Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Who said, "Violence does not help?"- 1988

Barbara Ginsberg’s Desktop

RABBI MEIR KAHANE in 1988 wrote the following article.  As you read it simply change the names and it could have been written today.


Who said, “Violence does not help?”

 A dozen Israeli leaders, including Shamir, Peres and Rabin, solemnly advised the Arabs (for their own good, we must assume) that “violence and riots do not help.”

“Riots do not help?  “Violence only hurts your cause?” our leaders said.

Balderdash!  Of course, violence helps, why else did Mr. Shamir decide to help form the Stern group (cruelly called “gang” by the British and Jewish Establishment types who warned that “violence would not help”…) 

And, if violence and rioting did not help the Arab cause, why is it that the “Palestine” question has been headline news almost every day.  And what forced the Americans and West who, from the beginning were comfortably isolating themselves from the problem.  Now they condemn Israel and demand that a political solution be found?

Who said, “Violence does not help?”


The “Palestinians” seeing that every political effort had failed, reasoned, why should violence be perceived as not helping?   Knowing that television and news media thrive on “action.” Why should the Arabs not attempt to give them that, knowing that hundreds of millions of people all over the world would be seeing it?

Who said, “Violence does not help?”

What put the Soviet Jewish issue on page on of The New York Times and as the major story on almost every television station, if not violence?  And what made the British get out of Palestine?  What led to the creation of a Jewish state, if not violence?

How much good did non-violence do for the Jews of the Holocaust?  Of course violence helps. It helps to force an issue onto the headlines and consciousness of the world.  It makes people talk about the issue.  And then, if the violence is accompanied by clever propaganda, it helps remarkably well and that the confused object of your violence does not know how to deal with you and your violence, why – of course – you continue and escalate that violence.

The truth is violence has already succeeded in making Israel retreat.  When Shamir and Rabin and Peres declare that as soon as order is restored, Israel will sit down to discuss “complete” autonomy and a political solution of the “Palestine” problem, that is exactly what the aim of the violence was.  And had there been no violence, Shamir and the Likud would have been perfectly content to sit for another 20 years with the status quo.

The Arabs understand an essential truth of world relations.  They understand that the world cares little about any issue unless it is prodded.  Nations and peoples, for the most part, are involved and preoccupied with their own problems.  If one wants to be heard, he must not only shout, for the world has long been inured to shouts.  The one who wishes to be heard must shock.  And there is nothing more shocking than violence.

This is true for all peoples whether their cause is right or wrong.  And of course, the Arab case is wrong.  But it does not remove the essential reality of the very great effectiveness of violence.  On the day that the helpless and hapless Jewish “leaders” stop babbling about the ineffectiveness of violence and concentrate more on improving their own ineffectiveness by putting down of the violence, Israel will be in a much better position of security.

Violence helps the Arabs.  Crushing that violence in the most effective and the quickest way helps the Jews.

Anyone reading this Rabbi Meir Kahane or Rabbi Binyamin Kahane  article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles and would like to be, please contact me at:

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Newly published “Kahane on the Parsha” can be bought at the following  links on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Kahane-Parsha-Meir/dp/098867680X , it's also available on website, www.BrennBooks.com

Rebbitzen Libby Kahane is happy to announce that the second volume, “Rabbi Meir Kahane: His Life and Thought, 1983-1976” is available on Amazon.com. The book comes up immediately when you type into the main search box: Meir Kahane Life 1976
Rabbi Meir Kahane: His Life and Thought, 1976-1983” (volume 2), has been published. and now available in Israel. Can be bought from Yeshivat Haraayon Hayehudi (02-5823540) and from Pomeranz Books (02-6235559)

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Moses Speaks to Paraoh "No Retreat No Compromise!" -1977

From the Desktop of Barbara Ginsberg

K A H A NE The magazine of the authentic Jewish Idea
Shavat –5737 February – 1977


DIVREI TORAH
Moses Speaks To Paraoh  "No Retreat No Compromise "

“And Pharaoh called to Moses, saying: Go and worship the L-rd. Only your sheep and cattle will remain – your children will also go with you. And Moses said: You will also give us offerings and sacrifices for the L-rd our G-d, and our flocks will go with us…” (Shmot 10:24-26)

The ninth plague-darkness – has struck Egypt with a vengeance and Pharaoh breaks. Step by step he has retreated and after the eighth plague – locusts – he was prepared to allow the Jews to leave except for their children. Now he surrenders almost entirely as he agrees that all the Jews can leave. He only asks one thing, one compromise, one small victory for himself, that the Jewish cattle remain behind.

