Israel, The Holyland, is Not Europe

So far, so god. The early winter crocus flowers are blooming. They are the signs that water has seeped into the ground, and winter has begun here in the Holyland.

Quite a few decades ago, I took a course to improve my Hebrew. One thing I got out of it was the fact that the early Hebrew writers here couldn't get European seasons out of their brains. They continued to refer to the "first buds of spring" and other such literary images that aren't part of the Holyland reality. New York, where I grew up, and most of North America is very much like Europe. The winter is dark and snowy. You don't see the "buds" and flowers until spring. Then it all blooms and continues throughout the summer.

Here in the Holyland, it rains only in the winter. By early-mid summer, unless you irrigate your garden, everything just dries up. Many people try to imitate, recreate the gardens of Europe or North America. It's a waste of water and distorts perception of the Israeli climate.

Israel begins to green in early winter, after the first few rains. Winter flowers start blooming, too. By the end of winter the ground is covered with wildflowers and greenery. As the weather heats up in the spring, and the rain ceases to fall, the flowers dry up and die.

In addition, oranges, which since the middle of the twentieth century are a staple of Israeli agriculture, only get sweet (fully ripe) after the first rains.

Chazal, our sages, teach us that the quantity and quality of rain are dependent on how well we Jews keep the mitzvot and treasure the Holyland. Gd willing, we will deserve rains of blessing.

Succot ושמחת בחגך Why the Joy?

One of Judaism's interesting questions is:

Why is the Succot Holiday called the "Joyful" one? ושמחת בחגך

The other day, while walking outside in Shiloh and wondering when Gd will bless us with cleansing and health-producing, also necessary for agriculture rain, I noticed the grapes.  OK, I didn't need to go very far to see grapes, since we have a few vines by our house.

The grapes are rather dusty, and some are dried out, eaten by birds, bees etc. And the leaves are awfully brown and ripped. But there are still grapes for humans to feast on.

I began to think of how it must have been in olden times, a few thousand years ago, when food storage meant drying and pickling food. Instead of refrigerators, freezers and modern containers, they used caves and ceramic urns. 

In this late summer season, people couldn't rely on piped water from high tech reservoirs, desalination, drip agriculture etc. It hasn't rained for six months. We frequently complain of the high prices of fruit and vegetables, because the summer crops are finished and the winter ones can't grow without water. The products of modern high tech agriculture isn't cheap.

How did our ancestors manage? During the almost four hundred years of the Mishkan, Tabernacle in Shiloh, there may have been grapes growing right where my grapes grow today. Considering how easily grapes grow here without any professional care, it's obvious to me that this is the Land Gd created for grape growing.

Finding and preparing sufficient food for the many late summer, Tishrei holidays is challenging enough in today's modern world. It's hard to imagine how much more difficult it was thousands of years ago. And then think of the joy when the food was served. Or many the mitzvah, the commandment to be joyful helped them enjoy what they could find to eat.

In Ancient Times, I doubt that the sukkot one lived in during the holiday was built onto people's homes or terraces. They left the comfort of their home to go up to Shiloh and later to Jerusalem for mass prayers. Conditions weren't like today's hotels, three enormous meals and unlimited afternoon cake. Vineyards like mine were treasured and shared, since there wasn't much to eat.

People were grateful and joyful for what they had ושמחת בחגך Visamachta bichaggecha, And be joyful in Your holiday.

Israel was Established to Be The Jewish State

Honestly, I don't understand what the hullabaloo is all about concerning the Jewish Nation-State Law. The State of Israel was established for one reason only, to be a Jewish State, THE JEWISH STATE.

The State of Israel is the modern revival of ancient kingdoms, which are documented in the Bible. That is the very same Bible which not only is the basis for Judaism, but it is also recognized as accurate and holy for Christians. That is the very same Bible which which is used by western countries for swearing honesty, in court and important ceremonies.

The Jewish Religion and Prayers repeat over and over that Jerusalem is the holiest city and we pray to return to it in all its glory.

