I Love Israel

Since the sin of the Spies was in despising the cherished Land, the tikun is to love the Land of Israel with a passionate love. Yesterday, we took our youngest kids on a love the Land of Israel trip to the Kinneret. Here's a few of the photos...

Leading the troops on to Gaza

Taliban rebels hiding out in the fields

Pathway to heaven

"May our Land east of the Jordan River return to our hands!" 

The Jordon River

Getting ready for a dip in the Jordan River

Underwater immersion in the Jordan River

Sunset over the Kinneret

Tomb of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess - Tiberias

Burning oil in memory of Rabbi Meir

Meditation hour

Kibbutz Ein Gev - Easy rocket target from the Golan Heights above

Tiberias - Burial site of the Rambam, Rabbi Akiva, the Ramchal, the Shlah HaKadosh, Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess, and others

Sartaba - see Mishna, Rosh Hashana 2:4

On the command of the Arizal, Rabbi Chaim Vital drank from the waters of the Kinneret and was given the keys to the Kaballah  

The Ultimate Tikun - Raising your kids in the Land of Israel

Why Grasshoppers Like Grass

I could cite a long long list of Torah giants who emphasize that the Torah obligation to live in Eretz Yisrael applies in every generation, but it wouldn’t do any good. Jews in the Diaspora who want to believe otherwise will respond with a list of their own to justify their love affair with foreign countries. Furthermore, why should anyone listen to me, a baal t’shuva from Hollywood who can barely decipher a line of Rashi? Since next week is "Book Week" in Israel, when we will be taking a glimpse at some books that have changed the face of Jewish history, let’s begin right now by taking a look at the masterpiece, "Eim HaBanim Semeichah," and see what an undisputed giant of Torah has to say about the mitzvah of settling the Land of Israel today.

Railway to Auschwitz - Whether by gas or by assimilation, the Holocaust is the same.

The book’s author, Rabbi Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal, was murdered in the Holocaust. A noted Rosh Yeshiva and Av Beit Din, he was one of the leaders of the Ultra-Orthodox community in Europe and a vehement anti-Zionist until the events of the Holocaust revolutionized his thinking. Realizing that the purpose of the unspeakable persecution was to arouse the Jewish People to return to Eretz Yisrael, he publicly admitted the error of his former beliefs and vowed to write a scholarly treatise proving that the obligation to live in the Land of Israel applied in all times. Hiding from the Nazis in an attic in Budapest, without any books at his disposal to cite, he wrote his powerful argument, quoting hundreds of long Torah sources by heart. Rabbi Teichtal died on a train on the way to the Mathausen concentration camp in 1945. His book, however, was hidden with a gentile family and rescued by his children after the war.
The essential point is that Hashem is waiting for us to take the initiative, to yearn and long for the return to Eretz Yisrael. He does not want us to wait for Him to bring us there.

Regarding the dire anti-Zionists, who clung to their opposition to Jewish immigration to Eretz Yisrael, even in the face of the horrors of the Holocaust, Rabbi Teichtal writes:

"Those who have a predisposition on this matter will not see the truth and will not concede to our words. All of the evidence in the world will not affect them, for they are smitten with blindness, and their inner biases cause them to deny even things which are as clear as day. Who amongst is greater than the Spies? The Torah testifies that they were distinguished, righteous individuals. Nonetheless, since they were influenced by their desire for authority, they rejected the desirable Land, and led others astray, causing this bitter exile, as our Sages explain. Yehoshua and Calev began to argue with them and attempted to prove the authenticity of Moshe and his Torah. They proclaimed, ‘Let us ascend at once!’ They even brought lengthy arguments and proofs to show that Israel would succeed in conquering the Land, as Rashi states. Nevertheless, they were unable to convince them, for the Spies were prejudiced by hidden motives.

