This week's sad pictures from Gush Katif, with Jews evicted en masse from whole towns, with others holed up in synagogues awaiting eviction, bring to mind pictures of World War II. Outside Gush Katif, hundreds of protesting Jews are hiding in forests; hiding from uniformed police and soldiers, again in a cruel repeat of history. Only, of course, this time, the evictors and pursuers are our own brothers, fellow Jews.
I don't think that I, a fellow settler could do what Mr. Unterman of Morag did. He met Itzik the soldier-evictor, hugged him, called him "beloved brother", and spoke words that brought Itzik the soldier to such tears that he had to turn around and leave Mr. Unterman be. Truly, this week's events are beyond words of description. As is this week's parsha, which therefore leaves its two main themes to pictures. When it comes to Eretz Yisrael and Torah, we are told: see the picture.
And so , in Devarim 3:25: "Raise your eyes West, North, South and East, and see [the Land] with your eyes." And again, at Sinai (5:21): "Truly the Lord our God has shown us His honor and greatness." Similarly, (5:5): "See, I have taught you laws and statutes." Rabbi Matis Weinberg (in Frameworks, unpublished) explains that the visual picture is, as opposed to the printed word, an entirety, a whole. When the Almighty warns us ( Devarim 5:2) "neither to add nor subtract" from the Torah, this is because "the perversion of any part of its picture is the loss of Sinai in its entirety. For Torah is a system in which each detail affects every other in infinite complexity - a unified picture, not a series of facts. 'That's why the Ten Commandments are repeated here with the conjunction "and" for now they must be seen as one entity.' (Zohar)"
As with the Brit (Covenant ) of Torah (Sinai ), so with the Brit Ha'Aretz, the Covenant of the Land. Again, Moshe was to see the Land, in its entirety. Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin explains that this was partially because since Moshe Rabbeinu began the job of dividing the Land (to two and a half tribes who were to live east of the Jordan River), Moshe had to see all of it, to make sure that those Tribes got exactly what they deserved, not one bit less or more. In other words, "do not add nor subtract" (4:2) applies also to Eretz Yisrael. Both require the whole picture. And regarding both, the world says: "Who is a great nation? One having just laws and statutes." (4:6-8)
Only when one sees the Torah in its entirety, can one see its beauty. But reformers who omit or manufacture laws willy-nilly are creating an artificial "Ba'al Peor" (4:3) religion that is a laughing-stock. And similarly, those who tear out parts of Eretz Yisrael are guilty of turning us into "a mockery and a joke for the nations" (from the Monday and Thursday Tachanun prayer).
Thus, we see a tired, old prime minister, too tired to stand up against the legal threats of the Left, who tears Jews out of the Biblical heartland, Gush Katif (it is clearly within the boundaries of Israel, as depicted in Bamidbar 34:5). This prime minister has the nerve to throw innocent families out of their homes and businesses, turn it all over to our enemies (who have poured 6,000 Kassam rockets and mortars on Gush Katif in the last five years) and then cry his crocodile tears on TV, saying how much this violation "hurts him". Hurts him? The prime minister is guilty of violating "do not subtract" as it applies to the Covenant of the Land, and of even more crimes against the people.
Surely, we will have the last laugh, bimheira byameinu. Amen.
I don't think that I, a fellow settler could do what Mr. Unterman of Morag did. He met Itzik the soldier-evictor, hugged him, called him "beloved brother", and spoke words that brought Itzik the soldier to such tears that he had to turn around and leave Mr. Unterman be. Truly, this week's events are beyond words of description. As is this week's parsha, which therefore leaves its two main themes to pictures. When it comes to Eretz Yisrael and Torah, we are told: see the picture.
And so , in Devarim 3:25: "Raise your eyes West, North, South and East, and see [the Land] with your eyes." And again, at Sinai (5:21): "Truly the Lord our God has shown us His honor and greatness." Similarly, (5:5): "See, I have taught you laws and statutes." Rabbi Matis Weinberg (in Frameworks, unpublished) explains that the visual picture is, as opposed to the printed word, an entirety, a whole. When the Almighty warns us ( Devarim 5:2) "neither to add nor subtract" from the Torah, this is because "the perversion of any part of its picture is the loss of Sinai in its entirety. For Torah is a system in which each detail affects every other in infinite complexity - a unified picture, not a series of facts. 'That's why the Ten Commandments are repeated here with the conjunction "and" for now they must be seen as one entity.' (Zohar)"
As with the Brit (Covenant ) of Torah (Sinai ), so with the Brit Ha'Aretz, the Covenant of the Land. Again, Moshe was to see the Land, in its entirety. Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin explains that this was partially because since Moshe Rabbeinu began the job of dividing the Land (to two and a half tribes who were to live east of the Jordan River), Moshe had to see all of it, to make sure that those Tribes got exactly what they deserved, not one bit less or more. In other words, "do not add nor subtract" (4:2) applies also to Eretz Yisrael. Both require the whole picture. And regarding both, the world says: "Who is a great nation? One having just laws and statutes." (4:6-8)
Only when one sees the Torah in its entirety, can one see its beauty. But reformers who omit or manufacture laws willy-nilly are creating an artificial "Ba'al Peor" (4:3) religion that is a laughing-stock. And similarly, those who tear out parts of Eretz Yisrael are guilty of turning us into "a mockery and a joke for the nations" (from the Monday and Thursday Tachanun prayer).
Thus, we see a tired, old prime minister, too tired to stand up against the legal threats of the Left, who tears Jews out of the Biblical heartland, Gush Katif (it is clearly within the boundaries of Israel, as depicted in Bamidbar 34:5). This prime minister has the nerve to throw innocent families out of their homes and businesses, turn it all over to our enemies (who have poured 6,000 Kassam rockets and mortars on Gush Katif in the last five years) and then cry his crocodile tears on TV, saying how much this violation "hurts him". Hurts him? The prime minister is guilty of violating "do not subtract" as it applies to the Covenant of the Land, and of even more crimes against the people.
Surely, we will have the last laugh, bimheira byameinu. Amen.