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8 Av 5767, 7/23/2007
Looking at Israel Through Rose-Colored Glasses
This week’s Torah portion begins with Moshe begging G-d to let him enter the Land of Israel. “Please let me pass over there and see the good Land on the other side of the Jordan, this good mountain and the Lebanon” (Devarim, 3:23). As a rule, the Torah is very precise and sparse with its wording. Why then does the word “good” appear twice in this verse? Rabbi Shalom Gold from Jerusalem explains that Moshe was asking Hashem two things in his fervent petition. The first was permission to enter the good Land with the rest of the Jews. The second request was, “Please, Hashem, after I am in the Land, please grant me the blessing to continue to see the Land in a good light.” This is a wonderful insight. What splendid advice for us today. We are always to see the Land of Israel in a positive light. Even though there are many problems in the Land, we are always to look on the positive side, with a good eye, and not with a negative orientation. In doing so, we rectify the sin of the Spies and their “evil generation” who chose to emphasize the difficulties and dangers they saw over everything else. In doing so they undermined the spirit and resolve of the nation, leading to the destruction of that generation in the wilderness. In addition, their ambivalence toward, and rejection of living in Eretz Yisrael planted of the seeds of national weakness that still haunts us today, prolonging the exile and strengthening our enemies who seek to uproot the Land from our grasp. When the Spies saw the might fortified cities in Israel, instead of being thankful they would soon inherit these already built cities, they saw an insurmountable obstacle. When they saw funerals wherever they traveled, instead of thanking Hashem for keeping the local inhabitants distracted while they spied out the Land, they came back with the demoralizing report that the Land eats up its inhabitants at a ravenous pace. When they saw giants, instead of seeing that the Land contains the power for tremendous growth, they merely saw an invincible enemy. Half filled or half empty? It all depends on your perspective.
What can we learn from this? First we have to know that there is a yetzer (an evil inclination) to see the Land of Israel in a negative light. Just like there is a yetzer to steal, and a yetzer to say bad things about people, and to look at erotic pictures, and the like, there is a yetzer to see and speak about Israel derogatively. This is the yetzer that entered the eyes and hearts of the Spies, bringing destruction upon their whole generation, and eventually leading to the destruction of Jerusalem and our national life in the Land of Israel. The Gaon of Vilna points out that even Torah scholars can succumb to this yetzer. He states: “Many of the sinners in this great sin of ‘They despised the cherished Land,’ including many guardians of the Torah, will not know or understand that they are caught in the sin of the Spies, that they have been sucked into the sin of the Spies in many false concepts and empty claims, and they cover their ideas with the already proven fallacy that the mitzvah of the settlement of Israel no longer applies in our day, an opinion that has already been disproven by the giants of the world, the early and later Torah authorizes” (Kol HaTor, Chapter 5). On the eve of Tisha B’Av, we all have to keep on guard and be careful that we don’t fall prey to this terrible yetzer.
For instance, while it is true that we have a government of short-sighted politicians in Israel today, thank G-d that we have a Jewish government after suffering under gentile rule for nearly two-thousand years.
And while our army has been misused as political tool of short-sighted politicians to foster the ideology of the Spies, thank G-d that we have a Jewish army with Jewish officers and soldiers after being persecuted and murdered by gentile armies for those same two thousand years. And while our media is filled with journalists who have the same misguided mentality of the Spies, thank G-d that we have the satellites and TV equipment in place for the day when Arutz 7 takes over the reins and begins broadcasting Torah to all of the world. And while our holy Jewish daughters don’t always dress as modestly as they should, thank G-d that they are marrying Jewish men and are not marrying outside of our faith like in every other country in the world. And while taxes in Israel are high, thank G-d the tax money goes to Jewish schools and hospitals and yeshivot and to build highways all over the Holy Land. And while you often have to wait on long lines in all sorts of government agencies and offices, thank G-d that the elbow in your rib is a Jewish elbow, and the impatient guy behind you is yelling at you in Hebrew. And while the traffic jams in Israel are getting worse all the time, thank G-d you are delayed on your way to Jerusalem and not on your way to Manhattan. It seems to me that Moshe would have been happy to wait out the extra half hour.
