FISHMAN THROWS IN THE TOWEL

I promised in the Pesach Eve confession that I was going to work on my hauntiness and my holier-than-thou posturing, so I am throwing away the towel and the "Mr. T’shuva" image that went with it. Instead, I have chosen a snapshot from my old Israeli Army days. I wasn’t the greatest of soldiers, and it is probably coincidental that Tzahal has gone downhill since I left it ranks. Nonetheless, the picture is appropriate to the new Hebrew month of Iyar, and its celebrations of Yom Haatzmaut and Jerusalem Day. Hopefully, it will remind readers that one needn’t be a gentilized Jew in the exile, like I used to be in my Hollywood days, always trying to be even more gentile than the gentiles.
Please do not mistake the vehemence of the debate for animosity. I am fond of my fellow Jews in the Diaspora, even the most strident debaters, and they probably have grown a cyberspace liking to me.

With the help of G-d, in the upcoming weeks, in addition to our usual potpourri of essays, we will be writing in depth about the holiness of the Jewish State, and clearing up some of the distortions, misunderstandings, and outbursts of ignorance still surrounding the subject. While we are certain that the great majority of INN readers have a great love and appreciation for the State of Israel, there are others who disseminate all kinds of negative nonsense about it. They do this in order to justify their own failure to come to Israel and contribute their share in rebuilding the Jewish Nation in its Land. Since these confused souls bring all kinds of proclamations and proofs to support their exile mentality, we are forced to restate things that are obvious to every healthy mind, so that the poison not spread to others who may be adversely influenced by their practiced glibness. We are not so naive to believe that we can change their opinions, rather we will write about the unparalleled mitzvah of living in Israel, so that their love of foreign countries does not lead others astray. Just as there are those who will hear the call of our Prophets resonating from these pages and see the actualization of their prophecies in the events of our times, there are others with blocked ears and blind eyes, who will be lost, like those who perished in the Plague of Darkness. Nonetheless, we pray to G-d, as the Jewish People have been praying for two thousand years, "May You blow the shofar of our freedom, and raise the banner to gather our exiles, and bring us speedily together from the four corners of the earth to our Land."

Ironically, this is also the prayer that our erring brothers, the Israel bashers themselves, say three times a day, though they merely mumble the words with no thought to what they are saying, like the chattering of parakeets in a cage.

Please do not mistake the vehemence of the debate for animosity. I am fond of my fellow Jews in the Diaspora, even the most strident debaters, and they probably have grown a cyberspace liking to me. True, I think their views are off the wall, but I understand that life in the exile has distorted their clearness of thought. Often my very own children think differently than me, but I love them just the same.

To conclude, a word about my credentials, lest detractors claim that I am a white-washer of the country’s ills. Though I love the State of Israel with a passionate ardor, I have no qualms about recognizing its faults and working to improve them. I can do this because I live here. I have served in the Israeli Army and so do my children. Though my house is filled with Israeli flags throughout the whole month of Iyar, and a blue and white flag flaps proudly on the antenna of my car, I have no problem with criticizing the faults of governments and political leaders who formulate policies detrimental to Torah and to the settlement of Eretz Yisrael. For example, together with friends, I designed and produced many of the most strident protest posters during the Oslo years. Posters we made protesting the traitorous evacuation from Gush Katif were plastered all over the streets and highways of Israel and were seen at every demonstration. When the Stop The Evacuation Committee in Gush Katif came out with their fawning, bootlicking, sychophantic "Love Will Win Out" campaign, we advised them that they were wrong, that Sharon would only step on them for their weakness. Unfortunately, they clung to their illusions, unable to distinguish between the holiness of the State and the evildoers in power. Thus they rejected the hard-hitting protest video we made for them, preferring a "la-la-la" musical video clip of settlements that were doomed for the chopping block and the cruel, heartless carving knife of the butcher. Later, after the tragedy, the video we made condemning the unpardonable crime and its perpetrators was seen by INN viewers all over the world. Another anonymous video, made with the help of talented friends, about the pogrom at Amona, was seen in unsparing detail by uncountable INN viewers who watched aghast as the Darth Vadar horsemen of the Israeli police trampled upon rock-throwing youngsters. That video, distributed all over Israel during the last elections, helped reduce the landslide of votes predicted for Olmert and his Kadima (Achora) party. We did it even though we knew that there would be Jews in the Diaspora who would use the cossack-like brutality of the police at Amona to bolster their long list of excuses for not coming to Israel. So, my friends, while I praise G-d with all of my heart for giving us the State of Israel, I feel no hesitation in fighting against those who seek to corrupt its Divine mission of making all of the Land of Israel, the Land of the Jews alone.
When a Jew steals, or watches pornography on the Internet, or speaks slanderously about life in the Land of Israel, his holiness is soiled, but he is still a Jew. We do not throw him in the garbage because he is not perfect.

