Shalom over Emet

The Talmud teaches us that HaShem's seal is emet, Truth, and that His name is shalom, Peace. His name is certainly closer to His essence that His seal. That means that although Emet is important, one must be prepared to compromise and not antagonize for the sake of peace.

My decision is that I will refrain from posting overt criticisms of Christianity. I will post about Torah and if that contradicts a Christian belief, so be it. I invite any discussion as long as it remains civil. I will continue to comment and argue at Messianic "Jewish" sites, although more calmly. No more name-calling, although my opinions remain unchanged.

I will take a cue from the rabbis who said: "Be a disciple of Aaron; Love peace and pursue peace, love the creations [man] and draw them close to the Torah."

May we all grow strong in the Torah.

Mipnei Darkei Shalom?

I have a question for all of my readers. In light of recent controversies, divisons and discord sown by discussion of Judaism and Christianity, I am considering not posting on Christianity anymore. I think that this is most unfortunate since, in the words of the Talmud, a disagreement for the sake of Heaven is meant to endure. I find it ridiculous that Christians post to their heart's content very theologically anti-Jewish statement, about the Torah being completed by JC, and yet, when I try to refute these posts, I get irate comments from angry Christians. What's a poor yid to do? Not to mention that there are tons of Jews lost in cults and drinking from impure waters form forein wells.

Should I:

a) Brave angry comments and discord to defend the Torah and set the record straight about the Moshiach?

or

b) Refrain from posting about Christianity for the sake of peace and ignore Jews who desperately need a Torah lifeline?

I am sorry for any anger or hatred.


"Rabbi Eleazar said in the name of Rabbi Chanina: 'Torah Scholars increase peace in the world, as it is said: 'And all your children will be students of G-d and your children will have abundant peace' - do not read `your children (banayich)', but `your builders (bonayich)', for there is an abundant peace for the lovers of Your Torah, and there is no stumbling block for them. May there be peace within your walls, serenity within your palaces. For the sake of my brethren and my comrades, I shall speak of peace in your midst. For the sake of the House of G-d, I will request good for you. G-d will give might to His nation, and G-d will bless His nation with peace." (Berachot 6A)

Yigdal- Exalted

This is the Yigdal prayer. In the video, it is sung according to the Yemenite tune, which is less common than the more widespread Ashkeniza tune (with which I am much more familiar.)

Exalted be the Living G-d and praised, He exists - unbounded by time in His existence. He is One - and there is no unity like His Oneness. Inscrutable and infinite is His Oneness. He has no semblance of a body nor is He corporeal; nor has His holiness any comparison. He preceded every being that was created - the First, and nothing preceded His precedence. Behold! He is Master of the universe to every creature; He demonstrates His greatness and His sovereignty. He granted His flow of prophecy to His treasured splendorous people. In Israel none like Moshe arose again - a prophet who perceived His vision clearly. G-d gave His people a Torah of truth, by means of His prophet, the most trusted of His household. G-d will never amend nor exchange His law for any other one, for all eternity. He scrutinizes and knows our hidden most secrets; He perceives a matter's outcome at its inception. He recompenses man with kindness according to his deed; He places evil on the wicked according to his wickedness. By the End of Days He will send our Moshiach, to redeem those longing for His final salvation. G-d will revive the dead in His abundant kindness - Blessed forever is His praised Name.

Parshat Teruma- Unidolatry

I found this beautiful dvar Torah written by Tzvi Freeman over at Chabad.org. I think that it is extremely appropriate in light of our discussion abouts idolatry and intermediaries.

Unidolatry

By Tzvi Freeman

There is nothing more bizarre: G-d tells us He despises idols -- and He wants us to despise them, as well. He says, "Don't even think of making idols. If idols come to your hands, burn them, destroy them, uproot them. Give your lives rather than give any credence to those idols."

Then, in the innermost chamber of His temple, the place He calls "Holy of Holies," there He tells us to make two golden figurines with wings, one a male, the other a female.

