Sometimes It's Good To Be Deaf 1997

Kahane on the Parsha

Rabbi Binyamin Kahane- Parshat VaYechi

SOMETIMES IT'S GOOD TO BE DEAF

When Jacob died, his sons took his body to Canaan for burial in Me'arat HaMachpela. When they arrived, however, they found Esav waiting for them with some "news"- "The remaining burial plot in the cave belongs to me," he said.

The stunned sons tried reminding Esav that he sold the spot to Jacob. Nothing doing. After an exchange of words (see Sotah 13a for details), they agreed that Naftali would run to Egypt and bring the document confirming that the burial plot was indeed sold to Jacob. In the meantime, they waited.

One of those waiting was Chushim, son of Dan. Chushim was deaf and therefore did not hear the discussion between his uncles and Esav. At a certain point, he asked his uncles what was causing the delay. They replied that Esav was holding up the burial until Naftali returned from Egypt.

Chushim was shocked: "Should my grandfather lie here in dishonor until Naftali returns?!" He immediately grabbed a stick, ran up to Esav, and killed him with a blow to the head. The Talmud relates that Esav's eyes fell out of their sockets and rested next to the legs of Jacob- an event memorialized by the verse, "The righteous one shall rejoice when he sees vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked" (Psalms 58:11).

This story is very strange. Why was Chushim the only one present who was shocked at what was happening? Why was he the only one who rose up to put an end to the disgraceful situation? Didn't anyone else care about Jacob's honor? Where were the zealots Shimon and Levi? Where was the mighty Yehuda?

The answer to these questions teaches us an awesome lesson. The difference between Chushim and the rest of Jacob's progeny was that Chushim was the only one not involved in the negotiations with Esav. Psychologically, the moment you hear out the other party and consider his point of view, even the most outrageous claim begins to be "understood." The very act of discussing it desensitizes you as you get accustomed to ideas which previously seemed absurd.

Without a doubt, if someone had told Jacob's sons beforehand that Esav was waiting for them at Me'arat HaMachpela to prevent their father's burial, they would have boiled over with holy rage and made sure they knew how to handle the situation. But what happened was, the moment they arrived, Esav made his case: "It's mine." Sure, Jacob's sons were shocked and angry, but it is human nature not to want to leave an argument or claim unanswered. And so they reminded him that he had sold the birthright. Esav immediately countered, "I never sold my burial spot."

At this point, the brothers knew Esav was wrong, but the fact is he had made an argument, and an argument demands some kind of answer. More importantly, at this stage Jacob's sons found themselves in the heat of a negotiation process. A neutral observer could easily get the impression that both sides were making reasonable claims. He would certainly have great difficulty realizing that before him stood a scoundrel whose entire goal was to disgrace Jacob.

Chushim, meanwhile, did not hear any of the back and forth. He knew only one thing: "My grandfather is lying here in disgrace!" Jacob's sons certainly knew exactly the kind of derelict, cheater, and murderer Esav was. But since they had entered into negotiations with him, they began to think that he was perhaps being sincere this time, and said to themselves, "All we need to do is convince him that we are right and everything will be okay." But Chushim did not have the opportunity to become "convinced" of Esav's sincerity and did not understand how the brothers were allowing this low-life to delay, even for a moment, the burial of Jacob, the father of the nation. And so, he stood up and took action!

Sometimes it is forbidden to negotiate. "What's wrong with it?" people ask. "After all, you're only talking?" But it's not so. When you hear out the other person- even if you know he is a liar with evil intentions- you will begin to "understand" him and think there might be something to what he is saying, after all.

Unfortunately, for years now we have been exposed to the lies of our enemies. Recently, even those faithful to Eretz Yisrael have begun to "adjust to the reality." We have grown used to htings that would never have entered our minds only a few years ago. Heaven forbid it! Let us be zealous for truth, and not have inferiority complexes when facing false claims from the lowest of peoples. WE ARE RIGHT! IT IS OUR LAND, AND NO FOREIGN NATION SHALL DWELL IN IT!

Darks Shel Torah, 1997

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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 www.barbaraginsberg-kahane.blogspot.com

 To view Rabbi Meir Kahane site of You Tubes, Videos. CDs posted by Michael Miller go to: Or Haraayon אור הרעיון Jewish Idea הרעיון היהודי    link: www.youtube.com/c/kahane22chai

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G-d's Will Comes First 1977

Kahane on the Parsha

Rabbi Meir Kahane- Parshat VaYigash

G-D'S WILL COMES FIRST

"And Joseph made ready his chariot and went up to meet Israel, his father, in Goshen...and he fell on his neck and wept" (Genesis 46:29).