Yes, the State of Israel is holy! Just like each and every Jew. When a Jew steals, or watches pornography on the Internet, or speaks slanderously about life in the Land of Israel, his holiness is soiled, but he is still a Jew. We do not throw him in the garbage because he is not perfect. Though he has sinned, his essence is still holy. If he repents and corrects his erring ways, his holiness will sparkle as before. So too with the State of Israel, which is
G-d’s great and holy gift to the Jewish People, the vehicle He has chosen for the ingathering of the exiles and the rebuilding of the scattered and decimated Jewish Nation. We appreciate all the wonderful good that Medinat Yisrael brings to our nation, and at the same time, we work hard to improve its faults.

Jews of the world! Religious and non-religious alike. Take off your blinders! Cast off your pathetic, transparent excuses! Pick up your shovels, roll up your trousers, get your hands dirty, and come home and help with the work of rebuilding our holy nation in our Holy Land!

TIME OUT

Lots of people are angry these days. Spouses, neighbors, motorists, writers of blog comments, jilted boyfriends with guns, the next guy in line. Anger is a general malaise of our times. The saintly Kabbalist, Rabbi Eliahu Leon Levi, has a remedy for this. It is an essay explaining anger, which he recommends reciting every day. We are going to call time-out, and give everyone a chance to cool down. Let it be an opportunity for each one of us to turn inward and continue with the spiritual cleaning that we might not have finished before Pesach. That’s what this period of Sefirat HaOmer is all about.

TIKUN FOR ANGER
by the Kabbalist, HaRav Eliahu Leon Levi

"You should know, my dear child, you have arrived into this world in order to rectify character traits that you blemished in your previous reincarnation. And you are obliged to do this work now, as quickly as possible, before our righteous redeemer comes – may it be soon.
"Only in this manner will you reach the promised shore and be united with your Creator in the bonds of love, and thus merit to be called a friend and loved one to Hashem.
"It is known the attribute of anger is at the head of the ladder of character traits demanding correction. A Jew is the pinnacle and foundation of creation, and anger is a most evil sickness that causes him to lose all of the noble things within him.
"Rectifying anger is very difficult, requiring many days and nights of strenuous and painstaking work, but all to the good. In the majority of cases, this trait deceives you and has you believing that, "Baruch Hashem, I have finally mastered my temper, and thank the L-rd, I am not overly stringent with people and don’t get angry anymore. On the contrary, I control my emotions and almost resemble an angel, just like Hillel the Elder, may his name be for a blessing."
"Nevertheless, if you be tested, then at a moment’s notice, over some very small thing, you become angry and pollute your soul with your fury. All of your hard work and suffering comes to naught, and everything you accomplished is lost. In my opinion, your fall was caused by two factors. One is your pride, and the second is a lack of simple faith, for everything that comes about is sent from the Creator of the World, both happiness and sorrow, wisdom and ignorance, contentment and wealth, everything is from the Blessed One Holy Be He. So why get angry? Why get uptight? Why lose your temper? Why be jealous? Why take revenge? Everything comes about because of G-d’s providence. No one can tell him what to do or how to act, for everything comes from Him, may He and His Name be blessed, and He is pleasant and good to all.
"Therefore, you should know, my child, you are far too precious to act so foolishly, for you resemble the upper worlds. Your holy being is attached to the spiritual worlds of Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah, Asiyah, and composed of nefesh, ruach, neshama, chiya, yichida. In your body is a holy soul that has been quarried from beneath the Throne of Glory, and you are perpetually connected to the highest spiritual worlds, to our Father in Heaven. Divine illumination and influence descends to you from those exalted regions, along with a whisp of Ruach HaKodesh, as it says, "And behold, the L-rd stood over him," to constantly grant you life, goodness, and material blessing.
All of this goodness comes to you so that you may keep the Torah and commandments with an expanded consciousness, with health, contentment, wealth, fruitful marital relations, saintly children, a long life filled with the reverence of G-d. With so much goodness, what were you lacking that caused you to get angry?
You have arrived into this world in order to rectify character traits that you blemished in your previous reincarnation. And you are obliged to do this work now, as quickly as possible, before our righteous redeemer comes – may it be soon.

