Never Again?

Having posted my experiences in Poland, before I post about Israel, I feel that it is important to draw some lessons from the horrors of the Holocaust. Clearly, the Holocaust was the worst crime ever perpetrated by humanity. It is our duty to ensure that it never occurs again, either to the Jewish people or to any other nation. Did we learn anything? Is the world any different? Is there hope?

As Hitler intensified his persecutions of the Jews, culminating in the pogrom of Kristallnacht in 1939, the world decided to close its doors to those who needed asylum the most. During the war, when Allied intelligence reported the extermination of European Jews, the world still chose to keep silent. Allied airplanes even bombed a factory attached to the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex yet didn't feel that bombing the gas chambers or crematorium was an important goal. There was a conspiracy of silence against the Jews: half of the world tried to wipe us out, while the other half prefered to sit silently and watch. Only once the war was over did world leaders open their eyes to their complicity and began to realize how they could have prevented such a tragedy. If only we had known before! If only we saw! Never Again, they cried as they cried crocodile tears for the murdered Jews. They beat their chests in anguish and pledged never again would they be apathetic in the face of hatred and genocide. Unfortunately, 63 years since the end of the Holocaust, their words ring hollow.

Since 2003, Arab janjaweed militia backed by the Sudanese government have been systimatically murdered, raping, torturing and killing black Darfuris. They have massacred entire villages and destroyed food and water sources to exacerbate the drought and famine. About 400 000 thousand lives have already been lost. While some may claim (erroneously) that the Holocaust was hidden from public knowledge, no such thing can be said about Darfur. The horrors of ethnic cleansing, massacres and rape have happened in full view of the international community. Endless parades of diplomats, world leaders and officials have visited Khartoum with sporadic, unclear and incoherent messages. Diplomacy has failed the people of Darfur as thousands are slaughtered each day. We are our brother's keeper. It is not enough to build museums and monuments after the genocide, but to stop it or prevent it from happening in the first place.


Neither has the world learnt the dangerous and deadly results of unchecked anti-semitism. In recent weeks, violent attacks against Jews have taken place in Los Angeles, New York and London. In LA, a 58-year old man wearing a kippah was attacked by two men who called him a "dirty Jew" before punching him and beating him down. The police report a steep rise in anti-semitic attacks, including vandalism and a improvised bomb at a Jewish community center. In Germany, an Arab man was sentenced to three years in jail (only?!) for stabbing a rabbi repeatedly. Walls, shops and sidewalks outside four synagogues in northeast London Clapton Common and Stamford Hill neighborhoods were desecrated with anti-Jewish graffiti last week. The slogans called for 'Jihad to Israel' and 'Jihad to Tel-Aviv'. A 16-year old Jewish boy was severely beaten and mugged last week. A Jewish man living in Ireland last week had his home defaced with Nazi symbols and swastikas, with the slogan "Go Home, Jew". In fact, anti-semitic incidents are up almost 400% worldwide in recent years. It is actually the most worrisome increase in attacks since the Second World War. Violent attacks and desecrations of synagogues and cemetaries is commonplace in much of Europe. Jewish communities, such as those of Paris and London, feel as if under siege and live in constant danger. In Western Europe, fanatical imams incite their flocks against the Jews and the Zionists, the source of all of their problems. In the East, where the Muslim population is insignificant, neo-Nazi groups are undergoing a revival. During the first year of the commemoration of Berlin's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, it was defaced with swastikas five times.

This anti-semitism is not only the workings of hateful individuals or fringe groups. For the first time since Hitler, there is a world leader publically calling for the destruction of the Jewish people. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has announced his intentions to "wipe Israel off the map" and called the Holocaust "a myth", even holding a conference to spread his poisonous denial. Ahmadinejad threatened, on Yom HaAztmaut, that Israel will soon be destroyed. "The Zionist regime is dying," said Ahmadinejad during a speech in northern Iran. "The criminals assume that by holding celebrations ... they can save the sinister Zionist regime from death and annihilation... Nations of the region hate this criminal fabricated regime [Israel] and will uproot this fabricated regime if the smallest and shortest opportunity is given to them." His terminology is very reminiscent of Nazi speech as he dehumanizes Jews and demonizes Israel, calling it a "cancer" and insisting on its demise. These are not the mere rantings of a lunatic. Ahmadinejad is rapidly advancing his country's nuclear arms program which he will certainly use as a weapon to bring about his hoped-for destruction of Israel. Iran is responsible for arming Hizbullah and supporting them during their war with Israel, two summers ago. Hizbullah's leader, Nasrallah, an Iranian pawn, made very clear his genocidal intent when he said that "the Jews should all gather in Israel to save us [Hizbualllah] the trouble of going after them worldwide." Just as people prefered to do nothing as the Jews chocked to death in the gas chambers or burnt in the ovens, thinking that Hitler was "just a Jewish problem", the world does not condemn Ahmadinejad for his incitement to genocide. Quite the contrary- he was even invited to spead before the UN, granting him worldwide legitimacy.

