Cowering Before Flesh And Blood - 1981

Kahane on the Parsha Parshat Ki Tavo Rabbi Meir Kahane COWERING BEFORE FLESH AND BLOOD In the awesome Torah portion of admonition of the Jew (the tochacha)- regarding both the blessing and the curse- the Almighty declares: "And it shall overtake thee" (Deuteronomy 28:15). My father, of blessed memory, asked the obvious: One can understand the Jew fleeing from the curse so that it must pursue and overtake him. But why in the world does he flee the blessing so that it must chase and catch him? The answer, he said, is that the Jew does not understand what G-d's blessing is. He sees a blessing, thinks it is a curse, and flees from it... For the Jew, the worst of curses is to be isolated, without allies, alone in a hostile world. He flees from that as from the blackest of plagues. He sees in that, tragedy and destruction, and so he does all in order to hold fast to an ally- as some desperate unmarried single on a Saturday night rushing out to find some kind of companionship, ANY kind, willing to endure any humiliation, but above all: NOT TO BE ALONE. How sad that the Jew cannot comprehend that it is precisely his isolation from the gentiles, exactly his being cut off from their alliances and support, that is the greatest of all blessings. How sad that he cannot understand that the Jew may be isolated from Man, but he is never alone. What a sad commentary on the corruption and decline of Judaism in all its aspects that the Jew does not realize that it is precisely when he is cut off from the nations, isolated and alone from the gentiles, that the redemption will come. Weep at the Jew fleeing in panic and terror from the very blessing that will bring him the Messiah! The heart of Judaism is the deep and total faith of the Jew in the omnipotence of the L-rd. It is this which proves his real faith and belief in the L-rd. The feeling of need for human, gentile assistance in time of national crisis is the antithesis of faith in an omnipotent G-d. A G-d who cannot help His people without the assistance of a gentile power is NOT A GOD!! And a "chosen" people that proclaims G-d's omnipotence thrice daily and then collapses before Washington's humiliating demands lest the gentile cut its assistance is a theological fraud. Rabbeinu Bechaya, one of the giants of Spanish Torah scholars, put down the simple-complex, towering concept of faith in G-d in his masterpiece Kad HaKemach: "And the essence of faith and trust is that one should place his trust in the Almighty alone and remember Him in each particular action...for there are many people who trust in the Almighty in general but do not consider Him when it comes to the particular [acts]...And the essence of faith is not to trust in man at all...And there is doubt that one who fears the arm of flesh and blood is low of soul and he who fears man forgets the Almighty." Thus, Rabbeinu Bechaya... And how sublimely true are his words! The fear of man is indeed a stumbling block to the Jew, bringing nearer and guaranteeing his defeat. For the fear of man that causes the Jew to abandon his total trust in the Almighty is a humiliating slap in the divine face. The great Biblical commentator, the Radak, stated it simply: "For it is a mighty rebellion on the part of a servant against his master to hang his hopes on another master" (commentary to Isaiah 30:1) It is the height of rebellion and humiliation and the Almighty will not allow it. He repays the fearful Jew measure for measure. We saw it so clearly in the humiliating Begin collapse before Washington that led him to agree to a cease-fire with the PLO. The PLO- the very ESSENCE OF CHILLUL HASHEM because of its arrogant refusal to recognize the sovereignty of the people of the L-rd over His land- shells and murders Jews. The clear response is to strike and cut their heads off; to enter Lebanon and destroy the PLO root and branch; to declare the land liberated, part of Eretz Yisrael, as shown by the Biblical boundaries. Such an act is Kiddush Hashem; such an act is military logic; such an act saves present and future lives; such an act shows the gentile that this is a people of G-d that trembles before no mortal human. Begin, so blustering and thundering at election rallies, did nothing of the sort. As the loud and angry shouts of the gentile in Washington (abetted by the frightened timidities that pass for Jewish leaders in the United States) reached Jerusalem, the hawk turned into a cooing dove. Not only was the PLO- on the verge of military collapse, according to the Chief of Staff Raful- allowed to survive, but Begin became the first prime minister to make an agreement to which the PLO was a partner. It