Hamas War

Monday, February 17, 2014

Jews, Israelis, We're Failing G-d's Qualifying Test

This post is inspired by Atara Snowbell's class, but I've added many of my own things which she never brought up.  So, if you have any complaints, please address them to me and not to her, thanks.

I'm not one of those who has this great confidence that G-d will just jump in and save the State of Israel, no matter how badly we and the Israeli Government sin against the Land and G-d. The more I study Tanach, the Bible, which due to the fantastic courses I've been taking in Matan which has been introducing me to Kings and Prophets I had never, ever before had the opportunity to study, the more I'm convinced that G-d will let the State of Israel be destroyed if we don't make some very crucial changes.

Shiloh Tabernacle Mishkan Synagogue Modeled after
the Biblical Mishkan built in the Midbar and later
located in Shiloh for 369 years
Last week at the first shiur of Atara Snowbell's  The Journey to Canaan (Numbers 20-36,) she brought up a very important point that reinforces my opinion. The course is about the last section of במדבר Bamidbar In The Desert/Wilderness aka Numbers which tells of the new, post-Exodus generation before they entered ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael, The Land of Israel.


Atara explained why Miriam died before the Jewish People entered the Land of Israel. Miriam was one of the main leaders, along with her brothers, Moshe and Aaron.  Her method of leadership was to encourage independence, by standing on the side and moving the strings from off-stage. Miriam and her brothers were the leaders of the exodus. A different sort of leadership would be needed in Eretz Yisrael.

After the older generation died out, with the notable exceptions of Yehoshua and Caleb, there was no guarantee that the new generation would enter the Land of Israel. They, too, had to be tested to make sure that they were truly ready, capable for the challenges that awaited them in the Land of Israel.  If that generation had failed the test, then G-d would have made the people wait for an additional generation, until a suitable generation appeared no matter how long it took.

To pass G-d's test, the Jewish People had to be independent of others and show faith in G-d.

Judaism has a very important element, and it's Free Will.  The upside is that we have choices, but the downside is that we may sin.  And there are serious consequences to sinning. One of those consequences is when G-d allows us to be exiled, suffer and wait for Redemption.  Redemption isn't automatic nor individual. There are always individual tzaddikim even among generations of sinners.

G-d is patient in that He does not give up on us waiting for us to be worthy.  When a generation is worthy, then G-d will start the ball rolling, as happened with the establishment of the State of Israel and our victories in the War of Independence, the Six Days War, the Yom Kippur War and other times we need G-d such as making Arab terrorist attack missiles land in empty fields etc.  But if the Government of the State of Israel continues on its dangerous and sinful path of helping the Arabs to establish another state, then I have no doubt that G-d won't protect us. The "two state solution" will be the last straw and will begin the end of the State of Israel.

G-d will protect us from whatever foreign sanctions begin when, and G-d willing it's when and not if, we cease all cooperation with the American mediated so-called peace sic talks. For the sake of our continued survival we must stop listening to the Israeli Left (Center, too) and the international busybodies.  They don't care what happens to us, just like they didn't care when the Nazis first discriminated against its Jews and then upgraded to extermination of European Jewry.  Nothing has changed.  G-d is our only ally.

We must pass the same test the second generation in the wilderness had to pass. We must be independent of foreign rule/influence and we must show full faith in G-d.

13 comments:

NormanF said...

I agree!

I understand why Shy Guy was taken aback by my comments last week on Israel's dealings with Turkey but it seemed to me it was one of those tests of faith you write of here.

I'm seldom critical of Israel and I was not happy that Israel's government appeared to validate the worst kind of stereotype anti-Semites have attributed to the Jews over the ages.

Israel should not be trying to curry favor with an anti-Semitic regime but to show Israel is a light to the nations. Israel is supposed to set an example to mankind - not to make those who are evil among it appear respectable.

Jews have forgotten who they are and that is why things like this happen. They were meant not to serve man but to serve G-d. This is their destiny. And one day, whether they like it or not, they are meant to fulfill it.

Batya said...

thanks, Norman, this is all very serious, and it's bad that most people ignore the truth

yitz said...

Batya, I basically agree with your article here, but I do have some reservations. "When a generation is worhty..." I wonder, were we really? Yes we suffered the terrible Shoah, did that make us worthy? Did BG & Rabin's firing on the Altalena make us worthy? I sometimes wonder...
Also, you state that if we help the "pals" establish a state, "I have no doubt that G-d won't protect us." I don't know what G-d has in store for us if we do X or Y, I don't know how you do. I would soften that sentence to read, "I wouldn't be surprised," etc. That I could agree with!
But thanks for a very good piece here, really food for thought & hopefully, action!

Devorah Chayah said...