"Therefore, my precious child, be very careful not to get angry, for anger pollutes the soul. In its wake, a person not only loses the connection he had with the person with whom he is angry, but he most certainly causes a severe spiritual disconnection in damaging the channels of Divine influence, thus bringing darkness over his nefesh, ruach, neshama, chiya, and yechida, and over all of the elevated spiritual worlds that he carries within his body. And from this comes mental problems and serious illnesses like heart attacks, asthma, ulcers, and other evil things, may G-d have mercy.
"Thus, my dear child, please understand the degrading level that a person can be brought to by the evil trait of anger. If you do not stop yourself from getting angry by being patient toward the person who is upsetting you, or by reacting in some positive manner, or by thinking some good thought about him, and about saving yourself, then in a moment of anger, you turn yourself into the lowest of the lowly creatures in this world. You cause the Holy One Blessed Be He to flee from you, and your holy soul abandons your body, and a soul from the realm of impurity enters in its place, polluting your being. You become vile, like a carcass, for your soul is cast away from you, as if it had died, and everything, everything is lost.
Even if you are great in Torah learning and good deeds, and even if you are a genuine baal t’shuva who constantly works on rectifying himself by doing all sorts of tikunim, all of your efforts are lost, for your soul is replaced by another, and you must do everything you did anew. And all of the mitzvot that you did in your life, it is as if they never existed at all.
"See, my child, the place where your great anger has brought you. In the world, there is nothing so precious as you, the pinnacle of this holy creation, yet you have fallen to such a frightening and grievous state. Just the possibility of this should have brought you to tremble in anguish and shock.

"Therefore, my child, joy of my heart, take the time to ponder just how you came to this situation, to what fathomless depths you have fallen, and to what lowly place you have brought your soul and your body when you became angry without thinking. In the future, take heed! Constantly fix it in your mind to remove this evil obstacle from your life. Constantly, be on guard not to succumb to this ugly trait that separates you from celestial blessing, from happiness and wealth, and from all of the good that our Father in Heaven always seeks to grant. By guarding yourself from this evil, you will merit all of the blessings that are written in the Torah, and you will be awarded with long life with your family, lasting health, happiness, and great satisfaction in everything that you do. Amen."

[Other essays by Rabbi Levi can be found at www.jewishsexuality.com] 

A LONE DIAMOND IN VIRGINIA - TRIBUTE TO A HERO

Slain Israeli Professor Saved Others in Va. Tech Massacre

Our ongoing debate is important, and necessary, but it is time to pay tribute to a true Jewish hero in galut.

MIKE!! ARE YOU SAFE?? WE ARE TERRIBLY WORRIED!