was precisely the Jewish fear of man that turned the PLO into an international partner for peace in the Mideast (as Secretary of State Haig so blithely said). It was precisely the Jewish terror of the gentile flesh and blood that convinced Reagan that pressure on the Jews does indeed succeed and which invited all the pressure of tomorrow. The collapse of Begin guarantees further collapse. Fear begets fear, retreat guarantees retreat. He who places his trust in man and humiliates his G-d is ensured that his ally will, in the end, destroy him. The Jewish Press, 1981 Shabbat Shalom Barbara and Chaim 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 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 Facebook” Barbara Sandra Ginsberg

THE FINAL REDEMPTION

RABBI MEIR KAHANE – OR HARA’AYON THE JEWISH IDEA Volume 2 THE FINAL REDEMPTION (Excerpts) Do the renaissance of the Jews’ land, its sovereignty, and the ingathering of the exiles not constitute the slightest fulfillment of G-d’s promise: “The L-rd your G-d will then bring back your remnants and have mercy on you. He will once again gather you from among the nations where He scattered you” (Deut. 30:3)? Do enormous, unbelievable miraculous victories which occurred in four days and in six days, in which we walked on the high places of our enemies who are as numerous as the sand by the sea, and who possess mighty weapons, not constitute signs unparalleled in their openness? Do our being raised up from the unparalleled lowliness of the Holocaust, the donning of raiment’s of the national glory, the destruction of the enemy who rose up to annihilate us and the liberation of our holy lands who return we never have dared hope for, have so little significance? All this we saw, open miracles and wonders, and not only did we not recognize the miracles but treated them with scorn. How could we have failed to prostrate ourselves in thanks, in acknowledgement and joy, in recognition and admiration, in praise and glory to our Maker? Could the end of days be any more obvious? We were smitten with blindness and did not absorb what our eyes saw. Our senses were blunted by the exile sickness, which saps the spirit and turns the Jewish People into the one of whom it was said, “You hear but you do not understand. You see, but you do not perceive” (Isaiah 6:9). G-d have mercy! Many fine people ask a question: How can we say that the events that have occurred in our day and the establishment of a Jewish state involve the hand of G-d, when those who established the state are wicked heretics? The answer is that indeed, most of them were wicked, spiteful renegades who banded together against G-d and Torah in an effort to cast off the yoke of Heaven; and they shall forever pay for their malicious sins, especially for murdering the souls of tens of thousands (and more) of innocent Jews who came up to the Land, their Torah with them. These are Jews who won out over the nations in the exile only to be vanquished by wicked Jews, an woe to those advocates of “groundless love” who try to cover up for these evildoers and their deeds. Even so, however, none of this has any connection to the establishment of the state, which is, indeed, the hand of G-d in accordance with all the principles of Kiddush Hashem enumerated previously: that G-d is crowned Supreme King of Kings only in accordance with His might and power appearing in the world; that the nations measure G-d’s power according to the strength or weakness of His people, Israel; and that despite Israel’s not deserving redemption and salvation, G-d still saves them in order to sanctify His name. The Jewish state came into being only to erase the scourge of Chilul Hashem: “When they came unto the nations…they profaned My holy name. Israel’s very presence in the exile, an uprooted minority scattered and homeless among the nations, exposed to the majority’s onslaughts, pursued and humiliated and murdered for being weak and cut off from their land, army and pride – all this is itself a Chilul Hashem. The redemption which began despite our sins in order to sanctify G-d’s name before the nations in might and splendor, has, in the hands of an “ungrateful, unwise nation” (Deut. 32:6), turned into a profanation and a blasphemy carried out precisely by those whom G-d thought to redeem. If the beginning of the redemption and the state served to sanctify G-d’s name, then the only way to move on to “hasty” redemption is to continue reinforcing the Kiddush Hashem through trusting in G-d and liquidating the Chilul Hashem without fear of the non-Jew, without fear of flesh and blood. Every retreat, every submission, every concession to the non-Jew, every hand