Down With Chanukah 1972

DOWN WITH CHANUKAH – December 15, 1972 Rabbi Meir Kahane Writings (5732-33) (1971-73) If I were a Reform rabbi; if I were a leader of the Establishment whose money and prestige have succeeded in capturing for him the leadership and voice of American Jewry; if I were one of the members of the Israeli Government’s ruling group; if I were an enlightened sophisticated, modern Jewish intellectual, I would climb the barricades and join in battle against the most dangerous of all Jewish holidays – Chanukah. It is a measure of the total ignorance of the world Jewish community that there is no holiday that is more universally celebrated than the “Feast of Lights”, and it is an equal measure of the intellectual dishonesty and of Jewish leadership that it plays along with the lie. For if ever there was a holiday that stands for everything that the mass of world Jewry and their leadership has rejected – it is this one. If one would find an event that is truly rooted in everything that Jews of our times and their leaders have rejected and, indeed, attacked – it is this one. If there is any holiday that is more “unJewish” in the sense of our modern beliefs and practices – I do not know of it. The Chanukah that has erupted unto the world Jewish scene in all its childishness, asininity, shallowness, ignorance and fraud – is not the Chanukah of reality. The Chanukah that came into vogue because of Jewish parents – in their vapidness – needed something to counteract Christmas; that exploded in a show of “we-can-have-lights-just-as-our-goyish-neighbors” and in an effort to reward our spoiled children with eight gifts instead of the poor Christian one; the Chanukah that the Temple, under its captive rabbi, turned into a school pageant so that the beaming parents might think that the Religious School is really successful instead of the tragic joke and waste that it really is; the Chanukah that speaks of Jewish Patrick Henrys giving-me-liberty-or death and the pictures of Maccabees as great liberal saviors who fought so that the kibbutzim might continue to be free to preach their Marx and eat their ham, that the split-level dwellers of suburbia might be allowed to violate their Sabbath in perfect freedom and the Reform and Conservative Temples continue the fight for civil rights for Blacks, Puerto Ricans and Jane Fonda, is not remotely connected with reality. This is NOT the Chanukah of our ancestors, of the generations of Jews of Eastern Europe and Yemen and Morocco and the crusades and Spain and Babylon. It is surely not the Chanukah for which the Maccabees themselves died. Truly, could those whom we honor so munificently, return and see what Chanukah has become, they might very well begin a second Maccabean revolt. For the life that we Jews lead today was the very cause, the REAL reason for the revolt of the Jews “in those days in our times.” What happened in that era more than 2000 years ago? What led a handful of Jews to rise up in violence against the enemy? And precisely who WAS the enemy? What were they fighting FOR and who were they fighting AGAINST? For years, the people of Judea had been the vassals of Greece. True independence as a state had been unknown for all those decades and, yet, the Jews did not rise up in revolt. It was only when the Greek policy shifted from mere political control to one that attempted to suppress the Jewish religion that the revolt erupted in all its bloodiness. It was not mere liberty that led to the Maccabean uprising that we so passionately applaud. What we are really cheering is a brave group of Jews who fought and plunged Judea into a bloodbath for the right to observe the Sabbath, to follow the laws of kashruth, to obey the laws of the Torah. IN A WORD EVERYTHING ABOUT CHANUKAH THAT WE COMMEMORATE AND TEACH OUR CHILDREN TO COMMEMORATE ARE THINGS WE CONSIDER TO BE OUTMODED, MEDIEVAL AND CHILDISH! At best, then, those who fought and died for Chanukah were naïve and obscurantist. Had we lived in those days we would certainly not have done what they did for everyone knows that the laws of the Torah are not really Divine but only the products of evolution and men (do not the Reform, Reconstructionist and large parts of the Conservative movements write this daily?) Surely we would not have fought for that which we violate every day of our lives! No, at best Chanukah emerges as a needless holiday if not a foolish one. Poor Hannah and her seven children; poor Mattathias and Judah; poor well meaning chaps all but hopelessly backward and utterly unnecessary sacrifices. But there is more. Not only is Chanukah really a foolish and unnecessary holiday, it is also one that is dangerously fanatical and illiberal. The first act of rebellion, the first enemy who fell at the hands of the brave Jewish heroes whom our delightful children portray so cleverly in their Sunday and religious school pageants, was NOT a Greek. He was a Jew. When the enemy sent its troops into the town of Modin to set up an idol and demand its worship, it was a Jew who decided to exercise his freedom of pagan worship and who approached the altar to worship Zeus (after all, what business was it of anyone