He Ru Follow us: Make a7 your Homepage
      Free Daily Israel Report
      YouReport, Send us News & updates

      Arutz 7 Most Read Stories

      Hollywood to the Holy Land
      by Tzvi Fishman
      Tzvi Fishman was awarded the Israel Ministry of Education Prize for Jewish Creativity and Culture
      Email Me
      Subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed

      Before making Aliyah to Israel, Tzvi Fishman was a Hollywood screenwriter. He has co-authored 4 books with Rabbi David Samson, based on the teachings of Rabbi Kook, Eretz Yisrael, Art of T'shuva, War and Peace, and Torat Eretz Yisrael.

       


      Cheshvan 4, 5770, 10/22/2009

      They Scoffed at Noach Too!


      They ridiculed him. They laughed. No one paid any attention to his warnings. For 120 years, he worked on building the ark, so that people would pass by and ask what he was doing, giving them a chance to repent.

      "Hey, Noach! What a cornball you are!"

       

      “Hey, Noach, what the heck are you building?”

      “An ark?”

      “A what?”

      “An ark.”

      “Why the heck are you doing that?”

      “Because Hashem is planning to destroy mankind because of its rampant sexual immorality.”

      “Ha ha ha,” they laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

      “I’m not kidding at all,” Noach answered.

      “What a joker!” they scoffed. “Stupidest thing we’ve ever heard!”

      In the end, no one took Noach’s warning seriously. No one changed his evil ways. The rest of the story is known to everyone – all of existence was wiped out in the flood, except Noach’s family and the animals he brought into the ark. 

      In deference to readers who don’t like discussions of sexual themes on this blog, the more detailed continuation of this essay can be found on our www.jewishsexuality.com website.

       







      Cheshvan 3, 5770, 10/21/2009

      Mashiach Now!


      After hearing a few sentences of Bibi's speech yesterday, I had to rush to the bathroom to vomit. He blabbed about wanting peace and two states, side by side, with such sincerity that I felt sick to my stomach. Of course, he himself doesn’t believe anything he says. If Obama were to change his whip tomorrow and declare that Israel must rule over all of its Biblical territory in the interest of world security, Bibi would be the first to grow a beard and start wearing a tallit and sandals. The guy just says anything he thinks will make him popular. Nothing else matters to him.

      And Peres with his Wax Museum smile. Too bad no one reminded the big international star of the 2000 Jews who have been murdered by his Arab pals since he started giving them rifles and autonomy at Oslo. What a distinguished statesman! He and Goldstone will be bunkmates in heaven for their contributions to Am Yisrael.

      And what ever became of Lieberman’s tough talk against the Arabs to get him votes in the last election? Zero. All the nasty Russian bear has been doing is jumping through the hoops of the goyim on his round the world tours.

      Since we are on the subject - what about the Shas Boys? They are the best breakdancers around. Mister Bo Jangles, dance. With an Al Jolson tap tap tap and a bow, hands outstretched to take the money from the crowd.

      They’re all phonies. Of course, it’s all a part of G-d’s plan, to make us cry out for Mashiach.

      He’s the only one who can change things. First, he’ll imprison all of the bimboes who dare strut around the streets of the Holy Land in immodest attire. Then he’ll give the Jews of the Diaspora an ultimatum – either come on aliyah now or join the fate of the goyim. Next, he’ll tell the Arabs to get out of the country by high noon. If the UN complains, a Tzunami will hit NY the same day. If Obama threatens to take action, the White House will be swallowed up into the earth. If Peres orders all of the Yassamnikim to arrest the Mashiach, they will all be turned into statues of wax on the spot.

      Look out Flatbush!

      We want Mashiach now! We want Mashiach now! I’m ready. What about you?   



      Cheshvan 1, 5770, 10/19/2009

      In The Beginning


      Question: I think you place too much emphasis on sexuality. What does it have to do with Israel or the Jewish People?

