A Jewish Heart 1990

 “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

Volume7

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

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Are You Listening, Jew? 1989

Beyond Words

Selected Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane,

1960-1990

Volume 6

“Beyond Words” is a newly-published seven volume collection of Rabbi Meir Kahane’s writings 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.

Index of articles by subject, title, and Torah sources.

Watch for “Beyond Words” to be sold at Amazon.com   

Are You Listening, Jew?

Rabbi Ya’akov Emden (Yavetz) was one of the great halachic authorities of his time.  He lived in Hamburg at a time when – despite general belief – the Jews were already beginning to acclimate to society and live comfortably.  And in the introduction (Sulam Beit El) to his famous siddur (Prayer Book), he wrote the following remarkable words – a cry to the Jew in the Exile:

            Not one in a thousand arouses himself to dwell in the Land (of Israel), to live there.

            Only one from a town and two from a family.  No one seeks its love, desires its peace

            and good and waits to see it.  It appears to us as we sit in comfort in the Exile that we

have already discovered another Land of Israel and another Jerusalem.  And that is why there came upon us all the evils when we sat in Spain and other lands in comfort and great honor since the time of the Destruction … until we were later driven from there and not a trace was left of Jews in those countries.

And he concludes with words that shake the firmaments of the Jewish world:

            How long will you sleep, O lazy one, in the bed of laziness … until the foundations of

the universe shall be uncovered!  And why shall you not acquire for yourself wise counsel to flee for your life while you yet may?

Stunning, powerful, awesome words from a halachic giant, Rabbi Ya’akov Emden!  And the Jew hears nothing.  And why should we be surprised?  Why should we be astonished that the Jew fails to hear the words that echo from the eighteenth century, from Hamburg, German, when he cannot hear the cry of Bensonhurst?

I arrived in the United States for two weeks in time to see and hear the awesome cry of Rabbi Ya’ akov Emden – this time from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.  And I look about me at the Jew who apparently is blind to what is so obvious; so deaf to the screeching sounds about him, and so dumb – both in inability to express the reality and to understand it.

In the cold-blooded murder of a black youth in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, lies the reality of America, and the impossible dilemma for the Jews of that country who, like those of so many generations of Exile past, thought, in the words of Rabbi Ya’akov Emden, that “they had discovered another Land of Israel and another Jerusalem.”

Bensonhurst lies in White America, attacked to Boro Park – land of Jewish certainty and assurance that herein lies yet another Eretz Yisrael and Jerusalem.  Bensonhurst is an almost all-white enclave that, incredibly, brings comfort and security to the Jews who live there or who border on it.  And in Bensonhurst a young man was gunned down because he was black – and the Jew heard nothing and understood nothing and felt not the slightest alarm.  Indeed, G-d help us, there were not a few who agreed with the white gentiles that blacks who come into the neighborhood risk receiving what the murdered black man got.

Does no one see?  Does not the Jew understand what the lesson of Bensonhurst is?  Does not one look at the faces and souls of the Bensonhurst whites who stood jeering and taunting blacks and shouting “niggers,” and understand that the bells toll for him?  Is there not a Jew who saw the hate and venom and willingness to murder, and understood that those same faces and same haters and same people could, tomorrow, just as easily and willingly do the same to the Jew?  Does the Jew not understand what he is hearing?  Is the Jew listening?  Does he want to listen?  Does he want to understand that haters are not capable of being limited in their hatred to one particular people that is different?  That those who hate blacks hate Jews, too, and perhaps even more?  That hatred is a disease that enters the marrow of the bones and emerges in all its horrors whenever social or economic or psychological conditions drive it out into action?

What is it about the Jew that fails to make him understand that the hater, the bigot, the murderer of the black man today will be the destroyer of the Jew, tomorrow?

There is a host on a large New York City radio station.  He is immensely popular with Jews, especially those of Brooklyn.  He is a bigot and a hater – albeit a clever one.  And how the Jews love it when he, in his viciousness, goes up against a “shwartzer.”