what this fellow worshipped?) And it was this Jew, this apostate, this religious traitor who was struck down by the brave, glorious, courageous (are these not the words all our Sunday schools use to describe him?) Mattathias, as he shouted: “Whoever is for G-d, follow me!” What have we here? What kind of religious intolerance and bigotry? What kind of a man is this for the anti-religious of Hashomer Hatzair, the graceful temples of suburbia, the sophisticated intellectuals, the liberal open-minded Jews and all the drones who have wearied us unto death with the concept of Judaism as a humanistic, open-minded, undogmatic, liberal, universalistic (if not Marxist) religion, to honor? What kind of nationalism is this for David-Ben-Gurion (he who rejects the Galut and speaks of the proud, free Jew of ancient Judea and Israel)? And to crush us even more (we who know that Judaism is a faith of peace which deplores violence), what kind of Jews were these who reacted to oppression with FORCE? Surely we who so properly have deplored Jewish violence as fascistic, immoral and (above all!) UN-JEWISH, stand in horror as we contemplate Jews who declined to picket the Syrian Greeks to death and who rejected quiet diplomacy for the sword, spear and arrow (had there been bombs in those days, who can tell what they might have done?) and “descended to the level of evil,” thus rejecting the ethical and moral concepts of Judaism. Is this the kind of a holiday we wish to propagate? Are these the kinds of men we want our moral and humanistic children to honor? Is this the kind of Judaism that we wish to observe and pass on to our children? Where shall we find the man of courage the one voice, in the wilderness to cry out against Chanukah and the Judaism that it represents-the Judaism of our grandparents and ancestors? Where shall we find the man of honesty and integrity to attack the Judaism of Medievalism and outdated foolishness; the Judaism of bigotry that strikes down Jews who refuse to observe the law; the Judaism of violence that calls for Jewish force and might against the enemy? When shall we find the courage to proudly eat our Chinese food and violate our Sabbaths and reject all the separateness, nationalism and religious maximalism that Chanukah so ignobly represents? …Down with Chanukah! It is a regressive holiday that merely symbolizes the Judaism that always was; the Judaism that was handed down to us from Sinai; the Judaism that made our ancestors ready to give their lives for the L-rd; the Judaism that young people instinctively know is true and great and real. Such Judaism is dangerous for us and our leaders. We must do all in our power to bury it. Shabbat Shalom Chanukah Sameach Barbara 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: www.barbaraginsberg-kahane.blogspot.com Facebook: Barbara Sandra Ginsberg

WHERE IS SHIMON? WHERE IS LEVI? PARSHAT VASHALACH

“Beyond Words” is a published 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” also includes a number of extra features: Chronology of Rabbi Kahane's life. “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 6 Shchem – Where Is Shimon? Where Is Levi? “Shall he make of our sister a harlot?” (Genesis 34: 31) Some 3,500 years ago, an abomination was done to a Jew in Shchem. Dinah, daughter of Jacob, was raped by Shchem, the son of Chamor. Upon hearing of the obscenity, Dinah’s brothers – Shimon and Levi – went into the town and slew every male. Last month, an abomination was done to a Jew in Shchem. A Jewish soldier was murdered when an Arab dropped a huge rock on his head from a rooftop. Upon hearing of the obscenity, Dinah’s brothers – Chief of Staff Dan Shomron and the general in charge of the Central command, Amram Mitzna – toured the scene of the murder, swore that the Arabs would pay “a high price” ( the exact words of Shomron were: “There is no doubt that we will react in this area in a way that will make it not worthwhile for local people to throw stones and the price will be heavy. Every reaction is possible. You will see this in the days to come”) – and then proceeded to blow up the upper roof of the building from which the rock was dropped and brick up windows overlooking the alley. As they did so, Arabs in adjacent buildings whistled and shouted, “Allahu Akhbar, Allah is great,” and former Mayor Hafez Touquan said: “This has no deterrent effect whatsoever.” The shame of Israel, the Hillul Hashem – desecration of the Name – lies in the fact that today there is no Shimon, there is no Levi. There is only Dan Shomron who – as Chief of Staff, to our dishonor, and thus committed to crushing the intifada whose aim is to wipe out Israel – instead tells the news media that “the intifada cannot be defeated since it comes from nationalist roots.” There is only Amram Mitzna, the disgrace of a soldier who, in the middle of the Lebanese war and following the Sabra and Satilla massacres of Arabs by Arabs, condemned the Israeli Defense Minister before a press conference in Beirut and then left his post and went home to his kibbutz, Ein Gav. What a “high price” the Arabs of Shchem have paid. A roof, two houses blown up and windows bricked up and an