Next Year In Jerusalem - Maybe! Dec.1971

From Barbara Ginsberg’s Desktop

 

MEIR KAHANE

WRITINGS 5732-33   1971 -73

NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM –MAYBE!

 December 24, 1971

The synagogue if filled from end to end.  Every seat is reserved, every inch of space taken up.  The Yom Kippur Neila service is drawing to an end.  A day of repentance, prayer and charity fades to a close.  A congregation, elevated for a day at least, watches as the Shofar is raised and a long clear, vibrant blast fills the hall.  Five hundred voices cry out spontaneously –

L’Shana Ha’Ba’ah B’ Yerushalayim!  “Next year in Jerusalem!”

The crowd files out to begin yet another year of bitter exile amidst television and Miami Beach.

The synagogue is dark and hushed.  A few candles flutter in the corners, their flickering flames lighting the pained and saddened faces of the congregation sitting on low benches waiting for the Tisha B’Av services to begin and the mournful tune of the Eycha – Lamentations – rises softly, punctuated by the sobs of the mourners for Zion.  Every mind is shattered as the picture of the beloved homeland, bereft of its children, comes to mind.  Every pious Jew sitting in the room sighs and dreams of the day - may it soon come - when G-d will allow him to, once again, kiss the soil of the homeland – courtesy of a three-weeks American Jewish Congress guided tour, and then back home again to the painful fleshpots.

The dream of settling in Israel is a basic part of the Jewish faith.  It is an obligation but it is more than that:  “It is a dream.  How many seas would the tears of our ancestors have filled as they wept for the privilege of returning to Zion?  How piercing would have been the totality of their cries as they prayed to the yoke of nations and bring us upright to our land!”

Who can begin to fully quote the letter of the obligatory law to settle in the Land of Israel as expounded by our rabbis and who can adequately describe the acceptance of the spirit of that obligation by our ancestors, the dreamers of Zion?  What would they not have given for the opportunity of returning and walking four cubits on its soil?  How they would have flocked to the airports and harbors as the great vision approached fulfillment!

I write this as a traditional, observant Jew.  For myself I have written and spoken and pleaded a thousand times over to all Jews of America to leave and return to Israel – not for religious reasons – but for the elementary need to save their lives.  I believe in the marrow of my bones that the days of the Jew in the Untied States are numbered and that there is coming a storm of physical brutality that portends a holocaust.  What 48 prophets could not convince Jews to do, says the Talmud, Haman’s ring accomplished.  There is a Haman’s ring in the American Jewish future and for the sake of our children and grandchildren the time to evacuate is now.  I have said this and will continue to say this to all Jews.  But, for the observant ones there is another, an added; perhaps, an even more important reason.

Every traditional Jew must take a long and deep look at himself.  He must ask difficult and painful questions.  How is it possible to honestly pray three times a day to the Almighty to restore us to Zion when that restoration is ours at a cost of a few hundred dollars, courtesy of El Al?  What rationalizations can we invent to answer those who question our lamentations for Zion when the Jewish Agency is prepared to grant long-term loans for housing and transportation for those who wish to settle in Israel?  What can hide our shame as we fervently proclaim “Next Year in the Land of Israel” when next year has already come, when the gates of the Holy Land stand open, when the obligation to return can and demands to be fulfilled?

All this has nothing to do with the particular religious Jew’s attitude toward the government or State of Israel.  We speak here, not of political Zionism, but of the original and permanent obligation to go up and settle the Holy Land – an obligation that is clear and binding upon all - from the Mizrachi through the Agudat Israel to Amram Blau and the Neturei Karta.

What kind of Jews are we who profess a Judaism that builds up a dream in ritual and prayer – until it is at the very center of our aspirations – and then make a mockery of it in practice?  Those who are able to return and do not must cease to weep salted tears and put an end to insincere lamentations.  Let us rather admit that we have eaten too long at the fleshpots of Galut – Exile – and that the bribery of the good life has compromised and blinded us.  When a famous Rosh Yeshiva chided Ben Gurion on the secularism of Israel, the then Prime Minister cunningly replied: “Let the American religious Jews come here and put me out of office.”

He could well afford to be clever for he knew that most would not come.  The Catskills have overshadowed the hills of Jerusalem and the Rockaways conquered the Jordan and the Mediterranean.  Electric appliances have replaced the flame of sacrifice and the television set the Book of Lamentations.  In a sense it is symbolic of a general loss of ability to sacrifice on the part of the American Jew – and the religious one is little different.  It is a sad and dangerous thing.