Once Iran bombs Israel, G-d forbid, the world will be quite to realize its fault. Leaders will beat their chest in sorrow and cry bitter crocodile tears at their willful blindness. Surely, monuments will be built to commemorate the now-extinct Jews. International money will pour in to build museums to memorialize the tragedy and people will use this blood money to atone for their collective guilt. No! This is not enough! Now that there is still a chance, Ahmadinejad must be brought to justice for inciting hatred against the nation of Israel. We do not want another Yad VaShem or a Holocaust memorial day. What we want is for the world to wake up and to make good on its promise of never again. As Jews, we must know that the world will never realize until its too late and that we cannot go once more like sheep to the slaughter.

NEVER AGAIN!

Warsaw Ghetto and Treblinka

May 6th

After a 3 hour bus ride from Lublin, we finally arrived in Warsaw. We visited the immense cemetery of Warsaw which dates back to medieval times and contains hundreds of thousands of people. The richness of the ancient city’s Jewish community is outstanding. The cemetery is full of old monuments and tombs of famous rabbis, scholars, professors and writers. We toured the cemetery and read the incriptions, until we noticed a large empty space marked by black lines. The tour guide explained that this is a mass grave for those who died in the Warsaw Ghetto. 70 000- 80 000 bodies are buried in that little space, without even a tomb marker. They are nameless, without monument or identity, unmourned with no kaddish or shivah. I was asked to recite the El Maleh Rachamim prayer and a surge of emotion came over me as I pleaded with HaShem to remember and have mercy on those poor souls who died.

Later on, we toured the ghetto, little of which is left. Only a few fragments of the walls survive. The ghetto best captures my feelings in Poland: constricted, restrained, trapped. I am not wanted here.



Walking into Umchlagplatz, the train depot from which 300 000 Jews were sent to Teblinka, I was in awe. It was the last stop for hundreds of thousands before the gas chambers, and I could walk out freely. I cried when the madrich said that we would not be going to our deaths but priviliedged to fulfill the dream of thousands: going to Eretz Yisrael.

It is astonishing to see Poles living in formerly Jewish areas. Next to the remaining ghetto wall are apartments and the Poles living there yelled at us for trespassing. At the heart of the ghetto, the Poles felt the need to erect a huge crucifix in honour of one of their saints, and a huge church sits on the main street. Not only were the Jewish bodies desecrated but the Jewish soul is spat upon. Cable cars with Kitkat advertisements run on the same haunted tracks as cattle cars used to. Have the Poles simply forgotten or chosen to forget? I think the little Jewish figurines holding money bags, sold at the hotel giftshop, answers my questions.

One final ceremony with all of the Canadian delegates was held at the Warsaw University. A righteous gentile who saved 25 Jews, and a few others were honoured. I am eternally grateful to their heroism. The Holocaust survivors also spoke. They are filled with such courage and inner strength. They suffered such horrors yet they have returned to the land of their torment to teach us. After that, 300 delegates sand Hebrew songs and danced, bringing Jewish music back to the city where it was extinguished 63 years ago.

May 7th

A short 3h drive from Warsaw is Treblinka- death, destruction, torture. There is nothing left of the camp as the Nazis tried to hide all evidence. It is surrounded by a lovely forest, growing from the ashes of murdered Jews which the Nazis used as fertilizer. At Treblinka, there is a stone monument representing the train tracks to oblivion. Stones stretch as far as the eye can see, representing communities that are no extinct. Over 17 000 communities were wiped out at Treblinka. Where the gas chambers used to stand, there is a large monument with engraving of chocking Jews in their last moments.


Treblinka means death. It is but a short distance from the trains to the gas chambers. Arrivals were greeted by an orchestra and were given postcard to send to their loved ones. Deceived, they were sent to the gas chambers.

We sang Ani Maamin like so many did in their last moments. We then proceeded to walk out alive from that factory of death.

Majdanek and Shabbat in Lublin

May 2nd

In the morning, we drove to see the medieval Jewish cemetery of Lublin. It is filled with rabbis, mystics, scholars, etc. Lublin was once considered the Jerusalem of Poland, with an extremely strong and vibrant Jewish community. It was the site of the famous Yeshivat Chochmei Lublin. What is incredible now is that unless one knows to visit a Jewish cemetery or synagogue, one would have no idea that Jews ever lived there. A mezuzah, a kippah, or a kosher restaurant will not be found.

Smoke and ashes. This entire civilization vanished in the gas chambers and torture of Majdanek. Majdanek is hell on Earth. In that evil place, tens of thousands of people were brutalized, dehumanized, sadistically tortured and murdered. They lost everything. All that is left of them is a mound of ash. This accursed camp sits but a few minutes from the heart of Lublin, not hidden away in some remote area. On its edges, there are homes which have stood there since the day when its furnaces burnt human flesh.

