STOP BEING DEFENSIVE!!!! 1979

 

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Kahane on the Parsha 
Rabbi Meir Kahane- Parshat Bereishit
STOP BEING DEFENSIVE!!!

The most famous of all the commentaries of the great Rashi is, undoubtedly, the very first one. Concerning the verse, "In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth..." (Genesis 1:1), Rashi quotes the Midrash that asks: Why did the Almighty begin the Torah with the story of creation? After all, the Torah is essentially a book of laws and statutes. Surely, it should have begun with the first mitzvah the Jews were commanded to keep.
The well-known answer is, of course, that the Almighty wished to underline the fact that "He told His people the strength of His deeds in order to give them the inheritance of the nations" (Psalms 111:6). Meaning: Should the nations come to the people of Israel and complain, "You are THIEVES! You have STOLEN the land of the seven Canaanite nations!" the Jews can reply, "The land belongs to the Almighty who created it. By His will He originally gave it to the Canaanites, and by His will He took it from them and gave it to us."

Thus the words of Rashi. Nevertheless, a look at the verse from Psalms that is cited gives rise to a question. If the verse is to be an answer to the nations, it should have read, "He told the nations the strength of His deeds," not "He told HIS PEOPLE the strength of His deeds."
The answer is, however, that the most serious problem when it comes to the Jewish claim to Eretz Yisrael is not the fact that the nations do not recognize it. The nations are no problem for a Jewish people with faith in G-d. The real tragedy is the fact that so many of the Jewish people THEMSELVES do not believe or have grave doubts about the legitimacy of the Jewish claim to the land. In order to make the nations believe, it is the Jews themselves who must first be convince! And that is why the verse emphasizes, "He told His people the strength of His deeds." If the Jews believe it, they will have the strength and self-confidence to tell the nations.

Yet another question is raised by the Siftei Chachamim. In Parshat Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:6), Rashi writes, "[The Canaanites] were capturing the land from the descendants of Shem since Noah had given it to Shem when he divided the land." If that is true, what claim do the nations have on Eretz Yisrael? How can they accuse the Jews of stealing the land? After all, if Noah originally gave the land to Shem and the Jews are his descendants, it is only right for them to retake the land from the Canaanites who stole it in the first place.

It appears to me that the answer to this question contains an important lesson for today. Yes, the Jew ONCE lived in Eretz Yisrael and the land ONCE, originally, belonged to Shem, but the nations of the world can always say, "What does it matter what happened centuries ago? People come and people go. What matters is that now, TODAY, the Canaanites live here, and you cannot come after so many years claiming it's yours." Indeed, this is exactly what the Arabs say to the Jewish people today!

How do we reply to this claim? The lesson of the first Rashi in the Torah is that, in the end, there are no "logical" or "political" answers to the world. The ultimate answer is only the one: The Almighty created the land. He is the owners and in Him vests all title. He decreed the Jewish people to be His inheritance, and the land to be theirs. Let us believe it and shout it forth joyously.
The Jewish Press, 1979

Shabbat Shalom!

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WANT PEACE? EXPEL THE ENEMY!!!!!

 

The Jewish Idea

Parshat V'zot HaBracha

 

WANT PEACE? EXPEL THE ENEMY!!!

 

"He will drive the enemy before you and He will proclaim, 'Destroy!' Israel will then dwell securely alone" (Deuteronomy 33: 27-28).

On these verses, the Ohr HaChaim comments: " 'Israel will then dwell securely': When? When they are alone. The words 'Israel will then dwell' are a continuation of what precedes them, 'He will proclaim, "Destroy!" ' for G-d commanded Israel to annihilate every single one of the inhabitants in the Land of Canaan. By doing so 'Israel will then dwell securely alone.'"

The plain truth lies here before us. The Torah commands us not to hesitate about annihilating the nations in the land lest they hate and seek revenge against us for taking land they view as their own.

Not in vain are the words yerushah (inheritance) and horashah (driving out) so similar in Hebrew. G-d is telling us that unless we drive out the nations of the land, we will not inherit it. As the Sforno writes, "When you shall eliminate the inhabitants of the land, then you shall be privileged to inherit the land and pass it down to your children. But if you do not eliminate them, even though you will conquer the land, you will not be privileged to hand it down to you children."

Shabbat Shalom

Chag Sameach

 

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Anglos for Otzma Yehudit – Jewish Strength

 

 

A SPECIAL DESTINY CALLS

 

Peirush HaMaccabee

Parshat V'zot HaBracha

A SPECIAL DESTINY CALLS

Moses begins his last speech- delivered right before his death- with comments meant for the entire Jewish people. As the Ibn Ezra writes, "This parsha begins with a general blessing for all of Israel, followed by specific comments addressed to each tribe, followed by general comments once more."

Essentially, Moses tells them: Israel, remember who you are! Remember how you became a nation. Remember your purpose, your task as G-d's chosen people. He reminds them of Mt. Sinai and the "fiery law" they received there, "an inheritance for the congregation of Jacob" (Deuteronomy 33:2-5).

