......Moshe Kempinski

 

Nothing makes sense in a world that has become such a sticky mixture of truth and falsehood, darkness and light. This is a world where murder and mayhem continue all across the globe and yet two or three young boys setting up a makeshift shack on an empty hillside 100 meters from their home in Judea and Samaria becomes headline news instantly. Somehow in these days proportionality and context has disappeared.

 

Europe is slowly sinking under the wave of Islamic emigration washing over its shores. Islamic Jihadist networks span Europe from Poland to Portugal. This was mainly due to the spread of radical Islam among the descendants of guest workers who were invited into these countries to fuel Europe's postwar economic miracle. As a result throughout Europe, immigrants or their descendants are volunteering for jihad against the West.

It is that same Europe that provided the relatively new President of the United States the Nobel Prize for his efforts for Peace. What exactly has this president done for Peace? Well,..actually nothing. Yet he has done something that has enamored him to the Europeans. In his attempt to become loved by all the nations of the earth he has decided to castigate, abandon and ridicule one small country, Israel. That is all that would be necessary to grant him the coveted prize.

 

A world that has lost much of its spiritual moorings continues to drift aimlessly and can only come together on one thing, its condemnation of Israel. As a result the new Haman of Persia speaks of the extinction of Israel and the world may shake its head and may even take "drastic action" like walking out on his speech... but not much more than that . Missiles are being aimed at the heart of this country and the world is still energetically divesting itself of Israeli academic and economic connections. This world is becoming a rough and dangerous neighborhood again.

 

As I sit here on the cobblestone pathways of the old city of Jerusalem I look at the people surrounding me. I would have thought that one would sense tension and concern. One could have imagined that the fear of confronting such a hostile world would be etched on the faces of all those around us.

 

Instead all around me I saw "old men and old women sit in the squares of Jerusalem….and the streets are full of boys and girls playing"(Zachariah 8:4). . In the air , sounds are heard that are the sounds " heard in the hills of Judah and in the courtyards of Jerusalem the sound of gladness and the sound of joy, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.( Jeremiah 33:11).

I believe that this secret of the unusual strength of this people could best be understood from a torah insight offered by Rabbi Hanan Porat. He returned to the Talmudic explanation of why we bring together four specific species on the holiday of Sukkot . We read that "..ye shall take you on the first day the fruit of goodly trees( the etrog) , branches of palm-trees( the lulav branch of the palm tree) , and boughs of thick trees( the Hadas -Myrtle branch), and willows of the brook, and ye shall rejoice before HaShem your G-d seven days.

The Talmud describes the classic understanding that the etrog represents a species that has taste and smell, Spiritual knowledge and Divine deeds. The palm branch has taste but no smell, the myrtle branch has smell and no fruit and therefore no taste. The willow branches have neither. The Talmud describes how each gives to the other what the other is lacking.

 

Rabbi Porat then asks " what then does the willow branch give...it has nothing". Furthermore the willow branch is not insignificant as it is a critical member of the four species. During the days of the temple, willow branches were brought from the village of Motza and were placed around the altar throughout the feast . On the last day after putting away the lulav and etrog we remain holding five branches of the willow branches in our hands.Finally at the end of the service they are flung on top of the Ark of the Scrolls, a place of honor. Not a minor role at all.

Rabbi Porat suggests that throughout the bible we find the willows connected to water , rivers and brooks. The willow branch cannot live long separated from water. It needs water and is clearly aware of its need and yearning for water.

It is that yearning that the willow branch gifts to the other of the four species.

One can become so enamored with the fact that one is filled with taste and resplendent with fragrance and forget that he must be filled with constant yearning. Yearning is the most powerful force in our spiritual growth. Without that yearning even those that seem to be filled with Torah knowledge and Spiritual activities can wither unless they constantly retain that yearning for soothing and quenching living waters.

 

That is the secret of these people. They continue to hope because they continue to yearn.

" By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst thereof we hanged up our harps.( psalm 137:1-2)

They continue to be strengthened because they continue to yearn. As a result, despite the dry parched wilderness that has engulfed the world, they and all those who continue to yearn for those healing waters will be redeemed.

"For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses." (Isaiah 44:1-4)

.....Moshe Kempinski
 
 
Nothing in this world happens by happenstance or coincidence. The lines of human history intersect the lines of destiny and purpose all the time. This occurs regardless if those witnessing these encounters between” time and purpose” are aware of it or not. Such is the nature of our existence. The world we live in is called Olam in hebrew, and that very word   is a whisper of its root denoting hiddenness.
 