raised against the Jew, every attack, let alone murder, of a Jew in the Land, every taunt and curse by a non-Jew in the Land, is a Chilul Hashem. If such Chilul Hashem exists, it is many times more severe than any other type, for it occurs within the state which arose exclusively to eradicate Chilul Hashem. Now, instead of continuing to reinforce the Kiddush Hashem process, the Jewish People retreat and profane G-d’s name. Whoever allows the non-Jew in Eretz Yisrael to rise up profanes G-d’s name with terrible contempt. If G-d gave s large portions of Eretz Yisrael as part of the start of redemption, in order to sanctify His name through the most remarkable, might victories, and someone is later ready to concede parts of the Holy Land and hand them over to the nations, he profanes G-d’s name with disgraceful blasphemy. Whoever does not allow Jews to live everywhere in the Land, whoever ties their hands and prevents their taking the revenge of G-d and Israel against the nations who curse and revile G-d and His Messiah, profanes G-d’s name and profanes the great miracle and the powerful dream realized by G-d at the start of the redemption. Whoever sees the rebirth of Eretz Yisrael and a Jewish state and understands that he can easily flee the defilement of the nations and the exile and move to the Holy Land; whoever knows that G-d has opened the last chapter of the existence of the world, which is approaching the end of the sixth thousand, and that G-d is beginning to sanctify His name, profaned among the nations, by returning Israel to their land, thereby preparing to blot out the exile, symbol of Chilul Hashem – whoever knows all this, yet remains among the nations and their defilements, loathing the delightful Land, profanes G-d’s name and His beloved land. And whoever remains there out of fear and dread of the nations, or out of doubts and uncertainties regarding his livelihood or the dangers of the Land, thereby demonstrates total lack of faith in Hashem as the G-d of Israel, Supreme, Omnipotent King of Kings; and there is no Chilul Hashem more degrading, for it borders on atheism. Yet, all attempts to flee the challenge and mission which G-d placed on our necks as a dear and gladdening yoke will be to no avail. The ledger is open, the hand is recording, and the last chapter of the world’s existence is being written. Redemption is drawing near, and the doorposts tremble at the resounding voice asking, “’in haste’ or ‘in its time’?” To receive weekly writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane H”YD write me at: Barbaraandchaim@gmail.com To view previously sent articles written by the Rabbi go to; www.barbaraginsberg-kahane.blogspot.com Facebook: Barbara Sandra Ginsberg

ELUL - 1977

R A B B I M E I R K A H A N E ON JEWS AND JUDAISM 2 Elul 5737 - September 2, 1977 Elul The Jewish calendar is full of notations, red letter days that are meant to be both particular reminders as well as part of a uniform one: time is passing; the sands of life have run out just a bit more; the beard is a little grayer and the limbs just a touch heavier. Time. The Jewish calendar is a watchman of time, ram’s horn that blows not once a year but every time that a new time cycle begins. Every week is marked by a Sabbath that notes not only the end of the week passed but the beginning of a new one. It is both a reminder of seven full days passed out of our life – so soon! – as well as the opportunity to make the next period fuller, more meaningful, a reason for being. Every month is marked by a Rosh Chodesh, the consecration of the new beginning of yet another lunar cycle. The wheel of heaven has revolved yet another thirty days – so soon! – and we are that much older. The L-rd now gives us another month to prove that we are also that much wiser. It is not only another month, it is a new month. Above all, it is called Rosh Chodesh, the “head” of the month. Is there perhaps here a hint to see how much wisdom has filled our heads during the mistakes and sins of the past one…? And every year has its Rosh Hashana, that peculiarly Jewish day in which there are no parties and drinking and abandonment of restraint; in which there is no hilarious laughter and noise that is a frantic and frenetic attempt to convince all (and oneself) that he is happy; there is no frantic clutching at pleasure before it escapes and – worse - before I pass on; too soon, too soon. There is Rosh Hashana, the time past. Another year gone by – already? So soon! – and it is a time to see what the gray hairs and the added wrinkles and the slower reflexes have taught us. Rosh Hashana is one step closer to the gateway out of this world and into the next one. It is