Rabbi Meir Kahane- Parshat VaYigash G-D'S WILL COMES FIRST

"And Joseph made ready his chariot and went up to meet Israel, his father, in Goshen...and he fell on his neck and wept" (Genesis 46:29).

"But Jacob did not fall on Joseph's neck and did not kiss him, for our Rabbis said that he was saying the Shema..." (Rashi).

Happiness is that which every man seeks. Indeed, in our times, it is happiness and the search for it- in material and physical terms- that have become the very purpose of life. Books are written about happiness and peace of mind and the masses devour them, searching for the Holy Grail in the shallowness that is fit only for McCall's or Cosmopolitan. The psychiatrists' couches groan beneath their weight; the airlines and drug peddlers both sell their trips; the race is on and non-stop, and not to the swift or the slow is the trophy awarded.

The sadness is that happiness is not the essence of life, and how much did the Rabbis know when they said: It would have been better and more pleasant for man had he not been born, but since he was, let him search his deeds. Life is a series of difficulties and sadnesses, broken by occasional rays of light that pass.

Happiness is a wonderful thing, and what a life it would be if we could abolish tears and fears, worries and tribulations. But not for this was a man made, and if he persists in making it his raison d'etre, he is guaranteed misery. Man is not an island unto himself nor is his entry into this world like some sudden underwater eruption that thrusts a piece of land into the wide ocean. His is a deliberate and planned and reasoned birth. He came into this world to do good. And that which is "good" is defined for him, not subject to the independent and anarchistic commentaries of his own mind or breed. For the Jew there is the halacha that shapes, molds, guides, and drives him to sanctity and spiritual holiness. It is for him a guideline and a compass; it gives him ritual and gives him concepts, and DEFINES HIS EMOTIONS, TOO.

Joseph was a boy of 17 when he left his father's home. For years Jacob thought he was dead, devoured by a wild beast. For years he mourned and refused to be comforted. "Nay, for I will go down to the grave mourning for my son" (Genesis 37:35). And suddenly he hears the incredible words: "Joseph is yet alive" and- wonder of wonders- "he is ruler over all the Land of Egypt!" (ibid. 45:26). Jacob cannot believe it; the joy is too much and he finally cries out: "It is enough! My son Joseph still lives! I will go and see him before I die!" (ibid. 45:28).

And he does. He takes his family and goes down to Egypt. See the old man, the man grown aged and white from a life of sadness and tragedy. How he counts every moment; how he impatiently looks towards the south to see the first glimpse of the royal caravan! How he savors the moment when he can hold his son Joseph in his arms and kiss him! And then- at last- finally- the moment arrives, and Joseph rushes to his father's arms and embraces him and kisses him. and Jacob?

"But Jacob did not fall on Joseph's neck and did not kiss him for he was saying the Shema..."

What greatness lies in a man who can take his deepest-felt emotions and discipline them to the halacha and say: Wait! Wait, though I burst from impatience; wait, though my every limb cries out for release. Wait: I am in the midst of accepting upon myself the yoke of heaven, of recognizing the L-rd as one, and this is why I was created. Wait, my Joseph, wait, for though I love you more than all, this is my G-d.

Let us understand what happiness and rejoicing in the Law means to a Jew. To begin with, it is a COMMANDMENT. Can one command an emotion? Can one "say", be happy, rejoice, it is commanded? Apparently yes. Apparently, the purpose of Torah is to elevate man to holiness and sanctification that he can make his very emotions and feelings cry out: "Who is like You, my G-d!" Yes, the Torah can tell a Jew who has lost a beloved one not to mourn on the Sabbath, though his heart is breaking. It can tell a Jew to stand over the open grave of a parent or a son and say the words of the Kaddish: "May His great Name be exalted and magnified..." Yes, the Torah can tell a person who seeks joy: No, not now.

There is no commandment to be sad. There is no law that declares that man must be miserable. This is not Judaism. But we are told that there is something greater than happiness and joy. It is the climb and the reaching up to holiness and sanctification, to beauty and dedication, the smashing of the ego and the greed and the selfishness and the "I." One should strive to be happy, of course. And if one can be both good and happy- how fortunate he is. But in the end, life is not a vessel for joy. It is a corridor in which one prepares his soul. Be happy with the Torah though your own soul is in agony. It is a command and, slowly, it proves to be a balm for the wounds that ache.

The Jewish Press, 1977

Down with Chanukah by Rabbi Meir Kahane

Written December 15, 1972

If I were a Reform rabbi; if I were a leader of the Establishment whose money and prestige have succeeded in capturing for him the leadership and voice of American Jewry; if I were one of the members of the Israeli Government’s ruling group; if I were an enlightened sophisticated, modern Jewish intellectual, I would climb the barricades and join in battle against the most dangerous of all Jewish holidays – Chanukah.

It is a measure of the total ignorance of the world Jewish community that there is no holiday that is more universally celebrated than the “Feast of Lights”, and it is an equal measure of the intellectual dishonesty and of Jewish leadership that it plays along with the lie.  For if ever there was a holiday that stands for everything that the mass of world Jewry and their leadership has rejected – it is this one.  If one would find an event that is truly rooted in everything that Jews of our times and their leaders have rejected and, indeed, attacked – it is this one.  If there is any holiday that is more “unJewish” in the sense of our modern beliefs and practices – I do not know of it.

The Chanukah that has erupted unto the world Jewish scene in all its childishness, asininity, shallowness, ignorance and fraud – is not the Chanukah of reality.  The Chanukah that came into vogue because of Jewish parents – in their vapidness – needed something to counteract Christmas; that exploded in a show of “we-can-have-lights-just-as-our-goyish-neighbors” and in an effort to reward our spoiled children with eight gifts instead of the poor Christian one; the Chanukah that the Temple, under its captive rabbi, turned into a school pageant so that the beaming parents might think that the Religious School is really successful instead of the tragic joke and waste that it really is; the Chanukah that speaks of Jewish Patrick Henrys giving-me-liberty-or death and the pictures of Maccabees as great liberal saviors who fought so that the kibbutzim might continue to be free to preach their Marx and eat their ham, that the split-level dwellers of suburbia might be allowed to violate their Sabbath in perfect freedom and the Reform and Conservative Temples continue the fight for civil rights for Blacks, Puerto Ricans and Jane Fonda, is not remotely connected with reality. 

This is NOT the Chanukah of our ancestors, of the generations of Jews of Eastern Europe and Yemen and Morocco and the crusades and Spain and Babylon.  It is surely not the Chanukah for which the Maccabees themselves died.  Truly, could those whom we honor so munificently, return and see what Chanukah has become, they might very well begin a second Maccabean revolt.  For the life that we Jews lead today was the very cause, the REAL reason for the revolt of the Jews “in those days in our times.”  

What happened in that era more than 2000 years ago?  What led a handful of Jews to rise up in violence against the enemy?  And precisely who WAS the enemy?  What were they fighting FOR and who were they fighting AGAINST?

For years, the people of Judea had been the vassals of Greece.  True independence as a state had been unknown for all those decades and, yet, the Jews did not rise up in revolt.  It was only when the Greek policy shifted from mere political control to one that attempted to suppress the Jewish religion that the revolt erupted in all its bloodiness.  It was not mere liberty that led to the Maccabean uprising that we so passionately applaud.  What we are really cheering is a brave group of Jews who fought and plunged Judea into a bloodbath for the right to observe the Sabbath, to follow the laws of kashruth, to obey the laws of the Torah.  IN A WORD EVERYTHING ABOUT CHANUKAH THAT WE COMMEMORATE AND TEACH OUR CHILDREN TO COMMEMORATE ARE THINGS WE CONSIDER TO BE OUTMODED, MEDIEVAL AND CHILDISH!

