Diaspora Day

I want to thank DACON9 and other talkbackers for rebuking me for getting down on Diaspora Jewry. Of course, my love for the Jewish People includes Diaspora Jews. It is precisely out of my love for them that I have been trying to awaken them to the incomparable superiority of Jewish life in the Land of Israel.

My gripe is not with them, but with the superficial understanding of Judaism that is taught throughout the Diaspora, which lauds Diaspora Judaism as in end in itself, and not what it really is - a  punishment of exile amongst the gentiles until we return to our own Land. Instead of teaching their communities that the goal of each and every Jew should be to live a Torah life in Israel, as explicitly expressed in our daily prayers, Jewish leaders and educators in the Diaspora work toward the strengthening of Jewish life in the exile itself. So the Jews there don’t know any better. In their innocence, they believe they are doing the right thing. If not for Arutz 7, and a few others snorkels of genuine oxygen, they would be entirely DOA by the time they got to Israel.

Fishman visiting relatives in America

The truth is that Diaspora Jews are a lot stronger than I am. I can’t be there more than a few days before I start to feel sick. I start to feel dizzy, confused, suffocated, as if there is no air to breathe. But the Jews who live there don’t seem to be affected by the lack of holiness in their surroundings at all. It wasn’t for naught that the Rabbis of the Talmud declared the lands outside of Israel impure. Someone who is accustomed to the holiness of the Land of Israel can actually feel the spiritual vacuum of the Diaspora if he should have to visit there, or go there on some type of shlichut.

So I have great respect for my brothers and sisters in the Diaspora who have the stamina to endure and to strengthen the Jewish communities there. They are also much braver than I. Walking the streets in the Diaspora, whether it be on Broadway in Harlem, Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, or the Boulevard Montparnasse in gay Paree, I’m frightened to death by all the goyim, with their cold stares and their clean, razor-shaven faces of Roman gladiators. “Get me out of here!” I silently pray every second I’m there. “Even though I walk through the valleys of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me,” I repeat like a mantra, again and again.

So, kol hakavod, chevre! I lift up my kippah to you in esteem. Your passion for Judaism is a lot stronger than mine. If I had stayed in the Diaspora like you, I would have given up the mitzvot and gone back to my old rancid ways. Your fierce attachment  to Judaism, in a foreign place, in an impure environment, in a vapid, non-Jewish culture, surrounded by danger every minute, it’s just incredible to me! How you have the fortitude and courage to observe the Jewish holidays, and walk to shul on Shabbat, and send your children to Jewish Day schools, it’s all baffling to me. Truly, we need to establish an annual Diaspora Day to honor the Jews in the exile for keeping the flame of Judaism burning in the darkness.

Yes, my brothers and sisters scattered all over the globe, I am sorry if I have offended you. I am proud and honored that you are readers of this blog!    

The Smiles of Wolves

Hundreds of thousands of Jews flocked to tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in Meron last night to celebrate Lag B’Omer by paying tribute to the author of the Zohar on his Yahrtzeit. Hundreds of thousands more, men, women, teenagers and children, religious and non-religious alike, sang songs about Rabbi Shimon, danced, and learned Torah all night around bonfires all over the country.

Rabbi Shimon lived during the Roman occupation of Israel. The Talmud describes the event that forced him to flee from the Romans and hide out in a cave with his son for 12 years, during which time the secrets of Torah were revealed to him by celestial visitors - Eliahu HaNavi and Moshe Rabainu. In a discussion about the Roman occupiers, he refused to praise their doings, saying, “All that they have done here, they have done for themselves. They built marketplaces to set their harlots in them; they built bathhouses to sport in them; they built bridges to collect tolls.” When the Romans were informed of his remarks, they issued a death sentence on him, which led to his fleeing (Shabbat 33, the gematria of Lag).

We can’t say coincidently, because we understand that there is no coincidence.  But isn’t it interesting that the head of Rome today is visiting in Israel at this very time when the nation is celebrated our great hero, Rabbi Shimon?  Today, just as in the time of Rabbi Shimon, everything that the goyim do for Israel they do for themselves, out of their own self-interest. There gestures of peace come to steal our land; their financial and military aid come to fortify Israel in order to protect their own grip on the Middle East; their bear hugs set the stage for the knife in our back; their missions of love come to tear us away from our heritage and from being the true chosen nation of G-d.

I had the privilege of celebrating Lag B’Omer with the revered Tzaddik, Rabbi Eliahu Leon Levi and students. May we all merit to cling to our holy Torah, increase our learning and prayers, and thus erect an impenetrable shield to protect us from all of the deceivers, whether from the Vatican or Washington D.C. whose smiles, Rabbi Shimon taught us, are the smiles of wolves.

HaRav Leon at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai

In the tomb of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess

HaRav Leon prepares a meal for his students.

Toob bad DACON couldn't make it.

On the shores of the Kinneret

"Walk on the water - that's easy!"

Setting the night on fire.

We'll Teach the Pope a Thing or Two

Yes, it’s true that the Catholic and Christian world is responsible for the murder of millions of Jews.

Yes, it is true that the Vatican stood by and did nothing to prevent the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust.

Yes, it is true that the belief in Yeshu is idol worship with all of its statues and  polytheistic trinities.

Yes, it is true that Christianity and is offshoots have led the world astray from G-d and His commandments, to follow after a false religion.

Yes, it is true that the empty and misleading doctrines of Christianity are the source of the moral decay of Western culture and its incessant world wars.

Yes, it is true that no representative of the Vatican or the Catholic Church should be allowed to step foot in the Holy Land until they beg the Jewish People’s forgiveness and renounce all of their errant and evil ways.

Yes, all of these things are true.

Nonetheless, allow me to shed a glimmer of light on the present pompous and pontifical visit, seeing it as the forerunner of a prophecy that is sure to come to pass.

Isaiah Wall

Inscribed on the famous Isaiah Wall outside of the United Nations is the prophecy:

“THEY SHALL BEAT THEIR SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES, AND THEIR SPEARS INTO PRUNING HOOKS; NATION SHALL NOT LIFT UP SWORD AGAINST NATION. NEITHER SHALL THEY LEARN WAR ANY MORE” (Isaiah, 2:4).

Of course, the anti-Semites at the UN left out the preceding verses of Isaiah’s prophecy which explain how this ideal situation will come to pass:

“And it shall come to pass in the end of days, that  the mountain of the L-rd’s House shall be established on the foremost of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and all the nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come and let us go up unto the mountain of the L-rd, to the House of the G-d of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth Torah, and the word of the Law from Jerusalem” (Ibid, 2:2-3).

In simple words, the goyim will come to Jerusalem and learn from the Jews how to serve G-d.

Only then will nations no longer lift up sword against fellow nations.

The current visit is a preview of what will be in the near future as all of the repenting imposters crawl on their hands and knees up the road to the House of G-d in Jerusalem to learn from the Jews the true way of serving Hashem.

May it come soon!