Author Archives: Rabbi

Time Release

Posted on September 25, 2012 | 2 comments

The Torah summarizes the very essence of our lives at the end of Parshat Nitzavim (Devarim 30:20): “…to love G-d, to listen to His voice and to cleave to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days…” What a magnificent statement – that requires definition. The Netziv (Rav Naphtali Zvi Yehuda Berlin) comments that to love G-d and to listen to His voice means to immerse ourselves in Torah – to toil in Torah – whereas to cleave to G-d means to support Torah – not everyone can sit and learn, but they can acquire a love and an intimate connection to G-d by supporting Torah.

And not only that – but “He is your life and the length of your days.” What’s the difference between “your life” and “the length of your days”? Many explain that “your life” means life itself in this world and “length of days” refer to one’s quality of life. But others (the Sforno, for one) explain that “your life” means eternal life, which makes sense. “And you who cleave to G-d are all alive today” (ibid 4:4) – cleaving to G-d grants us eternal life. But what then is “length of days” in reference to eternity?

Not long ago, the Jewish world marked the shloshim of Zev Wolfson a”h. When he died, I did not know much about his remarkable life except that he was a great philanthropist of Jewish causes. One of the distinguished Rabbis in Yerushalayim eulogized him as “the pillar of loving-kindness in our generation,” just like the recently-departed Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt”l was the “pillar of Torah in our generation.” All this I learned in a remarkable column in the Israeli weekly Besheva (August 23, 2012 edition) that had an interesting twist to it, well-written as always by their esteemed columnist Yedidya Meir. (http://www.inn.co.il/Besheva/Article.aspx/12227)

The column framed a minimized page of obituaries from the Israeli Yated Neeman, right in the middle of the page, placed in Yated by some of the yeshivot that Zev Wolfson supported – in Beer Yaakov, in Yerushalayim – yeshivot I also never heard of. Then the article described him – his simplicity, directness, utter selflessness and dedication to the Jewish people, and especially his willingness to invest in a Jewish cause or organization if there was a plan and a definable objective. Each day he would implore everyone to do something for Klal Yisrael – the most important concern in life

He supported hundreds of organizations, and was obsessed in his later years with bridging the gap between secular Israeli youth and the Jewish people, not necessarily to bring them to observance in a traditional sense but to enhance their Jewish identity and give them a connection to the Jewish people. So, about a decade ago he started funding drop-in centers in Tel Aviv, for young people, called Nefesh Yehudi. Thousands have attended – and the columnist wrote about one of them, a young woman named Keren Svistov who worked as a planner at a major advertising firm in Tel Aviv.

Apparently, there was a buzz in Israel back in February when Keren Svistov updated her Facebook page, and columnist Meir decided to save it for a column in the month Elul. In February, she wrote on her Facebook page that “the time has come to speak about this teshuva (repentance) of mine. People keep sending me worrisome emails – ‘what’s happened to you? Are you freaking out? Such an intelligent girl. Is it because you haven’t found a husband, or because your father died of cancer?”

She was raised secular, and maintained a customary Tel Avivi lifestyle. Yet, for 3½ years, she had been learning at one center in Tel Aviv – once a week, for 4½ hours at a time. I paraphrase some selections (translation mine): “I’m touching the truth, understanding it and denying it, getting close to it and then fleeing from it. I don’t want the light to close me in. I don’t want to think my whole prior life was false. Yet, slowly, Torah enters.”

“Where do I start? Sometimes I think my return was rational and logical, not spiritual. That my mind, trained to acquire degrees, to be analytical, sees that there must be logic in the universe – and Torah, science, our history, ending with the question: ‘why are we here? Why are we members of the Jewish people?’ And then I am told that such a repentance sounds like one is embarrassed about one’s Jewishness, which I am not. Repentance need not be purely logical.”

“And each morning I thank G-d, for I believe I will be able to chip away some more of the shell and return to myself and to You. I gave up my immodest dress, and the cloak of sarcasm that I also wore. And sometimes it is a struggle – how do you nurture a princess when my entire essence still cries out for materialism? Pride, beauty, shopping, money, honor, and control. The instinctual drive always leads me on a more enjoyable, comfortable path… Sometimes the sins I think I had eradicated return with a vengeance. Master of the universe, what a long road it is to You! Yet another day of repentance begins.” It was posted at 2:41 AM in February 2012.