Jews from all over the diaspora have followed the same religion for two thousand years.

Jews have always made an effort to return to or visit the Land of Israel, the Holyland. This is all very well documented.

During the over two thousand years since the destruction of our Second Holy Temple, discrimination, banning of Judaism and killing of Jews took place all over the world. The Spanish Inquisition and the Nazi Holocaust are well-known examples of that. But actually it continues today in almost all Arab countries. They are judenrein, cleansed of Jews, even in those countries that once had vibrant Jewish communities.

Modern Zionism is just the political version of the religious return to the Land of Israel. The foundations of the State of Israel, political and economic began with that movement, which coincided with the rise of European nationalism in the nineteenth 19th century.

There is nothing actually new or revolutionary in the Jewish Nation-State Law. It just restates the obvious. Israel is the Jewish State and was established in the Biblical Land of Israel for that very purpose. I, like many others, left the Christian United States of America, because I wanted to live in the Jewish State, no other. If someone here in Israel doesn't want to live in the Jewish State, they can just look for a country that fits their national and religious identity. I with them luck in their new life.

Aliyah: Not The "Ultimate Sacrifice"

Not long ago I heard a speaker say something that I found so outrageous, sacrilegious, 'חילול ד chillul Hashem, disparaging of Gd and the Land of Israel, that I searched him out afterwards to tell him how upset he had gotten me. He had called Aliyah "The Ultimate Sacrifice."

Of course I understand that Aliyah, the move to Israel is sometimes more difficult for others as it was for me, but to call it The "Ultimate Sacrifice" puts a value on living outside of Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel over living here that has no place in Judaism or reality.

Of course there are adjustments one must make in any move, whether from Brooklyn to Monsey or Monsey to Jerusalem. Most people find any change traumatic, especially when the decision is made by someone else. And sometimes parents don't "market it well" for their kids or find the right educational framework. In any move, parents must be sensitive to their children's needs and advocate for them. I'm still upset with my parents' oblivion to my suffering when we moved from Bayside, NYC, NY to Great Neck, NY. Even though the physical distance was just a few miles, the educational system was totally different. I was put back a grade, and my parents hadn't a clue or didn't care. Maybe it was the parenting style of that time, but nobody, neither parents nor school guidance counselors, ever spoke to me about it.

Moving to Israel, making Aliyah, is totally different from any other move. First of all, Gd commanded us to live in Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. Many of the mitzvot, Torah commandments can only be done here. Besides that, there are government offices and Nefesh B'Nefesh which are dedicated to facilitating the absorption, adjustment, of olim chadashim, newcomers to Israel.

Unlike when my husband and I made aliyah, came here in 1970, Israel is on the same if not higher technological, standard of living as any place else in the world. Today's Israel also has one of the world's strongest economies.

Every move demands change and adjustment. But if you are angry about the decision that had been made for you, learning to see the good and adjusting will be near impossible.

Israel is a wonderful, beautiful country, full of goodness, miracles and chessed. To me it's a sacrifice living any place else.

Before one of my sons went into the IDF he was in a program which had a very good fitness trainer who always said:

הכל בראש
Hakol barosh.
"It's all in your head."

The meaning is that you actually can control your feelings and capabilities. If you look at Aliyah as  The "Ultimate Sacrifice," then you will always feel victimized by it, rather than a privileged beneficiary of living here in Gd's HolyLand.

Jewish People/Nation/Religion Like No Other. Maybe That's Why We're Hated?

Yesterday, Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, in synagogues all over the world, the weekly Torah Portion, Yitro was read. Yitro, Jethro, was a non-Jew or convert, and there's an irony in that davka in that Torah Portion, named after him we also read the Ten Commandments, the foundation of the Jewish Religion.

