Some readers complained about yesterday's late-night post regarding Baruch Gordon on Halloween in New York. Some people just don't have a sense of humor. In any event, I'm sorry once again if I hurt anyone's feelings. To show you that my sincerity is real, here's a tribute to the Jews of New York.   

It turns out that INN’s Baruch Gordon is in New York on a kiruv and aliyah project, working to bring people closer to Judaism and Eretz Yisrael. He was sighted twice in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn, and today someone sent me a photo of him in New York, posing with one of the locals.

 

Luckily, I was able to reach Baruch on the phone.

“Baruch, how’s it going?” I asked.

“Great!” he responded with his usual up-beat enthusiasm. “I love the Jews here in America! They’re the greatest! Some of them look like they’ve been through Hiroshima with all the spiritual impurity they have to live with here, but they’re Jews all the same and I love ‘em. If you show them you care, you can uncover the shtikaleh Yidden in all of them. To me they’re like diamonds. Sure, they’re a little dirty and beat up from the exile, but when you clean and polish them up with a little Torah, they all turn out to be sparkling gems.”

“Who’s that guy you’re with in the photo they sent me?” I asked him.

“A new friend,” he answered. “The poor guy’s had a real down and out battle with guarding the Brit. For a while he was married to a gentile, then went through a long bout of addiction to porn on the net, but he wants to give it all up now and come live in the Holy Land. He’s starting to keep Shabbos and is even growing a beard. You can probably see it in the picture.”  

“That’s great! Yasher koach!” I told him. “Hatzlachah! You should have a lot of success!”

“I’ve got him booked on a Nefesh B’Nefesh flight to Israel next week. Kiryat Arba has agreed to set him up in an apartment and start him off in an ulpan. The poor guy doesn’t know any Hebrew at all, but he’s gun-ho to learn.”

“When are you coming back home?” I asked.

“I really don’t know. There’s lots of work to do here,” he replied. “There's over two million Jews in the naked city. Each one could make a whole blog.”

“Listen, Baruch,” I told him, lowering my voice. “Bring me back a pastrami sandwich on rye with real New York mustard. I’ll pay you 1000 shekels.”

“No problem, my friend,” he told me.

I can’t wait till he gets back – not to see him, but to bite into that pastrami. Oh man. Just thinking about it drives me crazy!   Come home, Baruch, soon!!!

You have to live here in a holy fashion as well. Not just as Jew in Israel. A Jew, wherever he or she lives, is obligated to live his or her sexual life in a holy fashion. That’s one of the main things that distinguishes the Jewish People from the nations of the world.

When Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden and subsequent generations angered G-d with ever-increasing sexual transgression, G-d chose Avraham to father a holy nation that would lead the world out of its immoral darkness to the light of holiness and morality. In promising the Jewish People the Holy Land, G-d entered into a Covenant with Avraham for all time, the Covenant of Brit Milah, whereby Avraham and his descendants were to circumcise their offspring and guard the holiness of their sexual lives, as the Torah says: “And G-d said to Avraham: therefore you shall safeguard My Brit, you and your seed after you in their generations” (Bereshit, 17:8-10).

While the nations of the world wallow in the smut of sexual immorality, the Torah calls upon the Jewish People to set a higher standard. The pursuit of selfish animal pleasures championed by the cultures of the world are all forbidden by the Torah, such base and carnal actions as masturbation, pre-marital sex, adultery, homosexuality, viewing pornography on the Internet, dressing immodestly, and the like.

To help fellow Jews survive the tsunami of promiscuity that surrounds us everywhere, in our homes and out on the street, we have created the website jewishsexuality.com which is a virtual library of important information and knowledge about the laws of proper sexual conduct. Here’s a brief sample of some of the Questions and Answers posted on the site:

Is Heavy Petting Wrong?

Feeling Gay

Plagued By Sexual Fantasies

Beating Masturbation

How Important is the Wife’s Pleasure?

I Thought Levis Were Jewish

Everything Seems to be Going Wrong

Can’t Stop Watching Porn

My Wife Prefers the Daytime

Porn Site or Prostitute – Which is Better?

Gazing at Women

Sexual Gymnastics

Jewish Attitude Toward Homosexuality 

The list goes on….

Have a good time.  

 

Now that we’ve established beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is a great mitzvah to live in Israel, we have to ask why more people don’t come on aliyah?

In my humble opinion, the answer is fear. People are simply afraid. Some are of afraid of leaving their parents. Others are afraid of leaving grown children behind.  Some are afraid of Israeli army service. Others are afraid they won’t find suitable work. Some are afraid of starting life all over. Others are afraid of tackling Hebrew. Some are afraid of losing the standing they have in their Diaspora communities to come to a new place where no one knows them. Others are afraid of culture shock. Some are afraid of terrorism. The bottom line is fear.