We began our day at Majdanek at the huge monument of 6 scarred pillars, symbolizing the 6 million, with steps leading down through a valley of jagged rocks, representing the valley of the shadow of death. We then took the same path as the inmates of Majdanek took upon entering. The accursed villa of the commandant stood mocking the pain adjacent to it. We read testimony of survivours describing it as a lovely house, complete with a white picket fence, a garden, pets and a loving family. The banality of evil shocked me.

At the entrance to the camp, with a sign reading “Bath and Disinfection”, are the experimental gas chambers. When we entered the gas chambers, where so many went to their deaths, I broke down. The walls are stained blue from the Zyklon B and covered in scratches. I touched the walls and jumped back from shock. I was crushed by the pain of those gasping for their last breathe of life. The cruelty of our enemies is outstanding. Amazingly, as we left the gas chambers, alive, unlike thousands, we were hugged and comforted by our survivours.

In one barrack stood thousands upon thousands of shoes taken from those who were killed. Who wore them? They sit silently, eternally forlorn. Among the multitudes of grey, I noticed one pair of red shoes. Did the bearer believe herself to be going to a safe haven and wore red to celebrate? I will never know.

At the end of the camp, we saw the prime gas chambers. And inspiring site was yarzheit candles lie on the dissection table where Jewish prisoners were forced to search the bodies of the murdered, and a survivor recited kaddish over it. The evil commandant’s bathtub build next to the crematorium and heated with the suffering of our people, glared wickedly. The crematorium was ablaze once more, but this time not with human corpses, but with yarzheit candles.

The last sight was the enormous mountain of ashes, in a domed monument outside. I cried as I thought of how many people vanished into smoke and dust, leaving nothing but ashes in a mound. They have no tombstone, no yarzheit, no name. Nobody sat shiva for them or recited kaddish for their souls. Tearfully, we said kaddish for them and sang the Shemah, indicating that the Jewish faith has not died.

“Shemah Yisrael, HaShem Elokeinu, HaShem Echad!”

May 3rd

Shabbat in Lublin was an interesting experience. Our hotel was located directly opposite the seat of German occupation government during the War. We lit Shabbat candles Friday night and then had dinner. Spontaneously, we broke out in song and dance for well over an hour. Broken from our morning visit to Majdanek, we all somehow felt the need to greet the Shabbat with joy.
Shabbat morning, we had an upbeat service in a room above the lobby, ironically looking out on the building where the cruel plots against our nation were hatched. 63 years later, we prayed with all our might and sang the Shabbat praises. As one of our Holocaust survivor was called to the Torah, I felt a wave of emotion. The Torah is still alive.

After Shabbat lunch, we made our way to the famous Yeshivat Chochmei Lublin. It is quite ornate although tragically silent. Its libraries which one held thousands of seforim were empty. When the Nazis conquered Lublin, they made a bonfire of all of the holy texts, outside the Yeshiva walls. To hide the bitter weeping of the Jews forced to watch, they had an orchestra play. In the yeshiva, we studied Talmudic texts and then sang Jewish songs of life, in order to drown out the wicked music of the Nazis. “Coincidentally”, one guy had been studying a daf yomi and completed the tractate that day. We held the siyyum in the yeshiva and the sound of Torah once again returned to Lublin.

At night, we had a beautiful havdallah with participants all from all over Canada.

One thought that kept running through my mind is how Jewish life in Lublin simply vanished. It breaks my heart to think of the hassidim who no longer sing and dance, the yeshivot that sit silent, that Torah scrolls that grow dusty and the synagogues that will never again see another bar mitzvah or wedding. Even though we still live, the shtetl culture and the Yiddish language have been murdered. Did the streets of Lublin really once teem with Jews? Was it really the Jerusalem of Poland? It seems impossible, like a dream. It surely disappeared in the ashes of Majdanek.

Krakow, Placzow and Auschwitz-Birkenau

With the goal of perpetuating the legacy of the Holocaust and of describing the incredible miracle that is the State of Israel, I will share excerpts from my journal. I will post some more every few day

April 31st, 2008

We landed in Krakow late morning. We drove to the Placzow labour camp in the outskirts of the city. Nothing remains of this torture facility and mass grave. Across the streets from this place of evil are restaurants and shops. Without the stone monuments commemorating the murder that went on there, the Polish sunbathers might tempt you into believing that this is nothing but a lovely park. One of the survivors who accompanied us on our trip, told us about her experiences in Placzow and how her little cousin of 6 was shot by the Nazis on the very ground on which we sat, and how his resting place is unknown. It was extremely moving.

We toured the Kazimicz region of Krakow, the Jewish Quarter. We saw the synagogue of the Ramah, and the medieval cemetery attached to it, full of legendary rabbis. The stories told of the amazing feats and miracles that they performed were quite amazing. Krakow had such a rich Jewish history; everything remains he same, with lovely synagogues, cemeteries and Jewish symbols- except there are no more Jews. It is incredible to this that an entire community of tens of thousands of people just vanished, gone. We saw the remains of the ghetto and were witnesses to how this most vibrant community was forced into such a small area. Jewish life in Krakow has disappeared. And the Poles continue to live, unabated.