a time to rehearse the speech that we will make – all of us – some day, before the Supremes of Courts, as we attempt to explain the meaning of our lives below. Life is too short for fools. It is too long for those who know it was not given for happiness (if that comes, how wonderful, but how often does it appear, only in insignificant measures and at rare times, as drops of rain that fall on a parched desert leaving no impact, changing nothing so that the traveler never knows it fell). Life was given for holiness and sanctity, so that we might rise above ourselves; so that we might consecrate and hallow that animalism within us that threatens at every moment to escape and express itself in selfishness, ego and greed – sins that are themselves only the corridors to the crimes of cruelty and hurting others. Life is not a happy thing – it is a beautiful thing, and when one becomes the artist and artisan of that beauty that is called holiness, when one practices the supreme holiness that comes of loving and giving of oneself. “Ani l’dodi v’dodi li…” “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine…” the words of the greatest of love poems, Song of Songs; great because it is that purest of love, between the Almighty and the House of Israel. Consider them, for do they not contain the essence and the secret of true love? “I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine.” When I am my beloved’s, when I give to her and give of myself and live to do for her and make her happy – then I am guaranteed that she is mine for she will, in turn, be doing the same for me. The lovers who think of giving to each other must receive from each other. This is love, this desire to give, this desire to sacrifice and do for the other. Not for nothing was the Song of Songs called by the incomparable Rabbi Akiva, “the Holy of Holies” of all the books of the Bible. For the kind of love expressed in it IS holiness. Holiness is to escape from the selfishness and greed of the animal; it is to smash the passions and desires of the ego; it is to master the will that makes man seek only his own gratification. And is not love just that, in practice? Is not love exactly that, if it is true love? And not for no reason did the rabbis see in the Hebrew letters of the month of Elul the first letters of “Ani l’dodi v’dodi li – I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine.” Elul is the month of Tshuva, return and introspection. It is the month of scraping away the ego that has settled and crusted on our hearts and souls. If Passover calls for searching out he leaven in the home, Elul decrees removing it – the yeasty and bloated ego – from the soul. It is a time to note the calendar, the graying and aging, and to realize: Not for nonsense was I born and not with nonsense must they bury me. Be good. Love. Love selflessly; cease speaking evil, cease thinking evil; cease searching out evil in your fellow human beings. Cease seeking to grow at the expense of others. For one who climbs on top of the man he has just chopped down is not taller. He is the same dwarf standing on his victim’s height. Be wary lest you hurt the one you love. Think before you act towards the other person. Be good as a person, as an individual, and your part of the world will become holy. Then, if others emulate you, the world will suddenly and automatically turn beautiful and hallowed. It is Elul. Think of your beloved – all the people of the earth – and think of your particular beloved. Give of yourself and you will receive that which no amount of grasping and scheming can ever bring you: self-respect. Love the other and you will learn to like yourself. Be holy, for the One who made you is Holy and for this He placed you on this earth. It is another Elul, yet another one. How many more are left? May Elul bring all health and peace for Israel and Jews everywhere. Shabbat Shalom Barbara Anyone reading this Rabbi Meir Kahane or Rabbi Binyamin Kahane article and is not on my 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 Facebook” Barbara Sandra Ginsberg

Who Needs A Country? 1988

