What Did Yitro Hear? Who's Today's Yitro?

I must give this week's Women's Shabbat Class "Shiur." Somehow I had volunteered to be responsible for providing words of Torah every few months. This is to give a needed monthly break to the neighbor who has the difficult task of finding someone each week. Our group started over thirty-eight years ago as a Women's Shabbat Torah Class every Shabbat. Considering how many Tanach, Bible courses I've taken in Matan and prior to that my participation in a weekly Women's Learning "Boker Limud" here in Shiloh, you'd think this a "piece of cake" for me. Gd blessed me with the ability/talent to teach anything I know, but I always feel challenged when I have to teach Tanach to my well-educated neighbors who grew up learning it in their native Hebrew. But for some inexplicable reason, they consider me capable of teaching them something new.

Since last week, Parshat Shavua, Weekly Torah Portion Yitro, I keep thinking about the reactions of other religions and people to what has been happening to the Jewish People since the mid-twentieth century, specifically the miraculous Establishment of the State of Israel and the equally miraculous victories in 1967 and 1973. This is my lifetime. I was born just a year after the State of Israel. I came of age with the liberation of our Biblical Homeland and has been living in Holy Shiloh for almost forty years.

Even more than being in the front row of Jewish History, I guess I'm a participant, albeit a "bit player."

Shmot- Exodus 18
וַיִּשְׁמַ֞ע יִתְר֨וֹ כֹהֵ֤ן מִדְיָן֙ חֹתֵ֣ן מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֵת֩ כָּל־אֲשֶׁ֨ר עָשָׂ֤ה אֱלֹהִים֙ לְמֹשֶׁ֔ה וּלְיִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל עַמּ֑וֹ כִּֽי־הוֹצִ֧יא יְהוָ֛ה אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל מִמִּצְרָֽיִם׃
Jethro priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel His people, how the LORD had brought Israel out from Egypt.

I plan on showing that this is happening right now. People of all religions are coming here to Israel to learn from us. I see it in Shiloh, which has an active archeological dig where recent discoveries are proving the Biblical narratives correct.

Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh,
Biblical Shiloh

Also for decades delegations have been coming to Israel to learn various technologies, from high tech to low tech. Koreans are convinced that Talmud learning is good for the mind and come here to learn. Christian scholars are admitting that their theology is faulty, then subsequently convert to Judaism. Noahide groups now exist and more examples. 

I'm requesting your ideas of examples, showing how "modern Yitro's" have heard what has happened to the Jewish People and are subsequently coming to join and help us, like in the days of Moses, Moshe Rabbeinu. Thanks. Please answer in the comments.

in Matan

"Speedily in Our Days..." Tisha B'Av 5779, 2019

This year, this Tisha b'Av, the time we're supposed to be mourning the destruction of our Holy Temples, I find myself mourning the fact that the vast majority of the Jewish People have no plan to build the Third Holy Temple. 

As I read the words of Eicha, I began to feel that we're too accepting of our "victimhood," rather than pushing forward and living as Gd wants. Much of this feeling is the influence of the lectures I heard the other day in Michlelet Herzog (College) Tanach/Bible Program.

Only seventy 70 years passed between the destruction of the First Temple and the construction of the Second Temple. Now over two thousand years have passed since the Second one was destroyed, and  we still don't have a Holy Temple. More than seventy 70 years ago the State of Israel was established and more than fifty years since the IDF Israel Defense Forces liberated the Temple Mount in the stupendously miraculous 1967 Six Days War.

Just a few hours ago, on Shabbat we read the Torah, Dvarim:

Dvarim I

רְ֠אֵה נָתַ֨ן יְ-ה אֱלֹ-יךָ לְפָנֶ֖יךָ אֶת־הָאָ֑רֶץ עֲלֵ֣ה רֵ֗שׁ כַּאֲשֶׁר֩ דִּבֶּ֨ר יְ-ה אֱלֹהֵ֤י אֲבֹתֶ֙יךָ֙ לָ֔ךְ אַל־תִּירָ֖א וְאַל־תֵּחָֽת׃

21- See, the LORD your God has placed the land at your disposal. Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you. Fear not and be not dismayed.”

Nu? It's clear to me. We're supposed to be sovereign and build for the Jewish People in all of the Land of Israel, including the Holy Temple, the Beit Hamikdash on Har Habayit, the Temple Mount.

• Gd gave us this Land for a reason.
• Gd gave us the victories in 1948, 1967, 1973 and more for us to build a country for Jews.

We must not be afraid of foreign powers. They have no power over us. We the Jewish People are Gd's People.

May we accept Gd's gifts and use them properly

במהרה בימינו

Bimhaira yameinu

Speedily in Our Days

What Really is The Light of Chanukah?

One of the big misconceptions about the lights on the chanukiya, Chanukah Menorah is that they are to compensate for the shortness of winter days.

True, the Chanuka holiday occurs when daylight is shortest, and here in the Holy-Land it may rain, though very rarely snow. But we are forbidden to use the light for anything practical. It is not supposed to be the light for the room, or the street, or for reading, cooking or anything else one needs light.

The light of the chanukiya, Chanukah Menorah is to publicize the miracles that Gd performs for us, even more often than we may notice. Yes, specifically, on Chanukah, we celebrate the fact that time and time again, Gd is on our side. When the odds and the experts say that we're about to be defeated, such as when the powerful Ancient Greeks invaded our Holy land and forbade us to observe Judaism, we defeated them and returned Jewish worship to the Holy Temple.

Over the millennia, this has happened time and time, again.  Also, please remember that the Modern Greeks aren't ruling and occupying the Holy Land any more. None of our ancient enemies exist today. They may have won many battles, but we, with the help of Gd, the One True Gd, have won the war.

עם ישראל חי

Am Yisrael Chai

The People of Israel Live

That is what the lights of the chanukiya, Chanukah Menorah shine and broadcast to the world.

