Hamas War

Monday, June 19, 2023

Parshat Korach, Why So Many Sins So Soon After Magnificent Mt Sinai Experience?

Korach


At my local women's Parshat Shavua, Korach, class among friends and neighbors, the classic question came up:

Why So Many Sins So Soon After Magnificent Mt Sinai Experience?

My mind began turning out ideas...

I found myself back in May-June, 1967 hearing the threats of Egypt's Nasser, unabashedly saying that he'll destroy the State of Israel, shove it into the sea...

Egypt's Nasser demanded that the United Nations remove the Peacekeeping Forces, and for all practical purposes the UN replied:

"Yesterday? At your service."

No country offered any help to Israel. They just waited around, mouthing platitudes at best, not wanting to get in the way of the bullets while Israel was being pushed into the sea. Jews, and possibly a few other good souls, prayed, and then a miracle of Biblical proportions happened. In six days, yes, just six 6 days, Israel managed to defeat three stronger better equipped armies, and in the process found itself holding more land on each of three fronts, the Golan formerly Syrian in the north, the Sinai formerly Egyptian in the south and to the east our Jewish Biblical Homeland traditionally called Judea and Samaria, though the Jordanians had referred to it as the "west bank."

And what did Israel's government do? 

  • Did it declare sovereignty, like any normal self-respecting country would do? 
  • Did the Jewish religious leaders declare a massive national prayer of thanks to Gd on the Temple Mount? No, 

Moshe Dayan gave the Muslims the key to the Temple Mount, reassuring them that Israel wouldn't disturb/trespass on their religious site and the political leaders made it clear to the defeated Arab countries that we'd be happy to give back most of the land in exchange for "peace."

We're still suffering the ramifications of those dangerous and foolish policies. Unfortunately, nothing's new. Human nature isn't perfect. Think of all the Jews who could have left Europe before the Holocaust.. Think of the Jewish leaders who not only opposed Zionism but condemned it.

2 comments:

HDG, Yerushalayim, E"Y Shlemah said...

I'm happy to say I found an article in A7 where public broadcaster Shai Glick demanded of the IPBC that they should stop calling Judea and Samaria "the west bank".

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/372813
Demand from Israeli public broadcaster: Stop calling Judea and Samaria 'the West Bank'

You've probably seen this, but others may not have.

What is the relevance of this comment, one might ask. Well, calling the region "the west bank" could be considered "dibat ha'aretz." Another term for it is "lashon hara'. Evil speech! One of the many sins so soon after Har Sinai that still hangs over us after all these years.

Batya said...

I agree with you. Good points