"The same holds true in our times, even among rabbis, rebbes, and hasidim. This one has a good rabbinical position; this one is an established Admore, and this one has a profitable business or factory, or a prestigious job which provides great satisfaction. They are afraid that their status will decline if they go to Eretz Yisrael. People of this sort are influenced by their deep-rooted, selfish motives to such an extent that they themselves do not realize that their prejudice speaks on their behalf. People of this sort will not be convinced to accept the truth, even if they are shown thousands of proofs from the Torah. This is what happened to Yehoshua and Calev with the Spies."

On a deeper, more Kabbalistic level, Rabbi Teichtal explains how even learned Torah scholars can be caught in the sin of discouraging aliyah to Israel. He quotes the brilliant and renowned scholar, the holy Rabbi Eliyahu of Greidetz, who wrote: "Human intellect dictates that we initiate the process of redeeming the Land of Israel, and then Hashem will complete it. One must understand the great importance of this matter, for the evil forces, the kelipot, gain strength even among the most righteous imdividuals, in order to nullify this great good. This is so because the entire strength of the kelipot depends on the exile. When the exile dissolves, so will the kelipah, as the Talmud states in tractate Sukkah."

Rabbi Teichtal continues:: "This holy Jew, whom the author of the ‘Nefech Chayah’ calls ‘The holy rabbi who resembles an angel of the L-rd of Hosts,’ states explicitly that the reason there are tzaddikim who oppose this matter is because the kelipot have become strong within them. It entices them to nullify this great matter for which the Holy One Blessed Be He constantly longs. He longs for us to return to our forefathers’ inheritance, for every Jew has an obligation to strive to return to our Holy Land, as I will prove unequivocally from the words of our Sages. In this way, we can bring the final Redemption closer, speedily in our days, Amen."

"The essential point is that Hashem is waiting for us to take the initiative, to yearn and long for the return to Eretz Yisrael. He does not want us to wait for Him to bring us there. When we, of our own volition, truly and with all of our strength, desire and strive to return to the Land, then G-d will bring our work to a successful end."

[From the book, "Eim HaBanim Semeichah," Second Introduction, Translated by Moshe Lichtman, Kol Mevaser Publications.]

"Eim HaBanim Semeichah" can be found online at www.shechem.org

Grasshopper Jews

Yes, there are problems and difficulties in the Land of Israel, but there were even greater challenges in the times of Avraham and Yehoshua, yet G-d told them to live in the Land.
The Almighty commanded Avraham to go to the Land of Israel even though idol worship was rampant there. He commanded Moshe to take the Jews to Israel even though all of its inhabitants were immoral savages. At that time there wasn’t even one kosher pizza parlor in the country, yet G-d still insisted that the Jews pack up all of their belongings and move there. Jewish Law states that a Jew is always to live in the Land of Israel, even in a city where the majority of inhabitants are idol worshippers, rather than live in the Diaspora, even in a city like Monsey or Boro Park, where the majority of inhabitants are Jews. Not making Aliyah to Israel because the government is corrupt, or because salaries are smaller, or because police beat up settlers, or because there is a danger of war, or because the Mashiach hasn’t come, is all a huge excuse. One of the reasons Mashiach hasn’t come, is precisely because the Jews of the Diaspora have not responded to G-d’s resounding call to the Jewish People to come home and help in the rebuilding of the reborn Jewish State. You can squawk all you want to response, but this is the truth.

This week’s Torah portion tells the story of the Spies in the wilderness, and the tragic failure of the Jewish People to follow G-d’s command to journey on and go up to the Land of Israel. We will briefly recount this painful episode of our history in order to make it clear that this same sin of the Spies hangs over our heads today, in our failure to abandon the flesh pots of galut and come home to our Land.

Needless to say, our words are not aimed at the devoted readers of Arutz 7 throughout the Diaspora, all of whom are passionate Zionists, lovers of Eretz Yisrael, who would certainly rush home to Israel if not for their businesses and commitments to their local Jewish Community Centers, country clubs, and shuls.