And I remember once, driving in an automobile and listening to the man as an Hispanic caller phoned in.  How the radio host-bigot ridiculed the man’s accent!  How he humiliated the man because of that accent that was different from the “American” one.  And the very next caller fairly fell over himself in delight and congratulations to the host for how he handled the foreigner.  The caller who was so delighted was from Brooklyn and had a Hungarian accent thick enough to serve with goulash under the light of his chandelier and the happy smiles of his wife under her sheitel

It is more than blind and needless hate that I cry out against.  It is the fact that the Jew hears the haters of Bensonhurst crying out their bigotry and does not hear the unspoken word, “Jew!”  For those thugs and gross hooligans and ignoramuses hate Jews with more passion than they do blacks.  For what they really feel about blacks is fear, but they hate Jews.  They are jealous of them and envious, and no greater hate emerges than from that .  What did Solomon say: “Wrath is cruel and anger is overwhelming, but who is able to stand before jealousy?” (Proverbs 27:4).

The same ones who murder blacks, and hate and fear them and curse them and  “make the neighborhood safe,” are those who sit in their bars muttering about Jews in frightening envy and jealousy that breeds the most awesome hatred of them all.  They are a danger to the very survival of Jews and G-d help us all should there be an economic collapse that will drive them into unemployment and desperation and loosen the social chains that bind them.

And that is the dilemma.  For the black community is one that is riddled with Jew-hatred.  Real hard-core hatred of Jews.  And much more open and much more “legitimate” than the kind that is endemic to whites.  Not only is a Jesse Jackson capable of making outrageous anti-Jewish comments and yet remain a legitimate national figure and candidate for the Presidency, but on every campus in American the local black student group can issue openly anti-Jewish statements and not be condemned, let alone lose its college funding.  Black papers and radio

stations can spew forth anti-Jewish hate, and the FCC and political leaders are strangely silent.  The fact is that, despite the obscene refusal of Jewish liberals to condemn black Jew-hatred but rather to rationalize it away, blacks in great measure and in huge numbers hate Jews.

And that despair grips a Jew from Israel as he sees, on the one hand, the mindless, ugly faces of the Bensonhurst whites with their Jew-hatred barely beneath the surface, while at the funeral of the black youth, Farrakhan and his black-faced brownshirts arrived.  The fact that they allowed the black Nazi Farrakhan to speak, and not one black leader protested (and naturally not a white politician dared to), underlies the despair and the hopelessness of the situation for the Jew.

On the one hand, a black community that has made anti-Semitism an integral part of its existence.  On the other, far more dangerous white majority Jew-hating class.  And that for the Jew is the real meaning of Bensonhurst and America that is riven, polarized, riddled with hate and violence that is held back only by economic prosperity.  But behind that dam lie the waters of hate and envy and jealousy.  And it is the Jew who is the target.

The Jew who saw and heard the faces and voices of Bensonhurst, the hate and violence and taunts, and who saw nothing and heard nothing.  And the voice of Rabbi Ya’akov Emden comes across the ages, crying:  Are you listening, Jew?   And the Jew does not even hear that.

Written September 1989

Editor’s note:  Jacob Emden (1697-1776), rabbi, halachic authority, kabbalist.  Emden was regarded as one of the outstanding scholars of his generation.  Despite his distinguished descent and his remarkable Talmudic attainments, Emden occupied no official position, with the exception of a few years as rabbi of Emden, Germany.  This made it possible for him to be exceptionally critical toward the society and the tradition of his time.  In addition, he published an important edition of the prayer book (whose parts had different names) with a valuable commentary (1745-48.  There were six Jews living in Emden in 1967.

(Source: Encyclopedia Judaica, 1972 edition)

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Something Happened Since Napoleon Rabbi Binyamin Kahane

The Writings of Rav Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane HY"D- Tisha B'av Dvar Torah דבר תורה לתשעה באב
SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED SINCE NAPOLEON...