But that’s not the end of her story. This was in February. Meir filed it away for use in Elul – and then, he noticed in Yated, on that page of obituary notices for Zev Wolfson, there were engagement announcements in the upper corner of the same page – and, lo and behold, Keren Svistov (now of Netiv Bina, a seminary in Givatayim) became engaged to be married to another Tel Avivian, Daniel Machnes, now learning at a yeshiva in Tel Aviv.

How is that for coincidence? The death of the benefactor mourned, and the lives of his beneficiaries celebrated, on the same page. Blessed is the Judge of Truth, and Mazal Tov, in the same corner.

“For He is your life and the length of your days.” G-d not only gives us eternal life but also “length of our days” What is “length of days”? The capacity to live beyond our sojourn on earth, certainly to leave behind children and families, but especially good deeds and acts of kindness that render us immortal, that continue to take effect years beyond our lifespan.

We are able to touch people in such a way that long after we are gone, they can say about us “but for him or her, my life would have been lost, or different, or unfulfilled.” We can make each day count – not only when we are alive but by doing something virtuous that will pay dividends in generations yet to come.

That we can do even if we are not multi-millionaires; and that we can try to do every day, for “He is your life and the length of your days.” Then we too will have a share in the flourishing of repentance, the national renaissance that is prophesied for the end of days; then, our enemies will tremble before us, and we will again be called “G-d’s holy nation, redeemed.”

Shana tova to all !

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Posted in Chumash, Contemporary Life, Current Events, Machshava/Jewish Thought

The Good News

Posted on September 21, 2012 | 1 comment

A New Year has dawned, and as always we put the difficulties of the old year behind us and look forward to the blessings of the new. And there are many blessings, all coming to us by way of polls and surveys of Israeli Jews that are as ubiquitous this time of year as are apples and honey.

The population of Judea and Samaria now exceeds 350,000 Jews, which, added to the 300,000 Jews already residing in Jerusalem neighborhoods built after the Six-Day War, consist of well over 10% of the Jewish population of Israel. If the “yishuvim” were one city, they would constitute Israel’s third-largest city. This news led Yossi Sarid, die-hard peacenik and committed leftist, to lament the irreversibility of Jewish settlement, concede defeat, and mourn what he feels to be the end of the peace movement and Israel’s forthcoming disappearance, r”l.

Facts on the ground do matter and have made a difference in forging Israel’s destiny. If the two-state solution was always a chimera, today it is a flight into Wonderland – a lingering part of the politician’s rhetoric but not a living part of anyone’s reality. Credit to Mitt Romney for articulating the futility of the two-state solution and the need for a new paradigm for Middle East diplomacy. Thinking Jews: take heed.

That news supplements – in fact, likely shapes – the findings of the annual Peace Index. Only 25% of Israel’s population believes at all in the possibility of “peace” with the Arabs in coming years; a full 72% do not believe it is realistic. The better news is that almost 60% of the population is optimistic about the coming year; since Jews are generally a pessimistic people – usually grounded in reality – this is an encouraging figure. About half feel secure about their personal safety and economic health – although 35% find the government’s role in assuring security somewhat lacking. (Compared to what? There were fewer terrorist-caused murders in 5772 than in many years, less than ten; of course, each soul lost is precious and a world in itself.)

More than 89% of Arabs fear an Iranian nuclear attack!

Almost 78% rate the government as generally unresponsive to people’s concerns – and yet most would vote that same government back into power. That reminds of a poll from years’ past when almost 80% of the population was pessimistic about Israel’s future, less than 5% would consider leaving the country, but more than 70% rated themselves as generally happy in life. Perhaps the dissatisfaction with the government is not as surprising as it first sounds, given that polls predict a Netanyahu-led coalition government after the next election but he struggles to garner even 25% of the votes, and given that anyone with a grievance finds it easy to blame the government.

Yet, with all the problems unresolved and challenges looming, it is appropriate to appreciate the blessings we have been given and the glorious opportunities our generation has been afforded. Jews in other centuries would have died – did die – to have the problems and challenges we have: build Torah amid prosperity, safeguard the Jewish state and the Jewish people around the world from a position of strength, not weakness, and bring all Jews closer to their Torah.

How fortunate are we, how goodly is our portion, how compassionate is our Benefactor, the Creator of the universe who gave us the Torah.

May the coming year find some of our problems solved, new opportunities presented – the opportunities of redemption and the Messianic era.