It is not happenstance that the Pope representing Rome arrives in Israel on the week we honor Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai the great spiritual and physical opponent of Ancient Rome. Ancient Rome has disappeared and the teachings and spirit of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai continue to live on. There is an important lesson there.
 
 
 
It is also not happenstance that the leader of the State of Israel met with one of the most powerful leaders of the world to discuss Israel's retreat from the biblical heartland on the week we celebrate the miracle that brought about its liberation. President Obama discussed the fragile situation in the Middle East as if he would discuss a chess match . Obama true to everything we have seen thus far will make decisions that are politically correct and noble sounding but without being connected to the reality on the ground. Yet the simple Divine reality and the miracles of the Six day war will prove to be much more powerful than the notions of one man, even a very popular man.
 
 
 
Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama both need to be reminded of a hot and  humid June in 1967.For the months prior to those fateful days, the radio waves were filled with hatred and threats against the small sliver of a country called Israel. Gamal Abdel Nasser, the president of Egypt declared on radio" We intend on beginning an all out campaign, it will be a total war and our basic purpose is the eradication of the Israeli state" (27.5.67). Ahmed Shukeiri the head of the Palestinian resistance movement also delivered the following statement" Israelis who were born in Palestine that will still be alive after the war will be allowed to live in Palestine. But based on my best estimation not a single one of them will still be found alive." (26.5.67)" Similar threats were being aired every day by leaders of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Even the darling of North American media, King Hussein of Jordan joined the war that began in June of 1967 with the following words," Kill the Jews with everything that comes to your hands. Kill them with your arms, with your hands, with your nails and with your teeth."
 
 
 All this hatred and rhetoric before a "west bank" ever existed as a concept and prior to any delusions of "two states living side by side in peace"
 
The residents within the pre-1967 borders - which Israel's famed orator and foreign minister, Abba Eban, called the "Auschwitz borders" - were busy digging mass graves in Tel Aviv and Netanya. All this in preparation for the onslaught that was coming their way. The World powers, as is their custom even to this day, continued their endless babble and diplomatic game-playing as the noose around Israel was continuing to tighten. Not that many years had passed since the disaster of the holocaust and the fear and anxiety was palpable.
 
 
 Reuven was a seventy-year-old survivor of Auschwitz who had migrated to America after the Second World War and subsequently made Aliyah to Israel. He told his children that he was determined to live out the dreams of his ancestors in the land of G-d and spend his last years in Israel. As the reports from the Middle East became more frantic and threatening, Reuven’s children desperately tried to get him to return to the safety of America. He described to a friend of ours the daily arguments, pleading and tearful requests he had to endure from his family. He explained that he understood his children, but that he was tired of running and that this was his home and final place of refuge.
 
Meanwhile, all around him, the hatred kept growing. Around the land, a thick pall of foreboding lay heavily over the population.
 
Yet, in the midst of those fear-filled and hot days in June, G-d produced a miracle, and the mighty armies of all the Arab countries that had amassed around Israel were vanquished. All this was done in an astonishing six days. A small but determined army attacked and beat back the Russian-equipped hordes of the Arab world.
 
Just as the eight days of the Hanukkah miracle of oil was a Divine signature on the even greater miracle of the victory of the small band of Maccabees against their oppressors, so did these six days dispel the notion that anything in this country came into being by happenstance. In those heady days of victory and celebration, most of Israel's population rejoiced at the notion that they had been a witness to a modern-day miracle.
 
Mr Reuven  of Netanya had no doubts regarding the Divine nature of this experience. This seventy-year-old man got on the first bus that was traveling to Jerusalem after the ceasefire. As the bus drove along Jaffa Road, it broke down and all the occupants began to walk, almost mesmerized, towards the liberated Old City of Jerusalem. As they were nearing the walls, a group of Israeli paratroopers were passing by marching towards the Jaffa Gate. The soldiers then broke ranks and began dancing through the gates. Reuven, the seventy year old survivor from Europe, joined them and danced all the way to the Western Wall. His age was forgotten, his past became a whisp of smoke and his heart was rejuvenated as he danced and sang with these young soldiers.
 
Later, he was to remark to his friends in Netanya, "I don't know how but I found the courage to stay in my new home despite the treats and the dangers. As a result, I Reuven who came out of the graveyard of Poland was given the zechut, the merit, to be able to join the soldiers of Zion in their joyous dance towards our holy mountain."
 