Batya, you’ve raised some important ideas. I am in the midst of building a series of essays based on similar thoughts. In accordance with the sources that I have learned, I take exception to a few of your conclusions as follows:
“G-d will let the State of Israel be destroyed”
The State of Israel is like the shell around the fruit. It serves to protect the fruit until it is ripe and then it is peeled away and thrown out. So, in that sense, it is destined to be “destroyed,” but that is a positive development, because it means the developing fruit within – the Kingdom of Israel as opposed to the State of Israel – will have become viable and able to withstand the forces arrayed against it.
“After the older generation died out,”
In agreement here. And this is why we see all the “gedolim” leaving the world as this time. There is going to be a new kind of leadership and it requires that the people have no prior or conflicting allegiances to hinder that.
“there are serious consequences to sinning. One of those consequences is when G-d allows us to be exiled, suffer and wait for Redemption.”
A couple of things here. Sinning is unfortunate, but it’s part of life and the Torah made adequate provision for it. The Hebrew distinguishes between careless sin, ignorant sin and willful sin. It’s only when we declare outright rebellion against God’s sovereignty over us that we merit exile. You are right that this is the situation we find ourselves in today. But, there are many sources which teach that there are only two exiles from the land, not three.
We are preparing to enter a different reality from what has gone before and current events are the proof of it. All of the news being reported all over the world is broadcasting this idea – historical, unprecedented events of “biblical” proportions are being reported across the planet. We see more proof every day that the Roman exile is coming to an end and that it is the final exile to be replaced by the Kingdom of Israel and the reign of Mashiach Tzidkeinu.
The rebels in our midst are being exposed and separated out in a process the sages taught as the birur of the final days. In the past, an early redemption was up to us and was hinged on mass teshuva. But, today, coming to the end of the 6000 years of creation, we are seeing the revelation of redemption in its time – b’ita –and it no longer depends on us. Just like Shabbat comes whether we are ready or not, so the Final Redemption in its time also arrives whether we are ready for it or not. So why bother with teshuva someone may ask? Because the rebels will disappear and only the obedient will remain to enjoy it.
I don’t think we were ever intended to “wait” for redemption and there were plenty of faithful Jews throughout history who didn’t, but did everything in their power to bring it. That’s why we are here today. There’s a cosmic clock running and many world events occurred in order to spur the process of redemption along so as to keep up with this clock.
The horrible things we witness and suffer in Eretz Yisrael today are part of that process. Evil knows it’s time is very, very short and it is literally throwing everything it’s got at us right now – today - thinking also that he can stop it and send us into the midbar once again. But, that can’t happen.
Redemption is running full steam ahead like a locomotive train racing for the station. The fact that it looks like just the opposite is an illusion meant to fool the SA. Just when it looks like (and he thinks that) he has won – BOOM! The rug will be jerked violently from under his feet and he will be down for the count. GAME OVER! WE WON!!

Devorah Chayah said...

NormanF - You wrote: "Jews have forgotten who they are"

I disagree. The true Jews are being ground under the heel of an Erev Rav regime. These fake Jews get pure pleasure out of tormenting Jews and they are in constant rebellion against the Torah. The Vilna Gaon said they are our worst enemy and that the leaders and even many of the rabbis would come from among them at the end of days. Because the holy people is virtually powerless right now, nothing that you can see on the surface is a reflection of Jewish awareness.

Israel will again be a light to the nations when it is free once again to build the Temple, from whence that light shines, and a Torah-based society with Torah-based laws.

A true Jewish neshama knows exactly who they are and what their destiny is and they are working constantly, day and night, every moment to fulfill that destiny.

Leah said...

I believe we have so much teshuvah to do- I recognize that I must do teshuvah! I am not perfect. G-d wants me to try. He wants all of us to try. It is so incredibly frustrating to know that Hashem is waiting to send Moshiach and we could be done with this mess and yet our "leaders?" "lead?" our wonderful yidden to go in the wrong direction. We also delude ourselves- I am included in this, too. I must accept responsibility for this, too.
With regards to the shoah and Yitz's comment if it made us worthy? Oddly enough- and I could be completely mistaken, the shoah, perhaps was a way for us to do teshuvah from so many of us being lead astray? Meaning we were not necessarily going to do it on our own? I do not mean any pain to anyone or to offend with my words. Yitz asks did it make us worthy? Perhaps it may have been an element that was needed according to Hashem for us to do the teshuvah? Any comments? Again, no intention of pain with my words. I do not claim to know Hashem's reasons, yet I may certainly think about these things and thinking on our past and our future is clearly something that I believe our "leaders" and laypeople alike could benefit from.

Anonymous said...

