New Orleans, Tzunami, and Noah’s Ark

Guess what caused the Flood in the days of Noah? That’s right. How did you guess? Friends, the story of Noah isn’t just ancient history – it’s a warning for today!

Noah's Ark

The holy Zohar teaches that the Flood came as punishment for the sin of wanton sexual transgressing (Zohar, Bereshit, 56A).

“Rabbi Shimon taught: There is nothing in the world that so arouses the zealousness of HaKodesh Baruch Hu as the sin of transgressing the Brit, as is written, ‘And I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge My Brit (Vayikra, 26:25).

“Behold the generation of the Flood was not considered completely guilty until they sexually corrupted their ways on the earth. Even though they acted violently, each man with his fellow, nevertheless it was because of their sexual corruption that the sentence of destruction was decreed. They were punished measure for measure – they were destroyed for the sin of destroying their seed on the earth (Zohar, Bereshit 66B).

Now tell me, my good friends, the flood that inundated the hooker filled, homosexual rampant New Orleans, can’t this be seen as a warning that G-d wants us to mend our ways and do away with the promiscuous culture that characterizes western society?

New Orleans

And was it a coincidence that the Tzunami wiped out miles upon miles of nude beaches where freedom loving perverts from all over the world would shamelessly practice their abominations in public?

Before Tzunami

After Tzunami

OK. Maybe that’s true for New Orleans and the Tzunami, but what do these disasters this have to do with Am Yisrael? Well, for one thing, as long as the Jewish People guard their sexual purity, embodied by the Brit, there is no enemy that can harm them, as the Zohar attests:

“Rabbi Elazar said, As long as they remain attached to this Brit and do not loosen their hold of it (do not blemish it with sexual sins,) there is no nation nor language in the world that can do them harm. Noah clung to Brit and guarded it, therefore the Holy One Blessed Be He safeguarded him. But all of his contemporaries did not guard the Brit, and because of this, the Holy One Blessed Be He removed them from the world.  As has been stated, in exactly the same way that they sinned, they were blotted out from the world” (Zohar, Bereshit, 66B).

Let’s not forget that the destruction of Jerusalem, and the exile from our Land, was brought about by sexual transgression.

Rabbi Leon Levi teaching the Zohar at the Tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai

The elder Kabbalist, Rabbi Leon Levy explains that just before the destruction of both Temples, there were false prophets who led the people to think that the licentiousness of the time wasn’t so bad, as the verse says, ‘Thy prophets have seen for thee vain and foolish visions; and they have not exposed thy iniquity, to restore thy captivity; but have prophesied for thee burdens of falsehood and deceit’ (Eichah, 2:14).

“These men, known as lenient rabbis, consistently spoke falsehood and deceit, saying that G-d appeared to them in nightly visions. They pretended to look after the holy Jewish People with vain and ill-spirited proclamations, saying, ‘Don't worry, everything will be all right. Even if you are lax in sexual matters, it isn't so bad, you have our permission to walk about the streets of the city in immodest attire, and we are permitting you to assemble together, men and women, and youths of both sexes. Therefore, dear brothers, why are you so worried and troubled? Behold, all of you are the holy children of Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaacov, and you are leading your daily lives according to our authorized rabbinical supervision. Even if you pollute your eyes with forbidden images, even if you have slipped into immoral sexual practices, there are ways to amend these things, it isn't such a terrible thing, for sure, G-d will forgive you.’

Destruction of Jerusalem

“But, unfortunately my cherished friends, things did not come to pass according to these prophets of falsehood. The opposite occurred.  Harsh and mighty judgments fell upon us, along with terrible sufferings that we had never known, may G-d have mercy, as it says, ‘Who will fall by the sword, who by famine, who by thirst?’

“In this fashion, both Temples were destroyed, the Second like the First, all because of the sins and wickedness of these same false prophets who constantly led the Jewish People astray with improper and deceitful guidance. This brought about national collapse and destruction until the Jews were cast into exile and forced to endure the grave sufferings that have accompanied our holy nation for nearly two thousand years” (From “Tikun Now!” in the book, “Tza’akat Yisrael”).

Today, with Jerusalem once again on the chopping block, G-d forbid, and with all of Judea and Samaria in jeopardy of another plan of evacuation - may its formulators be evacuated instead – in addition to waging a fierce and determined campaign against this latest national betrayal, it is worthwhile to take heed to the message of this week’s Torah portion and the teachings so clearly set forth in the Zohar.