And when we would be at odds with G-d and He with us, these two would face away from one another, back to back. But when the two of us would be in harmony, the temple priests would open the curtains and show us the two figurines entwined in embrace. And they would say, "See how cherished you are by your G-d."

Meaning that one angel represented us and the other...

We must say that it is not images in and of themselves that He wishes us to despise. After all, wouldn't that just make us into another type of idolater -- idolizing the smashing of idols? So when He tells us, "Make two golden angels," we do that, too. Whatever He says -- because it is to Him we are connecting.

Rather, what He so much despises is anything we might place between Himself and us. And that is idolatry -- the acknowledgment of anything or anybody else in our relationship.

So that the image of these two figurines, in effect, are the opposite of idolatry. They are un-idols. With them, He is saying to us, "If you have a problem, if you want to talk, whenever you are wrestling with your world -- don't come to anyone but Me. Not to the moon, not to the sun, not to an angel, not even to the CEO of your corporation. For I cannot bear that there should be anyone or anything between us. I want to embrace you --you wherever you are and you alone. And I want to be embraced by you as though there is nothing else that exists but you and I. For, in truth there is not."

For such a union, there is no other metaphor in all the physical world but the metaphor of the physical union of two lovers.

As the words of Genesis, "G-d made Adam in His image, male and female He created them."

Based on Ohr HaTorah of the Tzemach Tzedek (Chassidic master Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, 1789-1866), Parshat Trumah.

Messianic Musings

Friends, I proudly state that I am a Messianic Jew. In fact, it is one of the Thirteen Principles of Judaism: "I believe in perfect faith in the coming of the Moshiach, and even though he may tarry, I await his coming ever day." I also know that the Moshiach has not arrived yet and the many pretenders to this claim have all failed or not fulfilled the requirements of the Moshiachood. It's important in these discussions to clarify what the Jewish belief in Moshiach is. After all, the Jews were the ones to whom the concept of Moshiach was originally given, at a time when the rest of the world was praying to sticks and stones. It goes without saying that the Jewish people possess the true knowledge of the Moshiach as opposed to descendants of pagans.

What is the moshiach? The Jewish tradition of "The Moshiach" has its foundation in numerous biblical references, and understands "The Moshiach" to be a human being - without any overtone of deity or divinity - who will bring about certain changes in the world and fulfill certain criteria before he can be acknowledged as "The Messiah". The criteria are:

- He must be Jewish- "...you may appoint a king over you, whom the L-rd your G-d shall choose: one from among your brethren shall you set as king over you." (Deuteronomy 17:15)

- He must be a member of the tribe of Judah- "The staff shall not depart from Judah, nor the sceptre from between his feet..." (Genesis 49:10)

- He must be a descendant of King David and King Solomon- "And when your days (David) are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall issue from your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will make firm the throne of his kingdom forever..." (2 Samuel 7:12 - 13)

- He will redeem the Jewish people and ingather the exiles -"And he shall set up a banner for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." (Isaiah 11:12)

- He will rebuild the Beit HaMikdash, the Holy Temple, in Jerusalem- "...and I will set my sanctuary in their midst forever and my tabernacle shall be with them.." (Ezekiel 37:26 - 27)

- He will bring world peace - "...they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." (Micah 4:3)

- He will bring the Jewish people back to perfect observance of the Torah - "My servant David shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow My ordinances and be careful to observe My statutes." (Ezekiel 37:24)

- He will spread the rule of G-d and belief in Him around the world, to all peoples - "And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, says the L-rd" (Isaiah 66:23)

All of these criteria are best stated in the book of Ezekiel Chapter 37 verses 24-28:

And David my servant shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd. they shall also follow My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Yaakov my servant, in which your fathers have dwelt and they shall dwell there, they and their children, and their children's children forever; and my servant David shall be their prince forever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them, it shall be an everlasting covenant with them, which I will give them; and I will multiply them and I will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore. And my tabernacle shall be with them: and I will be their G-d and they will be my people. Then the nations shall know that I am the L-rd who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary will be in the midst of them forevermore.