It is told of Napoleon, that upon passing a synagogue during the Ninth of Av, looked inside and saw Jews sitting on the floor and weeping. When he inquired further he was told the Jews were mourning over the destruction of their Holy Temple. “How long ago did this occur?”, he asked. “About 1,500 years ago”. “In that case”, said Napoleon, “there is no doubt that their Temple will be rebuilt. A people capable of crying for so long over its destroyed Temple and Land will eventually find its way home.”
While the Jewish People remained in the Exile, this was a nice story. Without a doubt, its optimistic message encouraged our people during times of severe hardships. Napoleon was keen enough to realize that a people who relives its past will succeed in conquering its future. Indeed, our sages have already stated that, “He who mourns for Jerusalem will merit to share in her joy”. (Tractate Taanit, 30)
However there exists one little problem. All this mourning was appropriate when we were forced into the Exile, being held at the mercy of the gentile nations and thus unable to forge our national destiny. In such a case, it was fitting to mourn “whole-heartedly” over our destroyed Temple and land. And today? One need not to have a PH.D. In history to see how things have changed since the times of Napoleon. Then – the land of Israel lay desolate; today it is rebuilt. Then – Jews dreamt about coming to Israel; today Jews not only live in Israel, but they rule over it. Then – all we could do was cry...but today???
Is mourning the only imperative for today? Is it not a bit absurd to lament in the synagogue of the Exile, beseeching G-d for a speedy redemption, when all one need to do is pack one's bags and board and eastbound El Al? Is it enough to stand down by the “Wall” of the Temple Mount wailing over the destruction when it is in our hands to erect the fallen city, in our hands to purify the site from the foxes who degrade it, and yes, even in our hands to rebuild the Holy Temple! The historic opportunity to rebuild and renew burns in our hands, and instead we find 101 EXCUSES TO DISREGARD IT!!!???
Fellow Jews!!! Let us open our eyes and appreciate the wondrous miracles that Hashem has granted us – miracles we have not witnessed since the days of our exodus from Egypt!!! He who cried, and only cried in the days of Napoleon did right; his tears were sincere. But today, he who only cries and does not combine his tears with real action – his lamentations leave much to be desired. His entreaties go unheeded, for G-d urges us on as he did to the Jews before their crossing of the Red Sea: “Why do you cry to Me? Speak to the Children of Israel – that they go forward!” What are you crying for? GO FORWARD AND DETERMINE YOUR DESTINY!!!! ARISE AND ACT TO SANCTIFY HASHEM'S HOLY NAME!!!!!
Yes, something has happened since the day Napoleon walked into that shteeble on the Ninth of Av. Let us join those who are ready not only to cry, BUT ALSO TO DO!!!!!

Tisha B'Av Parsha Yearning for the Land

From Barbara Ginsberg’s Desktop

 “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 7

Yearning for the Land

The kilpa, the callus, that slowly and imperceptibly covers the burgeoning adult, immutably desensitizes us and forever loses for us the emotion and value that is the heart and nucleus of the mitzvah cell or ritual.  And so, as if suddenly – but really as part of the slow and ongoing process – there is created a human being, a community, almost a people that elevates the ritual to the heights reserved for the concept, and we become practitioners of Jewish ritual, rather than emotional and living embracers of the concept.

So it is with Tisha B’Av and the three weeks that precede it.  Not a few can emote all the laws and customs emanating from them.  Not an Orthodox Jew will violate the rituals that make up the three weeks and certainly not the nine days.  And yet, as with too many Jewish concepts that were meant to be living, thriving, real things that grip the heart and soul – ha’ikar  chaser min hasefer.  (A Hebrew idiom, literally meaning, “the principle is lacking from the book,” referring to the fact that the main concept has been forgotten)

For I put it to all honest people that, of all who practice the rituals of the three weeks and Tisha B’Av, few – all too few – mourn for Jerusalem and the Land.  I put it that most find the three weeks an excruciating thing that prevents them from enjoying the summer; that most look forward to its passing as quickly as possible so that vacation and enjoyment can continue in the Catskills and all the other places that make up the Galut enjoyment; that few, all too few, feel the stab of pain in their heart for the Temple that is not there; for the Moslem jackals who walk and control the Mount; for the lack of holiness and sanctity that Jerusalem and the Temple mean. 

What happens because of this is a shallow and terrible corrosion of Judaism and a slow and terrible corruption of the Jewish soul.  Mitzvot become things to be done with and finished; the soul becomes a hard and callous thing feeling nothing, and, worse, mitzvot become meaningless and fraudulent as we weep for a land we could be living in – if we wish to; as we speak of a return to a land of which we do not wish, as we grab ourselves in emotions we do not feel.

We do not wish to leave America; we do not feel any pain in an “exile” that the ritual has us mouthing as a thing of tragedy and pain.  We enjoy the luxury of Galut and mouth quickly the kinot, the lamentations, most of whose words we do not understand anyhow.  We sit on the floor in the Ninth of Av and look forward to the 10^th.  And enjoyment.

That is the death of Judaism, no matter how many synagogues and shtiblech have grown.  This is the destruction of Torah as a real and vibrant “thing,” no matter how many yeshivas have sprung up.  For all of them will produce scholars of callous soul unable to feel the pain and joy and honesty of a mitzvah as it was meant when given by G-d at Sinai.