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7 Av 5767, 7/22/2007
Eretz Yisrael and the Secrets of Torah
Rabbi Nachman says: “Pray to G-d to give you desire and yearning for the Land of Israel. Then you will succeed in reaching there.”
 If it is so obvious from reading the Torah that G-d wants the Jewish People to live in the Land of Israel, why are so many Jews still living in foreign lands?
This past Friday, thousands of Jews in Israel traveled to ancient cemetery in Safed to pay respects to the renowned Kabbalist, the holy Arizal, on the anniversary of his yahrtzeit. Rabbi Chaim Vital, the foremost student of the Ari, writes in his preface to Ari’s book, “Etz HaChaim,” that the prolongation of the exile and its tribulations are because the learning of the secrets of Torah has been neglected. In a similar light, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook writes that due to an alienation from the secrets of Torah, the supreme importance of a Jew’s connection to Eretz Yisrael is not properly understood. In his classic treatise, “Orot,” he bases his deep insights into the renaissance of the Jewish nation in Eretz Yisrael on the esoteric teachings of the Arizal and the holy Zohar, dressing up Kaballistic concepts in the language of developing nationhood and rebirth. He writes: "By alienating oneself from the secrets of G-d, the highest segulot (treasures) of the deep Divine life become extraneous, secondary matters which do not enter the depths of the soul, and as a result, the most potent force of the individual's and of the nation's soul will be missing; and the exile is found to be pleasant in its own accord. For to someone who only understands the superficial level, nothing basic will be lacking in the absence of the Land of Israel, the Jewish Kingdom, and all of the facets of the nation in its built form." What is Rabbi Kook saying in this difficult sentence? (For a complete translation and commentary on Rabbi Kook’s essay, click here.) He is saying that someone who understands only the superficial level of Judaism will feel nothing lacking if he lives far away from the Land of Israel, in a foreign country, in a gentile land, under a gentile government. A person like this lives a truncated Judaism that focuses on the individual and the individual mitzvot that he or she can do. Without a deeper understand of the Torah, which is the national constitution of the Nation of Israel as a whole, he will not feel the need for a Jewish Land, nor for a Jewish country with a Jewish army, nor for any of the other foundations of national Israeli life. His focus is on Shabbat, Kashrut, and Tefillin. He thinks that in order to perform them, he does not need Eretz Yisrael. He is satisfied with the individual obligations which he feels he can perform just as well in Chutz L'Aretz, and thus the exile finds favor in his eyes. Being estranged from the national component of Torah, but he does not miss having his own Jewish Homeland. The opposite is true – he enjoys the Galut. He enjoys his work, his community, the education he can give to his children, and the opportunity he has to experience the best of both worlds – his Judaism and the gentile world around him. If there is an inner need to live in Israel, or to live there because it is the true place of the Torah’s performance, he does not feel it. Therefore, something will be missing in his yearning for Salvation, for the Temple, the Sanhedrin, for prophecy, for Jewish Kingship, and for all of the aspects of the Jewish nation in its rebuilt form. To his way of thinking, the concept of nationhood has nothing to do with Judaism, or with being "Frum." He fails to understand that the highest worship and sanctification of G-d comes through the life of the nation of Israel, and not through the deeds of the individual Jew. One of the great contributions of the Arizal was revealing the relationship between transgression and rectification, known as tikun. For instance, the sin of the Spies in the wilderness fell on the night of Tisha B’Av. Our Sages tell us that their lack of faith in G-d, expressed in their refusing to journey on to Israel, and their rejection of the supreme importance of the Land of Israel to the Jewish People and Torah, planted the seeds for the future national destruction and exile. Because their sin was in despising the cherished Land, the rectification is to love the Land and to make every possible effort to live there. On the eve of Tisha B’Av, here are some deep Torah teachings to help awaken our love for the Land and increase our yearning to live there. The Arizal taught that just by eating the fruits of Eretz Yisrael, a person’s fear and reverence for G-d is increased.