Beersheva, First Jewish City, Miraculous

Beersheva

old well
photo by Yocheved Golani,
https://itsmycrisisandillcryifineedto.blogspot.com/

As I wrote in A Jewish Grandmother, yesterday I went to Beersheva for an f2f with friends from all over Israel. We were given a mini-tour by a friend who kept reminding us that she's not a tour guide, although it was very clear that not only does she love her chosen city, Beersheva, she loves its history, too.

Our guide mentioned something I don't think any of else in our group had thought of before. Beersheva was the very first "Jewish city." It's the city of Abraham and Sarah, as depicted in the Bible, Tanach.

When one thinks of a spot in the middle of the desert, which is a very accurate way of describing Beersheva, having an ancient city there seems rather difficult and far-fetched. Today's modern waterworks, piping etc creates a different reality, but how did people live in the middle of the desert thousands of years ago?

Gd created the earth with hidden natural resources. The Negev Desert isn't as dry as it seems on the surface. Underneath what we know as Beersheva, there are many natural springs, bodies of water, which can be accessed. Even people in ancient times were able to access enough hidden water supplies so that they could live in Beersheva.

The accepted translation of Beersheva, באר שבע is "seven springs/wells." As I've written previously, explaining my understanding of a verse in Tefilat Chana, Hannah's Prayer, the word שבע can mean either seven 7 or satisfied/sufficient. We can interpret the name Beersheva to mean "sufficient water." The idea can be considered quite miraculous for a location smack in the middle of the desert. But remember that we're talking about the Holy Land, where miracles are the norm and a call to Gd is a "local" one, thank Gd.

Only grave in British Commonwealth ANZAC Cemetery

near Beersheva bus and train stations

All photos, except if credited differently, were taken by me.

Gd is Great! Such a Siyate d'Shamya Shopping Trip

Gd gifts us with miracles when we least expect them, and we really ought to open our eyes to Gd's gifts even among a mundane day.

We've had all sorts of intermittent internet and wifi disruptions for quite awhile. We figured that it's "normal" out in the sticks. But the other night the service just didn't return. Before Shabbat my husband had complained that his computer, a laptop in the boys' old bedroom, now his den, wasn't working. And after Shabbat, I noticed that my phone didn't show the wifi icon. So I pressed, pulled in and out the usual buttons and wires on the router, and things just got worse. No internet ether. So we called Bezeq.

After a couple of hours, remote control adjustments and multiple phone technicians, a lovely female tech told me that the chronic problems were caused by having the wrong type of cord from phone to wall, which needs a "box" instead of directly plugging it in. I needed a "rosh gadol" (large head) rather than the "Americai'i rosh katan" (small head, American.) With the right cord, I wouldn't need the box. She assured me that I could buy it in all sorts of stores besides the Bezeq store in Jerusalem.

At least she got the internet and wifi working again. Since I understood exactly what was needed, I decided to buy the cord and figured I'd find it in the humongous they have everything hardware, building supply shop in the local industrial zone. So yesterday late morning I braved the strong summer sun and heat to go down to shop for it. Nu, they didn't have it.

A bit later in the afternoon, I was getting antsy after being home so much and knowing that I still needed the cord and a new watch, too. There was no way I could reasonably get through Rosh Hashanah without a functioning watch, since we also don't have a wall clock. It's one of those things we still have to buy post-new kitchen. I decided to take a "quick trip" to Jerusalem to shop. Both the Bezeq store and Center 1 where I was hoping to find a watch are easy to get to on the bus near a bus stop. Of course, we never know if the bus will actually arrive, but that's another issue entirely.

Amazingly the bus showed and pretty much on time, but as we approached Sha'ar Binyamin I received notification that there had been an accident near Adam, and we could see traffic backed up. As the bus went into Shaar Binyamin I debated until the very last second about whether or not to get off and try shopping there, but I knew that they didn't have the stores I needed, so I prayed that I'd get to Jerusalem without too much delay. It was clocked at a forty minute delay, but at least Yirmiyahu Street was empty.

I ran to the Bezeq store, and the guard had mercy on me, even though as he said:
"It closes in one second."

I took a number and waited. Yes, I was the very last customer. Even though the clerk wasn't sure she had the cord I needed she checked and found one. It was only NS15, just a bit more than my roundtrip bus fare. I paid and then went to search for a watch in nearby Center 1.

In previous visits to Center 1 I had noticed a new watch stand, which had very thrifty prices, but suddenly it was gone. The closest stand I found with watches, better than the jewelry store or low quality discount store, had watches starting at NS100. I took a quick look and entered the main part of Center 1. There was an even smaller selection there, and the NS100 watches looked like rejects and had no guarantee.

I returned to the first watch stand and asked about guarantees:

"One year," the salesgirl replied.

First I took a look at the NS100 watches. There were two of the design I liked but not the colors. I tried a few on and ended up spending a bit more than I had planned, but the price was OK.

Now to get home, which is always a challenge, since so many buses are inexplicably cancelled sans notification.

After checking the efobus app and discovering that there wouldn't be a bus very soon, I got to the closest bus stop and grabbed the first bus to Hizme, the cityline. On the way, I checked efobus again, and it said that the Shiloh bus was actually on its way and would come in 15 minutes. Just as I stepped off the bus in Hizme, a car pulled up, my daughter. That was a super treat; she lives on the way to Shiloh. So I decided to catch my bus at her stop. A minute after I got off at that bus stop a car passed signalling to the right, in the direction of Shiloh. I quickly recognized my neighbor, signalled back and began chasing his car. B"H, thank Gd he noticed me stopped, and I had a ride straight to my door.

I thank Gd for His Mercy and Blessings

Yesterday's shopping trip was a gift from Gd Almighty for sure.

Kotel Crumbling Sign Time to Ascend Temple Mount!

There have been lots of news reports and pictures posted of enormous rocks, boulders falling from the Kotel, Western Wall. And there are numerous theories about why this is suddenly happening.

• illegal, dangerous, unsupervised digging by the Wakf
• mini-earthquakes/tremors

The Kotel, Photo by Batya Medad

Or can we take this as a hint  that Gd is getting angry that most Jews still prefer the less holy outer wall, support wall for the Temple Mount, Har Habayit?