Meaningful  fast to all

Barbara and Chaim

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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Yishuv Ha'aretz Has a Dark Side -1994

The Writings of Rav Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane HY”D- Parashat Masei פרשת מסעי

THE PROBLEM OF GOING HALF WAY / YISHUV HA'ARETZ HAS A DARK SIDE

While it is true that the national religious movement in Israel has put for the great efforts in the fulfilling of the mitzvah “Yishuv Ha'Aretz” (the settling of the land), it is important to point out that they are familiar with only half of the mitzvah. For the mitzvah of “Yishuv Ha'Aretz” has two sides to it. Well known to us all is the first side – the establishing of settlements. That's the “nice” part of the mitzvah. But it is the other side that hs been totally ignored by those who proudly wave the banner of “Yishuv Ha'Aretz”. Obviously, we are speaking of the mitzvah of expelling the gentile from the land. The word used in the Torah and numerous times in our parasha is “horashtem הורשתם", which literally means “you shall disinherit”. Rashi defines that “ugly” word “horashtem” as “gerashtem”, meaning, “you shall expel”. In any case, it is an inseparable part of the mitzvah of “Yishuv Ha'Aretz”.

"GET OUT OF HERE!!!"

Settling the land and expelling the gentiles in it are not only two sides of the same mitzvah, but each side is actually dependent upon th other. The Torah constantly warns us about the impossibility of fulfilling just half of the mitzvah: “If you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, those who remain shall be barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, causing you troubles in the land you settle.” (Numbers 33:55) The Sforno adds: “If you don't burnt them out (the gentile inhabitants), even though you have conquered the land, you won't merit to inherit the land for your children”. And here are the prophetic but painful words of the Ohr HaChayim: “Not only will they hold unto the part of the land that you weren't able to conquer, but even the parts that you succeeded in conquering, they will say to you, 'get out of here!'” In short, one is dependent on the other - there is no inheriting without disinheriting!

THEY CAME UP SHORT

Let us now jump to the dramatic moment when Israel crossed the Jordan River. Here we witness an incredible event. While still in the middle of the Jordan, Joshua tells them: “Know why you are crossing the Jordan – so that you expel the inhabitants of the land from before you as the verse says, 'and you shall disinherit the inhabitants of the land from before you...' If you do, fine. And if not, these waters will come down and sweep away you and me...” (Sota 34) Once may ask: While the thrashing waters of the Jordan were standing 12 miles high about to swamp the Jewish People, was this a time for Joshua to deliver a speech? The answer is that Joshua knew that a lack of understanding of the importance of the mitzvah of expelling the gentile would post a constant threat to the Jews, placing their entire mission in jeopardy. Thus he warned them. Know, that if you do not intend on throwing out the gentile from the land, there is no reason to continue. It is better that the waters drown us now. Indeed, a rather effective way to convey a difficult message.

In spite of all this, the Jewish People failed in their task, and allowed many gentiles to continue to reside in the land. As a result, they were severely chastised for their sin by the angel of G-d: “Moreover, I said I will not drive them out from before you, but they shall be as snares to you and their G-ds shall be as a trap to you.” (Judges 2) As this stage begins the description of the spiritual deterioration that characterized the times of the Book of Judges. Indeed, as G-d warned, the root of the evil was the lack of expulsion of all the gentiles from the land, their mere presence causing the Jews to learn from their evil ways.

IT'S US OR THEM!!!

And now history repeats itself before our very eyes. The leaders of the settler movements made a tragic mistake in thinking all these years that they can build on yishuv after another and in the meantime ignore the existence of two (2) million Arabs who surround these settlements and dream of the day when they can throw them into the sea. No less tragic is their absurd reaction to Arab terror – that they will build another yishuv. Nonsense! The very opposite is true. Another settlement is not the answer to the Arab terror, but rather the Arab terror is a result of our being content with making settlements and not completing the entire mitzvah – which is the expulsion of the Arabs! The solution to the terror is the fulfillment of the entire mitzvah of “Yishuv Ha'Aretz!”

Here is the choice: Either all those faithful to Torah and Eretz Yisrael overcome their fear of “what will the left say” and adopt for themselves a new agenda which includes fulfilling part two (2) of the mitzvah “Yishuv Ha'Aretz”, or they pathetically refuse to fulfill this Torah commandment and thereby bring about the dismantlement of all that they have built for the past twenty years. How ironic. All those who refused to listen to Parashat Masay are forced now to listen to the left's argument, “You can't occupy a foreign people”. The left is basically correct, only their conclusion is warped. But the logical Jewish approach is clear: EITHER US OR THEM! The time has come that we decide once and for all!

