THE INTRINSIC HOLINESS OF THE STATE

Shmuelik and Shimon, come and join in the building. Instead of just waiting for Mashiach, your aliyah will help bring him.

Sorry to disappoint my friends, Shmuelik and Shimson. While I have no qualms noting that some things are rotten in the State of Israel, the blood in my veins is blue and white to the very last drop. The fact that there are problems in Israel does not impinge on the intrinsic holiness of the State. Apparently, this is an understanding that needs to be repeated and repeated until it sinks into the heads of our confused and self-deluding brothers in galut. For example, the cow hides used to make the parchments of mezuzot and tefillin are not holy in and of themselves. However, when the hides are used for the holy purpose of these mitzvot, the hides become holy too, and one is obligated to treat them with stringent sanctity. So too in the case of Medinat Yisrael, which is the vehicle that the Almighty has given us in order to perform the mitzvah of conquering and dwelling in the Land of Israel, a mitzvah that is equal in weight to all the commandments of the Torah (Sifre, Parshat Reah, 12:29).

No one can deny that Medinat Yisrael has been G-d’s instrument for the great ingathering of exiles in our time; and G-d’s vehicle for the renewed settlement of the Land of Israel; and G-d’s instrument for the defense of the Jewish People against its enemies – all clear mitzvot of the Torah. The shortcomings that appear along the way in this colossal enterprise in no way invalidate the sanctity of the State, as Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook taught his students again and again. For the sake of our brothers who may not have heard him, we will mention some of his teachings.

“It is well known that the Ramban established a fundamental halachic ruling that conquering and living in the Land of Israel are commandments of the Torah which apply in every age (Supplement to the Sefer HaMitzvot of the Rambam, Positive Command #4). Among the supporting verses he cites is the Torah verse, ‘Go up and possess.’ The Ramban emphasizes that this is the language of a command. In contrast to this, the rejection of this command is a rebellion against Hashem, as is written, ‘And when the L-rd sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, Go up and possess the Land which I gave you, and you rebelled against the L-rd your G-d, and you did not believe in Me, and did not listen to My voice’ (Devarim, 9:23). They did not listen to Hashem in conquering and possessing the Land. Possessing the Land is a mitzvah, and the opposite is a rebellion against Hashem.”

The Torah is eternal. The Torah doesn’t change. What was true in the time of Moshe is true for us today. Living in Israel is not a matter of personal choice. It is the foundation of the national Torah life of Am Yisrael.

“People occasionally ask, where is it written in the Torah that we have to build a State? Aren’t they familiar with the words of the Ramban, who stated that we are commanded that this Land be in our hands, and not in the hands of any other nation? Everyone understands that dominion over a geographic parcel of land demands political sovereignty and government. All of the early and later Torah authorities decide the law in this fashion on the basis of the Ramban that the precept of conquering the Land applies in all generations, and all of the agree that it is a commandment of the Torah” (Pitchei T’shuva, Evan HaEzer, 75:6).

Rabbi Kook emphasized that, “The intrinsic value of the State is not dependent on the number of observant Jews here. Of course, our aspiration is that all of our people will embrace the Torah and the mitzvot. Nonetheless, the Statehood of Israel is kadosh, holy, whatever religious level it contains.”

“There are religious Jews who express a type of criticism and say, ‘If the State of Israel were run according to our lifestyle and spirit, then we would accept it. Until then we abstain from it.’ They talk as if the State does not belong to them. But the truth is that the State belongs to all of us. Anyone who refuses to recognize the State of Israel does not recognize the return of the Divine Presence to Zion.”

Rabbi Kook said that we had to be patient, that Redemption came slowly in gradual stages, little by little (Jerusalem Talmud, Berachot 1:1), and that it would reach perfection with time.