All the other excuses are smokescreens in an effort to hide this basic underlining fear. The real reason why people don’t choose to come is not because of Bibi, or the bikini beaches in Tel Aviv, or because of what happened in Gush Katif, or because of Israeli rudeness, but because they are afraid.

I don't mean the people who truly can't come because of whatever sincere reason, but rather the majority of people who could come, but don't.   

Also, I don’t mean to be critical or condescending. Making aliyah is indeed a difficult and challenging endeavor. Surely, it is the hardest mitzvah there is. In my case, in addition to the great and constant kindness of G-d, my successful absorption in Israel was aided by Israeli friends whom I had met through the volunteer work I did for several Israeli organizations while still in America.  Plus, while it was painful for my parents that their son was so far away (until they themselves made aliyah) , they always were there to offer financial backing in times of need. I understand that making aliyah is not easy. It wasn’t easy for our forefather, Avraham. It wasn’t easy for Joshua and the Children of Israel. It wasn’t easy for Ezra and Nechemia and the olim who came up to Israel with them from Bavel. It wasn’t easy for the pioneer settlers of our time.

So what’s the solution? Emunah. Faith in G-d.

This isn’t something new. A lack of emunah was the cause of the tragedy of the Spies, who rebelled against G-d’s commandment to journey on to Eretz Yisrael. They were afraid of the giants they saw, who made them feel like “grasshoppers.” They were afraid of dying in battle. On a deeper level, the Zohar and “Mesillat Yesharim” reveal that they were afraid of losing the honor they enjoyed as the Torah leaders of the tribes in the wilderness. They realized that a new, more all-rounded type of leader would be needed to meet the challenges of settling the Land, a more physical, fighter, farmer, activist, and organizer; and so, to protect their positions of esteem, they rebelled against G-d and refused to journey on to Israel.

Even though the Spies were the distinguished leaders of the Jewish community in the wilderness, they didn’t have emunah, as the Torah testifies: “In this matter, you did not believe in the L-rd your G-d” (Devarim, 1:32). In other matters, they did believe. But in the matter of aliyah, they didn’t have emunah. Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook called this a state of half-emunah. However, the foundation of emunah begins with Avraham Avinu, as it says, “And he had emunah in the L-rd” (Bereshit, 15:6). He wasn’t a half-believer. He believed with complete faith, “emunah shelama” (Thirteen Principles of Faith of the Rambam). When G-d told him to go to Israel, he went without hesitating, with no questions asked.

Rabbi Kook emphasized that emunah has to be learned. A lack of emunah, as in the case of the Spies, occurs when the Torah isn’t studied or understood in the proper fashion. This comes about in the darkness of exile when people forget that living in Eretz Yisrael is the foundation of keeping the Torah, when they are not taught by their local Diaspora rabbis that the goal of Judaism is to build the Jewish Nation in the Land of Israel according to the laws of the Torah.

For now, I’d like to leave you with a practical tip. It’s always helped me in times of uncertainty and fear. I memorized it by heart and say it like a mantra. The 23rd Psalm of King David. He had plenty of difficult trials and opposition in his life too, and he conquered them all with his great emunah. Immediately upon reciting this Psalm, it reminds me that Hashem is with me, and that there is nothing to fear. Here’s a translation in English:

A PSALM OF DAVID

The L-rd is my shepherd, I shall not lack anything that I need.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul.  

He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil.

For Thou art with me,

Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil; my cups runs over.

Sure goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in the House of the L-rd forever.

Concluding the memorial tribute to Rabbi Meir Kahane, may Hashem avenge his murder, here is the final abridged portion of the chapter, "The Mitzvah to Live in Eretz Yisrael," from his book, "The Jewish Idea:"

 

The Blight of Assimilation

How many souls have been lost and destroyed under the press of assimilation in the exile! “For she has cast down many wounded; yea, a mighty host are all her slain” (Prov. 7:26). Surely, this, alone, makes every Jew duty-bound to “cry out, and not hold back!” (Isa. 58:1).

As Isaiah proclaimed, “Depart! Depart! Get out of there! Out of her midst! Touch nothing impure! Be you clean, you who bear the L-rd’s vessels” (Isa. 52:11). Isaiah is calling upon Israel, the “bearers of the L-rd’s vessels,” because they bear the yoke of G-d’s mitzvot, to depart the defilement of the exile. Metzudat David comments, “Cleanse yourselves of all defilement, you who bear the L-rd’s vessels,” and Ibn Ezra comments:

“Get out of there”: Every single Jew from the place of his exile; “Touch no unclean thing”: Separate yourselves from the nations of the world; “Get out of her midst”: Everyone from the country of his exile.