The Torah relates that following the Exodus from Egypt, ten of the nation’s leaders were chosen to infiltrate the borders of Israel and spy out the country’s cities, inhabitants, and terrain, on the eve of our entry into the Promised Land. Only two of the spies, Yehoshua and Calev, returned with a brave and optimistic report, their hearts brimming with an unshakable faith in G-d and a towering love for the cherished Land. The other Spies discouraged the people with their alarming stories of fortified cities and unconquerable giants, recounting that they felt like grasshoppers in comparison to the colossal inhabitants of the Land.

Spies in the Wilderness 

Hearing the report of these grasshopper Jews, the spirit of the people was broken. Wailing from fear in their tents, the people refused to heed G-d’s commandment to journey on into the Land. After all, if the leaders of the wilderness Jewish community disagreed with the plan of the Almighty, who were the people to say otherwise?

Yes, they believed in G-d in general, but not in the matter of coming to Israel. Because of their rebellion against Him, it was decreed that the generation would all perish in the wilderness, save for the faithful Yehoshua and Calev, the young children, and the women who were all willing and ready to go had their husbands possessed the inner mustard to meet the challenge.

The Zohar teaches that the scholarly, intellectual leaders who did not want to venture into the Land discouraged the people for selfish, personal reasons. They understood that once the nation was in the Land, a new type of leadership would be needed, leaders who were energetic in working the Land and fighting in its defense. They felt that in journeying on to Israel, they would lose their prestige as elders of the community. Thus, they convinced the people that it was better to stay where they were in the wilderness where they had jars of gefilte fish, bagels and lox, and the Wall Street Journal miraculously delivered to their doorsteps each day. Why abandon their luxurious air-conditioned shuls where they could daven and study Torah in comfort? Why leave their country clubs where they could play golf, tennis, and swim all year round under the weather-proof dome of the Clouds of Glory? Why give up this wilderness paradise for the hardships of war, insect-ridden swamps, and the backbreaking work of plowing and harvesting the Land?

So it remains today. Since the rebirth of the Israel, only two out of every ten Jews have heeded the Divine call of the Torah and returned to Israel. The rest have chosen to remain ensconced in the wildernesses of exile, in the laps of foreign lovers and foreign lands, enjoying the curse of galut, while leaving the work of rebuilding the Jewish Homeland to their brothers and sisters in Israel. When confronted with their failure to move to Israel and take a share in the holy endeavor (excluding the readers of Arutz 7) they whine and complain about the dangerous heathens in the Land, and the lack of true "Yiddishkeit," and the governmental corruption, and the burdensome taxes, and homosexual parades, and a long list of other feeble, transparent excuses for not coming.

The famed and respected Torah giant, the Gaon of Vilna, taught that the sin of Spies haunts the Jewish People throughout all generations and that many are caught in its self-deceptive web, including Diaspora leaders. "Many of the transgressors in this great sin of, ‘They despised the cherished Land,’ including many of the guardians of Torah, will not know or understand that they are caught in this sin of the Spies, will not sense that they have been sucked into the sin of the Spies in fostering many false ideas and empty claims. And they cover their beliefs with the already proven fallacy that the commandment of settling the Land of Israel no longer applies in our day, an opinion which has already been proven false by the Torah giants of the world, both the early and later halachic authorities" (Kol HaTor, Ch.5).

Print out this blog and circulate in your shul. E-mail it to friends who don’t read Arutz 7. Ask them to take a good look at themselves and be honest. Let them ask themselves to which camp they belong? The camp of Yehoshua and Calev, or to the camp of the Spies?

Yes, there are problems and difficulties in the Land of Israel, but there were even greater challenges in the times of Avraham and Yehoshua, yet G-d told them to live in the Land. Tell your friends to take a good look in the mirror. What do they see staring back?

Take a good look in the mirror

And if they ask you, "Why don’t you live in Israel, buddy?" Tell them that you read Arutz 7 instead.