The children of Israel camp opposite Mount Sinai, where they are told that G‑d has chosen them to be His “kingdom of priests” and “holy nation.” The people respond by proclaiming, “All that G‑d has spoken, we shall do.”
On the sixth day of the third month (Sivan), seven weeks after the Exodus, the entire nation of Israel assembles at the foot of Mount Sinai. G‑d descends on the mountain amidst thunder, lightning, billows of smoke and the blast of theshofar, and summons Moses to ascend.
G‑d proclaims the Ten Commandments, commanding the people of Israel to believe in G‑d, not to worship idols or take G‑d’s name in vain, to keep theShabbat, honor their parents, not to murder, not to commit adultery, not tosteal, and not to bear false witness or covet another’s property. The people cry out to Moses that the revelation is too intense for them to bear, begging him to receive the Torah from G‑d and convey it to them. (Chabad)

In the title I gave this post, I called us not only a religion, because we're also a people and and nation and I even left out another two crucial aspects.

• We Jews have a very unique language, Hebrew, which unlike other languages has what can be considered "magic letters." As I mentioned in my book review of "Lashon HaKodesh: History, Holiness, & Hebrew," any combination of them has meaning.
• We Jews are a Land, too. Many of our Mitzvot, G-d given commandments are based on being in the Land He gave us, the HolyLand, the Land of Israel. 

No other society or religion or nation or language is like the Jewish one. Is it this uniqueness that is the proof that we are G-d's Chosen People, and the other nations, religions etc are jealous? That could be it, because the two most powerful and ambitious religions Christianity and Islam both attempt to supplant us. Both have stolen the narrative of our Bible, our Land and try to show that G-d has rejected the Jews and chosen them. In today's lingo it's called "identity theft."

And why is, davka, this important Torah Portion named after a man who wasn't born a Jew? That must be because instead of being jealous and hateful of the Jewish People, Yitro accepted and recognized that we Jews are G-d's Chosen People. 

Today's world is mirroring many of the events in our ancient past. And just the fact that we Jews are the same People as lived thousands of years ago, while all of our ancient enemies are no longer in existance, troubles those who are trying to supplant and destroy us.

The Torah Portion of Yitro stresses that the "righteous gentiles" who accept and support us will always be honored. 

Shavua Tov uMevorach

May the New Week be Good and Blessed

Reflecting a Bit on My First Aliyah li'Har HaBayit, Ascending The Temple Mount #2

Cross-posted on me-ander

So far I haven't gotten any pictures of myself on Har HaBayit, but I do have this one of us waiting for permission to enter, taken by Yehuda Glick, a well-known Har HaBayit activist.





photo by Yehuda Glick


Most of us photographed here are from Shiloh, which was the Jewish National and Religious Capital and resting place (location) of the Mishkan, Tabernacle for 369 years. That's before Jerusalem was declared the Capital of the Jewish Kingdom of King David. Rachel Sela of Shiloh leads groups of women, in Hebrew, on the Temple Mount. She kept us fascinated with her explanations of the Holiness and history of the site and how to behave and where it is permitted to go. Afterwards we celebrated with a festive meal in the "Hebron Quarter" which is a section of what is inaccurately known as the "Moslem Quarter." This is where many Jews from Hebron had lived. Please contact me if you'd like to join her.

Nowadays women are as active in the movement to bring more Jewish life and ritual to the Temple Mount as men. But it wasn't always so.

My husband was drafted  by Menachem Ben-Yashar, of Massuot Yitzchak, to the very small ranks of Jews who defied the authorities to go up on the Temple Mount a short time after our aliyah, move, to Israel, September, 1970.  Yes, exactly forty-four 44 years ago.

In those days, there were only men among the activists. Menachem came to speak to my husband about it, not to speak to both of us. It just wasn't a "woman's issue." Actually, it never occurred to me that I, too, should go up. They'd frequently end up being beaten and dragged by the police and even getting stitched up in the Emergency Ward. Obviously, that wasn't my "thing."

my husband's blog banner


Over the decades, things changed, and women did get involved, but I didn't. It wasn't because I disagreed with the rights of Jews to ascend the Temple Mount to pray; I firmly believed and believe that we should be there. A very small portion of the area is of such holiness that we shouldn't enter. And I also believe that it would be better that we do enter and build the Third Temple than allow the Muslim Arabs and Christian tourists to defile it.





