Ashamed of G-d 1990

“Beyond Words” 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” now can be bought at Amazon.com  Type, Beyond Words Kahane

Beyond Words

Selected Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane,

1960-1990

Volume 7

Ashamed of G-d

“Our fathers trusted in You:  they trusted, and You did deliver them.  They cried to You, and were rescued; they trusted in You, and were not ashamed . . . “

(Psalms, 22:5-6) 

And the Rabbis comment: “They cried to You, and were rescued, as it says

(Exodus 14:30): ‘On that day, G-d saved Israel . . .’ And why? Because of the merit of trust in G-d.” (Yalkut, Tehillim 22, 685)

At first glance – and, indeed, at second and third – the verse seems most inscrutable.  “They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.”  Of what did they have to be ashamed?  What is this praise of our fathers who trusted in G-d and were not “ashamed”?  Why should they have been ashamed?  And similarly, the complete meaning of the rabbinical comment concerning the reason for G-d having saved the Children of Israel at the Red Sea is: “All because of the merit of trust and for not being ashamed” (Midrash Tehillim, 22).  In a word, what place does shame have in this picture of trust and faith in G-d?

For those who lived and walked the earth until perhaps a century ago, the question would have certainly been a difficult one; but in these days when, for the first time in the history of man’s sojourn on earth, secularism rules the waves and land, heavens and the earth, the though is a very familiar one.

The truth is that, today, in the era of the dictatorship of the news media, the secular, liberal, arrogant, cynical, news media, it is embarrassing to bring G-d into anything that smacks of this world, of political events, of economic determinism, of social issues.  It is absolutely medieval and backward to speak of G-d as a meaningful factor, let along THE meaningful factor of life.  It is stark bumpkinism and Babbitism to mix G-d in the company of Gorbachev and Baker and Kohl; one simply does not invite Him to the same party.  And to state that our troubles stem from our sins and refusal to obey His law, to state a belief in the reality of Divine Providence and reward and punishment, is to bring down upon one the worst of epithets: Fanatic, Zealot, and the worst of the worst – Khomeini!

And that is enough to send people rushing into their shell of caution.  That is sufficient to shut mouths and minds.  For who wishes to be called Khomeini or fanatic or zealot?  Indeed, who wants to be called any kind of name, to be held up to the mocking and jeering of the intellectual and journalistic elite?  We are, quite frankly ashamed of being ridiculed, and so we do that which is best guaranteed to protect us from that shame:  We shut up and speak only those things that are acceptable in this bright, new secular-liberal-intellectual Kingdom of Man.

This fear of same and ridicule spreads throughout the land.  No longer does Gush Emunim or any of the “religious nationalists” base their claims to the Land of Israel, in public at least, on the reactionary, ridiculous, backward concepts of G-d and Divine law.  One can close his eyes and listen to them and then to the Gandhis and Sharons and Eytans and Geula Cohens and never know the difference.  The only ones who base their nationalism and their demands to annex the lands of Israel on G-d and Divine law are the last of the fanatics and zealots and Khomeinis – the followers of “Kahanism.”  The last of the Middle Agers.  And one understands clearly what the verse means:  “They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.”

And this did the Rama write (Code of Jewish Law, Orach Chaim 1:1) in the very first paragraph of the great Code:

“And he should not be ashamed of people who mock him in the service of G-d.”  No shame. Trust in Him and be not ashamed.  Speak the truth and be not ashamed.  Fanatic? Khomeini? Kahanist?  If by that it is meant one who believes that only G-d and His Torah define and decree the path of Jews – then accept the “shame” with pride.  Does it mean that G-d is the One Who controls history and that that which will be, will be because of Divine reward and punishment?  Then, we accept the compliments with thanks.  Does it mean belief that G-d is stronger and more relevant than Bush and Gorbachev, and that He will save Jews and Israel with no allies if only Jews will obey Him?  If so, let us order another round of “humiliation”!