May 1st



Auschwitz, the most evil place on Earth, is a museum. Gone are the trains, the snarling dogs, screams, ashes rising from the chimney. It is cleaned up, sanitized, almost plastic. It was very difficult to imagine the horrors that went on there through the crowds of marches and giggling girls. Auschwitz left me cold as we rushed from exhibit to exhibit with barely time to process. It was very disturbing to see a place that was literally hell on Earth, behind glass, with signs and displays.

The March itself was not what I expected. It was hard to maintain the mood because of the enormous mass of people. It was inspiring, though, to see 15 000 Jews draped in Israeli flags marching the same march of death between Auschwitz and Birkenau.

Birkenau was an unsettling sight. One enters the accursed gates to see a line of trees, train tracks, barracks and ruined chimneys. At the end of the camp, we had a ceremony with survivors, the IDF chief of staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, chief rabbi of Tel-Aviv, HaRav Meir Lau, and a choir. Ashkenazi, as head of the IDF, vowed that never again will Jews be weak and powerless and that never again shall we allow Jewish blood to be spillt cheaply. The chazzan led us in a moving prayer and I’m sure that he pierced the heavens with his cries.

Finally, we stood in a cold and dark barrack and lit yarzheit candles. Survivors shared with us their experiences. It was chilling to be in the very place where they endured such torment. Afterwards, we prayed a quick minchah in the barracks at Birkenau. Imagine the beauty and absurdity of the scene: Jewish prayer continues in a place where our foes tried to wipe us out but 63 years ago.

Home

I just got home at 4 in the morning. I'm exhausted but I had the best time of my life on MOL. I'll post later.

No one else to rely on!

This video is beautiful. The words are:

"We are believers, the sons of believers, that we have no one else to rely on besides our Father in Heaven. Israel, trust in G-d, you Helper and Shield!"

Pride at 60

In anticipation of Israel's 60th birthday on Yom HaAtzmaut, the writers at Tzipiyah have envisioned an amazing project which they have asked me to contribute to. I have been asked to write about the 4 accomplishments of the State of Israel of which I am most proud. Since I will be leaving in a week, and it will be yom tov in a few days, I have decided to post them now and leave them until Yom HaAtzmaut.

1) JEWISH PRIDE

They came running through the streets like lions, dropping from the skies, guns blaring, fire burning. They ran, in the spirit of David and Joshua, Judah the Maccabee and Bar Kochba, full of courage and bravery. Their enemies fell before their in fear and shame, as they streamed towards the Kotel, the most holy and awesome place which had been denied to them for so long. Who were these men? What sort of people were they? Were they the Jews, the people of the gas chambers and ovens? Were they the same people that had long been associated with death and persecution, with helplessness and passivity, fighting their enemies? Is it possible that a nation that had been taunted for so long, that was rounded up from all of Europe for annhilation, asserted itself and stood up strong?

The establishment of the State of Israel and the amazing turn-about of Jewish fortune following the Holocaust is nothing short of miraculous. There is no parallel to this sort of reversal in all of the annals of human history. One third of the Jewish People had been consumed in the cruel fires of the Nazi war machine. The survivors were downtrodden and ashamed. "Even all the nations shall say 'Wherefore Why has HaShem done this to His land? What is the meaning of the heat of this great anger?'"(Deut 29:24) From this crushing defeat there would be no respite. The downtrodden Jew would finally disappear into the dust of history. And yet in the ashes of such an evil blaze, like a phoenix, the Jewish nations rose again. "'Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say: Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off... Thus saith the Lord G-D: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, O My people. And I will put My spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I will place you in your own land; and ye shall know that I the LORD have spoken, and performed it, saith the LORD." (Ezek. 37:10-12) The Jewish nation arose once again, and like a firebrand plucked from the fires of the Holocaust, defeated a mighty army of one million well-trained Arab soldiers committed to driving the fledgling state into the sea. The world saw with crystal clear vision, and again in 1967, that G-d had never divorced Israel. For two thousand years of exile, the Catholic Church had taught the hideous doctrine of the Witness, that the Jewish People were designated to be a sign to show how wretched life would be for those who rejected their god. G-d had replaced Israel and now they were dejected and low. The miracles and triumphs of 1967 was the best refutation of such a perversion ever. The State of Israel shows that G-d still loves His people and that He has great things in store for them.


2) THE INGATHERING OF THE EXILES

As we head towards the Kotel, we are joined by thousands of our brethren from hundreds of dispersions, from Poland and Russia, Morocco and Tunisis, Ethiopia and India, all going towards the same place, the Holy Wall. Three times a day for two thousands years, Jews in the cramped ghettos of Warsaw and Lublin, the squalor of the Pale of Settlment, the melahs of Casablanca and Fez, had turned like spiritual magnets towards Jerusalem to beseech the Holy One, Blessed be He that "our eyes may behold Your return to Zion in mercy." Never did they forget to pledge "Next year in Jerusalem!" at the close of every Passover seder and Yom Kippur feast. Despite promises of emancipation and acceptance, we never forget that we were but strangers in a strange land, ever waiting the day when we would come home.