********************EMERGENCY NEWS FLASH*********************
At the same time that this blog is being posted, news flashes from Virginia report that a berserk gunman has opened fire on a university campus in a deadly massacre. At first, I feared it was Mike, from Virginia, who is always calling for armed struggle in his comments to our blogs. When breaking reports described the killer, or killers, as Asians, we sighed with relief that a Jew won’t be blamed. Right now, I, and tens of thousands of INN readers, are worried for Mike’s safety, fearing that he be in the danger zone of the campus. PLEASE, MIKE, LET US KNOW IMMEDIATELY OF YOUR WHEREABOUTS AND THAT YOU ARE OK! You laughed at my story, "On Eagles Wings," claiming it could never happen in America. See what G-d is showing you in your very own beloved Virginia. Face it, my friend, your life is in danger. See the writing on the wall! Save yourself while you can! Come to Israel now!

GOIN' FISHIN
I’m taking the day off. Here is a dramatic reader exchange. Let Mike and Daniel slug it out with Aviva. As the Rabbis say: "One Jewish woman in Eretz Yisrael is worth one thousand Jewish men in America and Japan."

MIKE TO AVIVA
God will protect you only if you act to protect yourself. For example, in the time of the Chofetz Chaim, the Etzel and Lehi took bloody revenge on the Arabs and the Field Companies of the Hagana acted in defense of the Jews. Today, however, the Jews of the Holy Land DO NOT take vengeance against their Ishmaelite oppressors, DO NOT act to defend themselves and DO NOT do anything except pray and wait for a miracle. We witnessed despicable spectacles showing this. The sight of the Cowards of Gush Katif surrendering their weapons and tearfully praying next to the curtain of the ark in their synagogue even as the pogromschiks dragged them away one by one could not help but fill any normal man with revulsion. How any woman could continue to live with them in marriage or any son continue to respect them I do not know. Frankly, I do not know how any of them can live with themselves, for that matter. The horrible pogrom at Amona could not help but arouse a desire for revenge in every normal man, yet 10,000 Amona Criminals still walk unharmed among the Jews of the Holy Land. You want analogues from the Torah? Do not look to the story of the spies. Look to Pinchas and to the story of the Golden Calf. While you are engaged in your search for historical analogues, look also to the story of the Maccabees. Ask yourself, Mr. Fishman, what would Mattathias Maccabee do in response to Amona? What would Pinchas have done at Gush Katif? Since the Jews of the Holy Land do nothing to defend themselves and insist on the horrible hillul Hashem of depending on miracles and worshipping in an idolatrous fashion the secular Israeli state, it is self-evident that their punishment is not long in coming. Why should the Jews of the diaspora weaken their ranks and come to join a doomed people in their ghetto? Now, if the Jews of the Holy Land were to turn around and act like men, certainly Hashem would protect them. THEN aliyah would be meritorious despite the danger. I've said it before and I will say it again: Torah can obligate us to walk into danger, but not to commit suicide. mike, Vienna, VA (13/04/07)
.
AVIVA TO MIKE
You are right that there is a problem in Israel amongst the national religious - namely to revere the state and to exhibit an almost pathetic desire for acceptance in Israeli society, which is why many of the nationalist rabbis told their flock not to refuse orders before the expulsion.

This is true and I understand your frustration. Yet your conclusion is to sit in chutz l'aretz and do nothing, until someone else does the job for you. You accuse Jews who live in Israel, who have chosen to move here or to stay here (everyone could leave if they wanted to) of passivity. Yet you are the one who is passive - just waiting for someone to fix the situation for you.

It is easy to sit on the sidelines and criticize. "Where there is no man, be a man". If you are really troubled by what is happening here, why don't you come and be part of the solution. You will never be part of the solution outside of Israel. Aviva, Jerusalem (13/04/07)

DANIEL TO AVIVA
You are wrong. Of course you can be a part of the solution outside Israel. Arguably, you can be much more a part of the solution outside Israel because you have much more power, financial and otherwise. And you have many more opportunities to do much more.

An old lady once said that she never knew there was a stupid Jew until she came to Israel. Here we can have power and do meaningful things. In Israel we are garbage, to be kicked around and thrown out by thugs in grey. How many Jewish criminals do you think there are in Gallus? How about prostitutes? Now let's compare average income for Jews in Israel and in Gallus. Average level of education. Average standard of living. And you know what? Take a strong place like Mexico, and Israel loses in "average level of Yiddishkeit" hands down as well.
There will be a time b"h when Israel will become the right place. But not yet. Not for many/most people.