At best, then, those who fought and died for Chanukah were naïve and obscurantist.  Had we lived in those days we would certainly not have done what they did for everyone knows that the laws of the Torah are not really Divine but only the products of evolution and men (do not the Reform, Reconstructionist and large parts of the Conservative movements write this daily?)  Surely we would not have fought for that which we violate every day of our lives!  No, at best Chanukah emerges as a needless holiday if not a foolish one.  Poor Hannah and her seven children; poor Mattathias and Judah; poor well meaning chaps all but hopelessly backward and utterly unnecessary sacrifices.

But there is more.  Not only is Chanukah really a foolish and unnecessary holiday, it is also one that is dangerously fanatical and illiberal. The first act of rebellion, the first enemy who fell at the hands of the brave Jewish heroes whom our delightful children portray so cleverly in their Sunday and religious school pageants, was NOT a Greek.  He was a Jew.

When the enemy sent its troops into the town of Modin to set up an idol and demand its worship, it was a Jew who decided to exercise his freedom of pagan worship and who approached the altar to worship Zeus (after all, what business was it of anyone what this fellow worshipped?)  And it was this Jew, this apostate, this religious traitor who was struck down by the brave, glorious, courageous (are these not the words all our Sunday schools use to describe him?) Mattathias, as he shouted: “Whoever is for G-d, follow me!”  

What have we here?  What kind of religious intolerance and bigotry?  What kind of a man is this for the anti-religious of Hashomer Hatzair, the graceful temples of suburbia, the sophisticated intellectuals, the liberal open-minded Jews and all the drones who have wearied us unto death with the concept of Judaism as a humanistic, open-minded, undogmatic, liberal, universalistic (if not Marxist) religion, to honor?  What kind of nationalism is this for David-Ben-Gurion (he who rejects the Galut and speaks of the proud, free Jew of ancient Judea and Israel)?

And to crush us even more (we who know that Judaism is a faith of peace which deplores violence), what kind of Jews were these who reacted to oppression with FORCE?  Surely we who so properly have deplored Jewish violence as fascistic, immoral and (above all!) UN-JEWISH, stand in horror as we contemplate Jews who declined to picket the Syrian Greeks to death and who rejected quiet diplomacy for the sword, spear and arrow (had there been bombs in those days, who can tell what they might have done?) and “descended to the level of evil,” thus rejecting the ethical and moral concepts of Judaism.

Is this the kind of a holiday we wish to propagate?  Are these the kinds of men we want our moral and humanistic children to honor?  Is this the kind of Judaism that we wish to observe and pass on to our children?

Where shall we find the man of courage the one voice, in the wilderness to cry out against Chanukah and the Judaism that it represents-the Judaism of our grandparents and ancestors?  Where shall we find the man of honesty and integrity to attack the Judaism of Medievalism and outdated foolishness; the Judaism of bigotry that strikes down Jews who refuse to observe the law; the Judaism of violence that calls for Jewish force and might against the enemy?  When shall we find the courage to proudly eat our Chinese food and violate our Sabbaths and reject all the separateness, nationalism and religious maximalism that Chanukah so ignobly represents?  …Down with Chanukah!  It is a regressive holiday that merely symbolizes the Judaism that always was; the Judaism that was handed down to us from Sinai; the Judaism that made our ancestors ready to give their lives for the L-rd; the Judaism that young people instinctively know is true and great and real.  Such Judaism is dangerous for us and our leaders.  We must do all in our power to bury it.

Rabbi Binyamin Kahane - Parshat VaYeshev

FOR THE RIGHTEOUS, THERE IS NO TRANQUILITY

Parashat VaYeshev begins with the words, "And Jacob dwelled." From this seemingly mundane phrase the Rabbis derive the following, "When the righteous desire to live in tranquility, the Accuser comes [before G-d] and declares: Is it not enough for them to receive reward in the World to Come? Must they also request to dwell in tranquility in this world? [And so, Jacob was afflicted] with the troubles of Joseph" (Bereishit Rabba 84:3).

AMAZING! All Jacob wanted was to settle down and raise a Torah-observant family. What more could G-d ask of him? Here was a man beset with troubles from the day he was born- the feud with Esav, the despicable treatment he received at Laban's house, the rape of his daughter, and the subsequent fear of reprisal attacks after his sons massacred Shechem's residents. Didn't Jacob deserve- at least at this stage- to relax a little, study Torah, and enjoy life?
The answer is no. In fact, it is exactly this outlook on life that the Rabbis in the Midrash seek to repudiate. It is a lesson we must drill into our hearts: The attainment of comfort, even if combined with a life of Torah and mitzvot, is not what Judaism is about. Genuine tranquility is reserved for the World to Come. This world, by its very nature, is one of struggle and strife. "The days of our years are 70 or, given strength, 80; but the best of them are trouble and sorrow. They pass by speedily, and we are in darkness" (Psalms 90:10). A Jew's purpose in this world is selfless devotion- to G-d, His Torah, and His people.

Under the chuppah, my father, HY"D, would frequently tell the newlyweds that he does not wish them a life of tranquility and comfort but rather one of mesirut nefesh for their divine mission in this world. This strange blessing often startled many guests. But it was the message my father continually stressed- that a Jew MUST give of himself to sanctify G-d's Name. This includes his time, his money, and sometimes even his life.

This lesson is quite relevant to the holiday of Chanukah drawing near. One who ponders the sequence of events of the Chanukah story may be confounded by an enigma: What were the Jews doing before Matityahu and his sons rebelled? When the Greek entourage travelled from village to village forcing Jews to sacrifice pigs to idols, why did no one rebel? Were there no other righteous Jews in Israel besides Matityahu?

Of coruse there were. Many Jews observed the mitzvot. But all these Jews placed their personal comfort and safety above their Jewish mission and destiny. Matityahu and his sons, in contrast, were willing to act with mesirut nefesh.

The implications for today are obvious. Unfortunately, if there were only a few Maccabees a millennia ago, there are even fewer Maccabees today. The slogan "Never Again" was never intended to mean that another Holocaust will never again occur. It means that Jews will never again sit quietly in tranquility while other Jews suffer. It means that Jews will do EVERYTHING in their power, even at great personal cost, to help their brethren.

Let us remember the lesson of "And Jacob dwelled." Let us remember- especially the strictly Orthodox amongst us who labor to fulfill every halachic stringency- that living in tranquility is not the purpose of life.

Darka Shel Torah, 1993

A JEWISH HEART

“There is a time to love, and a time to hate.”

                                                Ecclesiastes 3:1,8

“There is a time to live in time of peace and a time to hate in time of war . . . there is a time to kill in time of war and a time to heal in time of peace.”
                                                                                                                    (Vayikra Rabbah 3)

The total contradiction between so much of Judaism and Western, foreign cultural Hellenism could not be more evident than in the case of the heart transplant last November in Israel.  Then, the heart of a Jewish soldier, murdered from an ambush in the Gaza Strip, was placed in the chest of an Arab “Palestinian,” Hanna Haddad.  And how the non-Jewish world exploded in joy!  And how the perversion of authentic Jewish values and concepts came crashing down in the sickly need to win favor in the eyes of the nations and to feel the comforting warmth of self-righteousness.  And how all the anti-racists privately and not so privately purred with pleasure at the “Jewish heart” that is so “unique” and that climbs mountainous deeds of ethics and morality that no one else could.  Indeed.

Not only have Jews lost every sense of authentic Judaism, falling prey and victim to all the foreign and gentilized misvalues of Hellenism, but thanks to the debilitating effects of an abnormal exile, they have lost all sense of normality, too.  Consider:  The widow of the murdered soldier blesses the act.  Yossi Sarid writes an article that begins: “How is it possible not to write about Ze’ev Traum’s heart, transplanted into the chest of Hanna Haddad – may he live a long life . . . “

“We do not have a Jewish heart and they do not have an Arab heart but a personal human heart, and if we follow our embroiled nationalism we harden our heart, we make it as hard as Pharaoh’s heart.”  And Sarid concludes: “Those who have the heart saved one soul and filled an entire world with hope.”