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Current Events, Israel

Obama=Carter

Posted on September 12, 2012 | 4 comments

The narrative sounds eerily familiar. A Democratic president presiding over a weak economy, prone to a foreign policy that distances allies and coddles enemies and who thinks he’s the smartest person on the planet, witnesses the assault on American diplomatic missions in the Muslim world.

Barack Obama, meet Jimmy Carter, if you haven’t already.

Muslims, the people of perpetual grievance, have found yet another pretext to kill innocent people – the production by an American of a film biography of Muhammad. From excerpts aired on the radio, the dialogue was so pedestrian as to be laughable. No matter. Muslims, who are forbidden to depict Muhammad in any image, assume that their strictures must apply to every person on the planet, and so have attacked the US embassy in Cairo and the mission in Libya – desecrating the American flag in Cairo (where embassy personnel had been sent home earlier in the day) and murdering innocents (including the US Ambassador to Libya) in Benghazi.

That tolerance is unknown in the Muslim world is by now a given, so accepted that it is neither sought nor expected. The US embassy’s initial reaction to the Cairo rioters (so far, the only reaction) was to apologize for the film, as if “Americans,” rather than an American exercising his freedom of speech, were responsible. Instead of defending the embassy – which, after all, is considered as sovereign US territory – and/or denouncing the rioters and the Muslim government that allowed the attack to occur, the Obama administration chose, yet again, to apologize to Muslims. The apology, apparently, was for putting Muslims in a position where they have no choice but to kill you. Poor dears, with their uncontrollable rage that is stoked by fecklessness and weakness.

The irony of the Cairo attack is twofold. Less than a decade ago, Egyptian television aired a fictional series based on the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” that was replete with Jew hatred, offensive stereotypes and caricatures of Jews. Clearly, Muslims somehow rationalize repugnant attacks on other religions – Judaism, Christianity, and recall the destruction of ancient Buddhist shrines by the Taliban – but fly into a riotous rage when Islam is portrayed negatively. They reserve the right to destroy shuls and churches, but insist that mosques remain sacrosanct. This obvious double standard is abetted by the world – especially the United States – when the victims apologize to the Muslims for unleashing their primitive Muslim wrath. What happened yesterday is just the continuation of the Danish “Muhammad-cartoon” controversy in another form, with Muslims again insisting that rights cherished in the Western world have to be vitiated in order to accommodate Muslim special sensitivities. Of course, no other religion or nation is allowed to insist on a similar claim, and especially not from Muslims. Such weakness only engenders more attacks, as does the coddling of any bully.

Certainly, good taste and elementary decency would insist that no faith’s cherished icons, edifices, personalities or tenets be ridiculed at all – but taste and decency are not hallmarks of the Western world, nor are they considered limitations on the freedoms extant in the West. More importantly, Muslims have no moral right to insist on good taste and decency from anyone as long as they don’t practice it themselves. Mutual respect, the foundation of the civilized world, begins with mutuality.

The second irony of the Cairo embassy attack is that Cairo, in June 2009, was the locus for one of President Obama’s most famous apology speeches, where he sought to assuage the hurt feelings of the Muslim world from the years of US imperialism and domination, as Obama saw it. It was intended to be America’s reset button with Islam, especially after the US actions “forced” Muslims to hijack US airliners, fly them into US skyscrapers and murder thousands of American civilians – a crime celebrated in the Muslim world at the time with wild cheering, and a crime commemorated yesterday in Egypt and Libya with assaults on American diplomatic missions and the murder of yet more Americans.

It is fascinating that what generates fury in the Muslim world is a bad movie, but not the ongoing massacre of upwards of 23,000 Muslims in Syria. Syria’s diplomatic posts are safe from Muslim frenzy, and the carnage continues apace. Why doesn’t any nation intervene? Why is the slaughter being observed with Western detachment, except for periodic and perfunctory denunciations accompanied by empty threats?

One possibility presents, as indelicate as it sounds. The Western world has tired of Muslims and their irrational passions, and simply does not care if they kill each other – as long as they don’t kill us. The Western world is tired of intervening – with the loss of blood and treasure – to prevent Muslims from killing each other. Let them blow each other up, in their mosques, streets and wedding halls. Yet another 100 people were killed in Iraq this past Sunday without evincing the slightest reaction from Americans or other Westerners. Another 10,000 will be killed in Syria in the coming months? Great, knock yourselves out, have a good time. We extend our sympathies to the victims and their families, feel bad about the children, and hope it ends soon. But if Muslims are troubled by Muslims killing Muslims, let Muslims do something about it.

