We are witness to a slow deterioration of all that we may have thought was constant in the natural world. The world's climate is being rearranged and countries around the world are learning to cope with new environmental concerns. Classic geopolitical alliances are being reworked or dismantled. Battle lines are being redrawn in sandy deserts or in the stratosphere above the earth. In the words of the old rock and roll song, "a whole lot o' shakin' goin' on."

This shaking in the natural world is very clearly linked to a shaking in the Heavenly spheres.



As spiritually based Jews, we believe that this shaking in the natural world is very clearly linked to a shaking in the Heavenly spheres. Furthermore, it is very clear that the breaking of the vessels is a necessary precursor to the fixing and rebuilding that must follow, the tikkun of the olam.


It is with with this perspective that one must look at the deterioration of the political leadership in this country. The Israeli people received a corrupt administration because, as a people, we looked for a vision-less and implication-free existence. The Kadima party that took pride in the fact that they were "unshackled by ideology" brought about an administration that was unshackled by morals or community responsibility. The election of the puffed up political has-been Ehud Barak as the head of the Labor party is a sad commentary on an elite trying to hold on to power; yet, in this, one clearly senses the futility of the attempt.


More serious is the the pathetic election of the blind "visionary" Shimon Peres as Israel's ninth president. The other serious candidate, Reuven Rivlin, is considered by all as a democrat, a warm and universally loved choice, but he lacked two qualities of Shimon Peres. The first is pity. Several members of Knesset described how they were voting for Peres because he is "so old" and has suffered so many previous losses. The second is a function not of Peres, but of the brokenness of the Israeli people. This is a people so battered by thousands of years of persecution from the outside, and so many generations of strife on the inside, that Peres seemed like a good choice because "he is so loved in the world." That is frightening. Israel is in danger of further deterioration if the parameter by which it makes its decisions continues to be by "what the world loves and determines as right."


The choice to run the Gay Parade in the streets of Jerusalem is another example of the deterioration. The judicial powers of political correctness, which upheld the decision, needed to ignore all the legitimate concerns of the majority of Jerusalem's population and the inappropriateness of this action in order to try to stem the deterioration in its own power. Yet, the deterioration of that power continues.


How can groups of people that were so imbued with the vision and the determination necessary to create this country out of wilderness and pain dwindle to such a state? What happened to their vision and their dreams? Essentially, a voyage without eyes focused on more loftier goals is destined to falter and stumble.


Judaism has taught that man's purpose in this world is not to separate from the earth and focus on Heaven, but rather to elevate the earth. That remains the ultimate goal of the Zionist dream. Yet, Judaism also clearly does not teach us to separate from the Heavenly view and focus just on the earthly direction. That is a choice that is dependent on directionlessness and random thinking, and, as a result, is fraught with disaster after disaster. That focus on our earthly needs and desires without a vision based on our more Heavenly direction inevitably results in being swallowed up by the earthiness itself.


Korach and 250 of his followers had taken up firepans to offer incense to G-d as a way of showing that they are "just as holy" as their leaders and, therefore, could seize the same positions of authority. This was despite the fact that this authority was not offered to them by G-d. Their focus was not G-d's purpose, but their earthly desires. As a result, "And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men that appertained unto Korach, and all their goods." (Numbers16:2)


Those that remain after the deterioration and the fall, must be ready to pick up the

Those that remain after the fall, must be ready to pick up the firepans.

firepans and the utensils strewn around the earth and refashion them into vessels of Divine purpose and faith.


As G-d comands Moshe (Moses): "And HaShem spoke unto Moses, saying: 'Speak unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, that he take up the fire-pans out of the burning, and scatter thou the fire yonder; for they are become holy; even the fire-pans of these men who have sinned at the cost of their lives, and let them be made beaten plates for a covering of the altar - for they are become holy, because they were offered before HaShem - that they may be a sign unto the children of Israel." (Numbers 17:1-3)


The people of Israel, though battered and fatigued, are waiting for that type of leadership.