      Answer:

      It's our job to bring mankind back to the Garden

      Sexuality has everything to do with Israel and the Jewish People. Mankind’s first transgression, which brought about man’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden, resulted from Adam and Eve’s misusing the holy sexual energy that G-d had placed in the world. Subsequent generations continued in their footsteps until the time of Noach, when the whole world became polluted with sexual sin. Only when Abraham appeared on the scene of world history, and entered into the Covenant of the Brit with G-d, was the world offered hope of rectification. It became Abraham’s task, and the mission of the Jewish People after him, to restore the Kingdom of G-d to the world which had been shattered by the sin of Adam and Eve. It was through the holy example of the Jewish People, that mankind was to learn the holiness of the marital union, upon which all of life is based. But in order to fulfill our destiny as the holy Nation of Israel, and lead the world back to the “Garden,” where the word of the Almighty rules over every aspect of life, we ourselves must first sanctify the holiness of our sexual lives. With this understanding, it can be seen that Jewish sexuality is not some unimportant side issue, but rather the very foundation of Israel’s world mission....

      In deference to readers who oppose my discussing the secrets of Torah on this website, especially when dealing with sexual matters, the more detailed continuation of this essay can be found on our www.jewishsexuality website. 



      Tishrei 30, 5770, 10/18/2009

      The Tree of Knowledge


      Without doubt, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in our time is the Internet. The Internet is filled with knowledge. Much of it is good, and much of it is evil. Unfortunately, just as Adam and Eve succumbed to the wiles of evil, statistics show that a majority of Internet users fall to the evils of the Internet, including Jews.

      "John, where are you?" "Just checking out tomorrow's weather."

      Almost six-thousand-years later, the sin is the same, as the Torah states, “And when the woman saw… that it was a delight to the eyes” (Bereshit, 2:6).

      Just as Eve strayed after her eyes, Internet users all over the world – you, your spouse, your children, are straying after their eyes too by looking at things that G-d does not want us to see.

      Once again, evil is winning the game. Pornography is big business. It’s the biggest business on the net. But more than that, the evil spiritual forces that are behind porn on the net are the same evil spiritual forces that were at work in the days of Adam and Eve.  No matter what disguise the Snake adopts, his goal is the same - to distance mankind from G-d.

      Just as the first sin severed Adam and Eve from their Creator, every time a person looks at forbidden material on the Internet, he or she severs himself or herself from G-d. One click leads to another, and another, and another, until the person is cut off from G-d completely. In effect, like Adam and Eve, the Peeping Tom of the Internet exiles himself from the Garden. The Shechinah flees from such a person, for holiness and impurity cannot exist together. His prayers don’t ascend and his Torah learning is cast into the garbage. Furthermore, one sin leads to another, as our Sages have warned: “The eyes see, the heart desires, and the body completes the transgression.”

      With each peek at a forbidden image, not only does a person violate the Torah commandment, “You shall not stray after your heart and yours eyes,” he or she pollutes his or her soul. In the time and the effort that it takes to arrange for some forbidden intercourse, G-d forbid, a person can have hundreds and thousands of Internet fantasies – each and every one of them a replay of the first primordial sin – a sin that our Sages have compared to setting up an idol in the Holy of Holies of the Temple.

      Our brain is our Holy of Holies, housing our soul. When we look at a forbidden image, the photograph is ingrained on the film of our brain – exactly like setting up in idol in the Holy of Holies. And since we are attached to the highest spiritual worlds, when we pollute our personal Holy of Holies, we pollute the Holy of Holies in the highest spiritual world – the Jerusalem Temple on High.

      Each time we pollute ourselves by looking at a forbidden image, we pollute all of the Jewish Nation, since our souls are connected to all of the souls of the “Clal.” Like the little pebble that sends ripples out across all the pond, the filth that we bring upon our souls spreads to the all-encompassing soul of the Nation. Thus our seemingly little Internet no-no’s weaken the spiritual strength of the Nation, and because the spiritual world is integrally connected to the physical, our no-no’s weaken the Nation’s physical strength as well.

