RABBI MEIR KAHANE
ON JEWS AND JUDIASM
ON JEWS AND JUDIASM
But
It Is MY Ox!
January 19, 1990 - 22 Teveth 5750
January 19, 1990 - 22 Teveth 5750
{Today,
the Muslims are the worlds ox. Now that makes a difference to them bg}
Once
upon a time, there was a man who owned several beautiful oxen. They were strong
and well-mannered and just a delight. He had a neighbor, however, who was a bad
man and very jealous of the beautiful oxen, because the bad man’s oxen were
ugly and ill-tempered. And the jealousy of the bad man gave him no rest, so
that one day he deliberately let his ill-tempered oxen into the field where the
beautiful oxen were grazing and they gored one of them, killing it. The owner
of the dead ox was angry at this terrible and deliberate outrage that, in the
middle of the night, he entered the field where the ill-tempered oxen were and
killed one of them.
The
neighboring villagers and cattle people were very moral and ethical people and
they were aghast at the man who had taken revenge on the ill-tempered ox and
its bad owner. Their leader, Mr. Morality, was especially indignant. “What you
did was very immoral,” he told the poor man. “You cannot sink to his level. And
you cannot enter someone else’s field even if there is a dangerous ox there.
You cannot take the law into your own hands.”
In
vain did the poor fellow protest that someone had to teach the bad fellow a
lesson and that unless that were done, he would do it again. Nothing helped.
Mr. Morality was adamantly ethical: “You do not take the law into your own
hands; you do not enter other people’s property; you do not sink to his level.”
And with that, Mr. Morality and his merry band of ethical cattlemen walked off,
heads high and breasts filled with a sweet sense of righteousness.
The
poor man was so beaten that he could not bear the thought of continuing as
before. He was so depressed that he decided to sell the rest of his beautiful
oxen to anyone who would buy them. To be sure, there was no lack of buyers and,
in the end, it was Mr. Morality himself who offered the highest price. Beaming,
he took possession of the beautiful, quiet, well-mannered and delightful oxen.
But
the change in ownership had not changed the way the bad man felt. Every time he
would see the beautiful oxen, he was blinded by jealousy and envy. And so, one
night, when he could no longer contain his jealousy, he sent his ugly and
ill-tempered oxen into the field of Mr. Morality and they again killed one of
the beautiful oxen.
When
Mr. Morality heard of what had happened, his anger knew no bounds. And without
a second thought, he took a number of his merry ethical friends, entered the
field of the bad man and killed not one, but two of his oxen.
When
the original owner of the oxen heard of this, he hurried over to Mr. Morality.
“I do not understand. What did you do? When I did the same thing, you told me
that one does not take the law into one’s own hands; one does not enter other
people’s fields and one does not sink to their level. What happened now?”
Mr.
Morality looked with pity on the poor, uncomprehending man. “I see that you
really don’t understand, poor fellow. Let me explain. There is a difference
between you going into his field and my going into his field. In your case, you
really should not have done such a thing. In this case, it was my ox…”
I
wallow in glee over events in Panama and Romania. O, Panama! O, Romania! I
watch as the United States troops go into someone else’s field, invade a
foreign country with 25,000 troops, shoot up its capital city, kill some 70
Panamanians, and install their own government.
And
then I remember Israel’s invasion of Lebanon after years of attacks on Jewish
towns from that country; after scores of Jews were murdered by attacks launched
from that land; after life was made a living hell for the Jews of Kiryat
Shmona, one third of whom fled the city. And I remember Israeli troops reaching
Beirut and installing their Lebanese as President in order to put an end to
murder and attacks upon Jews.
And
I remember Messrs. Morality! ALL of them! President Reagan, Vice-President
Bush, the State Department, the Defense Department and all the merry, ethical
Americans (and British and French and, and, and, ad infinitum. Ad nauseum). How
they condemned and how they railed and how they moralized and how they
ethicalized! Merrily. “You do not sink to the level of the PLO. You do not
enter someone else’s field (land). You do not take the law into your own
hands.” Messrs. Morality, Post Office Box One Million, Washington, DC.