Batya: Very good article and just what's necessary for all of us to absorb now at this crucial time. Agree totally with Devash on everything she wrote. This is exactly the way I see it. Time is running short and if our fellow Jews don't wake up to Hashem's warnings, well, big problems! Many cannot be blamed as they are like kidnapped children. Chazal tell us that, hopefully, this Geulah Shleimah will be b'rachamim for the bnei Yisrael and the righteous, Olam Chesed Yibaneh! The Erev Rav are a different story and are part of today's Amaleikim, together with the rest of our enemies, and don't know if they have a clue of what awaits them. H' is speeding up history!

Batya said...

Yitz, the Zionist enterprise predates the Holocaust, and the return to the Land also agriculturally, forcing the rabbis to find ways to have those mitzvot observed were crucial to our deserving G-d's help. All of those chalutzim who came, built and stayed were the Nachshon of modern times. There are 613 mitzvot...

Devash, overconfidence is dangerous. We should never think we're immune to G-d's wrath and punishment.

Leah, yes, we as a people and state must do teshuva. It's the only way to prevent destruction.

a, thanks, well I see the "big problems" as the destruction of the State of Israel if we don't repent.

Devorah Chayah said...

Batya, this is your blog, so I will say no more here than this.

Do you also think the proclamations of the Hebrew prophets about all the good in store for Israel in days of Mashiach is also "overconfident"?

Nothing I wrote is "overconfident," because it's not my opinion or my own interpretation of events. Every word is based on our sources, primarily the Maharal of Prague. About the four exiles - Bavel, Persia, Greece, Rome - and following that the Dominion of Israel, see his "The Mitzvah Candle." Also, see Rav Aryeh Carmell's "The Messianic Process" based on the teachings of the Maharal. It's available online.

I don't think misrepresenting the Torah position (i.e. Hashem's position) to Am Yisrael, even if it is seemingly for their own good, benefits anyone, least of all the one doing the misrepresenting. Done. And thanks for letting me have my say.

yitz said...

Batya, I don't mean to nit-pick here, but you mention "When a generation is worthy," and then refer to 1948, 1967, 1973 and after. The early Zionists (in your response) certainly have a lot to their credit, as you point out, but the later generations, I was just wondering, were they so "worthy"? Just to mention one, to take the gift of the Temple Mount which we gained in 1967 & return it to the Waqf??? That's really a lack of appreciation!
Hashem should help us come to our senses! (I'm sure we all can agree on that!)

Dov Bar-Leib said...

This time we WILL have something new. We WILL be redeemed despite what 80% want to do to commit national suicide. We are at the End. Either during Sukkot of 5775 or 5776, the 80% that want to commit national suicide will have to heel or else. Eliyahu HaNavi is coming before that, and he will read them the riot act.

1. We have already suffered more than our full measure of suffering over the last 2000 years.
2. So many have simply lost faith in a G-d who has allowed so much suffering, and will not believe in HIM until He makes it painfully obvious that HE is pulling the strings.

Those of us who know better will be rewarded, but the angry masses of Ashkenazim need to see that G-d loves them, and it is HE who is loving them. The European Dark Continent was a hellhole. G-d has relented of His midah of Judgement against them because He knows the hellhole that they have limped out of in 5708. But Eliyahu HaNavi is coming soon enough. So when that happens they will lose the excuse that G-d does not exist or that He hates them. This is a unique time in history. This post-Shoah generations are without precedent.

Whoever chose the numbers of 4 x 26 prisoner releases over 9 months knows how much we have suffered. It is coming b'Rachamim for those who seek Him. The others will feel His Wrath.

Batya said...

Devash, you didn't get it. Yes, I too believe that G-d willing, soon we will be on a level to merit full Redemption. But that doesn't mean that it's actually all that soon. If the government and people continue sinning, we'll have to wait more. And "more" isn't days or months or even a few years. It would be at least a generation or 70 years such as between Holy Temples.

yitz, exactly. The failure re: Temple Mount set us back very seriously. I have no doubt that the Moshiach was waiting here in 1967 but when the key was given to the Muslims, he/she turned around. The victory of the Yom Kippur War, davka on Yom Kippur, was G-d's attempt to give us another chance. Things have been going downhill even more ever since.

Dov, simultaneous to the evil, there is an amazing movement of Teshuva. G-d willing it'll be the impetus to our National Teshuva.

Dov Bar-Leib said...

National teshuvah, according to the Gemorrah, will occur when a leader like Haman, most likely from Persia, threatens our annihilation. They will return in droves, and G-d will say that the time of your Redemption has arrived. It is not the highest level of teshuvah. Well it is kind of the lowest level of national teshuvah, but we will take it gladly when it most likely happens over the next 6 to 12 months. They simply won't have another choice.