      Do not be mistaken! It is no small thing that the Torah tells us the story of Adam and Eve. Their straying after their eyes brought destruction to the world. When we sit down at the computer and hook up to the Internet, each and every one of us can either help rectify their monumental sin by not straying after our eyes  – or add to the shame of mankind by repeated the very same transgression.

      So if you don’t care about the consequences to yourself and your family, then think about the consequences to Am Yisrael. And if you don’t care about the consequences to Am Yisrael, then think about the consequences to the world.

      The next time you are tempted, say no to the Snake! Crush him on his head!

      And if you don’t have the strength for that, then download a filter. Give the code to somebody else. Stop destroying yourselves, your families, the Jewish People, and the world.

      Save yourselves! Save your loved ones! Save the planet now!        

       



      Tishrei 27, 5770, 10/15/2009

      The Sound and the Fury


      Rashi lived one thousand years ago. He begins his famous commentary on the Torah in a startling and prophetic fashion by quoting a teaching of Rabbi Yitzhak.

      Rabbi Yitzhak poses an interesting question. Why, he asks, does the Torah begin with the account of Creation? After all, the Torah is the book of Jewish Law. This being the case, it should begin with the first commandment that was given to the Jews. Nevertheless, he explains, the Torah begins with the story of Creation so that, in the future, when the nations of the world accuse the Jews of being robbers for having conquered the Land of Israel from the gentiles who lived there, the Jews will be able to answer them that He who created the world, and parceled out its lands as He saw fit, decided to take the land from the gentiles and give it to us.

      This is the answer we should give to Obama, to the Jew haters in Europe, and to the Arabs. The world belongs to G-d, and He gave the Land of Israel to us!

      This is all well and good, but the problem is that there are many Jews in Israel whose commitment to the Land of Israel isn’t what it should be. They look upon the Land of Israel as a Monopoly deed that can be bartered away for practical purposes. This sad state of affairs derives from their lack of true understanding of the Torah. Rather than viewing the Land of Israel as an integral oneness bonded with an eternal unity with the life of the Jewish Nation, they view it as some external acquisition that can be chopped into negotiable pieces. As Rabbi Kook taught:

      “Eretz Yisrael is not a peripheral matter, an external acquisition of the Nation… Eretz Yisrael is an independent unit, bound with a living attachment to the Nation, bound up with an inner “segulah” with the Nation’s existence” (Orot, 1:1).

      This means that just as a person needs his heart and his head to be a whole, living person, so to the Torah, the Jewish People, and the Land of Israel are one, in an eternal, indivisible wholeness.   

      Therefore, every believing Jew, no matter where he lives, should be willing to fight and die, if need be, defending the right of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel. After all, the Arabs are willing to fight and die over the Land of Israel, and it isn’t even theirs. How embarrassing!

      Instead of clinging to the Land of Israel with all of our might, with a readiness to sacrifice everything to keep it in our hands, we offer all kinds of excuses like:

      “I wasn’t born there – it’s not my fight.”

      “Peace is more important.”

      “We survived 2000 without the Land of Israel – as long as we have the Torah, we will be all right.”

      "The unity of the army is more important than the unity of the Land."

      Others hide their cowardice and lack of commitment to all of the Torah by saying, “If things in Israel were run according to my liking, then I would do my share in defending the Land.”

      Blah, blah, blah, ad infinitum.

      To preserve the wholeness of the Land of Israel, the wholeness of the Torah, the wholeness of the Nation of Israel, and to preserve the honor of G-d in the world, every Jew, no matter where he or she lives, has to actively demonstrate that we love and want the Land of Israel more than the goyim.

      Otherwise, all of our shuckling and shaking in prayer, and all of the talkbacks, are just a lot of “sound and fury, signifying nothing.”