Following the Establishment of the State of Israel, one millions Jews from Arab lands who had lived there since time immemorial were expelled, leaving behind many millions of dollars in property and goods. The State of Israel took them in and despite many problems and setbacks along the way, successfully integrated them into society. On the streets on Israel, one can see the most amazing diversity: black-hatted hareidim with Yiddish accents alongside gutteral Sepharadim, Jews from America and the UK with native born Sabras, Jews from the former Soviet Union, liberated from Communist oppression with the Jews who worked so hard to ensure their freedom, fine-featured and delicate Ethiopian Jews with lily-white Ashkenazim. Oh, the Jewish nation has come home!

3) TORAH AND JEWISH RENEWAL

In the Diaspora, Judaism is in a very dangerous lethargic state. With rampant assimilation and intermarriage, great ignorance, a proliferation of cults and missionaries and rising anti-semitism, prospects are not looking good. Despite all of the problems in Israel, it is the only Jewish community that is growing, and flourishing. The Torah community is very strong and the land is full of yeshivot and Torah learning. There is truly a fulfillment of the verse: "For out of Zion will go forth Torah and the word of G-d from Jerusalem." Israel is the only place in the world where a committed Jew can live a full Jewish life instead of compartmentalizing his identity to when it is most appropriate.


4) ISRAEL'S TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES

Israel is one the world's most technologically advanced societies. Just the other day, a scientist invented a method of being able to write halachically on Shabbat. Since the prohibition is on writing permanently, this shabbos pen allows you to write something down and it will disappear three days later, once one has had enough time to photocopy the info.

Here are some facts about Israel's scientific advances:

Israel has more museums per capita than any other country.

Medicine... Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized,no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.

An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in U. S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.

Israel's Givun imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside, the camera helps doctors diagnose cancer and digestive disorders.

Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with heart failure. The new device is synchronized with the heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.

Technology... With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and start-ups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world (apart from the Silicon Valley).

In response to serious water shortages, Israeli engineers and agriculturalists developed a revolutionary drip irrigation system to minimize the amount of water used to grow crops.

Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.

Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U. S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions. Israel places first in this category as well.

The cell phone was developed in Israel by Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.

Most of the Windows NT operating system was developed by Microsoft-Israel.

The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel.

Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.

Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.

The AOL Instant Messenger was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.

A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the ClearLight device,produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct - all without damaging surroundings skin or tissue.

An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant, in southern California's Mojave desert."

Am Yisrael Chai!

Cross-posted to Goat's Barnyard

Getting Ready

Whew... things have been busy. Until about yesterday, I've had a high fever and have been pretty sick. That certainly helps enhance the passover experience. Thank G-d, I'm feeling better now.

Right now, I'm getting ready for my big trip, the March of the Living. Pesach finishes next Sunday night, and I leave Tueday morning. We have an 8 hour drive to NY, from where we leave to Krakow. We'll be visiting the remnants of Jewish life there, the synagogues and cemetaries, and then we'll go to the Placzow work camp featured in Schindler's List. The next day will be Holocaust Remembrance Day and we'll walk the 2.5 miles between Auschwitz and Birkenau where thousands went to their deaths. During our time in Poland, we'll see Lublin, where there was a famous yeshiva, Treblinka, Majdanek and Warsaw. The last place we visit in Warsaw will be the Umshachplatz, the train depot where the Jews were collected to go their deaths. Instead, we'll be flying from Israel to there.

In Israel, we'll visit Jerusalem and on Yom HaAtzmaut, we'll march through the streets to the Kotel. We have a party planned at Mini Israel for Yom HaAtzmaut night. We're going to visit the mystical city of Tzfat, see Caesarea and swim in the Mediterranean. We'll spend a magical shabbat on the shores of the Kinneret. Towards the end, we'll float around in the Dead Sea. On the last day, we'll climb the fortress of Masada at sunrise, where the Jews committed suicide rather than fall into the hands of the Romans. We'll spend the day there, party until late in a Bedouin tent and sleep there. The next morning, early, we'll catch a flight back to NY.

I can't wait for these most amazing 2 weeks. I've been dreaming about this moment for a year. I'll put pictures up when I come back. Wish me a safe trip!

New Blog

I have created a new blog, the Truth about Moshiach, dedicated to combatting the spiritual genocide against the Jewish people. It is open for debate and discussion. Check it out.

Chag Sameach!

Chag Kasher v'Sameach!

I wish all of Am Yisrael, and the entire world, a happy and kosher Pesach. May HaShem fill every empty seat at the table and send us eternal joy. May HaShem be pleased with our fulfilling of the mitvzah of recounting the Exodus from Egypt. In the merit of our commemoration of the redemption from Egypt, may HaShem send us the Geulah Sheleima in mercy and may our seders be brightened with the glowing countenance of Eliyahu HaNavi and our Righteous Moshiach.

Chag kasher v'sameach!

With love of Israel and Torah,

BK

Masada Will Not Fall Again!

