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7 Tevet 5768, 12/16/2007
What's The Matter With Celebrating Xmas?
An e-mailer from Canada asks, "What's the matter with a Jewish family celebrating the non-religious aspects of Xmas - presents, stockings, Xmas tree - so that the children won't feel different from their friends?" Thank G-d, in Israel, a Jew doesn't have this dilemma, since you don't even know it is Xmas here, unless you get lost and drive into Bethlehem, where you would be slaughtered in two minutes by the lovers of peace and Xmas joy. I feel I am too out of the Xmas scene to answer this Jew's question in a way that he would understand, so I am turning to you to answer for me, in the hope that your answers will save him and his family from the certain spiritual death that they face. What's the matter with celebrating Xmas?
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6 Tevet 5768, 12/15/2007
The Secret of a Happy Marriage
The secret of a happy marriage is not lots of money, a big house, a good therapist, or living far away from one's in-laws. The secret of a happy marriage is when the husband acts like a man and not an animal. WARNING - Because this essay by Rabbi Shalom Arush deals with the intimacies of marital relations, we are posting it on our jewishsexuality.com site with this convenient link, in consideration for our readers who have expressed their opposition to my posting blogs of this sort on Arutz 7. Secret of a Happy Marriage
May your marriage be filled with mutual love and joy.
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3 Tevet 5768, 12/12/2007
Why Everyone Hates the Settlers
Ever wonder why the whole world goes crazy when a handful of Israeli teenagers put up a cluster of shacks on a barren hillside in Judea and Samaria? Why should it bother a Frenchman in Paris, a Swede in Stockholm, or a Russian in Moscow? Why should Jews living on the mountains of Biblical Israel make the President of the United States and officials in the State Department pull out their hair? We are dedicating this blog to the speedy recovery of Rabbi Moshe Levinger (Rav Moshe ben Tirtza) who suffered a stroke last week, after working days and nights to organize this week’s aliyah to eight new hilltop outposts. Rav Levinger, the father of renewed Jewish settlement in the city of Hevron, was one of the principle leaders of Gush Emunim and the settlement movement for the last thirty years. 
By taking the Land of Israel away from the Jews, the infidels can prove that G-d doesn’t really exist and that the Torah isn’t true.
In an interview just before his stroke, Rabbi Levinger explained that the continuing settlement of Eretz Yisrael was the most important mitzvah of our generation.
“Rabbi Moshe Harlop was one of the closest students of Rabbi Kook. In his book, “Maayanei HaYeshua,” he explains that if you want to know the most important mitzvah for Am Yisrael in any generation, it is the mitzvah that the nations of the world most oppose. In the time of the Hashmoneans, the Greeks made their most forceful decrees against the mitzvot that most highlighted the Jews as a unique holy nation – the commandments of Shabbat, Rosh Hodesh, and Brit Milah.”
This was because the Greeks wanted to impose their unholy Hellenist culture over all of the world. Because their culture celebrated human intellect, physical beauty and hedonist pleasure, they could not tolerate the existence of Judaism which brings G-d into every aspect of life, the spiritual and the physical as well. So they tried to stamp out the commandments that sanctify time and the human body, symbolized by the brit milah. The Greeks wanted to keep the gods in heaven and not be beholden to any holy, all-powerful Divinity here on earth.
“Rabbi Harlop writes that in the time of the footsteps of Mashiach, the mitzvah that the nations of the world most oppose is the mitzvah of settling the Land of Israel. This is because in the time of Mashiach all holiness comes to the world through the settlement of the Land of Israel.”
This is because the greatest sanctification of G-d in our time occurs when Jews return to settle the Biblical hilltops of Israel in fulfillment of Divine prophecy. The nations of the world don’t care if Jews build kosher neighborhoods in Monsey, New York or Antwerpen. Jews can keep even Shabbat in Cairo and Teheran. But when a handful of Jews erect a rickety caravan on the hillsides overlooking Shilo, Elon Moreh, or Beit-El, it is an international scandal.
"And you shall know that I am the L-rd when I shall bring you back to the Land of Israel."
This is because the Jewish prophets said this would happen, that Jews would return to these same Biblical hillsides, and its coming to pass means that there is a G-d in the world, an active, living Ruler of heaven and earth, who chose the Nation of Israel to be His messenger to teach the world His commandments and ways. Of course, the nations of the world rise up in protest. It is OK for them to pay lip service to G-d when He is restricted to heaven. But, like the Greeks before them, they don’t want to be bound by His laws here on earth. In their collective conscience, if you get rid of the Jewish settlers, you get rid of G-d. By taking the Land of Israel away from the Jews, the infidels can prove that G-d doesn’t really exist and that the Torah isn’t true. Then they can go about their stealing and murdering and fornicating in peace, without having to worry about Divine retribution.
So in the words of Rabbi Levinger and Rabbi Harlop, “It isn’t a wonder that all the nations of the world want to hinder the resettlement of Israel by the Jews. They place all of their weight and power precisely on this matter.”
And this is the reason, Rabbi Levinger says, that we must continue to build on every barren hilltop. Because the salvation of the world depends upon it. This is how G-d’s Presence returns to the world. Through the resettlement of Israel, G-d makes Himself known and returns to being the #1 superpower reigning over all of the nations. May it be soon.
And may Rabbi Levinger have a complete and speedy recovery, and return to leading the way up the hillsides of our beloved Land.
