The Wandering Jew 1972

 MEIR KAHANE WRITINGS

5732-33  1971-73

 The Wandering Jew

(The Story of the Jew in the Present Exile)

July 14, 1972

“These are the travels of the children of Israel by which they went forth out of the land of Egypt…And they journeyed from Rameses and they camped in Sukkot and they camped in Eitam…And they journeyed from Refidim and camped in the Sinai Desert and they journeyed from Hazerot and they journeyed from Hazerot and camped in Ritma and they journeyed from Ritma and they camped in Rimon Paretz and they journeyed from Rimon Paretz and they camped in Livna and they journeyed from Livna and they camped in Risa,,,” (Numbers 33)

The wanderings of the Jews on their weary desert journey home.  The weary journey of the wandering Jew through history.  It is not relegated merely to this one forty-year period of the Jewish epoch.  It is repeated constantly.  It is the story of the Jew in Exile never knowing more than a transitory peace, never feeling more than a fleeting insecure moment of security.  It is a story repeated endlessly, in every generation – not the least our own.  It is tragic when the Jew is forced to journey from one camp to another.  It is ludicrously pitiful when his wanderings assume the shape they do in the America of our times.

Thus will future chroniclers write of the mad wanderings of the American Jew.

These are the travels of the American children of Israel by which they went forth from the land of Europe…And they journeyed from Poland for Russia or Galicia or Lithuania or Hungary or Rumania or Syria or Turkey and they camped on the Lower East Side. And they camped in Williamsburg.  And they journeyed from Crown Heights and they camped in Boro Park.  And they journeyed from Boro Park and camped in Forest Hills.  And they journeyed from Forest Hills and camped in Nassau County.  And they journeyed from Nassau County and camped in Suffolk County.  And they journeyed from Suffolk County and were last seen clinging to the lighthouse on Montauk Point for there were no more camps left…”

I am not ashamed to admit it.  I do not understand the Jew.  I am at a loss to understand a man who is so clever in business; so keen in science and the professions; so intellectually bright in debate – and so incredibly stupid when it comes to saving himself.

The wanderings of the American Jew are legendary.  He moves into a new neighborhood and begins his predictable – almost inevitable – flight just a few short years later to a new neighborhood.  His flight from fear of crime, Blacks, falling property values and his decision to move into precisely the same kind of a situation, which one must see a repetition of the old one in the space of an absurdly short time and a time that grows progressively shorter.  He flees Brownsville leaving behind all his property and Jewish institutions and moves where?  To East Flatbush where he must inevitably suffer the same fate.  Burned twice, he will proceed to throw himself into the flames yet again by moving to Staten Island where a new yeshiva is being built after the old one collapsed under the pressure of a changing neighborhood.  And he will not be in Staten Island six months before the specter is upon him again and he will unconsciously wonder how much time it will take to get to work in Manhattan from the wilds of New Jersey…

It is not a peculiarly American problem.  It is indigenous to affluent and ‘healthy’ Jews in every “New Paradise” on earth.  I once met a Jew from Montreal.  He was a survivor of Auschwitz who had gone through the seven circles of Hell.  In Montreal he had become very wealthy.  Suddenly, the French separatist movement threatened his economic future if not his physical safety.  He told me he was thinking of moving.  I looked at this survivor of the gentile hell in Europe and the budding victim of its fury in Montreal and asked him where he contemplated going:

“Toronto….” Was the answer.  And after that Vancouver, not doubt, and after that Australia.  Any place but not the one logical, sane place.  Home, Eretz Yisroel. 

We are indeed stricken with some form of madness.  It is as if the words of the Prophet Isaiah have risen to smite us with a vengeance:

“Hear ye indeed but understand not, and see ye indeed but perceive not.  Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes…” (Isaiah 6:9 –10).

