Ramchal - 2nd Hakafa

Continued from here.

In the second hakafa we descend into our own reality. The full pain of galus is confronted in all its lowliness:



More humble. Less proud. The nation has to distill the core of the message while being stripped of all its institutions. The tone is more pleading than the first hakafat but even in exile the nation must be aware of its internal nature, but in a lower tone – “May Your eyes turn towards the faithful, and may You have mercy over the humble.” We recognize the ultimate justice of Hashem and ask that he have mercy on us. The tone is more passive just as the nature of exile is passive.

This is the direct opposite pole of the first hakafa. If in the first hakafa we want to instill awareness of our special active nature, in the second we must inculcate the idea the human activity by itself can never lead to redemption. We must realize that there is Divine providence which guides the world and that our actions must be in sync with that providence so that together, our action and Hashem’s providence will bring the world to its perfection.

We shall see in the third hakafa how this passivity must turn into active longing for Hashem. That, however is for another post.

Ramchal - 1st Hakafa

Continued from here.

The first Hakafa is joined by a chapter from the tehillim of the Ramchal:



The chapter starts by pointing out the impossibility of adequately expressing the greatness of Hashem. “Who will tell Your praise Hashem?” and the answer “We are Your servants, Hashem, You have made us. We will say Your Truth for all eternity! Together we will bless You!”

To be able to function as an individual one must be self-aware. One must know their abilities, their limitations, and their purpose. The same is true for the nation. A nation must know its special and unique nature in order to function properly. Thus the Ramchal has us declare that we are a nation whose ability and purpose is to declare the praise of Hashem in this world.

This hakafa is a set up for all the others. It is a mission statement that should make us aware that we have a task which no other nation can fulfill. We must make sure that Hashem’s name is praised through our national and communal life. This is something that the chapter seems to imply is only possible when we function as a national unit. This chapter represents our desire in its most ideal. We shall see that later hakafot are more aware of the limitations of reality but not this hakafa. One must start on a journey fully aware of what SHOULD BE. Only such awareness can give one the strength to engage reality in all its imperfections.

I will try to continue this series for the rest of the week. (I am just curious. Is anyone interested in this or does it just interest me?)

Ramchal - before the hakafot begin

In light of my previous post on the Ramchal’s simchat Torah service, I thought I would start a series of post regarding the entire service the Ramchal innovated for the evening hakafot.

What we have left from the Ramchal is mostly his later writings. The vast majority of his most original and profound work was lost to us due the Herem of the Rabbis of Venice who succeeded in driving his esoteric and eschatological writings out of the public eye. One of the works which is lost to us is a “sefer tehilim” that the Ramchal composed in biblical Hebrew. We are lucky however that several chapters of this work made their way into liturgical writings which survived the ban. Out of the 150 chapters, only about 13 have survived and the Ramchal’s simchat Torah liturgy preserves 7 chapters in their entirety. I would like to attempt a series of post which will analyze the Ramchal’s approach to simchat Torah in light of the liturgy which he composed.

I would like to start with the following supplication, composed by the ramchal for recitation after the evening service is complete:



The recurring theme in this prayer is the choseness of the Jewish people and our collective experience as a Divine nation. The prayer also focuses on the special relationship between the Jewish people and Hashem, accentuating how the relationship is stronger than the one between Hashem and the other nations of the world. Special emphasis is given to the special providence which the Jewish people merit in this world – even in the state of exile. The prayer seems to also be very cognizant of our current state of exile and its theological implications.

What is missing from this prayer (and from that matter from the entire service) is any mention of the Torah. The entire service is completely involved with the nation and its relationship with the Divine. Even the type of personal relationship with the Divine whose achievement is the central focus of Messilat Yesharim is almost completely missing from this liturgy.

It seems that to the Ramchal, the national celebration of the Torah must reflect our national nature. Further – The joy of the day must not be achieved through the external aspect of the Torah as a separate entity but rather as the celebration of the Jewish people as a “Torah nation”, a nation whose very national soul is identical with the spirit of the Torah.

In my mind, I try to imagine how the Ramchal would see the act of circling the bima holding sifrei Torah. I do not think that he would view the ritual as an act of the Jewish people showing respect to an external revelation but rather as a conflation of the sefer Torah with the Jewish people who together experience joy as they start to realize that they both represent the imprint of the infinite upon this coarse and finite world.

Hopefully, as we go through the 7 hakafot, we will find even greater clarity and insight into how the Ramchal saw the holiday as one of both national and eschatological significance.

To the process of ideas in Israel

MevaseretZion has a great summary of Rav Kook's masterpiece, "To the process of ideas in Israel."

Check it out!

Ramchal on Simchat Torah

This is a poem the Ramchal wrote to be included in the Simchat Torah liturgy after the 7th hakafah. Read it carefully. The ramchal saw the hakafot as being expressive of the desire of the Jewish people to return to the land of Israel and see it rebuilt.

The hakafot may have been seen by the Ramchal as a re-enactment of the hakafot that the Jewish people observed before the conquest of Yericho. The ritual may demonstrate that the the ultimate purpose of Torah is not just abstract thought but also to bring that abstract thought down into the world.

In other words, the purpose of simchat Torah to the ramchal was not simply to have abstract joy engendered by the Torah but rather to channel that joy towards real spiritual and physical goals.

How do you understand this poem in light of the traditional theme of simchat Torah?

Excerpts from the secular bible

Jameel posts here about the response of MK Oron to criticism of his perverted legislation proposing to outlaw Jewish outreach to minors.

I will not be posting about the actual content of the letter. Rather I want to focus on the concluding sentence of the letter:

אני מבין שאתה לא מסכים עם דעתי זו ולכן איש איש באמונתו יחיה

I understand that you disagree with my viewpoint, and therefore, "[every] person in his own faith shall live"

The last portion of the sentence איש איש באמונתו יחיה is often used by secular Israelis to connote the ideal of freedom of conscience for all. They often quote it in a ‘biblical’ manner and I am pretty sure that many are convinced that this is actually a biblical verse. In truth, it is a prime example of the appropriation of a biblical concept by secular Zionism and turning it into a slogan either ambivalent or hostile towards religion.

In our holy literature, the phrase which closest approximates the above form is found in the book of Habakkuk 2:4

הִנֵּה עֻפְּלָה, לֹא-יָשְׁרָה נַפְשׁוֹ בּוֹ; וְצַדִּיק, בֶּאֱמוּנָתוֹ יִחְיֶה.

Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright in him; but the righteous shall live by his faith.

Traditionally, this concept has been used in our writings to teach the importance of being faithful to our God and His Torah. Of being true to our traditions and living a life of faith and goodness. It is a shame that instead of learning about our beautiful heritage, there are MKs who would rather legislate laws in order to keep large segments of society ignorant of it – and using corruptions of biblical verses no less!

Yom Kippur Thoughts

Pre Yom-Kippur thoughts. The Maggid of Mezritch writes (צוואת הריב"ש, עמ' י-יא):

ואני בוטח בו שהוא ברא כל העולמות בדבריו יש מאין והכל מאין נגדו והוא משגיח עליהם לתת להם שפע וחיותם וכ"ש שיכול להוריד לי כח וישגיח בחסדיו גם עלי ויצילני שלא יבטל אותי יצה"ר בשום דבר בענויי שיאמר לי שאני חלש ונתייבשו המוחין שלי וכן כמה פיתויים

I trust in Him – that He Who created all the worlds through His word Ex Nihilo and compared to Whom all of existence is nullified and He watches over them [the worlds] to give them their sustenance – All the more so that He can grant me strength and in His mercy watch over me and that He shall rescue me so that my evil inclination will not afflict me by saying that I am weak and that my intellect has dulled and other similar enticements.

This basic idea in chassidus is quite revolutionary in its implications. It straddles quietism and activism simultaneously seeing man as that creature in the world which can passively receive and behold divine Will while at the same time seeing man’s personal strength and activity as the correct manner in which to channel that Will. Many people see teshuva as a process which weakens man’s will and forces him to come to terms with his own failings and his true insignificance in the world. The approach of the Mezritcher is the exact opposite –any view which causes man to acknowledge his own weakness is a result of the evil inclination. Each of us must become strengthened and aware of our abilities to channel the light of Hashem into this dark world. This task will not be achieved through acknowledgement of weakness but rather by a strengthening of the divine component of our will.

May we all merit to gain more strength this Yom Kippur. May Hashem forgive all the sins of the Jewish people and may this year be the year of our final redemption.

Shana Tova

I recieved the following Dvar Torah from one of the readers. I thought it was very beautiful and wanted to share it with everyone:

Rav Yitzchak Izik Sher (Leket Sichot Mussar, Vol 2, p. 34) quotes a famous statement of Maimonides (Rambam) that every single person has merits (mitzvot) and negative acts (aveirot). One whose merits are greater is “good”, one whose negative acts are greater is “evil”, and one whose merits and negative acts are equal is “in the middle” – which is how we should view ourselves, especially at this time of year. The Rambam complicates this statement by adding that there are certain positive acts which, alone, equate to many negative acts and vice versa – however, the only one who can make such a calculation is G-d. Rav Sher, quoting a number of sources, raises the question – how do we know if we are doing enough to make sure that we are being judged favorably? What should our approach be to raise ourselves to the level of a “good” person, worthy of a positive judgment on Rosh HaShana?