Taliban Welcomes His Wife

Here’s is a photo of the chauvanist, woman-demeaning, Taliban Fishman, waiting at the Ben Gurion Airport to welcome his wife and daughter home to Israel after their short visit to America to attend a family wedding.

Welcoming my wife, my Shechinah, my queen

A Jewish husband is called upon to love his wife as himself and to honor her more than himself. He is to treat her like his queen, and place her desires before his. He is to satisfy her physical and emotional needs. He is to always keep in mind that in pleasing his wife, he brings pleasure to the Shechinah, the Divine Presence in the world. And should he cause his wife sorrow, he brings tears to the Shechinah, G-d forbid.
A Jewish husband is called upon to love his wife as himself and to honor her more than himself. He is to treat her like his queen, and place her desires before his.

Judaism does not, as feminists claim, in any way or form, denigrate woman, or relegate them to secondary status. The woman is the pride and honor of the house, the source of a Jewish home’s holiness and blessing. Therefore, the great sorrow and pain that we feel when we see the holy Daughters of Israel parading themselves in the streets in an immodest fashion stems from our great endearment and esteem for them, and not, G-d forbid, the opposite. Certainly the Jewish women who conduct themselves in this fashion are not to blame for their behavior, but are rather victims of the perverse, promiscuous culture fostered by the "enlightened" nations of the world. We pray with all of our being that Jewish women all over the world rally under the banner of "Modesty Now!" and return to embrace the holy paths of the Torah. In doing so, they will redeem themselves from the self-demeaning bondage of trying to attract attention to themselves by exposing their wares like plucked chickens hanging in butcher shop windows. And by restoring modesty to our national camp, they will return the Divine Presence with all of its mighty holiness to Am Yisrael, paving the road to victory over all of our enemies.

Holy Women, Holy Families, Holy Nation in Holy Land

A reader tragically comments that the Divine laws of family purity are some primitive, chauvanistic invention that have no place in our enlightened modern world. Because the laws of family purity, known as the laws of "niddah," or "taharat hamishpachah," are the holy foundation of the Jewish Nation, we are posting a proclamation that Rabbi Kook wrote, emphasizing the great importance of safeguarding this sacred cornerstone of Judaism.

A New Beginning

The holy Zohar teaches that during the bondage in Egypt, because the Jewish women observed the laws of family purity, the nation was redeemed (Shemot 3b). The Zohar stresses that the observance of these laws, or their negligence, G-d forbid, influences the spiritual and physical health of children. The observance of these laws also contribute to harmony between a husband and wife, and to the overall wellbeing of the home. This understanding is so a part of the Jewish psyche that hundreds of thousands of Jewish women who do not keep all of the commandments, dutifully observe this one. Because there are many details relating to the laws of family purity, the subject must be studied in depth to insure its safekeeping. A Jewish husband and wife may have sexual relations only after the woman has immersed herself in a proper mikvah following her monthly period. Rabbi Kook emphasizes that this is a matter of spiritual, not physical, purity. Since the family is the building block of the nation, to insure the revival of the nation in its Holy Land, Rabbi Kook urges the people of Israel to return to our holy foundations and safeguard the purity and holiness of our lives.

Insuring a Holy Foundation

A MESSAGE ON FAMILY PURITY TO OUR DEAR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN THE HOLY LAND AND THROUGHOUT THE DIASPORA

It is with the great love that I have in the innermost recesses of my soul that I find there the strength to bring you my words in this letter.
Please safeguard, my brothers and sisters, safeguard your soul’s glory, preserve the holiness of the nation, the holiness of life, the holiness that was guarded for generations.

Judaism is modest and holy, and because of this, paradoxically, it is neither frightened nor shy; it knows when to remain silent and when to speak, it knows tact and manners, and also knows, at times, to put itself above these conventions.