area sealed – and the Arabs laughing and happily shouting Allah is great! “High price.” What a fraud, what a lie. And how it typifies the entire government of deceit. They have no policy, they have no answers. Where is Shimon? Where is Levi? Where is the Jewish knowledge that an abomination against a Jew has been done here and it must be dealt with in the only way that the Jew-haters understand? When Jacob heard of the act of Shimon and Levi he protested – not because it was immoral, as so many foolish Jews say, but – for practical reasons: He feared the retribution of the people of the land, saying, “You have brought trouble on me to make me odious among the inhabitants of the land … and I being few in number, they will gather themselves together against me, and slay me” (Genesis 34:30). No, not a moral argument, for there was nothing immoral about the act of Shimon and Levi. Jacob was simply afraid of the reaction of the gentiles around him. And the reply of Shimon and Levi resounds throughout the ages: “Shall he make of our sister a harlot?” And Jacob is silent. There is no answer. For his sons are right . . . Hillul Hashem! To defile a Jewess and treat her as a whore! Such a thing cannot be even if there is danger, because in the case of national Hillul Hashem, danger is set aside. And this was even when the Jews were a small minority in the midst of many gentiles. Even then, the demand to wipe out Hillul Hashem transcended danger. How much more so, when there is a State of Israel and an army that controls the city of Shchem! And how much greater is the Hillul Hashem that we bring on ourselves by our humiliating refusal to do that which we should – wipe out the terror by killing the murderers and driving out all the rest. And the Or HaChaim in his commentary goes further: “To the contrary, there will be danger for them among the nations; when the latter will see that one low person ruled over Jacob and did as his pleasure, then the Jews would not be able to survive among the nations. And it is through this [the killing of the people of Shchem] that fear of the Jews will be on the nations and they will tremble before them.” Of course. It is only true punishment and a heavy hand of Jewish terror that is the way to terrify the nations who would otherwise wipe out Israel. It is the way of Shimon and Levi that not only leads to the natural terror of the gentile but also to G-d’s approval: “And the terror of G-d was on the cities that were round about them and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob” (Genesis 35:5). What the pathetic and humiliating policy of Shomron and Mitzna and their employers – Rabin and Shamir and Arens – has done has been to lift terror from the Arabs and give them confidence and contempt for the Jews. By this deadly and terrible policy, so couched in gentilized and Hellenized concepts of “morality” that is, in fact, repulsive murder, we guarantee the future blood of Jews. Because there is no Shimon and Levi, the Arab is unafraid and he thus will murder more Jews tomorrow, secure in the knowledge that the pathetic kibbutznikim of the army and the Hellenized political leaders of Likud and Labor will speak loudly and then do nothing to crush the Arab. It is the Arab who threw the rock that murdered the soldier but it is Shamir and Arens and Rabin and Shomron and Mitzna who are the accomplices. Their Jewish hands are red and filthy with Jewish blood. And finally, a comprehensive understanding of Shimon and Levi for those who claim that they sinned when they killed the people of Shchem and were therefore cursed by their father. The fact is that their father (as mentioned above) never castigated them on moral grounds but only out of practical fear of the nations. The fact is that they replied to him and he was silent, accepting their cry that no gentile could make of their sister a harlot. The fact is that G-d did not punish them but, to the contrary brought terror on the gentiles around them. And the fact is that when G-d commanded the tribes to choose special and distinctive flags that they would fly proudly as they camped and traveled in the desert, the Rabbis tell us (Bamidbar Rabbah 2): “Shimon [the tribe of Shimon] had a flag whose color was green and had drawn on it the city of Shchem.” The city of Shchem? This was the flag of Shimon as commanded by G-d? This was what the ALL Mighty wished Shimon to wave on high for all to see? No, hardly a sin, but rather, as in the commentary of the Maharzu: “Because of their bravery and self-sacrifice in Shchem. And even though Levi was with him Shimon was the older and the main one. And this [flag] is his praise for his zealousness against the abomination of immorality.” And Maimonides explains the actions of Shimon and Levi (Hilchot Mlachim 9:14), and his words are brought down in the Ramban (Breishit 34:13): “The sons of Noah are commanded to uphold laws . . . and because of this all the people of Shchem were worthy of death since Shchem stole [Dinah] and they saw it and knew of it and did not try him.” And the Ramban gives his own reason as follows: For the sons of Jacob, since the people of Shchem were wicked people and blood