Is it that everytime a Jew calls the Kotel "the holiest site for the Jewish People" something cracks just a tiny bit?

The Temple Mount, Photo by Batya Medad

The Temple Mount, Photo by Batya Medad

The Temple Mount, Photo by Batya Medad

The Temple Mount, Photo by Batya Medad

The Temple Mount, Photo by Batya Medad

Of course, nothing can be proven, but let's first begin correcting our speech. The holiest site in the world for the Jewish People, Jewish Religion is The Temple Mount. Gd returned it to us in 1967 during the miraculous Six Days War, 28th of Iyyar.

Where Were You? Liberation of Jerusalem, Kotel, Temple Mount 1967

I'll never forget spring 1967. The terrible stress and worry which predated the miraculous Six Days War. culminated in Israel's liberation of Jerusalem's Old City, including the Temple Mount and Kotel, Western Wall.

During those tumultuous weeks I was simultaneously busy with all of the things that American high school students did in their last weeks of school, being that I was about to graduate and finally leave Great Neck. As one of the very few Jewish student activists, busy with NCSY (National Conference of Synagogue Youth,) SSSJ (Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry,) Betar and all the pro-Israel activities I could find, my priorities were very clear to me.

It was hard to be "two places at once," listening to all of the news updates and attending lame duck classes, which no longer had any real purpose. The school administration made it pretty clear that they could take revenge and withhold our diplomas if we had dared to skip classes or even the "Senior Class Beach Day."  At Jones Beach, I went from student to student giving them the opportunity to donate money to Israel via the NCSY Torah Fund. And in class, my friend and I took turns sitting on a gigantic transistor radio which was tuned to a news station, so we could hear the latest from Israel.

But the television newscast I remember best found me babysitting, just across the street from my house. That was when I saw and heard the reports of the IDF liberating the Old City and the Kotel. I can't find it on youtube with the loud crying of the soldiers, which I remember so clearly to this day. As they cried, so did I.

Do you have any memories of that historic and miraculous time? If so, what are they?

The Land of Israel is Central to Judaism, Not a "Yetzer Haraa"

I got some very peculiar reactions to my blog post about Israel's Eurovision win. Someone even called me on my home phone to tell me how objectionable he found that article. He kept referring to Netta Barzalai as "an abomination." I honestly don't understand how he can say that.

As female performers go, Netta was rather covered up. She used a costume, rather than her skin to get people's attention. This caller and some of them who commented on my blog had the gall to insist that as a religious person, I should condemn her and the song. Also they suggested that I have nothing to do with Eurovision. You can check the comments on the post if you're curious.

All I can say is that they are not my rabbi, and I didn't ask their opinion. I mentioned how Rav Kook had even seen the good in the chalutzim, pioneers who worked the Land, even if they considered themselves secular. The caller was horrified when I said that, claiming that Rav Kook would side with today's chareidim, which I consider rather unlikely.

One of those who commented said something I consider awful:

"...I'm not "condemning" anyone, I'm criticizing. Not Neta B and other non-observant Israelis, but members of the religious public that have made love of the land into a form of avoda zara."  Emphasis mine. 

Honestly, it goes against the very basic principles of Judaism to remove/ignore the Land of Israel. First of all I don't see us as "worshiping it." What we do is recognize the centrality of the Land of Israel to Judaism.

Judaism is not like any other religion. Judaism is Land-based. Christianity, for instance, isn't; it has no diaspora. The moslem calendar is a simple lunar one which makes the holidays float from season to season. Those religions can be observed equally anywhere.

The Jewish Calendar is the only which is both lunar and solar. This guarantees that our holidays will fall in the correct season. Jews all over the world pray for rain and dew when they are best needed in the Holyland, in ארץ ישראל the Land of Israel. There are many mitzvot that can only be performed the Land of Israel. We are supposed to live here in the Holyland.

Remember that the baal teshuva phenomenon began after the Establishment of the State of Israel, especially after the phenomenally miraculous 1967 Six Days War victory. Before then, the trend was to reduce religious observance, not to increase it. Our return to the Land and sovereignty, even as imperfect as it presently is, has rejuvenated Torah living.

We must keep looking for the good in what is being done and do our best to make things better, not to criticize and look for the faults.

Thank Gd for the miracles and wonders He performs for us. And we mustn't forget that it is our responsibility to do our best for Judaism, The Jewish People and the Land of Israel.

When I look back on the half a century I've lived here in the Land of Israel, I see such phenomenal improvement in so many aspects of Jewish Life and Nationhood, Baruch Hashem!

Honestly, Israel Doesn't Need America to Survive

I have problems with the whole concept that "We need to know America has our back," Minister of Education Naftali Bennett.



Israel's greatest victories were when there was no interference/support by any foreign country, even the United States of America. The Israeli War of Independence when we had to defend ourselves against British backed Arab troops/armies and the 1967 Six Days War when Soviet backed Arab armies, tacitly supported by the United Nations and innumerable foreign countries were miraculous victories. All logic and military experts had the State of Israel written off as defeated. We had no human or diplomatic allies.

Prayers went to Gd, and Gd wanted us to win. If we depend on humans, we may lose. That is what almost happened in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War. The Nixon-Kissinger agenda was to make the USA the real power in the Middle East. It's only thanks to Gd and Jewish People that they failed.

The best response of the State of Israel to supporters like Trump and Pence is a simple "thank you for doing what is right in the eyes of Gd."

Memories of A Miraculous Flight

Since Shabbat, I guess, because I first saw news of it after we did havdala, the news here has been full of the fantastic flying skills of an Israeli fighter pilot.WATCH: POLICE SECURE REMAINS OF ISRAELI JET THAT WAS SHOT DOWN.  http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/WATCH-Police-secure-remains-of-Israeli-jet-that-was-shot-down-542205

This brings me back to one of the most surprising experiences I've ever survived. It happened during the 1991 Gulf War, when as a reaction to US President Bush The Elder's threats to Iraq, Iraq bombed/attacked Israel. To this day, I can't figure out how we became the target instead of the United States of America. 