There were pages and pages and speeches and speeches of similar paeans of praise for the humanity shown by Jews.  And the story became the very symbol of the “Jewish heart” that transcends enmity and hatred and war, that saves the life of a man who hates the Jewish state and dreams of its destruction.  No matter!  The Jew is not supposed to hate the enemy; he is above that.  So the conventional wisdom of the gentilized Jews of Hellenism.

It is hardly new.  In Rosh HaShana messages to the Israeli soldiers, both Defense Minister Rabin and Chief-of-Staff Shomron – men deeply rooted in ignorance of Judaism – sent messages of profound Hellenism and madness to the Jewish soldiers facing an enemy filled with venomous hate for the Jews and deep passion for the day when the Jewish state will cease to exist.  Rabin said: “Alongside your obligation to crush all attempted violence, you must always remember that the people against whom you struggle today are the same people that in a few months or years we will wish to live with in peace, to be good neighbors.”  One struggles to recall a similar message to the Allied troops in World War II  concerning the Nazi armies . . .

And the Chief-of-Staff told his troops” “In the difficult and complex daily work, we have succeeded, except for minor exceptions, in preserving the basic values and ethics of the I.D.F.”  Meanwhile, of course, that by giving the soldiers orders that tied their hands; the killing of the Arab enemy was kept to a minimum while guaranteeing the continuation of the Arab rioting.

And when General Yitzhak Mordechai concluded his term as commander of the southern sector (that included Gaza), he said: “Personally and as a commander, I wish to express my sorrow over every one in the area who was killed or wounded from the (I.D.F.) activities that were necessary.”  No, there is nothing to say.

But to return to the “Jewish heart,” and to ponder the depths – the sheer depths! – of Jewish psychosis.  On the day of the funeral of the soldier who was murdered and whose heart was given to a member of the nation that murdered him, a Jewish contractor named Yehuda Yisrael told how, one year earlier, in December 1988, his brother lay dying, attached to a machine.  The family had 24 hours in which to find an available heart.  And this is what Yehuda Yisrael told Ma’ariv (Nov. 11, 1989):  “At that time in the (Arab East Jerusalem Hospital) Al Mukassed, there were two young Arabs wounded in the intifada and they were already clinically brain dead.  We contacted the Arab doctor in an attempt to have him get us a heart, but he refused.  When we saw that it was not working, we offered a great deal of money . . . . “The heart was never given and the brother died.

But there is more to the story.  Yehuda Yisrael, whose brother died because Arabs would not give a heart to the Jewish enemy, continues: “I am happy that Hanna Haddad found a Jewish heart donor.  It is a humanitarian gesture.  It is good that the world sees Jews prepared to contribute a heart to the Arabs, too, even in these sad times.  The fact that they would not give a heart to my brother only proves that we are more humane than they . . . . “Or perhaps . . .

And as a final point in this descent into the Jewish snakepit of insanity, the same article by Yossi Sarid described how he had been asked to find a heart for the same Jew (presumably he was asked because he is such a good friend of the Arabs).  Sarid pleaded with his Arab friends but they would not give the heart.  As Sarid quotes the Arabs: “Those killed in the intifada are martyrs, martyrs of the entire Palestinian nation, and their heart already belongs to it . . .  .” (And in addition, what normal Arab would give a heart to save the life of a Jew, his deadly enemy who took his land from him?)

The tragedy of our times is the loss of Divine Jewish values, one of which is the obligation to hate evil; to hate the enemy.  We have – thanks to the gentilized values that have swallowed us up – lost our sense of indignation against evil, forgotten to hate it with a passion.  And because of that, good people die even as we allow the evil ones to live, flourish and kill them.

Hanna Haddad, the “Palestinian” is part of a nation that wishes to destroy Israel and commit horrors on its Jews.  He sees the Jews as thieves, as robbers who stole “Palestine” from his people.  He sees the Israeli soldiers as oppressors, and he sees Jerusalem, where he lives, as his city, just as he sees Jaffa, Haifa, Ramla, Lydda, Acre, the Galilee and the Negev.  He supports the intifada; he wishes the “fighters” success; he takes pride in the rocks and firebombs thrown by the brave young “Palestinians.”  And Jews give him a heart to save his life, a heart taken from a Jewish soldier murdered by Hanna Haddad’s brothers.  And Jews cheer and weep tears of happiness over this humane act that only proves that a “Jewish heart” is better than the hard Arab one . . .

We are mad.  Would anyone dream of doing such a thing for a German during World War II?  Of taking the heart of an American soldier from Sioux City killed in battle by Germans and giving it to a German to save his life?  No American or Frenchman or Englishman or Russian or anyone remotely normal would have considered it!  Only the Jew, in pathetic and deeply disturbed need to win the love of the Arabs and the world, does it and attempts to cloak his insanity in “Judaism” and “Jewish values.” Not only are we mad, but un-Jewish, gentilized, Hellenized perverters of the authentic Jewish Idea and halachic.

To hate the enemy is a mitzvah, for nothing less than that will give us the understanding that evil must be fought to the end, and nothing less than that will give us the strength and confidence that we are right and that our war is just.  And when the Rabbis speak of “a time for war and a time to hate” – what do the gentilized Hellenists of our time think they mean?  And what are the voices of the Moderdox from the West Side and Beverly Hills to tell them?  To tell themselves?

“You who love the L-rd, hate evil!”  That is the injunction of King David, the sweet singer of Israel, in Psalms 97:10.  And in the words of Ibn Ezra (ibid.): “the L-rd is judge, therefore you who love Him, hate every man of evil and be not afraid of them, for the L-rd alone preserves His pious.”  And again, David in Psalms (139:20-22): “They speak against You wickedly and Your enemies take Your Name in vain.  Do I not hate, O L-rd, those who hate You?  And do I not contend with those who rise up against You?  I hate them with the utmost hatred; I regard them as my own enemies.”

There is a time for war; there is a time for hatred.  And at such a time it is a mitzvah to hate, a mitzvah to go to war, and the one who refuses – violates the mitzvah, abhors G-d who created morality.  “When you go to war against your enemy . . . (Deuteronomy 20:1) Why does it say ‘your enemy’?  [since obviously one goes to war against an enemy and not a friend].  Said the All Mighty: ‘Go against them as enemies!  Just as they do not have mercy upon you, so do not have mercy on them’” (Tanchuma, Shoftim 15). That is Judaism.

Do not be “better” than they, since in the end you will not be better but deader. And certainly do not be “better” than the All Mighty, who commanded you to be cruel and merciless against those who rise up against you and against G-d, “for whoever rises up against Israel is as one who rises up against the Holy One, Blessed be He” (Mechilta, B’shalach).

And the Sifri (Shoftim 192): “Against your enemies [you go to war] and not against your brothers, neither Yehuda against Shimon nor Shimon against Yehuda who, if you fell into their hands, would have mercy on you . . . but against your enemies you go to war, who would not have mercy on you.”

And Eyleh ha’Dvarim Zuta:  You go to war against your enemies.  If you have mercy on them, they will then go to war against you.  It is similar to a shepherd who, while tending his sheep in a forest, found a baby wolf.  He had pity on it and nurtured it.  His employer saw it and said: Kill it; do not have pity on it lest it be a danger to the sheep.  But he did not listen and so when the wolf grew it would see a sheep and kill it, a goat and eat it.  Said the employer: Did I not tell you not to have pity on it?  So did Moses say: ‘But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the Land before you, then those whom you will allow to remain of them will be thorns in your eyes . . .’ (Numbers 33:55).”

