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17 Shevat 5768, 1/24/2008
A Trunk Load of Excuses
A reader writes that he won’t come to live in Israel as long as the political leadership is corrupt.
Imagine that our forefather Avraham said to G-d, “I won’t come to Israel as long as there are idol worshippers in the Land.”
Or, if Joshua had said to G-d, “I won’t bring the Jews to Israel as long as I have to fight the Canaanites.”
The point is that we don’t pick and choose what mitzvot we do because they are pleasing to us or not. That is Conservative Judaism. 
To cling to the exile, holding on to an aging trunk filled with paltry excuses, while others do all the work – may the All Merciful One have mercy on us all.
We don’t say, “I won’t put on tefillin because they cost too much money.”
We don’t say, “I won’t wear tzitzit because they make me look funny.”
We don’t say, “I won’t eat matzah because it makes me constipated.”
Or, “I won’t keep kosher because not all kosher supervision is on the level.”
Or, “I won’t keep the laws of family purity because I want to kiss my wife whenever I like.”
Or, “I won’t pray because there are people in shul who talk during davening.”
We do the mitzvot because Hashem commanded us to do them. Especially when it comes to the mitzvah that the entire Torah is based on – the mitzvah of living in the Land of Israel.
Thank G-d that the brave and holy pioneers that returned to settle Eretz Yisrael in the last century did not say, “We won’t come as long as there are Turks, and swamps, and mosquitoes in the Land.”
More than a hundred years ago, the unsurpassed Torah giant, The Gaon of Vilna, sent his students to settle the Land even though the journey was filled with danger, on sea and on land. He sent them even though the Turkish rulers in Israel were corrupt through and through.
Yes, the politicians leading today’s government in Israel are corrupt. But thank G-d there are Jews ruling here, and not Christians, Moslems, and Buddhists. Thank G-d that G-d has brought us back to our homeland, out from the exile of foreign lands. Thank G-d that we have the opportunity to fix things that need fixing.
But to cling to the exile, holding on to an aging trunk filled with paltry excuses, while others do all the work – may the All Merciful One have mercy on us all.
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15 Shevat 5768, 1/22/2008
Trees and Truth, Truth and Trees
“One day Honi HaMe’agel was walking along the road. He saw a man planting a carob tree and asked him in how many years it would bear fruit. The man replied, ‘In seventy years.” Choni asked, ‘Do you think you will live another seventy years?’ The man answered, ‘I found this world with carob trees. Just as my forefathers planted them for me, I am planting them for my descendants,” (Talmud Ta’anit 23A).
The secular kibbutznik in Israel who works all day cultivating his fields may have a higher place in the World to Come than a Daf Yomi Jew from Beverly Hills or Monsey, New York.
In the same light, the following matters may not be understood by many of our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora, but I will plant the seeds here in the faith that they will be bear fruit in the future. Perhaps Shmuelik, or Shimshon, or Daniel in Kyoto will leave this blog on their computer screens while they rush off to shul, and one of their children will come by and read it, and discover the truth. Today in the Land of Israel, we have been happily celebrating Tu B’Shevat, the holiday of the trees. School children sing songs praising the Land of Israel and thanking Hashem for its fruits. Families go on field trips throughout the country. When it is not a Sabbatical Year, saplings are planted with great joy and spirit. And festive meals of thanksgiving, highlighted by a cornucopia of fruits of the Land, grace our tables. This is all missing in the Diaspora because Diaspora Judaism is missing the Land of Israel. On many occasions, we have mentioned that Judaism can only be complete in the Land of Israel. There are two types of commandments in the Torah – the commandments that are dependent upon the Land of Israel, and those commandments which are not. Every commandment which depends upon the Land of Israel may only be performed in the Land. The other mitzvot can be performed anywhere (Kiddushin 36B). However, the Ramban teaches that the true place of performance for all of the commandments is only in the Land of Israel (Ramban, Commentary on the Torah, Bereshit, 26:5; Devarim, 11:18). Everywhere else, when a Jew performs a commandment, he is merely going through the motions so that he won’t forget how to do them during his exile in foreign lands (Sifre, Ekev, 11:18, and Rashi, Devarim, 11:18. Also, Ramban there). For those readers who don’t like to look up sources, here is what Rashi says, to show that this seemingly outrageous claim is not merely the mad ranting of Tzvi Fishman. Rashi quotes the Midrash: “Even though I am exiling you from Eretz Yisrael to outside of the Land, distinguish yourself with the commandments, so that when you return, they will not seem new in your eyes” (Sifre, Ekev, 11:18). Rashi comments: “This is like a king who became angry at his wife and sent her away. He said to her, ‘Wear your jewelry so it won’t seem new to you when you return to the palace.’ Thus HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to Israel, ‘My sons, distinguish yourselves with precepts so that when you return, they won’t be new to you” (Rashi, Devarim, 11:18). The true, G-d given place for the commandments is in Eretz Yisrael. Their purpose in the exile is to keep us attached to the Torah, so that when we return, they won’t seem unfamiliar and new. But the main place for their performance is in Israel. The Land of Israel is not just our geographical homeland, it is the foundation of all of the Torah and Jewish observance. During our festive Tu B’Shevat meal, there is an order by which we eat the fruits of the Land. The order is based on the Torah verse, “A Land of wheat, and barley, and grape vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a Land of olive oil, and date honey….” (Devarim 8:8). For instance, after partaking bread (wheat and barley) and wine (grape vines) because of their importance, we first eat the species of fruit that is closest to the word “Land” – which is olives. In a similar light, Rabbi Kook writes that the person who is more engaged in the mitzvah of settling the Land of Israel is closer to perfection and closer to receiving a Divine blessing. Thus it may very well turn out that the secular kibbutznik in Israel who works all day cultivating his fields may have a higher place in the World to Come than a Daf Yomi Jew from Beverly Hills or Monsey, New York, as our Sages have taught us, “The mitzvah of living in Israel is equal in weight to all of the commandments in the Torah,” (Sifre, Reah, 80). So, to all the kids who are sneaking a look at Daddy’s computer, if Judaism is important to you, and you want the real thing, it can only be found in the Land of Israel. That’s the simple Torah truth, and there is no way of getting around it.
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10 Shevat 5768, 1/17/2008
New National Leader Arises
Now that I have spent a few hours at the Jerusalem police station for demonstrating against the government, I am declaring myself a national leader. To this end, I am establishing a new political party that will be constituted, at the very beginning, by Americans who have come on aliyah. The Jews who came to Israel from Europe, and the Israeli generation that followed, have made a mess of things. Today, the country needs the idealism of the Jews who gave up the comforts of America to take a part in the building of Israel. A little good old fashion “American know how” can go a long way in cleaning up the mess that the Zionists, Pseudo Zionists, and Post Zionists have made. The main points of our platform will be:
*All Arabs must leave the Land of Israel.
*Any Israeli politician who voted in favor of Oslo or the Hitnatkut, or who promotes the Road Map Plan, will be brought to trial as a national traitor.
*Relations with the United States shall be suspended until Jonathan Pollard is freed.
*All atomic facilities in Iran will be immediately destroyed.
*Any missile launching on Israel will be met with a devastating retaliatory attack.
*Anyone who propagates leftist propaganda will be deported from the country.
*All missionaries will be tried in court for kidnapping and murder, and crucified on the Mount of Olives.
*The judges of the Supreme Court will be replaced by rabbis who will judge all cases according to Torah law.
*TV and radio will be shut down on Shabbat. Driving on Shabbat will result in license suspension.
*Women who dress immodestly will be fined. Repeated offenders will be imprisoned.
*All non-medical abortions will be forbidden.
*No woman will serve in the army.
*All secular newspapers will be shut down.
*Israeli television will be run by a board of rabbis, and Arutz7 will be the only authorized Internet news service.
*All computers will be equipped with anti-pornography filters.
*Teacher’s salaries will be doubled.
*Massive funds will be allotted to promote aliyah, and all Jews who refuse to immigrate to Israel within three years will forever forfeit their right of return.
*Haredim will donate the funds to rebuild Gush Katif, and they will do all of the hard labor or face imprisonment.
Readers are invited to submit names for the new party. Once a name is selected, a bank account will be opened, and donators can send their contributions directly to the account. Until party elections can be held, I will serve as acting head of the party.