Consider; the Jews have been slaves for 210 years. They have lived in misery and persecution. They suffered decrees such as the one casting their male children into the sea. They cried out unto the L-rd for freedom and salvation. Now, apparently the great moment has arrived! Pharaoh agrees that they shall go free! What does it matter that he asks for their cattle? Give it to him! The main thing is peace and salvation and we are willing to give up cattle for peace!

But Moses knows that this is not the purpose of the freedom of the Jewish people and of the story of the slavery and exodus. He is not prepared to compromise one inch because he knows what the purpose of G-d is. When Moses first entered the presence of Pharaoh and said: “The L-rd, G-d of the Hebrews, has said: Let my people go!” Pharaoh contemptuously answered: “Who is the L-rd? I know not the L-rd and will not let Israel go!” Here is where the battle was joined. Here is the purpose and aim of creation – to have the world recognize the dominion and kingship of the L-rd being challenged. Pharaoh must be made to recognize and totally acknowledge the sovereignty of the L-rd over him and his people. He cannot make compromises; he cannot strike bargains. He must submit totally!

“And I shall be glorified through (the defeat of) Pharaoh and his army and Egypt shall know that I am the L-rd.” Only the total defeat of the wicked can raise and honor the name of the L-rd, says the Biblical commentator Rashi. This is why there will be no compromise with Pharaoh. He must totally submit, he must totally surrender.

And even when he apparently does this, after the plague of the first born, when he runs to Moses and says: “Get out, take your flocks with you, just leave and ask the L-rd to bless me!” Moses refuses and in the words of the Mechilta; “And he called unto Moses and Aaron in the middle of the night and said: get up and leave! Said Moses unto him: No, we have been ordered not to leave our houses until morning. What are we, thieves that we should slink out in the night? No, we will leave only in the morning with an upraised arm before the eyes of all the Egyptians!”

Not one inch of retreat here. The lesson of the L-rd being the Omnipotent, King of the universe must be seen and acknowledged.

The lesson is an eternal one and must be learned in our time, too. The question of peace in the Middle East is a question of the Arabs and the world acknowledging the total sovereignty of the All Mighty. There can be no compromise on this. It is only a peace that comes with Arabs submitting to the yoke of the heavenly kingdom that will be a permanent one and the Jew who gives up part of his land as a compromise, violates the entire purpose of the rise of the Jewish State and the demand of the All Mighty that the nations acknowledge Him as King. There can be no retreat from land because that is in essence a retreat also from the Kingship of the
L-rd.

Anyone reading this Rabbi Meir Kahane or Rabbi Binyamin Kahane  article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles and would like to be, please contact me at:

To view articles written by Rabbi Meir Kahane and Rabbi Binyamin Kahane go to blog:

To view Rabbi Meir Kahane site of Youtubes, Videos. CDs posted by Michael Miller go to: http://www.youtube.com/user/bayitvegan

Newly published “Kahane on the Parsha” can be bought at the following  links on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Kahane-Parsha-Meir/dp/098867680X , it's also available on website, www.BrennBooks.com

Rebbitzen Libby Kahane is happy to announce that the second volume, “Rabbi Meir Kahane: His Life and Thought, 1983-1976” is available on Amazon.com. The book comes up immediately when you type into the main search box: Meir Kahane Life 1976
Rabbi Meir Kahane: His Life and Thought, 1976-1983” (volume 2), has been published. and now available in Israel. Can be bought from Yeshivat Haraayon Hayehudi (02-5823540) and from Pomeranz Books (02-6235559)

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Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Passover - The Holiday of Vengeance



Rabbi Meir Kahane Writings

It is the night of the Seder, the eve of Passover. The Jewish family having been told by the child who attends the temple “religious school” that Jews celebrate the Passover with a festive meal, or perhaps having heard the temple rabbi or the local American Jewish committee ignoramus declaim the theme of Passover as being the national liberation struggle of all people and the brotherhood of Man (the love of the Gentiles and Jews), is gathered about the table. The room is filled with people, including gentile guests gushing over the fascinating Jewish holiday. The family has equipped itself with Haggadas so as to do the “thing” properly. They have finished the meal and now the excited youngster (Scott, Brian, Kevin or some such Jewish name) excitedly says “It’s time to open the door to Elijah. He comes to every Jewish house.” The parents smile; the gentiles smile – how similar to Santa Claus. And, of course, they all rise as the child rushes to open the door. Jew and gentile alike, chant the words prescribed by the Haggada, the Biblical words of the Psalms, that proclaim:

   “Pour forth Your wrath upon the nations that do not recognize You and upon the kingdoms that do not invoke Your name. For they have devoured Jacob and destroyed his habitation. Pour forth Your fury upon them and let Your burning wrath overtake them. Pursue them with anger and destroy them from beneath the heavens of the L-rd.”