Christian tourists enter freely, while we wait.


There's lots of space and rubble, even close to the Holy of Holies where the Muslims built their "Dome of the Rock."

Most of what is today the Temple Mount is the Herodian Extension, which doesn't have the highest level of holiness. What surprised me was how small our restricted area actually is.

I only began thinking seriously about my own aliyah l'Har HaBayit in recent years. My life has been full of other things and politically with other battles. About a year ago, Rachel and I spoke about it, and she was so shocked that I hadn't yet gone up. For younger women, raised in a more feminist time, when women do and learn many of the things men do, it's considered natural for women to ascend to Judaism's holiest spot. I felt rather silly trying to explain why it had taken me so many decades to do what felt so natural once I got up there.

One of the topics she mentioned as we walked around was the holiness of the Kotel, the Western Wall. As readers of my blogs know, I can't relate to the worship of the place and the custom to leave what I call "letters to Santa Claus."

Glimpse of the Kotel while walking up to the Temple Mount



Rachel pointed out that the "Western Wall" which Chazal, our Sages, refer to is not that Herodian built  outer wall, but the western wall of the Temple Courtyard.

Today that holy wall no longer remains. The holiness of the popular Kotel is the same as for any Jerusalem synagogue. And when praying there, we must turn slightly to the left to face the Kodesh Kodeshim, Holy of Holies.

Two final points to finish this post:

I am very glad that I finally ascended The Temple Mount. It felt right and good to do so.

But I'm outraged with every fiber of my body and soul that it is forbidden for Jews to pray there by the State of Israel!

We Need a Biblical and Jewish GPS App to Counter the iNakba app

While going through some old International New York Times my husband had brought home, I came across an article by Jodi Ruderen, Navigating Lost Villages in Israel.

"...While my husband drove through 2014 Israel, past vast greenhouses and sleek malls, I navigated 1948 Palestine on my iPhone.Using the new iNakba app, I saw scores of villages destroyed or abandoned as Israel became a state 66 years ago...."

I'm not denying that those villages never existed, but the Arabs who fled in 1948 had been following instructions from their Arab leaders. In most cases, they were squatters who had migrated from other locations in the Middle East only when the Zionists began developing the land and bringing economic prosperity and opportunities. That's a major reason why it wasn't all that traumatic for them to flee. The real trauma started when their "Arab brothers" kept them restricted in refugee camps and made a deal with the United Nations to establish UNWRA  which is the UN agency that is supposed to care for, rehabilitate and resettle those "refugees." I'm not going to get into more details about them. Read David Bedein's Israel Resource Review.

As I read Rudern's article I pictured a Jewish HolyLand app that would take us to locations in the Land of Israel where Jews had lived in the past, the time of the Bible and after that. Of course Shiloh would be featured considering that the Mishkan, Holy Tabernacle was there as the national center for prayer for 369 years. And centuries later there was still a Jewish presence in Shiloh.

Another location would be Gaza, which had many Jewish communities over the millenia.

Jews were present in Gaza until 1929, when they were forced to leave the area due to violent riots against them by the Arabs. Following these riots, and the death of nearly 135 Jews in all, the British prohibited Jews from living in Gaza to quell tension and appease the Arabs.

There's now a problem for Jews who want to go there since the Hamas Arab terrorists were given "independence" to rule it and what was once called Gush Katif.

before it was walled in

Bethlehem is another Jewish City which now bans Jews. It would certainly be hard for Jews to enter ever since the wall went up to separate Kever Rachel, Rachel's Tomb from Bethlehem. I remember when you visited Kever Rachel by going to Bethlehem and walking around freely.

Of course, every part of the Old City of Jerusalem would be on that Jewish app which would tell the story of thousands of years of Jewish Life there.