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29 Kislev 5768, 12/9/2007
Traitors and Treason
The Palestinian Legislative Council has passed the first reading of a bill that would make it illegal to make any concessions on Jerusalem, which would be classified as a crime of high treason. The bill is expected to win final approval in the coming days. The law states that Jerusalem is a Palestinian, Arab and Moslem city, and that it is totally forbidden to give up or conduct negotiations about any part of the city. Anyone who violates these prohibitions would be prosecuted as a traitor. Our Sages have told us that while there is no Torah among the gentiles, there is wisdom. We should learn from them on this one. After all, it would seem absolutely natural that the Knesset unanimously pass a similar bill regarding Jerusalem, which is, in truth, a 1000% Jewish Israeli city, and only a Jewish Israeli city. Any Israeli politician who even talks about making concessions over Jerusalem should be prosecuted as a traitor to the State, to the Jewish People, to the Torah, and to G-d. And because a Jewish Jerusalem is vital to the wellbeing of the world as well, he or she should also be tried in Hague as a traitor to the world. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem
There is in fact a Knesset law of treason forbidden anyone from handing over Israeli land to enemies, but, of course, it was never used against Rabin, Peres, Sharon, and their buddies. The Mishna teaches that a person shouldn’t be discouraged when they see the wicked prosper (Avot,1:7). Their punishment is sure to come. Rabin and Sharon have already been judged in a Higher Court for betraying the Land of Israel. Peres apparently is going to get his full sentence in the world to come. I wonder what is in store for Olmert, Barak, Livni, and Chaim Ramon? And any other Jew who dares to raise a finger against Jerusalem.
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26 Kislev 5768, 12/6/2007
The Best Hanukah Gift For Your Kids
At the center of this month’s Torah readings is Yosef HaTzaddik. The Holy Zohar teaches that Yosef earned the esteemed title of Tzaddik because he guarded the Covenant of sexual purity. This is what brought him to kingship over the world. “Rabbi Shimon said, ‘It was only after Yosef withstood the test of temptation (with Potiphor’s wife) that he was called Tzaddik. Since he guarded the holy Brit, he was called Tzaddik’” (Zohar,Bereshit 194b). Day after day, dressed in the most immodest outfits, the wife of Potiphor would approach the young Hebrew slave and beckon him to her quarters. She would whisper seductive things in his ear. Yosef’s test wasn’t just a onetime thing. She kept after him for months on end, doing everything in her powers to cast her spell over him. On that fateful day when she threw herself at him with all of her charms, she made sure that no one else was in the house. The only thing standing between Yosef and the forbidden act was his fear of G-d. His father and family were hundreds of miles away, he was in the prime of his strength, she was the most beautiful and seductive woman in Egypt, and still he resisted. In praising Yosef’s achievement, the Zohar emphasizes that guarding the Covenant of sexual holiness is like observing all of the Torah, “guarding the Brit is equal in weight with the whole Torah” (Zohar, Bereshit 197a).
In our time, each of us is tempted every day with the very same test when we sit down at the computer. Thousands of seductive women are just a quick click away. Today, the Internet is Potiphor’s wife. We who don’t have same exalted the fear of G-d that Yosef had, where will we summon the strength to overcome the temptation? For us, Divine assistance comes in the form of an anti-porn filter. Thank G-d, there are many on the market. Many can be downloaded for free. So grave is the danger of Internet watching that Torah authorities have ruled that Internet surfing without an anti-porn filter is a violation of the Torah commandment, “Thou shall not put a stumbling block in front of a blind man.” Erotic pictures on the Internet, whether they be in ads, on the Yahoo home page, or in adult sites, cause a person to violate a long list of Torah commandments, including: “You shall be holy, for I the L-rd your G-d am holy!”
“Thou shall not turn astray after your hearts and after your eyes which lead you astray.” "Thou shall not follow after thy eyes."
“Therefore shall your camp be holy, that He see no unclean thing in you and turn away from you.”
“And you shall guard yourself from every evil thing.”
“Do not turn astray after their gods!”
“You shall not walk in the customs of the gentile.”
“Thou shall not bring an abomination into your house.”
The Kids Get a New Computer
Recognizing the terrible danger of unsupervised Internet viewing has extra significance now, at the time of Hanukah. In our article, “The Secrets of Hanukah,” we explained that it was precisely the Covenant of sexual holiness of the Jewish People that the Greeks sought to pollute. The Covenant between the Nation of Israel and G-d is sealed on our bodies, by the brit milah, emphasizing that G-d also has dominion over this part of our lives. The hedonist Hellenist culture sought to stamp out this holiness and give sensuality and bodily pleasure free reign. Instead of covering the modesty of the body, they celebrated its total exposure, in the promiscuous culture, their bathhouses, their art, and their nude Olympics. Their goal was not to wipe out the Jewish People, but rather to wipe out our connection to G-d. And the method they chose to do this was to force us into adopting their immoral philosophies and ways. For, like the wicked Bilaam before them, they knew that the G-d of the Jewish People despises immorality. This same strategy is being used by the forces of evil today, via the immoral Greek/Western culture which has engulfed the world and entered into Jewish homes everywhere, with the very same goal of defiling the Jewish People, and severing our holy connection to G-d, may the Almighty have mercy. So if you haven’t installed a censoring filter on your computer, install one now. Let that be your gift to your children on Hanukah.
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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. |