“And he should not be ashamed of people who mock him in the service of G-d.”  And more.  The source of the Rama’s words is the Tur who writes, in part: “For sometimes a person is ashamed before other people more than he is before G-d.  Therefore he is warned to harden his forehead against the mockers and not be ashamed.”  And concerning this the Beit Yosef (brought down in the Mishna Brura) states that nevertheless one should not quarrel with the mockers, since the trait of hardness is to be denigrated even in the service of G-d.  Which brings the following comment from the Chofetz Chaim in the Biur Halachic (Orach Chaim 1), a comment that should be instructive to all the righteous deplores of lashon hara and invective against the wicked:

“Know that the Beit Yosef only speaks of one who does a personal mitzvah and is mocked . . . but if he is in a place of apikorsim (scoffers or unbelievers) who rise up against Torah and wish to make changes in the community and lead people from the will of G-d, and he began peacefully and they did not listen – concerning that the Beit Yosef never spoke a syllable, and it is a mitzvah to hate them and to quarrel with them and foil their designs as much as possible.  And King David said (Psalms 139:21-22):  “Do I not hate, O L-rd those who hate you?  And do I not quarrel with those who rise up against You?  With the utmost hatred, I hate them; I regard them as my own enemies.”

Ashamed of those who mock the follower of G-d?  Quite the opposite.  Let them not arrogantly set the standards so that truth becomes a thing of mockery.  Rather stand up and decry them and call them the backward, fanatic zealots of empty secularism that they are.  Let them bear the shame of “values” that destroy the soul and the world itself.  Roll away shame and reply to those who mock and shame G-d and those who follow Him.  And in the words of King David (ibid., 119:22-42):

“Remove from upon me scorn and contempt, for I have kept Your testimonies . . . . And I will answer him who taunts me, for I trust in Your word . . . “

We shrink from being taunted and ridiculed.  We wish to be “accepted.”  We are ashamed of criticism.  That is the tragedy and that is the power of the left-liberal fanatic know-nothings.  Let David, King of Israel, be our model.  David who said (ibid.; 46):

“And I will speak of Your testimonies before kings and I will not be ashamed.”  And in the Talmud (Brachot 4):  “Thus did David say to the All Mighty:  Sovereign of the Universe! Am I not righteous?  All the kings of East and West sit in groups in honor and my hands are bloody as I rule on the laws that will permit a woman for her husband . . .  What is the verse concerning this?  And I will speak of Your testimonies before kings and I will not be ashamed . . . ‘”

Those who hate Torah mock those who practice it.  They know the truth and because, for some personal, psychological reason, they cannot or will not follow it – they hate those who do and attempt to destroy them and their way of life through ridicule.  As David said (Psalms 69:5,8)

“They who hate me without cause are more abundant than the hairs of my head.  Mighty are those who would cut me off, those who are unjustly my foes; what I never stole I must then restore.  Because for Your sake I have borne insult; humiliation covered my face.  They who sit in the gate talk about me, and I am the song of drunkards . . . “  And not for a moment did David retreat in shame.  For he was a “zealot” for G-d, a “Fanatic” for the creator, one who never cared what the loiterers and drinkers said.

Written May 25, 1990

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Are You Listening, Jew?- 1989

Beyond Words

Selected Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane,

1960-1990

Volume 6

“Beyond Words” 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” is 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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Only Thus - Way To Stop Terror - 1975

 “Beyond Words” is a 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” 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 2

ONLY THUS  (Way To Stop Terror)

Do not be overly righteous…..” (Ecclesiastes)   

“He who is merciful at a time when he should be cruel is destined to be cruel at a time when he should be merciful.”       (Midrash, Kohelet Rabbah 7:33)

I said it two years ago when I was arrested for it; I have said it every time since.  I said it after it every time since.  I said it after Lydda and after Munich and after Kiryat Shmona and after Ma’a lot and after all the massacres – those that were impossible to prevent and those that, after a while, became UNNECESSARY AND PREVENTABLE.  I say it now again after Beit Shean.  And I will say it tomorrow when yet another horror takes place, and the leaders of Israel, who could have prevented them and who did not because they are overly righteous and who must bear the blame for every dead Jew, will deliver yet more eulogies at the graves of yet more Jewish victims.  I will listen to their weeping for more Jewish victims, to their threats to carry the war to the enemy, to their pledge to wipe out every terrorist, and I will know that these are lies and absurdities and that there IS a way to cut off the hand but that the overly righteous will not use it.  And I will know that tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow there will be yet more Jewish women and children killed, and we will blame the world and the Arabs, but the finger of responsibility will not be directed at those who have it within their power to end the terror but will not  -  the leaders of the government of Israel.  