Rashi wrote, “‘Get out of her midst’: The midst of the exile.”

Likewise, Jeremiah said regarding the Babylonian exile, “Flee the midst of Babylon! Exit the land of the Chaldeans! Be the he-goats before the flock!” (Jer. 50:8). Mahari Kra comments, “Jeremiah told them, ‘I know that in the future, whoever is in Babylonia will die by the spear or sword... so flee first, before calamity comes.’”

Today, when the last redemption looms before us and the Mashiach’s traces are visible, and when we have already merited, through G-d’s kindness, to return to Eretz Yisrael and establish a state, G-d’s cry is heard in all its might. Depart! Get out! Depart the defilement of exile, in order to be separated from the nations and protect the purity of G-d’s Torah; in order to save Jewish souls from the blight of assimilation; in order to sanctify Heaven’s Name by shedding foreign control.
What mental gymnastics and sophistries are employed to justify loathing the Desirable Land!

The very exile is a Chilul Hashem, a desecration of Hashem. I shall further expand on this most basic principle, yet it would be worthwhile right here to explain that the very exile is a Chilul Hashem, and our return to Eretz Yisrael is the opposite — Kiddush Hashem, a sanctification of Hashem. The nations’ having control over a Jew, and Israel’s lowliness in the exile, are called Chilul Hashem, in that the non-Jew rules over the People of Israel, and thereby, over the G-d of Israel. I have already made clear that this is Rashi’s intent regarding the verse, “My Holy Name will I make known in the midst of My people Israel. Neither will I suffer My Holy Name to be profaned any more. The nations shall know that I am the L-rd, Holy One of Israel” (Ezek. 39:7). Rashi said, “Israel’s lowliness is a Chilul Hashem, in that the nations say of them, ‘These are the L-rd’s people, [and they are gone forth out of His land]’ (Ezek. 36:20), yet He is unable to save them.”

The very conquest of Eretz Yisrael by the nations, and Israel’s exile from its land, allow the non-Jew to think that there is no G-d in Israel, Heaven forbid; because if there were, and if He were truly all-powerful, He would not let the nations destroy His land and Temple, and exile His people. Even if Israel do not endure real suffering at the non-Jew’s hand, the very fact that they must live in their lands at their mercy, dependent on their tolerance and benevolence, is a Chilul Hashem. Only when Israel dwell in sovereignty and might in their own land is G-d’s Name sanctified. If Israel stubbornly refuse to leave the exile, G-d — with fury poured out — will liquidate their exile in order to blot out the Chilul Hashem. Now is surely the time to “flee before calamity comes.”

 

In a word, the idea of Israel living under the dominion of the nations and their alien culture, is by definition a Chilul Hashem, and clashes with G-d’s will to establish a chosen, treasured people in a chosen, treasured land. There, Israel would be separated and isolated from the nations’ cultures and alien beliefs, fulfill pristine, complete Torah lives, and establish a sovereign, independent state and society under G-d’s rule, and that is a Kiddush Hashem.

Every Jew has a sacred, absolute duty to live in Eretz Yisrael, because living in the exile contradicts and profanes G-d’s will.

What mental gymnastics and sophistries are employed to justify loathing the Desirable Land! Just as G-d liquidated the exile in Egypt and allowed no Jew to remain, killing those who refused to leave for Eretz Yisrael, so, too, in this period of final redemption, G-d will liquidate the exile with fury poured out and will annihilate any who refuse to leave it — Heaven help us!

G-d is Creator of the universe and Owner and Master of the earth and all it contains: “The earth is the L-rd’s, and the fullness thereof” (Ps. 24:1). He gave Eretz Yisrael to the Jewish People as their land, to enable them to fulfill their mission of building a state and society in accordance with the laws and foundations of the Holy Torah: “He gave them the lands of nations; they inherited people’s toils, that they might keep His statutes and observe His laws” (Ps. 105:44-45).

G-d took Eretz Yisrael from the nations who lived there and saw it as their home and birthplace, and He did it for one simple reason, the only reason that could justify Israel’s taking the land: because G-d, Who fashioned and created the universe, is its Owner and Master. He acquired the universe by having created it, and men, who are likewise just G-d’s creations, occupants in G-d’s house, are not entitled to protest. If G-d wishes, He brings a specific people into a specific home, or land, and if He wishes, He removes them, and they have no mastery over a land unless He permits them to live there.

As far as Eretz Yisrael is concerned, no apologies or justifications are necessary. The Jewish People came to the land where the seven nations dwelled and took it from them by decree of the Owner. G-d uprooted the nations who dwelled there and brought in His chosen people, Israel, because the land is His and does not belong to those who lived there as occupants.

