BS"D
YESHIVAT HARA'AYON HAYEHUDI
Jerusalem, Israel
HaRav Yehuda Kroizer SHLIT"A, Rosh Yeshiva
PARSHAT VAYETZE
11 Kislev 5767/1-2 December 2006
"AND LAVAN SAID: 'SUCH IS NOT DONE IN OUR PLACE'"
And now for the joke of the week: Prime Minister Olmert tell us that he is a little disappointed with the Arabs down in Gaza City, since they continue to shoot off rockets into Sderot. I’ve got to tell you that I’m a little shocked myself, I mean, after all, we do have a treaty with them and Arabs are so reliable and trustworthy... almost as trustworthy as our good friend Lavan in this week's parsha.
And now for something really different (not): Olmert has promised the U.S. Secretary of State Rice that at all costs (read: of Jewish blood) Israel will practice restraint and not fire back when more Kassam missiles are fired into the country. The peace treaty must be upheld at all costs, even if it's only one-sided. The news goes on to tell us that this will warm up the relationship between the U.S. and Israel. Well, I’ll be, there is nothing like dead Jews to make the nations love us! And everyone knows that one-sided treaties always work, especially with Arabs who have been known throughout history for their trustworthiness.
And so it should come as no surprise, then, that just as a mitzvah follows a mitzvah, weakness also follows weakness. When the nations of the world smell Jewish weakness, the pressure on the Jewish state for more concessions will only increase tenfold.
As America gets itself deeper and deeper into the “tohu vavohu" (chaos) in Iraq, and as the Americans become more and more desperate to find any solution which will save face and help them get out of the mess, they have come up with the only solution which they can concoct, and of course, once again the Jewish state will be sacrificed on the altar. As we find this week, a committee, headed by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Democratic representative Lee Hamilton, has come up with the only solution for Iraq, and that is - more pressure on Israel. As quoted in the New York Sun:
"(WASHINGTON) An expert who's being consulted by the Baker-Hamilton committee, the special bipartisan committee for Iraq, says the committee will recommend that President George W. Bush exert pressure on Israel to make political concessions to soften Arab countries and assist in improving the situation in Iraq."
But of course, this was the only solution that they could come up with, as we have seen throughout our long and harsh history. For whatever is wrong with the world - just blame it on the Jews! And with every passing day, week and month, as the U.S. becomes more desperate to find any solution, as Bush’s rating continues to drop, the U. S. Israel’s only “true friend” will pressure us more and more to suicidal concessions, as we become the obstacle to world peace.
This week's parsha lays all this out for us to see, thousands of years before the Bushs of the world were born. Lavan, Mr. White, living in his white house, informs a righteous Ya'akov, after deceiving him by giving him Leah as a wife instead of fulfilling the previous agreement they had, for Rachel. After being confronted with this deception, Lavan is bewildered by Ya'akov’s argument, stating, “What! By us, we do not give the younger before the older”. Even his name is pure deception, as the inner Lavan is nothing like his outward appearance of white and righteousness - the real Lavan is all black and cunning on the inside.
The Jewish people, then, must wake up before it's too late, and put leaders into power who will stand up to the Lavans of this world and their deceptions, for at the end of the day, all they want is to see the downfall of the Jewish people. Ya'akov must now turn into an Israel who struggled with the Angel of Eisav and was able to overcome.
But enough jokes - it must be done at once, for there is no more time left!
With love of Israel,
Levi Chazen