This is the only explanation I can muster for the mad refusal of the American Jews to understand that – in the end – there are no neighborhoods which will be safe and secure for him and that no journey will bring him to a final camp of security. There is no other explanation for Auschwitz survivors convincing themselves that neighborhood Y will give them greater safety than neighborhood X which in turn they thought would give them safe haven from neighborhood Auschwitz.  There is no other explanation for the decision to build a multi-million dollar yeshiva in Staten Island rather than in permanent Jerusalem.  There is not other explanation for the moving of kaftan, shrtreimal and Rebbe from Warsaw, Samz and Sigit to Boro Park, Crown Heights and Williamsburg rather than Eretz Yisroel.  We must surely be all stricken mad with the rage of Heaven not to realize that the eternal wanderings of the Jew will not stop for the Boston refugees in Brookline, for the Philadelphia refugees in Elkins Park, for the Cleveland refugees in Shaker Heights, for the Chicago refugees in Skokie, for the Detroit 0refugees in Oak Park and for the New York refugees to Nassau, Suffolk, Monsey or Staten Island.

There comes a time when there are NO MORE CAMPS LEFT EXCEPT THOSE OF TERROR.  There comes a time even the most blind, deaf and stubborn among us learn that there are many camps but only one home.  Generally that time comes too late.

It is not yet too late however to lift the veil from our eyes, the veil that grows not from lack of understanding but from REFUSAL to understand – not from true blindness but from UNWILLINGNESS to see.  We are a generation that fulfills the words of our rabbis in Ruth: “Woe into the generation that judges its judges…” Indeed, woe unto a generation so lacking in men of greatness that it wanders around lost, rudderless and uncomprehending.  We are such a generation and I know that never in the history of our people has such a massive community as the American Jewish one is – been so utterly and completely devoid of one single man of greatness.  The Jews of the desert wandered but had, at least, the consolation of a Moses who knew clearly where he was taking them. The American Jewish wanderers do not have even that.  I can only repeat what I have said so many times:  It is time to stop wandering and go home.

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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Barbara Sandra Ginsberg

The Arabs Of Israel: No Surprise 1988

“Beyond Words” is a 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.

Beyond Words, volumes 1-7. http://www.amazon.com

Volume 5

The Arabs of Israel: No Surprise - 1988

Once again, Israeli leaders and Jewish Establishment groups are “surprised.” In the wake of the riots which saw Arab citizens of the Jewish state stone Jewish buses, attack a police station and firebomb security vehicles — the one word which Jewish leaders, intellectuals and news media used over and over again was “surprise.” Suddenly, all the years of efforts by Israeli and Jewish leaders to persuade the world — but more important, themselves — that the Arabs of Israel were loyal citizens of the Jewish state exploded in the wake of the Arab riots — not in the territories, but inside the Israeli cities of Jaffa, Lydda, Ramle, Acre, Nazareth, Um el Fahem and, of course, Jerusalem.

The most surprising thing about all this is the fact that Jews are surprised. It is this “surprise” and shock which is the direct result of decades of deliberate efforts to avoid dealing with the real, root cause of the problem, a madness that continues to this very day. All the absurd “explanations” and rationalizations: the problem, we were told, is that the Arab economic and social position is not equal to that of the Jew. Or the problem is that the “occupation” of the West Bank and Gaza is causing anger and upset among the Israeli Arabs. As if those are the reasons Israeli Arabs take to the streets and cry “Palestine! We will free the Galilee with blood and spirit!” As if giving Israeli Arabs more sewers and more indoor toilets will put an end to the problem. As if a “Palestinian” state in the territories will send the Israeli Arabs back to their homes, happy and satisfied.

The root of the growing Israeli Arab revolt does not lie in economic inequality. It lies in a problem that is so basic and so painful and so terrifying for secular Israeli and Jewish leaders that they flee from confrontation with it — thus assuring that it will grow to proportions that will threaten the very existence of Israel.

The root of the Israeli Arab hostility and, indeed, hatred of Israel, lies in the very definition of Israel as a “Jewish state.” It lies in the very basis of Zionism, which arose to recreate the “Jewish state” that twice stood in the land. And Israel which, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, was to be “a Jewish state in the Land of Israel,” by definition could never allow the Arabs to be equal. It could never allow the Arabs the opportunity to become the majority — albeit peacefully — and democratically change a Jewish state into an Arab one, an Israel into a Palestine. Indeed, the root of the problem and of the liberal Jewish nightmare is that there is a basic, immutable contradiction between Western democracy and a Jewish state.