for them was as water, wished to avenge themselves on them with an avenging sword. And they killed the king and all his servants who were obedient to him.” In any event, since it is clear that Shimon and Levi not only did not sin but, indeed, followed G-d’s law, why then did Jacob apparently, curse them when he said: “Instruments of violence are their swords. Let my soul not come into their council . . . for in their anger they slew men, and in their self-will they uprooted an ox” (Genesis 49:6) The answer is that, again, their actions against the people of Shchem, who had acquiesced in the abomination against Dinah, were totally justified. And that is why Jacob, after first protesting and then hearing their reply, was silent and agreed. But later, after learning that the same two sons had also intended to kill Joseph, and Shimon threw him into a pit that was teeming with snakes and scorpions (see Breishit Rabbah 84, and Rashi on Genesis 49:6. Who explains the words “And in their self-will they uprooted an ox.” As referring to Joseph who was symbolized as an ox in Deuteronomy 33:17. “The firstling of his herd grandeur is his, and his horns are like the horns of a wild ox”), he then realized that their motivation in all that they did was violence and anger for its own sake. That is why they sinned – not because of the act itself but because their motivation was violent anger and this was manifested even against their own brother. And so he cursed, not them but their anger and their self-will. No, those who dare raise their hand in abomination against Israel, whether through rape of Dinah or murder of a soldier, have raised their hands against the people of G-d. Hence against the ALL Mighty Himself. It is a Hillul Hashem that demands vengeance and punishment. Shimon and Levi destroyed the desecrators, and forever did the flag of Shimon eternalize the act. But there is no Shimon and Levi today. There is only Shomron and Mitzna and Shamir and Arens – small people, unworthy to carry the flag of Sanctification. Their pitiful reaction is worse than nothing. It adds to the humiliation, to the Hillul Hashem. It spits in the grave of the murdered soldier and guarantees that others will follow him The casbah where the soldier was murdered should have been razed to the ground and all the inhabitants of the city told that blood is on their heads and to flee before the sword of Shimon and Levi returns. Out! Out of the land! Shall our sister be as a harlot? Shall our brother the soldier be as one whose blood is cheap? We need a Shimon and Levi today. We need a government in Israel that understands that this is precisely its role Written 1989 Anyone reading this Rabbi Meir Kahane or Rabbi Binyamin Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles and would like to be, please contact me at: barbaraandchaim@gmail.com To view articles written by Rabbi Meir Kahane and Rabbi Binyamin Kahane go to blog: www.barbaraginsberg-kahane.blogspot.com Facebook: Barbara Sandra Ginsberg

Destructive Jewish Guilt 1988

DESTRUCTIVE JEWISH GUILT By Rabbi Meir Kahane (January, 1988) [ He knew the truth, wrote the truth, spoke the truth and was hated for the truth. But loved by so many for the truth. As we see today, he was “always right!!!!! “] There is a specter haunting Israel and its American Jewish supporters. It is called guilt. Guilt over the "repression of Palestinian human rights". Guilt over the refusal to remove "the main obstacle to peace in the Middle East - the occupation of the Arab land seized in 1967". Guilt over the unwillingness to give the "Palestinians" their own state in the "occupied lands". And now, guilt over the killing of "Palestinians" and innocent civilians in the "Occupied territories". It is a powerful weapon, this guilt; Jews have a difficult time coping with it. A people that has been the most debased of losers for 2,000 years finds it difficult to cope with victory. It finds it extraordinary difficult to remain normal. It inherits insecurities, complexes, guilt. It begins to believe its enemies' slanders. It loses its self-respect and longs for the love of a hating world. That is especially true for the Jewish liberal! It is important that those who have retained their self-esteem and sense of Jewish survival speak out against the disease of guilt and moral insecurity. No guilt. Are the lands of 1967, "occupied" by the Jews, the main obstacle to peace? Is the year 1967 the origin of the conflict? How peaceful it must have been in 1966 when Sinai and Gaza were in Egyptian hands and the Golan was possessed by the Syrians to shell, for 19 years, the Jewish settlements below, and when Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem were in the hands of the "moderate" King Hussein. Why did they go to war? What did they want then? When they had all the "occupied lands" before they were "occupied"? When one has East Jerusalem and attacks Israel, can it be that he desires West Jerusalem? And Tel Aviv? And can it be that that is what they really want again? Now? And why did the "innocent Palestinian women and children" take to the streets then, in 1967, when Jordan and Egypt ruled them to call for "Israel