All this recalls Exodus 19:6 and the strange comment of Rashi on that verse. The verse reads: "You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation; these are the words that you should speak to the Children of Israel." Rashi writes: "No more and no less." An enigmatic statement, indeed.

A thought by Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook, however, makes the matter clear. The Rabbis inform us that the Second Temple was destroyed because the Jews "neglected to say the proper blessing before studying Torah" (Bava Metzia 85b). Rav Kook explains that they forgot the blessing's core- the words "who chose us from among the nations." They forgot that the Jewish people's raison d'etre is to serve as a holy nation, a beacon of truth for the rest of humanity. They forgot that there is no point in their existence- and certainly no point in their having a state and a Temple- if they ignore their G-d given task.

Before giving the Jews the Torah, G-d wished to make this principle crystal clear. He wished them to understand a single point- their mission as a holy people and a kingdom of priests. "No more and no less." Only after Moses underscored this foundation to them and attained their consent did G-d give them the Torah.

This is the essence of Judaism- holiness, chosenness, life as a nation with a unique destiny defined by G-d. It is with this essential idea that Moses begins his very last speech to the Jewish people in Parshat Zot HaBracha.

Shabbat Shalom

Chag Sameach

 

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NOT EVERYONE IS INCLUDED IN THE FOUR SPECIES RAV BINYAMIN ZE'EV KAHANE

 

The Writings of Rav Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane HY"D- Dvar Torah in honor of Sukkot דבר תורה לכבוד חג הסוכות

NOT EVERYONE IS INCLUDED IN THE FOUR SPECIES

 

Organs of power at home joining the side of our enemy requires us to take another look at the known midrash about how the "four species" symbolize different levels in Am Yisrael.

It is impossible to ignore the growing and obscene phenomenon, where Jews in the upper echelons of Israeli society mobilize time and time again to further the cause of our bitter enemies. Whenever possible, they rise from within us, under the orchestration of the media, to demoralize the nation during its fight for existence, while furthering the interests of the enemy. The question is: How should we relate to these people? Are they one of us, or are they "beyond the pale"?

THE FOUR SPECIES: A PARABLE FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE

One of the famous midrashim in connection to Sukkot, compares the four species to the unity of Israel:
Just as the Etrog has both taste and smell, so too do the Jewish People have within it people who have Torah and good deeds:

Lulav...has taste and no smell, and so too there are those who have Torah and no good deeds...

Just as the Hadas has smell and no taste...(there are those) with good deeds and no Torah...

Just as the "Arava" has no smell and no taste, so (there are those) who have no Torah and no good deeds.

And what does the Almighty do to them? To destroy them would be impossible! But rather the Almighty said that he will tie them all up in one unit and they will atone for one another". (Vayikra Raba, 30:12)

In view of how we opened this article, this amazing midrash mentioning how the Aravot are held tightly together with the rest of Am Yisrael, seems to shed light on the subject, and must be further analyzed.

WICKED, BUT WANT CONNECTION

The worst kind of Jew spoken of here is the Arav, who is not destroyed, because the righteous atone for him. They are Jews "who have no Torah and no good deeds." True, we are not talking about the cream of the crop - but we are talking about Jews who are ready to be part of the union of Am Yisrael, connected to them so that the righteous can atone for them. We are not talking about Jews, who G-d forbid, sever themselves from the collective and detest their own Jewishness. We are not discussing Jews who the sages spoke of when they said that in the days of the Messiah, there will be Jews who will identify with and join forces with the enemy. About such Jews, the above midrash does not speak. On the contrary. The idea of the midrash is two-fold. On the one hand, G-d does not desire to see the wicked of Israel destroyed. One the other hand, the wicked mentioned here are those willing to join and be a part of Klal Yisrael. Only they merit this special atonement. It is an atonement reserved for one who feels belonging to the collective of the Jewish Nation.

It must be known: Relatively speaking, there really are only a few Jews who seek to cut themselves off from Am Yisrael. In Israel today, this miniscule band of haters, though they wield tremendous control, are a tiny minority. Through all the generations, and especially in this final era before the complete redemption, there were always Jews who took themselves out of the collective, and deep inside of them, identify more with the goyim than with the Jews.

SOME JEWS ARE BARRED

And so, it is a great mistake to identify such people as the "Arava" described in the midrash. for while the Arava is still only an Arava, it still has a belonging to the Jewish collective. While it has no taste or smell, at least it does not give off a putrid or damaging smell. The Arava sees himself as part of the four species and does not nullify his Jewishness, nor does he want to be like a gentile. By this very fact, he is able to absorb within him the smell and taste of the others. We must also remember that there are certain things that disqualify the four species from being Kosher. And so, though we are never happy about disqualifying a Jew, there are those who are rejected, and not tied together with the rest of the four species.

The nation is willing to absorb the individual sinners, and to cover and atone for them so that they will not perish with their sins. (Even though this causes us great suffering as a people). It is ready to hold on tightly to them with all its might in order to unite them, for we Jews are all guarantors for one another. But the nation is not ready to carry under its wing he who in his very essence is an aberrant traitor. Such people remove themselves from the Sukkah of Israel, and as much as it hurts to say, they are beyond the pale for us.

Chag Sameach!

 

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