Rav Sher suggests a marvelously simple yet profound approach that can be applied to all mitzvot as well as to avoid negative acts. When performing a mitzvah, it is not simply enough to comply with the legal requirements, rather, one must also do it with one’s heart as well. By looking at a positive act not simply as an obligation, but as a way of life, worthy of sacrifice and effort, one is transformed as the mitzvah is no longer an abstract act, but rather a way of life that serves to improve not only the participant, but all of those impacted by it as well. We do not know how G-d views that specific mitzvah – whether or not it counts for a lot or a little, but we can certainly use the heartfelt emotion and feeling as a means to truly enhance and improve our overall lives.

The demographic problem

Read about what you can do to help on MevaseretZion.

Various musings

Arutz Sheva reports that a recent study showed 44% of chareidi men are actively engaged in the work force. I have to assume that this number will increase as the community grows and as economic reality becomes more pressing.

The reason I am posting this is so that next time someone starts ranting about how the chareidim live off the backs of others, this should be brought up. nearly half support themselves to the best of their abilities and the other half (many of whom dedicate their time to learning) can hardly be considered to be living in the lap of luxury on the backs of others.

I have seen many blogs bring up sectarian issues lately. I think this is wrong and harmful - especially in this month of Elul when we should be concentrating on that which binds us and not that which separates us. All who choose to accept upon themselves the framework of Torah are bound together in an eternal covenant. There are very serious disagreements and debates that will probably continue for a long time - sometimes these disagreements lead to speech and terms that cross the lines of propriety. However, at the end of the day we must re-assert the covenant that ties us together. We must reassert that we share a common destiny and that we are all part of an organic whole.

There is an anecdote about the Ariz"l. The Ariz"l once stated that the purpose of galut is to collect the 'sparks' that are latent among the nations of the world. A student challenged him and said, "If the Jewish people had not sinned and gone into exile, then what would become of those 'sparks'?" The Ariz"l answered that when the Jewish people act as an organic whole and use all their strength in a combined fashion, then the sparks are attracted to that organic whole and 'rise' by themselves. In other words, our task of redeeming the world must be accomplished - it is built into the fabric of reality - it is up to us if we want to accomplish it through the beauty of what we could be or, God forbid, through a less than ideal set of circumstances. In the end, reality will force our hand - it will just be better if we change the reality so that it won't have to force anything.

ADL - Anti (self-)Defense League

ADL Slams MK Effie Eitam's Statements on Transfer of Arabs
12:33 Sep 12, '06 / 19 Elul 5766

(IsraelNN.com) The US-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has issued a condemnation of Knesset Member Effie Eitam (National Union-NRP) following Eitam’s call for the transfer of Arabs from Judea and Samaria and removal of Israeli-Arab Knesset members.

“Such inflammatory statements are irresponsible and display an ugly and abhorrent bigotry against other peoples and leads to incitement,” the ADL statement said. “Calls by public figures to ban minorities and expel them from their homes are abhorrent. These are irresponsible statements advocating collective measures that the ADL totally rejects.”

“Eitam’s remarks do nothing to further Israel’s quest to live peacefully among its neighbors and are an insult to its loyal Arab Israeli citizens,” the statement, issued by the group’s Israel office, concluded. “ADL rejects the notion of transfer of any people from their homes and homeland.”

The ADL was a vocal supporter of Ariel Sharon’s Disengagement Plan, which called for the forced expulsion of nearly 10,000 Jews from their homes in Gaza and northern Samaria.

I would be disappointed if I actually expected something from this band of hypocrites. Of course they are wrong - there is nothing morally wrong with the population transfer of a hostile population. There IS something wrong with leaving such a population in place and endangering the well-being of your own population. In truth, they understand this since they supported the expulsion of Jews when they felt it would better Israel's situation. Now, why all of a sudden does population transfer become a global moral standard? Hypocrites! When will they stop bowing at the alter of western civilization? Democracy is a practical tool, not an independent global value.

I am all for democracy (since it works well most of the time) but when the values of democracy endanger the well-being of 5 million Jews, they have to be compromised - period.

The flip side of the coin

The following is a coin that was minted during the begining of the bar Kochba revolt in 133 ce:



For those who do not know, the full name of Bar Kochba was Shimeon ben Kosiba. He led a revolt against the Romans which lasted for 3 years during which he controlled a significant part of Yehuda (although he never controlled Yerushalaim). The revolt was an initial success but it came to a grinding halt with Bar Kochba's death in Beitar.

Much attention has been paid to the messianic component of the revolt. Rabbi Akiva was the spiritual leader of the rebellion and, along with the majority of the sages of his generation, considered Bar Kochba to be the Mashiach.

What I find interesting about the coins from this era is that the consistently refer to Bar Kochba as "Nasi" instead of what I would have expected which would have been "Melech." The title of Nasi, as far as I knew until I saw these coins was generally reserved for the head of the high court during the time of chazal. I find it surprising that Bar Kochba would refer to himself as "Nasi." Does anyone have any explanation for this?

New blog on the block

Yet another victim of the j-blogosphere.

May you have a speedy recovery from this addiction.

VeImru Amen.

The generals as 'experts'

Joe settler has an important post for anyone who is still naive enough to think that the current set of Army brass in Israel are experts whose top concern is the safety of the population in EY:

Nine different Generals came to visit my friend’s reserve army unit after the war.

The Ramatkal (Chief of Staff) was also supposed to visit but after the hard time the 9 generals got he chickened out.

General Gantz (the head of all IDF ground units) came to the unit to explain what happened and to tell them we won the war (since it wasn’t obvious to anyone that we did). At the end he asked if anyone had questions.

One soldier got up, and said, “I have 2 questions for you, a personal question and an operational question.”

He continued, “My personal question is regarding the statement you made a year ago. You see I am a settler and I volunteered to fight in the IDF, and I want to know if after 100% of us settlers showed up to fight and die, do you still stand by your statement that "settlers are worse than Hizbollah"?”

For his second question he asked, “How come you sent in us ground units without first destroying all the enemy sniper positions and houses overlooking us?”

For the first question, he actually denied he said what he said, adding that “Aryeh Eldad is just trying to get brownie points”, but then he said that he doesn’t take back a word of what he said. I guess that means he did say it and still thinks its true.

Regarding the second question, he answered the tanks destroyed most houses marked as Hizbollah sites.

Unfortunately Gantz forgot to mention that most of the houses were apparently not marked.

At this point, the flustered Gantz had enough and ran away like all the other generals that visited this elite reserve unit.

Bitter defeat

So, it looks like the evil imps that run the Israeli government are planning to surrender to the enemy monster and therefore declare that Jewish blood is worthless and that all those soldiers died for nothing.

The only question is what change in attitude can all of us implement so that the deaths of those holy martyrs will not have been in vain. The only think I can think of is the words of the Navi (זכריה ד:ו):

וַיַּעַן וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלַי, לֵאמֹר, זֶה דְּבַר-יְהוָה, אֶל-זְרֻבָּבֶל לֵאמֹר: לֹא בְחַיִל, וְלֹא בְכֹחַ--כִּי אִם-בְּרוּחִי, אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת

Then he answered and spoke unto me, saying: 'This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying: Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

The Mahral in his introduction to Netzach Yisrael explains that the term כִּי אִם in the tanach is never used to completely reject one idea in favor of another - rather it is always used to create a primary secondary relationship between the phrase that is before and that which is after.

In other words, the Navi is telling us that military power in and of itself is useless when the spirit of Hashem is missing. This is so clear in the pathetic leadership we have today. They have all the weaponry in the world but lack the spiritual strength to use it less they offend the perverted moral sensibilities of the nations of the world. Thus they waste Jewish lives accomplishing NOTHING and put millions of Jews in extreme danger out of their spiritual weakness and fear of the nations.

Every Jew to whom the nation of Israel and their mission is important should know: we will not have any peace until those who carry the spirit of the LORD take the reigns of leadership. As long as the power is in the hands of those who reject all that is holy and good, we are insuring the continuing suffering of the entire world. Forget the machloket. Forget reishit tzmichat geulateinu or not. Forget all the excuses. We are talking about pikuach nefesh of the most direct kind. If all of us who hold the Torah as our banner do not stand up and take control, we will ensure the continuing pointless death of precious Jews. If we do not take control, we will not be able to declare: "Our hands did not spill this blood"

So the next question is: What can a simple Jew such as myself do? I really don't know the full answer, but if all of us demand that our leaders and rabbanim drop everything that divides them and come to some agreement so that we can all be united as one political block. We must DEMAND unity! If 100 years ago, the litvaks, chassidim, and yekkes managed to get together and form agudat Yisrael as an umbrella organization to represent them all, why in the worlds can we not do the same today??? We must stop seeing ourselves as satellites and shtadlanim in the political process in Israel - We ARE THE NATION! The Torah is our banner and anyone who does not rally around their banner and their flag will always be stepped upon.

I pray that someone out there, just one person will read these words and do something - anything to increase Torah unity in this world. If even one person does - Zeh Yiyeh Sechari.

May the souls of the fallen soldiers shake the heavens and demand our speedy redemption. May their memories be a blessing.

