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“Beyond Words” is a
newly-published 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.
“Beyond Words” also includes a number of extra features:
Chronology of Rabbi Kahane's life.
“Beyond Words” now can be bought at Amazon.com. On the search line, type… Beyond Words Kahane.
Beyond Words
Selected Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane,
1960-1990
Volume 6
Shma
Yisrael vs. Allahu Akbar
Nowhere
was it more clearly seen. The real meaning of the struggle in the Holy Land was
never more blatantly revealed than in the stabbing of a Jew in Jerusalem,
recently. And now is it important for us to understand this reality, for if we
do not we will not have the slightest idea of what the struggle in Israel is
all about and, far worse, how to win it.
Yehuda
Avahami, a young man who prays daily at the Western Wall, was walking last week
through the so-called Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Just inside
Sha'ar Shchem (Damascus Gate) he was attacked by an Arab who stabbed him in the
back. And here is the crux of the story: As the Arab stabbed the Jew, the
Arab shouted in triumph, "Allahu Akbar!" (Allah is great). The
Jew, attacked and feeling that he was in danger of death, shouted, "Shma
Yisrael!"
And
herein lies the real meaning of the struggle. And herein lies the shame of the
struggle.
It
has become the slogan, the war call, the triumphant shout of every Moslem
attack on Jews. Allahu Akbar! The Arab who drove the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem
bus over the cliff, shouted it. The Arab who attacked my nephew-soldier on the
streets of Jerusalem, shouted it. It is the theme of the struggle of the
Moslems against the Jewish state. And it is the theme of attack, of power, of
defeating the Jewish enemy, of defeating the G-d of the Jews, of triumph for
Islam. Allahu Akbar! is the voice of the Moslem attacking the Jewish victim.
And
the victim?
He cries out, Shema Yisrael...
Shma
Yisrael becomes the symbol of the victim, of the Jew attacked, of the dying
Jew. The great concept of Shma Yisrael, which was meant to be the triumphant
and powerful and resounding cry of the Jewish victory and the Omnipotence of
the G-d of the Jews, becomes a thin, small, quiet voice in the desert. The
voice of Kiddush Hashem, Jewish sanctification, becomes one of degradation, of
Jewish defeat and death.
And
that is Hillul Hashem, desecration of the Name, and that worst of Jewish crimes
dare not be allowed to continue lest His awesome wrath rage against us.
"Shma
Yisrael!" Hear O Israel! This is the way the mashuach milchama, the
priest who was ordained as the one who led the Jews into battle, would begin
his speech to the Jewish army, prepared to go into battle:
"Shma
Yisrael! Hear O Israel! You are coming near this day to the battle against your
enemies. Let your heart not be faint; do not be afraid, do not panic, and do
not be broken before them. For the L-rd, your G-d, is the One who goes with
you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you." (Deuteronomy 20:3-4)
Shma
Yisrael is not the plaintive cry of a Jewish victim, but the clarion call of the
mashuach milchama, the appointed Priest of War. It is not a numbing
prayer of defeat but a certain, assured call of triumph. Not the voice of the
victim but the roar of the conqueror. It is the affirmation of the real meaning
of Shma Yisrael: "Hear O Israel, the L-rd is our G-d, the L-rd is One -
the only One, the all-powerful One, the all-conquering One, the One who is over
all gods, including Allah."
Shma
Yisrael is the voice of the Jewish Warrior-Priest to the Jewish warriors, not
to the Jewish victims. It is the affirmation of the power and Omnipotence of
the Jewish G-d and the assurance that faith in Him guarantees victory. In the
words of the Talmud (Sotah 42a):"Why does the message begin with the
words 'Shma Yisrael', in particular? Rabbi Yochanan said in the name of Rabbi
Shimon Bar- Yochai: the All Mighty said to Israel: even though you only
observed the mitzvah of 'Shma Yisrael' in the morning and in the evening, you
will not be given over to your enemies."
You
think that is an easy thing, Jew? Think again.
Shma
Yisrael is the symbol, the utterance of real faith. Real faith. Not the plastic
faith of theory in which the Jew pays copious and very "frum", pious,
lip service to the All Mighty, only to find a hundred "halachic"
reasons why to back away from confrontation with the enemy at the moment of
reality. Faith means believing the cry of the mashuach milchama whose
Shma Yisrael is an integral part of, "Let your heart not be faint... do
not be afraid!" And in the words of the Sifri (Shoftim 192):
"They come with the victory of flesh and blood, and you come with the
victory of the All Mighty". And the Talmud, Sotah (ibid.), expands on
this: "The Philistines came with the victory of Goliath; what was his end?
In the end he fell with the sword and they fell with him, and you are not that
way. For the L-rd, your G-d, is the One who goes with you, to fight for
you..."
We
have taken a Shma Yisrael that was meant to be the slogan of Jewish power and
Omnipotence of our G-d, and turned it into a plaintive cry of a victim. We took
a cry of power and turned it into weakness. "Kol ha'Shem ba'koach! The
voice of the L-rd is powerful!"(Psalms 29:4). And if that is true, so
must the voice of His people be powerful. "Who is the King of glory?
The L-rd, strong and mighty, the L-rd, mighty in battle" (ibid., 24:8).
And if that is true, then we must crown Him king in battle by our being strong
and mighty in battle.
The
reason that the Moslem shouts Allahu Akbar is because we allow him to think so.
On that glorious day in 1967 when Jewish troops, the Tzivot Ha'Shem, the
host and ranks of the All Mighty, swept into the Old City of Jerusalem and the
Temple Mount, there were no shouts of Allahu Akbar. There was only fear
and terror in the eyes and hearts of the Moslems who saw, and felt and knew - "Shma
Yisrael, Hashem Echad!"
It
was the Jewish retreat and fear of the world, of the nations, that reinstilled
in the heart of the Moslem the belief that Allahu Akbar. It was the
terrible lack of faith in the words of the priest of battle, "Do not be
afraid.... for the L-rd is the One who goes with you, to fight for you," that
brought on us this terrible resurgence in faith and strength and arrogance of
the Moslem. In direct proportion to Jewish lack of faith and fearful
prostration before the gentiles did the Moslems grow in certainty and
confidence in Allah. What a terrible indictment of the Jewish people! What a
terrible humiliation that Jews, the small and the great, talk about "the
prohibition of antagonizing the nations." As if we were still in Pinsk or
Casablanca.
And
so a Moslem proudly attacks a Jew and cries, Allahu Akbar, and the Jew,
in fear, cries out: Shma Yisrael. Not as a war cry but as a death chant.
Hillul Hashem!
Written:
November 1989
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