That is Judaism.  That is authentic Judaism.  And true Judaism looks upon every member of an enemy nation as an enemy, unless he proves that he is not.  Yes, there is collective punishment in Judaism. 

Written January 1990

Beyond Words

Selected Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane,

1960-1990

Volume7

AN ETERNAL WAR - Rabbi Binyamin Kahane- Parshat Toldot

The war in Rebecca's womb is intense. In one corner sits Jacob, who at this early stage is already fighting for divine truth. And in the other corner sits Esav, who is already denying G-d and viewing life as an opportunity to indulge one's desires and passions. This turbulence in Rebecca's stomach is when it all started. It marks the beginning of the greatest war, the war between good and evil, a war that dwarfs all others. Whether one wants to accept it or not, this war lies behind every scene in history. Indeed, it is a war so basic and of such substance that it knows no lull. These two fetuses, which embody good and evil, are not able to stand each other even in their mother's womb. "And the children clashed inside her" (Genesis 25:22). "It is a well-known rule that Esav hates Jacob" (Sifri, Bamidbar 69). It is an inherent, natural hatred, one that cannot be extinguished. Our Rabbis teach us that if someone comes to you and says, "Jerusalem and Edom [the Kingdom of Esav] are both thriving"- do not believe him; "both are destroyed"- do not believe him; "one is thriving and one is destroyed"- believe him (Megillah 6a). There are those who believe the time has arrived for world peace, for coexistence between nations, religions, and races of all kinds. The Torah comes and says, "NO WAY!" There can be no peace with Esav. Jacob and Esav are polar opposites. One is good and one is evil. And there is no coexistence between good and evil. A revolutionary idea? Hardly. Certainly not for someone who learns Torah properly. For the Jewish people, there is no aspiration to make peace with Esav. On the contrary. According to Jewish tradition, G-d is not complete and His throne is not complete until Amalek has been completely destroyed (Pesikta Rabbati 12). And who is Amalek? Esav's grandchild- an extreme manifestation of his grandfather. What we desire is what Solomon prescribes in Kohelet- peace at the proper time and war at the proper time. yes, we all want peace, but only with good and decent people. With evil, not only aren't we interested in peace, the Torah commands us to wage an all-out war against it: "And you shall destroy the evil from thy midst!" Nothing less than that. For the war against evil is not a personal war, but rather a mission that G-d gave us the moment we breathed the air of this world--and even before that. Darka Shel Torah, 1993

Shchem – Where Is Shimon? Where Is Levi?

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“Shall he make of our sister a harlot?”

(Genesis 34: 31)

Some 3,500 years ago, an abomination was done to a Jew in Shchem.  Dinah, daughter of Jacob, was raped by Shchem, the son of Chamor.  Upon hearing of the obscenity, Dinah’s brothers – Shimon and Levi – went into the town and slew every male.

Last month, an abomination was done to a Jew in Shchem. A Jewish soldier was murdered when an Arab dropped a huge rock on his head from a rooftop.  Upon hearing of the obscenity, Dinah’s brothers – Chief of Staff Dan Shomron and the general in charge  of the Central command, Amram Mitzna – toured the scene of the murder, swore that the Arabs would pay “a high price” ( the exact words of Shomron were: “There is no doubt that we will react in this area in a way that will make it not worthwhile for local people to throw stones and the price will be heavy.  Every reaction is possible.  You will see this in the days to come”) – and then proceeded to blow up the upper roof of the building from which the rock was dropped and brick up windows overlooking the alley.

As they did so, Arabs in adjacent buildings whistled and shouted, “Allahu Akhbar, Allah is great,” and former Mayor Hafez Touquan said: “This has no deterrent effect whatsoever.”

The shame of Israel, the Hillul Hashem – desecration of the Name – lies in the fact that today there is no Shimon, there is no Levi.  There is only Dan Shomron who – as Chief of Staff, to our dishonor, and thus committed to crushing the intifada whose aim is to wipe out Israel – instead tells the news media that “the intifada cannot be defeated since it comes from nationalist roots.”  There is only Amram Mitzna, the disgrace of a soldier who, in the middle of the Lebanese war and following the Sabra and Satilla massacres of Arabs by Arabs, condemned the Israeli Defense Minister before a press conference in Beirut and then left his post and went home to his kibbutz, Ein Gav.  

What a “high price” the Arabs of Shchem have paid.  A roof, two houses blown up and windows bricked up and an area sealed – and the Arabs laughing and happily shouting Allah is great!  “High price.”  What a fraud, what a lie.  And how it typifies the entire government of deceit.  They have no policy, they have no answers.

Where is Shimon?  Where is Levi?  Where is the Jewish knowledge that an abomination against a Jew has been done here and it must be dealt with in the only way that the Jew-haters understand?  When Jacob heard of the act of Shimon and Levi he protested – not because it was immoral, as so many foolish Jews say, but – for practical reasons: He feared the retribution of the people of the land, saying, “You have brought trouble on me to make me odious among the inhabitants of the land … and I being few in number, they will gather themselves together against me, and slay me” (Genesis 34:30).  No, not a moral argument, for there was nothing immoral about the act of Shimon and Levi.  Jacob was simply afraid of the reaction of the gentiles around him.

And the reply of Shimon and Levi resounds throughout the ages: “Shall he make of our sister a harlot?” And Jacob is silent.  There is no answer.  For his sons are right . . .

Hillul Hashem!  To defile a Jewess and treat her as a whore!  Such a thing cannot be even if there is danger, because in the case of national Hillul Hashem, danger is set aside.  And this was even when the Jews were a small minority in the midst of many gentiles.  Even then, the demand to wipe out Hillul Hashem transcended danger.  How much more so, when there is a State of Israel and an army that controls the city of Shchem!  And how much greater is the Hillul Hashem that we bring on ourselves by our humiliating refusal to do that which we should – wipe out the terror by killing the murderers and driving out all the rest.

And the Or HaChaim in his commentary goes further: “To the contrary, there will be danger for them among the nations; when the latter will see that one low person ruled over Jacob and did as his pleasure, then the Jews would not be able to survive among the nations.  And it is through this [the killing of the people of Shchem]  that fear of the Jews will be on the nations and they will tremble before them.”

Of course. It is only true punishment and a heavy hand of Jewish terror that is the way to terrify the nations who would otherwise wipe out Israel.  It is the way of Shimon and Levi that not only leads to the natural terror of the gentile but also to G-d’s approval: “And the terror of G-d was on the cities that were round about them and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob” (Genesis 35:5).

What the pathetic and humiliating policy of Shomron and Mitzna and their employers – Rabin and Shamir and Arens – has done has been to lift terror from the Arabs and give them confidence and contempt for the Jews.  By this deadly and terrible policy, so couched in gentilized and Hellenized concepts of “morality” that is, in fact, repulsive murder, we guarantee the future blood of Jews.  Because there is no Shimon and Levi, the Arab is unafraid and he thus will murder more Jews tomorrow, secure in the knowledge that the pathetic kibbutznikim of the army and the Hellenized political leaders of Likud and Labor will speak loudly and then do nothing to crush the Arab.  It is the Arab who threw the rock that murdered the soldier but it is Shamir and Arens and Rabin and Shomron and Mitzna who are the accomplices.  Their Jewish hands are red and filthy with Jewish blood.

And finally, a comprehensive understanding of Shimon and Levi for those who claim that they sinned when they killed the people of Shchem and were therefore cursed by their father.

The fact is that their father (as mentioned above) never castigated them on moral grounds but only out of practical fear of the nations.  The fact is that they replied to him and he was silent, accepting their cry that no gentile could make of their sister a harlot.  The fact is that G-d did not punish them but, to the contrary brought terror on the gentiles around them.