Nachamu, Nachamu

From Orot (Translation by Rav Bezalel Naor):

"The redemption continues. The redemption from Egypt and the complete redemption of the future are one unending action: the action of the strong hand and outstretched arm, which began in Egypt and works though all eventualities. Moses and Elijah are redeemers in a single redemption; the beginner and the ender, the opener and closer together fill the unit. The spirit of Israel hears the sound of the movements, the redemptive actions, brought about through all eventualities until the sprouting of redemption will be complete, in all its plentitude and goodness."

May Hashem send us Torah leaders, gedolei Torah, proficient in the entire Torah, both esoteric and exoteric. Leaders that have vision and are proactive and not only reactive. Leaders that can relate to all the various types of souls which exist in klal Israel. May they raise the potential of the entire nation to the holy level it deserves. May we merit to see the full redemption speedily in our day.

Guest post from Raglei Mevaser

Formula to fight a war and win it, too:

The way to end the current mess is to recognize, as doresh does, that all "good" (i.e. religious) Muslims hate Israel and want to destroy it, as they and their leaders have been saying very publicly.

Acting with that enlightening knowledge firmly in mind, the next step is to announce that any village from which a rocket is launched will be flattened from the air, regardless of civilian presence. If civilians don't want themselves to be killed, let them police their own village and make darn well sure that not a peep escapes their area.

Of course any government leader who opens his mouth in hatred of Israel and calling for its destruction is found dead in his bed the next day. After all, guys, Hashem has given us our own army and intelligence. We're not supposed to go like sheep this time.

To defeat one's enemy, you've got to understand him. Arab culture is very much based on honor (refer to “honor killings” if you will). When the Arabs respected the Jews, after the awesome miracles of the previous wars, notice how quiet and subdued they were.

Once they sense weakness in Israel (stemming from lack of belief in G-d and twisted Christo "morals" like "tohar haneshek" rather than Torah-true morals) they are emboldened to raise their eyes from the ground and lick their lips hungrily. Like predators, they attack where they see vulnerability.

The beginning of the end (chas v'shalom) was after the War of Independence, when the leaders of the army and state of Israel begged the Arabs (who fled in anticipation of a post-victory bloodbath along the lines of what the Arabs would have done had the situation been reversed) not to flee for their lives but to come back and live peacefully with the Jews side by side.

The root of our present problem and the "middle eastern cycle of violence" is that we never declared unequivocally, as the Jewish people, that G-d gave this land to us, and only to us, and we will live here forever, with the Arabs living peacefully not among us, but in their 21 other countries. If we had annexed the “territories,” I doubt we would be in this situation today.

We are past due to claim what is rightfully ours, given to us by G-d Himself, and we’re paying in Jewish blood, which has become cheapened considerably lately in light of our reluctance to defend ourselves with overwhelming force born of conviction.

Important post from Jewish Worker

The pathetic leadership of Israel

Hashem Yishmor!

Report: Olmert favors German forces

Money quote:

"There is at the moment no nation that is behaving in a more friendly way toward Israel than Germany," he added. "If Germany can contribute to the security of the Israeli people, that would be a worthwhile task for your country. I would be very happy if Germany participated."

Well folks, there you have it. We are back full circle. Secular Zionists basically want to dismantle the state. Return to a situation when we are subjects of the nations of the world

(they have been behaving this way for a while, now they just want to make it official - and GERMANY nonetheless - boy, Freud would have a field day)

In truth, many chareidim would be happy with such a turn of events. It would prove to them that Jews really are supposed to be nebuch cases and that we should strive to be bigger nebuchs at every opportunity as they believe Hashem commanded.

So who is left? A she'erit pleita of national-religious Jews who have neither made the state into an avoda zara nor have they sold out the ancient hope of having a country of our own like the chareidim. The question is whether there is anything we can do to stop these people from completely destroying the vessels that were created in the past 50 years.

I am really not sure. I pray that Hashem sends us worthy leadership quickly. We need to be saved from evil hacks like Olmert.

Important post from Avi

JoeSettler posted the following on his blog. I believe that everyone must read this in order to understand what is really happening in Israel:

"I have not read any of the comments posted about my action on any of the lists and nor do I intend to. However, I did get some updates as to what was posted and I wanted to take the opportunity to tell you what made me take the drastic action that I did. (I do not plan on making any more posts or replies on this matter to any list).

First of all Olmert and Chalutz have already publicly declared that they can not promise that they will be able to stop the Hizbullah rockets falling on Northern Israel.

In addition, the UN is now working on a draft resolution that will allow a multi national force to patrol South Lebanon and give Lebanon a protected country status – which means that if any other country attacks it, the international community can then attack back.

Basically, put together, this all means that once the multi-national force is in South Lebanon and the Hizbullah continue to shoot rockets on Israel, Israel can NOT defend itself because, if it did, the international community would have the “legal” right to attack Israel. This is the ceasefire Israel will be forced to accept with the direction of the current political leadership.

What does this all have to do with my refusing to serve in the war up North?


Because the best of our soldiers are fighting and dying in house to house combat in Lebanon and millions of Israelis are refugees because our government places the lives of the enemy civilians over the lives of our own – this is not a way to fight, period, and definitely not a way to fight a war that must be won.

Because our government no longer intends to stop the rockets in the North, just like it has made peace with the fact that the rockets in the South are a fact of life that Israelis have to live with as well. Because Olmert is already on record saying that this war is being used to ensure that an international recognized border is implemented on the East as well, via the destruction of more yishuvim and the expulsion of more Jews from their homes in Yehuda and Shomron. Because this war is allowing Olmert to assist the Hizbullah in setting up rockets in destroyed communities in Yehuda and Shomron to then fire on Tel Aviv and the Mercaz.

I’m all for beating the Hizbullah, but wake up and realize that is not what Olmert is trying to do! He already admitted that dismantling the Hizbullah is no longer a demand in any future ceasefire and Israel is not even demanding that the international force disarm them – but the demand concerning the Hizbullah will be some lukewarm demand that basically means the Hezbullah will stay put in Lebanon (maybe a few kilometers away from the border - a lot of good with rockets that fly 150 kilometers)!

So why are we fighting this war?

Our brave soldiers are dying STAM fighting house to house in a war so that Olmert can prove to Israelis that we need to destroy yishuvim in Yehuda and Shomron in order to place a border on the West Bank – an act that will then allow the Hizbullan to fire rockets from the hills of Yehuda and Shomron on the rest of Israel.

I have taken the very uncomfortable step of refusing to serve in this war in order to give across a message to the rest of Israel – wake up! This war is more about disinformation and public statements (JUST LIKE THE GERUSH) and less about actual victorious results.

The government has already given up the fight, the fighting now is just to “look victorious” before a cease fire is implemented, but the Hizbullah has already won – they have proven to the Arab world that rockets could be shot on Israel and Israel WON’T do what is necessary to stop it.

Israel CAN do what is necessary, but Israel’s current leadership is focused making ourselves look good in the eyes of the world and not about protecting its citizens or soldiers. The political echelon and the army leadership no longer have the moral capacity to defend us as a country.

This is what I protest!

Unless the leadership leading this war changes and the target becomes to beat the Hizbullah so that NO more rockets fall on Israel in the future from the North (or from the South) using all military means necessary (and NOT placing the lives of civilians protecting the enemy before the lives of our own civilians and soldiers) then I call on the Israeli government to stop this war now instead of using Israeli civilians and soldiers as pawns in the war to ensure re-alignment, that will put all of Israel in danger.

Somehow this message has to get across because not enough of us are seeing through the media spins, so I took it upon myself to take this drastic action so that people can hopefully start to wake up.

Olmert’s public statement on his real purpose of the war (to ensure the re-alignment plan) allowed me to finally get up the guts to take off my uniform. He finally revealed the truth for everyone to hear and I thought it would be an immoral act to let it get by without any upblic outcry against the way this war is being manipulated.

I know many of you will disagree with me, but I have had enough of the years of derelict Israeli policy that has made Jewish lives hefker in our own country.

With all the justification to fight this war – please realize that the way our current leadership is running it, it is yet another derelict policy proving how Jewish blood is hefker – the government has already gone on record that it doesn’t intend to win the war, rather cause as much damage as possible to the Hizbullah before a ceasefire. Hence the Hizbullah (who will continue to get rockets from Iran and Syria after a ceasefire) will have won regardless of the media spins our politicians will come up with.

Yes, we must beat the Hizbullah, AND Syria AND Iran (the real handlers behind the Hizbullah) – but that is not what this war is about unfortunately.

I pray for the safety for all my friends and comrades who are up North fighting – for those who disagree with my action and for those who agree with me but told me that they are too afraid of the consequences for joining me in my act.

Screaming this at the top of our lungs after the war would be too late – Am Yisrael needs to hear this now to hopefully help stop this from all happening and sometimes drastic actions are necessary to get messages across. Believe me, this step is most painful for ME and not for any of you who have the luxury of throwing your two cents into an email and not paying any consequences. This is a well thought out life decision that will have repercussions on my life today and in the future in ways that are impossible for me to know today – but I took the decision anyway because I thought it was the correct thing to do.

Disagree with me if you must but also please show respect for a fellow Jew, neighbor and possibly friend who took a life effecting decision for the benefit of Am Yisrael.