Darka Shel Torah, 1994

Shabbat Shalom!

If you are interested in reading more divrei torah from Rabbi Meir and Binyamin Kahane HY"D, you can purchase the book at both of the following two links:

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Drive Them Out! 1981

KAHANE ON THE PARSHA

RABBI MEIR KAHANE

Parsha Mas’ay

DRIVE THEM OUT!

The Torah states clearly:  “And you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you . . .  but if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those whom you allow to remain will be like thorns in your eyes and thistles in your sides and will torment you in the land in which you dwell” (Numbers 33.52.55).

The Biblical commentators are explicit  “And you shall drive out the inhabitants and then you shall inherit it and be able to exist in it.  And if you do not, you will not be able to exist in it” 

(Rashi).

“When you shall eliminate the inhabitants of the land, then you shall be privileged to inherit the land and pass it down to your children  But if you do not eliminate them, even though you will conquer the land, you will not be privileged to hand it down to your children” (Sforno).

“This verse refers to nations  other than the seven nations found there . . .  Not only will they hold that part of the land that you did not conquer, but even concerning that part which you did conquer and settle in, they will distress you and say, ‘Rise and get out’” (Ohr HaChaim).

And so the Midrash tells us: “Joshua sent three messages to the inhabitants [of Canaan].  He who wishes to evacuate – let him evacuate; he who wishes to make peace – let him make peace, he who wishes to make war – let him make war” (Vayikra Rabba 17.6).

The choices are given.  Either leave, or prepare for war, or make peace.  The choice of “making peace” is explained by Rabbis as involving three things.  To begin with, the non-Jew must agree to adopt the seven basic Noahide Laws, which include the prohibitions against idolatry, blasphemy, immorality, bloodshed, robbery, eating flesh cut from a living animal, and a positive action – adherence to social laws. Once he has done this, he has the status of a resident stranger (ger toshav) who is allowed to live in Eretz Yisrael (Avoda Zara 64b) if he also accepts the conditions of tribute and servitude.

The Biblical commentator, the Radak, explains (in his commentary to Joshua 9:7):  “If they uproot idolatry and accept the seven Noahide laws, they must also pay tribute and serve Israel and be subject under them as it is written (Deuteronomy 20:11, ‘All the people . . . shall be tributaries to you and shall serve you.’”

Maimonides (Hilchot Melachim 6:11) declares: “If they make peace and accept the seven Noahide laws, we do not kill them for they are tributary.  If they agreed to pay tribute but did not accept servitude or accepted servitude but not tribute, we do not acquiesce until they have accepted both.  And servitude means that they shall be humble and low and not raise their head in Israel.  Rather, they shall be subjects under us and not be appointed to any position over Jews ever.”

Far better than foolish humans did the Almighty understand the dangers inherent in allowing a people that believes the land belongs to it free and unfettered residence, let alone ownership, proprietorship, citizenship.  What more natural thing than to ask to regain what it rightly believes to be its own land?  And this over and above the need to create a unique and distinctly separate Torah culture that will shape the Jewish people into a holy nation.  That uniqueness can only be guaranteed by the non-Jew having no sovereignty, ownership, or citizenship that could allow him to shape the state’s destiny and character.

And so, concerning any non-Jew, Maimonides writes: “‘You shall not place over yourself a stranger who is not of your brethren’ (Deuteronomy 17:15).  Not only a king, but the prohibition is for any authority in Israel.  Not an officer in the armed forces. . .not even a public official in charge of the distribution of water to the fields .  And there is no need to mention that a judge or chieftain shall only be from the people of Israel. . .  Any authority that you appoint shall only be from the midst of your people” (Hilchot Melachim 1:4). 

The purpose is clear.  The non-Jew has no share in the land.  He has no ownership, citizenship or destiny in it.  The non-Jew who wishes to live in Israel must accept basic human obligations.  Then he may live in Israel as a resident stranger, but never as a citizen with any proprietary interest in the land or with any political say; never as one who can hold any public office which will give him domination over a Jew or a share in the authority of the country.  Accepting these conditions, he admits that the land is not his and therefore he may live in Israel quietly, separately, observing his own private life, with all religious, economic social and cultural rights.  Refusing this, he cannot remain.

This is Torah. This is Jewishness.  Not the dishonest pseudo-“Judaism” chanted by liberal secularists who pick and choose that “Judaism” that finds favor in their eyes and who reject that which their own gentilized concepts find unacceptable

Jewish Press 1981

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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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