In a similar light, the great Torah master, the Chatam Sofer, taught that just saying the words “EretzYisrael” increases a person’s kedusha (holiness). The Hasidic master, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, who based much of his teachings on the secrets which the Arizal revealed, taught his students that the holiness of Eretz Yisrael is the epitome of holiness, encompassing all other levels of holiness, and that genuine enlightenment and Torah wisdom come only in the Land of Israel. Repeatedly, he stated that only through the special spiritual treasures of Eretz Yisrael can a Jew rise up to the highest levels in the service of G-d. In addition, he said, that true faith and prayer are only possible in Eretz Yisrael, for it is there that prayer ascends to the worlds above (Likutei Etzot, Eretz Yisrael). Rabbi Nachman states: “When a person attains to the level of the Land of Israel, he is worthy of being called ‘a man of strength and valor.’ Before he attains this level, ‘Let not him who girdeth on his armor boast as the one who takes it off.’ But when he has gone through the battle successfully, he is worthy of the name ‘a man of war.’” In addition to deepening our Torah learning, how can we increase our love and yearning for the Land of Israel? Rabbi Nachman says: “Pray to G-d to give you desire and yearning for the Land of Israel. Then you will succeed in reaching there.” True, making Aliyah is a very difficult mitzvah. In addition to the great joy and spiritual elevation that it brings, it is filled with challenges and hardships. The Talmud teaches that it is impossible to come to the Land of Israel without difficulties and suffering. Rabbi Nachman explains that “the root of all the difficulties and suffering lies in the slanderous image of the Land which is put about by the wicked. They are the source of all of the obstacles. But the power of the Torah which we draw into ourselves enables us to overcome all the obstacles, difficulties, and suffering. The more profound a person’s grasp of the Torah, and the greater tikun he brings about through his attainment, the greater his victory will be over the obstacles, and he will succeed in reaching the Land of Israel.” May we all be so worthy soon.
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3 Av 5767, 7/18/2007
From the Mouth of Babes
We mentioned that many people are so cross-eyed in the dark maze of their exiles that they fail to see the light that is so obvious to anyone who looks with straightforward vision. Or as our illustration suggests, they find it hard to see the butterfly that sits at the tip of their nose. Keep your eyes on the butterfly
The situation is similar to the laws of writing sacred texts. For instance, if a reader of a Torah scroll is not certain whether a letter is an unusually extended yud, or a too short vav, he must call a child up to the scroll and ask his opinion. Whatever the child answers is the verdict, determining whether the Torah scroll is kosher or not. This same test can be applied to the question whether or not G-d wants the Jewish People to live in the Land of Israel. Make the test yourself. Take any fourth grade or fifth grade class of Jewish kids in your community. Have all of them read the Book of Devarim (Deuteronomy). Then ask them where G-d wants the Jewish People to live. The test is as simple as that. That way you’ll get the answer straight from the mouth of babes. To make sure the kids haven’t already been brainwashed in their homes, choose a class of non-Jews in any public school. Ask them the same question. I bet every one of the kids answers, “In the Land of Israel.”
Sinai was merely a stopover to pick up the Torah. Why? Because the Torah is meant to be lived in the Land of Israel, not in the wilderness of Sinai, or England, or America, or France.
Why do I say this? Because, as you study the Book of Devarim for the next two months, notice how many times it says, in one phrasing or another: “These are the commandments that I have given you to do in the Land that I have given you to possess.” For instance, to cite just a few:
“Now therefore, hearken O Israel, to the statutes and to the judgments which I teach you to do them, that you may live and go in and possess the Land which the L-rd G-d of your fathers gives you (Devarim, 4:1).
“Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the L-rd my G-d commanded me, that you should act accordingly in the Land whither you go in to possess” (Devarim, 4:5).
“And the L-rd commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might do them in the Land into which you go over to possess (Devarim, 4:14).
“Thou shall keep therefore His statutes and His commandments which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou may prolong thy days upon the Land which the L-rd thy G-d gives thee, forever” (Devarim, 4:40).
“I will speak to thee all of the commandments and the statutes and the judgments, which thou shall teach them, that they may do them in the Land which I gave them to possess” (Devarim, 5:27).
“You shall walk in all the ways which the L-rd your G-d has commanded you, that you may live, and that it be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the Land which you shall possess (Devarim, 5:30).
“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments, which the L-rd your G-d commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the Land into which you go to possess it (Devarim, 6:1).
“Hear therefore, O Israel, and take care to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that you may increase mightily, as the L-rd G-d of thy fathers has promised thee, in that Land that flows with milk and honey” (Devarim, 6:3).
“All the commandments which I command thee this day shall you observe to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the Land which the L-rd swore to your fathers (Devarim, 8:1).
“Therefore shall you keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the Land, into which you go to possess it; that you may prolong your days in the Land, which the L-rd swore to your fathers to give to them, a Land flowing with milk and honey” (Devarim, 11:8)
“in the Land….” “in the Land….” “in the Land….”
Now, when the Torah speaks about a Land of milk and honey that G-d gave to our forefathers, it isn’t talking about England, or France, or South Africa, or Australia, or Mexico, or even America, as any fourth grader will tell you. The commandments were given to us to be performed in the Land of Israel. G-d wants the Jewish People to live here.
Let’s take a quick look at this week’s Torah portion. Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook would repeat this to his students year after year by saying, look what we have here! Moshe begins to explain the Torah to the Children of Israel as they are about to enter the Promised Land. We are about to hear the commentary of Moshe Rabainu on the Torah. Pretty good teacher, right? Rashi writes that Moshe explained them the Torah in 70 languages. (Maybe so that the English Jews, and the French Jews, and the Spanish-speaking Jews would be sure to understand). And what is the first thing that Moshe tells them?
“The L-rd our G-d spoke to us in Horev, saying, You have dwelt long enough in this mountain: turn and take up your journey” (Devarim, 1:7).
In other words - let’s go guys. You’ve hung around in this wilderness long enough! And where are they supposed to go? Moshe reminds them what G-d has already said on the way out from Egypt:
“Behold I have set the Land before you; go in and possess the Land which the L-rd swore to your fathers, Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaacov, to give them and to their seed after them (Devarim, 1:8).
The Land isn’t Greenland, nor Iceland, nor even Disneyland. It’s the LAND OF ISRAEL. And “their seed” – that’s us!
Once again, cherished brothers and sisters. What is Moshe telling them? Ask the fourth graders. He is telling them that have lingered long enough around the mountain of Sinai – they are to take up their journey and go on to Israel. Sinai was merely a stopover to pick up the Torah. Why? Because the Torah is meant to be lived in the Land of Israel, not in the wilderness of Sinai, or England, or America, or France. The goal of Judaism is not the Torah, but rather to live a life of Torah in the Land of Israel. That’s what the Exodus was all about, as the verse clearly states: “I will bring you up out of the afflictions of Egypt to a Land flowing with milk and honey” (Shemot, 3:17).
In upcoming blogs, with G-d’s help, we will see more. In the meantime, read this blog over and over until it sinks in. Remember. It isn’t the commentary of Tzvi Fishman. It’s Moses explaining the Torah. If you don’t believe me, ask any fourth grader.