Achdut is very very important, it is what I strive to achieve day in and day out as a Jew, but when that feeling of “achdut” and our actual LIVES, as civilians and soldiers, are being manipulated and used cynically by politicians and army generals, then I believe it is better to cause a ruckus to help people realize that true achdut will only come when the leadership in the country is true and moral then go along with the charade. The current “achdut” that everyone wants to preserve in this time of war is only bringing the country to an even lower level of security and morality than it was at before.

As a little kid in New York City I dreamt of one day serving as an Israeli soldier and defending the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. I fulfilled that dream by becoming an infantry soldier in Golani. I have now taken a decision that stops me from being able to serve again to defend my country on the battlefield. I cry as I write these words, it is not something that I'm proud of, not at all. I will have to explain this act to my children whom I hope will one day be proud soldiers in an Israeli army based on true morality and Jewish pride. But I will no longer be a pawn of a crooked establishment that has, and continues to make Jewish lives hefker.

No more.

I'm willing to act and pay the price for my decision - what about you?

Avi Abelow"

What vibrated in my mind all of the 9th of Av

הֲשִׁיבֵנוּ יְהוָה אֵלֶיךָ וְנָשׁוּבָה, חַדֵּשׁ יָמֵינוּ כְּקֶדֶם

Plural - not singular. We must return to Hashem as a nation. We must function as a society that brings the light of Hashem to all corners of the world. It is not enough to simply work on ourselves as individuals. Every Jew must make sure that he sees all other Jews as his brothers - peshuto keMashmao.

It is only when every Jew understands that each individual CAN NOT BE COMPLETE as long as the klal is not operating as it should that we will merit the final redemption.

May Hashem send a new spirit into our generation - one which will redeem us and the whole world in its wake.

Is there an end to the stupidity?

חכמה בגוים תאמין

No people in history have ever survived who thought they could protect their freedom by making themselves inoffensive to their enemies. -Dean Acheson

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. -Winston Churchill

No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness. There can be no reasoning with an incendiary bomb. -Franklin D Roosevelt

Appeasers believe that if you keep on throwing steaks to a tiger, the tiger will become a vegetarian. -Heywood Broun

The one sure way to conciliate a tiger is to allow oneself to be devoured. -Konrad Adenauer

You may gain temporary appeasement by a policy of concession to violence, but you do not gain lasting peace that way. -Anthony Eden

חכמה בישראל (בלי תורה) - אל תאמין

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday that he believed that a victory over Hizbullah in Lebanon would give momentum to his Convergence plan.

The foundations of learning, Part III

continued from here.

Another foundational skill that needs to be acquired in learning is the ability to recall that which was learned – otherwise known as chazara. I often heard how important chazara is but what really hit it home for me was when I read a letter that Maran HaRav Kook Ztvk”l wrote to his brother in which he expressed horror about the fact that he heard that his brother only review each chapter of gemara three times before advancing to the next chapter. Rav Kook rebuked his brother and explained to him that in his experience, it is impossible to have any success in learning without reviewing each chapter at least ten times (!) before advancing to the next one.

Well, to put it mildly, I don’t exactly review each chapter I learn ten times. Frankly, I don’t even review it three times. I just don’t have the time to review so much with the 3 or so hours I can learn every evening. What I have employed a system of chazara that takes up little time and if very effective. Anonymous also emailed me his own personal system of chazara which I will also add to this post.

My system is not really my own. It really belongs to a certain talmid chacham who used to learn at the local beit midrash. He introduced me to a wonderful book called “מפתח סוגיות ועניני הש"ס” which was written by a talmid chacham in Eretz Yisrael by the name of Elhanan Kohn. (If your local sefarim store does not carry it, you can order it from the author at 03-6773393). This book is basically an topical index of the entire shas bavli. The most valuble part, however is not the index itself but rather the section in the back of the book title “מפתח לסדר הש"ס – לשינון ולזכרון הלימוד”. What this section does is list the sugyas of each massechet in the order they appear in the gemara in as manner as follows:



A dayly review of the sugyas you have learned in the past month or two is more valuable than you can imagine. It keeps the sugyas fresh in your mind and at the same time allows you to remember which page the sugya is located on. It is a quick way to attain a fairly high level of knowledge of the structure of the tractate you are studying. Of course, this type of chazara does not five you a great grasp of the shakla veTarya of the sugya but it is good within its own scope and is very valuable to baal-batim. I recommend to make a copy of the chapter you are studying and keep it in the gemara so that you can quickly review it before and after you start your seder.

Anonymous emailed me his own method of chazara:

The following is a suggestion for retaining a bit of the Torah that one learns. More accurately, it is the outline of a system that can be modified to one’s own taste. First and foremost, so many rabbanim stress the value of writing things down. They say that making summaries of mishnayos or gemara is an extremely important practice. However what type of summaries are they referring to? How long and how inclusive should they be? These types of questions must be answered, and IY”H, will be addressed in due course.
The first action that should be taken once having finished an amud, for example, is to break down the amud into its various meimras and sugyas. The breakdown ideally should not be the shakla v’tarya of the amud, but rather a four/five line (max.) summary of each sugya. So, if there are four sugyas or subjects on the amud, then what one should write down are four brief summaries. Preceding each summary should be an underlined phrase that sums up the entire summary. So if the topic, for instance, is yehareg v’al ya’vor (Sanhedrin 74a), then the summary title would be exactly that: yehareg v’al ya’vor, or any other phrase along those lines. The summary would then be something like the following:
Three mitzvos are yehareg v’al ya’vor: Shfichus Damim, Gilui Arayos, and Avodah Zarah. Machlokes by A”Z, but chachamim say from “b’chol nafshecha” that A”Z is one of the big three. The makor of S”D is a sevara of mi yeimar d’dama etc. which is then applied to G”A by the hekesh between S”D and A”Z.

Now, another beneficial step that can be taken is keeping a notebook where each side of a page represents a blat or an amud. This might be bit tough at first to fit all the necessary information in one page, but the advantage is that once the daf number is known (more on that in a moment), then the summaries can be quickly accessed.
A special effort should not be made to remember daf numbers, but rather where the major sugyos are located. This step will actually lead to one knowing the number of each daf, since the major inyanim will then act as mental notes, indicating one’s place in the perek.
Once one has the aforementioned two or three word (or more if necessary) summaries memorized or at least knows them very well, he can think about them wherever he goes. After a bit of repetition, the outline of a blat can be reviewed in under a minute. If one is in a place that affords him a bit of quiet, he can go over the full summaries, once he feels comfortable with them.
There is much more to say about the topic, but hopefully this introduction will encourage others to find a chazarah method in gemara that works for them. IY”H, a sample outline of a blat will be provided in the near future.

If you have your own methods, please let us know in the comments section. May everyone who reads this blog go from strength to strength and make a real kinyan on the Torah which they learn (beAhava!).

Why did the soldiers have to die?

WHY? WHY? WHY?

Why do our soldiers have to die to protect the lives of the Lebanese???

Why do sick souls feel the need to give us lessons in "morality" when their immoral stances directly result in the deaths of our soldiers?

Why do evil politicians feel the right to declare publicly during war that a state has the right to play with the lives of its citizens?

Those soldiers should never have been there. That whole village should have been turned into a parking lot using aerial bombardment. There is simply no source either in Torah or even common sense to put your own soldiers lives' at risk in order to protect enemy civilians.

I know one thing, until the Army changes this immoral policy, neither of my sons will be joining it. Until the army starts valuing the lives of its soldiers, I will have no part of it. May Hashem send us true leaders who will be able to distinguish right from wrong, speedily in our days!

The foundations of learning, Part II

Continued from here

Another area that often needs to be built up in Jewish education is the study of Tanach - more specifically the Nach part of it. Of course, many people review the parsha every week so I would say the majority of people have a pretty solid grasp of the Torah (although there is definitely room for improvement). Almost nobody really knows tanach and the amount of people who went through a yeshiva education and have still never gone through all of neviim and ketuvim is somewhat shocking to be honest.

There are a few challenges in the learning of Nach. First, the language is often fairly difficult, the day school Hebrew education is pretty much sufficient for most of the early neviim. The average person can get through Yehoshua, Shofrim, Shmuel, and Melachim without too much difficulty. However, when one gets to the later neviim, Yirmiyahu, Trei Asar (not to speak of Mishlei and Iyov), they are pretty much lost. I know many people who have tried to learn tanach and stopped quickly after they started. Part of the problem is that people try to learn Nach in much the same way they approach chumash and gemara - they learn it from the commentaries. Don't get me wrong, the commentaries on Nach are great - it is just that before you can appreciate their greatness, it helps to have gone through Nach and acquire the underlying language and comprehension skills. That is why I recommend going through Nach several times without any commentaries, trying to understand the pshat of the words.

There are several benefits to this approach. First, Hebrew skills improve dramatically. Second, the psukim quoted in gemara learning become less cryptic and are more accessible. Third, a person actually learns the stories in Nach and the general themes and treasures hidden there.

There is, however, a problem. Efficient learning needs a structure and there is really no good structure/seder to the learning of Nach. One approach is learning a chapter a day. The problem with this is that: a) the chapters are of non-Jewish origin and often cause you to stop at an arbitrary point b) the chapter length is very variable - sometimes it is too long and sometimes too short. This does not lend itself to the establishment of a proper seder.

