Temple Mount

40 yeards after Jerusalem was united and liberated by Israel, Jews are still forbidden to ascend to their most holy place. 40 years after the triumphant call "the Temple Mount is in our hands", we are still without a Temple and cannot pray on Har HaBayit.
When Israel liberated Jerusalem and the Temple Mount in 67, Israel sadly transfered control over the Temple Mount to the Islamic wakf, religious council. In a sorry attempt to appease those Jew-hating rabid animals, Jewish ascent to the most sacred of sites is forbidden. Any Jew who is caught suspiciously moving his lips and swaying or suspected of praying is quickly escorted off the Mount. Guards search for any religious articles and confiscate them before allowing any Jews up. How is it possible in a time that Jews can pray in Russia, Iran and even on the MOON, they can't pray in Jerusalem, in the sovereign Jewish State on their most holy site?
30 great Jewish rabbis have just issued calls for Jewry to go en masse, in purity to the Temple Mount. Many ignorant people claim that it is forbidden under Jewish law to go since we are all impure however, the Rambam/Mainmonides, the great medieval rabbi, records that he ascended and prayed at a synagogue on the Mount!
Alo Naale! Let us Ascend! May our eyes behold You return to Zion is mercy! Amen

Jewish Longing

Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, the medieval Spanish rabbi and greatest Hebrew poet of all time wrote:

My heart is in the east, and I in the uttermost west--

How can I find savour in food? How shall it be sweet to me?

How shall I render my vows and my bonds, while yet

Zion lieth beneath the fetter of Edom, and I in Arab chains?

A light thing would it seem to me to leave all the good things of Spain --

Seeing how precious in mine eyes to behold the dust of the desolate sanctuary.

Yom Yerushalayim - Jerusalem Day

This Wednesday, the 28th of Iyaar, the entire Jewish World will celebrate Jerusalem Day, the day when, in 1967, Jerusalem was liberated by the IDF from the Jordanians and for the first time in over 2000 years, the Temple Mount was in Jewish hands. Jews have never forgotten Jerusalem. Thousands of years ago, when our ancestors were first exiled out of the Holy Land by the Babylonians, they cried poignantly: "If I forget thee O Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its cunning. May my tongue stick to its palette if I do not remember thee, if I don't exalt Jerusalem during my greatest celebrations." On the 28th of Iyaar, 1967, the Chief Rabbi of the Israel Defence Forces, R. Shlomo Goren, carried a Sefer Torah to the Kotel, blew shofar and recited Psalms. Yitzhak Rabin, Chief of Staff, described the scene: “We stood among a tangle of battle-weary men who were unable to believe their eyes or restrain their emotions. Their eyes were moist with tears, their speech incoherent. The overwhelming desire was to cling to the Wall, to hold on to that great moment as long as possible.” The overwhelming announcement came "The Temple Mount is in Our Hands".
The Jewish People have always prayed facing Jerusalem. Every Passover seder has concluded with the words "Next Year in Jerusalem!". During every Jewish wedding, a glass is smashed in memory of the destruction of the Temple.
It is said that once Napoleon was passing a synagogue and heard sounds of lamentation. "Why are the Jews crying., he asked. "They are mourning the loss of Jerusalem," one of his officers replied. "How long ago was that?." he asked. "More than seventeen centuries ago," the officer replied. "A people that can mourn the loss of Jerusalem for so long, will one day have it restored to them," Napoleon said. And so it was, we have returned.
Jews have never lost faith that one day, Hashem would return us to our ancestral land and that He would have mercy on us and redeem us. There is a story told in the Talmud of the Rabbis standing on Mount Scopus looking at the desolation and destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. One Rabbi burst out into tears as he saw a fox wandering through what was once the Holy of Holies. The rabbis wept. Rabbi Akiva smiled. "How can you smile?" they asked. "The place that was once the most sacred spot on earth is now laid waste and fox is walking across the Holy of Holies where once only the High Priest was allowed to enter, and only on the holiest of days. "I smile," Rabbi Akiva replied, "because the prophets prophesied that Jerusalem would be laid waste, and they prophesied that it would be rebuilt. Now that the one prophesy has been fulfilled, can we doubt that the other will be likewise?"
How can we doubt that the other will be likewise? Let us all raise up our voices and thank Hashem the Merciful for the great miracles that He has wrought for the House of Israel and pray for the time of the Final Redemption when 'nations shall not lift up swords against one another; neither will they learn war anymore'. Amen, Selah!