From the religious point of view there is a double tragedy here.  What power lies in the hands of a dynamic religious immigration!  What a noble impression and Kiddush Hashem – Sanctification of the Name – it would create in the young Israeli mind if religious Jews showed the courage of their convictions!  What a Jewish State could be shaped out of a State of Israel!

Certainly it is difficult; to be sure there would have to be sacrifices in the economic standard of one’s life.  Yes, there is a language barrier and no doubt employment would be a problem for a time and life would not be quite as materially sweet as back home with the good life and the American Nazi Party.  But, since when has a religious Jew assumed that life was made to be sweet and that the Almighty placed him here so as to be comfortable?  Is the excuse of economic difficulty enough to justify, in the religious Jew’s mind, the rationale given him by the non-observant for violating even the rabbinical laws of Sabbath?  Is the Jew who tells us that economic need makes it imperative that his store remain open on the Sabbath since that is by far his busiest day, given dispensation?  Do we calmly accept the decision of people not to send their children to yeshivot because of the economic difficulty involved or do we call upon them to make that sacrifice that is needed for the great commandment of Torah study?

Yet, here, on a question that every authority in the past has conceded is a religious obligation we find the religious Jew ready to join behind the Hadassahs , the ZOA’s and the Bnai Births in their shabby attempts to transform the Galut - the Exile – of America into such tortured sophistry as “chutz l’aretz” (outside the land).  The very one who girds his loins for battle against all who seek to lighten some other halachic burden now suddenly descends into the intricacies of pilpul to explain that in reality Maimonides believes that the settlement of the land is only a rabbinical injunction (thus “merely” putting it on the same level as eating chicken with milk or doing business on the Sabbath); that one is free of the obligation if there is danger; that there are economic difficulties, ad infinitum.

No argument will blot out the shame of our craven surrender to materialism.  The words we mouth in our daily prayers; the slogans we shout at the conclusion of Yom Kippur and at our Passover Seder all become empty and meaningless words when we have no intention of following them.  It is up to the yeshivot to teach and to emphasize the religious obligation of a Jew to live in the Land of Israel.  It is up to the traditional congregation to take steps to implement it.  Mitzvat Yishuv Eretz Yisroel (the commandment to settle the Land of Israel) becomes more than merely another of the laws.  It becomes a mirror reflecting our weakness and hypocrisies.  Next Tisha B’Av it would do well for us to weep – not for the land but for ourselves.

Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:

BarbaraAndChaim@gmail.com

To view previously posted Rabbi Meir Kahane articles go to:

www.barbaraginsberg-barbara.blogspot.com

Facebook:

Barbara Ginsberg

Michael ben-Ari Activities

The Days if Awe - Tshuva 1976

DAYS OF AWE

By Rabbi Meir Kahane Z’TL

“KAHANE” MAGAZINE  September 1976 – Elul 5736

The high holy days, the days of awe, approach.  The key word, the one that will be bandied about is tshuva, repentance and return.  Lest the word continue to lose its meaning and reality, let us remember the key to that return –faith.  Faith and belief, real and deep, faith that proves itself by self-sacrifice and by giving of oneself.  That faith is manifested in a number of basic ways that go beyond the obvious mitzvoth-Shabbat, kashrut, learning family purity, etc.     

Those basic ways are yardsticks by which one measures his commitment to faith.  Those yardsticks are

1)      Ahavat Yisrael-love of Jews and the readiness to feel their pain, to rush to their aid by giving of time, money and body.  Tzedaka to the poor, sacrifice for the oppressed in the Soviet Union and Arab lands, not caring what the gentile says and acting on behalf of a Jew even if it means jeopardizing persona interests.  Faith that if one obeys the commandment not to stand by his neighbor’s blood, G-d will help and protect.

2)      Aliyah-to cleave unto the commandment of a returning and living in the Land of Israel and thus eliminating the Hillul Hashem-desecration of the L-rd-that is the essence of the exile.  To manifest Jewish faith by knowing that to fulfill the commandment of living in the Land will find G-d standing by our side so that we overcome all the difficulties and dangers that appear to be so overwhelming. 

3)      Cleaving unto the land knowing that it is forbidden to give up Jewish land to gentiles and that every retreat from the land because of fear of the world is a retreat from the great miracle and Kiddush Hashem of 1967.  Faith in the L-rd rather than in Washington.

These are the Pillars of Tshuva.  May we have a year of return and Redemption.

Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:

barbaraAndchaim@gmail.com

To view previously e-mailed Rabbi Kahane articles go to my blog:

www.barbaraginsberg-barbara.blogspot.com

Facebook:

Barbara Ginsberg

Michael Ben-Ari Activities

The Book Is Open, The Hand Writes 1984

Fom Barbara Ginsberg's Desktop

K A H A N E

The Magazine of the Authentic Jewish Idea

Spring 5744 – 1984

THE BOOK IS OPEN, THE HAND WRITES

For the Jews of true belief there is no more fundamental axiom than that of a world of hashgacha, ordained, directed, immutable history.  For the Jew of real faith and religion, there is a G-d who created all, who decreed that which was, who commands all that is, who proclaims all that will be.  A world that is ordered rather than one of anarchy, a world that is not free to spin on its own chosen axis but which is bound by the natural laws and decrees of the creator.  And a world whose inhabitant are as clay in the hands of the great Potter, whose lives are subject to His will and for whom directed reward and punishment are assured for their actions and deeds.  A human does not injure his finger without being so decreed from Heaven and this we solemnly accept.  How much more so does the humiliating American retreat from Lebanon and the previous shattering explosion in Beirut cry out for recognition as Divine decree – but that is a thing that is too difficult for us to proclaim.

           

But it is true and there is a book that is open in which all of man’s deeds are recorded and the Hand writes and records and retribution is stored away for its proper moment. 

           

The terrible tragedy of American humiliation that was preceded by the bombing and slaughtering of the United States forces in Lebanon is a shock and sadness for the lives lost.  But there is nothing in this world that occurs without reason and only those who seek to throw off the yoke of heaven from about their personal necks demand belief in a world that itself is free from ordained direction.  The one who seeks freedom from discipline and restraint insists upon creating a world that is similarly anarchical, unbound, undirected, unfettered by punishment for our deeds.  The one who seeks to be free to do all that pleases him, creates a G-d who has a place in this world that he – Man – decides for Him, a Deity akin to a smiling Santa Claus always bearing gifts and never bestowing retribution.  But, that is not the world of the Jew, that is not the reality, and those who insist upon sin will receive retribution and those who persist in license will learn that there is a G-d and a book and a hand that writes and there is reward and punishment.  And that, as sad as it my seem and as shocking as it may appear to the fearful and the unwilling, is the reality of the terrible event in Beirut.

           

There is a G-d in the world and He is the L-rd, G-d of Israel.  And those nations that go against His people will, at some point, feel the punishment implicit in a world of His hashgacha, ordained direction.

           

How did the marines get to Lebanon in the first place?  What brought them to the country, which was to take the lives of so many of them?  Why surely the fact that the President who still sees nothing and still understands the same, rose up in front of Israel and ordered it to stop its march to destroy its enemies.  When the Jewish forces of vengeance stood poised in Beirut to physically destroy the Arab desecrators of G-d and His people, the murderers and defilers of the Name, it was the President of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief of those marines and sailors who died last year, who raised his hand and demanded that the Jews halt; that compelled her to allow the PLO roaches to save their lives and leave their graveyard.  Let the truth be engraven on our hearts so that we may understand the explosion in Beirut:  The United States forces who died in Beirut we sent there in the first place, not to keep “peace”, but to prevent Israel from destroying the PLO, the enemies of the G-d of Israel. 

           

The marines were sent to Lebanon to insure that the Israelis would not be allowed to do that which they should have done.  The open hostility and contempt for the Israelis was permanently engraved on the world by the marines who, time after time, harassed the Israelis and confronted them in a manner they never managed in the case of the Arabs.  The original purpose of the United States troops was not to keep the “peace” but to keep the Israelis from destroying the Palestinians.  And for that the book was open and the hand wrote and retribution was decreed by a G-d who told His chosen Abraham: “Those who bless you shall be blessed and those who curse you shall be cursed.”  And let not the gentile who defiled the G-d of Israel now weep for the consequences of his own actions – the defiance of the G-d of history.  What was sown has been reaped, and the tragedy is not an unguided thing.

           

The gentile who furiously condemned Israel for the massacres in Beirut and who rushed in troops to save the remaining Arabs even while driving the Israelis out has been repayed by those whom he saved.  That is the lesson of the tragedy in Beirut and if the gentile has not learned it, at least let the Jew.  So that he, the Jew, will always remember the book that is open and the hand that writes and all his deeds are recorded.  And retribution is set-aside for the day of payment.

Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:

BarbaraAndChaim@gmail.com      

To view previously e-mailed Rav Kahane articles go to:

www.barbaraginsberg-barbara.blogspot.com

Facebook:

Barbara Ginsberg

Michael Ben-Ari activities

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?

If you did not receive this e-mail personally and want to receive your weekly Rabbi Meir Kahane article please contact me at: BarbaraAndChaim@gmail.com

To view previously posted Rabbi Kahane articles go to:

www.barbaraginsberg-barbara.blogspot.com

Facebook:

Barbara Ginsberg

Michael Ben-Ari activities