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2 Av 5767, 7/17/2007
Secret of Garbage
We do not hide the fact that there is a lot of garbage in Israel. There is garbage in the Prime Minister’s office. There is garbage in the Knesset. There is garbage in the Supreme Court, the Justice Department, and in the public educational system. There is garbage in the media. I am not ashamed of the garbage. I am proud of it. The fact that there is a lot of garbage means that there is also a tremendous amount of good.
The fact that there is a lot of garbage means that there is also a tremendous amount of good.
What is the function of garbage? To help us understand, let’s use the example of food. Garbage is the refuse that is left over from the edible food. For example, garbage is the peel of a banana, or the husk of an orange, or the shell of a pistachio nut. The fruit is eaten and the peel is discarded by throwing it into the trash. Until the banana is ripe, the peel serves to guard it. Though eventually the peel will turn into garbage, it plays a vital function is the development and growth of the fruit.
Just like the shell guards the nut.
In a language more eloquent than mine, Rabbi Kook explains that the garbage and evil husks that we see in our time come to guard the budding fruit of Redemption and allow it to develop and grow. On the one hand, the light of Redemption is so powerful, it cannot be revealed all at once. Just as a person cannot stare up at the sun in its zenith, the world would be blinded if G-d were to reveal Himself, in all of His splendor and glory, without any filter or screen. In this sense, the husks of garbage in Israel, in the many forms they assume, serve to shield the world from the great growing light of Redemption within, until the proper vessels are built, so that we can become gradually used to the light. These vessels are things like prophecy, the Sanhedrin, the Beit HaMikdash, and the Kingship of David, for which we all dream. Precisely because people lack the vessels to contain the immense Divine light of Redemption, they can easily fall into spiritual rebellion and disbelief. Often these people have very big souls, but lacking the vessels to perceive the all-encompassing cosmic truth of the Torah, they reject it as something antithetical from the freedoms and universal truths that they long for. This accounts for the heresy and terrible chutzpah of our times. Nonetheless, while the headlines are focused on the political corruption in Israel, on the Intifadas and the threats of war, quietly, beneath this husk of evil, dozens of new yeshivas are opened, cities and settlements are built, a new advanced satellite is developed, a new insect-free lettuce is produced, more of our scattered exiles are gathered, and more and more Jewish children are born. All of these are aspects of Mashiach and the holy vessels of nationhood that we need to build. “We don’t have to worry about the Israelis,” the United States Secretary of State assures the President. “Look at all the problems they have.” That’s true when you focus on the darkness of the husks and don’t see the great light within. But one day soon, the world will wake up and the developed State of Israel will be world superpower #1.
Granted, this is a difficult concept. After all, everything that the Almighty has created, He has created is to manifest His glory. This includes garbage. Since it is G-d’s will that the Jewish People worship Him and rebuild their Statehood on the foundations of the Torah, can it be that He has servants working in an opposite manner creating mountains of garbage which counteract everything the Master has decreed? How can He allow all of this trash?
To explain this paradox, the Zohar teaches, in the famous parable of the harlot, that the purpose of evil is to bring forth the will of G-d. While the king wants his son to live a moral life and not succumb to temptation, he secretly hires a harlot and instructs her to seduce his son, in order to test his obedience to his father’s teachings. To resist her wiles and charms, the prince has to summon all of his inner resources and strengths. When he succeeds, the king grants him the highest of prizes and honors. Now who caused all of this grandeur to come to the prince? The harlot! (Zohar, Shemot, 163A).
Just as each one of us is called upon to conquer our evil inclinations in our personal lives, we, as a nation, are also summoned to separate the holy from the garbage in our national lives as well. This is the process of “birur” or selection that the Jewish Nation is experiencing today.
It's our job to separate the peel from the fruit.