The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991, continuing for five weeks. This was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a decisive victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait and advanced into Iraqi territory. The coalition ceased its advance and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the ground campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, and areas on Saudi Arabia's border. Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel.

Those of us who were living in Israel at the time were frequently wakened in the middle of the night by sirens to alert us of possibly approaching enemy missiles. And we then would have to run into a shelter or whatever room in the house had been prepared as a "safe room."

The military experts insisted that there was a chance that chemical weapons would be launched at us and gave very complicated instructions on how to properly seal the room. I must admit that I didn't follow it exactly. We, davka, chose our bedroom because it has an ensuite bathroom. I wasn't frightened enough to equip the room with the recommended buckets. When a siren went off, the kids would just pile into our room, and we'd all sleep, somehow, together.

It didn't take long to discover that Shiloh wasn't a target. Suddenly Shiloh filled with friends and family of neighbors looking for a safe place to stay. Tel Aviv and its suburbs sustained damage, and miraculously there was nobody in Israel killed by a direct hit, if my memory is correct. But when one of those missiles hit a base with American soldiers, about two dozen of them were killed. That's how dangerous those missile potentially were.

My husband and I had been invited by Herut, Great Britain to be the honorary guests and speakers at their big weekend convention in Bournemouth, scheduled long before, about three weeks into the war. Since it was quiet in Shiloh, we didn't change our plans. Our oldest daughter scheduled vacation from her National Service in Kiryat Shemoneh to stay home while we were away, and we went off on an all expenses covered vacation to England for a few days.

During that war, only El Al was flying in and out of Israel. Ben Gurion Airport was smaller than it is today, and since there was virtually no incoming tourism to Israel and so few flights, things were pretty quiet. It really was a treat for us to get away, even though we didn't think that we were escaping a war.

The flight began on schedule with the usual instructions and buckling in. Then the plane began to move and then ascend into the sky. Suddenly it took a very sharp turn. Never before or after that did I experience such an ascent. Apparently the pilot had noticed a missile coming at us and took avoidance action saving us all, Baruch Hashem, thank The Good Lord.

At that time, pretty much all El Al pilots were trained in the Israeli Air Force as fighter pilots.

Biblical Yitro and The Modern Baal Teshuva Movement

Just before Shabbat my neighbor called to ask me to prepare something for our weekly Shiloh Shabbat Shiur Nashim, Women's Torah Class. Within seconds my mind filled with the verse that opens the Torah Portion of the Week, Parshat Shavua, Yitro/Jethro, Exodus 18:

1Now Moses' father in law, Jethro, the chieftain of Midian, heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel, His people that the Lord had taken Israel out of Egypt.

אוַיִּשְׁמַ֞ע יִתְר֨וֹ כֹהֵ֤ן מִדְיָן֙ חֹתֵ֣ן משֶׁ֔ה אֵת֩ כָּל־אֲשֶׁ֨ר עָשָׂ֤ה אֱלֹהִים֙ לְמשֶׁ֔ה וּלְיִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל עַמּ֑וֹ כִּֽי־הוֹצִ֧יא יְהוָֹ֛ה אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל מִמִּצְרָֽיִם:

It immediately connected me to the very unprecedented movement of ignorant and non-committed/observant Jews to Torah Judaism which began after the establishment of the State of Israel and became much larger after the totally miraculous, of Biblical proportions, 1967 Six Days War victory. And I also connected it to the relatively recent search quite a few Christians are making into the origins of Christianity and the theological questions and doubts this research is causing them.

As I've written here many times, I became acquainted with genuine Torah Judaism through my joining the Great Neck Synagogue Teen Club and attending Shabbatot with NCSY, National Conference of Synagogue Youth of the OU. This was in the middle of the 1960s before the Six Days War.

"Becoming religious" was the term. In those days, BT or Baal Teshuva were unknown phrases. My family was shocked and horrified at my decision to take on those mitzvot that family members had been rejecting and reducing for decades. Jewish families, and other ethnic groups, related so easily to the "Fiddler on the Roof" story of the strictly traditional Jewish family whose daughters all left the fold, in their own ways. The first half of the 20th century was a time when traditional religions were being replaced by ideologies such as socialism, communism and Liberalism.

The unprecedented and unexpected rebirth of the ancient Jewish Nation as the State of Israel in the very same Holy Land as the Bible, davka, after the devastating Nazi Holocaust was very much like what Yitro heard.  The Nazi Holocaust had caused the murder/death of six million 6,000,000 Jews, most of European Jewry, and seemed to herald the end of the Jewish People. But instead the very beginnings of Jewish rebirth began. It began getting much greater after the 1967 Six Days War, when the IDF Israeli Army, without any human or diplomatic ally, quickly defeated three well-equipped Arab armies, Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Instead of Israel being pushed into the sea, Jordan retreated to the east of the Jordan River, Egypt to the Suez Canal and Syria to the other side of the Golan Heights. Finally, the State of Israel had reasonably defensible borders.

On the spiritual front, not only more and more Jews from all over the world accepted Torah and Mitzvot, but descendants of Jews who had completely left the Jewish world suddenly returned to their Jewish roots and the Land of Israel, and that included entire communities as far away as India and Ethiopia.

Everyone "...heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel, His people..."

It is so clear and obvious to me that we are privileged to be living in miraculous times, like those in the Bible.

Real Miracle of Chanukah

Dry Bones is super brilliant, especially here:

Bones explains Jewish History and resilience in a nutshell.

This perfectly illustrates what I've said many times about my feelings when listening to Megilat Ester, the Scroll of Esther, which in Shiloh is read four times over our two day Purim.  Megilat Ester, the Scroll of Esther was written about events that took place well over two thousand, close to 2,500 years ago, hundreds of years before those of Chanukah.