Western democracy eliminates all such concepts as national background or religion. Whoever are the majority rules, and both Arabs and Jews have the right to become the majority in Israel — under this Western democratic credo — and do with the country what they, the majority, will. Certainly, such a basic law as that passed by the socialist Zionist government of David Ben-Gurion in 1950, the Law of Return, that allows Jews automatic right to immigrate and become Israeli citizens, is not what Western democracy would adopt.

But that is exactly the kind of law that Zionism and a Jewish state did adopt and must adopt, for the Jewish people’s main dream is that of a Jewish state, and all that can be done to insure the Jewishness of that state is not only proper but mandatory. A Jewish people, for 1,900 years, lived in involuntary exile, as a minority in Christian and Moslem countries. It enjoyed such minority benefits as Crusades and Inquisitions and pogroms and, of course, Auschwitz. It decided that never again would it be trampled upon, spat upon, gassed to death and burned alive. It decided that it would have a Jewish state in which the Jew was master of his fate, never dependent on others.

That is Zionism and that is Israel — the Jewish state — and there is nothing for any Jew to be ashamed of. But let him never deceive himself. A Jewish state can never be a Western democratic one, and it can never allow the Arab political equality with the Jew, no matter how much the liberal and Left in Israel and the Jewish Establishment refuse to face it.

And that is why the Arab in Israel riots and hates the Jewish state. Because it can never be his, by virtue of the stark fact that he is not a Jew. It is the contradiction between Zionism and Western democracy that is at the heart of the inevitable Arab hostility. And all the economic benefits and all the Palestinian states in the world will never remove the reality of the Israeli Arab who will never accept the Jewish state. It will get worse. Much worse. The Arab birthrate and the new generation of young, educated and hostile Israeli Arabs guarantee that in the years to come, the world will watch on its television screens rioting and shooting of Arabs in the Galilee and the cities of Israel.

The Arabs of Israel joined with the Arabs of the territories in rioting, for the simple reason that they are ONE. For them there is no nonsensical “Green Line,” of 1967. The Arabs of Israel and the territories, both, are logical and normal. They know and proclaim what normal Jews such as Kahane do. They believe and proclaim that there is but ONE “Palestinian” people and that all of the land — “West Bank” and Israel — is really ONE, “Palestine.” To be sure, the Arabs of Israel have no intention of leaving Israel, but surely not because they love Israel. The contention of so many vapid Israeli leaders that the Israeli Arab is caught in the dilemma of being a member of the Palestine nation and citizen of Israel is ridiculous. There is no dilemma for the Arab. His identity is not dual; it is clear and unmistaken. He considers himself to be a member of the Palestinian Arab nation. The fact that he is also a citizen of Israel and lives in the Jewish state is not a dilemma for him, but rather an unfortunate tragedy that he must live with at the moment, but which he strives, daily, to change.

The problem in getting Jews to understand all this lies in the basic dishonesty of the Jewish leadership and the ‘gentilized’, liberal views that surround them, and from which they spring. It lies in the basic dishonesty of the Jewish news media, intellectuals and clergy (both non-Orthodox and, in great degree, Moderdox  Modern Orthodox). This dishonesty is rooted in the terrible fear of admitting the fundamental contradiction between their beloved Western democracy and gentilized social values, and the values and definitions of Zionism and authentic Judaism. None of them has the courage to face up to this contradiction and choose!

It is this cowardice that threatens the very existence of Israel, for the vacillation, the hesitation, the flight from the obvious and only choice — expulsion — sees the enormous growth of Arab population as well as the radicalization of an educated and boldly brazen new generation of Israeli Arabs. The cowardly refusal to choose and to act sees a growing sense of uncertainty and then guilt among young Israeli Jews, young people who — in any event — are naked of Jewish values, thanks to the ‘gentilized’, secular education they receive.

This cowardly fear of deciding for Zionism and a Jewish state, and rejecting Western democracy, is nothing short of criminal. The signs and the evidence of Israeli Arab hatred of the Jewish state have been there to see for decades! In recent years not even the most blind of people could fail to see it. When Arab Communist Party Knesset Member Tewfik Ziad hears Labor M.K. David Libai speak of Jews defending the right of the Arab minority, he calls out: “The minority that will be the majority, in the future” (Knesset minutes, Dec. 9, 1986).