"But Jacob did not fall on Joseph's neck and did not kiss him, for our Rabbis said that he was saying the Shema..." (Rashi).

Happiness is that which every man seeks. Indeed, in our times, it is happiness and the search for it- in material and physical terms- that have become the very purpose of life. Books are written about happiness and peace of mind and the masses devour them, searching for the Holy Grail in the shallowness that is fit only for McCall's or Cosmopolitan. The psychiatrists' couches groan beneath their weight; the airlines and drug peddlers both sell their trips; the race is on and non-stop, and not to the swift or the slow is the trophy awarded.

The sadness is that happiness is not the essence of life, and how much did the Rabbis know when they said: It would have been better and more pleasant for man had he not been born, but since he was, let him search his deeds. Life is a series of difficulties and sadnesses, broken by occasional rays of light that pass.

Happiness is a wonderful thing, and what a life it would be if we could abolish tears and fears, worries and tribulations. But not for this was a man made, and if he persists in making it his raison d'etre, he is guaranteed misery. Man is not an island unto himself nor is his entry into this world like some sudden underwater eruption that thrusts a piece of land into the wide ocean. His is a deliberate and planned and reasoned birth. He came into this world to do good. And that which is "good" is defined for him, not subject to the independent and anarchistic commentaries of his own mind or breed. For the Jew there is the halacha that shapes, molds, guides, and drives him to sanctity and spiritual holiness. It is for him a guideline and a compass; it gives him ritual and gives him concepts, and DEFINES HIS EMOTIONS, TOO.

Joseph was a boy of 17 when he left his father's home. For years Jacob thought he was dead, devoured by a wild beast. For years he mourned and refused to be comforted. "Nay, for I will go down to the grave mourning for my son" (Genesis 37:35). And suddenly he hears the incredible words: "Joseph is yet alive" and- wonder of wonders- "he is ruler over all the Land of Egypt!" (ibid. 45:26). Jacob cannot believe it; the joy is too much and he finally cries out: "It is enough! My son Joseph still lives! I will go and see him before I die!" (ibid. 45:28).

And he does. He takes his family and goes down to Egypt. See the old man, the man grown aged and white from a life of sadness and tragedy. How he counts every moment; how he impatiently looks towards the south to see the first glimpse of the royal caravan! How he savors the moment when he can hold his son Joseph in his arms and kiss him! And then- at last- finally- the moment arrives, and Joseph rushes to his father's arms and embraces him and kisses him. and Jacob?

"But Jacob did not fall on Joseph's neck and did not kiss him for he was saying the Shema..."

What greatness lies in a man who can take his deepest-felt emotions and discipline them to the halacha and say: Wait! Wait, though I burst from impatience; wait, though my every limb cries out for release. Wait: I am in the midst of accepting upon myself the yoke of heaven, of recognizing the L-rd as one, and this is why I was created. Wait, my Joseph, wait, for though I love you more than all, this is my G-d.

Let us understand what happiness and rejoicing in the Law means to a Jew. To begin with, it is a COMMANDMENT. Can one command an emotion? Can one "say", be happy, rejoice, it is commanded? Apparently yes. Apparently, the purpose of Torah is to elevate man to holiness and sanctification that he can make his very emotions and feelings cry out: "Who is like You, my G-d!" Yes, the Torah can tell a Jew who has lost a beloved one not to mourn on the Sabbath, though his heart is breaking. It can tell a Jew to stand over the open grave of a parent or a son and say the words of the Kaddish: "May His great Name be exalted and magnified..." Yes, the Torah can tell a person who seeks joy: No, not now.

There is no commandment to be sad. There is no law that declares that man must be miserable. This is not Judaism. But we are told that there is something greater than happiness and joy. It is the climb and the reaching up to holiness and sanctification, to beauty and dedication, the smashing of the ego and the greed and the selfishness and the "I." One should strive to be happy, of course. And if one can be both good and happy- how fortunate he is. But in the end, life is not a vessel for joy. It is a corridor in which one prepares his soul. Be happy with the Torah though your own soul is in agony. It is a command and, slowly, it proves to be a balm for the wounds that ache.