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6 Shevat 5768, 1/13/2008
Reflections From The Jerusalem Jail
While I was being detained Thursday night at Jerusalem Police Headquarters for demonstrating against President Bush and the Road Map Plan, it occurred to me that I would rather be imprisoned in the Land of Israel than be a free man in America, England, or France. True, there are problems in Israel that need to be mended. Our situation can be compared to a patient in a hospital. Though the patient is presently ill, he is on the way to being healed. Though the treatment may be painful, it is a necessary part of the recovery process, even if it takes a long time. In contrast, the situation of the Jewish People in the Diaspora is similar to a dying man in a hospice for the terminally ill. Judaism in the exile is destined to end. That is the nature of the exile itself – a long Divine punishment that lasts a certain time then dies out without a trace. In contrast, Jewish life in the Land of Israel flourishes and grows in spite of all of the complications and setbacks. The plague of darness that fell over biblical Egypt is happening again today.The majority of Jews who are still living in the Diaspora are suffering from this very same plague. The darkness in the Diaspora is so thick, a person who is accustomed to the holiness of Eretz Yisrael can actually physically feel it – what the Torah terms “darkness that you can feel” (Shemot, 10:21 ). Unfortunately, the Jews in the Diaspora are blind to the prison bars that surround them. This is the worst type of incarceration there is. They believe that everything is wonderful, that Jewish life is thriving, and that Hashem is pleased with their Jewish Federations, and Temples, and gentile wives. The proof of their blindness is that they don’t see the darkness at all. You can explain things to them until you are blue in the face, but the lovers of galut are blind to their exile reality. They will list a hundred sound reasons for prolonging their Diaspora existences, when the plain simple truth is that, today, a Jew is supposed to live in the Land of Israel. We are not speaking about people who have sick parents to attend to, or other possibly justifiable reasons, but about the majority who could come to Israel, but don’t. In this week’s Torah reading, Rashi explains that four-fifths of the Jewish People in Egypt were stricken during the plague of darkness, because they did not want to leave their bondage and journey as free men to Eretz Yisrael. Only one out of five took a part in the Exodus. Today, a similar percentage of Jews cling to the darkness of their foreign exiles in America, Mexico, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Russia, Europe, and the other Mitzrayims of today. They don’t see the bars of their jail cells, but the spiritual bondage is exactly the same. May the G-d of our Forefathers open the eyes of all of our incarcerated brothers and sisters in exile to recognize the darkness of their foreign lives and false identities, and may He bring them home soon to join in the work of healing the psychological scars and traumas of the Diaspora, which still cling to our frightened leaders and weaken our embattled nation. If we had another 5 million Jews in Israel, the Arabs would flee on their own. There would be no Road Maps, no Annapolises, no Oslos, no Hitnatkuts. As the expression goes, "If you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem." True we have problems in Israel, but the Jews of the Diaspora are to blame.
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3 Shevat 5768, 1/10/2008
Obstacle to Peace
“Where the hell are the settlements?” President Bush asked this morning during his drive through the West Bank to Ramallah.
“You can’t see them because of the foggy weather,” Condolisa Rice answered.
“Don’t feed me that crap!” the President responded irritably. “All of the time, you State Department people are badgering me about the settlements. Well, where the hell are they? There’s nothing but rocks and empty hills out here.”
“There’s a settlement,” the driver said, pointing to a large hillside village cluttered with mosques.
“Settlement my ass,” the President responded. “I suppose those mosques are synagogues. And don’t tell that those shepherds are Jewish settlers. If I am out here already, I want to see a Jewish settlement. Ever since we left Jerusalem, I’ve seen nothing but deserted land and a few donkeys and sheep. I want to know what the hell all the fuss is about!”
“We are coming to an illegal outpost now,” said the CIA agent accompanying the President.
The long caravan of cars and secuity vehicles turned toward Ramallah at the “T” Junction. Just to the side of the road was a tiny cluster of caravans.
“Slow down,” the President ordered. Intently he stared out the window. “Why it’s nothing but a needle in a haystack!” he declared.
“But Jews live there,” Condolisa Rice answered.
“So what?” the President said. “Who cares? They aren’t bothering anyone. No on lives within miles of here!”
"Who cares if some Jews are living there?"
The Secretary of State leaned over and whispered in the President’s ear. “If the Jews have returned to Biblical Israel to live here forever, it means they really are the Chosen People, and that Christianity is one big lie. America is a Christian country. Now do you understand?”
“I understand that all of these illegal Jewish settlements and outposts must be torn down immediately, that’s for sure,” the President answered. “They are an obstacle to peace and must be dismantled now!”
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Hollywood to the Holy Land
by Tzvi Fishman
Tzvi Fishman was awarded the Israel Ministry of Education Prize for Jewish Creativity and Culture
Before making Aliyah to Israel in 1984, Tzvi Fishman was a successful Hollywood screenwriter. He has co-authored 4 books with Rabbi David Samson, based on the teachings of Rabbis A. Y. Kook and T. Y. Kook.
His other books include: The Kuzari For Young Readers and Tuvia in the Promised Land. His most recent book, Secret of the Brit, can be found at JewishSexuality.com, along with an abbreviated online version. |