And when Muhamad Mussarwa, the Israeli Consul General in Atlanta (chosen by Israel as some Uncle Ahmed to show the greatness of Israeli token democracy), tells a group of Atlanta rabbis (come to drink from his feet): “Israel is my country. I do not perceive it as a Jewish state” (Atlanta Jewish Times, Nov. 20, 1987) — he is merely proclaiming what every Arab sees as the most logical strategy. Unable to demand a “Palestine” at this moment, proclaim Israel to be a Western democracy in which Jews and Arabs are truly equal, i.e., Israel is not a Jewish state and Arabs have the right to become the majority and create the kind of state they desire.

This is exactly what the openly pro-PLO Arab M.K., Mohamed Miari (Progressive List), meant when he said: “The State of Israel is not the state of the Jewish people but rather of the citizens who are there by virtue of being citizens of the State of Israel” (Knesset minutes, Oct. 15, 1985).

And this is what Na’ama Saud, an Israeli Arab teacher, tells the newspaper Ma’ariv (May 28, 1976): “Today, I am in the minority. Who says that in the year 2000 we Arabs will still be in the minority? Today, I accept the fact that this is a Jewish state with an Arab minority. But when we are the majority I will not accept the fact of a Jewish state with an Arab majority.”

And Muhamed Muhareb, chairman of the Arab students at Hebrew University, tells Ma’ariv (January 20, 1978): “I am first and foremost a Palestinian, resident of Lydda. My Israeli citizenship was forced upon me. I do not recognize it and do not see myself as belonging to the State of Israel. With the final solution common to the Arabs of Palestine and of Judea, Lydda will be in the sovereign boundaries of the democratic state. What will that state be called? Palestine, naturally.” And that is why Arab mobs in the Israeli town of Taibe shout: “Katyushas will yet fall again on Kiryat Shemona,” and some 6,000 Israeli Arabs come to the Knesset to demonstrate and shout: “We will free the Galilee with blood!”

The Arabs of Israel are a hostile, hating minority in the midst of a Jewish state they hate and despise and dream of overthrowing. The absurd shibboleth that is waved on high again and again by the ‘gentilized’ cowards to the effect that “the overwhelming majority of Israeli Arabs have never been involved in anti-state acts” is worse than stupidity. One could as well prove that the French or Dutch or Norwegians enjoyed living under the Nazi occupation because so few joined the underground against the Germans. Most people do not risk life and limb by attacking authority. It takes courage to join an underground or a terrorist group. Most people do not relish being caught and serving long prison sentences. That does not mean that they do not admire the PLO or support it. And even those who are against violence are of that mind for the pragmatic reason that they feel it will not work. But all of the Israeli Arabs reject a “Jewish state,” reject the Zionist concept of a Jewish state in which they — the non-Jews — must, of necessity, be strangers.

The Jewish leaders in Israel; the Jewish Establishment in the Exile; the Jewish news media and the intellectuals — all are bound to Western democracy as some Prometheus, to which their Hellenism so gravitates. All are too terrified and too weak to choose a Jewish state over Western democracy. That is why they doom Israel to years of slow and agonizing torture; to years of Arab rebellion within the country; to years of bloody confrontation with Arabs inside the Jewish state; to years of world condemnation of Israel.

If we do not want that, we must throw off the yoke of the present Jewish leadership in Israel and the Exile. We must reject the sterile anger and protests of sterile Jewish liberals, who are the most dangerous enemies that Israel faces.

If we do not want tragedy, let us throw off our fear of facing the contradiction of Western democracy and a Jewish state. And let us choose a Jewish state, with no guilt. The answer, the inevitable answer is — remove the Arabs to any of their 22 states, and Israel will remain the one Jewish state for the Jewish people. Without liberal guilt or apologies.

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:

barbaraandchaim@gmail.com

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

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

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Barbara Sandra Ginsberg

Vengeance 1980

 Kahane on the Parsha

V-E-N-G-E-A-N-C-E

The desecration of the name of the L-rd is the very cardinal of sins. It strikes at the very existence and reality of the G-d of Israel. It is intolerable that it be allowed, and impossible that it not be erased.