“In the Gemara, our Sages explain that all of the material used in building the Temple became sanctified only after it was set into place. We build with the profane and sanctify afterward (Meilah 14A and B, see Rashi there). This was enacted because our Sages realized that during the construction, workers would sit in the shade of the building to rest from the sun, and thus improperly derive personal benefit from something which had been exclusively dedicated for the use of the Temple. The Beit HaMikdash was built in this fashion, and this is the way the Redemption of Israel develops, in stages, little by little. Just as the stones used in building the Temple were not sanctified, so too the building of Eretz Yisrael is accomplished by every segment of the nation, by the righteous and by the less righteous. We build with the secular, even though this causes complications and problems, and little by little all of the various problems will vanish, and the sanctification of Hashem will appear in more and more light.”

Shmuelik and Shimon, come and join in the building. Instead of just waiting for Mashiach, your aliyah will help bring him.

HOOTERS, HOOKERS, OR HOLY NATION?

HOOTERS, HOOKERS, OR HOLY NATION?
Jews! Wake up and remember who you are – a Holy Nation, and not the bikini-clad tribe of dark-skinned Mediterraneans that the Israel Foreign Ministry is trying to sell.


Last week, Reuters reported: “HOOTERS, the restaurant chain with the scantily clad, buxom waitresses, announced that it was opening an eatery in Israel. The first branch is expected to open in the Tel Aviv area, followed by others in Eilat, Haifa and possibility Jerusalem. Don't expect to find any kosher chicken wings. The restaurants won't be kosher.”

Another, equally distressing news item appeared last week on the Jerusalem Post website:

“The beer 'n' babes magazine Maxim will send photographers to Israel next week for an Israeli women photo shoot that Foreign Ministry officials hope redefines what the magazine's hormone-charged readers think when they hear television reporters say ‘the situation in Israel is hot.’ David Saranga, the consul for media and public affairs at Israel's Consulate in New York, said, ‘All the surveys we have done shows that the biggest hasbara problem that Israel has is with males from the age of 18-35. Israel does not seem relevant for them, and that is bad for branding. In order to change their perception of Israel as only a land of conflict, we want to present to them an Israel that interests them.’ Which is where good-looking women in skimpy bikinis come in. The magazine features revealing pictorials of scantily clad actresses, models, singers and the girl next door, interspersed among articles on sports, cars, movies, booze and relationships. The Israeli models, Saranga said, were a Trojan horse to present Israel as a modern country with nice beaches and pretty women. ‘We want to show that we are a normal society like all others.’”

Our Sages have warned us that just before Mashiach’s arrival, the Empty Ones of Israel will form alliances with Ishmael and Esav to the detriment of the Jews. We have already witnessed how the lovers of peace among us have given rifles to the sons of Ishmael, set up a terrorist haven for them in Aza, and surrendered Jewish land to them, while destroying flourishing Jewish settlements, synagogues, and yeshivot. At the same time, these same Empty Ones are working hand in hand with Esav to bring Esav’s sick, pornographic culture to our shores, in order to destroy our holy nation from within. Under the flag of “freedom of expression” the Israeli Supreme Court approved Playboy Cable for the Holy Land. Leading Israeli newspapers and the Israel television are the champions of the “freedom of smut.” Certainly they know that the G-d of the Jews hates licentiousness. But “davka,” for this very reason, they have made a pact with the devil of Esav in an effort to evacuate G-d from the Land, just as they evacuated the Jews of Gush Katif.

Brothers and sisters, I have been dwelling on these matters because I want to wake you up to the terrible danger we face from these betrayals to our Holy Torah and to our Holy Land. Betrayals camouflaged in the media with photos of hugs and handshakes between the Empty Ones and the leaders of Ishmael and Esav, as if they were our friends.

