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Menachem's Writings
A Time to Pick Sides
A friend of mine, still living in the Exile, far away in Australia, recently posted on Facebook, in response to my hint that he should be living in Israel, "Menachem, convince the Missus -- I'll gladly come to Israel." Right! I instantly wrote back that his comment reminded me of the Biblical Adam, the first human being, who when approached by God after eating the "forbidden" fruit, "Have you eaten of the tree, the one from which I told you do not eat?", answers, "The woman you gave me -- she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." Well at least this First Man was honest, with himself and with his Creator, "I did eat". He may have tried to hide physically, but when confronted directly with his misdeed, he immediately confirms his guilt. Unfortunately many of us today are not this honest, not with friends, not with our families, not with our ourselves. Many people employ another excuse. "I can't make a living in Israel." Really?
My saintly teacher of blessed memory, Rabbi Yisrael Shurin, once addressed this issue in his sermon on Israel's Independence Day. He quoted the gemara in Kethuboth stating that one who lives outside the Land of Israel is like one who has no God, is as one who worships idols. Our learned rabbi asks what is the comparison being made by the Talmud here? What is the connection between living is Israel, as opposed to any other part of the world, and idol worship? The answer is simple. One who says he cannot make a living in the Holy Land, but can [easily] in New York or Melbourne, is saying that God is not all powerful, does not merit the title of Almighty (if God is all mighty, then he should be able to create a rock that is too heavy for him to lift?!) Our friends are saying that "their" God can provide them a "comfortable" living in Los Angeles and London, but not in Yerushalayim or Efrat. Ridiculous, right! Attributing a power to God that is not universal is a form of idolatry.
Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook, throughout his life, often spoke on the condition of Galut, Exile. The very existence of Jewish exile is hilul haShem, a denigration and desecration of God on this Earth, in this Universe. We are supposed to increase the sanctity of God's name, kiddush haShem, in all our actions. Due to ignoring our Maker, we were punished, personally, by God himself, acting through history, using the nations to carry out His Will. The nations of the world were then able to point their finger at us, the wandering Jew, and state categorically, "these are the People who ignored the word of the Lord". And they do use this an excuse for persecuting us, brutally and continuously, until this very day. The main culprit was and remains the catholic church, the living remnant of Roman rule, the Edomites. "It a biological fact, an indisputable truth (halacha) that Eisav hates Ya'acov", that the Romans hate the Jews.
If God loved them He would not have exiled them from their homeland. Thus we are doing His bidding by persecuting them. It makes it much more plausible to claim that we are the now the Chosen People in God's eyes. If they were still the Chosen Ones, they still be living in their own land like all "normal" nations.
In fact the slow start of the return home of the Jewish people in the early nineteenth century presented a theological challenge to the catholics (read universals or world leaders). But they could still claim that we Jews still did not have the attention of the Almighty -- we may have been living here in larger numbers,but we were just a few poor, poverty stricken people, living under Islamic, Ottoman rule. We couldn't even buy land. Things started to heat up after the 1917 Balfour Declaration and League of Nations mandate which followed. Don't these protestants understand our theology? Jews could now legally own and farm land. Jewish population grew quickly. We must stop this. 1948 really effected them, deep deep down. Their theology was based on replacement, them for us, new for old, a new chosen people, a state of wretched exile -- and now here we are, self-governing, not in Uganda, but in our ancient homeland. But we didn't have Jerusalem, so the entire enterprise was surely but a glitch on the screen of history. 1967 shook them to their very foundations. The ground gave out from under their feet. Yerushalayim is now the capital of an independent Jewish state. All the locations mentioned in the Bible are under the Jews' direct, day-to-day control. One would have thought the "jig was up*". We've been discovered. The world now knows the truth. History's biggest lie has been revealed. But no, they are still fighting back, with allies within the Israeli echelons. I guess too much money and power is involved, centuries of ideology, face to save, da-dee-da. The pope's recent visit to Israel was nothing more than a, fortunately foiled, attempt to rest control of tracts of Israel into direct catholic, Eisavian, Edomite control. He lost this, the latest battle, but he has not yet ended his war. It continues. Be prepared for the next move. So, my friends around the world, take your pick, choose the team on which you wish to play. You can play with the Jews or you can play with the catholics and their antisemitic allies. You can be on the team captained by Eliyahu haNavi and that commanded by Hussein Obama, Juan Carlos or the prince of Rome, the Amalekite, Joseph Alois Ratzinger of the Hitlerjunge and their allies. The choice is yours, ladies and gentlemen. Call me if you need a ride from the airport.
* the jig was up According to wiktionary.org, (US, idiomatic) An expression used to mean "We have been caught out and have no defence", or if spoken to a person who's just been found out as the perpetrator of an offense, it means "You've been discovered."
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