And the fact is that when G-d commanded the tribes to choose special and distinctive flags that they would fly proudly as they camped and traveled in the desert, the Rabbis tell us (Bamidbar Rabbah 2): “Shimon [the tribe of Shimon] had a flag whose color was green and had drawn on it the city of Shchem.”

The city of Shchem?  This was the flag of Shimon as commanded by G-d?  This was what the ALL Mighty wished Shimon to wave on high for all to see?  No, hardly a sin, but rather, as in the commentary of the Maharzu: “Because of their bravery and self-sacrifice in Shchem.  And even though Levi was with him Shimon was the older and the main one.  And this [flag] is his praise for his zealousness against the abomination of immorality.”

And Maimonides explains the actions of Shimon and Levi (Hilchot Mlachim 9:14), and his words are brought down in the Ramban (Breishit 34:13):  “The sons of Noah are commanded to uphold laws . . . and because of this all the people of Shchem were worthy of death since Shchem stole [Dinah] and they saw it and knew of it and did not try him.”

And the Ramban gives his own reason as follows: For the sons of Jacob, since the people of Shchem were wicked people and blood for them was as water, wished to avenge themselves on them with an avenging sword.  And they killed the king and all his servants who were obedient to him.”

In any event, since it is clear that Shimon and Levi not only did not sin but, indeed, followed G-d’s law, why then did Jacob apparently, curse them when he said: “Instruments of violence are their swords.  Let my soul not come into their council . . . for in their anger they slew men, and in their self-will they uprooted an ox” (Genesis 49:6)

The answer is that, again, their actions against the people of Shchem, who had acquiesced in the abomination against Dinah, were totally justified.  And that is why Jacob, after first protesting and then hearing their reply, was silent and agreed.  But later, after learning that the same two sons had also intended to kill Joseph, and Shimon threw him into a pit that was teeming with snakes and scorpions (see Breishit Rabbah 84, and Rashi on Genesis 49:6. Who explains the words “And in their self-will they uprooted an ox.” As referring to Joseph who was symbolized as an ox in Deuteronomy 33:17. “The firstling of his herd grandeur is his, and his horns are like the horns of a wild ox”), he then realized that their motivation in all that they did was violence and anger for its own sake.  That is why they sinned – not because of the act itself but because their motivation was violent anger and this was manifested even against their own brother.  And so he cursed, not them but their anger and their self-will.

No, those who dare raise their hand in abomination against Israel, whether through rape of Dinah or murder of a soldier, have raised their hands against the people of G-d. Hence against the ALL Mighty Himself.  It is a Hillul Hashem that demands vengeance and punishment.  Shimon and Levi destroyed the desecrators, and forever did the flag of Shimon eternalize the act.

But there is no Shimon and Levi today.  There is only Shomron and Mitzna and Shamir and Arens – small people, unworthy to carry the flag of Sanctification.  Their pitiful reaction is worse than nothing.  It adds to the humiliation, to the Hillul Hashem.  It spits in the grave of the murdered soldier and guarantees that others will follow him

The casbah where the soldier was murdered should have been razed to the ground and all the inhabitants of the city told that blood is on their heads and to flee before the sword of Shimon and Levi returns.  Out!  Out of the land!  Shall our sister be as a harlot?  Shall our brother the soldier be as one whose blood is cheap?  We need a Shimon and Levi today.  We need a government in Israel that understands that this is precisely its role

Written 1989  Reprinted in

Beyond Words: Selected Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane,

1960-1990, Volume 6

“Beyond Words” is a  seven volume collection of Rabbi Meir Kahane’s writings from 1960 – 1990 that originally appeared in The Jewish Press, other serial publications, and his privately-published works.

CONFRONTING THE HOLOCAUST, JEWISHLY

These excerpts were taken from an article written by Rabbi Meir Kahane, ZTUQ"L, HY"D (may he be remembered for his goodness, may he be a blessing in his holiness, and may his blood be avenged by G-d) published in Kahane magazine, Nov. 1985



Why, surely it is the issue that, unless raised and discussed and answered, will guarantee yet another and another national catastrophe. Surely it is an issue that goes to the very nature of the Jewish People, its meaning and role in life, its direction and fate.

What is the fundamental issue that must be met and grappled with?

Why surely the one that asks the question: Where was God? How could He have permitted it?

Our failure to grapple with this issue (instead we corrupt our souls by the terrible reply: It is a question no one can answer) has caused us to be silent accomplices in the worst of all Jewish sins and crimes - Hiruf v'giduf, blasphemy against the Lord; open insult and attack on His Name - Hillul Hashem (cursing G-d).

How dare we sit by quietly while Jewish ignoramuses and blasphemers speak of the "death of God", and His Name is dragged through the mud of a theology and philosophy of heresy?

How dare we allow Him to be blasphemed and our children to be turned down the path of apostasy and atheism because our reply to the attacks of the blasphemers is: "No one can answer the question!"

Of course there is an answer! It is a Jewish answer. But, of course, it is the kind of answer that the irreligious Jews, the secularists, the impossible Reformers and Conservatives simply cannot cope with.

It is an answer that can only come from a Jew who believes fully and completely and it is the answer that can only enter the mind and soul of a Jew who believes fully and completely.

And since the non-Orthodox Jew is essentially an atheist (though lacking the courage to admit it), the answer to the Holocaust is simply impossible for him to accept.

And as for the Orthodox Jew, in such great measure, he is responsible for laying the groundwork for the inability of Jews to understand or accept the Jewish answer to the Holocaust. Let me explain and you, dear reader, study the words carefully, They will pain you, but they can also save you.

The reason for the Holocaust, the Jewish reason and answer, is the one that rises out of the fundamental of fundamentals of Torah. What happens to the Jewish People is dependent on their actions and they way they live their lives.

The Jewish People is a Chosen people; chosen for a mission it cannot avoid or escape. At Sinai, the covenant bound us to a life of truth or falsehood, of life or death. "See, I have set before you this day, life and good, and death and evil... And if thy heart turns away and you will not hear... I tell you this day that you will surely perish... I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that both your and your seed may live. [Devarim/Deuteronomy 30:15,17,18,19 selections therein]

The clear, direct mission and warning to the Jewish people. The open message of reward and punishment. If the Jew will obey the Torah in all its ways, he will have life, glorious and majestic. If not, he will have death, terrible and
cursed.

Of course we can answer it; but the irreligious Jew, the one who does not accept the Divinity of Torah, refuses to accept an answer that lays the blame upon him, upon the Jew who - knowing of the warning - ignored it and disdained it.

No, since it is impossible to accept the relationship between Jewish suffering and failure to obey the Law, one must blame God. One must create the image of Jewish people in Europe that was saintly and pious and observant, and thus one must ask how the modern God, a beaming Santa Claus who would never take serious our desecration of mitzvot (commandments), could do such a thing. And, of course, using that as a premise, "there is no God..."

And the Orthodox Jew joins in. He creates a picture of European Jewry that must lead to agonized and perplexed questioning of God. He creates a picture of saintly men that must lead to a vision of a God that is a cruel God who punishes a people who, for the most part, were religious and observant and if so, how could He do such a thing unless He does not exist or "there is no answer..."

The picture that is handed down to the American Orthodox youth, of the yeshivas of an East European Jewry that was pious and traditional and observant is one that must be destroyed because it is false.

It is an image that the yeshiva world gave us in its desire to negate the present material western one. But by their falsely idealizing Man, they have laid the groundwork for the desecration of God.

By painting the East European Jew as a saint, they designed a God of cruelty and irrationality. And that most terrible of sins must be ended: We must save God and sanctify His Name by telling the truth about European Jewry in the years preceding the Holocaust. Then and only then will we be able to tell our children and all Jews the truth of the Holocaust.