Judge for yourself: Has any man fulfilled all of these requirements? Keep in mind that the Torah says that the Moshiach will accomplish his task in one try. The Moshiach "shall not fail nor be crushed, till he have set the right in the earth; and the isles shall wait for his teaching" (Isaiah 42:4).

When will Moshiach Tzidkeinu (the Righteous Moshiach) appear? "Today, if you hearken unto His voice!" (Psalm 95:7). He can come today or tomorrow, and every righteous act, mitzvah or good deed accomplished brings his coming closer. Isaiah (60:22) says about G-d, "in its appointed time, I will hasten it". The Rabbis asked how could it be possible for HaShem to hasten the coming of the Moshiach, since he would no longer appear in his appointed time. They resolved this difficulty by saying that if Israel does teshuva and the world is worthy, the Moshiach will come via signs and wonders, miracles and great things, immediately, and if we are not worthy, he will come in his appointed time, through natural means.

How will we recognize the Moshiach? The Rambam in his Hilchot Melachim (11:4) writes:

If a king will arise from the House of David, who, like David his ancestor, delves deeply into the study of the Torah and engages in the mitzvos as prescribed by the Written Law and the Oral Law; if he will compel all of Israel to walk in [the way of the Torah] and repair the breaches [in its observance]; and if he will fight the wars of G‑d; - we may, with assurance, consider him Moshiach.

If he succeeds in the above, defeats all the nations around him, builds the [Beis Ha]Mikdash on its site, and gathers in the dispersed remnant of Israel, he is definitely the Moshiach.[3]

He will perfect the entire world, [motivating all the na­tions] to serve G‑d together, as it is written (Zephaniah 3:9), "For I shall then make the peoples pure of speech so that they will all call upon the Name of G‑d and serve Him with one purpose."

What will life be like? Again, we turn to the Rambam's Hilchot Melachim (12:4-5)

The Sages and prophets did not yearn for the Messianic Era in order that [the Jewish people] rule over the entire world, nor in order that they have dominion over the gentiles, nor that they be exalted by them, nor in order that they eat, drink and celebrate. Rather, their aspiration was that [the Jewish people] be free [to involve themselves] in the Torah and its wisdom, without anyone to oppress or disturb them, and thus be found worthy of life in the World to Come, as we explained in Laws of Repentance (9:2).

In that Era there will be neither famine nor war, neither envy nor competition, for good things will flow in abundance and all the delicacies will be as freely available as dust. The occupation of the entire world will be solely to know G‑d. The Jews will therefore be great sages and know the hidden mat­ters, and will attain an understanding of their Creator to the [full] extent of mortal potential; as it is written (Isaiah 11:9), "For the world will be filled with the knowledge of G‑d as the waters cover the ocean bed."

May HaShem send His righteous Moshiach speedily in our days. Amen, ken yehi ratzon.

The Final Solution to the Zionist Problem

1 woman was murdered and 39 wounded in a Hamas suicide bombing in the Negev city of Dimona, because they were Jews.



Jewish blood is not cheap.

Cross-posted to Goat's Barnyard

Parshat Teruma- Make For Me a House

This week's parsha, Teruma, records G-d's command to Moses to instruct the Children of Israel to donate freely as much wealth as they would like and to contribute to the building of G-d's House, the portable tabernacle known as the Mishkan. The Torah states that the purpose of the contributions of the Jewish people was that they should "make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell in their midst" (Exodus 25:8). G-d does not say that the Israelites should make Him a sanctuary so that He will dwell in it, but rather that He desires to dwell in our midst. The Hebrew reads "ve'shachanti betocham", G-d wants each and every one of us to build a home for Him that He should dwell in it.

The Midrash (Tanchuma, Naso 16) relates to us that HaShem's purpose in creating the world was to have a dwelling place for Himself in the lower realms, the physical world. G-d had created untold spiritual splendor in the highest of heavens, with myriads of flawless angels and attendants proclaiming before Him, "holy, holy holy is the Lord of Hosts, the entre earth is filled with His glory!" (Isaiah 6:3), and yet, this supreme and intense kedusha was simply not enough for G-d. Angels have no free will or evil inclination and have no choice as to serve G-d or not. HaShem desired something more, a creature that could choose between good and evil and willingly subjugate his heart in the service of the Almighty. For this reason, G-d created the physical world, and man within it so that he should elevate the mundane and make it spiritual. "The heavens are the heavens of the LORD; but the earth hath He given to the children of men," (Psalms 115:16) the heavens have already been prefected by G-d but it is our duty as human being to make the earth a fitting dwelling place for HaShem.