AVIVA TO DANIEL
Your dogged determination in believing that your avodat Hashem is holier in chul,and in Japan of all places is, sorry, just ridiculous.

I am not writing this to Daniel, because I feel that he is entrenched in rigid views. I am writing this to show that there is a response to what he says. (I do not have time to respond to every point as it is late, and sorry, it is very unedited).

"An old lady once said that she never knew there was a stupid Jew until she came to Israel."
There are no stupid Jews in chutz l'aretz? Not even one? An argument based on one person's opinion??

"Here we can have power and do meaningful things."
What does this mean? Specifics please? If American Jews are so free, why are the majority either indifferent or terrified to do something for Jonathon Pollard? I think that if he were a different color, they might be crying out for his release. What are you so powerful to do? Are you implying that no-one does anything meaningful in Israel? What are you trying to say?

"How many Jewish criminals do you think there are in Gallus?"
Unfortunately many.

Israel prison stats from the Israel Prison services 2006:
18,157 total prisoners (of whom 5,666 are "security prisoners", i.e Arab). Of the remaining 12,500 not all will be Jewish as not everyone in Israel is Jewish.
(Israel Prison Services http://www.ips.gov.il/NR/exeres/05ED735A-FC64-4E7B-BC67-8394061D746E.htm)

As for the US: the only stats I could find were from the Jewish Prisoner Service (http://www.jewishprisonerservices.org/index.htm). Their survey of American prisons regarding Jewish prisoners yielded over 20,000 requests for Rosh Hashana cards.

20,000 requests (therefore possibly more) vs less than 12,500. (I don't know exactly how these statistics bear out scientifically, but at least they give some indication that Diaspora Jewry may not be an island of lily white purity, and possibly have just as many if not more Jewish criminals than in Israel). Sorry Daniel.

As for your other measures: income, standard of living, education - so you have a higher income, and how many years did it take to pay off your law school debts??? and how much does it cost to send your child to a Jewish school? Standard of living is measured by completely material things - some people do not feel it necessary to have a television in every room including the bathroom, or in any room at all. They don't feel the need to own a cadillac or take foreign holidays - that does not make them poor. As for education, in addition to the high proportion of phds in Israel, did you know that Israel has the highest rate of volunteerism in the world and that when the Arab population is removed, the proportion jumps even higher (according to the UN)? Education is not just about grades, it's also about character. And the comment about Mexico? Over half of all school children going into first grade last year in Israel were in religious schools - and you think that there is more yiddishkeit in chul?? The majority of Israelis are either religious or traditional. Out and out "secular" are a minority, and even amongst them you'd be surprised by the extent of their Jewish knowledge. And what about intermarriage in chutz l'artetz? Utterly rampant outside of the strictly orthodox. You forgot about that.

Daniel, you seem to base your opinions on black and white thinking, glorification of the wonderful exile and vilification of Eretz Yisrael. Real life is not like that. There is good and bad everywhere, but that is not the point. Just as a non-Jewish person may be a truly wonderful person with whom one could share a wonderful life, a Jew is not permitted to marry that person. So even if in some ways life is "better" for a person in chutz le'aretz - a bigger house, more 000s in the bank (ie positive 000s), more cars - more of everything material, etc, whilst a Jew is permitted to live there not only is it not the ideal, Jews are commanded to live in Israel. It is understandable that it is hard to let go of your materialism, but your dogged determination in "believing" that your avodat hashem is holier in chul,and in Japan of all places is, sorry, just ridiculous. Do what you have to do there. Make your money. But to conceptually make that your holy land?

I love Israel and I know that there are many terrible things that happen here, things that you probably do not even know about. But that does not make me love Israel any less. I do not love Israel because of the government, or because of the criminals, the prostitutes or the yassamniks. I love Israel because it is, was and always will be the Jewish homeland. This is unconditional love. A Jew belongs in the land of Israel. It's quite simple. You write to me as if I, and I alone, made this stuff up. I was lucky to have naturally had a love of the land from when I was a small child before I ever came here. Long before I had heard of the Rambam, yishuv haaretz and of the many words of chazal emphasizing its central importance in Judaism. I just knew that a Jew belongs in Israel.