Instead of mosques on Har Habayit, the Temple Mount, we'd see the Beit HaMikdash, Holy Temple... May it be speedily rebuilt in our days...

Nu, please let someone develop just that app to travel the Holy Land and learn our History. We Jews are the only people to have a national history of self-rule here. All other rulers were invaders, whether the Babylonians, Greeks, Romans or Turks. That's the truth.

You're welcome to add your examples via comments, thanks.

Still Desperately Awaiting Rain

I don't know if these clouds to the southwest of us are a sign that it will rain.  Generally, dark clouds to the west are a good reliable sign of rain to come. It's also very windy, which frequently means that the weather will change.  

You can see the wind here.

I hung out clothes this morning for a few reasons.  One is that we need clean clothes; the hampers are full. There's another wash in the machine as I type this.  So far, no rain today, so there's a chance the wash will dry.  But the most important, and probably the most peculiar reason, is that maybe this laundry will in a Murphy sort of way bring on the rain.

'If anything can go wrong, it will'.

G-d forbid you should think that I consider rain as something going "wrong," but we did have a rainy winter the year I refused to carry an umbrella.

So far, most of this winter, which began a month and a half ago, has been with clear blue skies like in the picture I took last week.

Just to remind all of you who pray, we need those prayers for rain here in the HolyLand. According to Jewish Law, the text of the Amida, 18 Blessing Prayer, said three times a day includes a request for rain. One of the most sacrilegious questions to rabbis is the one from people who don't live in the HolyLand and want to know why they have to pray for rain when rain in their neighborhood isn't in their best interests.  That question shows a total lack of understanding of the basic principles of Judaism.  It ignores the total centrality of the Land of Israel in the Jewish Religion.

The theme, narrative of the first part of the Bible, the Torah, the Five Books of Moses relate the beginnings of the Jewish People and G-d's commandments to us.  We are told in Bereishit, Genesis, Genesis 12,1-17,27 that we, starting with Abraham, his family and followers,  are supposed to go to the Land G-d will show us.

א  וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-אַבְרָם, לֶךְ-לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ, אֶל-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ.

1 Now the LORD said unto Abram: 'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee.

That land isn't California, New Zealand or Britain.  All Jews, no matter where they live, no matter what level of mitzvah  observance, are required to recognize the centrality of the Land of Israel to Judaism and the Jewish People.

G-d gives us the rain as a gift, also quantity and timing as reward and punishment for our collective merit or guilt as a People.  That means that it's not enough just to pray, we must, as individuals and a people, repent, do teshuva.  G-d willing we will deserve the blessings, and it will rain in the right time and quantity.

Big Question: Is it News When it Keeps Repeating Itself?

I'm getting tired of following and writing about the news.  Everything is so deja vu. We've heard it all before, and read about it and seen it ad nauseum.  You'd think the politicians, policy makers, journalists, academics etc. would be as bored as I am.  It's like waiting for a suitcase to come onto the turning thing at the airport.  You watch and watch until you feel like you're turning in circles and the suitcases are standing still.  Yes, the same old suitcases; every one is there, but the one you're waiting for.

For how many years have we been hearing that Iran is developing nuclear weapons?

And how many times and for how long has Israel, especially Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that it's almost too late?

And how many times and for how long have American Presidents promised to do something, threaten, negotiate, investigate...?

And how many times and for how long has Israel offered the Arabs peace, even begged for peace?

And how many "good will gestures" has Israel offered the Arabs for peace?

And how many times and  from how much land have we withdrawn our troops, all in the hope of peace in return?

And how many times has Israel frozen Jewish building in Jerusalem and other parts of the Land of Israel to try to placate the Arabs and foreign countries, just because we want peace?

And how many dangerous, convicted Arab terrorists have been released by Israel to encourage the Arabs to make peace with us?

And how many dangerous, convicted Arab terrorists have been released by Israel in exchange for Israelis and Jews held by Arabs?

And how many dangerous concessions have various Israeli governments and leaders offered the Arabs in an attempt to make peace with them?