What a daunting task! How can one person even conceive of perfecting the entire earth for HaShem, the Lord of Hosts? And yet, HaShem never asks the impossible of us. HaShem said to the Children of Israel "Behold, unto HaShem your G-d belongs the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that therein is... for HaShem your G-d is the G-d of gods and the Lord of lords, the great G-d, the mighty, and the awesome, who regards not persons, nor accepts bribes." (Deut. 10:14-17) And despite G-d's exalted status, His great awesome unknowable essence, "what does HaShem your G-d require of you, but to fear HaShem your G-d, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve HaShem your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul" (ibid. 12). All that G-d asks of us is that we should serve Him and to walk in His ways, that we should make ourselves worthy of His presence.

Whenever a Jew lays on tefillin or says a blessing, he brings G-d's presence down into the world. Whenever he proclaims the Sh'mah and serves as a witness to G-d's absolute unity, he perfects the world in the kingdom of the Almighty. Whenever a person performs a good deed or an act of kindness, they create a dwelling place for G-d in this world. Let us all commit ourselves to bringing heaven at least slightly closer to earth in our own special way.

Cross-posted to Goat's Barnyard

A Testimony for Generations

If a Mormon were to approach with news of the salvation that Joseph Smith brought to the world when the angel Moroni appeared to him, you would certainly roll your eyes. But how do you know that Moroni didn't give him the book of Mormon? How do you know that Gabriel didn't present Muhammad with the Qur'an, while he was in a cave.

Enter the mass revelation at Sinai:

"For ask now of the days past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and from the one end of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? Did ever a people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? Or hath God assayed to go and take Him a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before thine eyes? Unto thee it was shown, that thou mightest know that the LORD, He is God; there is none else beside Him. Out of heaven He made thee to hear His voice, that He might instruct thee; and upon earth He made thee to see His great fire; and thou didst hear His words out of the midst of the fire." (Deut 4: 32-36)

A Safer Redemption

Oh, how I wish that I could leave the galut behind and make aliyah! My heart is in the east and I am at the edge of the west.

"I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Moshiach and even though he may tarry, I will await his coming every day." Learn those words. Live by them.

May it be Your will, HaShem, my G-d and the G-d of my forefathers, that the Holy Temple be rebuilt speedily in our days, and there we may serve You with awe as of eternity and the days of old, and the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to You as of eternity and the days of old." Amen.

Justifying Your Existence

There is a high-stakes war going on in Israel since its inception, and its not bewteen Israel and the Arabs. No, the far more dangerous struggle is a cultural one, the struggle between Judaism, Torah and tradition vs. Hellenism, moral relativity and liberalism. While the majority of Israelis are moderate and traditional, this war is being pushed by a small minority of secular leftist extremists in a hope of banishing Judaism from Israeli life.

In the form of bans on Jewish prayer in secular schools, gay pride parades down the streets of the Holy City or state-funding of secular burials, a very vocal minority of people would like nothing more than the transformation of Israel into a secular multicultural paradise.

Imagine: Bar cruising (gay bar crusing, just to make matters worse) on erev Shabbat, followed by a nice treif meal by the beach (already a common scene in Tel-Aviv). A state where Judaism is a matter of personal feeling, a quaint antiquated relict from the shtetl, where Jews and Arabs marry and have children, symbolizing the new tolerance of this secularist utopia. A non-denomiinational state where Jews and Arabs have complete cultural equality, where the anthem is changed to be more inclusive, where trains run on shabbat and school hours meant for Jewish education are set aside to teach students about "Nakba" Day. Beautiful? A perfect society of tolerance and inclusiveness? No, it is the death of the Jewish state.