When Pinchas beheld the open Chillul Hashem that took place at Shittim, he burned with zealousness over the desecration of G-d's Name. And he looked about to see who, burning with similar indignation, would leap to put a stop to it. At that moment, Pinchas said: "Is there no man here who will kill Zimri?...When he saw that all were silent, he arose himself from the Sanhedrin and killed Zimri" (Sifri, Balak 131)

Note: Pinchas was in the midst of Moses and all the elders of Israel. He waited for them to act, and they did not. And so he, not one of the elders, leaped to end the desecration and put a stop to the plague that was raging in the camp through G-d's wrath. And so, "Pinchas the son of Elazar saw..." (Numbers 25:7). The Tanna Shmuel said, "He saw [and remembered] the verse in Proverbs (21:30): 'There is neither wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the L-rd.' Any time that there exists Chillul Hashem, we don't give respect to the scholar" (Sanhedrin 82a). And Rashi explains, "Therefore, Pinchas did not wait to receive permission from Moses [who hesitated and was subsequently punished as a result, as stated in the Tanchuma] but acted on his own lest the elders, out of fear, not act according to the Law." And he killed the head of a tribe.

And when the angels sought to punish him for acting as he did, and without permission, the Almighty said, "Leave him alone. He is a zealot, the son of zealots; he turned away My wrath and is the son of those who turned away My wrath" [i.e., he comes from the tribe of Levi who turned away G-d's wrath from Israel by killing those who had bowed down to the Golden Calf] (ibid. 82b).

This was the response that the Almighty demanded from the people of Israel, from the leaders of Israel, from someone in Israel. And because Pinchas acted, of him is it said, "Who caused the Holy One Blessed Be He to turn away His wrath and not destroy all Israel? Pinchas" (Tanchuma, Balak 21).

And thus speaks the Law: "Pinchas, the son of Elazar, the son of Aaron the Priest, turned away My wrath from the Children of Israel when he was zealous for My zealousness in their midst, so I did not consume Israel in My zealousness" (Numbers 25:11)

And thus says the Ibn Ezra: "For he was zealous just as his Maker, of who it is said: 'A G-d of jealousy' (Exodus 20:5). And had he not acted with zealousness, I, G-d, would have destroyed all of Israel."

And the Sforno: "He took My revenge before the eyes of all Israel, so that they were forgiven for not acting to protest the sinners."

And the Ramban: "He was worthy of great honor, for he killed a chief of Israel and the daughter of a gentile king and feared not, because he was zealous for his G-d."

And Rashi: "'When he was zealous for My zealousness,' meaning: when he avenged My vengeance, when he was angry for the wrath that I would have shown. Every expression 'zealous' means one who is anxious to avenge something."

Vengeance is the inability to abide the act of abomination and injustice. It is the need to erase from the land the free perpetration of an act of evil, done without punishment. It is the need to show that in the world of the Almighty one who pollutes and defiles the world by an act contrary to its precepts will be punished.

The Jewish Press, 1980

Kahane on the Parsha can be purchased at: Amazon.com

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:

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

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Barbara Sandra Ginsberg

Seek No Allies - 1989

Barbara Ginsberg’s Desktop

Kahane on the Parasha

Rabbi Meir Kahane- Parashat Balak

SEEK NO ALLIES!!!

To be alone is the destiny of the Jew ever since it was decreed "Hen, am l'vadad yishkon," "Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone" (Numbers 23:9). But the word "hen," which is generally translated as a poetical "lo," is much more than that, since the Torah isn't primarily a book of poetry. So the Rabbis, noting that the Hebrew word "hen" is composed of the letters hei and nun, state:

"Take all the letters and you will find [that if one wishes to add two of them together to get the sum of 10] each letter has a partner, but hei [the number 5] and nun [the number 50] have no partners. [For example, the letter aleph (one) and tet (nine) add up to 10; bet (two) and chet (eight) add up to 10; gimel (three) and zayin (seven) add up to 10; daled (four) and vav (six) add up to 10. Only hei (five) has no partner [except for a second hei. Similarly the letter nun (50) has no partner other than another nun to get the sum of 100]" (Yalkut, Balak 23).