in the sea"? What "occupied lands" did they want back then? And could it be that that is what they want now? And what did they wish in 1947 when they rejected the "Palestine" state offered them by the United Nations and went to war, killing fully 1 % of the Jewish population? And what did they wish in the riots of 1936-38 when there was no country called Israel and they murdered more than 500 Jews? And in 1929 when no "Zionist occupation troops" were in Hebron, why did the "Palestinians" rise up to murder 67 Jews in one day? And why the pogroms in Jerusalem and Jaffa in 1920 and 1921? What troubles the Arabs is the very presence of large numbers of Jews in the land, and Israel of any size. Zionism. That is what troubles the Arabs. That is the obstacle to peace. Let us inscribe that on our hearts lest we open the doors to a repetition-on a grand scale-of that which the Arabs have done to Jews since 1920. A horror of slaughter by knives and axes. And the bearers of guilt would do just that. No guilt. There is one sublime reason why we should not give up a centimeter of land...it belongs to us. If we have no right to Judea and Samaria and Gaza, then we indeed have no right to Tel Aviv. Abraham did not walk on Dizengoff Street nor did our ancestors live in Israeli cities that were built in the 20th century. But Abraham, who lived in Hebron, and Jacob who lived in Shechem, now Nablus, and David in Bethlehem are the sole legitimate reasons that Jews can lay claim to a Tel Aviv and the kibbutzim of the guilt-ridden Left. The land belongs to us because the G-d of Israel, creator and Titleholder of all lands, gave it to us. No guilt. There is no such thing as a "Palestinian people". They are Arabs, part of the Arab nation, possessor of 21 lands. Let them live in peace in any or all of them. But there are no "Palestinians". It was the Roman emperor Hadrian who, after the Jewish revolt against the Romans, angrily erased the name of the state, Judea, and invented the name "Palestine" after the Philistines. In every normal case, an existing people gives its name to a land. The Franks named it France and the Angles, England, and the Germanics, Germany. Only in this ludicrous case does a Roman invent a name, give it to a land, and the arriving Arab trespassers become "Palestinians". One presumes that had Hadrian not changed the name, Israel today would be fighting Yasir Arafat and the Judean terrorists. There are no "Palestinians" and there is no "Palestine" in the land of Israel, Eretz Yisrael. No guilt. The "Palestinian" civilians in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Lebanon cheered and supported every P.L.O murder and terror of Jews. They are united in hatred of Israel. It would be nicer if they did not stone our soldiers and try to kill Jews. It would be nicer if they did not rise up in revolt in order to force us out of Judea, Samaria and Gaza as the first step to the elimination of the State of Israel. But since they do, let Jews not allow themselves to be destroyed by "Palestinian" women and children. And if the only way to survive is to take the lives of people who attack us we have no choice. I wonder how many Americans and British and French mourned and protested the killing of German civilians during World War II bombings of Berlin, Hamburg and Dresden? There is nothing ethical about dying or anything moral about another holocaust. There is nothing immoral about winning and nothing necessarily noble in a loser. Let us cast off the chains of guilt and reject the accusations of its bearers. The greatness of Judaism is its spirit, but no spirit can survive without a living body. If we do not want to kill Arabs--and we don't; and if we want to put an end to the nightly television pictures of violence; and if we do not want to see those pictures tomorrow inside Israel itself, with Israeli Arabs fighting soldiers; and if we do not want to see the threat of Arab demography destroying the Jewish State--then let us have the courage to take the one difficult but immutable step that will free us of all this and guarantee a Jewish State: Remove the Arabs from the land and let them live with their brothers and sisters in any of the 22 Arab states. Anything short of that will see the horrors of today escalated a hundred-fold tomorrow. And let us not fear the world. Those who stood by during the Holocaust and when Israel faced destruction in 1948 and 1967 have nothing to tell us. Faith in the G-d of Israel and a powerful Jewish army are the only guarantors of Jewish survival. Let us not fear the world. Far better a Jewish State that survives and is hated by the world, than an Auschwitz that brings us its love and sympathy. No guilt Rather faith in G-d and a return to authentic Torah laws; rather pride and strength, and the love of our people rather than the enemy that would destroy us. That is sanity; that is Judaism. Anyone reading this Rabbi Meir Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rabbi Kahane or Rabbi Binyamin Ze’ev 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

FIGHTING FOR G-D