The Destruction of Gush Katif

Shabbat Shalom.

Darwin, Dinosaurs, and Apple Delight

At the beginning of the year, there are always a few diehard skeptics who ask, “What about Darwin? What about evolution? What about dinosaurs and the age of the earth?” Often these questions are asked by baale t’shuva who are seeking serious answers to seeming contradictions between the account of Creation in the Torah and the things they previously learned in school.

Get This Man a Kippah!

Today, most serious biologists will admit that man did not evolve from apes, excepting perhaps certain Israeli politicians who do things that not even a monkey would do. The fact is that decades after Darwin formulated his theory of evolution, his famous “missing links” have never been discovered. Some high school texts and natural history museums may still have illustrations of monkeys evolving into prehistoric man, but the theory has been shot through with holes. As the story of Creation attests, man was a unique and separate creation, distinguished from all other animals. Even if there are species that underwent a process of evolution from fish to frogs, this doesn’t bother the religious Jew. The Torah does not stand in conflict with scientific knowledge. The Torah adds a higher understanding to scientific thought. The story of Creation in the Torah is not meant to be a historical, scientific recording of what took place. Rather, the Biblical account of the seven days of Creation, and the story of Adam and Eve, come to teach us moral lessons about the world in which we live, and about our relation to the Creator. Even the vaunted “Big Bang” theory has lost credence, and many leading scientists have turned to theological explanations of the primal cause.

A Lot of Hot Air

Rabbi Kook writes: “There is no contradiction whatsoever between the Torah and any of the world’s scientific knowledge. We do not have to accept theories as certainties, no matter how widely accepted, for they are like blossoms that fade. Very soon, scientific technology will be further developed and all of today’s new theories will be derided and scorned, but the word of G-d will endure forever” (Letter 91). The main teaching that we derive from the story of Creation, Rabbi Kook says, is that everything is the work of G-d, from the smallest to the largest, from the few to the many. G-d rules over all.

The Zohar emphasizes that to properly understand the Torah, it is necessary to explore the secrets of the Torah which are hidden under the stories on the Torah and the simple reading of the text. Rabbi Kook writes: “The Torah certainly obscures the meaning of the act of Creation and speaks in allegories and parables, for indeed, everyone knows that the stories of the Book of Bereshit are part of the hidden Torah, and if all these narratives were taken literally, what secrets would there be?” (Ibid)   

Thus, if scientists maintain that the world is billions of years old, and that dinosaurs once roamed the earth, good for them. The Zohar also has an answer for that. It says that worlds were created and destroyed, created and destroyed, before G-d was satisfied with His Creation. What is important to us is the relationship of the Creator to man, and that great epic started 5768 years ago when the Holy One Blessed Be He whooooshed a Divine soul into Adam.

And this brings us to the apple. If the story of Creation is an allegory, then what is the real secret behind the apocalyptic sin of eating the forbidden fruit? The Tikunei Zohar and the writings of the Arizal explain that Adam’s sin was in not waiting until Shabbat to have relations with Eve. Instead, he rushed to mate with her on the same day they were created, which was Friday. Because it was a weekday, the day lacked the exalted holiness of Shabbat. Thus their marital relations were consummated at a time when harsh judgments and spiritual impurity abounds. Their hastiness and lust brought about a devastating blemish in all of the spiritual worlds, and its rippling effect, like an atomic fusion, triggered a physical cataclysm as well, shattering the ideal paradise of existence and expelling man from Eden. If they had only waited until Shabbat, the world would have been elevated to an everlasting Redemption. This is the power of Shabbat and the world-enhancing beauty of holy marital relations on this incredibly holy day. 

"Didn't I tell you we should wait?"

That first illicit bite was the real beginning of history. Ever since then, we have been trying to find our way back to the Garden.   

Slaughter the Trojan Horse!

Internet in the Home

HaRav Eliahu Leon Levi

In Memory of our Captain

With the death of HaRav Avraham Elkana Kahana Shapira, the earthy ship has lost its captain, and we are left bobbing without direction on the waves of a turbulent sea.