Kahane on the Parsha Rabbi Meir Kahane- Parshat Re'eh WHO NEEDS A COUNTRY? "And you shall drive them out and you shall dwell in their land" (Deuteronomy 12:29). The Rabbis (Sifri, Re'eh 80) say concerning this verse: "The mitzvah of living in Eretz Yisrael is equal to all the commandments of the Torah." Therefore, "A man should dwell in Eretz Yisrael, even in a city that is completely inhabited by gentiles, and not outside the land, though it be in a city that is completely Jewish" (Tosefta, Avoda Zara 5). The Rabbis add: "Whoever lives outside Eretz Yisrael is like one who has no G-d." The halacha is clear that a Jew must live in Eretz Yisrael and woe unto a generation that has lost sight of the clear truth. But dwelling in Eretz Yisrael is not just another halacha. It is an essential, fundamental one. Consider: When the Almighty freed the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, he did not give them a Torah there. He did not command them to keep His laws and live in Egypt or anywhere they wished to. The question is: Why? If the main purpose was to make the Jewish people a holy people, observing the laws of the Torah, why could this obligation not be placed upon the Jews without reference to where they lived? Just as a Catholic was never commanded to live only in Rome but can be a good son or daughter of the Catholic Church in Austria, Australia, or Brooklyn; and just as a good Moslem need not live in Mecca (he need only go there once in his lifetime on a pilgrimage)- why is it that the Almighty insisted that all the Jews leave Egypt and go to Eretz Yisrael rather than allowing them to settle as good and "frum" Jews in Goshen where they could set up their own yeshivas and shtiebels? Secondly, we find an amazing statement by the Rabbis in the Sifri (Ekev 43): "Even though I exile you, continue to be marked with mitzvot [i.e., continue to keep them] so that when you return to Eretz Yisrael they will not be new [i.e., unfamiliar] to you." Astounding! This is the reason for a Jew to put on tefillin and affix a mezuza in the Exile? Merely so that it should not be unfamiliar to him when he returns to Eretz Yisrael?! One would imagine that the reason that a Jew in Brooklyn or Los Angeles or Toronto should put on tefillin is that it is a mitzvah sh'begufo, a mitzvah that is personal to his body wherever he is, his place of residence being irrelevant. But the truth, the fundamental truth, the, alas, bitter truth to too many observant Jews, is that the Almighty wanted the Jews to live in Eretz Yisrael ONLY, and He gave the mitzvot to be PRACTICED ONLY in Eretz Yisrael. Over and over again, we find the Torah making statements like: "Behold, I have taught you decrees and ordinances...that you should do within the land that you go to possess" (Deuteronomy 4:5) The reason is succinctly stated by the Ibn Ezra (Deuteronomy 4:10): "For the L-rd knew that [the Jewish people] could not do His commandments properly as long as they were in the lands that ruled over them." And the Sforno (Deuteronomy 6:21) adds: "And since in our bondage we could not acquire the completeness directed from Him, He did wondrously to take us out and bring us to a land where we could acquire that completeness." There it is! The Almighty insisted and INSISTS that the Jew be removed from all other peoples, isolated ("lo, it is a people that dwells alone"- Numbers 23:9), because He knows the immutable, natural fact that the Jew living as a minority under a majority gentile culture cannot help but be influenced by that culture. Like gamma rays, the non-Jewish culture and ideas and concepts bombard the Jew so that he is subtly and not-so-subtly influenced by his gentilized environment. And, thus, the Torah that he practices is not practiced "properly" (to quote the Ibn Ezra), and is without completeness (to quote the Sforno). It becomes a system of ritual that is bereft of so much of the conceptual content because other concepts, majority concepts, majority non-Jewish concepts, influence us. That is why the Almighty, from the very beginning of Jewish national history in Egypt, demanded that the Jew live only in one country- HIS country- where he could be as isolated as much as humanly possible from conflicting cultures and concepts. That is why He still demands it today. And that is, indeed, the clear message of the Sifri quoted above. The mitzvot were never meant to be practiced outside Eretz Yisrael. They were always meant to be kept ONLY in Eretz Yisrael for the basic reason I have mentioned above. But since the Almighty knew that the Jews would be driven out of their land and live in the exile, He decreed that they should continue to observe mitzvot solely for the reason that they not be forgotten when they, the Jews, returned to Eretz Yisrael, the only place where the mitzvot were designed to be kept. The Jewish Press, 1988 Shabbat Shalom Barbara and Chaim Kahane on the Parsha can be bought at Amazon.com Anyone reading this Rabbi Meir Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rabbi Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at barbaraandchaim@gmail.com To view articles written by Rabbi Meir Kahane and Rabbi Binyamin Kahane go to blog: www.barbaraginsberg-kahane.blogspot.com Facebook: Barbara Sandra Ginsberg