 My G-d! What to think! What do the gentiles in the room think?! What a litany of anger and, above all, vengeance! An open prayer and call for the Almighty to avenge Himself upon the nations, to destroy them for what they did to Israel! Is this Judaism? And did not the “rabbi”, the temple paragon of Jewish wisdom, the fount of Jewish knowledge admonish us that Jews oppose vengeance, that it is not a “Jewish” concept? And that is why we are supposed to feel ashamed sometimes at the conduct of the Israeli army? And, above all, what will John and Kathy, the gentile neighbors think about the Jews? About us?

 Ah, poor Jews; sad little Jews. Conceived in ignorance and born in Jewish know-nothingness. Raised in Jeffersonian and Kennedyian and Jacksonian (Jesse?) Democracy and all the westernized, gentilized culture that is America, and lied to and deceived, and defrauded by secular Jewish ignoramuses-leaders, and Reform-Conservative-Reconstructionist ones; people whose ignorance is so awesome that only their fraud surpass it. The fraud that was created by the counterfeiters of Judaism is astonishingly awesome. They lied to the Jew because they could not bare to tell the truth to themselves.  Vengeance, un-Jewish? If so, let us cast out the Bible and Talmud as “un-Jewish”. The L-rd is a G-d of vengeance; O G-d of vengeance, arise! (Psalms 94). And the rabbis say: Yes, when vengeance is needed, it is a great thing” (Brachot, 3a). Or let the high praises of G-d be in their throat and a two edged sword in their hand – to execute vengeance upon the nations…” (Psalms 58). Passover.  A holiday that was created to commemorate the sanctity of vengeance; the punishment and the destruction of Pharaoh and Egypt that mocked and humiliated G-d by crying: “Who is the L-rd? I know not the L-rd…!”Vengeance so that the world shall know the L-rd and cry, “Verily, there is a G-d that judgeth in the earth…” And: “The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth vengeance, he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.” (Psalms 58) And why? For it is only vengeance that proves that there is indeed a G-d in the world., that there is good and evil and punishment for that evil. When the wicked kill and injustice reigns, surely the wicked cry out: “There is no G-d, for if there was He would punish me.” And the victim in his agony agrees. When there is no vengeance and punishment and the wicked reign, G-d is pushed from his throne; it is the greatest Hillul Hashem – desecration to G-d’s Name, it is “proof” that there is no G-d.
 And again, “The L-rd hath made Himself known through the judgement He executes.”(Psalms 9) And, of course, the Psalm that is read before the weekday Grace after meals, a Psalm that sends the gentilized Jews rushing from the table in horror:
    “O daughter of Babylon that art to be destroyed; Happy shall he be that repayeth thee as thou hast done to us. Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the rock”. (Psalm 137).

 And the Jews of Ashkenazi who created a prayer of vengeance in memory of the Jews massacred during the Crusades, a prayer that we read each Sabbath and that says: “May He avenge the blood of His servants which has been shed, as it is written in the Torah of Moses, the man of G-d: “O nations, make His people joyful! He avenges the blood of His servants, renders retribution to His foes and atones for His land and His people…And in the holy writings it says: “Why should the nations say, Where is their G-d?

And for the hapless and ignorantly hopeless who raise the half-a-cup of a Talmudic saying that G-d refused to allow the angels to rejoice over the downfall of the Egyptians. Let us forever torment the fraudulent by insisting on honesty and the complete text of the Talmudic saying:
It is true that He does not rejoice but He causes others to rejoice”.