Scroll of Esther, Chapter 9

20And Mordecai inscribed these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,		כוַיִּכְתֹּ֣ב מָרְדֳּכַ֔י אֶת־הַדְּבָרִ֖ים הָאֵ֑לֶּה וַיִּשְׁלַ֨ח סְפָרִ֜ים אֶל־כָּל־הַיְּהוּדִ֗ים אֲשֶׁר֙ בְּכָל־מְדִינוֹת֙ הַמֶּ֣לֶךְ אֲחַשְׁוֵר֔וֹשׁ הַקְּרוֹבִ֖ים וְהָֽרְחוֹקִֽים:
21to enjoin them to make the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and the fifteenth day thereof, every year,		כאלְקַיֵּם֘ עֲלֵיהֶם֒ לִֽהְי֣וֹת עֹשִׂ֗ים אֵ֠ת י֣וֹם אַרְבָּעָ֤ה עָשָׂר֙ לְחֹ֣דֶשׁ אֲדָ֔ר וְאֵ֛ת יֽוֹם־חֲמִשָּׁ֥ה עָשָׂ֖ר בּ֑וֹ בְּכָל־שָׁנָ֖ה וְשָׁנָֽה:
22as the days when the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month that was reversed for them from grief to joy and from mourning to a festive day-to make them days of feasting and joy, and sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.		כבכַּיָּמִ֗ים אֲשֶׁר־נָ֨חוּ בָהֶ֤ם הַיְּהוּדִים֙ מֵאֹ֣יְבֵיהֶ֔ם וְהַחֹ֗דֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר֩ נֶהְפַּ֨ךְ לָהֶ֤ם מִיָּגוֹן֙ לְשִׂמְחָ֔ה וּמֵאֵ֖בֶל לְי֣וֹם ט֑וֹב לַֽעֲשׂ֣וֹת אוֹתָ֗ם יְמֵי֙ מִשְׁתֶּ֣ה וְשִׂמְחָ֔ה וּמִשְׁלֹ֤חַ מָנוֹת֙ אִ֣ישׁ לְרֵעֵ֔הוּ וּמַתָּנ֖וֹת לָֽאֶבְיֹנִֽים:
23And the Jews took upon themselves what they had commenced to do and what Mordecai had written to them.		כגוְקִבֵּל֙ הַיְּהוּדִ֔ים אֵ֥ת אֲשֶׁר־הֵחֵ֖לּוּ לַֽעֲשׂ֑וֹת וְאֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר־כָּתַ֥ב מָרְדֳּכַ֖י אֲלֵיהֶֽם:

And we have been celebrating the Purim Holiday with feasts and gifts for thousands of years.

Simple reminder. Both Chanukah and Purim celebrate miracles Gd made for the Jewish People centuries before the beginnings of both Christianity and Islam. This is further proof that the only true religion is Judaism.

Chanukah in The Dark

Chanukah starts during the last days of the winter lunar Jewish month of Kislev. Days are short and the sky grows darker, as less of the moon can be seen. Simultaneously we light more and more candles, but according to Jewish Law, it is forbidden to use the light of the candles. They are only to "publicize the miracle" of Chanukah.



What's the miracle?



What is the true miracle? Is it really about some oil?

In the earliest of the writings about the history of the time and about the holiday of Chanukah, nothing was said about oil.

The true miracle was that there were Jews willing to fight, even as the situation got darker. Yes, just like the sky gets darker during Chanuka. We light more and more oil/candles, but we can't use the light.

The suddenly, the moon shows some light. It's Rosh Chodesh Tevet. Gd brings back the light, because we fought for Jewish Rights, Jewish Religion. We were smaller and weaker, but when we fought the Greeks, our enemies, then Gd joined us and suddenly we were strong. We won! Yes, a miracle:

...על הניסים

Chanukah's Eternal Message

7th night of Chanukah a few years ago

There is a very simple basic message in the Chanukah Holiday.  It is that not only doesn't might make right, but sometimes the smaller and seemingly weaker opponent wins.

Jewish History is full of such examples. We were never one of the large nations or empires throughout the thousands of years of our history, but although today the Jewish Nation thrives, none of our ancient enemies still exist.

The Ancient Greeks of the Chanukah Story had once ben an enormous mighty empire which spread a lot further than their small Mediterranean islands. They even managed to conquer the Holy Land and tried to ban Jewish worship, putting their idols on the Temple Mount and destroy the Holy Jewish Temple and defile the pure oil required for Jewish worship there. Many of the Jews of the time thought it wiser to align with the invaders; they were called Hellenists.

A small band of Jews stayed true to Judaism and Gd. The Maccabees fought the Greeks, even though the Greeks had more forces and weapons. Gd performed a miracle for them. They were able to not only return to what was left of the Holy Temple, but the brave Gd fearing Maccabees even found one small vial of pure olive oil, just a day's worth. And that oil miraculously lasted eight days, until new oil could be gotten.

The Maccabean reign/dynasty didn't last all that long, due to sins of the people. Within a relatively short time, the Jewish People were exiled, and that exile lasted two thousand years. Many times it looked like the Jewish People were dying out, as had happened to all of the other ancient peoples and religions.

Instead of the Jewish People becoming extinct, in the 19th Century, as modern nationalism was sweeping Europe, and new countries were emerging, the Jewish People awakened from its national slumber. Zionism was coined to give a modern name to the eternal yearnings of the Jewish People for Zion, for the Land of Israel. Subsequently, not only did Jews come from all over the world as a pilgrimage to the Holy Land or to die and be buried there, but Jews began to arrive with plans and training to bring the Land back to life. Ancient cities were repopulated; farms and towns were built. And the necessary defensive groups, too, were established because of constant Arab terrorism.

Then after World War Two, after the Holocaust and the murder of six million Jews the time had come to declare independence, statehood for the Jewish State, the State of Israel. Despite our enemies and dire predictions of international media and leaders, the State of Israel thrives, thank Gd!