Hedonism and materialism are hardly values that inspire courage and resolve. Being innoculated with post-Zionist ideas, with Jewish self-sacrifice and idealism mocked, is it any wonder that many on the Left dodge the draft? And when times get tough in the secular California on the Mediterranean, why should any Israeli prefer to live there than over the real California, which is probably much safer? There are already close to a million Israelis who have made yeridah to move to the Promised Land, the United States. Without classic Jewish morals and values, the state will lose all meaning, becoming a morally and culturally relative wasteland. A society that stands for anything stands for nothing, and will fall before anything. Faced with a fanatical foe motivated by absolute zeal in his religion and a divine mandate to slaughter the infidels, the secular Jew has nothing to reassure him. With such an enemy there can be no talk of pragmatic solutions, compromise or moderation but the poor shlemiel cannot begin to comprehend the mind of one who believes in the justness of his own cause and who is prepared to fight for it. The secular Jew believes that, just as he is prepared to sacrifice anything on the altar of acceptance and "peace", his enemies share the same desire.

In 1903, Binyamin Herzl was offered a Jewish state in Uganda, Africa. When the proposal was brought forward at the sixth Zionist Congress, fierce oppostion broke our and the Russian delegation stormed out in protest. Over 100 years later, there are some on the far left who wonder if the right choice was made. Why not a Jewish state in Uganda, or in New York? Is a tiny piece of land in the Middle-East worth decades of fighting and thousands of deaths, orphans and widows? To a Jew without the Torah, while few would agree with this, there are few secular arguments to justify a Jewish state in Israel as opposed to on any other piece of land around the globe. One may claim that the Jews were the original inhabitants, but the Native Americans aren't regaining any land with that argument. Simply put, without a strong connection to Jewish history and Judaism, there is no justification for 6 million Jews inserting themselves under the fingernails of 100 million Arabs and over a billion Muslims. Ahmadinejad's query of 'why don't you establish a state in Germany?' is left hanging. Israel currently fears the Jewish answer, rendering it incapable of justifying its existence. As a result, it cannot protect itself. Not from the Kassam and not from a nuclear Iran. Today, we see Israel's post-Zionist self-hating leaders prepared to uproot thousands of Jews, destroy Jewish settlements, and to hand over the Jewish biblical homeland, in the hopes of gaining Western and Arab recognition. Olmert and his cronies are barely convinced in the Jewish claim to the land and feel that the Arabs certainly deserve it more. Instead of fighting like proud Jews in the manner of king David or the Maccabees, the elite self-loathing members of the government force the IDF to fight with its hands tied and endanger Jewish life in a misguided attempt to minimize "innocent" Arab casualties. Without the Torah, Israel is stuck in an existensial rut where it cannot expel the Arabs whom it believes to have legitimate claims to the land.

The State of Israel was not created so that we could eat ham by the beach or go clubing on Friday night. It was not created so that we could break the Torah in freedom or that we should make peace with the Arabs at the price of tearing Jews out of their homes. It was not meant to be a multicultural state with cultural equality for Jews and Arabs, or to be a secular state of all its citizens. G-d, in His infinite mercy, returned us to our land in order that we should fulfill our Jewish destiny, to be a light unto the nations and to perfect the world in the kingdom of the Almighty. Otherwise, the state of Israel becomes meaningless. Little do the secular elites know that whenever they fight for the right of homosexuals to parade their lust in the city that once housed the Holy Temple (and will soon house the rebuilt Third Temple, amen), they strengthen our enemies by giving them liscence to claim that the Jews no longer live by the very text which is the deed to our land. We must realize that our deed comes not from the UN, Lord Balfour, George W. Bush or anyone else, but from Avrahm, Yitzhak and Yaakov, Moshe, Aharon, David and Shlomo. And to merit their land bequeathed to their descendants, we must act like them.

An "Israeli" Arab sheikh was indicted for incitement to violence and racism, this Tuesday, for a hate-filled speech that he gave last year, resulting in deadly riots.