The murder of Jews at Beit Shean is not something new.  Before that we had Nahariya and before that Ma’a lot and before that Lydda and before that Athens and before that ….We have been witness to five years of terror that has taken Jewish lives, weakened the Jewish state, placed the population of Israel in constant fear, seen guards protecting our children, our homes, our institutions, our existence while Arabs in their neighborhoods and their cities blissfully sleep and walk and live without fear.  We WILL be witness to worse – much worse.  We will see more and bigger terrorism in Israel.  We will see different kinds, more sophisticated and more disastrous attacks.  We will see terrorism spread to Jews in the Exile, and prominent officials or contributors to the UJA and their families the targets of the murderers.  We have and will see terror that, by weakening Jews and making them helpless victims, profanes the name of G-d and diminishes the miracle of the beginning of the redemption

There is a way to stop the terror and those who know it but refuse to use it, for their own perverted and un-Jewish “moral” reasons. Are themselves collaborators and partners in the death of Jews and in the profanation of G-d’s name.

The answer to terror is NOT simply the bombing of the terrorist bases from which they can escape, burrow deeply or bring in others to take the place of those who were killed.  It is  NOT simply blowing of the houses with scrupulous care taken to see that no one is harmed.  It IS the doing away with that support and aid to the terrorists without which they could not exist as a meaningful threat.

The roots of terror must be destroyed by hitting at those who support and tend to them.  Without the money, the sanctuary, the bases, the offices, the facilities, the training, the weapons that the terrorists get from Arab states, they would be a joke.  Without the permission of the neighboring Arab states to use their countries from which to train and then leave for acts of terror against Israel, the Arabs could not perpetrate a Beit Shean or a Ma’alot. These countries must become the targets and must be hit in SUCH A WAY THAT THEY WILL SEE IT AS TO THEIR OWN INTEREST TO PUT AN END TO THE TERROR.  The people and states who glibly support terror must find their own lives and property made so intolerable and insecure – THEY THEMSELVES MUST BE SO TERRORIZED – that they will rise up and drive the terrorists from their lands in haste and fear that every moment of their presence can bring death and horror upon the land.

The reply to terror cannot be civility.  The answer to brutality cannot be false morality.  The reply to terror must be terror and horror must be repaid in kind.  When the masses in Lebanon, Syria and Libya feel terror in THEIR marketplaces; when the middle classes in the Arab states fear to walk the streets, ride in a bus or attend a movie; when the  upper classes and government people know that every unfamiliar sound in the night can mean death, that their schools are not safe, and when they feel panic and desperation for their children’s lives; when the mob, knows that it is marked for death and maiming as long as one terrorist installation remains on its country’s soil, and as long as one dollar or bullet is given the terrorists – on that day the mob, whose self-interest outweighs a thousand times over its interest in the so-called Palestinians, will rise up in loud and hysterical demands that the terrorists be expelled and all ties cut with them.  “We’re all dying” they will scream, verily, the mob is near unto itself….  

The planned and directed terror against those who support the destruction of Jewish women and children must be done by a group formed and supported in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY AS THE TERRORISTS ARE AIDED BY ARAB GOVERNMENTS. It must be organized, trained, financed and supported by the government of Israel which can then calmly deny any connection with the group even while it allows the SAME training bases on its soil as Arab governments allow their terrorists; even while having Israeli “volunteers” join and train EXACTLY as the Arabs do; even while allowing an office in Tel Aviv EXACTLY as its counterparts in Beirut, Damascus, Cairo Tripoli and Baghdad; even while granting asylum and support EXACTLY as the Arabs do for their “freedom fighters.”  The time has come to stop the foolish and unimaginative policy that sends regular army troops openly into Arab countries, endangering them, inviting censure and sanctions from a hypocritical world and, in the end, accomplishing nothing. Only counter-terror, only doing exactly unto others what they do unto you.  Only thus.  

The inevitable cry from the false moralists, the overly righteous, will be heard.  From the cynical pens of fraudulent columnists to the lecture halls of learnedly frustrated professors even unto the coffee houses where the righteous intellectuals and artists of the earth unite.   Barbarism! Un-Jewish! Descending to the level of the Arabs! 