And how many times has Israel apologized for things we didn't do, killings we're not guilty of, all so that people would "like" us?

When will the assimon (phone token) drop?  When will Israeli society, its politicians, its media, academics and all accept the reality that there is nothing we can do to encourage the Arabs to "make peace" with us? 

The Arabs will only be satisfied when, G-d forbid, we're destroyed.  They and their supporters will quickly celebrate, try to take over our agriculture and industries.  And then, a short time late, just like what happened in Gaza they'll just destroy it.  Soon there will be a massive brain drain as the more educated Arabs will quickly leave the area for any country that will take them.  And the poorer people will migrate away leaving the HolyLand desolate as it was before the Zionists began developing it.  And then after forty, fifty, a hundred years or more a new wave of idealistic Jews will return in an attempt to reclaim our Land, build a state and then G-d willing the Holy Temple on Har Habayit, the Temple Mount.

Looking at The Whole Picture versus The Danger of a Distorted Image

The following picture has been making the rounds on facebook and other internet sites:

I'm not sure of the original source, but from the first time I spotted it, I  just knew that I had to write about it.

Here we are in the twenty-first century.  With computers, internet, smartphones, tablets etc., it's incredibly easy to do research  history, find out simple facts, truth. So how has the "Palestinian sic myth" taken such hold.  Supposedly educated, intelligent people are convinced that there had been an Arab Palestinian state which was invaded by Jews, the Zionists, and replaced by the State of Israel.

Just like the very cropped version of the picture here which only shows an IDF soldier hitting an Arab on the ground, too many people shorten the title this Land was given by the League of Nations in July, 1922, British Mandate for Palestine.

The Mandate system was instituted by the League of Nations in the early 20th century to administer non-self-governing territories*. The mandatory power, appointed by an international body, was to consider the mandated territory a temporary trust and to see to the well-being and advancement of its population.

In July 1922, the League of Nations entrusted Great Britain with the Mandate for Palestine. Recognizing "the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine," Great Britain was called upon to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine-Eretz Israel (Land of Israel).  *The italics and bold here are mine.

There never, ever was a country called Palestine. Even on my relatively old and slow computer, it took just seconds to get this information.

It's a good idea to look at this phrase, which I highlighted:

non-self-governing territories

What does that really mean?  It means that there was no independent country, no state.  Actually, prior to the decision to entrust Great Britain with those territories, to prepare the Jewish population to rule it.  The Jewish People had always been present in the Holy Land and were the only people who had self-rule there with thousands of years of history including many kings, judges etc. all recorded in the Bible. That's the same Bible also read and recognized by Christians.

From the destruction of the Second Holy Temple in Jerusalem until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Land was held/governed by invaders.  Prior to the British Mandate, the Ottomans (Turks) ruled for four hundred years.

The Turks ruled Palestine almost uninterruptedly for four hundred years. The only break in their rule was from 1832-1840 when Muhammet Ali, an Egyptian vassal of the Turkish Empire revolted against his patrons and conquered Palestine, Syria and parts of Asia Minor. However, with the assistance of the British and the Russians, the Ottomans regained control of the area. The price of this assistance was various capitulations to foreign governments that increasingly undermined the Turkish domination of the area. By the latter part of the century it was clear that without European assistance, the Ottoman Empire would have collapsed.

The Ottomans never controlled Palestine as a single unit. Instead they divided the immediate and surrounding areas into a number of villayets (districts) whose boundaries altered over the years.

At no point was there ever a "Palestine."

The idea of a "Palestine" was created to sabotage the mandated Jewish State. The lie has taken off and is considered true fact/history by most of the world including the major world leaders such as United States President Barack Hussein Obama, academics, intellectuals and the media, even Jews and in Israel.  The name/term "Palestine" was used to designate some land on a map, but there never was an actual people, culture etc. by that name.

We must reveal, publicize the full, complete picture.  Only the Jewish People have a national history in this part of the world.  It's our Land and nobody else's.