Luckily, Rabbi Seth Kadish has provided us with a wonderful service. He has created outlines for all the books of Nach and divided each book into (pretty much) equal sub-parts based on the massoretic chapters. The system is divided into 12 separate month cycles so that one can finish the entire tanach every year. Each day's portion is about 30-50 pesukim and usually takes about 20 minutes to get through. I highly recommend starting this system since it does not take up much of the day while at the same time building fundamental skills of learning which will improve other areas as well.

The sheets for the system are available in PDF format here

איש אשכולות

I was once asked on a thread why I am a talmid of Rav Kook. I answered that one of the many reasons is because he is the only Gadol of the past 100 years to have mastered the entire Torah in all of its aspects. No area was beyond his reach. He achieved greatness in halacha, aggada, lamdus, philosophy, kabbalah. And more than just mastering these different areas, he weaved them into a coherent system where one area of Torah informs us about the others. One of the commenter replied that he frankly finds it frightening that I think that Rav Kook was the only gadol to have mastered the entire Torah. Well, I am obviously no authority on the matter but I was thrilled to find that Rav Shlomo Yosef Zevin Zt"l actually wrote the exact same thing in his remarkable book (which everyone should really read cover to cover), "אישים ושיטות". Here is the relevant passage (pg. 232):

:"לא יהיה הדבר להגזמה, אם נאמר שמרן הגרא"י הכהן קוק, ז"ל, היה בדורנו היחיד בין גדולי התורה, שהיה שולט בהלכה ובאגדה כאחת... כל מקצועות התורה היו ברשותו.. ולאו דוקא בהלכה. עולם האגדה הי לא פחות פתוח לפניו. חזון ושירה, מחשבה ומחקר, הגיונות ודעות - כל אלה היו שוטפים בלי הרף, כמעין הנובע, ממוחו ללבו ומלבו למוחו"

It would not be an exaggeration, if we say that Maran HaGaon Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook Z"l, was unique in our generation among the Torah Masters, who had mastered halacha and aggada as one ... all the disciplines of Torah were at his disposal ... and not only in Halacha. The world of aggada was no less open before him. Vision and song, machshava and investigative methods, ponderings and ideas - all these would flow unstoppably, like a gushing spring, from his mind to his heart and from his heart to his mind.

The foundations of learning

One of my biggest complaints regarding Jewish education today is the lack of foundation that kids are given in our basic texts. It seems like much of the learning revolves around teaching gemara beIyun (in depth) while the basic units of knowledge (mikra and mishna) remain missing.

It is not that I am against Iyun, but I often feel like when people think that they are learning iyun, they are really just grasping a particular course of understanding but end up missing the relevancy of that understanding to the greater structure of Torah. For one to understand the depth of the rishonim, one must truly have a strong knowledge and understanding of the basic texts that the rishonim had mastered. And that means knowing mikra, mishna, and bekius (breadth of knowledge) in gemara.

The problem becomes even bigger for baal-batim such as myself. It is often hard to find time to sit and learn. When you do find time, it is often hard to reach a high level of concentration and the quality of the learning is often poor. One of the solutions I have found to this problem is the pocket size kehati mishnayot. I am sure you have seen these little green booklets. They are nothing less than phenomenal. To learn one mishna with kehati for the first time takes an average of 3-5 minutes. If you have already done that particular mishna before, it usually takes 1-2 minutes, sometimes even less. Now since there are an exact average of 8 mishnayot per chapter - to learn one chapter per day takes about 30-40 minutes if you have never learned it before and about 10-20 minutes if you have already gone through it.

Now, the benefits are amazing and almost immediate. If a person does one chapter of mishna a day, then they finish the shas mishnayot in a year and a half, two chapters a day is a nine month cycle and 3 a day is a six month cycle. After you have been through the shas mishnayot once, then it takes you about the same time to do two mishnayot a day as it took you to do one the first time. After you finish the second cycle, then you can usually do three a day in about the same 30 minutes that you allocated to it before. And the great thing about mishnayot is that, unlike gemara, you can really spread the learning out throughout the day. One mishna here, a couple there, three on your lunch break. The results are incredible. You will also see a distinct improvement in your gemara learning since much of the time you spent before on getting the basic concepts of the gemara down are already known to you from the mishna.

I have put together a little chart of the mishnayot that anyone can print out and save. I find that it helps to check off the mishnayot that I have done in each cycle and that keeping track generally give one a sense of accomplishment and motivation to keep up the seder. Please let me know if you end up trying this. It really helped me and I would like to know if others feel the benefits of this 'system'.

Here is the chart (email me if you want it in pdf format since it is better quality):

What used to be common sense

In a letter to the editor of the LA Times (July 18th), a reader makes a point that used to be obvious to people but has become forgotten over the past 50 years of leftist indoctrination:

Re "Israel's risky response," editorial, July 14

The editorial's issues with Israel's "disproportionate" response seem to imply that the appropriate way to treat your enemy is to just hurt them a little more than they hurt you. This way your opponent will understand that you are serious, but things won't get out of hand.

Diplomacy and negotiation, not limited violence, are the appropriate way to try to send signals and keep a situation from getting out of hand.

The situation with the Palestinian Authority/Hamas and Hezbollah is already out of hand. Proportionality is really a demand that the stronger party fight at the level of the weaker party.

This is a cruel [emphasis added] position leading to a drawn-out, slowly escalating conflict, like Vietnam.

History shows that the surest way to minimize the suffering of civilians is through a short war, and that requires the use of immediate and overwhelming force to gain clear objectives.

There are generally two objectives to which this force can be effectively applied: breaking the enemy's political will and breaking the enemy's military capability to pursue its political will. If war must be fought, it must be won.

The hisotory of Jewish political messianism

Many chareidim claim that the view of the religious Zionists that the mitzva of yeshuv haAretz is a catalyst for redemption is a modern religious innovation. Arie Morgenstern, in his article Dispersion and the Longing for Zion, 1240-1840 shows that such a view is a-historical at best and revisionist at worst. It is worth while to read the entire article. Keep in mind that the article does not give an overview of those rabbis in history that opposed the messianic ferment and its expression into mass aliya, if you are interested in reviewing the history of such opposition, I highly recommend Avi Ravitzki's essay The Impact of the Three Oaths in Jewish History Published in the back of his book on modern Jewish Messianism, הקץ המגולה ומדינת היהודים: משיחיות ורדיקליזם דתי בישראל which has been translated into English as Messianism, Zionism, and Jewish Religious Radicalism.

Here is an excerpt from Morgenstern's article:

"Indeed, from the time of the Crusades until the nineteenth century, Jewish life was infused with a sense of messianic anticipation, which found expression, among other things, in aliya. This messianic anticipation was focused on specific dates, which were endowed with mystical significance. Starting with the year 5000 on the Jewish calendar (1240 c.e.), the beginning of each new century signaled for many the possibility of redemption, leading large groups of Jews to make the journey to Palestine as a necessary step in bringing it about. Some of these aliyot were unknown to us until recently; in other cases, recent research has added substantial detail to the historical record. The picture which emerges is one of a clear, recurrent trend of immigration to the land of Israel, which was by no means limited to the “lower” elements of society but took with it Jews from all walks of life. Indeed, in many cases, some of the outstanding Jewish figures of their day led the way. Although the number of Jews who succeeded in making the voyage and settling in Palestine never constituted more than a small portion of world Jewry, these messianic aliyot were of enduring significance, partly because of the renown of those who took part, partly because of their regular appearance over the centuries, and partly because of the variety of diaspora communities which participated. The messianic impulse which spawned these waves of immigration, and the belief in the centrality of the land of Israel upon which they depended, were in no way marginal to the Jewish tradition, but in fact became an axis of Jewish spiritual life. Indeed, the story of aliya from the thirteenth to the nineteenth centuries illustrates the depth and force of the Jewish people’s connection to its ancestral homeland, a connection that was carried into the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when modern Zionism found a new way of giving it voice."

Couldn't have said it better myself

Ben Chorin's latest post speaks for itself:

To my good friends in “Red” Haifa:

I write to you as a brother and, as brothers are wont to do, I will speak directly and honestly. My heart is with you in these difficult days. But still I must point out to you that if you were not in Haifa, this would not be happening to you. You chose to live in Haifa despite the inherent dangers and despite Arab claims to Haifa. Now you must pay the price for that decision.

I appreciate that you and your ancestors have dreamt of living in Haifa for generations, but do Arabs not have dreams? They too dream of Haifa and, as their rockets prove, are willing to struggle valiantly to realize those dreams. It is you who stand in their way. For how long will those of us who do not dream of Haifa, who do not even care to visit Haifa, need to do battle in the name of your messianic hallucinations?

For years we fought in Lebanon to defend you even though we did not believe in the justice of your cause. We have had enough. We do not want to chase down children shooting rockets in Lebanon. Lebanon is a quagmire. It would be simpler for all of us if you just moved elsewhere.

Unfortunately, I suspect that your idolatrous attachment to your homes is such that these arguments do not persuade you. So, at least think of the economic cost of your insistence on staying in Haifa. Do you know how much money is wasted every year on subsidizing your hopeless escapade? This money could be spent on feeding the poor, on providing care for the sick and incapacitated, on finding a cure for cancer, on shelters for battered women. Do you not care at all for the less fortunate in our society? Shame on you.