When savagery becomes routine, even acceptable, and when today’s victims were yesterday’s murderers, it is difficult to muster even crocodile tears, much less genuine sympathy for their plight. The Muslim world has coerced a hardening of Western hearts. It is one of the few places in the world where dictators are overthrown in popular uprisings only to be succeeded by even more brutal dictators; it is the only place in the world were random violence against innocent civilians is considered normal, and even sacred. And Muslim attacks on American diplomats preceded even the Carter feebleness; in March, 1973, the US Ambassador to Sudan Cleo Noel was kidnapped and killed (along with his deputy) in a Palestinian attack on the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, an attack orchestrated and masterminded by Yasser Arafat who (it’s on tape) personally ordered their murders. That didn’t stop Bill Clinton from feting Arafat at the White House twenty years later, when he should have been incarcerating him.

Obama’s reset with Russia has worked out as well as his reset with Muslims. Each has only grown in contempt for America’s weak leader and the helplessness of the country he leads. Obama’s foreign policy successes (e.g., the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, on something close to the Bush timetable, it is worth adding) has not made America stronger or the world safer. On the contrary: the incompetence and spinelessness (literally: Obama’s bowing to the Saudi king made a deep impression in Islam) of the Obama administration set the stage for this latest attack on Americans and American interests in the Muslim world, and a new round of apologies.

Add to that another snub of Israel’s prime minister by this president, and it is Jimmy Carter-time once again.

Fortunately, Jimmy Carter was a one-term president.

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Current Events

Obama, Democrats and Israel

Posted on September 5, 2012 | 5 comments

We are reminded again and again that President Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.” Indeed, the same exact phrase is used repeatedly, as if the teleprompter is stuck. Even this year’s Democratic Party platform reiterates that the Democrats have “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.” So when the platform purposely omitted mention of Yerushalayim as the capital of the State of Israel – in contrast to both the Republican platform and previous Democratic platforms, and in contrast to what Obama himself said before AIPAC as a candidate in 2008 to resounding applause before he retracted it the very next day – it is always good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

In fact, although Obama snubbed Netanyahu in the PM’s first visit to Washington, having him enter the White House through a side door and literally walking out on him during their first meeting, it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although Obama has cold and barely cordial relations with Israel’s duly-elected prime minister – while enthusiastically bowing before Saudi Arabia’s aging potentate and genuflecting before an assortment of dictators across the world – it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although Obama sympathized with French President Sarkozy (since defeated for re-election) that Netanyahu is a “liar” with whom he struggles “every day,” it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although Obama has insisted only on Israeli concessions for the sake of “peace” but has not made any reciprocal demands on the Arabs, it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although informed US Jewish “leaders” early in his administration that there needs to be “daylight” between the US and Israeli diplomatic positions, it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although Obama early on – later repeated in strident fashion by his UN Ambassador – that Israeli settlements are illegal (a term not used by the US in more than 30 years), it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although Obama in Cairo in June 2009 equated Israeli apartment-building in its heartland with Arab terror against innocent Jewish civilians, and further associated Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians with the Holocaust, it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although Obama insisted that Israel freeze the construction of Jewish communities in its very heartland (and Netanyahu foolishly agreed), it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although Obama applied that construction freeze to Yerushalayim as well, and although his spokesman refuses even to answer the simple question “what is the capital of the State of Israel?” it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although Obama announced that the starting point for negotiations between Israel and the PA has to be a retreat to the 1948 armistice lines (for which Netanyahu rightly reprimanded him) – borders which are defined as indefensible by any military expert – it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although Obama has tried several times to cut funding for Iron Dome, money then restored by Congress for which Obama then claimed credit, it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although disinvited Israel to the Nuclear Security Summit held in Washington DC and to several forums dealing with international terror, it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although Obama supported Turkish efforts to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza, and has made radical-Muslim Turkey a closer US ally than is Israel, it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although Obama allowed the UN Security Council to denounce Israel for its self-defense against the Mavi Marmara assault on Israel’s sovereignty, and called on Israel to apologize, it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although Obama has visited dozens of countries across the world and most countries in the Middle East but has not yet set foot in Israel as president, it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although the Arab Middle East is steadily radicalizing with the collapse of US allies and the rise to power of overt haters of Israel – with Obama’s America “leading from behind” when it is engaged at all, it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although Obama has offered strong rhetoric on Iran but done little to prevent its inexorable progress to a nuclear weapon with which it openly threatens Israel’s existence, it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although Obama officials have publicly called Israel “an ungrateful ally,” one that “has harmed American interests in the world,” it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although Obama has so far refused to provide Israel with US weaponry capable of simplifying an Israeli strike on Iran and has steadily leaked information about covert operations, it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although Obama has drastically scaled back US-Israeli joint military maneuvers scheduled for October, even as US-Egyptian joint maneuvers are proceeding in full force this week, it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Although Obama has surrounded himself his entire adult life with radical, anti-Israel Jews and non-Jews, and absorbed an anti-Israel mentality that sees Israel as a colonialist outpost with questionable legitimacy, it is good to remember that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