On this basis, I allow myself to speak with you, brothers and sisters, of matters that, I have no doubt, will be difficult for a number of you to hear. I am certain that the Jewish soul will sense, with its pure heart, the beauty and sublimity that lies in taking interest in this holy matter, which I strengthen myself to bring before you, with the deepest sense of respect for you fixed in my heart.

I well know the great desire hidden in our nation’s soul to see the national rebirth in Eretz Yisrael approaching us in all of its glory, in all of its completeness, in all of its perfection, in all of its splendor and light, and for this reason we demand that that this national rebirth not be marred in any way or form.

For this reason, when I see that in the midst of our national rebirth, the glory of holiness is becoming dim in comparison to our secular life, I weep in my heart, and when I hear the echoes of self-examination and repentance, of holy spiritual fortification which streams from the within the currents of rebirth, my spirit returns and lives.

"T’shuva" – this word is the savior and it will redeem us. This repentance and return includes returning to the word of G-d that was revealed to us, and by which we fulfill our national destiny.

Our t’shuva is a return to our true life, knowledge, thought, feeling, ideas, and deeds. And now, I openly speak to you on the purity of life, our life here, in the Land of rebirth, in this era of deliverance and Redemption, and I ask of you, brothers and sisters, complete purity of deed in life, as laid down in the Torah.

Sanctify your lives in the holiness of Israel, which is a legacy from countless generations, in the holiness of the Torah and faithful tradition. Proper immersion, the purity of home, the purity of the daughters of Israel, in a kosher mikvah, for the preservation of purity, is the secret of existence.

Please safeguard, my brothers and sisters, safeguard your soul’s glory, preserve the holiness of the nation, the holiness of life, the holiness that was guarded for generations.

Ancient Ritual Pool at Masada

This commandment must not be taken lightly, my dear brothers and sisters!

Do not deceive yourself with the lies of modern times, whether they are fostered by individuals or the community. Do not think your can find any purity in any other type of bathing, other than the Divine path of purity in a kosher mikvah according to the law of our holy Torah.

Even the most exquisite baths are invalid and will not grant the purity that Israel’s holiness demands. The purity which has stood and which will endure for Israel for endless generations is that purity that is found in the eternal word of G-d, who gave the Torah to His people Israel in holiness. Any substitution for this is a dreadful and horrible error, horrible and dreadful is the stain of this sin. It pollutes generations and blackens the beauty of life.

Waters of Eden

Do not confuse the word of G-d with the contentions of men of education. The word of G-d lives and endures forever, and He will not change nor amend His law. The eternity of Israel will not lie, and His words live and endure forever. Safeguard the holy purity of family life, and take the purity of life with the same seriousness and the same awe fitting the cornerstone, the foundation of generations, the reestablishment of the nation, and the illumination of its soul, and the preservation of its character. Guard your souls from being cut off, and beware of the pollution of death. Return to the words of G-d, to His righteous commandments, and to His great trustworthy testaments.
Daughters of my people, be vigilant in guarding your purity. Take care that when you have any doubt, you ask with respect and the modesty characteristic of Israel, rabbis who know the principles of the Torah of our life, just as did your holy mothers who bequeathed to you your holy heart as a legacy, a heart of gold, clear and pure, living forever, which defeats all of those who rise against it in its heroic strength. Do as those pure souls did, and revive the nation, which stands to be redeemed in perfection and built on its Land.

Preserve family purity and observe proper immersions. The light of joy and life will then be manifest in all aspects of our rebirth and we will be blessed in the Land of our yearnings, so that generations on end will rejoice in the building of our people on its Holy Land.

Indoor Mikvah

Hear the words of your loyal friend, who wishes you blessing without end, from the foundation of our lives, the holy mountain of Jerusalem. Your dedicated servant and brother, with all of my heart.

Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook
(Translated by Tzvi Feldman, "Selected Letters," Letter 34)

Readers interested in learning more about the Laws of Niddah will find an overview at www.milknhoney.co.il/holy/index.html