All the nations who claim that we, Israel, are pillagers, are hypocrites. After all, many nations took lands from nations who lived on them without any right or pretext for doing so. For example, the Kaftorim annihilated the Avvim and occupied their land. [See Deut. 2 for further examples of nations who pillaged other nations and took their lands.]

The world and all it contains is G-d’s. When He so desired, He took it from you and gave it to us. Thus it says, “He has declared to His people the power of His works in giving them the lands of nations” (Ps., Ibid.).

Before Israel respond to the nations with the main answer, that the world belongs to G-d, they can advance a side argument, namely: How can you and the Canaanites attempt to pose as innocent? After all, Eretz Yisrael was given to the descendants of Shem, and the Canaanites, descendants of Ham, took it from them. As Rashi wrote regarding the verse, “The Canaanites were then in the Land” (Gen. 12:6): “The Canaanites were gradually conquering Eretz Yisrael from Shem’s descendants, for it had fallen to Shem’s portion when Noah divided up the earth amongst his sons.”

Thus, in response to the nations’ claim that Israel stole the Land, Israel can respond that the Land belonged to the sons of Shem, the Canaanites took it from them, and they are the thieves.

Afterward comes the main argument: The world and all it contains were created by G-d and belong to Him. He is the Owner, and He gives to whomever He wishes and takes from whomever He wishes. He chose Israel to be His chosen people, His supreme, treasured nation, and He gave them the Land to be theirs and not the Canaanites’.

It also says, “He will drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you, so as to bring you to their land, and give it to you as a heritage, as He is doing today” (Deut. 4:38). S’forno comments, “‘To give you [their land]’: Which is the land of G-d, ready to acquire the perfection directed from Above.” It likewise says (Deut. 6:10-11):

“To give you great, flourishing cities that you did not build. You will also have houses filled with all good things that you did not put there, finished cisterns that you did not quarry, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. You shall eat and be satisfied.”

Thus, there really is no place for apologies and self-justification before the nations, and no need to seek “moral” pretexts for conquering Eretz Yisrael. It belongs to the Creator of the universe, the Owner and Master of the world. He took it away from the evildoers and gave it to us, and there is no higher morality than this - nor any greater acceptance of G-d’s yoke. Neither the nations nor Israel can claim any ownership of the earth. As it says, “All the earth is Mine. You are foreigners and resident aliens as far as I am concerned” (Lev. 25:23). To G-d belongs all the earth — it and all it contains are His alone. It also says, “Mine is the silver and Mine the gold” (Haggai 2:8); and, “For all things come of You, and of Your Own have we given You” (I Chron. 29:14).

Among the nations and the alien culture, all sorts of outlooks have been formed regarding property, and despite the superficial differences between them, all are based on the perception that the world and property belong to man. In this regard, there is no difference between what the non-Jews call “Capitalism,” “Socialism” or “Communism.” Whether a non-Jew argues that property is a private possession or argues that it belongs to society, he means that it is the property of man.

Not so, G-d, Whose Torah states that everything belongs to Him, and that property and possessions were given to mankind only for use. Thus, when G-d decrees that we must give tzedakah, it is our duty to do so. Tzedakah does not at all come from the property of the wealthy man. He has no ownership whatsoever over what is given him by Heaven. Hence, we force a man to give what G-d’s tzedek, justice, dictates that he give. Such is our sages’ intent in Avot 3:7, “Give to G-d of His own, for you and yours are His,” as well as in Torat Kohanim, Behar, 4:8: “The Land is Mine” (Lev. 25:23): “Do not scorn it.”

In any event, it is plain that Eretz Yisrael, G-d’s property, was given to Israel as their resting place and inheritance, their place to be set apart and isolated, to establish and maintain a perfect Torah state and society, a place where they will be immune to the depraved influence of the alien culture.

G-d took the Land from the nations and removed them from it, and He brought Israel into it so that they would keep His Torah and mitzvot. From the moment G-d decided to give the Land to Israel, it became Eretz Yisrael, the Land of the People of Israel — G-d’s land which He gave Israel to use as the Holy Land.

It is a mitzvah and duty upon every Jew to live in Eretz Yisrael, and a Chilul Hashem when Israel lives outside of it. Furthermore, once G-d decreed that Israel must be separated from the nations and their alien, dominant culture, it clearly is forbidden to let the non-Jew live in Eretz Yisrael unless he is denied mastery and sovereignty over the Land and willingly accepts this. No non-Jew has the slightest right to ownership over the Land, and any non-Jew who denies G-d’s mastery and the ownership of His people Israel over the whole Land is rebelling against G-d, denying G-d’s sovereignty on earth and profaning G-d’s Name. He has one fate — to leave the Land or to relinquish his right to existence.