What is clear is that President Obama has an unshakeable commitment to employing clichés about Israel’s security, just enough to lull naïve Jewish voters for whom Israel is not a priority into voting for him one last time. The sad truth, noted here a number of times, is that most American Jews are not particularly observant, knowledgeable or engaged seriously in their Jewish faith. Their voting patterns reveal an obsessive concern with abortion rights and other liberal dogma; Israel is an afterthought – with one exception: Jewish consciences are assuaged on the Israel-issue (because they feel they should be concerned with Israel on some emotional, tribal basis) by the spouting of friendly and familiar rhetoric, even if the deeds and the rhetoric cannot be harmonized. Hence, the repeated refrain that Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

Because Jews will vote for any Democrat who mouths the right slogans, and many will vote for Democrats who are obviously anti-Israel if they are otherwise liberal in their politics, there is little hope in persuading most of those Jews to vote for a non-Democrat, no matter who he is and no matter what he would say on Israel. That is why the core political support for Israel in the US today comes from Christian evangelicals and not from Jews. That is why Jews will rationalize any hostile acts to Israel emanating from Obama; the cognitive dissonance is unbearable. Even the disdain that most Israelis feel towards Obama – and certainly they should know best – makes little impression on Jewish Democrats. There is almost nothing that will convince most Jews not to vote for a Democrat.

That is why the same mantra can be sounded relentless: Obama has “an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

And one other: Obama said before AIPAC this year that he “has Israel’s back.” Less comforting is the creeping sense that in an Obama second term (r”l) freed from any accountability, Obama would be well-positioned to stick a knife in that very back. That Jews may have a role in that because of their pathetic and thoughtless voting patterns –– will be as unsurprising as it will be reprehensible. That Jews are even today tap-dancing away from the dramatic changes in support for Israel in the Democrat party platform – denying that such has even happened – is appalling.

The French poet Charles Peguy once said, “He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.”

Where are the Jews who will bellow the truth, even if involves loss of face at the country club and the temple? Decision time is nearly at hand.

UPDATE: Well, Barack Obama, whose commitment to Israel’s security is unshakeable, apparently interceded personally with the Democrat Party and insisted that the party platform recognize Yerushalayim as the capital of Israel.

That produced a great moment of political theater – farce, in fact – when the Convention chair took a voice vote and was able to ascertain that the “voices” produced the needed 2/3 majority to amend the platform. How can a “voice vote” be so accurately measured, especially when to anyone listening the ayes and nays were almost the same, if not even betraying a preponderance of nays?

It recalls the story of Lincoln polling his cabinet on a critical vote. “All opposed say ‘nay.'” Every hand shot up. “All in favor say ‘aye.'” Lincoln said “aye,” and concluded, “the ayes have it.”

Obviously, there is a significant segment of the Democrat Party that is unsympathetic to Israel (close to or even exceeding a majority), and polls reveal the same. But damage control was necessary, as the Obama re-election plan is based on the identity p0litics first perfected by FDR – appeal to blacks, women, homosexuals, union members and Jews. The omission of Yerushalayim threatened to make Jews even more uncomfortable voting for Obama, so it had to be changed. No group can be lost, or the election is lost.

Of course, Obama is the president, not just the party leader and platform drafter. If he really believed Yerushalayim was the capital of Israel, he would say it, his spokesman would say it, and the State Department would say it. That would carry more weight and be an act of substance rather than rhetoric. But that is what we should expect from a man whose commitment to Israel’s security is unshakeable.

-RSP

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Israel, Jewish History