Do you love Japan and feel passionately about it? Or will you quit as soon as your 5 million yen a year contract comes to an end. Trouble in Europe time to move away. As you yourself said, it is all temporary.

Yet, over 3000 years later Israel is eternal. As is (or at least as was) the Jewish yearning for it. All of us who have the merit to live here, we are the embodiment of the 2000 year old dream of all of our ancestors to return to Zion. I think of my own grandparents (z"l) who came from the shtetl, for them the land of Israel was still a dream, and I am living that 2000 year old dream. I think that they would be proud of that.

Of the problems here - some are social problems that are found everywhere and some are particular. But the joys of Israel are truly unique - after eight years of living in Israel I seem to have a special Israel moment nearly every day and am always meeting extraordinary people people who are driven by their idealism and passion. Also, here and only here can I literally walk in the footsteps of the avot, of the kings and the prophet - can you put a price on that? Life in Israel is constantly vibrant and exciting and challenging. Living in Israel is to feel a part of Clal Yisrael totally and in every sense. You are not a "German on the street and a Jew at home". You are just yourself, a Jew, anywhere you go.

I know that for many Jews it is hard for them to truly believe that they are capable of making aliya -leaving behind emotional ties, starting over professionally in a country where they don't speak the language, in a country beset by political problems. The prospect can be daunting. But you should know that it can be done, and that it is being done on a daily basis.

I don't work for the Jewish Agency or Nefesh B'Nefesh or the government. I am just writing what I feel in my heart, because maybe someone else out there also feels it in his or her heart. But maybe that person has bought into the myth of the "impossibility" of aliya. I just want to say that if the thought of Israel moves you and draws you, even though you have no idea how you are going to do it, if you can dream of it, if you can feel it in your heart, you can do it.
Aviva, Jerusalem (16/04/07)

Ladies and Gentlemen! Your attention! The decision of the judges has reached ringside. They award, 3 points to Mike from Virginia; 4 points to Daniel from Kyoto; 11 points to Aviva from Jerusalem. And the winner is AVIVA FROM JERUSALEM by a unanimous decision!   

THE DIVINE AMPUTATION

This evening, somber torchlight ceremonies commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day will be held all over Israel. Restaurants, bars, cinemas will all be closed in honor and respect for the millions who were murdered in the gas chambers of modern enlightened Europe. Tomorrow morning at ten, a memorial siren will blare out for two minutes all over the country. Hearing it, everything will stop. Schoolchildren will stand quietly in school playgrounds; pedestrians will stand frozen on sidewalks; motorists will stop their cars in the middle of highways. For those two minutes, the hearts of all the country are united. There is nothing like it in the world, certainly not in Monsey, New York; Vienna, Virginia; or Kyoto, Japan. True, in some of Israel’s institutions for the insane and mentally handicapped, some patients won’t notice the siren, and there are some mentally deranged still at large who will continue about their business, detached in their psychopathic cocoons from the real world around them, but the overwhelming nationwide feeling is one of profound respect and remorse. Our Sages tell us that it is the person who shares in the sorrows and struggles of Jerusalem who shall merit to share in its joys. May the memory of the martyrs be for a blessing.
When the time comes for Redemption, complications arise and large portions of the nation are embedded in the tar of the galut. The facts bear witness – multitudes of Jews grew accustomed to the impurity of the Diaspora, and refused to extricate themselves from it.