I turn to you as a brother. Come home. Come back to the heartland. To Judea and Samaria, where the rockets don’t reach. They will be there and we will be here. It would be best if you came of your own volition. We will see to it that you will be fairly compensated. But do not mistake our generosity and civility for lack of resolve. If you do not leave Haifa voluntarily, we will have no choice but to remove you by force.

With sensitivity and with resoluteness.

Please pray

From Jameel:

Please have the following people in mind in your prayer:
Kidnapped IDF soldiers:

Gilad ben Aviva
Ehud ben Malka
Eldad ben Tovah

Four children seriously wounded in a Katyusha attack up North:

Michal bat Revital
Bat Zion bat Reivtal
Avraham Natan ben Revital
Odel Chana bat Revital

AAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!

The title best described what I wanted to scream at work as I heard that rockets have now killed a grandmother and her 4 year old granddaughter grandson. May Hashem avenge their blood. [UPDATE: the rest of the family is also injured - some criticaly - please pray for their recovery]

The religious Zionist community is like the Yirmiyahu of our generation. Forced to see all of its warnings coming true and bearing the animosity of a blind generation which has no vision or direction. May Hashem grant us leaders who will raise the honor of the Jewish people to the lofty level described in the prophets. Who will raise the honor of Hashem, the Torah, and the Jewish people to levels higher than ever before. VeImru Amen.

Sometimes a poem can say more than an entire post

I am not going to even try and translate this. The beauty will be lost in the translation:

צִיּוֹן תַּמָּתִי, צִיּוֹן חֶמְדָּתִי
לָךְ נַפְשִׁי מֵרָחוֹק הוֹמִיָּה.
תִּשְׁכַּח יְמִינִי אִם אֶשְׁכָּחַךְ, יָפָתִי,
עַד תֶּאְטַר בּוֹר קִבְרִי עֲלֵי פִּיהָ.

What Israel should do

They should take the following advice:

General Richard Hawley [ed. Charley Hall has informed me that this was not said by General Hawley. It was a parody email sent around. Still, this parody is better advise than most commentaries I have read] was the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and was commander of the Allied Air Forces in Central Europe, at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

When he was asked, "Does violence only lead to more violence?", this is what he had to say.

This one is so stupid you usually have to be the president of an Ivy League university to say it. Here's the truth, which you know in your heads and hearts already: Ineffective, unfocused violence leads to more violence. Limp, panicky, half-measures lead to more violence. However, complete, fully thought-through, professional, well-executed violence never leads to more violence because, you see, afterwards, the other guys are all dead. That's right, dead. Not "on trial," not "reeducated, "not "nurtured back into the bosom of love." Dead. D-E-Well, you get the idea.

If only Israel understood this.

Who is the enemy?

So, All the delusional people who want to believe they can actually differentiate between the leadership of the Arabs and the populations itself (**cough**, ** cough **, nephtuli), a new poll has now come out that shows that 77% of the Arab population supports the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit.

Will those delusional westernized Jews please wake up and realize that we are in a war. Not a war against terror. Not a war against Hamas. Not a war against Hizballa. It is a war against a foreign nation who believes our land belongs to them. They are willing to die (and kill) in order to get their land back and unless we are willing to fight back and realize we are in a REAL war, they will continue making our situation intolerable.

The war is against a violent and evil culture which we must either defeat fully or be defeated.

Anyone have a good answer?

In a news interview, the Father of Yehuda Basel Hy"d, asks:

"Why did they put my son's life in danger instead of sending in the air force?"

The answer is: "the lefties and all those who have adopted a western-based morality value the lives of enemy civilians more than our own soldiers. The thought of 'innocent' Arabs dying disturbs them much more than a Jewish soldier being killed."

In any of the lefties out there have a better answer that makes them look like something higher than dreg, please feel free to let us know.

Rockets on Ashkelon

How many predictions of the "extreme right wing" have to come true before the imps on the left start admitting they were wrong?

Do we really have to go through another expulsion in order for the rockets on Tel Aviv prediction to become true?

(The reason those on the left can never come to terms with the reality on the ground is that their western outlook on life makes it impossible to conceive of the reality that an entire nation of people are out to destroy the Jews. That is why they do mental gymnastics to explain how the Hamas victory was not because the Arabs believe that they will be most effective in moving Israel closer to destruction. That is also why they have no problem expelling their own brothers and sisters from their homes while at the same time opposing on the most (least) profound moral grounds all "kach-nic" ideas to expel the enemy instead)

The first to wake up

Well, the first lefty to admit the mistake of the expulsion has spoken.

We are still waiting for the rest of those lost souls to wake up. (Actualy, I am pretty tired of waiting. How long will it be until a real religious political leader who is not a hack emerges? Let's hope not too long.)

May Hashem avenge his soul

Eliyahu Asheri, 18 years old, was killed by the enemies of the Jewish people on Sunday.

Every politician, every Jew who supports the restraining of the hands of the Army in the name of a false western morality which has no basis in the Torah can not say "our hands did not spill this blood"

May Hashem comfort his family and all of klal Israel and may we all merit to bear witness to the complete restoration of Zion with the coming of mashiach tzidkeinu, quickly in our days.

What do you know?

[Click here for source material]

So another macho Israeli general (General Yoav Galant), faced with questions regarding the lack of efficacy of the army, tells us that we the people "don't know everything that the army is doing in Aza" and promises us that the army is not constrained in their actions by humanitarian considerations (that might put our own soldiers' lives at risk).

Now this is not new and the Israeli elite has long thought that the average Israeli is stupid (and maybe they are right considering that Olmert was elected PM), but what really struck me was the following "warning" to the Arabs: "An attack [by the Arabs] will be met with a counter-attack of seven-fold severity." Now, I have no idea why any Arab would take any warning by an Israeli government seriously anymore. After all, he has no credibility and among other things he says a verifiably false statement: "There will not be a situation where one side fires rockets and harms citizens and we do not do anything [in return]". Hello??? 5000 rockets on Gush Katif (I guess they didn't count as citizens). Dozens more on Sderot and the surrounding yeshuvim and what has the army done??? NOTHING!

But the real cherry on top of the ice cream sundae is the following. After the general finished speaking, a kassam rocket landed at the very place where the news-conference was being given.

So General Galant, I expect you to fire 7 rockets into Aza (and 5000*7 = 35,000 more rocket after that) - I think that will take care of several of our problems.

[Well at least some bloggers now realize the error of their past ways. See the first comment on this thread on Jameel's site. Now all I need is for Nephtuli to wake up and smell the kassam rockets...]

Well, at least we have a security fence V

Continued from here.

Well, after spending $1,000,000,000 on a security fence and destroying the lives of 10,000 precious Jews, the Hamas (Yimach Shmam UZichronam) has dug under the fence in Aza, killed two soldiers, kidnapped one, and injured several others.

The Israel government has once again responded with big scary threats which they don't have the courage or conviction to follow through on (unless by doing so they will preserve their political position a month longer).

Now, will any of the people who thought pulling out of Aza and building ourselves into a ghetto would work please admit they were wrong? Somehow I doubt it.

(and for Nephtuli, who believes that morality is a function of the number of people killed, at what point will you admit this was all a bad idea? What is the magic number of dead Jews??)

What Zionism SHOULD be.

Rav Kook wrote to the mizrachi delegation to one of the world Zionist congresses (Iggrot 571):

"מקור הציונות הוא המקור הקדוש העליון, התנ"ך. לא הד קול, שעם שנאוי בעולם הולך לבקש לו מקלט בטוח מרודפיו, אלא שגוי קדוש, סגולת העמים, גור אריה יהודה, נעור מתרדמתו הארוכה, והנה הוא הולך ושב אל נחלתו, אל גאון יעקב אשר אהב סלה".

"The source of Zionism is the Holy High source, the Tanach. Not an [mere] echo, that a hated nation in the world is seeking a safe refuge from its enemies, but rather that a holy people, special among the nations, the lion-cub of Judah, is awakening from its long slumber, and is going and returning to its inheritance, to the pride of Jacob which he loved, Selah!"

May all realize that without understanding the spiritual roots of our mission, without connecting our mission to that which is eternal and holy, there will never be a chance at long-term success.

The insanity!

3 more Jews are injured in S’derot by a rocket attack! Keep this in mind next time the "enlightened" Jews tell you that rocket don't really hurt anyone and don't pose a real danger. Don't expect a real response either ... the Arabs sure don't.

The insanity is mind-boggling!

Rav Moholiver Zt"l was once asked why we need two messiahs, Mashiach ben David and Mashiach ben Yosef. He replied that the second would take the Jews out of Galut but the first has a much harder job ... he must take the Galut out of the Jews. May we merit speedily in our days leaders who are not chained by the false western morality which values enemy civilian lives more than its own citizens.

Well, at least we have a security fence IV

Continued from here.

Well, after spending $1,000,000,000 on a security fence and destroying the lives of 10,000 precious Jews, we have more great news (from jpost via JoeSettler):

The amount of weapons and explosives smuggled into the Gaza Strip since disengagement was bigger than the total amount smuggled into the strip since the Six Day War, Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin said Tuesday in a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

According to Diskin, since the IDF left Gaza, in September 2005, there were 11 tons of TNT, three million bullets, 19,600 rifles, 1,600 pistols, 65 RPG launchers, 430 RPGs and some 10 shoulder rocket launchers smuggled into Israel.