The false idealizing of the Jewry of Eastern Europe is worse than foolishness. In the words of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), "Say not: 'How was it that the former days were better than these?' For it is not out of wisdom that you inquire concerning this." [Kohelet/Ecclesiastes 7:10] Then and only then can we save God from blasphemy and ourselves from future horrors. Then and only then can we honestly and truly say: "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies." [Tehillim/Psalms 25:10]

Of course we know the real truth of the situation and from that comes the answer, if we wish to be honest. Then and only then can we reply to the wicked and the honestly confused both - honestly. For in the words of Tehillim: "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and His covenant to make them know it" [Tehilllim/Psalms 25:14] and Mishlei/Proverbs: "Men of evil will not understand justice but those who seek the Lord will understand everything." [Mishlei/Proverbs 28:5]

Yes, as the nineteenth century passed into its third quarter, the Jew of Russia and Poland was, indeed, observant. But what else could he be?

The overwhelming number of Jews lived in a Pale of Settlement that restricted them to the shtetl, the village, where they were isolated from the gentile world, barred from participating in anything else except the society of the shtetl. And that society was religious in toto.

What Jew, even if he wanted to, was prepared to rebel against the society that laid down the religious rules of life?

Who was prepared to accept the ostracism that would be his inevitable punishment if the dared to throw off the halacha that was more than religion in the shtetl, but the entire social fabric of the life of the Jew?

And so, of course, the Jew was "religious". He had no other choice.

But once that choice arrived, look at what happened! And in such a short span of time! The Enlightenment that began to arrive in Eastern Europe in the last third of the nineteenth century swept away, in a relatively few years, a society and structure that had been built up for centuries. The great Torah centers spawned, overnight, a rebellion and revolution that uncovered the reality of Jewish "religiosity".

The same Vilna that had become a byword for piety and Torah learning, the home of the Gaon, the "Jerusalem of Lithuania," now gave birth to' the Jewish labor movement, the Bund, a bitterly anti-religious and anti-nationalistic group that saw Jews, who just yesterday were "religious", flocking to its ranks to spout atheistic socialism.

The Poland and Russia and Lithuania and Galicia, the areas of the Va'ad Arba Ha'aratzot (Council of the "Four Lands" of the 17th Century Kingdom of Poland), the places that had given us the Rama and the Shach and Chassidism and the great yeshivas, overnight gave birth to Jewish communism and socialism and secular Zionism and assimilation. The door was barely opened to enlightenment and emancipation and the Jew rushed to be a Universalist and to throw away Judaism.

This was "religion". This was a "pious, saintly, committed Jewish community" that was cruel and unjustly allowed to be slaughtered by God? Hardly. The Jews who, arriving in America from centuries of "religion" and who threw away their tefillin (phylacteries) and their Shabbat at the first opportunity, symbolized so many other Jews who remained behind. It was not "religion" that had marked them but a social system of ritual that was observed by most only because the outside gentile world refused to allow them entry to it, and there to throw off the yoke of heaven.

The moment the barriers dropped, the Jew rebelled. This was the reality, and the fault dear Jew, lies not in our God but in ourselves.

And there was of course, more. There was the terrible class struggle within East European Jewry.

There was the terrible oppression of Jewish workers and proletariat by the wealthy Jews, the parnessim, the communal leaders.

Not for nothing did the Bund and communism succeed so easily in attracting poor Jewish workers to their ranks.

The low wages and horrible working conditions in the factories owned by Jews are epitomized in the classic story told in the name of the saintly Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev who once visited a matzah bakery on the eve of Passover.

There, he saw the terrible conditions from dawn to dusk. "Dear God", he said, lifting his eyes unto heaven. "What liars are the gentiles! They accuse us of using gentile blood in our matzah. It is not true. We use Jewish blood..."

And too few know of the black chapter of the Hatufim, the kidnapped Jewish children of Czarist Russia. When the Czar decreed that Jewish children be drafted as "Cantonists" in the army for 25 years, the rabbis declared that the quota imposed on each community be filled by casting lots to see which child would be drafted.

Tragically, the wealthy communal leaders would hire gentiles to kidnap the poor Jewish children, lock them in the synagogue and keep them to be turned over to be Czarists.

The lack of Ahavat Yisrael, love of Jews, cried out to the Heavens! Was this "religion"? Was this a saintly Jewish community that was cruelly and unjustly slaughtered by God? Hardly. The fault lies not in our God, but in ourselves.

And this lack of unity and love was epitomized, too, in the incredible number of machlokes, of bitter arguments and splits within the Jewish community, a sinat chinam, a needless hatred that split communities and families into warring camps of enemies.

What we have seen in the disgusting attacks of hatred between Satmar and Belz or Satmar and Lubavitch is only a small portion of the bitter hatred between misnagdím (religious Jews who disagreed with Hassidism) and Hassidim and between Hassidic groups themselves, in Europe.

The bitter divisions between Jews was told to me as a child by my father, of blessed memory, who described to me the bitter split between the Sanz and Rizhin, a hatred that reached its climax with Hassidim going to the Western Wall to put the Sanzer Rebbe, the great Divrei Chayim, into herem (a term similar to excommunication). And at a Shabbat seuda shlishit (third Sabbath meal, eaten shortly before the prayers ending the Sabbath), a Hassid attempted to stab the Divrei Chayim...

Families were broken up because of disputes. Needless hatred ran through East European Jewry as a thread, and the classic example of the Munkatcher Rebbe declaring, concerning the Pressburger Yeshiva founded by the Chasam Sofer: V'hivdilanu min ha'toim - "and He has separated us from those who err," even as the Pressburger Yeshiva refused entry to any baHur (student) who was a member of the
MizraHi...

And this terrible, terrible hatred was long ago, set up by the Rabbis as an unpardonable sin with a terrible, terribly clear and precise warning:

"How severe is maHloket, division and split! The Court of Heaven does not punish until one is over the age of 20 and the court on earth from the age of 13, but in the dispute of Korach, children of one day were burned and swallowed up by the earth..." (Tanchuma, Korach 3) And the Rabbis in Shabbat (33b): "When there are righteous in the generation, the righteous are caught for the sins of the generation. When there are no righteous, then little children are caught for the sins of the generation (this is the explanation for the million and a half Jewish children murdered by the Nazis in the death camps). Let each of us think long and carefully about this. And let us search our souls.

And let us remember, on top of all the sins and the reality of Jewish crimes, the refusal to grasp the Land of Israel to our bosom. "And they despised the desirable land," is the Biblical condemnation of the generation of the desert and its great scholars and leaders who preferred to return to Egypt rather than go to the Land of Israel.

Their actions led to the night of "weeping for generations," Tisha B'Av. What shall we say about the rejection of Eretz Yisrael in the decades preceding the Holocaust by so many great religious leaders in Europe? That, too, must be added to the reality of East European Jewry.

It is time to put an end to the nonsense of "we cannot know the reasons". That answer guarantees the turning away of Jewish youth.

It is time to bury the myth of East European Jewry that was pious and saintly. That insures the creation of a Jewish God who is senselessly cruel.

It is time to put an end to the indictment of God, to hiruf v'giduf, blasphemy against the Lord.

A Jewish People that clings to the Law, truly and completely, will be saved from Holocausts.

And one which rejects it and which turns it into a ritualistic sociological fraud will suffer for it.

And until we learn this, that which was will, God forbid, be again.

But do not blame God. He remains the One whose duty compels us "to declare that the Lord is just, He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him." [Tehillim/Psalms 92:15]

 

What is the fundamental issue of the Holocaust that we avoid speaking about and that, when mentioned, is dismissed with a curt and swift non sequitur?

Collected by Bob Martin http://bmartin01.blogspot.co.il/

 

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WHAT WILL BE?

 

(Editor's note: There is, generally, a gap of three weeks between the writing of this magazine and its publication. Because of that, when these words are read two events will have already taken place. The elections for the Knesset will be over and the results already known. And the effort to have a groundbreaking ceremony for the first Jewish settlement in ancient Shchem since the Exile began, will have been made.)