The Jewish Press, 1977

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:

http://brennbooks.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Kahane-Parsha-Meir/dp/098867680X

To receive weekly articles from Rabbi Meir Kahane and Rabbi Binyamin Kahane go to: Barbaraandchaim@gmail.com  

To view articles written by Rabbi Meir Kahane and Rabbi Binyamin Kahane go to blog: www.barbaraginsberg-kahane.blogspot.com

To view Rabbi Meir Kahane site of You Tubes, Videos. CDs posted by Michael Miller go to: Or Haraayon אור הרעיון Jewish Idea הרעיון היהודי    link: www.youtube.com/c/kahane22chai

 Facebook Links:  Michael ben-Ari- Jewish Strength:https://www.facebook.com/…/Michael-Ben-Ari…/1531135183822770

Barbara Ginsberg – www.facebook.com/barbara.ginsberg.78

A Must To Watch. It doesn't matter what the gentiles say, it matters what the Jews do! Click picture of Rabbi to open

Rabbi Kahane speaks in Skokie, IL 1977 (Dvar Torah on Chanukah) Part 2/4

YOUTUBE.COM

Down With Chanukah 1972

Rabbi Meir Kahane Writings (5732-33) (1971-73)

Down with Chanukah

Written December 15, 1972

If I were a Reform rabbi; if I were a leader of the Establishment whose money and prestige have succeeded in capturing for him the leadership and voice of American Jewry; if I were one of the members of the Israeli Government’s ruling group; if I were an enlightened sophisticated, modern Jewish intellectual, I would climb the barricades and join in battle against the most dangerous of all Jewish holidays – Chanukah.

It is a measure of the total ignorance of the world Jewish community that there is no holiday that is more universally celebrated than the “Feast of Lights”, and it is an equal measure of the intellectual dishonesty and of Jewish leadership that it plays along with the lie.  For if ever there was a holiday that stands for everything that the mass of world Jewry and their leadership has rejected – it is this one.  If one would find an event that is truly rooted in everything that Jews of our times and their leaders have rejected and, indeed, attacked – it is this one.  If there is any holiday that is more “unJewish” in the sense of our modern beliefs and practices – I do not know of it.

The Chanukah that has erupted unto the world Jewish scene in all its childishness, asininity, shallowness, ignorance and fraud – is not the Chanukah of reality.  The Chanukah that came into vogue because of Jewish parents – in their vapidness – needed something to counteract Christmas; that exploded in a show of “we-can-have-lights-just-as-our-goyish-neighbors” and in an effort to reward our spoiled children with eight gifts instead of the poor Christian one; the Chanukah that the Temple, under its captive rabbi, turned into a school pageant so that the beaming parents might think that the Religious School is really successful instead of the tragic joke and waste that it really is; the Chanukah that speaks of Jewish Patrick Henrys giving-me-liberty-or death and the pictures of Maccabees as great liberal saviors who fought so that the kibbutzim might continue to be free to preach their Marx and eat their ham, that the split-level dwellers of suburbia might be allowed to violate their Sabbath in perfect freedom and the Reform and Conservative Temples continue the fight for civil rights for Blacks, Puerto Ricans and Jane Fonda, is not remotely connected with reality. 

This is NOT the Chanukah of our ancestors, of the generations of Jews of Eastern Europe and Yemen and Morocco and the crusades and Spain and Babylon.  It is surely not the Chanukah for which the Maccabees themselves died.  Truly, could those whom we honor so munificently, return and see what Chanukah has become, they might very well begin a second Maccabean revolt.  For the life that we Jews lead today was the very cause, the REAL reason for the revolt of the Jews “in those days in our times.”  

What happened in that era more than 2000 years ago?  What led a handful of Jews to rise up in violence against the enemy?  And precisely who WAS the enemy?  What were they fighting FOR and who were they fighting AGAINST?

           

For years, the people of Judea had been the vassals of Greece.  True independence as a state had been unknown for all those decades and, yet, the Jews did not rise up in revolt.  It was only when the Greek policy shifted from mere political control to one that attempted to suppress the Jewish religion that the revolt erupted in all its bloodiness.  It was not mere liberty that led to the Maccabean uprising that we so passionately applaud.  What we are really cheering is a brave group of Jews who fought and plunged Judea into a bloodbath for the right to observe the Sabbath, to follow the laws of kashruth, to obey the laws of the Torah.  IN A WORD EVERYTHING ABOUT CHANUKAH THAT WE COMMEMORATE AND TEACH OUR CHILDREN TO COMMEMORATE ARE THINGS WE CONSIDER TO BE OUTMODED, MEDIEVAL AND CHILDISH!

