was set loose.

When I became acquainted with Rabbi Moshe Segal, he was already an old man, but none of the idealism of youth had left him.

I had been sent by Rav Zevi Yehuda Kook to meet someone at a demonstration at Hakirya, the seat of the Israeli government. The small crowd outside Prime Minister Begin's office were mostly students of Rav Kook's yeshiva, there to protest Begin's ceding Jewish land to surrounding Arab nations. On the platform, spoke a slight man with a white beard. He had about him all the intensity of an Israelite prophet of old. Imagine my surprise when the "prophet" actually began to speak the ancient Hebrew words from the Book of Kings concerning Ahab, King of Israel and Ben Haddad, King of Aram. I never found the person I was supposed to meet, but my encounter with the prophet was more than sufficient reward.

Toward the end of his days, Rav Segal worked as a civil servant in Jerusalem's religious council. His relationship to the office was nothing less than Kafkaesque. The dreamer and fighter for Israel's independence, the ideologist of Berit ha-Hashmonaim ("Covenant of the Hasmoneans"), a religious offshoot of Jabotinsky's Revisionist movement, was reduced to politely listening to the idle chatter of his fellow civil servants.

In the privacy of his cubicle, he unburdened himself. Like so many of Israel's pioneers, he had come from Russia. What hadn't he done for his country? He had dried her swamps, paved her roads. But this was a pious pioneer. He had been one of the original founders of Kefar Habad, the Habad village near Lod, in the first years of the state.

His home town of Poltava, as many Russian towns, contained a mixed population of hasidim and mitnagdim. The rabbi of the hasidic community had been Jacob Mordecai Bezpulov, study companion to the Rebbe Rashab. The mitnagdim were led by Rabbi Elijah Akiba Rabinowitz, editor of the anti-Zionist Ha-Peless. In his youth, Segal knew Rabbi Hayyim Eliezer Bichovsky, who in the teens published in Poltava several important works of Habad hasidism. Torah Judaism was given a morale boost when, as a result of the upheavals of the First World War, the Mirrer Yeshiva, one of Lithuania's finest Talmudic academies, relocated to Poltava, Ukraine. The earnestness of the students, with whom he became intimately acquainted, made an indelible impression on Segal.

Yes, Segal was a Habadnik, but his love for Erets Yisrael came first. He had never seen the Rebbe, unwilling to leave the land for even a visit of such importance. He had seen the previous rebbe, Joseph Isaac, on the latter's pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1928.

In 1967, right after the capture of the Old City of Jerusalem, he moved in. At first he was a lone Jew sleeping in the rubble of the former Jewish Quarter. His only neighbors were Arabs. Later, other Jews arrived, and today the area throbs with Jewish life.

He was thoroughly disillusioned with Begin. "I knew something was wrong when he formed a coalition with the Liberals. What has happened is that he is totally caught up in his mythos of peace."

He remonstrated with me to revive the vision, to go out to secular, leftist Israeli youth and implant in them the spirit.

"When I was young, we had none of the vessels but we had the light. Today, we have the vessels, all the trappings of statehood, but we have lost the light."

Rabbi Moshe Segal was no longer the kinetic youth. Old age had descended upon him and he broke down crying old man's tears.

Fittingly, Rabbi Moshe Segal passed away on Yom Kippur. As his grandson expressed it, those lungs that had suffered so much sent heavenward their last shrill note, "Tekiyah!"

Monday, January 21, 2008

An open letter to the world

Cross currents has a post written by R' Avi Shafran responding to the anti-Semitic piece written by Arun Gandhi for the "On Faith" blog. The response is ok but the article by Gandhi brought to my mind a letter written in 1988. In 1988 an open letter to the world was submitted anonymously to various Jewish press outlets. Most of them ran the piece. After the letter was already published, Rav Meir Kahane Zt"l Hy"d came out as the author of the letter at which point all these outlets apologized for running it. Funny how the content of the letter seemed fine to them before they found out who wrote it. In any case, here is the text of the open letter:

Dear World,

It Appears That You Are Hard To Please.