In explaining, I want to paraphrase the words of the Torah giant, Rabbi Aviezer Felitz. He teaches that when our forefather Yaakov battled with the angel of Esav, it was a sign for all generations. The angel of Esav is the impurity of the culture of Esav. While Yaakov overcame this arch rival of Israel, he was wounded in the “thigh,” meaning that Jewish People would always be vulnerable to Esav’s attacks on our sexual purity. Ever since this Biblical battle, a war was declared against Israel, to destroy our sexual holiness, the Covenant and Brit which attaches us to G-d. Ever since Yaakov’s struggle, we have been battling with the angel of Esav.

Over the pageant of history, the angel of Esav has dressed up in the cultures of Persia, Greece, Rome, and Nazi Germany. In his present reincarnation, he wears the modern business suits of Europe and America. Today, he doesn’t come against us in outright war, like the sons of Ishmael, but surreptitiously, by importing his polluted culture to our shores, Hooters Restaurants and Maxim photographers, to destroy us from within. Insidiously, the culture of Esav infiltrates into our homes, and into the minds of our youth, working in a treacherous partnership with the Empty Ones amongst us who have sold themselves out to his smiling embrace.

Brothers and sisters, we are at war. A war of survival. The Nation of Israel is battling the angel of Esav, and we are losing. A plague of immodesty has polluted our Land. The Empty Ones have surrendered the keys of the house of Yaakov to Esav, declaring that his ways are more enlightened than ours. Shell-shocked by the constant cultural bombardment, the holy daughters of Israel have adopted the immoral fashions of the West and strut around the streets of our cities like Hooters waitresses. They line up in hundreds, praying to be chosen by Esav’s photographers, for the chance to appear without shame, practically nude, in Maxim’s slick sleazy journal. The polluted culture of Esav has us in his clutches. The war is being waged in every Jewish heart. It is battling for control of our minds. And yet almost no one is fighting back.

It would be easier if we could fight back with swords. At least against Ishmael, the enemy is clear. But this war with the angel of Esav is spiritual. The enemy has infiltrated our camp. He is already within us. We ourselves have let him in. In order to fight back, we have to recognize this truth. Then we have to summon all of our inner strength, the proud Jewish faith that lies imbedded in the genes that we have inherited from our forefather, Yaakov. The chromosomes from his victorious battle against the angel of Esav are within us, waiting to be released in this crucial battle for Jewish survival.

Jews! Wake up and remember who you are – a Holy Nation, and not the bikini-clad tribe of dark-skinned Mediterraneans that the Israel Foreign Ministry is trying to sell. G-d chose us from all of the nations to be His beacon of moral light to the world. Holy women and daughters of Israel, don’t let the emissaries of Esav defile you with their cheap nickel tips and glossy photo spreads, not in the Holy Land, and not anywhere else.

The situation is grave, but we can still win. We have the inner resources to overcome the angel and culture of Esav. The verse states, “It is a time of tribulation for Yaakov, but from it, he will be saved.” From the tribulation itself, comes the salvation. Yes, we are on the ropes. Yes, we have even fallen down to the canvas. But if we use this fall to come to our senses and summon our deep inner strength, then we can get up and defeat the angel of Esav, by embracing the Yaakov within us, by returning to our true identity as the children of Israel, the proud and holy nation of G-d.

[NEWS ALERT – FOR THE LATEST UPDATE ON HOMESH, SEE THE PREVIOUS POST BELOW.]

HOMESH BOUND

The IDF gave their OK this evening to the march to Homesh -- see you in Northern Shomron tomorrow!!

[Bulletin from Mattot Arim]  
VERY GOOD NEWS!! The army has OKed the event at Chomesh tomorrow -- this was publicized via Kol Yisrael this evening. This is a very important step that the army has taken toward us. Remember only a day or two ago all the media had been told that the army was so opposed that they were even threatening to sue all the participants!! However -- the army's important decision MUST be reciprocated by excellent participation at our end. While we are pleased to report busses filling up at all locations we ask that you please take heart from the army's positive decision and simply come. To do so please register IMMEDIATELY by phone (see below) if you have not yet done so. If you are told the bus is full simply ask to be put on stand-by. See you all tomorrow, here are the particulars again. Good luck to all and nesia tova from MATTOT ARIM.