"Iran is putting pressure on Hizbullah to carry out attacks on Israeli targets," he said, adding that more than 20 million dollars had been smuggled in suitcases to the Hamas movement."

I know, they are bringing in that weaponry to use as children's toys, and besides even on the far off chance that they plan to use it against Jews, at least we will all be safe behind the fence.

So, how was your shavuot night?

Seforim posts a very interesting story about an experience Rav Yosef Karo, author of the Shulchan Aruch, had while staying up all night on Shavuot:

R. Karo stayed up all night and was studying with his student R. Shlomo Alkabtz (author of Lecha Dodi) and the following occurred:

Rav Yosef Karo and I agreed to stay up all night on Shavuot... we did not sleep for one minute... and when we began to study the Mishna.. we heard the voice of the Divine Presence, [with a feeble voice] speaking through Yosef Karo: 'May you be blessed; return to your studies, do not stop for one minute, and go to Eretz Yisrael... Do not have pity on your vessels [material goods], because you will be sustained by "the upper realms"... so hurry to Eretz Yisrael, because I will be your sustainer, and I will provide for you and the peace of your house.' And we all raised up a great cry of joy, when we heard the Divine Presence, her voice pleading with us...

Thus, feel the Divine and give Him honor... and God will cause your hearts to merit becoming one with the Holy Land, to work it together, Amen.

Well, I must admit my experience was not QUITE like that. Still, I second the motion regarding moving to EY!

Erev Shavout Vort

I recieved the follwing D'var Torah from a reader of the blog. I thought it was very appropriate to post on the eve of this year's kabbalat haTorah:

The Tosefta in Tractate Shabbos (1:4) indicates that just as we stop learning Torah in order to recite the Shema, we should also stop learning Torah in order to perform the Mitzvot of reading the Megilla, saying Hallel, blowing the Shofar, waving the Lulav and all other Mitzvot set forth in the Torah.

Rabbi Yechezkel Abramsky zt"l, in his work Chazon Yechezkel on the Tosefta, quoting the Meiri, asks why the concept of “one who is performing a Mitzvah is exempt from performing another Mitzvah (at that point)” does not apply in this case. He suggests that this concept applies only either

• (a) where one is involved in a Mitzvah that represents a tangible (or physical) activity ... OR
  
• (b) where one is already involved in a Mitzvah that requires physical preparation.

In this case, although learning Torah is tangible in one sense, it is not the same as, for example, building a Sukka, nor does it necessarily require the same physical preparation.

However, Rav Abramsky raises a point regarding the unique nature of learning Torah at the end of his discussion of this issue – that whenever one learns Torah – every single moment that one does so is a Mitzvah, and that every second one learns Torah one is beginning the task (a reason why we can stop learning to perform a physical Mitzva). It is a constant renewal of one of the principal components of our lives as Jews, to be involved in Torah growth, realizing that the Torah is a living, breathing part of our existence. Each time we learn we are engaged in an activity that has no end, as Torah provides us with an infinite capacity and potential to grow.

Shavuos is the holiday that celebrates this fact – as it has no real physical component that is identifiable, unlike that of other holidays throughout the year – simply the realization of the beauty that is Torah and the privilege we have of being “osek” – of learning it.

We should merit this holiday to raise ourselves to Rav Abramsky’s point of constantly beginning the task that is learning Torah and use that as a catalyst for growth this summer.

And all the people saw the sounds

An apropos Shavuot vort by Rabbi Chanan Morrison: (from here)

"And all the people saw the sounds ..."[Ex. 20:15].

The Midrash calls our attention to an amazing aspect of the revelation at Sinai: the Jewish people were able to see what is normally only heard. What does this mean?

At their source, sound and sight are united. Only in our limited, physical world, in this "alma deperuda" (disjointed world), are these phenomena disconnected and detached. It is similar to our perception of lightning and thunder, which become increasingly separated from one another as the observer is more distanced from the source.

If we are bound and limited to the current framework, if we can only perceive the universe through the viewpoint of the temporal and the material, then we will always be aware of the divide between sight and sound. The prophetic vision at Mount Sinai, however, granted the people a unique perspective, as if they were standing near the source of Creation. From that vantage point, they were able to witness the underlying unity of the universe. They were capable of seeing sounds and hearing sights. God's revelation at Sinai was registered by all their senses simultaneously, as a single, undivided perception.

[adapted from Mo'adei HaRe'iyah p. 491]

Rav Moshe Feinstein Zt"l on religious tolerance

We live in an age where, more and more, people speak in absolutes. As is common on the j-blogs, each person entrenches themselves in their position and the end of winning the debate wipe out any shred of nuance in the discussion and any respect for the other side to disagree. I am as guilty of this as anyone else [except for S. who seems to have a superhuman ability to always see the nuances in the issues] and often take positions aimed more at winning the debate than arriving at truth. Sometimes it is useful to stop and remember that all fellow Jews who learn the Torah Lishma, from the students of Rav Soloveitchik to the Satmar Chassidim, are entitled to follow those hashkafos and halachos which they received from their rabbis and gedolim. Often time one feels extreme anxiety when one hears Torah opinions which are anathema to their own subjective perspective. The mature mind, however, remembers that Hashem is running the show and whether or not you will convince this one person is unlikely to change the path of history. Actually, often the heated debate serves to clarify your own positions in a better light. Thus, I was delighted to find the following teshuva by Rav Moshe Feinstein Zt"l. Unlike some of the other teshuvas I have seen on the topic of the heter mechira, Rav Moshe's derech baKodesh stands out as a beacon of tolerance in an increasingly hostile world where the quest for truth is often used as an excuse to break the peace:
Here is the teshuva in question (Iggrot Moshe, O"H 1,186):

Regarding the etrogim imported from Eretz Yisrael this year, the end of 5712 [1952] - a Sabbatical year, as prescribed by the Chief Rabbinate: This rabbinic court allows for the sale [of Jewish lands] to a Gentile, a heter that many rabbis disapprove of. Do the ones who follow the more stringent view need to worry about failing to fulfill the mitzvah [of the Four Species] or reciting a blessing [over such etrogim]? ...

The prohibitions of [placing an obstacle] before the blind and abetting a sinner clearly do not apply, because [the farmers] act in accordance with [their rabbis'] instructions. For, someone who follows [his rabbi's] instructions does no sin whatsoever, even if the halacha is contrary to [that rabbi's opinion], as long as all of the generation's scholars have not convened and established the halacha otherwise. Accordingly, [the residents of] R. Yossi HaGalilee's town did nothing wrong by eating fowl and milk together (see Shabbat 130a). And those who followed R. Eliezer's rulings were even rewarded for fashioning a knife on the Sabbath for the sake of circumcision, even though the true halacha is that one who does so deserves death by stoning. Therefore, it makes no sense whatsoever to penalize [the farmers or say that one who buys from them] is abetting sinners...

May we merit such leaders as Rav Moshe speedily in our day.

Well, it ain't cold turkey, but i'll take it anyway

JoeSettler reports some good news:

Apparently, this is the last year Israel will receive any economic aid from the USA. I have not verified this but I certainly hope it is true. Time to stop leaning on the Kaneh Ratzutz.

The bigger picture

Sometime we have to stop and see the bigger picture.

Land for peace II

For all those j-bloggsters who tend to follow Rav Soloveitchik's Zt"l assertion that the issur of giving land to our enemies can be overturned if the expert generals give their blessing (**cough** Gil **cough**), you might be interested in reading about the speech the previous chief of staff of the Israeli army just gave in New York.

Of course those of us who follow the derech of Rav Kook Zt"l (and the minchat chinuch) already understood the impossibility of concessions leading to "peace." But sometimes it is a worthy endeavor to confront those with whom you disagree with arguments formulated using their own basic assumptions.

Two types of guarding of the tongue

Rabbi Chanan Morrison has a website where he adapts the Torah of Maran HaRav Kook Ttvk"l into the English language. The whole website is excellent and I highly recommend for everyone to visit it. I would like to post the adaptation of Rav Kook's comments on Psalm 34 in Olat Re'iyah. (I feel this is particularly relevant to the world of Jblogs where many people are not as careful about the quality of their speech as they should be):

How does one live a good life? The psalmist reveals the secret to good living:

"Who is the person who desires life, who loves days to see good? Watch your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking guile. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it." [Psalm 34:13-15]

The recipe for good living, the psalm teaches, lies in good speech. Why does speech play such a critical role?

Two Worlds

We live in two worlds. The first is the outer world, consisting of our various needs and activities, both as individuals and as members of society. The second world is our inner life, a sublime realm of holiness and purity. The psalm appears to be repetitive because it relates to both of these aspects of life.

"Who desires life?" This refers to our inner world, a realm of life itself, unrestrained by the framework of time. "Loving days to see good," on the other hand, refers to our outer world of beneficial activities that we perform over the years. Like an outer peel protecting the inner fruit, these actions are means to a goal; they acquire meaning as they lead towards their ultimate objective. Thus, the verse refers to our natural desire for purity and goodness of life in both aspects: our inner world of life itself, and longevity of days to allow us to perform many actions benefiting the world.