This estrangement from our own holy sources is but a passing illness. After two thousand years of exile among the nations of the world, we have returned to Eretz Yisrael to build our own unique Jewish State. But when we come back from our wanderings, our luggage is filled with both good things and bad. We have learned about socialism, and communism, capitalism, and democracy. In our school of hard knocks, we have learned how to be writers, scientists, statesmen, and soldiers. In the long school of galut, we have absorbed gentile concepts, corrupt dealings, and heretical teachings as well. It is our job to sift out the good from the bad and to re-establish our nation on the basis of Torah. The more garbage that there is, the harder each one of us has to work. The darker the husks, the more we have to strive to increase Torah in order to spread its light. Just as the dregs serve to preserve a fine wine, so does the existence of the wicked force the champions of spirituality and goodness to climb to greater heights, until they can reveal the glorious, universal, transcendental, Divine “ism” of Judaism, the paucity of which led to the spiritual rebellion and heresy of the past. In a nutshell, the more corruption, immorality, and evil, the holier we all have to be.
Rabbi Kook writes that although holiness, goodness, and faith will seem to suffer and weaken in the early stages of nation building, this is in reality the stimulus for the magnificent ascent that follows. “For after the decay of the refuse, the light of splendor and holiness will immediately begin to grow on healthy holy foundations” (Orot HaTechiya, 52).
But to bring about this world perfecting rectification, you have to be engaged in the battle. If you want to participate in the Redemption, you can’t sit on the sidelines, watching from thousands of miles away, afraid to get dirty. Watching from the sidelines
You can't do the Divine work of selection by keeping away from the garbage. You have to buckle on your boots, grab your buckets and brooms, and climb onto the dump with the rest of us here. The garbage is waiting for you. And also an incredible, indescribable good. If you come with a willing heart and a firm trust in G-d, then you won’t even notice the smell on your shoes. I promise.
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1 Av 5767, 7/16/2007
Mysterious American to Lead the Charge on Homesh
The organizers of the “Return to Homesh” movement have announced that after several months of secret negotiations, they have signed on an unnamed American Jew to lead the march to Homesh. A New York Jewish businessman is reported to have put up the million dollar fee that X is rumored to be getting for his services. “He’s worth every penny of it,” the businessman said. “With a no-nonsense American Jew like X leading the charge, things are going to start to change in Israel.” An investigation which I conducted into the identity of this mysterious soldier of fortune was met with insurmountable roadblocks along the way, though my journalist intuition has me hoping that he is Mike from Vienna, VA. To remind Arutz 7 readers, Mike is the prolific blog commenter who advocates armed revolution as the only method of making Israel a true Jewish State. Since he is presently serving as a reserve commander in the U.S. Army Special Overseas Forces, chances are that if he is indeed the awaited savior, he will be wearing a mask while in Israel to guard his identity. His Identity Remains Unknown
It is believed that a “stinker” from the settlements has alerted Israel security forces of this unexpected development, and an extra eight thousand soldiers and Israeli policemen are being bused to the Shomron in order to stop the masked crusader from reaching Homesh. “Whoever he is, we know he is heavily armed and dangerous,” an Israel police commander said off the record. “We are checking the luggage of all incoming flights for caches of hidden weapons, and Israeli Customs is on alert, but we have reason to believe that sophisticated weaponry has already been made ready here in Israel for his arrival.” It is rumored that the sudden trip overseas of Israel’s new President, Shimon Peres, is related to the arrival of the American gunslinger, whom is reported to be the real life, Vietnam War veteran upon whom the movie character Rambo was based.
One of the Homesh evacuees said that if the rumor were true, it could mark a turning point in the settlement movement, now that an American Jew would be leading the way. “The American Jews are the real Jews,” he said. “The Macabbees of today. Not like us sissy Israelis.” In a related development, the Hamas leadership in Gaza has been flying white flags and negotiating secretly with Israel to flee to Tunis, ever since the news of the mysterious American recruit was leaked. “One American Jew is equal to ten thousand Israeli soldiers,” a Hamas military commander said. “We’re scared.” Leading the Way to Homesh. Hi Ho Silver!!!!
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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. |