THE ENCOMPASSING PERSPECTIVE
Many writers and scholars have put forth theories which attempt to explain the Holocaust. One Haredi point of view focuses the blame on the reform Jews in Germany who broke away from the Torah. Another attitude blames the secular Zionists for having brazenly established a non-religious settlement in the Land of Israel before the Mashiach’s coming. Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaCohen Kook had a different understanding. These theories, he said, failed to embrace the whole sweep of history. The workings of Divine Providence cannot be isolated to any one moment, or group, but must be seen in the context of the Divine historical plan which spans generations. Accusations that blame this group, or that group, fracture the unity of the Jewish Nation. Just as G-d is One, the Nation of Israel is one. Only from this encompassing perspective, which embraces all of Jewish history, can one hope to fathom the Divine Will in the horror of the Holocaust. Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda spoke these words on Holocaust Memorial Day at the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem:

DIVINE RECKONING
"Everything that happens in the world is a Divine mystery. The understanding of Divine Providence, in all of its complexity, is not revealed to us. Analytical studies of the Holocaust are a juvenile activity. Only with great sensitivity, and with a mature spiritual perspective, is it possible to approach this awesome topic. First, one must remember that there is a difference between human comprehension and Divine reckoning. The true understanding of the world, and the true understanding of faith, demand an understanding of the Torah verse, ‘Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations’ (Devarim, 32:5). This sweeping historical perspective includes a deep faith that everything comes from G-d. But along with this, one must remember that, ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts; My ways are not your ways, says the L-rd. For My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts’ (Yishayahu, 55:8-9).

"A weakness of faith, and a narrow world outlook, causes one to measure Divine Providence according to the yardstick of our understanding, which is limited. Human understanding is finite and cannot grasp the workings of ‘Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom’ (Tehillim, 145:13). Our reckoning is a reckoning of the here and now, whereas the Divine reckoning is an accounting of ages. Sometimes, man forgets that matters are not dependent on, nor begin with him. In truth, events are connected by a Divine historical plan. Thus our comprehension of them is dependent upon our ability to elevate ourselves and recognize the overall Divine reckoning.

"Rising to this level is not easy. Therefore, there were people who abandoned their faith on the heels of the Holocaust, because they did not succeed in lifting themselves up to the knowledge of the true G-d. Obviously, one sympathizes with them. As our Sages said about Job, ‘A man is not blames for what he utters in his agony’ (Baba Batra 16B). There is room to understand errors committed in an hour of suffering. Yet difficulties do not justify abandoning faith. One must not subject G-d to our reasoning and perception. Only with this understanding is it possible to approach, in fear and awe, a comprehension of a tiny part of the Holocaust. In our generation, we have seen an awesome new form of destruction (the Holocaust) and an incredible new revival and building (the State of Israel). There are people who don’t agree with this order of Divine Providence. They become confused when they encounter these events. But nothing happens randomly. There is not a thing which transpires that isn’t carried out according to the Providence of the Almighty. Not only the good events, but also the things which appear evil to us, they all happen according to the Divine plan.

THE HORROR OF THE HOLOCAUST
"There are not words to describe the shocking, frightening, and horrifying atrocity of the Holocaust. It will remain this way forever. It is impossible to stop the anger one feels against the Nazis, may their names be erased. They not only perpetuated an unspeakable evil against us, they also damaged our psyches, leaving us psychologically scarred. All of our national identity and pride was uprooted by them. This is even more pernicious than the killing and murder. All of the national, social, and political uncertainty we now experience, all of our confusion in our world outlook and lifestyle, follow from this destruction of the Israeli community. The Holocaust caused an upheaval in our attitudes and worldview, and it damaged our faith in G-d.

"We are commanded to rise up to a sublime vision, to ‘Contemplate the years of many generations,’ to rise up over trivial explanations, to peer beyond mere superficial perception. One must guard against thinking in a condensed and myopic fashion when clarifying the historic reckonings of Clal Yisrael. The nation of Israel is a single unity which arrives at its wholeness only after a continuum which spans all ages. The whole truthful vision beholds the entire Nation of Israel in all of its generations. It is true that there are many levels in the Nation of Israel, from the completely righteous, to people average deeds, to doers of evil. However, all of these categories compose one complete entity. Just as ‘The Torah of the L-rd is whole’ (Tehillim, 19:18), so is the nation of Israel whole. Like the body of a man, that is made up of different organs having various functions and levels of importance, yet which together, each performing its task, constitute the complete man – so is the Nation of Israel, each tribe has its unique value, and all of them together make up the nation. A perspective of the Nation of Israel which divides the whole into parts (religious and secular, Zionist and anti-Zionist), without sensitivity to the overall oneness of the nation, is a narrow-minded perspective that brings many divisions and crises in its wake. All of Israel’s millions are bound together, in one body, in one soul.
The Master of the World arranges history in such a way that for a certain time we are confined to exile, and afterwards He brings about historical events which cause the national body of the Jewish People to awaken in a developing process spanning generations.