Inner and Outer Speech

Just as we live in two realms, so too, we have a form of speech for each realm. One is directed inwards, while the other is directed outwards for interpersonal relations. Our inner speech is connected to spiritual values, such as prayer and Torah study. (The mitzvah of Torah study is only truly performed when it is verbalized. See Eiruvin 53b; Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 47:4.) Our outer speech, on the other hand, is verbal communication for the sake of fulfilling our various needs, both personal and social.

The two phrases, guarding the "tongue from evil" and "lips from speaking guile," correspond to these two forms of speech. The tongue and lips are the principle organs used to form words. The tongue, situated inside the mouth, is a metaphor for our elevated, inner speech; while the lips, located outside the mouth, represent our practical, external speech.

We need to be careful in both types of speech. We protect our inner life by watching over the tongue, the faculty of inner speech. This form of speech needs to be protected from evil itself, by avoiding the expression of spiritually-damaging thoughts and concepts. "Watch your tongue from evil." Thus, the Torah prohibits even mentioning the names of idolatry [Ex. 23:13]. When we carefully guard our inner speech, our soul preserves its pristine purity, and our spirit retains the energy needed to perform beneficial actions. By guarding the tongue, we "avoid evil and (are free to) do good."

The faculty of external speech, represented by the lips, is used primarily for interpersonal relations. The psalmist warns us to guard our "lips from speaking guile," for if we do not properly restrain our external speech, our social interactions will be contaminated by guile and deception. But when we watch over this form of speech, then we may attain social harmony and peace — "seek peace and pursue it."

[adapted from Olat Re'iyah vol. II pp. 65-66]

They must be scared

Wow! I knew they would punish the soldier who refused to shake the hand of generalissimo Halutz, but I had no idea how far they would go.

In a quick kangaroo court the army prosecutor took away the soldier's $1,500 prize as well as the award. They then removed him from his unit and took away his ability to serve as an officer in the army.

Keep in mind, that there are no army protocols which demand that the soldier shake thee hand of the top general nor was such an order ever given. And Dayan did salute Halutz as army regulations require.

My eyebrows are raised when even a decorated lefty such as MK Zahava Galon (Meretz) declares that the punishment is totally out of proportion.

So what is happening here? Certain people are VERY scared that the RZ community is showing the budding signs of leadership. They are VERY scared that they are slowly losing their oligarchy. What we are witnessing is a realigning of the Israeli political world. What used to be a left/right division is becoming a religious/secular one. Shimon Peres declared that Kadima and Labor should join into one party since there is really no difference between the two. He is right. Kadima is the new Mapai, a bully with more of a hunger for power than an ideology. The RZ are the new Cheirut party. It took 30 years for Menachem Begin to break the Mapai oligarchy only to lead the path for the likud to become the new Mapai. Let's hope it takes less time for us to break the new/old ruling regime.

Yashar Koach

On this independence day, one soldier exhibited spiritual independence of the highest order in publicly refusing to honor those forces which advance the distruction of our people, its all over the Israel newspapers, below is the story from Arutz 7:

One of the soldiers officially recognized today for outstanding soldiery refused to shake the hand of IDF Chief of Staff Lt. General Dan Halutz at the award ceremony in the President's Residence in Jerusalem. The reason for his refusal, the soldier explained, was the fact that members of his family were among those uprooted by the army from their homes in Gush Katif last August. The soldier, Staff Sergeant Hananel Dayan, is a tank driver in the Northern Command and a resident of the Binyamin region town of Psagot.

During the ceremony, at the time the Chief of Staff was handing the soldiers their awards, St. Sgt. Dayan informed Lt. Gen. Halutz that he was not able to shake the commander's hand, as would be customary. In reply to a direct question from President Moshe Katzav about his refusal, Dayan replied, "My family was expelled from Gush Katif." After an uncomfortable moment, St. Sgt. Dayan saluted Chief of Staff Halutz and descended from the dais.

After the ceremony, the Head of IDF Personnel, Major General Elazar Stern, chastised the young soldier and insisted that he apologize to Lt. Gen. Halutz. Dayan explained that seeing Halutz reminded him of the tractors and bulldozers demolishing his grandfather's home and he adamantly refused to apologize.

Well, at least we have a security fence III

Continued from here.

Well, after spending $1,000,000,000 on a security fence and destroying the lives of 10,000 precious Jews, Katyusha rockets have been smuggled into Gaza (from jpost):

Palestinians have smuggled a number of Katyusha rockets into the Gaza Strip, potentially threatening towns well inside Israel, a senior Israeli military official said Friday.

The official, initially said several dozen Katyushas have reached Gaza, but later said that he had meant to say "a few."

The official said Israel is prepared to re-enter Gaza in response to the threat of the rockets, but has no plans to do so in the immediate future. He spoke on condition of anonymity under military guidelines.

Now both the Gaza "border" with Israel and the border with Egypt are pretty small and are one of the most guarded areas around the world yet the Arabs managed to smuggle heavy weaponry that looks like this:



Now, besides the actual problem of the Katyushas, are we really expected to believe that these fences which can not stop the smuggling of heavy artillery will stop a single dedicated suicide bomber from entering Israel???

Does the government of Israel think we are all that stupid? Well, since Kadima won the last election, maybe we are.

Beit Chalutz

Pun intended

Well, at least we have a security fence II

Continued from here.

Well, after spending $1,000,000,000 on a security fence, we get another attack with at least 9 dead and 66 wounded. So the modern day version of the Maginot line is a failure once again.

Now, before anyone jumps up and brilliantly declares: "but has not the security fence prevented dozens of attacks," let me respond that the sages z"l inofrmed us many years ago that "techilat nefila nissa" - "the beginning of the fall is the retreat". The fence, just like the expulsion plan represents nothing less than shameful retreat from enemies which justice demands we should defeat. Such a policy will never save lives in the long run but only motivates our enemies and puts more lives at risk.

On this Chag HaGeula, may Hashem send us leaders who will raise the banner of Klal Israel up high and no longer will our national honor be dragged through the mud!

Rav Kook and the Documentary Hypothesis

GH posts that he has found sources where Rav Kook supposidly allowed for the DH. Here was my response in the comments section:

This is a misrepresentation of Rav Kook's hashkafa. He never accepts the Documentary Hypothesis, he labels it irrelevant.

He refused to speak at the opening of Hebrew U. unless they promised not to open a department of biblical criticism. They promised and then broke their promise which caused Rav Kook MUCH pain.

Also, the mystical concept of continuous revelation applies ONLY to esoteric thought and Torah SeBeAl Peh (which includes INTERPERTAION of the Written Torah), NOT to the text of the written Torah.

On the Written Torah, Rav Kook wrote (Orot HaTeshuva, chapter 1):

The Written Torah we receive through the highest, most expansive channel in our soul. We feel from it the living, general light of all existence. Not the spirit of the nation created this great light – but the spirit of G-d.
In the Oral Torah we begin the descent to life. We sense that we receive this light through the second channel of the soul, the channel which approaches practical life. We feel that the spirit of the nation molded the Oral Torah in its distinct image. Here the Torah of G-d and the Torah of Man converge.
And these two lights make a complete world, in which heaven and earth kiss.

I would like to add that none of the sources really support GH's claim. Rav Kook actually writes quite strongly against the relevancy of the DH to anyone who has a healthy connection to the Jewish nation. I don't have time to write more about this now, but perhaps I will put together a post on this topic in the future.

Service of Hashem

The passuk in last weak's parsha said (VaYikra 1:2):

דַּבֵּר אֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם אָדָם כִּי-יַקְרִיב מִכֶּם קָרְבָּן לַיהוָה--מִן-הַבְּהֵמָה מִן-הַבָּקָר וּמִן-הַצֹּאן תַּקְרִיבוּ אֶת-קָרְבַּנְכֶם.

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When any man of you bringeth an offering unto the LORD, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd or of the flock.

The English translation does not reveal an anomaly in the pasuk. The words אָדָם כִּי-יַקְרִיב מִכֶּם is very odd. The normal way to say this would be אָדָם מִכֶּם כִּי-יַקְרִיב. When such an anomaly occurs, it begs for us to find the lessons the Torah intended us to learn. I found two beautiful chassidishe explanations I would like to share.

The first is from Rav Yehoshua Heshel of Apta - the Ohev Yisrael, explains that when a person sacrifices for Hashem in a manner of מִכֶּם - From his very self. That is, when a person is prepared for self sacrifice of the highest order for his Creator - then it is considered a קָרְבָּן לַיהוָה, a sacrifice to Hashem. However, if a person only sacrifices from הַבְּהֵמָה מִן-הַבָּקָר וּמִן-הַצֹּאן - from his material possessions then it falls into a different category - קָרְבַּנְכֶם - Your korban, not the korban of Hashem. The lesson is clear - when we perform mitzvot, we must do so from the very essence of our being. It can NOT be simply a matter of habit or a dry fulfillment of an obligation. We must do so with the hope that we are using all that Hashem has given us to perform our service of Him to its fullest capacity.

The second explanation comes from the Alter Rebbe explains that when a person comes to bring a sacrifice to Hashem, it must be אָדָם כִּי-יַקְרִיב מִכֶּם - the בְּהֵמָה he brings to Hashem must come from his אָדָם - the Animal within his humanity. He must sacrifice to Hashem his own Animal soul - his evil inclination - his yetzer hara and use it as well to serve Hashem.