"As we saw the houses of our yishuv getting further and further away, even then, we saw the most horrible sight imaginable: hundreds of Arabs dancing near our yishuv, with PLO and Hizbullah flags in their hands. We swore at that time, that we would not rest until we return to our homes ."
-- Yossi Dagan, one of the Jews deported from Northern Shomron

TOMORROW Monday, 26 March (æ Nisan), 30 families will be returning to Chomesh in the Northern Shomron. In order to ensure their success in actually getting there and in overcoming negative media, it is VERY VERY IMPORTANT for many ordinary people to come along with them. So -- it's offical. You are hereby cordially invited to Chomesh on Monday!

Busses cost 20 NIS and are leaving from the following locations (but you MUST register - otherwise you may find a full bus when you get there)

Petah Tikva: 12 noon from the Iriya. Register with Yonatan, gormezan@zahav.net.il or 0523527313.
Rehovot: 11:30 AM from Herzl corner of Yaakov. Register with Yedidia, 0526302222.
Raanana: 12 noon from Yad laBanim. Register with Yedidia, 0526302222.
Jerusalem: 12 noon from Binyanei haUma, register with Yedidia, 0526302222.
Haifa, Zichron, Hadera: 11 AM from Checkpost junction and Kiryat Shmuel. Register with Shlomo, 0522366555.
Kiryat Shmona, Golan, Rosh Pina, Safad: Register with Shaul, 0526070117.
Tsomet Golani, Tiberias & Afula: Register with Miriam 0524370629.
Nahariya, Acco, Krayot: Register with Yehiam, 0548035448
Other locations: For 10 people and over, call 0526302222 by SUNDAY MORNING and we will arrange a ride for your group!

Missed your bus? It's easy to use public transport. Get to Netanya, then take Bus 73 to Shavei Shomron from which you will walk to Chomesh with everyone else. For details -- Egged *2800 or 03-6948888 or www.egged.co.il.

Coming by car? Drive to Shavei Shomron or Einav. Can't get there? Park at the main parking lot of Karnei Shomron and try and get a "tremp" from someone (ask at the gate).

Staying for several days? Bring warm clothes and preferably night gear. Bring food and water for at least a day or two.

Working on Tuesday -- or need to get home same day for any other reason? Use public transport to get home. Return from Homesh to Shavei Shomron or Kdumim first: simply ask the sadranim or other marchers where you might find a group or car going back. Then, take an Egged or Dan bus to wherever you want to go. From Shavei Shomron to Netanya at 3:15 PM or 5:35 PM or 7:15 PM or 8:05 PM (Egged, 03-6948888). Or, take Egged from Kdumim to Jerusalem -- at 3:45 PM ONLY. Or, go from Kdumim to Tsomet Raanana at 3:55 PM, 5:15 PM, 7:05 PM, 8:15 PM or 9:10 PM using a Dan bus 03-6394444). Or, go to the gate of Shavei Shomron and try your luck at getting a "tremp" to somewhere close to home!
*Special note: If you have 30 people who are coming with you and want to return home the same day, call Yedidia by SATURDAY NIGHT and he will arrange a special vehicle just for your group, there and back.

Little kids? They are welcome. Bring stuff for them to do including tape, colored pens and paper to decorate Shavei Shomron with appropriate signs -- or little candies or flowers for them to give out to the 30 families and other marchers. Also, bring plastic bags so they can collect nature specimens in this beautiful part of the country. That way, they can stay busy and happy in Shavei Shomron (which has playgrounds...) if they're tired or very young. Or, if they feel up to it when you get to Shavei, they can go to Chomesh together with everybody else. Remember that you go to Chomesh ONLY in organized groups with the appropriate security measures, not all by yourself.