May that type of  spirit and resolve fill the hearts of our Prime Minister and his government as the struggle against the steadily mounting pressure from President Obama and the world. If any of them feel ill equipped to face that challenge they would do well to come to Jerusalem during Yom Yerushalayim .They could join the tens of thousands of Jews young and old who will be dancing through the streets of Jerusalem towards the holy mountain.

.If they then develop the courage to look to the heavens , they may merit to see that generations who have come before us , for they too will be dancing in the heavens on this day.

 .....Moshe Kempinski

On Monday (15 February 2009) a special ceremony took place in Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav in the Kiryat Moshe section of Jerusalem The Brit or circumcision ceremony was being held a week before the tragic one year anniversary of the slaughter of eight young Yeshiva students in the same school. On that night, on the first day of the Hebrew month of Adar , an Israeli-Arab walked into the Mercaz Harav yeshiva armed with a Kalashnikoff and ammunition belts.. He opened fire on a group of teenage boys and young men immersed in their studies, firing an estimated 500-600 bullets in the span of 10 minutes and butchering eight young students. The gunman didn’t konow these young boys personally ,he simply hated what they represented. The rampage on that night was stopped by two young men . One was torah scholar , author and off-duty IDF officer Yitzchak Dadon and the other was Captain David Shapiro, an IDF officer who was nearby at home who responded after hearing the gunfire.

Eight young souls were extinguished in the midst of studying G-d's Torah in the Yeshiva library. The gunman didn’t hate these specific young boys, he hated what they represented.

On Monday , a year later, Yitzchak Dadon brought his newborn son back into that same Yeshiva library so that his son could be initiated into the Jewish people. The man who saved so many other lives re-entered the room where eight young lives were curtailed holding in his arms precious new life.

Rabbi Tzemach Hirschfeld, whose son, 18-year-old Yonatan Chaim was murdered in the attack, was the mohel who carried out the ritual. Rabbi Hirschfeld, said "this is a very special occasion for me – to circumcise the son of the man who shot the terrorist who murdered my son, and all this just a week before the first anniversary of the attack."

A true understanding of the spiritual undercurrents that flow through life is to understand the concept of circles flowing through circles.

 

A man who was responsible for stopping the carnage brings his newborn son into the peoplehood of the Jewish people amidst singing and dancing. On the following week, eight new torah scrolls will be delivered to the Yeshiva amidst singing and dancing.In addition the event will also be marked by the worldwide conclusion of the study of the 2,700-page Babylonian Talmud, . Over the course of this past year, those who wished to study a daf of gemara, or several of them, in memory of the slain students, signed up via an internet site designated for the purpose, specifying the pages they planned to study. The entire Talmud was completed more than three times in this manner, and the festive conclusion ceremony will be featured at next Tuesday's memorial.

 

All this again with singing and dancing.

When Jews dance they dance in a circle ..circles within circles.

 

Rabbi Hirschfeld , the father of murdered Yonatan Chaim ( hy'd) appeared happy after what must have been a very heart wrencing and dramatic occasion, He spoke to several media outfits and a couple of newspapers and the following is a compilation of some of his words."Yes, this is definitely the closing of a circle. But it's not the first time; I also circumcised the son of Dudi Shapira, who also took part in killing the terrorist. But here, of course, it is even more poignant, given the timing and the location...As we say at the brit and also at the Passover seder, 'With your blood you shall live' - the blood that was spilled here is not the end of the story; there is life after death. Life goes on, babies are born, and thank G-d I deal with this, I am always involved with people who have just had babies, and life continues....It's true that our grandparents said that every baby born is a revenge against Hitler, but I don't live with that sensation. I could say it is a victory of sorts. We're not giving up, we have babies; I too had grandchildren this year..."

 

The prayers recited over the baby declared;

 

Our G-d and G-d of our fathers, preserve this child for his father and mother, and his name in Israel shall be called Elkanah ben (son of) Rabbi Yitzchak .May the father rejoice in his offspring, and his mother be glad with the fruit of her womb, as it is written: May your father and mother rejoice, and she who bore you be glad. As it is said: I passed by and saw you weltering in your blood, and I said to you: You shall live through your blood; and I said to you: You shall live through your blood. ..........May this little infant Elkanah ben Rabbi Yitzchak become great. Just as he has entered the Covenant, so may he enter into Torah, into marriage, and into good deeds.