At the moment of writing, however, neither event has taken place and I do not know whether on May 18, after the two events have occurred, I will sit in the Knesset or in an Israeli prison.  What is clear, however, is that the two events are intrinsically bound, one to the other.

The trip to Shchem is part of the drive to – once and for all – establish the principle of Torah law over contradictory secular law, when the latter attempts to prevent Jews from obeying their obligation to the former.  It is part of the drive – once and for all – to do away with the humiliation and desecration of huge parts of the Land of Israel that are nominally under Israeli control, but in fact dominated and arrogantly possessed by Arabs.  It is an effort to stop the Washington plan to force Israel into suicidal concessions and the Israeli preparation to give in to at least a large part of the American demands.  It is part of the hope that a tempest will be planted in the hearts of enough Jews so that they will join the call to the Israeli government: We will not allow you to give up the land and we will refuse to obey orders to retreat if we are soldiers and join a campaign of civil disobedience if we are civilians.

That is why I plan NOT to ask the government for permission to go to Shchem, for no permission is needed for a Jew to go anywhere in his country.  That is why I plan to ignore the order barring me (sic) from the liberated lands that has been issued by the army.  That is why I plan to call upon the troops, if stopped, to refuse to violate Jewish law by barring a Jew from the Land of Israel and to disobey the illegal orders given them.

That is why I do not know where I will be listening to the Knesset election results.  And as to what the people of Israel will do – who can say?  There are many things I might not have said that would have gained me votes.  But doing that would be turning into a politician and making the Knesset more important than the reason for wanting to be in it.  The Knesset, for me, is nothing more than a forum, an opportunity to have my voice heard – and that is vital.  But the voice itself and what it says is even more vital and when one begins to compromise and rationalize that compromise by thinking that the end of entering the Knesset justifies the means of compromising – then there is never an end

to the deceit.  Then one does the same once he is in the Knesset so that he be re-elected or become a cabinet minister.  No, the truth is not a thing you play with.

The truth has been said in this campaign: That the Jewish people is the Chosen people of G-d and that “what will be” depends on their cleaving to the concepts and the mtizvot of Torah; that the fundamental concept is the faith and belief and trust in G-d that is measured in terms of the difficult sacrifices and dangers embodied in such yardsticks as rushing to the aid of a Jew, refusing to violate Torah by giving up sacred Jewish land, refusing to place one’s trust in allies and Washington, leaving the exile with its impurity and prohibition to live there and coming home to the Jewish land, removing the specter of the Arabs who, by their refusal to recognize the Jewish right to Israel, desecrate the name of G-d.

The truth has been said and I have preached and practiced.  That I will sit either in the Knesset or prison is clear.  Which one, what will be – only the Jews of Israel can decide.  By the time you read this they will have decided and you and I will both know.

MAPS

The pressure on Israel to withdraw totally from the liberated lands will mount with every passing week following the elections.  The demand will be that, in return for a spurious and nebulous “peace” Israel accept a fraudulent and non-existent people and state known as “Palestine”.  It is important to know exactly what the map will look like in case such as state should ever come into being next to Israel.

Along the coastal strip, Arab guns and troops will be 22 kilometers (some 15 miles) from Tel Aviv; 15 kilometers (11 miles) from Netanya; 14 kilometers at the narrowest point between Netanya and Herzeliya.  They will naturally be right next to Jerusalem which will return to being the border and will return to 10 kilometers (some 6 miles) from Beersheva and 8 kilometers (5 miles) from Afula.

Not a plane will get up into the air over the costal strip without facing the withering fire of the SAM missiles that Arafat and his people will set up all along the border.  The Israeli cities on the coastal plan (Tel Aviv, Holon, Bat Yam, Ramat Gan, Benei Brak, Givatayim, Petach Tikva, Herzeliya, Netanya) will become prey to ceaseless bombardment in any “war of attrition” begun by the “Palestinians” and their Communist block, Cuban, Asian and African allies they care to invite in as “volunteers.”  One who knows what happened to the Egyptian cities along the Canal during the 1970 War of Attrition knows, too, exactly how Jewish cities may look, G-d forbid, should the front lines be shifted from the Canal, the Golan and the Jordan to the heartland of Israel.

The prohibition against giving up Jewish land will either be obeyed or not.  We will either trust in G-d or in man.  If we prove to be faithless Jews, divine punishment will come in its most natural form.  We will suffer the natural consequences of our actions – the scenario I have described, above.  “Not one inch” is more than a theological point.  It is tragically practical.  

By Rabbi Meir Kahane - What Will Be? - 1977

From "K A H A N E”
The magazine of the authentic Jewish Idea
May 1977 – Sivan 5737

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Three Transgressions (1977)

“For three transgressions of Judah…” (Amos 2)

And so it begins and 1977 comes early.  We are a people that dearly loves to fool itself and we look away from reality in the hope that it will go away.  But though we look away it will not go away and illusion is but the father of delusion and myths are no substitute for answers to reality. The irony is that every time a Jew speaks up as a Jew and discusses the issues in Jewish terms and Jewish solutions, he is derided as “mystical,” and “impractical,” and “unrealistic.”  We are at that unprecedented age when the Jew who speaks of history and events in terms of G-d and Divine direction, is mocked and looked upon as an embarrassment or worse.  Non-believer and “religious” believer, alike, become diplomats and geopoliticians and the one never thinks of G-d while the other leaves him behind in the synagogue where he “belongs” since, when it comes to politics, we must be “practical.”  

Well, 1977 will show just how impractical and absurd are the secularists and the “religious” allies who reject the mysticism of the truly religious and turn with “cleverness” and “cunning” to Washington, F-15 planes, Lebanese Christians and other “practical” allies and saviors.  Those who trust in Man and mock the unrealistic Jew who follows the ancient and time-honored Jewish way of faith and self-help will learn quickly enough who is the truly practical and who the absurdly ridiculous fool.

We may struggle against wanting to see the truth and we may twist and turn our heads from looking at it, but the realities will never go away and we had best understand them even as they move ominously closer and closer with their threat to Jewish survival.  The realities cannot be denied and they are, starkly and simply:

For Israel, no change.  There remain tens of millions of Arabs, all dedicated to one thing: The elimination of any Israel, of any size or shape.  There are no moderates – there are only Arabs like Sadat who are cleverer than those others who openly say what Sadat means.  And so the Egyptian meets Congressmen and piously speaks of “peace” and “justice” if only Israel will retreat from the lands which Egypt had in its possession in 1967 and which did not stop her from going to war anyhow – for what purpose??? And the pathetic Ribicoffs stand and praise him as a man of “courage and peace” (as did so many Jewish and Israeli leaders in 1975) and the Arab deserves a medal for holding back his laughter…

And the reality remains.  A United States whose interests are so different and so opposed to those of Israel and a Carter and a Ford differ only in accent, as far as Jews are concerned.  America seeks oil, Arab business offers, Arab investment and non-involvement in any confrontation in the Middle East in this post-Vietnam era.  America seeks to continue the very successful (from its point of view) Kissinger policy.  The German Jew (Kissinger) was a tragedy for Israel, but for the United States – he drove the Russians out of the Middle East influence they once had.  And this was done only by promising the Arabs that Washington could do for them, which Moscow could not – force Israel to retreat.  If Carter does not do that, the Russians will return and American materialistic interests will be threatened.  Only the “practical” fools, the gentilized Jews, prefer to believe that America will support Israel because it is a “democracy.”  (Of course, America’s yardstick for supporting nations is whether they are democracies, witness Franco Spain, Salazar Portugal, Greece’s Colonel, South Korea…).  American policy is and always has been the Roger Plan, total Israeli retreat from ALL the liberated lands in return for an Arab piece of paper.  THAT IS THE REALITY for all the gentilized Jews of “practicality.”