           

At best, then, those who fought and died for Chanukah were naïve and obscurantist.  Had we lived in those days we would certainly not have done what they did for everyone knows that the laws of the Torah are not really Divine but only the products of evolution and men (do not the Reform, Reconstructionist and large parts of the Conservative movements write this daily?)  Surely we would not have fought for that which we violate every day of our lives!  No, at best Chanukah emerges as a needless holiday if not a foolish one.  Poor Hannah and her seven children; poor Mattathias and Judah; poor well meaning chaps all but hopelessly backward and utterly unnecessary sacrifices.

           

But there is more.  Not only is Chanukah really a foolish and unnecessary holiday, it is also one that is dangerously fanatical and illiberal. The first act of rebellion, the first enemy who fell at the hands of the brave Jewish heroes whom our delightful children portray so cleverly in their Sunday and religious school pageants, was NOT a Greek.  He was a Jew.

When the enemy sent its troops into the town of Modin to set up an idol and demand its worship, it was a Jew who decided to exercise his freedom of pagan worship and who approached the altar to worship Zeus (after all, what business was it of anyone what this fellow worshipped?)  And it was this Jew, this apostate, this religious traitor who was struck down by the brave, glorious, courageous (are these not the words all our Sunday schools use to describe him?) Mattathias, as he shouted: “Whoever is for G-d, follow me!”  

What have we here?  What kind of religious intolerance and bigotry?  What kind of a man is this for the anti-religious of Hashomer Hatzair, the graceful temples of suburbia, the sophisticated intellectuals, the liberal open-minded Jews and all the drones who have wearied us unto death with the concept of Judaism as a humanistic, open-minded, undogmatic, liberal, universalistic (if not Marxist) religion, to honor?  What kind of nationalism is this for David-Ben-Gurion (he who rejects the Galut and speaks of the proud, free Jew of ancient Judea and Israel)?

And to crush us even more (we who know that Judaism is a faith of peace which deplores violence), what kind of Jews were these who reacted to oppression with FORCE?  Surely we who so properly have deplored Jewish violence as fascistic, immoral and (above all!) UN-JEWISH, stand in horror as we contemplate Jews who declined to picket the Syrian Greeks to death and who rejected quiet diplomacy for the sword, spear and arrow (had there been bombs in those days, who can tell what they might have done?) and “descended to the level of evil,” thus rejecting the ethical and moral concepts of Judaism.

Is this the kind of a holiday we wish to propagate?  Are these the kinds of men we want our moral and humanistic children to honor?  Is this the kind of Judaism that we wish to observe and pass on to our children?

Where shall we find the man of courage the one voice, in the wilderness to cry out against Chanukah and the Judaism that it represents-the Judaism of our grandparents and ancestors?  Where shall we find the man of honesty and integrity to attack the Judaism of Medievalism and outdated foolishness; the Judaism of bigotry that strikes down Jews who refuse to observe the law; the Judaism of violence that calls for Jewish force and might against the enemy?  When shall we find the courage to proudly eat our Chinese food and violate our Sabbaths and reject all the separateness, nationalism and religious maximalism that Chanukah so ignobly represents?  …Down with Chanukah!  It is a regressive holiday that merely symbolizes the Judaism that always was; the Judaism that was handed down to us from Sinai; the Judaism that made our ancestors ready to give their lives for the L-rd; the Judaism that young people instinctively know is true and great and real.  Such Judaism is dangerous for us and our leaders.  We must do all in our power to bury it.

CHANUKAH SAMEACH: May each  candle that you lite brighten your life. I pray for the miracle of good over evil in the times we are living in today. May we all celebrate next year in Eretz Yisrael, a country that is liberated and annexed in all our Biblical boundaries. 
Barbara and Chaim

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 To view Rabbi Meir Kahane site of You Tubes, Videos. CDs posted by Michael Miller go to: Or Haraayon אור הרעיון Jewish Idea הרעיון היהודי    link: www.youtube.com/c/kahane22chai

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