Parshat Hashavuah: Behar and Bechukotai

This week we have a double Parsha, Behar and Bechukotai. Parshat Behar speaks of the laws of the Sabbatical year, the Shemitah. Every seventh year, all farming, plowing, sowing... is forbidden in the Land of Israel. Can you believe that an entire nation, with an agrarian economy, took a collective vacation in every seventh year? Imagine the amount of faith that the Jewish People must have had to keep the Shemitah. Many people today tend to relegate G-d to the synagogue, holidays or study halls but when it comes to business, it's a different story. Judaism believes no such thing. It is impossible to claim to be a good Jew by keeping shabbos, kashurt etc. while being a dishonest person. The Talmud claims that the first question that one is asked in Heaven by Hashem is whether they dealt honestly in business.
In the second parsha, Bechukotai, Hashem promises the Jewish people peace, security, prosperity and longevity if they follow his commandments. In the second half of the Parsha, G-d wanrs the Jewish People of the horrendous punishments that we will suffer if we forsake his laws. G-d also warns us not to claim that our punishments are mere keri- coincidence. Leviticus 23-24: "And if despite these you will not be chastised towards Me, and you walk with me KERI- in happenstance; then I, too, shall walk with you B'KERI- in happenstance, and so I will strike you seven times your sins " Whatever befalls the People of Israel is a sign from G-d calling on us to do teshuvah and return to Him. Why is the madman Ahmadinejad clamoring to destroy Israel? King David in Psalms gives us an answer:
"But my people did not listen to my words; Israel did not obey me.
So I gave them over to hardness of heart; they followed their own designs.
But even now if my people would listen, if Israel would walk in my paths,
In a moment I would subdue their foes, against their enemies unleash my hand.
Those who hate Hashem would tremble, their doom sealed forever.
But Israel I would feed with the finest wheat, satisfy them with honey from the rock." (Psalm 81)

What Winograd didn't reveal

Here are some thing that the Winograd Report didn't reveal:
1. The Second Lebanon War was not fought to save the soldiers. If that was the case, then what was the point of attacking with artillery and airpower, to rescue two soldiers? The War was also not fought to stop Hizbullah rocket; the rockets only began when Israel deployed into Lebanon. As soon as the IDF stopped firing, so did Hizbullah. The War was fought, as Olmert said, to protect his disastrous Convergence Plan. Olmert wanted to show that Israel can remain strong while retreating from its borders, which it cannot do.
2. Every military strategist in the world knows that you win a war by conquering territory. No Israeli strategist would dare suggest such a thing because that would contradict the principle of retreat, withdrawal, Disengagement and Convergence. If Israel had annexed Southern Lebanon and expelled its population, Hizbullah would have soon got the message. When Israel conquered the Golan Heights, that was done and now it is one of the safest places in Israel.
3. Olmert is a proponent of the post-Zionistic collapse. He claims to fight for Israel's right to normality. He infamously said "It's going to be fun to live here". He also said that Israel is tired of fighting and tired of winning. Guess what? Israel has no right to normality! It is not just another country! The Torah says: "I separated you from the nations of the world to be mine" (Vayikra 20 2) Our Sages explain: "If you are separated, then you are Mine. If not, you belong to Nevnchadnezzar and his cohorts (meaning the enemies of Israel)." Olmert seeks to transfrom Israel into a secular nation without Torah, without Judaism, without Hashem. To do this, he must divorce Israel from Judea and Samaria, its biblical heritage. Israel must consist of the bubble of leftist secularism that is Tel-Aviv. Olmert has nothing in common with the ideologues who sacrifice themselves and live in Judea and Samaria in order to settle the land and protect it. Olmert's family connections are very telling. His wife used to be a member, while in college, of a leftist group that would harass soldiers at checkpoints. One of his sons lives in the States and is a draft-doger. His other son served in the IDF but now warns other not to. His daughter has called the Israeli Chief of Staff a murderer. The IDF has buried its sould in the sands of Gush Katif and will continue to be defeated as long as it follows non-Jewish values. "Turn the other cheek" is not a Jewish value; the Talmud says that we must kill whoever seeks to kill us. Israel was never meant to be a normal nation among the nations. The Jewish people are 'a people that dwells apart and among the nations is not reckoned'. Only once we return to authentic Jewish morals of Love of the Land, Torah and People, will the Israel be victorious.