The February 16, 2007 speech accused Israel of murdering Arabs, with assertions that IDF officers’ ranks are made from the skulls of dead Arab “martyrs” and even asserting that medieval European blood libels were true. Salah boasted that Muslims do not mix blood with their post-Ramadan bread and advised his followers to research how the Jews used the blood of gentile children to make matzah for Passover, one of the oldest anti-Semitic canards which has led to the death of many Jews in blood libels.

The crowd at the protest cheered its approval of Salah’s claims, declaring that they would fight and die for the Temple Mount. Almost immediately after the speech, a riot broke out, with Arabs hurling rocks at Israeli police officers, wounding at least three.

Since our enemy has once again asserted his medieval mentality (they do follow a 7th century bandit pedophile, after all), can we deal with them like in the good old days? I'm thinking somewhere along the lines of Shimshon and the Philistines...

At a Terrorist's Funeral...

In another astonishing act of treason, "Israeli" Arab MKs went to pay their respects at a funeral for arch-terrorist George Habash, founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. Habash, 83, died Saturday at his home in Amman following an angioplasty earlier in the week. Habash’s PFLP carried out a murderous attack at Ben Gurion Airport in 1972 with Japanese Red Army terrorists, leaving 24 people dead.

The PFLP was also responsible for the 1976 hijacking of an Air France plane that was forced to land in Entebbe, Uganda. Israeli commandos rescued 100 passengers being held hostage by terrorists in a daring raid led by Yoni Netanyahu, brother of Likud leader, Binyamin Netanyahu.

United Arab List-Ta’al Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi and Balad party Knesset Member Jamal Zahalka traveled to Amman with other members of Zahalka’s party for the ceremony. These two MKs are representative of the feelings of their constituencies, "Israeli" Arabs and by attending the funeral of a Jew-murdering terrorist who committed himself to destroying the very state in whose government these MKs sit, just shows how far they are removed from the mainstream Israeli Jewish conscience.

From Arutz-7:

Tibi and his party members first traveled to Ramallah Sunday to offer their condolences to Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas.

“He was one of the most prominent leaders of the PLO and always fought for independence,” Tibi said, adding that although Habash often disagreed with PLO founder Yasser Arafat, the two men deeply respected each other.
Arafat co-founded the Fatah terrorist organization with Abbas in 1969, heading the group, and its parent organization, the PLO until his death in 2004, when Abbas inherited the position.

Zahalka has often declared his support for the position of enemy nations claiming that Israel has no right to be in Jerusalem, referring to the Old City as “occupied” and to its Jewish residents as “right-wing settlers.” Zahalka also told Syrian government radio in Damascus last year, “We don’t see Syria as an enemy state.”

Speaking last year at an event to honor the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the PFLP terror group, Zahalka told participants that Israeli Arabs “refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish country.”

Why is it that no one refuses to accept Iran or Saudi Arabia because of the Islamic creed, the shahada, on the Saudi flag, or the words 'allahu ackbar' or the Iranian flag? And then there is the Palestinian Authority, whose Basic Law provides in Article 4 that "Islam is the official religion in Palestine."

It is past time for Israel's leaders to recognize the fact that the Arabs will never, ever, accept Israel as a Jewish state no matter how many terrorist are freed, money is transfered or how many acres of land to be given for an Arab state. According to them, "Islam dominates and is not dominated". Every single interaction with the non-Islamic world is marked with the attitude of the Infidels "owing" Muslims something. Muslims cannot tolerate the idea of non-Muslims, whose place is servitude and humilation, of having the upper hand over Muslims, especially the hated Jewish "sons of pigs and monkeys" being the masters of land in the heart of the Islamic world. The only question is when the leaders, or the people, will wake up and what cost in Jewish blood.

Revenge

I want revenge. Not forgiveness, healing, reconciliation or bridge-building, but revenge, harsh, powerful, uncompromising. One Jew has been savagely murdered and two shot, for the simple crime that they were Jewish, by members of the "moderate" Fatah terrorist organization. For this terrible attack, there must be no tolerance, no turning the other cheek and no mercy, but rather revenge, terrible and sweet.