Let us not be dismayed or intimidated.  What is Jewish or not Jewish, what is merciful or cruel, what is moral or barbarous, are not decreed by the ignorant who happen to have the sign of the covenant on their bodies, or even by the Hebrew-speaking gentilized who live in their Land of Canaan.  They are types who can be found in each generation, prating their false morality.  We heard them when David Raziel and the fledgling Irgun Zvai Leumi placed bombs in Arab marketplaces in horror at similar acts begun by Arabs and in disgust with the gentilized socialist morality of Jewish leaders whose “havlaga”  - self-restraint – caused the murder of hundreds of Jews.  We heard them when good Jews hanged British soldiers in retaliation for the hanging of Jewish soldiers – and not another Jew was hanged again.  And we heard them, centuries earlier, when King Saul decreed that he was more moral than the Jewish G-d and refused to wipe out the Amalekites.  Of him was it said, “Do not be overly righteous…” (Ecclesiastes 7:16).

Not through the gentilized and assimilated “moralists” do we survive and it is not they who decree what is Jewish, what is permitted and what is normal. It is the Jewish law, that Torah that kept us alive as a people, that permits and defines and decrees that those who have the status of a “rodef,” a purser of an innocent victim, must be killed.  It is that Torah that says if one comes to slay you, slay him first (Sanhedrin 74).  If the only way, after having tried all else to convince an Arab state not to allow sanctuary to terrorists, is through counter-terror, if to save a Jewish life, having tried all else, only counter-terror, is the solution, then one is permitted to use that and it becomes legal, obligatory, hallowed.  We did not build an Israel to perpetuate a Kishinev.  On the day that we strike off the terrorist hand and innocent Jews cease to die, the name of G-d will be sanctified

February 21, 1975   

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RABBI MEIR KAHANE'S LAST ARTICLE

RABBI KAHANE’S LAST ARTICLES

Rabbi Meir Kahane, may G-d avenge his blood, wrote weekly columns for over 20 years for The Jewish Press.  Below is a copy of one of his last articles which appeared in The Jewish Press. His final thoughts to all of us 

Numbers 23:9

“Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone and not be reckoned among the nations” (Numbers 23:9)

Numbers 23:9.  The reality; the reality of Israel against the world.  The reality that is so terrifying to so many; the reality that cannot go away – for upon it is based all of Judaism

I ponder the phenomenon of synagogues – including Orthodox ones – that incredibly ban me from speaking, that, in effect, have declared a view of halachic a of a rabbi and talmid chacham as banned from the synagogue.  And the words of the Prophets acquire new and real meaning for me; words spoken by seers and visionaries of broken hearts, who proclaimed in their hurt: “They hate him that rebuketh in the gate and abhor him that speaketh uprightly” (Amos 5).  And: “And I raised up from among your sons, prophets, and from your young men, Nazarities … but you gave the Nazarities wine to drink and commanded the prophets,  saying: ‘Prophecy  not’” (Amos 2).  And: “For it is a rebellious people, children who lie, children who will not hear the Law of the L-rd.  Who say to the seers:  ‘See not!’ Who say to the visionaries: ‘Envision not, unto us correct things, speak unto us smooth things envision deceit.’” (Isaiah 30) 

And so they invite the delusions and the deceit of the leaders who speak to them that which they wish to hear, and the prophet weeps and cries out: “Peace, peace and there is no peace…”

You think it pleasant to speak painful truths that cause pain to those who refuse to listen and who then react with pain and hate against the one who speaks?  You think it is tranquil to be the messenger that brings forth the reaction, “Kill the messenger?”  You think it is comfortable to be the one who compels the blind to see and the deaf to listen – because a Jew is compelled and commanded to love Jews – even those who defame and smear and destroy him?  Hardly.  But that is the decree and that is the statute of love of Jews.  And that, too, is the days of yore and there is nothing new under the sun; “Hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind – that ye may see.  Who is blind but My servant, or deaf as My messenger I sent?  Who is blind … as the L-rd’s servant?  Seeing many things but thou observes not, opening the ears but none heareth…  Who among you will give ear to this?  Who will hearken and hear for the time come?” (Isaiah 42).  And: “We wait for light – and behold darkness, for brightness and we walk in blackness.  We grope for the wall like the blind, as if we had no eyes, we grope; we stumble at noon day as in the night….”

But though we refuse to see and hear, and though we shut out the messenger – the voice will cry out, causing pain because it itself is in pain, pain for a people that refuses to be chosen and climb the mountain.

For those who wish to see and who refuse to blind themselves to reality, it is clear that two fundamental processes are, today, unfolding for the Jewish people.