The reality is that the sudden burst of Sadat “moderation” and PLO “change of heart” concerning a “Palestine” state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are both aimed at making things easier for America to abandon Israel.  Indeed, Washington has long pleaded with the PLO to make “de facto” moderate statements so as to allow Washington to support the “Palestinian” cause without seeming to abandon Israel.  We are seeing a coordinated Egyptian-Syrian-PLO-Washington plan to get a Geneva Conference that would set the ground for an overall “Peace Plan’ that would demand from Israel complete retreat from the liberated lands and place the onus for further Mideast conflict on Israeli “stubbornness” and “intransigence.”  It will set the stage for more American “reassessment” and delay in arms and money shipments.  It will set the stage for serious and permanent change in American policy towards Israel with a “clean conscience” and a massive sigh of relief from American leaders and people alike.

The reality is Israeli total isolation in the world as it joins South Africa and Rhodesia in the “pariah” class.  And the irony will be that those who so derided and scorned Jews who said to trust alone in G-d will be left with neither G-d nor the Man they so avidly wooed…  The reality is a retreat from lands on which a “Palestine” will be built that will sit a few miles from Israel’s heartland with its missile covering Israeli air space and “volunteers” from the Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland, Pakistan and North Vietnam moving up to the shadow of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

All this is the very real and practical result of the policy of the gentilized Jews who run both Israel and American Jewry.  The ones who never allow the name of G-d to pass their lips, the ones who mock the truly religious, the ones who pompously pontificate on the need for practical thinking and allies.  Well, there are no allies and the Jew who is “practical” today in the same un-Jewish sense that his forefathers were when they scorned the impractical Isaiahs and Hoseas and Jeremiahs and turned with fawning and flattery and prostration to Egypt and Assyria – will find that Assyrians and allies of our time will betray him as swiftly as they did in times of yore.

And the reality for American Jewry is that the Galut, the bitter exile of the Jewish people, did not stop at the western shores of the Atlantic and was not barred from entering the United States.  The exile – that bitterest of all curses, punishments and sins – cannot and will not ever be a sweet refuge.  

 

And the reality for American Jewry is that the Galut, the bitter exile of the Jewish people, did not stop at the western shores of the Atlantic and was not barred from entering the United States.  The exile – that bitterest of all curses, punishments and sins – cannot and will not ever be a sweet refuge.  The curse of the Tochach (admonishment) will never be changed even though Reform and Yeshiva men alike rip out its pages from their Torahs.  “And the L-rd shall scatter thee among all peoples… and among these nations shall thou have no peace.”  How we ignore those Torah parts that disturb our tranquility! How superb we are at rationalizing them away! How angry we become at those who persist in speaking about it.  How we prefer to create the myth of American Jewish bliss that nothing can disturb since “it cannot happen here!” but, the reality is that it will because it must, because the All Mighty knows full well that unless we are forced to, we will never go willingly back to the Land.

And the reality of Soviet Jewry is that never since Stalin have they faced such a potential for pogroms and physical threats.  The illusion was that public protests and demonstrations could only hurt and when Jewish militants disproved that, the myth arose that it was really the twice-a-year establishment picnics and the respectable protests that had been the true cause of the sudden emigration flow and that became a delusion that everything would always remain as a permanent victory.  But, the reality is that Jewish refusal to mount ever-greater attacks on détente and Jewish betrayal of Henry Jackson and now the worst perfidy of them all – the Israeli and Jewish treachery and selling out of all Soviet Jews who will not go to Israel – are all things that are aiding a potential Holocaust for Soviet Jewry. Where is the sense of urgency, where is the note of emergency? They are the realities and in the delusion that is born of such apathy, we prefer not to see the danger and be forced to act and do unpleasant things.

We are a people that dearly loves to fool itself and deeply resents those who refuse to allow us to.  But the reality is here and it is clear.  Jewish destiny and Jewish history are not things of chance, of permutations and combinations.  They are directed and ordained and we cannot avoid that which shall be unless we do that which should be.  A refusal to be Jewish under the pretense of being “practical” will only make us un-Jewish and the most impractical of peoples.

Faith.  Only this is the key to the redemption and salvation of the Jew and how tragic it is that from one end of the spectrum to the other, from the secularist and Marxist Jew to the pious, practitioner of ritual in the yeshivas, real faith and real understanding of this era and the call of Jewish destiny is so lacking.  It is the era of the final redemption that can come so quickly and so magnificently if only we are prepared to believe in the G-d of history, the Jewish Creator of all and director of that which will be.  There is a Jewish destiny that awaits us and this is ours for the asking and taking.  The Messiah knocks and the door waits to be opened if only we turn the key.  The key is faith; real faith.  Faith based on courage and boldness and sacrifice.  Faith that is more that lip service but is measured by three intensely practical concrete yardsticks:

1)    Faith and courage in knowing that the rise of the State of Israel is the decree of the L-rd and the end of the humiliation of the exile.  That every victory won by Jews is proof that the L-rd, G-d of Israel, is the true Creator and the Decreer of history.  That every retreat and defeat is a retreat to that Hillul Hashem that saw two millennia of humiliation for the Jew and his G-d. That retreat from Jewish land, from any part of Eretz Yisroel is a Biblical prohibition and is more than a retreat from land.  It is a retreat from Kiddush Hashem, a retreat from redemption, a retreat from faith in G-d, a retreat from Jewish Destiny.  “Not one inch” is not a political or military imperative – it is a theological and Torah cry.  If we stand firm and call out to the L-rd, rejecting fear of man and rejecting need of man if that need is based on prostration and fawning flattery – then we will have been true in one aspect of our faith.  Then we will have rejected the stupid, impractical and unrealistically mystical belief in the gentile – in Man – and returned to the practical realistic, Jewish believe in trust in the All Mighty.

2)    Faith and courage in leaving the comfortable Exile with its fleshpots and luxuries that so tempts us and seduces us.  The strength to leave comfort for duty, obligation and -commandment.  The courage to choose to fulfill the difficult mitzvah of living in the land rather than wallowing in the impurities and spiritual filth of the Exile.  The faith in G-d that allows us to admit that we, irreligious and religious alike, small and great together, have sinned against the land.  Rejection of the rationalizations and false “pilpul” that helps us to stay and rot in the inevitable graveyard that the Exile will become.  Faith in the land, strength to go home.

3)    Faith and courage in doing what we must for fellow Jews.  Feeling the pain of each and every Jew who is in pain and the readiness to sacrifice and suffer with him, to save him.  A rejection of apathy, a throwing off of indifference, a burial of fearful contemplation and selfish interests.  Massive and powerful demonstrations and attacks on the Russians – clear warnings at what awful thing could happen should Soviet Jewry be under physical attack. 

         
          Massive and powerful protests now, even before the full United

          States pressure begins against any possible US strangulation of Israel.  

          Jewish action instead of reaction.  Massive and powerful demands

          that American Jewish leadership become democratized so that the poor 

           and the elderly and the weak will be aided so that Jewish funds go only 

          to help Jews.  Faith and courage to consider what the gentile wills 

          say  and to reply:  Who cares?  Faith and courage to know that if we do  

          what the All Mighty wishes – the love or hate of the gentile is irrelevant.

Three acts of faith that can absolve us of our three transgressions.  Only thus can we be practical, realistic, pragmatic.  Only by being Jewish can we stop being ridiculously mystical and believe that our salvation lies in the hands of the gentile. We are a people that is different, that is chosen, that is great, that can never be destroyed.  Why do we persist in refusing to recognize ourselves?  Why, if we are giants, do we insist on being dwarfs?

By Rabbi Meir Kahane
“ K A H A N E”
The magazine of the authentic Jewish Idea
Tevet 5737 January 1977 

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