This remarkable Midrash emphasizes more than anything the halachic injunction of isolation. Not only must the Jew not be afraid of being isolated, he is commanded to choose isolation. THAT IS WHY ALL JEWS MUST LIVE IN ERETZ YISRAEL- SO AS TO BE ISOLATED FROM THE NATIONS AND THEIR CULTURES!!! In the words of the Rabbis: "separated from the nations of the world and their abominations" (Mechilta, Yitro, Bachodesh Hashlishi 2:3).

But there is another lesson to be learned from the requirement of isolation, and that is that the Jew is NOT ALLOWED to seek allies- that the very act of seeking allies is one of faithlessness to G-d. Thus, we find the prophet Isaiah condemning the Jews of his time for turning to Egypt for aid against the Assyrians who were threatening them: "Woe to the rebellious children, says the L-rd, who take counsel, but not from Me; and who prepare a plan, but not of My spirit, in order to add sin upon sin; who go down to Egypt but did not inquire of My Mouth, to seek strength in Pharaoh's stronghold and to take shelter in the shade of Egypt!" (Isaiah 30: 1-2).

And again: "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and who rely on horses; they trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they look not to the Holy One of Israel, neither do they seek the L-rd" (Ibid. 31:1).

Consider the words of the prophet, and the context in which they were said. Assyria, the mightiest empire of its time, the empire that had vanquished nation after nation, is descending on Israel. Is it not normal to seek allies? What would religious Jews and rabbis say today about seeking help from the United States? Surely they would all cry out the need for "practicality." But the prophet does not. He condemns it.

And the great Biblical commentator, the Radak, explains: "It is not enough that they have sinned and erred, but they add the sin of asking besides me help from someone else without My permission? And this is a great rebellion of the servant against his master, as he places his trust in someone else besides him" (commentary on Isaiah 30:1).

The fear of man, of human flesh and blood, rather than trust in the Almighty, has ever been the cause of tragedy for the Jewish people! Let's consider the national tragedy that befell the Jewish people when its kingdom was split into two after the death of Solomon. Why did this occur? Because Solomon sinned by marrying Pharaoh's daughter who turned his heart from G-d, as it says (1 Kings 11:11), "And the L-rd said to Solomon, 'Since...you have not kept My covenant and My statues which I commanded upon you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant.'"

But why such a harsh punishment for marrying Pharaoh's daughter? It hardly, at first glance, seems to fit the crime.

The Seder Olam writes that the original decree was only to last 36 years "in line with the 36 years that Solomon was married to Pharaoh's daughter...The Kingdom was due to have been restored in the reign of King Asa...but Asa ruined it by sending a bribe to the king of Aram [when he was attacked by Basha, King of Israel], not relying on the Almighty but on the king of Aram." The Radak cites the Seder Olam and writes similarly, "The decree was that the kingdom should be split for 36 years corresponding to the 36 years that Solomon was the son-in-law of Pharaoh."

Consider the odd language of the Radak: "the son-in-law of Pharaoh." Why not say: "the husband of Pharaoh's daughter"? Because the real sin was that Solomon married the woman in order to be the son-in-law of Pharaoh! Egypt was the most powerful nation of its time and Solomon hoped to neutralize her and make her an ally by marrying the monarch's daughter, a common method of diplomatic alliance throughout history. Solomon feared man, not G-d, and sought through this marriage to guarantee his kingdom. Therefore, the Almighty punished him with the perfect and most fitting punishment: the splitting of his kingdom.

And that is the reason for the following remarkable statement in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 21b): "When Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter, Gabriel came down and struck a reed in the sea which gathered about it a sand-bank upon which was built the great city of Rome." The point made by the Rabbis is clear. On the day Solomon showed fear of man rather than faith in G-d and made an alliance with Pharaoh to save his kingdom, the ultimate destruction of the Kingdom- Rome- was born. What a remarkable underlining of the foolishness and sin of trusting in humans when all flesh is in the hands of G-d! What a remarkable example of how history is created and guided by G-d!

"Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone." L'vadad! Alone! THAT IS THE JEWISH WAY!

The Jewish Press, 1989

Kahane on the Parsha can be purchased at Amazon.com

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To view Rabbi Meir Kahane site of You Tubes, Videos. CDs posted by Michael Miller