O earth, do not conceal their blood! How long with this continue, Israel's corrupt judenrat giving up Jewish land to appease the murderers, with the only result being death and destruction? How can any Jew hear of this and his blood not boil? The blood of this holy martyr, HaShem yinkom damo, is on the head of Ehud Olmert and his entire cabinet, along with the blood of those who have been killed in various attacks and rockets on Sderot. After the Holocaust, when Europe became one giant Jewish graveyard, we pledged 'Never Again'. Never again to Jewish weakness. Never again to going silently like sheep to the slaughter. And yet Ehud Olmert continues to call Abbas, the head of the murderous organization dedicated to the Final Solution to the Zionist Problem, a moderate! A man of peace who is prepared to end the violence against Israel in return for an Arab state. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Since 2005, Gaza has been judenrein, free from any alleged occupation or Israeli intereference. In the subsequent two and a half years, the Arabs of Gaza have not proven themselves ready for self-government but plunged themselves into a bloody civil war, with Hamas finally winning. When Israel disengaged Gaza, throwing out 10 000 Jewish settlers in the process, it left behind farm equipment and greenhouses. Showing the world yet again how the Arab never miss and opportunity to miss and opportunity, the vile savages desecrated the synagogues of the former settlement and burnt the greenhouses, destroying a chance to start a self-suficient economy. Now, the streets of Gaza are overflowing with sewage because the pipes have been used as rockets to launch at Sderot and gangs of Islamofascist thugs terrorize the population. Thriving Jewish communities were razed to appease these animals and in gratitude, the Arab murderers killed every Jew that they could get their hands on. Even as Israel released hundreds of Arab terrorists, kidnapped Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, remains in the hands of Hamas. The weapons that Israel gave to the Arabs as a sign of goodwill have found their way into the hands of Jew-murdering pigs; Fatah policemen were guilty in the death of two Jewish hikers in Judea and Samaria.

The time for talk is over. It is now time for revenge. Israel says that it has disengaged from Gaza so let it make good on its claim. Let Israel completely disconnect from Gaza, and seal tightly all the gates. Any transer of electricity, medical aid and information as well as any contact by Israeli officials must be banned. Any village which is used as a base for staging assaults on Jewish targets will be razed, after its population is expelled. No Hamas or Fatah official should be safe and bombardment of Gaza will not stop until the Arabs declare complete and unconditional surrender.

Liberals, in their perverted notions of righteousness, claim that this is immoral. Nonsense! Morality comes directly from HaShem and is derived from the Torah. The highest moral law is that of self-preservation and to that end, Israel must hesitate one iota. Let everyone take to heart the teaching of our Sages contained in Midrash Tanchuma: Just as they show you no mercy, so you should not show them mercy. There have been enough dead Jews, enough bereaved mothers and enough orphaned children in the misguided quest to make "peace" with the Arabs and to relinquish Jewish land. The Arabs have had ample time to show their unwillingness to stop murdering and have killed, looted, bombed and attacked every chance they have got.

By failing to take revenge and to stand up for ourselves, we are guilty of the worst sort of chillul HaShem. "And I scattered them among the nations and they were dispersed through the countries; according to their way and according to their doings I judged them. And when they came into the nations whither they came, they profaned My Holy Name when they [the nations] said concerning them: These are the people of the Lord and are gone forth from His land! And I had pity for My Holy Name which the House of Israel had profaned among the nations into which they came. Therefore say unto the House of Israel: Thus said the Lord, G-d. I do not do this for your sake, O House Of Israel, but for My Holy Name's sake which you have profaned among the nations into which you came. And I will sanctify My Great Name, which was profaned among the nations, which you profaned among them, and the nations shall know that I Am The Lord, said the Lord G-d, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all the countries and bring you into your own land." (Ezekiel 36) Whenever a Jew is degraded or attacked by a non-Jew, this is a chillul HaShem. Whenever a Jewish settlement is bombarded or a Jew walking on the streets of Jerusalem is shot, this is a chillul HaShem. "And when they came into the nations whither they came, they profaned My Holy Name." Our defenselessness, weakness, our reliance on the wobbly reed of flesh and blood and our refusal to claim what is rightfully ours, is the essense of desecrating G-d's Name. "Israel's lowliness is a Chillul Hashem in that the nations say of them, "These are the Lord's people [and they are gone forth out of His Land] yet He is unable to save them." (Rashi on Ezekiel 39:7).