Mickey accepts Allah; becomes Muhammad Mouse

Hamas has found a new ally in their fight againt the 'Zionist Occupation'; Mickey Mouse! Their Disney-clone appears on a Palestinian Children's show instructing kids to join in the 'resistance' and to pray for the day when Islam will dominate the world. Mickey, or Farfur, as he is called on the show, tells kids that they will have to answer to Allah as to what they did to liberate the Al-Aksa Mosque. “I remind you that Al-Aqsa and the prisoners are a responsibility on our shoulders, and Allah will ask us on Resurrection Day what we gave for their sake," he says.
In another example of Islamic love for children, an Autralian Muslim Sheikh Taj Din al-Hilali has told his students that it is "obligatory" for all Muslims to engage in jihad if an Islamic country is under attack, even if it means killing the enemy's children.
Wake up America! Wake up Israel! Wake up Canada! Wake up Europe! The Sheikh and Hamas are not part of a 'small group of extremists' but are well supported by Islamic law and juriprudence. Muhammad Taqi Partovi Samzevari, in his “Future of the Islamic Movement” (1986), sums up the Islamic worldview.

Our own Prophet … was a general, a statesman, an administrator, an economist, a jurist and a first-class manager all in one. … In the Qur’an’s historic vision Allah’s support and the revolutionary struggle of the people must come together, so that Satanic rulers are brought down and put to death. A people that is not prepared to kill and to die in order to create a just society cannot expect any support from Allah. The Almighty has promised us that the day will come when the whole of mankind will live united under the banner of Islam, when the sign of the Crescent, the symbol of Muhammad, will be supreme everywhere. … But that day must be hastened through our Jihad, through our readiness to offer our lives and to shed the unclean blood of those who do not see the light brought from the Heavens by Muhammad in his mi’raj {“nocturnal voyages to the ‘court’ of Allah”}. … It is Allah who puts the gun in our hand. But we cannot expect Him to pull the trigger as well simply because we are faint-hearted.

Who would Muhammad Kill?

Iraq: Light Unto the Muslim Nations?