Of course the Almighty, the totality of Compassion, the Father of all, grieves for his children – all of them. He does not sing. His angels, who are not of this world, do not sing.
BUT THE JEWS SING – AND ARE COMMANDED TO DO SO. For the very same reason that the very same Almighty who does not sing, does destroy the work of His hands because they are evil.
  Yes, of course He grieves that those who were made in His image have so perverted and destroyed the greatness of that image. That those who were made in the image of good, were so evil. In His grief He does not have pity. He destroys them: He knows that evil and He cannot share the same world. And thus do the rabbis declare (Shmot Raba 23): “Then did Moses and the children of Israel sing,” this is what is meant by the verse (Psalms 9):“The L-rd is known by the judgment He executes. This speaks of Egypt who G-d smote at the Red Sea.” And Shmot Raba 23: “Then did Moses and the children of Israel sing. This is the meaning of the verse (Psalms 93): “Your throne was firm from then.” Even though You exist from time immemorial, Your throne was not made firm and You were not made known in the world until your children sang. When You stood at the sea and we sang before You with “az” (then), then were your kingdom and throne made firm.
 
 The incredible perversion of Judaism by confused and guilt-ridden Hellenists! Our rabbis tell us (Midrash Avchir): “And Israel saw the great hand of G-d’ – When the Almighty wished to drown the Egyptians, the Archangel of Egypt (Uza) said: Sovereign of the Universe! You are called just and righteous…why do you wish to drown the Egyptians? At that moment Gabriel rose and took a brick and said: Sovereign of the Universe! These who enslaved Your children such a terrible slavery as this, shall you have mercy on them? Immediately, the Almighty drowned them.”

 Passover – the holiday that decrees the death and destruction of wickedness and not coexistence with it.    And that, dear Jew, is why the Torah record for posterity the song of Moses and Israel as the Egyptians drowned in the Red Sea. Yes, collective punishment against the Egyptians, even the Egyptian maids and servants perished because they were happy with the oppression of the Jews. (What can be said of the Arab masses in Israel who danced on the roof tops as the Scuds form Saddam landed in Tel Aviv.)
 There is no help for it; Passover is a holiday of sanctification of G-d’s name. Of vengeance against the wicked. If the temple rabbi is unhappy, let him stop templing. If the gentile neighbor will be embarrassed, do not invite him. If the Jew is troubled, let him tie himself to the House of Study, a genuine one, and learn real Judaism. Then he will celebrate Passover the proper way, the Jewish way. “Pour forth Your wrath…”

Anyone reading this Rabbi Meir Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rabbi Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:

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Monday, April 18, 2016

Sma Yisrael vs. Allahu Akbar -1989

shma 


 “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
[Today there was a terror attack in Jerusalem with one empty bus exploding and one bus with passengers exploding.  Reported as of this writing 20 people in the hospital, 2 serious and 1 critical who they believe is the terrorist. The injured had nails and bolts in their bodies. Monday 9:39 this is being written and I am sure more reports will keep coming.  bg] 
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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Tuesday, April 12, 2016

The Great Sabbath - 1989

             “K A H A N E”

The magazine of the authentic Jewish Idea

Nissan -5749   April-1989

D I V R E I  T O R A H

THE GREAT SABBATH

It is the necessary, the indispensable preface and introduction to Passover.  It is the explanation that cries out the ultimate message of the holiday, the basic lesson of the feats of our freedom.  It is the foundation of foundations that raises Passover from an insipid, saccharine social custom beginning and ending with recipes printed in the New York Times women’s section; from a golden opportunity for Manischewitz to return to Jewishness through capitalist Passover profits even as the truly frum, raise their level of religiosity by raising the level of prices; from a Jewish people that marches on its Seder stomach even as it moves on to the annual national lie. “Next Year in Jerusalem.”  It is the Great Sabbath, which attempts to save Judaism from myopic ritualism, to make the Jew, Jewish and the Orthodox, religious.

Sabbath Hagadol, the great Sabbath.  The Sabbath preceding the Passover, the Sabbath that cries out the basic, the ultimate message of the enormous Exodus from Egypt, of Passover itself.  Sabbath Hagadol that gives us the lesson without which Passover, the Jewish people itself, lose all reason for being.  Sabbath Hagadol commemorating the basic lesson of Judaism: Faith, real faith, faith in G-d who really is greater than the mighty Pharaoh, or the regal Reagan or the burning-less Bush – Sabbath Hagadol. The great Sabbath, that began more than 3,000 years ago on a Sabbath in Imperial Egypt.