Lost in a Turbulent Sea

The first time I met him, I had just arrived in Israel, a few hours before Simchat Torah. During a break in the joyous dancing at the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem, I was pulled out of the incredible tornado of spiritual energy and taken to meet HaRav Shapira, the Rosh Yeshiva and Chief Rabbi of Israel. His was one big happy smile which beamed with a radiant light. I felt like I was meeting a celestial angel. He motioned for me to take a piece of cake and to make a “L’Chaim” on a glass of wine. My Israeli friends asked him if I had to keep two days of the Yom Tov, like a Jew who lives in the Diaspora. At the time, I hardly spoke Hebrew. Constantly smiling, the Rabbi asked if I intended to make aliyah? When I answered yes, his smile broadened, his eyes twinkled, and he said that I should keep only one day, but that I should not travel out of the city during Isru Hag.

When I made aliyah, I lived in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood, and would often daven at Mercaz HaRav. HaRav Shapira was always happy to see me and demonstrated a genuine interest in my progress. Once, after I had written a screenplay about an American youth who comes to Israel and gets killed by a terrorist, I had second thoughts that maybe the killing would reinforce the exaggerated fears that Diaspora Jews have about coming to Israel. So I went and asked the Rabbi if having such a scene in a movie could be considered similar to the terrible sin of speaking badly about the Land of Israel? To appreciate his answer, you have to realize that HaRav Shapira had spent all of his life in the holy halls of Torah. As eulogizes emphasized at his funeral, he didn’t just know a part of the Torah in depth, like many other rabbis, he knew all of the Torah in depth. First, he said to me that my worry was not a real concern since, unfortunately, not many Jews from the Diaspora came to Israel anyway. Second, he said that while he wasn’t a maven (expert) on movies, from what he understood, if I didn’t have the murder, I wouldn’t have a movie.

On another occasion, during the protests over the Oslo Agreement, I made a poster of Rabin wearing Arafat’s kefiah. When a student of the yeshiva had qualms about plastering the poster all over Jerusalem, we went to ask HaRav Shapira if it was OK. Without giving a definite yes or no, he asked, “Do you think the Chofetz Chaim would have made a poster like this? After all, Rabin is a child of Avraham Avinu too.”

A few years ago, when the Likud was holding a referendum whether or not to support the Sharon Disengagement Plan, I prepared an anti-Disengagement CD video that was distributed to all of the Likud membership before the vote. When I went to HaRav Shapira to film a statement from him for the film, I asked him if it permissible according to the Torah for a Jewish government in Israel to surrender a part of Eretz Yisrael to the enemy? With a look of innocent wonder, he responded, “You came here with all of this equipment to ask me that? Why do you ask me such a question? Ask any six-year old in Heder. He’ll tell you the answer. You don't have to ask me.”

His definitive proclamation that the Disengagement was a clear violation of the Torah, and that soldiers must disobey orders to uproot Jewish settlements, was the battle cry of the campaign against the evacuation. Tragically, media-pleasing rabbis who had learned under his tutelage, and who were half his age, and who had learned a tenth of the Torah that HaRav Shapira had learned, came out publically with opposing views, thus splitting the national religious camp and undermining the unity and power of the protest campaign. For almost two generations under the Torah leadership of HaRav Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook and HaRav Shapira, we had learned the supreme value of the Land of Israel to the Jewish Nation. Now, suddenly, when the issue came to a real test, a handful of popular rabbis broke away from following the leadership of a true Torah giant, HaRav Shapira, and from the teachings of Rabbi Kook, and declared that the allegiance to the government and the unity of the army were more important than the sanctity of the Land. The rest is history. Instead of an invincible, unified, Torah campaign against the evacuation, the settlers became divided, and a wishy-washy campaign led by wishy-washy rabbis capitulated again and again to the authorities. Gush Katif was lost. The settlement movement lost its moral power and direction. Even worse, our wonderful, idealistic youth fell into a crisis in faith that has not yet been healed.

Walking in the funeral procession yesterday with the one-hundred thousand people who came to pay last respects to HaRav Shapira, I couldn’t help but think that if we had exhibited this unity when the Rabbi was alive, we would not have lost Gush Katif and the State of Israel would truly have become a beacon of moral light to the world. Instead, because we didn’t follow the truth of the Torah as HaRav Shapira taught, we have been punished with the weakening plague of division, and now our captain has been taken away, and we are like a ship cast away at sea having to charter its way through perilous waters alone.

May the memory of HaRav Shapira be for a blessing, and may G-d answer his heavenly prayers for mercy, and send us Mashiach to show us the way back to the Torah. Amen.

Secret Jews

If you really want to celebrate Succot - Come to the Land of Israel!

P.S. Now that my erudite friend and political, historical, Zionistic mentor, Yisrael Medad, is on board in the blog dugout of Arutz 7, I have no more qualms about quitting.