Eventually, we will wake up to the necessity of Jewish self-defense and assertion; the only question is how long and at what cost in Jewish blood? Jews, do not allow the death of our brothers to go unavenged! We have learnt from the Holocaust and from the thousands of years of exile that preceded it that if we do not stand up for ourselves, no one will.

"Sing aloud, O ye nations, of His people; for He doth avenge the blood of His servants, and doth render vengeance to His adversaries, and doth make expiation for the land of His people." (Deut. 32:43)

Cross-posted to Goat's Barnyard

Ki Lo Chalu Rachamav

These words come from the introduction to Rebbe Nachman of Breslov's Tikkun Haklali prayer:

"And now, how can I possible rectify this, and how should a lad like me merit to correct that which I have blemished? Despite this, I know, and I believe in perfect faith that there is not despair in the world at all. And still I have hope, my hope has not faded for HaShem's kindnesses have not been tempered, for His mercy has not ceased."

Ki Lo Chalu Rachamav- For His Mercy has not ceased!

The Oral Torah

Last year, A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically, lived in complete observance of the literal text of the Torah. He grew a huge beard, dabbed oil on it every morning to fulfill the verse "Let oil not be lacking on your head", added safety-pin tassels to the corner of all of his clothing to fulfill the command of fringes (Numbers 15:38), and even through stones at an adulterer. Most people reading this will shake their heads in dismay and call him crazy, and yet, what is wrong with what he did? Why should keeping the literal written law be so insane? Enter the Torah she'beal pe, the Oral Torah.

The Oral Torah is not an interpretation of the Written Torah, nor a later interpolation or explanation by the rabbis. The tractate of Ethics of the Fathers in the Talmud, Pirkei Avot, begins with the words: "Moses received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, from Joshue to the Elders, from the Elders to the Prophets and the Prophets transmitted it to the Men of the Great Assembly." Until the time of the Romans, the Oral Torah was passed down in an unbroken line of ordination and transmission from teacher to student. Originally, it was forbidden to write down the Oral Law for fear that the gentiles might steal it and claim it as their own, as was the case with the Written Law. During the first centuries of the common era, under intense Roman persecution, the great Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Nassi committed the Oral Law to paper because he worried that it might one day be lost. This became known as the Mishna, and centuries later in Babylon and Israel, the great rabbis known as the Tanaaim wrote an explanation on the often cryptic and concise Mishna, which is the Talmud.

The Torah writes very briefly on many mitzvot and without the Oral Law, it would be impossible to understand its many complex laws and requirements. Take the Shabbat for example. What constitutes "work"? The Torah only tells us to remember the Shabbat to keep it holy. Many sects tried to take the Torah's injunctions literally, such as "ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day." (Exodus 35:3), or "let no man leave his place on the seventh day" (Exodus 16:29). The heretical Karaites would celebrate the holy Shabbat by extinguishing all lights, eating cold food and sitting in the dark house all day. Could this be what the Torah had in mind as the "delight of Shabbat"? Imagine no shabbos candles, no chulent, no synagogue. Only a day of cold food in a dark home. Hardly an appealing prospect.

The Torah gives us many inferences to the Oral Law. Ecclesiastes 12:12 speaks of "making many books without end" and Genesis 26:5 records G-d as saying that Avraham kept His Torahs, in the plural, in reference to the Oral and Written Torah.

Just as a sidenote: It is interesting that there are many who mock the Oral Torah and reject it yet use Jewish symbols like talleisim, kipport, etc. to confuse Jews. And another sidenote for those who have been involved in my anti-missionary discussion: Coincidentally, the Canadian head of 'Jews for Judaism' gave a speech at my synagogue the other day so I know all of the typical missionary tricks.