 

The child was named after the late head of the Yeshiva Rabbi Avraham Elkana Shapiro, Yitzchak Dadon's rabbi. Yet the name Elkana means G-d will enact revenge. This revenge is personified by a young baby entering the nation of Israel, eight Torah scrolls entering the sanctuary and thousands of hours of Torah study culminating at this day.

 

Circles within circles threading through every moment in this land of unfolding destiny.

 

In blessed memory of Avraham David Moses, Ro’i Aharon Roth, Neria Cohen, Yonatan Yitzchak Eldar. Yochai Lifshitz, Segev Peniel Avichail, Yonadav Chaim Hirschfeld, Doron Meherete, ....May HaShem Avenge their blood..

 

Moshe Kempinski....

The celebration of Tu B'Shvat--the 15th of the month of Shevat on the Hebrew calendar is described in the Talmud, where Tu B'Shvat is called "the new year of the trees." The determination of the date is connected to the fact that four months have passed since the commencement of the rain season on the Feast of Tabernacles. From that point on the roots of the tree have been saturated and the life giving fluids are filling the tree and beginning the energy and revitalizing power of blossoming.

 

 

The ancient books describe the traditional eating of the fruits of Israel on this day as a means of Tikkun or correcting the sin of Adam and Eve.

 

Adam and Eve were put into the garden to protect and care for the garden. They were given one restriction, one prohibition, and that was to avoid eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Every fruit they ate from the garden was a source of blessing because it was received as a gift from the Almighty. Yet that was not enough and they earned to reach out and eat from the one tree that was forbidden to them. That act had nothing to do with the Divine Giver but was an act done in spite of Him. It was an act that fulfilled their passion to take for their own selfish desire.  

 

Yet there was something deeper that was missed by Adam and Eve that led to their act of defiance, and it is something that continues to be missed by mankind until this very day.

 

Rabbi Kook, of blessed memory, revealed that deep insight regarding two verses in Genesis. God commanded the earth to give forth fruit trees producing fruit: "And God said: 'Let the earth put forth grass, herb yielding seed, and fruit-tree bearing fruit after its kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth.' And it was so" (Gen. 1:11).

 

The earth fulfilled G-d's command but with one modification: "And the earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after its kind; and God saw that it was good" (Gen 1: 12).

 

The earth produced "trees producing fruit." Our sages in the Midrash  teach homiletically that the original and ideal creation was that the trees themselves (their bark and trunk) would taste like the fruit that it produced, fruit-trees bearing fruit.

 

Instead, the earth fashioned trees that only produced fruit. The deep meaning and instruction in such a seeming difference between the ideal and the created reality points to the flaw in the reality we all experience in life. Yet G-d "saw that it was good." G-d purposely created a reality at odds with its ideal, a tension filled imperfect world.

 

Rav Kook explained that one of the basic failings of our limited perception of reality is that we generally aspire to the goal and ignore the process of attaining that goal.  Man often focuses on the fruit of the tree and ignores the sweetness of the tree that bore the fruit. We place emphasis on the destination and as a result are unable to appreciate the means by which we attain our goals. We focus on some goal we have determined is important and ignore the journey and as a result we often stumble and fall. Focus on the voyage and the journey is the only way to ensure that we reach the right point in our destiny. That focus is  also the only way to ensure that we arrive with our souls and hearts intact.

 

 

Such a decision stands before the people of Israel again . The choice in the coming election must be made with a clear determination of the purity of heart. We are choosing a voice to speak and stand for the people of Israel and it must be a voice that is clear pure and vision based. The voice of the National Union/ Ichud Haleumi is such a clear voice. Much will be done in these final days before Election Day to deter those who are committed to electing such a voice.

 

There will be many that will declare that such a decision to vote for a small party is weakening the Likud and enlarging the threat of a Kadima  government. That in fact does not seem to be the case based on the latest polls.  The Land Of Israel bloc seems to be growing rather than weakening. It may in fact force the Likud to rely more heavily on parties such as the Jewish Home and the National Union.

 

But yet despite those threats, the decision about how to vote this coming Tuesday must be  one filled with the surety of commitment . It must be based on the sweet truth of the journey without rushing towards a destination we assume will be the only correct one. It must be based on a commitment to the truth of the land of Israel, the people of Israel and foremost to the G-d of Israel. That has been and continues to be the secret of this people’s survival.