?Touch not My anointed; do My prophets no harm.?
Scripture teaches, ?For the mitzvot are a lamp, and the Torah is light.? (Proverbs 6:23) The Torah provides light not just to those who learn it, but to the whole nation and the whole world. Learning and fulfilling the Torah strengthens even our hold on Eretz Yisrael, as we find in the Shema prayer: ?Teach your children to speak of them?. If you do this, you and your children will long endure on the land that the L-rd swore to your ancestors, promising that He would give it to them as long as the heavens are above the earth.? (Deuteronomy 11:19,21)
When the kings of Israel honored the Torah, G-d allowed their reign to endure. For example, Achav ruled for twenty-two years because he honored the Torah, which was given by means of twenty-two letters. (Talmud Sanhedrin 102b)
The Halacha teaches: ?We must hire teachers to teach children Torah in every province, county and city.? (Rambam, Hilchot Talmud Torah 2:1) Torah learning and its fulfillment have always been the life?s breath of the Jewish People. Torah learning gives the Jewish People strength, for there is no strength but Torah.
Today, hundreds of Torah institutions and their students face a grave danger from the economic decrees that the Israeli government has long been planning. The vast majority of those institutions are in great economic distress and restricting their government support is liable to lead to the closure of many of them.
We therefore cry out loudly to the prime minister, the finance minister and all the other ministers of the government: ?Touch not My anointed? (I Chronicles 16:22) - Jewish school children - and ?Do My prophets no harm? (Ibid.) - Torah scholars. (Talmud Shabbat 119b) Quite the contrary, increase the stature of the Torah. Help the Torah institutions and their students, and you will increase the stature of the State of Israel.
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Rabbi Dov Begon is founder and head of Machon Meir institutions.
Machon Meir is an Israeli educational institution and Hesder yeshiva dedicated to Jewish learning BeAhava UbeEmunah (with Love and in Faith), in the spirit of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, the late Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel. Students at Machon Meir, Israelis and new immigrants, come from religious and non-religious backgrounds, and learn in Hebrew, English or Russian. The Machon can be contacted through its website, http://www.machonmeir.org.il/.
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Spend Passover with Arutz Sheva at a resort in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Kfar Pines (near Hadera). Click here for info.
Scripture teaches, ?For the mitzvot are a lamp, and the Torah is light.? (Proverbs 6:23) The Torah provides light not just to those who learn it, but to the whole nation and the whole world. Learning and fulfilling the Torah strengthens even our hold on Eretz Yisrael, as we find in the Shema prayer: ?Teach your children to speak of them?. If you do this, you and your children will long endure on the land that the L-rd swore to your ancestors, promising that He would give it to them as long as the heavens are above the earth.? (Deuteronomy 11:19,21)
When the kings of Israel honored the Torah, G-d allowed their reign to endure. For example, Achav ruled for twenty-two years because he honored the Torah, which was given by means of twenty-two letters. (Talmud Sanhedrin 102b)
The Halacha teaches: ?We must hire teachers to teach children Torah in every province, county and city.? (Rambam, Hilchot Talmud Torah 2:1) Torah learning and its fulfillment have always been the life?s breath of the Jewish People. Torah learning gives the Jewish People strength, for there is no strength but Torah.
Today, hundreds of Torah institutions and their students face a grave danger from the economic decrees that the Israeli government has long been planning. The vast majority of those institutions are in great economic distress and restricting their government support is liable to lead to the closure of many of them.
We therefore cry out loudly to the prime minister, the finance minister and all the other ministers of the government: ?Touch not My anointed? (I Chronicles 16:22) - Jewish school children - and ?Do My prophets no harm? (Ibid.) - Torah scholars. (Talmud Shabbat 119b) Quite the contrary, increase the stature of the Torah. Help the Torah institutions and their students, and you will increase the stature of the State of Israel.
--------------------------------------------------------
Rabbi Dov Begon is founder and head of Machon Meir institutions.
Machon Meir is an Israeli educational institution and Hesder yeshiva dedicated to Jewish learning BeAhava UbeEmunah (with Love and in Faith), in the spirit of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, the late Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel. Students at Machon Meir, Israelis and new immigrants, come from religious and non-religious backgrounds, and learn in Hebrew, English or Russian. The Machon can be contacted through its website, http://www.machonmeir.org.il/.
************
Spend Passover with Arutz Sheva at a resort in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Kfar Pines (near Hadera). Click here for info.