According to reports, President Bush is shying away from visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem, when he is in Israel for its 60th Yom HaAtzmaut, Independence Day. The Western Walll, the only remaining defensive wall of the First and Second Temples, was deemed too controversial for Bush.

What is it that is so controversial? The Western Wall, since Jewish prayer on its holiest site, the Temple Mount, is severely restricted, has been the focal point of Jewish worship during the most recent return to Zion. Jews have worshipped there since the destruction of the Second Temple. It was off-limits to Jews under Jordanian rule following the 1949 armistice and was liberated in the 1967 Six Day War. This is where the famous picture of Israeli paratroopers looking up at the Wall in awe comes from.

Muslims have recently been staking a claim not only to the Temple Mount, but to the Western Wall as well. They call it Al-Burak and say the religion's founder, Mohammad, tied his horse there during a midnight journey that took him to "the farthest mosque" - which they say is a reference to the Jerusalem mosque later given that name. However, such a claim is extremely weak compared to the millenia of unbroken Jewish worship on the Temple Mount and later the Western Wall. The Qur'an's Night Journey was only associated with Jerusalem decades after the Mosque of Omar was built. The Mosques on the Mount are inscribed with beautiful Arabic caligraphy with many verses from the Qur'an and yet the Night Journey is conspicuously missing.

The Tomb of the Patriarchs, Mearat HaMachpela, in Hevron, is also mentionned explicitly as being too controversial for Bush to visit. He would certainly not want to upset the Arabs by giving the impression that the Tomb of the founders of the Jewish Nation, of Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov, and legal inheritors of that parcel of land, has any connection to Jews. Hevron is the second holiest Jewish site and a hallowed place of prayer beginning with Calev, who prayed there during his touring of the Land, that he should not fall into the conspiracy of the Spies. Under Ottoman rule, Jews were not allowed to pray past the 7th step leading to the Tomb. Certainly, such a thing would be too controversial and offensive to Arab sensibilities.

Instead, Bush has opted to visit the fortress of Masada, where one thousand Jews chose to commit suicide rather than fall into the hands of the Romans.

According to the Jewish Virtual Library:

The only written source about Masada is Josephus Flavius’ The Jewish War. Born Joseph ben Matityahu of a priestly family, he was a young leader at the outbreak of the Great Jewish Rebellion against Rome (66 CE) when he was appointed governor of Galilee. He managed to survive the suicide pact of the last defenders of Jodfat and surrendered to Vespasian (who shortly thereafter was proclaimed emperor) – events he described in detail. Calling himself Josephus Flavius, he became a Roman citizen and a successful historian. Moral judgment aside, his accounts have been proved largely accurate.

According to Josephus Flavius, Herod the Great built the fortress of Masada between 37 and 31 BCE. Herod, an Idumean, had been made King of Judea by his Roman overlords and was hated by his Jewish subjects. Herod, the master builder, “furnished this fortress as a refuge for himself.” It included a casemate wall around the plateau, storehouses, large cisterns ingeniously filled with rainwater, barracks, palaces and an armory.

Some 75 years after Herod’s death, at the beginning of the Revolt of the Jews against the Romans in 66 CE, a group of Jewish rebels overcame the Roman garrison of Masada. After the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple (70 CE) they were joined by zealots and their families who had fled from Jerusalem. With Masada as their base, they raided and harassed the Romans for two years. Then, in 73 CE, the Roman governor Flavius Silva marched against Masada with the Tenth Legion, auxiliary units and thousands of Jewish prisoners-of-war. The Romans established camps at the base of Masada, laid siege to it and built a circumvallation wall. They then constructed a rampart of thousands of tons of stones and beaten earth against the western approaches of the fortress and, in the spring of the year 74 CE, moved a battering ram up the ramp and breached the wall of the fortress.

Josephus Flavius dramatically recounts the story told him by two surviving women. The defenders – almost one thousand men, women and children – led by Eleazar ben Ya’ir, decided to burn the fortress and end their own lives, rather than be taken alive. “And so met (the Romans) with the multitude of the slain, but could take no pleasure in the fact, though it were done to their enemies. Nor could they do other than wonder at the courage of their resolution, and at the immovable contempt of death which so great a number of them had shown, when they went through with such an action as that was.”

The Zealots cast lots to choose 10 men to kill the remainder. They then chose among themselves the one man who would kill the survivors. That last Jew then killed himself.

It is quite telling that Bush, instead of visiting sites associated with Jewish renewal and connection to Israel, chose to visit a fortress where the Jews took their own lives, determined not to fall into enemy hands. Especially on the heels of Bush's suicidal policies towards the State of Israel, he could not make a more symbolic choice. Hopefully, Bush will learn the lesson of Masada and realize the determination of the Jewish people to be a free nation in our own land. Let him know that Masada will not fall again!

Cross-posted to Goat's Barnyard

Faster than Time

by Rabbi Akiva Tatz

Both Rosh Hashanah and Passover are beginnings of the year. Rosh Hashanah is the occasion of new creation of the human as an individual; Passover is the occasion of new creation of the Jewish people. What can we learn from this observation?