Amona, Result of the 1967 Eshkol-Labor Government Failure

Last night in one of those miraculous tremps from the Jerusalem city-line Hisme-border-check, to Ofra, the driver and I spoke a bit about Amona and the expected military blockage on Route 60 where we were traveling. We were both concerned that it would be impossible to enter Ofra, which for me would be very problematic, since I'd have no way to get the rest of the way home to Shiloh. The pro-Amona campaign had been calling on volunteers and supporters to come to Amona from Thursday, with equipment to camp out until after the government's attempt to destroy more homes after Shabbat.

I asked him if he thought that masses would really arrive, and he answered:

"Even so, it wouldn't make a difference."

That's why I think that there won't be too many volunteers from afar. Deja vu, we've seen this so many times before.

In the 1980's Yamit was full of demonstrators, but the result was destruction. Then Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Likud, the supposed extreme Right Zionist, had crossed a red line and destroyed a slew of Jewish communities and handed the Land, all of Sinai, over to Egypt. It was demonstrating at Yamit, against its destruction in 1982, where Tzachi Hanegbi came to national attention as a young leader.

The young Tzachi Hanegbi demonstrating against Menachem Begin's Camp David Agreement.
Picture credit

Begin encouraged and approved of the building of Gush Katif as compensation, but then Likud's PM Arik Sharon decided to destroy it aka Disengagement for reasons unclear to this day. Again there were thousands of demonstrators who moved in and this time truly believed that they could stop the government, but nothing helped to save the Jewish communities in Gush Katif and norther Shomron.

This photograph from August 17 shows settlers crying before being removed from Neve Dekalim, the largest settlement in Gush Katif, 2005. Credit: Haaretz

And soon after the terrible Disengagement, Amona, a small community next to Ofra, was targeted by the Left with a lawsuit claiming that there were theoretical Arabs who owned some of the Land there. That resulted in the violent destruction of nine 9 Jewish homes in 2006.

credit

credit

It's more than heartbreaking to recognize that all of this pain and waste and violence should never have had to happen. The young man who was driving me and I both agreed that the fault was in the reaction of the Eshkol-Labor Government in 1967.

"Eshkol was not the right man at the right time."

The 1967 Six Days War was a miracle of Biblical Proportions. Now, almost fifty 50 years, a half a century later, military experts can give no rational/logical explanation for Israel's victory other than:

"It was a miracle."

The under-equipped an tiny IDF Israel Defense Forces easily defeated four (Iraq sent airplanes in the beginning of the war, but after a plane was quickly shot down, they stayed home) larger and better equipped armies and quickly liberated the Golan from Syria, Sinai from Egypt and Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley from Jordan. Don't forget that since 1948, Jordan had been illegally occupying that territory. Their occupation had not been recognized by any international body including the United Nations. Their alleged sovereignty over it was retroactive only after Israel liberated it.

All precedence from time immemorial has been that if a country finds itself in possession of land in a defensive war it is legitimately/legally hers.  in June, 1967, The State of Israel fought a defensive war for its very survival. During the weeks leading up to the war, Egypt's Nasser unabashedly proclaimed that there were plans to attack and destroy Israel, drive it into the sea.

By the end of the sixth day, the war was over, and Israel found itself with a very defensible area of Land, from the Golan until the Suez Canal and from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River. Any normal logical country would have declared full sovereignty over it all and demand that the defeated enemies accept it. Those with a spiritual bent understood that a major miracle had occurred, and in response the State of Israel was required to Thank Gd and settle the Holy Land with Jews. At that point there were very few Arabs, because under Jordanian Occupation, the area wasn't developed, the Sinai had always been pretty much empty and Syria had used the Golan to attack the Jewish communities in the land below it.

I was in New York that the time, and it was clear that people were so in shock and admiration of the Israeli feat, that there would not have been any serious opposition, especially if Israel acted and spoke firmly. Little Israel, without a single foreign ally, had miraculously become a world power.

But the Eshkol Labor Government dropped the ball. Instead of announcing full sovereignty and annexation over all the Land liberated in the war, it inexplicably and pathetically, offered most of the Land to its defeated enemies in exchange for "peace." Most of the Land was held "in escrow." Only the Golan and eastern Jerusalem were annexed. The Golan was kept to protect northern Israel and to be used for agriculture, and eastern Jerusalem was kept for the Old City and Kotel, Western Wall. The government categorically refused to approve a Jewish return to our Biblical Homeland, Shiloh, Hebron, etc. Settlement activity, since 1967, has been primarily initiated by ordinary Jews against the expressed wishes/policies the government.

Even after half a century of settlement, advanced and modern infrastructural for the benefit of both Arabs and Jews, this Land is extremely empty.

That is why no Arab has been forced from his land to build Jewish homes. So much land is empty and waiting for us to build Jewish communities. There is room for all if Arabs are interested in peace.

Today we, the Jewish People and the State of Israel, are suffering because the Israeli Government of June, 1967, could not recognize the Hand of Gd in the Great Victory of the Six Days War. They were incapable of recognizing that the Moshiach, the Messiah was ready to bring us True Peace and the Messianic Era for which we still pray. 

When Moshe Dayan gave the key of Har Habayit, the Temple Mount to the Muslims, he sent the Moshiach packing, and since then our existence has become more precarious. We had another chance during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which was a miracle even larger, but the Israeli Government then went begging to Nixon and Kissinger for help, instead of to Gd. Gd miraculously enabled us again to be victorious, and again to this very day we fail to accept Gd's gifts and properly thank Him.

When will we ever learn....?

Shabbat Shalom uMevorach

May You Have a Peaceful and Blessed Shabbat

The Incorrect "Conceptzia" That Almost Destroyed The State of Israel

We are our own worst enemies...

Yes, I admit that I'm not original in saying so. Yom Kippur, 1973, was a very frightening example of that truism. In the Jerusalem Post there was an article by  which lists and explains a number of the potentially fatal mistakes made by Israeli leaders before and during the Yom Kippur War.

What could have been if Israel had prepared differently 43 years ago?