Security problem? Legal problem? Call the Security Hotline at 050-9152277 or 050-9162277 or the Legal Aid Hotline at 1599-504020.

See you tomorrow, have a great time everybody! from MATTOT ARIM

øåöä ìäéîç÷ îäøùéîä? ùìç ãåà "ì øé÷ ëàï
to unsubscribe, pls send a blank email Here
÷áìú àú äîééì äæä îçáø? øåöä ìäöèøó ìøùéîú äúôåöä? ùìç ãåà"ì øé÷ àì mattotarim-subscribe@eretz.org
mattotarim-subscribe@eretz.org if you got this from a friend & would like to join our distribution list, send a blank email to
ìúâåáåú (àå ìøéùåí éãéãéí äâøéí áçå"ì): mattot.arim@gmail.com
Comments? Or: Want your friends in USA etc. to join our foreign list? Contact mattot.arim@gmail.com

RABBI KAHANA SAYS IT BETTER

Rabbi Meir Kahana says it better than me. Pesach is the holiday celebrating our freedom from Galut. Apparently, many Jews don’t read to the end of the Hagaddah, or else don’t mean it when they say, “Next year in Jerusalem.” Here is an essay he wrote, to help us internalize the messages of the holiday:

AND THOU SHALT TELL THY SON
The essence of Passover is the commandment of the Hagaddah, of telling and retelling, of passing on to our children, the story of Passover, its concepts and lessons and commandments. Passover is the beginning of Judaism, its very birth, hence its direction and directive to pass on to our sons and daughters its fundamentals and teachings. However, the problem with a commandment to parents to pass on lessons to their children is that so few know what to pass on. Indeed, through honest ignorance or honest receipt of confusion from those who passed that down to them, Jews of befogged confusion do not pass on but rather pass over the basic truths, and the irony of the holiday name is glaring.
For Passover is a festival of national faith, of a free people leaving an Exile for a home of their own. Jews of the ghetto and the Exile cannot understand Passover as it really is. They can only pass over it, never pass it on.

The object of Jews to understand the real and so-very-clear lessons of the holiday of Freedom, is the tragic reality of a 20-centuries-old Exile that not only brutally deformed Jews, but far worse, perverted the Torah concepts that are so basic to knowing not only who we really are and from whence we came, but what we should be doing and telling ourselves and our children, so that we may know how to reach the final redemption that is based — as our Rabbis tell us — on the first one, the Exodus from the Land of Egypt on that first Passover so long ago.
We are the victims of an agonizingly long exile that saw us change from an authentic religio-nation to a religion alone; that saw us learn to accept our crippling deformity, a religio-nation with a state of its own turned into a religion with no national or land roots. It is an exile that effectively perverted, warped and twisted Torah truth and we are the victims. That is why it is so essential to resurrect Passover and its lessons; to learn and understand them as they really are. For Passover is a festival of national faith, of a free people leaving an Exile for a home of their own. Jews of the ghetto and the Exile cannot understand Passover as it really is. They can only pass over it, never pass it on. And so, let us see the lessons of Passover, learn them, and throw off the leaven of the Exile, and hallow ourselves with the simple sanctity of the matzoh of freedom.