The spiritual forces operating at Passover time each year are such that the Jewish people -- and in fact any individual Jew -- can achieve the impossible if these forces are used. An attempt to leap up, to reach a whole new level of sensitivity, of personality development, can have a degree of success if undertaken on Passover which may be far more difficult at any other time.

There is a special Divine assistance offered at this time which makes achievement of many levels of growth possible in one leap. Under normal circumstances such levels must be painstakingly acquired in gradual sequence. The very word Pesach -- the Hebrew term for Passover -- means "leaping over"; at a deeper level, the connotation is that of leaping over levels of growth which would ordinarily have to be attained one at a time.

This energy is particularly strong on the first night of Passover. It is a time of most intense inspiration. Mystical sources indicate that on all other nights our ma'ariv (evening prayer) builds certain connections in the higher worlds. On the first night of Passover these are built automatically, our work is not needed.

Why do we pray the evening service on Seder night, then? In order to connect ourselves with what is happening in the higher worlds! To bring down some of those very high energies to our level. This night needs none of the usual protection which night makes necessary -- it is a leil shimurim, a "night of protection." We are Divinely guarded to an extent which never occurs on any other night of the year. It is truly "different from all other nights!"

A DIFFERENT NIGHT

So let us ask, with deeper insight, the old question "Why is this night different from all other nights?"

Using the principles we have discussed previously, we can begin to understand that this night must have unparalleled power: on this night, the first Passover sacrifice was eaten. The culmination of the ten plagues, the smiting of the Egyptian firstborn, occurred at midnight. Our homes were "passed over" by God as He smote the Egyptians, Himself personally and not by means of angelic agents. The Exodus began, the redemption was manifest. The redemption occurred with lightning speed -- k'heref ayin -- like the blink of an eye. There was not time for the bread to rise and it was taken out of Egypt as matzah.

Such events are surely the physical expression of indescribable energies released on the higher plane. What can we understand of the nature of these events and their root? What is the deeper meaning of this speed? Of the nature of matzah?

Let us start by asking a question which has bothered some of the more recent commentaries. There is a well-known idea that the Jewish people in Egypt were on the 49th level of impurity and had to be redeemed, because had they remained in Egypt any longer they would have sunk to the 50th level from which there is no return. The redemption occurred when it did because there would have been no Jewish people to redeem had G-d delayed at all. We were saved at the last moment possible. This idea understands that at the very last moment in Egypt, the moment just before the Exodus, our existence was critically in the balance -- one moment longer and it would have been too late.

The problem is, though: How could one more moment of time in Egypt have caused us to disappear spiritually, to fail and fall into Egyptian impurity? That last moment was the greatest moment we had ever experienced, it was the instant of highest revelation, supercharged with awareness of God's closeness. That moment of midnight was incandescent with purity. It was the climax of a process which had begun months before with the first of the plagues at which time the slave-labor had ended. The subsequent plagues were appreciated by the Jews as ever-increasing revelations of God's guidance of world affairs. This night was the pinnacle of that process.

How is it possible to conceive of the imminent disintegration of the Jewish people into impurity and oblivion by a prolongation of that state of being? It would seem that more of that intensity of revelation would have transformed people into angels!

The sources which deal with this idea understand that what is being referred to here is literally one more moment in that state. Not more time in the previous phase of slavery and persecution in general, but very specifically more time on that last night in Egypt. What is the answer to this problem?

TRANSCENDENT BEGINNING

An approach to this question is found in the deeper Jewish sources. There is an idea that one can live in the physical dimensions of space and time and be subject to them, part of them. Or one can live within them and yet transcend them. To do this, one must minimize the contact between oneself and the physical elements. In the time dimension, this is known as z'rizus -- zeal or alacrity -- in performing God's commandments.

The 16th century Maharal explains that if one moves fast, minimizes the time taken for action, one can overcome the stifling effects of time. Of course there is always a finite time needed for action, but the point is that spirituality is contradicted by unnecessary expansion of the physical dimensions of space and time. The minimum time needed is not a contradiction to spirituality at all, In fact zealous action elevates the physical dimensions to a spiritual level. Since the spiritual world is above time, explains the Maharal, we can make contact with it by coming as close as possible to it by our efforts, by shrinking the physical component of our actions to the absolute essential minimum.

Put another way: Laziness, or the slowing down of action, the expanding of the physical dimensions, makes us part of those dimensions. Sluggishness is the opposite of spirituality. Laziness is incompatible with spiritual growth.

What is meant here is that spiritual life is generated in the almost infinitely short-lived moment of the flash of conception, the male phase of reality. The work of the female phase is to maintain the spiritual energy of that first phase and to bring it into the finite world. But this can be done only if the creative conception phase is electric, alive, unburdened by physical heaviness.

Let us return to that moment of midnight in Egypt. The problem with more time in Egypt would not have been the contaminating effects of Egyptian impurity. That danger had long since ceased. No, the problem with more time in Egypt would have been more time itself!