One: Events in the Middle East are leading to inexorable international pressure on Israel to make terrible, mad concessions.  The “new world order” of which George Bush speaks will bring together the nations of the world – east and west, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., Moslem and Christian – to try to impose tragedy on the Jewish state and people.

Two:  Events in the Middle East are joining together with the galloping economic collapse and unraveling of the social fabric in the United States to create a political explosion and horror that will bring anti-Semitism and tragedy upon the American Jew to a degree beyond his worst fears.

For those secular Jews and all the ones of little faith who perceive the Jewish people and state as similar to all the others, of course, the obvious and growing isolation of Israel and the clear and present danger to its very existence are terrifying.  To such people, the fear of losing allies and especially the United States is frightening.  To them, there is nothing more important than Israel’s pursuing policies that will not incur the wrath of America and the world.  To them, Israel cannot exist without the support of the United States and the Western world.

For those secular Jews and all the ones of little faith who see the Jewish people in “practical” and “realistic” terms of realpolitik, the U. S. and the West are seen as home and heritage and future.  There is nothing more frightening to them than the thought of a tidal wave of anti-Semitism that would threaten their lives there.  To them, the fight for the preservation of Jewish life in the exile is the most important thing on their national agenda.

But for the Jews of authentic, classical Judaism it is clear that the birth and future and destiny of the Jew and his State are based precisely on isolation and on a Jewish State in which live all the Jewish people; that faith in the G-d of Israel (and, of course, Jewish strength based on that faith) is the only hope of the Jew and his State; that fear of the world and reliance on the nations and allies are not only illusions and delusions but, worse, a desecration of the name of G-d and a declaration that it is not He but human beings who hold our fate in the balance; that the gathering together of nations against Israel and the ultimate collapse of Jewish life in the exile are things that are sadly immutable.

From the birth of the Jewish religio-nation, a number of divine iron laws of history were decreed for the Jew, nation and state:  

1.     The Jewish people were selected by G-d to be His unique, chosen and holy people from all the nations on earth.

2.     This special chosen-ness imposed upon the Jew, the obligation to accept the yoke of heaven – the laws and commandments of Torah along with the immutable consequences:  Acceptance of the obligation would lead to glorious and majestic redemption, while refusal must lead to punishment and tragedy.  There is no escape from this iron law of Judaism

3.     The Jewish people are a people that dwells alone, separate and isolated from the nations and it is the Almighty alone who is their Redeemer and Savior – when they are deserving of it.  Those who fear the nations and look to them for salvation are swamped by delusion and lack of faith in the G-d of Israel.  For real faith in Him means that He is stronger than both Baghdad and Washington; that He is the Decreer and Decider of history; that if the Jew looks to Him and does His will, then and only then will the Jew be spared the tragedy that looms; that Israel must look to its own interests without fear of what the nations will say.

4.     The exile – all the lands that lie outside the Land of Israel – can never be anything more than ultimate punishment and suffering for the Jew.  It can never be aught but tragedy for a Jewish people commanded to dwell alone.  It is not the futile fight against tidal wave of hatred of the Jew – the inevitable product of the coming U.S. socio-economic collapse – that should be the main item on the American Jewish agenda,, but rather the return home, to the Land of Israel, where the Jew must dwell alone, that should obsess us.

5.      And above all, let it never be forgotten:  It is precisely the isolation of the Jew and his ultimate aloneness, without allies or gentile support that is the key to Jewish redemption in this final era of redemption.  It is precisely the apparent hopelessness and impossibility of Jewish survival in isolation that will most prove the Omnipotence and Kingship of the G-d of Israel.

Faith in the G-d of Israel, and not trust in the nations of the world.  An end to pleading for American economic aid that, on the one hand, causes Israel to tremble lest it anger Washington and thus threaten both its alms and arms, and that also leads the Jewish state to refrain from following the normal, logical and sane policies that are its own interest.  And leaving the lands of the exile, the ultimate lands of tragedy for the Jew – to come home and to be a nation that shall indeed dwell alone, fearing G-d and not the nations.  That is the Jewish way.  That is the only way.

“Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone and not be reckoned among the nations.”

Indeed, how tempting and deductive to say those pleasant and soothing things that the public

and masses would like to hear; that the Jewish leaders mouth in sterility and emptiness, to the detriment of our people.  But the iron law of Judaism is immutable – “if you walk in My statues” or, “and if you shall reject my statues…”  

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Barbara Sandra Ginsberg