“Speak unto all the congregation of Israel, saying: In the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb…”

It is a special, an awesome commandment, one that is given to every Jew, hence the unique words “Speak unto all the congregation.”  Take a lamb and bind it up for four days.

You believe that this is a simple commandment.  Hardly.  The lamb is more than an animal; it is the very god of Egypt.  It is a deity, a hallowed creature before whom the Egyptian bows and whose meat dare not touch his mouth.  And the Jews, “every man” thereof, are commanded to take this lamb, this Egyptian god, the deity of their masters, and tie it to their beds, to their posts, bind it up.  And when the astonished and outraged Egyptian masters will ask: “What are you doing? The answer shall be: We shall soon slaughter this lamb, the deity, your god, and eat it.

Do you still think this is a simple, bland commandment?  It is a commandment fraught with danger to life, a commandment that surely sent fear down the spines of the Jewish slaves, that, without a doubt, led scholars to rush and ponder whether pikuach nefesh, danger to life might perhaps demand the postponing of the dangerous commandment.

Nor does the Almighty stop there.  He insists on a policy of extremism, of goading the gentile.  Not content with a commandment that cries desecration of the Egyptian god, that taunts him with the sight of his deity bound up, the G-d of Israel insists that the Jew add salt to the wound.

“And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire… eat it not partially cooked, nor boiled in water, but roasted with fire, its head with its legs and with its insides complete.”

Awake and consider!  This is what Passover is all about; only this! This is Judaism what Judaism is all about; only this!  This is what the duty and the role and the essence of the Jew is all about; only this!  To affirm to the world, but first to ourselves that the L-rd, the G-d of Israel, is.  That He truly does exist, that He is the One, the only One, that He, only He, directs the world, the fate of man, the destiny of His people.  That whatever will be for the Jew will be only because He so decrees.  That the gentile has no relevance to the Jewish fate, that the Pharaohs of all time, the ones in Egypt and the ones in Washington are utterly irrelevant to what will be with the Jew.

On the Great Sabbath in Egypt, the L-rd taught us the lesson that we trampled in the dust, the dust of secularism and the dust of the yeshiva world alike: The lesson that the Jew must raise high, must flaunt the glory and Omnipotence of his G-d.  That the world must be compelled to see their deities, their gods and idols, bound up and humiliated and destroyed.  That one must goad the gentile in order to raise high the banner of the L-rd.  That Kiddush Hashem, the sanctification of the Name of the G-d of Israel, demands an open, fearless, flaunting sacrifice of the idols and deities of the gentiles that deny the uniqueness of the G-d of Israel, His exclusiveness, His Oneness!  The lamb is openly tied and those who tremble and whisper: “But we dare not goad the gentile,” are silenced with thunderous contempt.  The lamb is slaughtered and roasted whole and fully and openly.  It cannot be hastily covered in a pot where it will not be seen.  Its identity cannot be disguised by cutting its body into pieces.  We cannot escape the danger of the gentile by avoiding confronting and goading him.  No.  Precisely the opposite!

The same gentile who thundered and thunders: “Who is the L-rd?  I know not the L-rd and will not let Israel go!” must be taught the eternal lesson of: “The L-rd is G-d, the L-rd is G-d!”  The gentile does not wish to “know” G-d, to acknowledge His exclusive kingship.  He must be taught that lesson in an open and bold and humiliating way.  He and his idols must be humbled and broken.  The lamb is taken openly.  The lamb is slaughtered openly.   And those who cringe in populism and whisper:  “But one dare not goad the gentiles…” are silenced by the thunder of the L-rd, whose commandment is eternalized by the Rabbis of the Great Sabbath, Sabbath Hagadol.  So, let that Sabbath be understood and appreciated and embraced.  For without it, there cannot be a Passover, an understanding of what that Passover really is.  And without that, when the Jewish child asks for the meaning of this night, the pathetic father who knows not what to tell him will doom his child to become a pathetic as he: practitioner of Jewish ritual, but never, never a religious Jews.

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Rebbitzen Libby Kahane is happy to announce that the second volume, “Rabbi Meir Kahane: His Life and Thought, 1983-1976” is available on Amazon.com. The book comes up immediately when you type into the main search box: Meir Kahane Life 1976
Rabbi Meir Kahane: His Life and Thought, 1976-1983” (volume 2), has been published. and now available in Israel. Can be bought from Yeshivat Haraayon Hayehudi (02-5823540) and from Pomeranz Books (02-6235559)

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