I understand that you are upset over us, here in Israel. Indeed, it appears that you are quite upset, even angry and outraged? Indeed, every few years you seem to become upset over us. Today, it is the brutal repression of the Palestinians; yesterday, it was Lebanon; before that it was the bombing of the nuclear reactor in Baghdad and the Yom Kippur War campaign. It appears that Jews who triumph and who, therefore, live, upset you most extraordinarily. Of course, dear world, long before there was an Israel, we, the Jewish people - upset you. We upset a German people who elected a Hitler and we upset an Austrian people who cheered his entry into Vienna and we upset a whole slew of Slavic nations - Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Russians, Hungarians, Romanians. And we go back a long, long way in the history of world upset. We upset the Cossacks of Chmielnicki who massacred tens of thousands of us in 1648-49; we upset the Crusaders who, on their way to liberate the Holy Land, were so upset at Jews that they slaughtered untold numbers of us. We upset, for centuries, a Roman Catholic Church that did its best to define our relationship through Inquisitions. And we upset the arch-enemy of the Church, Martin Luther, who, in his call to burn the synagogues and the Jews within them, showed an admirable Christian ecumenical spirit.

It is because we became so upset over upsetting you, dear world, that we decided to leave you - in a manner of speaking - and establish a Jewish State.

The reasoning was that living in close contact with you, as resident-strangers in the various countries that comprise you, we upset you, irritate you, disturb you. What better notion, then, than to leave you and thus love you - and have you love us? And so we decided to come home - to the same homeland from which we were driven out 1,900 years earlier by a Roman world that, apparently, we also upset. Alas, dear world, it appears that you are hard to please. Having left you and your Pogroms and Inquisitions and Crusades and Holocausts, having taken our leave of the general world to live alone in our own little state - we continue to upset you.

You are upset that we repress the poor Palestinians. You are deeply angered over the fact that we do not give up the lands of 1967, which are clearly the obstacle to peace in the Middle East. Moscow is upset and Washington is upset.

The Arabs are upset and the gentle Egyptian moderates are upset. Well, dear world, consider the reaction of a normal Jew from Israel. In 1920, 1921 and 1929, there were no territories of 1967 to impede peace between Jews and Arabs. Indeed, there was no Jewish State to upset anybody. Nevertheless, the same oppressed and repressed Palestinians slaughtered hundreds of Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Safed and Hebron. Indeed, 67 Jews were slaughtered one day in Hebron - in 1929. Dear world, why did the Arabs - the Palestinians - massacre 67 Jews in one day in 1929? Could it have been their anger over Israeli aggression in 1967?

And why were 510 Jewish men, women and children slaughtered in Arab riots in 1936-39? Was it because of Arab upset over 1967? And when you, World, proposed a U.N. Partition Plan in 1947 that would have created a Palestinian State alongside a tiny Israel and the Arabs cried and went to war and killed 6,000 Jews - was that upset stomach caused by the aggression of 1967? And, by the way, dear world, why did we not hear your cry of upset, then?

The poor Palestinians who today kill Jews with explosives and firebombs and stones are part of the same people who - when they had all the territories they now demand be given them for their state - attempted to drive the Jewish State into the sea. The same twisted faces, the same hate, the same cry of "idbah-al-yahud" - "Slaughter the Jews!" that we hear and see today, were seen and heard then. The same people, the same dream - destroy Israel. What they failed to do yesterday, they dream of today - but we should not "repress" them..............

Dear world, you stood by the Holocaust and you stood by in 1948 as seven states launched a war that the Arab League proudly compared to the Mongol massacres. You stood by in 1967 as Nasser, wildly cheered by wild mobs in every Arab capital in the world, vowed to drive the Jews into the sea. And you would stand by tomorrow if Israel were facing extinction. And since we know that the Arabs-Palestinians daily dream of that extinction, we will do everything possible to remain alive in our own land. If that bothers you, dear world, well - think of how many times in the past you bothered us. In any event, dear world, if you are bothered by us, here is one Jew in Israel who could not care less.