Intelligence What if the Intelligence Corps (AMAN) had behaved intelligently; that is, with an open mind and without fixations? This is the part of Yom Kippur War lore that is probably best known to the public: how AMAN’s chief, Gen. Eli Zeira, and a few of his senior aides, insisted until the last moment that Egypt and Syria would not attack despite warning signs as big as Times Square billboards. They had fixated on information received by the Mossad long before from a highly placed source in Cairo. That source believed Egypt would not go to war before it received advanced aircraft and Scud missiles from the Soviets.
Less well known is the revelation by Mossad chief Zvi Zamir that the same Egyptian source, with whom he met periodically, informed him early in 1973 that president Anwar Sadat had changed his mind. Sadat would not wait for new weapons but go to war with what he had. Zamir maintains in a book that he personally informed AMAN of this far-reaching policy shift.
But AMAN ignored it and continued to issue projections until the last moments based on the outdated “conceptzia” – no new weapons meant a low probability of war...

Click here for the complete article. It is a must read for sure.

And for those who weren't around or aware at the time, Israel's IDF soldiers were caught totally by surprise and observing the 25 hour Yom Kippur fast when the coordinated attacks by Egypt in the south and Syria in the north began.

Britanica.com

Without the help of Gd we never could have survived. This was the first time that Israel trusted and consulted with the United States, which added to our troubles, because Nixon-Kissinger had their own plan for the region. They wanted the war, and I have no doubt that they knew that Israel was about to be attacked, to end in a tie/draw which would give them power over us. Our miraculous and massive victory was not the American plan. Their so-called "aid" had been carefully measured out by their calculations, just enough for Israel to survive but not to thrive.

A Six Days War IDF Soldier Tells his Story

Yesterday, in honor of Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, the Shiloh Golden Agers/Senior Citizen program invited one of the neighbors to tell his story as a an IDF soldier during the 1967 Six Days War. Yes, if you've done the math, you know that age-wise he's also a senior citizen, but a very busy one who doesn't go the the activities. Most of the regulars are actually immigrants, and yesterday's crowd was mostly English speakers, so the coordinator was happy when I surprised everyone and walked in, since I do lots of translating for them when I can. Of course, no surprise to you, my translations are full of "commentary."

Our neighbor grew up on Tirat Tzvi, a religious kibbutz in the north of Israel.

Kibbutz Tirat Zvi was established on 21st of Tammuz, 5697, (June 30, 1937) as a "Tower and Stockade" settlement intended to mark the southern limit of Jewish settlement in the Bet Shean Valley.
Its first decade was marked by ceaseless struggle for existence against extremely difficult climatic conditions, swamps, malaria, tense day-to-day relations with local Arabs, and periodic organized enemy assault.
On the 6th of Adar 56, 5708, (February 16th, 1948), the one hundred primitively armed members of Tirat Zvi repelled a coordinated attack by over six hundred regular Iraqi troops.

He knew very well of the frequent Syrian shelling/sniping on the Jewish communities in his area coming from the Syrian held Golan Heights.

After a summary of the pre-Six Days War threats from the Egyptians and Syrians, and the cooperation of the United Nations, which readily removed its "peacekeeping forces" from the area to facilitate the Arab attack on Israel, we heard our neighbor's story.

Instead of the usual call-up codes on the radio, which at that time was the entertainment and news source for Israelis, the IDF conducted an unprecedented "quiet call up" of reservists, going literally house to house to gather troops and take them to various bases for pre-war preparation. You should know that at that time, very few Israelis had telephones. Our neighbor was called on Shabbat, Friday night after dinner, and taken to his base. On the way they picked up other soldiers.

At the base they got their equipment and then went to another location where they began to train for an assault on the Golan Heights; each unit was assigned a different section.

All the while, Egypt, Syria and Iraq, well supplied by the USSR, continued with their threats of war, while Jordan remained silent. The Israeli Government kept hoping that Jordan would desist in joining the expected attack on Israel.

Early in the morning June 5, 1967, while unknown to my neighbor and his unit, Israel had launched an attack on the airfields of Syria, Egypt, Jordan and what could be reached in Iraq. What my neighbor and his fellow soldiers saw was something else. Suddenly two unmarked and unfamiliar planes flew over them. Within seconds Israeli planes reached them and began an air battle, yes, just like in the movies. One of the unmarked planes went down, and then the second one. Afterwards they found out that those were Iraqi planes and that was pretty much Iraq's participation in the war to annihilate and destroy the State of Israel.

Contrary to facts on the ground, Egypt and Syria continued to broadcast optimistic and inaccurate news that they were marching on Tel Aviv and Haifa. They urged King Hussein of Jordan to join in or they would take over the areas his country had been occupying since 1949, the so called West Bank, Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley.

In the meantime, my neighbor's unit had been told to change plans and went to the mountains looking over Shechem, Grizim and Eval. In the dark of the night, they literally found the Jordanian tank corps with their "pants down," sound asleep in pajamas. When the Jordanians realized that the IDF had found them they fled, leaving their brand new American fully equipped tanks* for Israel to adopt.

When they got to Shechem, they sent an Arabic speaking IDF soldier to find the mayor and offer him a deal. The mayor agreed and entered the police compound, where the Jordanian legion was lodged, equipped with a white flag for surrender. After a short while, the Jordanian flag was lowered and white one raised.

At some point during all of this, suddenly my neighbor realized that he was part of the liberating of our Holy Land, the City of Shechem in which our Forefathers had lived and Joseph is buried. 

Then, to collect all of the weapons the Arabs had, they were told that they had 48 hours to bring weapons to the square without any repercussions, punishment. If any weapons were to be found in homes after that the punishment would be fierce. It worked, and the IDF got a lot of weapons from the arabs.

At one point, someone arrived with a newspaper heralding the liberation of Jerusalem the Kotel (western wall) and Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount.) Until then, my neighbor hadn't a clue as to what was going on in the rest of the country.

His unit was finally sent to secure a section of the Golan Heights, but not the section they had been prepared for. And remember that the entire war took only Six Days.

The 1967 Six Days War was a miracle of Biblical proportions. Of this I have absolutely no doubt!!