And
so now there is Panama. And should any simple-minded type ask President
Morality, High-minded Bush of morality, why he did everything he told Israel it
should not do – he would give a sympathetic nod to the poor simpleton who
really does not understand, and the answer would be: But it is my ox…
I
remember Israeli troops entering the field of Lebanon to capture a Moslem
Sheikh who was leader of a group of Moslem Shiite thugs holding Israelis as
hostages; and President Morality and his merry ethical State Department
cattlemen with their shouts of condemnation! And now I see the same moralists
invading the field of Panama to try and catch a thug named Noriega because he
deals in drugs that harm Americans and because he tweaks America’s nose. And I
finally understand the difference and can even hear President Morality say it:
But it is my ox…
And I remember the outcry by all the Democrats and anti-Racist equality types demanding that William Nakash be extradited from Israel to France and rising up in righteous indignation over the thought that just because someone is a Jew, he should not be extradited. After all, all human beings are equal and being Jewish is no reason to refuse to hand him over to strangers. And what would the world say to any such tribalism! And then I read that under Panamanian, law, a Panamanian cannot be extradited to a foreign county and I understand the difference: But it is my ox…
And I remember the outcry by all the Democrats and anti-Racist equality types demanding that William Nakash be extradited from Israel to France and rising up in righteous indignation over the thought that just because someone is a Jew, he should not be extradited. After all, all human beings are equal and being Jewish is no reason to refuse to hand him over to strangers. And what would the world say to any such tribalism! And then I read that under Panamanian, law, a Panamanian cannot be extradited to a foreign county and I understand the difference: But it is my ox…
I
watch as, in Romania, the dictator is captured and he and his wife are shot in
secret trial, with summary justice dealt out within less than two days and no
appeal allowed. And I know that Israel did not give the death penalty to any
murdering terrorists and goes through elaborate procedures of “justice” in
order that terrorists sit and eat and drink at our expense until they are
exchanged for hostages. And I know what the outcry from Romania and other
ethical nations would be if Israel would do to murdering terrorists what
Romania did to its former President. But I have already learned the difference;
THIS IS MY OX…
And
having said all that, I do not – as so many professors and intellectual doers
on the right – merely weep, complain and wring my soul. I have no intention of
wasting a precious few moments of my finite life in the House of Eternal
Kvetching, in which so many of the right-wing spend their lives. The lesson for
me in this morality lesson of Whose Ox is gored? Is not that there are
hypocrites in this world. Boker Tov! Good morning! There are hypocrites in the
world! Surprise…
For
me, the only lesson here is that there is, indeed, a difference. Not the one
that the moralists of hypocrisy give, but the objective and eternally true one
of divine Torah Law. There is a difference, the one that cannot be grasped
unless one has knowledge and sense. In the words of the rabbis, “Im ein da’at
havdala minayin?” “If one has no knowledge, how can he differentiate?”
The
lesson is that there is objective good and objective evil, objective truth and
objective falsehood, and the same action taken against the one is good while
the same act done against the other is wrong and evil. Yes, it is good and
right and a mitzvah to go into Panama to eliminate the slime named Noriega and
yes, how much more so was it right and a mitzvah to enter Lebanon and eliminate
the PLO and other Moslem terrorist swine. And yes, it was wrong and evil for
the Russians to do exactly the same in Afghanistan and for the Chinese to
invade Tibet. Yes, the German bombing of Coventry and London is not the same as
the Allied bombing of German cities and yes, the hanging of evil criminals is
good and that of decent people, bad, and anyone who does not understand this
havdala, differentiation, needs a good grounding in knowledge. Divine
knowledge. Torah knowledge.
Until
then, at the very least, let the Jew learn the simple message of normal
gentiles who – when their basic interests are threatened – do not hesitate to
enter strange fields and to kill evil oxen. It is time the Jew learned there is
nothing for which to apologize or retreat when his people are killed and his
interest threatened. It is time that he learned to tell President Morality and
any other merry ethical type: “But it is my ox and no one touches it;
understand?”
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