"This single, complete body of the Nation of Israel is whole only in Eretz Yisrael. In the exile, we are not in our normal national situation, nor in our vibrant state. The return to the Land of Israel is a return to national normalcy and to health. G-d’s presence among the Jewish People on appears in its true form in Eretz Yisrael. There is even a difference in the value of a mitzvah which a Jew performs in the Land of Israel, compared to the value of the same precept when performed outside the Land. The actualization of Israel in all of its wholeness is only in Eretz Yisrael. Outside of the Land, we are not healthy because the national component of Clal Yisrael is shattered, and we exist as solitary individuals, the remnants of Israel. The exile causes a delay in G-d’s light on the nation. Galut destroys our national format, and we remain isolated souls. However, the bones of Yechezkel’s prophecy do not disintegrate forever, and we wait the appearance of a new burst of life (Yechezkel, 37:3-5). And now the time has come to return to health. The end of exile has arrived. Everything has stages, and the Redemption does not appear all at once, but gradually, a little at a time (Jerusalem Talmud, Berachot 1:1). The Master of the World arranges history in such a way that for a certain time we are confined to exile, and afterwards He brings about historical events which cause the national body of the Jewish People to awaken in a developing process spanning generations. This awakening builds in momentum toward a complete revival.

"There are situations where it is difficult to separate from the galut. However, the time has arrived for our nation’s revival, and for the redemption of our Land. The Revealed End has come, the time when, ‘You O mountains of Israel shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to My people Israel, for they will soon be coming’ (Sanhedrin 98A). The time approached for Israel’s return to Zion, and this caused the rebirth of the Land. But as the time arrives for our departure from the darkness of the exile, situations arise which resemble the Hebrew slave who rejects freedom and says, ‘I loved my master’ (Shemot, 21:5). Jews fell in love with the exile and refused to come back to Israel. But the Diaspora cannot continue forever. The Diaspora is the worse Desecration of G-d that there is, as we find in Yechezkel: ‘And when they came to the nations into which they came, they profaned My holy Name, in that men said of them, these are the people of the L-rd, and they are gone out of His Land’ (Yechezkel, 36:20).

"When the time comes for Redemption, complications arise and large portions of the nation are embedded in the tar of the galut. The facts bear witness – multitudes of Jews grew accustomed to the impurity of the Diaspora, and refused to extricate themselves from it. Thus begins a Divine surgery, a deep inner, esoteric purification from this decay, a treatment of amputation and healing. All of Israel’s millions are one single body, an indivisible organism, and when it is delayed from returning to health because of its clinging to a foreign land, then a cruel Divine amputation is needed. The time came for the Jewish People to return to their Land, but since they refused, there was no way to bring them back other than, ‘He took me by the sidelock of my head’ (Yechezkel, 8:3), in order to bring them against their will to Eretz Yisrael. When the end of exile arrives, and all of Israel fails to recognize it, there is a need for a cruel Divine amputation and severance. We are not speaking here about a reckoning against this person or that person, since this is a secret matter of G-d belonging to the secret world of souls. We are speaking of a reckoning that encompasses all of the nation, which arises from a situation of, ‘They despised the desirable Land’ (Tehillim, 106:24). This is an amputation which causes the nation as a whole to separate from the Diaspora and return to its life in the Land of Israel."

(From the book, "Torat Ertez Yisrael - The Teachings of HaRav Tzvi Yehuda HaCohen Kook.)