The cause was noble, the mission was just. George W. Bush, after RIGHTFULL deposing a murderous tyrant, was and remains commited to building a democratic state in Iraq which should inspire the rest of the Islamic world to reform and to put aside hatred and aggresssion. This is a very nice and noble idea on the part ot the President yet it is so naively misguided. 6 years into the "war on terror" (we still cannot even name the enemy - Jihadist ISLAM! Not Radical Islam, Militant Islam, Islamism or Islamofascism but Islam as it has been practiced since the 7th century) the Bush Administration is still willfully ignorant about our enemies' motives. Could WWII have been fought while we insisted that Nazism is an ideology of peace that had been hijacked by extremists? Of course not! Islam has not been hijacked because that implies that Islam was headed to some pinnacle of human rights and was turned around and Air Koranistan suddenly became violent. 9/11 is a product of 1400 years of Islamic hatred and aggression. Read the Qur'an! "Fight against such of those tom whom the Scriptures were given as they believe neither in Allah nor the Last Day... and do not embrace the true Faith, until they pay the tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued." (Q 9:29)
Islam is a totalitarian belief system that believes that the power of legislature is in the hands of Allah and not of mere mortals. It cannot be reformed because that would contradict 1400 years of Islamic teaching and Muhammad's violent example. Democracy, where the sovereingty lies with the people, has no place in such a culture. That is why all attempts to bring democracy to Iraq are misguided.
The US owes the "Iraqis" nothing. (Iraq is an artificial country compromised of three distinct groups who want nothing to do with one another.) The Kurds should be given a state which would help fight Arabic imperialism- Islam. This would resonate well with other non-Arab muslims who are now beginning to realize that Islam is a tool of Arabic Imperialism such as the black Darfuris, the Berbers in Algeria... Let the Sunnis and Shias kill each other! Their hatred existed long before the US and the US hasd no responsibility to be a peacemaker between them. Our goal should be anything that will weaken the Dar-al-Islam, the Camp of Islam. We should exploit the ethnic (Arab vs. non-Arab), religious (Sunni vs. Shia) and financial (oil rich emirates vs. dirt poor shariastans) to create chaos across the House of Islam. We wouldn' need to fight jihad "over there" if we simply stopped them from coming "over here" by curtailing Muslim immigration. Then the Muslim world would quickly collapse from overpopulation and Europe would no longer be threatened with Eurabia. The West should stop sending the jyziah submission tax disguised as humanitarian aide to the Islamix world. The West should strike militarily and destroy any threats to Western civilization swiftly and harshly and quickly leave, letting the inhabitants sort out the mess in some cruel battleground. The West should isolate itself from the Dar-al-Islam and let it sink into even greater depravity. Muslims will either kill each other or make peace when they eventually realize that their moral, cultural, finanical and technological primitiveness stems from Islam itself and its teachings.

Parshat Hashavuah: Emor

Here's my new feature. Every week, I will post a little thought on the weekly Torah portion- the Parashat Hashavuah. This week's Parsha is Emor:
This week's parsha contains the commandment of counting the Omer- 50 days between Passover, the Exodus, and Shavuot, when the Jews received the Torah on Mount Sinai. What is the point of this counting? It teaches us that physical freedom is meaningless unless when use it for a constructive purpose, to serve Hashem. Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of the Fathers, says: "The tablets were the work of G-d and the writing was the writing of G-d, 'charus' (engraved) on the tablets." Do not read "charus" but "cherus," (freedom) for there is no free man except one who occupies himself with the study of Torah." We are all enslaved by something in life whether it is our job, an addiction, a hobby. The only person who is truly free is the one who serves his Creator because for this very purpose he was created.

Anti-Zionism = Anti-Semitism

"I love Jews. Some of my best friends are Jewish. I watch Seinfeld and listen to Barbara Streisand. I eat bagels and matzah balls. I'm not an anti-semite, I'm just an anti-Zionist."
No, I'm sorry but that's not the way that things work. Why would someone support the right of self-determination and self-rule for every other people but deny the Jews that right? Is there anyone who would say that he loves Italians, eats spaghetti and meat balls but he believes that Italy should be destroyed and that Italians have no right to a state of their own? Would they have the chutzpah to claim that they are not anti-Italian bigots?
Judaism, unlike Christianity, is based on the concept of peoplehood and nationhood. Judaism's central components are the People of Israel, the Land of Israel and the Torah of Israel. Without love and respect for any of these, Judaism is incomplete. Jews are entitled to their own nation and their own state. They deserve self-determination and independence. To believe otherwise is simply anti-semitism. If you believe that Jews have no right to autonomy and independece, don't deny your anti-semitism. Remember: Anti-Zionism = Anti-semitism

Updates from Wackistan

Reuters reports:
TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian police have warned barbers against offering Western-style hair cuts or plucking the eyebrows of their male customers, Iranian media said on Sunday.

The report by a reformist daily, later confirmed by an Iranian news agency, appeared to be another sign of the authorities cracking down on clothing and other fashion deemed to be against Islamic values.