1) Passover is the holiday of negating of the Exile, of the throwing off of the slavery of Galut and going up to the freedom and spirituality of Eretz Yisrael.
The freedom given to the Jews by the All Mighty was more than just escape from bondage, from Egyptian slavery. The Ramban (Exodus 3:12) puts it best: “For the All Mighty said two things to Moses: To go down and save the people from the hand of Egypt and this might have been accomplished in the Land of Goshen [Egypt] itself or nearby — but G-d promised another thing: To take them out of the country entirely to the place of the Canaanites.”
And the Ibn Ezra (Deuteronomy 4:10): “For the L-rd knew that Israel could not observe His commandments properly if they remained in the lands that ruled over them.” And the Sforno (Deuteronomy 6:21): “And since in our slavery we could not acquire the completeness that was directed from Him, He did wondrously to take us out and bring us to a land where we could acquire that completeness.”
The so-obvious and basic Divine law: No people can live as a minority, a stranger in another’s land, and not be influenced by the majority’s foreign culture so that it infiltrates his mind, his views, his thought processes and makes him a different person than if he were isolated from that foreign invasion of his environment. We, the greatest of scholars — are all products of our environment, and the insidious foreign influences — newspapers, radio, streets — must influence and change us and shape us in a way that is different from an isolated, insulated Jewish state.
And so G-d did two things. He freed us from slavery, but only for the purpose of creating a holy, special, different people that would create a total Torah society in the only way possible: by leaving the influence of the foreign exile and living in cultural isolation in its own land. “Lo, it is a people that dwells alone . . . ” (Numbers 23:9).

2) Passover tells us that the Jew who can go up to the Land and does not, will not be allowed by the All Mighty to survive in his Exile Paradise.
And these are the words of the Rabbis (Shemot Rabbah 14; Tanchuma, Va’era 14): “Why did G-d bring the plague of darkness? Because there were, among the Jews, sinners who had patrons among the Egyptians, and they had honor and wealth and did not wish to leave Egypt. Said the All Mighty: If I bring a blow on them openly and they die, the Egyptians will say: Just as he struck us down so did he do to them. Therefore he brought darkness on Egypt for three days so that they could die and be buried with no one knowing.”
And indeed, that is the reason for the Rabbis telling us that only one-fifth of the Jews left Egypt, all the rest dying in the plague of darkness because they refused to leave Egypt to go up to the Land of Canaan (Tanchuma, B’shalach 1).
And the message echoes through the ages to each and every one who remains in the Exile where he enjoys honor and wealth. It cannot and will not be. A plague of darkness cometh and there will be no survival for those who despised the Holy Land and who chose their gentile patrons.

3) Faith, total faith in a G-d who is stronger than Pharaoh or even an American President.
The All Mighty comes to the Children of Israel and tells them to do nothing less than take the god of their Egyptian masters, the lamb, tie it up for four days and inform anyone who asks, that on the fourth day they will slaughter the animal-god, and then do it.
Mindboggling! Consider what the reaction of Jews would be today to a command to degrade and to flaunt victory over a sacred religious symbol of Christians or Moslems. Say, to remove the mosque from the Temple Mount . . . . One need not have much imagination to know what the reaction of Jews from left to right, from Reform to Moderdox, would be. Terror, outrage, indignation. But Passover teaches us differently.
In order to sanctify the name of the L-rd, G-d of Israel, as against the nations who mocked Him and knew Him not, the Jew is ordered not only to take, degrade, and manifest his mastery over the religious symbol of the Egyptian — he is told to do it in the most public way possible!
“And they shall eat the flesh that night, roasted . . . . Eat not of it raw, nor boiled in water, but roast with fire; its head, with its legs and its inner parts [complete].” (Exodus 12:8-9)
Why? Because you are sacrificing the god of Egypt, you might say, let us not roast it completely lest the Egyptians see us; therefore the verse says “eat not of it raw.” And if you say (for the same reason), let us boil it and put it into a pot, the verse says “nor boiled in water.” And if you say, let us cut it up so they will not recognize it, the verse says “its head, with its legs . . . ”
No nonsense about fear of agitating the gentiles, a concept of the Exile where it had its place, but utterly humiliating and a Hillul Hashem in a state where the All Mighty demands of the Jew a proclamation and demonstration of the utmost of faith, a faith in the face of apparent danger, a faith that manifests the essence of Kiddush Hashem, a sanctification of G-d, that is total and undiluted.