*The Americans had refused to sell tanks to Israel, but obviously had no problems equipping the Jordanians. Also the USSR had been equipping the Egyptians and Syrians. Israel had inferior weaponry, since the best suppliers boycotted our country. 

Jerusalem Day: Reflecting on 49 Years

For Jews of my generation and older, the 1967 Six Days War was a watershed event, unforgettable and inspiring. For many Jews it was life-changing, too.

There were two major results of the Six Days War:

• Israel miraculously survived and completely defeated three enemy Arab armies, Egypt, Syria and Jordan.
• Israel liberated the illegally occupied Jordan Valley, Judea, Samaria and the eastern parts of Jerusalem including the Walled City and Temple Mount, along with the Sinai and Golan Heights.

All three aggressor countries lost land as a result of the war. If you look at World History, in every single war in which an aggressor loses land in defeat, the land is then part of the victorious country. But here, almost a half a century later, Israel is under all sorts of attacks, diplomatic and terror/military to cede land fairly won to its enemies or a new invented "country." 

It would be nice if I could blame our enemies and faux friends for Israel's problems. But the sad and tragic truth is that it was the State of Israel that is the cause of today's security/terrorist problem and the awful diplomatic pressures we suffer.

Even before the dust had settled, while the world looked on in complete awe, the State of Israel should have immediately and unconditionally annexed all of the Land we liberated, from the northern tip of the Golan until the Suez Canal to the east at the Jordan River. All remnants of the "green line" should have been erased, ground to dust. Not only should the barriers that had been scarring Jerusalem been taken down, but Jews should have been allowed and encouraged to live in every single neighborhood, not just what became known as the "Jewish Quarter" of the Old City. Not only the wonderful and thriving Jewish neighborhoods which were built, like Ramat Eshkol, Gilo, Ramot etc. but housing for Jews should have been built in Shuafat, Beit Hanina, Beit Jalla etc. That anti-Jewish apartheid we still suffer should never have been allowed to continue. 

Judea and Samaria should have had been open for Jewish communities just like the Golan and the Jordan Valley were. And of course we should never have returned the key to Har Habayit, the Temple Mount to the Wakf. A synagogue should have had been built for Jews to pray with full religious rights on the Temple Mount. 

If the Israeli Government had annexed and opened all of the newly liberated Land, the world would have accepted it, even more Jews than the masses who did make aliyah in the euphoric post-Six Days War era would have arrived and the Moshiach/Messiah would be here, too.

Gd gave the Jewish People and Jewish State a great miracle, a military victory in 1967, and our government spit in Gd's face. For that we are suffering to this day, and we must find a way to correct this awful sin. Only then will there be true peace!!

Israel's Most Serious Miscalculation/Missed Opportunity

There are mistakes that haunt us for life. Sometimes they can be easily corrected, and sometimes not, and sometimes it's best to make a major about face and go in that correct direction, no matter how difficult it seems.

Before the 1967 Six Days War, Israel was surrounded by a very difficult to defend ceasefire line. The post war borders were logical and defensible, with the high Golan Heights in the North, the Jordan River on the East, The Mediterranean Sea on the West and on the south there was a great buffer zone, the Sinai and the Suez Canal. 

More and more, over the years and decades I find myself more and more convinced that there was a very crucial mistake made by the Israeli Government as the dust settled after the 1967 Six Days War. Being that we were led by very secular Israelis, who were fueled by an ideology that glorified man and ignored the power of Gd, it's no surprise that they did not read the signs, comprehend what had happened during those six miraculous days. The Israeli victory over three relatively well-equipped and prepared armies, Egypt, Syria and Jordan, was of Biblical proportions. It was like the victory of David over Goliath or the masses of Jewish slaves and followers safely escaping from the powerful Egypt. There is no logical, scientific rationale for it. And military experts and historians have been trying to explain it ever since it happened.

Israel's political leaders of June, 1967, were like an amateur gambler at a slot machine who leaves thousands of dollars on the floor, because he/she had brought too small a bag.

The Labor Eshkol Government had only planned on maintaining a status quo when it came to borders. For, inexplicable to me at least, reasons hard to understand they had no plans on expanding the country, except maybe to rule over the Old City of Jerusalem and whatever was needed for access. They wanted the Kotel, the Western Wall of the outer limits of the Temple Mount, which had only gained popularity as a Jewish holy spot a few hundred years earlier. They even insisted on returning the symbolic key of the Temple Mount to the Muslims. For some fokokt reason, which still causes trouble today, they were sure that it would buy Israel peace and international approval.

They looked at Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley, the Golan and Sinai as bargaining chips to offer Jordan, Syria and Egypt for "peace," even though the Golan was quickly divided into Israeli agricultural communities and settled. The same was done in parts of the Jordan valley and Northern Sinai. There was that one thing all those communities had in common, and it was agriculture, especially for export. But on the whole, the leaders and shakers considered that "for sure" Egypt, Syria and Jordan would be willing and happy to get most or all of it back in exchange for "peace." Of course, it never happened, though, davka, Likud's Menachem Begin did make a deal with Egypt, though he had to destroy every single Jewish community in the Sinai and banish all Jews from living there.

Now, to be honest, I do think that a better peace could have developed if Israel had acted completely differently. With the Gd given power of that 1967 victory we could have, and for a while did have, a peaceful relationship with the Arabs if we had behaved as victors. The fear factor, causing respect could have been just the thing to keep the Arabs from attacking us.

In 1967, after the Six Days War the world was totally in awe of Israel. We could have done anything! There were still many, many people alive and powerful who had witnessed the cruelty of the Nazi Holocaust and were so completely overwhelmed by the Israeli victory that they would have supported anything. That is when we should have fully annexed every single millimeter of land liberated in Six Days War. That act of determination and confidence would have set us on the road to a religious and political salvation/redemption, the true Messianic time. But we, our government did everything wrong.

It's difficult, but never too late, to remedy it. And because we are the Jewish People, if we do what we must do, then Gd will help us.

Shabbat Shalom uMevorach

May You have a Peaceful And Blessed Shabbat