"Western hair styles ... have been banned," the newspaper Etemad said in a frontpage headline.

It came a week after police launched a crackdown against the growing numbers of young women testing the limits of the law with shorter, brighter and skimpier clothing ahead of the summer months.

Annex and Transfer

On Yom Haatzmaut, Hamas fired more rockets into Israel. Thank G-d that no one was hurt or injured and that there was no dammage.
From Arutz-7 news: Col. (ret.) Moti Yogev says that Israel must re-capture northern Gaza and the Philadelphi Route in southern Gaza. Writing today in the Yisraeli daily, Yogev says this is the minimum required for the protection of Israel's citizens in the south and around Gaza.

"We abandoned the Philadelphi Route as part of the Disengagement," Yogev writes, "which was an illusion devoid of any realistic thinking or evaluation; we discarded the border between Gaza and Egypt not based on intelligence, but based on fantasies... We must hold, forever, the area from northern Gaza to what was the Netzarim Junction - the area from which Kassams are fired at the western Negev and Ashkelon. We must, as quickly as possible, comb the entire area and destroy or collect all the weapons."

______________________________________________________________________
Why does Israel tolerate this pseudo-nation of murderers raised in a European funded death-cult? When Israel conquered the Golan Heights, it promptly declared it part of Israel proper and expelled 10 000 Syrian inhabitants. It's time to retake Gaza, annex it and to expel its inhabitants to Egypt. Would the US remain indifferent if the illegal Mexican population of California declared war against the rest of the country and started firing rockets of San Francisco? Remember the Talmudic adage that he who is merciful to the cruel will end up being cruel to the merciful. Those are some smart rabbis...

Return to Homesh

In honour of Independence Day, an estimated 30 000 people marched to the destroyed Jewish city of Homesh, whose inhabitants were expelled in 2005 during the "Disengagement". At the head of the main organized group of marchers, which set off at 11:00 am from a nearby town, was Nobel Prize Laureate Professor Yisrael Aumann. The world-renowned professor of game theory stated in recent days that he sees a return to Homesh as "signaling the imperative change of direction the state needs. The march to Homesh expresses very well the aspiration to be a free people in our land." Prof. Aumann addressed the gathered activists, as did the Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Arba, Rabbi Dov Lior.

The expelled inhabitants of Homesh should return, as well as all the Gaza inhabitants, such as those of the towns of Gush Katif and Neve Dekalim. The Israeli government should make settling the Land of Israel its number one priority. As soon as the Arabs know that the Jews are here to stay, they will abandon hope and simply give up.

These Dry Bones Shall Live Again

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."
Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath [a] enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' "

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' " So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.' "

These Dry Bones are the Whole House of Israel. Hashem has not forgotten us. He has returned (most) of our exiles from places such as Europe Russia, Poland, Morrocco, Iraq, Northern Africa, even Ethiopia and India!
Am Yisrael Chai- The People of Israel live!

Happy Birthday Israel!

Today is Yom Haaztamut- the 59th year of the Independence of the State of Israel. Amidst all of the celebrations, fireworks and barbeques, we should all find some time to thank Hashem for the great miracles that He wrought for us. After 2000 years of brutal exile, oppression, progroms, inquisitions, Crusades, Jihads and Holocausts, Hashem decided to return us to our Holy Land in order to fulfill His promise:
"Hashem, your God, will change your lot; and taking pity on you, He will again gather you from all the nations wherein he has scattered you.

Though you may have been driven to the farthest corner of the world, even from there will Hashem, your God, gather you; even from there will he bring you back.

Hashem, your God, will then bring you into the land which your fathers once occupied, that you too may occupy it, and he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers."

Raise up your flags in pride as you remember the gift of being born a free Jew, in a independent State. We should remember that millions of Jews have dies wishing that they would have had such a merit and that we should not surrender our freedom lightly. Thank You Hashem for all of your infinite mercies and kindnesses and mey we all merit the Complete Redemption, Speedily in Our Days, Amen.