Kahane on the Parsha Rabbi Meir Kahane- Parshat Lech Lecha FIGHTING FOR G-D "They took Abram's nephew Lot and his possessions....When Abram heard that his brother had been taken captive, he armed his trained men born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. He hurried after the invaders...and he smote them" (Genesis 14:12-15). With Abraham facing almost certain death, one might think it would have been better for him to have stayed home and done nothing. It is hard to understand how he dared go to war, especially when he and his tiny group were the only ones in the world who bore the truth that the L-rd is the only G-d. Why did Abraham endanger himself when his death would have put an end to the only man and group on earth that stood on the side of truth? The answer is that it is a mitzvah to "assist Israel against an attacking foe" (Rambam, Hilchot Melachim 5:1). Since Abraham and his group were all of "Israel" at the time-- and Abraham was legally their prince and monarch--he knew that an obligatory war (milchemet mitzvah) was involved here, rooted in the sanctification of G-d's Name. For whenever a nation rises up against Israel, it is also rising up publicly against the G-d of Israel, and there is no greater profanation of G-d's Name than that. We are required to wage a milchemet mitzvah over this affront, and one cannot escape this duty because of danger to life. Our Rabbis taught (Bereishit Rabba 43:2): " 'He armed (vayarek) he trained men': R. Yehuda and R. Nechemia disagreed. R. Yehuda said, 'They turned green [with anger] (horiku panim), saying: If five kings could not overcome them, will we be able to do so?' R. Nechemia said, 'Abraham turned them green with fear, saying: I shall go and die for the sanctification of G-d's Name!' " In other words, Abraham said the circumstances called for a milchemet mitzvah; they called for saving Lot despite the danger involved since the sanctification of G-d's Name was at stake. Going to war was imperative; if G-d forbid he died in battle, so be it. In other words, when war is necessary, danger to one's life is irrelevant. Furthermore, we learn from this episode that one need not fear shedding blood in battle. How so? The Rabbis relate the following: "[After the battle] Abraham was afraid and said, 'Perhaps the population I killed possessed a righteous, G-d-fearing man.' Yet, it is like the person who passed the king's orchard and, seeing a bundle of thorns, went in and removed them. The king saw him, and he began to hide. The king asked him, 'Why are you hiding? How many workers would I have needed to gather those thorns? Now that you have done it, come and take your reward.' Just so, G-d said to Abraham, 'The population you killed were cut thorns'" (Bereishit Rabba 44:4). We learn a fundamental principle here- that is, we need not have misgivings about shedding the blood of evildoers. Quite the contrary, it is a mitzvah, for it "rids the garden of thorns". This is precisely what we learn about King David in Pesikta Rabbati 2: " 'A psalm, a song at the dedication of the house- to David' (Psalms 30:1). If Solomon built the Temple, why was it credited to David? "David was worthy to build it and had planned on doing so. The only reason he never did is because Nathan the Prophet told him G-d did not want him to because he had 'shed much blood upon the earth before Me' (1 Chronicles 22:8). Hearing this, David was afraid. He said, "I have been disqualified from building the Temple!' "R. Yehuda bar Ilai said: G-d said to David, 'Have no fear. As I live, the evildoers are to Me like a deer or gazelle [animals unfit for the Altar].'... Alternatively, G-d said to David, 'As I live, all the blood you spilled was to Me like sacrificial offerings...' "David asked G-d, 'Why, then, am I not building it?' and G-d responded, 'Because if you build it, it will endure, never to be destroyed.' David then asked, 'And is that bad?' G-d responded, 'It is revealed before Me that in the future Israel will sin, yet I will take out My anger on the Temple and destroy it, and Israel will be saved...'" Here we have a scathing response to the ignoramuses who twist G-d's words, arguing that David did not build the Temple because he sinned by shedding "much blood upon the earth." Even without the Rabbis' comments above, could anyone possibly think that David somehow sinned by fighting G-d's wars? The simple reason why G-d did not want David to build the Temple is because the Temple symbolizes the perfect, all-good world G-d wishes for this earth. In such a world, war doesn't exist because there is no evil or evildoers. Therefore, even though it is a great mitzvah to wage war against the wicked and shed their blood in the right time and place, doing so cannot be associated with the Temple This reason is in addition to our Rabbis' explanation in Pesikta Rabbati--that had David built the Temple, it would have endured forever. In any event, it is clear that David was an outstanding saint and that his wars were fought for the sake of G-d and the sanctification of His Name. The distorters' words are not to be taken the least bit seriously. Shabbat Shalom Barbara Kahane on the Parsha can be purchased 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 Links: Barbara Sandra Ginsberg