4) In the totality of faith and sanctification of G-d, there is no compromise — it must be complete and absolute.
Pharaoh has just refused the Israelites permission to take their children with them. Now, with the plague of darkness, he breaks and agrees. He surrenders almost totally. “Go, serve the L-rd, only let your sheep and cattle remain behind; even your children may go with you” (Exodus 10:24).
Consider, dear Jew. The Israelites have been slaves for decades upon decades. They have suffered and cried out unto G-d to free them. And now, finally, Pharaoh agrees to allow them to leave. Freedom now! And he only raises one minor condition — leave your cattle and sheep. Picture the scene: the joyful Jews, rejoicing in their soon-to-be-gotten freedom, embrace Moses and thank him. And then, to their horror, to their consternation, Moses shakes his head and tell Pharaoh, NO! You too, will give us sacrifices and offerings and our flocks will go with us. There shall not remain a hoof.
Dear moderate, non-fanatical, normal Jew. Was there ever a more fanatical, extremist, dangerous man than this Moses who refuses to compromise and insists on a stubborn policy of not one inch! Give them the sheep, Moses, give them the flocks! For freedom and peace one must compromise. Freedom now, shout the Jews, give him the sheep! But no. Moses knows what Judaism is, what Kiddush Hashem is: total surrender and capitulation before the L-rd — for only thus does the gentile admit his acceptance of the L-rd as the one and only G-d.

5) Sanctification must be open, unafraid, proud and tall.
The tenth plague strikes Egypt. Panic, terror. In every home there is death. Pharaoh surrenders totally. There is no thought of anything except total surrender. Go, go but above all, leave now, immediately. At midnight he races to Moses and cries out: Get up, get out of my people! You and the Children of Israel . . . take your sheep and cattle, too. Finally. Surely now, Moses is satisfied. Even the worst of extremists and fanatics must surely now accept this capitulation. Hardly. Thus says Moses: “Are we then thieves that we go out at night? We shall only leave with a mighty arm, before the eyes of all Egypt” (Tanchuma, Bo 7). And: “G-d said to them [the Egyptians]: You take My children out in the middle of the night? You will not take them out at night but rather openly in the middle of the day!” (Shemot Rabbah 18). And: “Moses said to Pharaoh: We have been warned to leave only openly” (Mechilta, Bo, 13).
The lesson is so clear, even to all the gentilized and Moderdox. Sanctification of G-d’s name, by its very essence, is a declaration that He is supreme, that no power on earth can touch Him or those who trust in Him. That the slightest thought of hidden or quiet, non-provocative sanctification is a contradiction in terms. That an admonition to do things quietly carries within it the seed of fear of gentile reaction and that, by its essence, is the very antithesis of Kiddush Hashem.
How many lessons there are in Passover! How many lessons that we pass over. Let us instead learn and pass them on.
May 9, 1986

HOMESH NOW!

HOMESH NOW!
It is the EMPTY ONES who should be arrested, not the FAITHFUL ONES, for their plotting to prevent Jewish settlement in the Jewish homeland.

My son, the soldier, phoned home to inform us that the EMPTY ONES OF LITTLE FAITH  are moving his unit to the Shomron to prevent the FAITHFUL ONES from reaching the evacuated settlement of Homesh, where they hope to return to their homes. Already on Friday, the media joined the EMPTY ONES by announcing that police would arrest anyone who tried to enter the off-limit zone surrounding the settlement. They warned that the leaders of the FAITHFUL ONES would also be fined for the cost of moving troops and police into the area. I told my son to refuse orders. Seventy years ago, with the issue of the White Paper, British soldiers patroled the shores of Palestine to prevent Jews from arriving and settling in Eretz Yisrael. Now, on the orders of the EMPTY ONES, Jewish soldiers are being forced to do the same criminal act of trying to stop the Children of Israel from living wherever they please in the Promised Land. It is the EMPTY ONES who should be arrested, not the FAITHFUL ONES, for their plotting to prevent Jewish settlement in the Jewish homeland. I told my son that if he goes with the troops, he should  let the FAITHFUL ONES circumvent the blockades. Stay posted for further developments!