Let us strive to understand. The redemption had to occur k'heref ayin, in the blink of an eye, because that alacrity is necessary for an event to remain spiritual. Had we left Egypt slowly, naturally, in a relaxed fashion, we would have been a natural people! The Jewish nation was being born then; the moment of birth had to be transcendent because "Everything goes after the beginning." We became and remain a spiritual people because our beginning was spiritual. Our moment of formation occupied the absolute minimum of time, and since then we have lived on the edge of the physical universe, at that edge which interfaces with the transcendent, the Divine.

The terrible danger of more time in Egypt would have been the time itself; that is the impurity which is meant here, the impurity of a nation destined for spirituality becoming merely physical, merely natural.

OVERRIDING TIME

And that is the secret of Passover -- riding the wave of minimum time. Overriding time. We left Egypt too fast for the natural to take effect. Too fast to be in danger of becoming slowed by friction with the natural world. Too fast to be slowed into the material and the finite. Too fast for dough to rise, for the food which sustains our lives to expand into the swollen, bloated dimension.

A people only just within the physical, sustained by a food which is only just the sum of its ingredients.

If we think a little further: what is matzah, one of the central commandments of Passover? What is the difference between chametz (leaven) and matzah? Only time! Not a difference in ingredients, only a difference in time. Flour and water if baked within a certain minimum time become matzah. A second's delay beyond that minimum: chametz.

And what a difference: eating matzah is a positive mitzvah of the Torah, its reward is immeasurable. Eating chametz is a prohibition of the Torah and its punishment is spiritual excision! Literally the difference between life and death, rooted in a few seconds of time.

MITZVOT AND MATZOT

This is the secret of the statement of the Sages: Mitzvah haba'a leyad'cha, al tachmitzena -- "When a mitzvah, a commandment, comes to your hand, do not let it become stale" (literally "do not let it become chametz, sour"). U'shmartem es ha'matzot -- "And guard the matzot," which can be read as "And guard the mitzvot". No mere play on words; the idea here is that just as matzah becomes chametz if left too long, so too a mitzvah, spiritual life for the one who performs it, becomes chametz, fermented, sour, if it is allowed to become part of the natural.

A mitzvah is a physical action containing unbounded spiritual energy, but it should be performed thus. If it is performed as no more than a physical action, it may lose its connection with the spiritual world. Mitzvot are like matzot: performed at the higher level, with zeal and alacrity, they are transcendent. Performed sluggishly, slowly, they sour.

The first night of Passover. Incredible energy, incredible opportunity. A time of transcendent beginning. A time to inspire children, beginners in spirituality. A time to be inspired. A time to reach for the impossible, to reach above time.

Ikar #1 - Existence of G-d

During the Rambam's time, there was a proliferation of heretical sects and Jews were often called upon to explain their beliefs in comparison to other faiths. The Rambam, in response, decided to set down 13 Principles of Faith which encompass the crux of Judaism. Let every Jew, and non-Jew, learn and take these Principles to heart for without them, one's spiritual growth will be stillborn. It is taught that one who denies them has no share in the World to Come! The First Principle is especially important as we approach Pesach, when G-d demonstrated to the entire world His power.

"I believe with perfect faith that G-d is the Creator and Ruler of all things. He alone has made, does make, and will make all things."

To believe in the existence of the Creator, and this Creator is perfect in all manner of existence. He is the cause of all existence. He causes them to exist and they exist only because of Him. And if you could contemplate a case, such that He was not to exist…then all things would cease to exist and there would remain nothing. And if you were to contemplate a case, such that all things would cease to exist aside from the Creator, His existence would not cease. And He would lose nothing; and oneness and kingship is His alone. Hashem of strength is His name because He is sufficient with His own existence, and sufficient [is] just Him alone, and needs no other. And the existences of the angels, and the celestial bodies, and all that is in them and that which is below them…all need Him for their existence. And this is the first pillar and is attested to by the verse, “I am Hashem your God.”

G-d's existence is the foundation of life. HaShem created the entire world from absolute nothingness through His speech. Before the world, He reigned alone, and after the world, He will reign forever.

HaShem is an absolute and everything else is dependent on Him. He exists because He exists, and it is inconceivable that He not be. Everything that is in existence only exists by virtue of the fact that He will it to exist. There is no power outside or besides Him. He is the Prime Mover and the First Cause.

Recognizing G-d is the most basic and crucial aspect of life. Once we accept that the Creator is Absolute, we can accept that His law is Absolute. We must come to know that we each play an important role in the vast mechanism of creation. The Almighty is the Mekor Chaim, the Source of Life, and to be able to live a proper, moral and meaningful life, one must recognize the Source. The Torah tells us: "Be careful lest your heart be misled and you turn aside and serve other gods" (Deuteronomy 11:16). "Turning aside" means straying from the Torah; once you stray from the Torah you will cleave to and serve idols (Rashi quoting Sifri on Deuteronomy 11:16). There is but one choice: to serve G-d or to serve idols. Once man strays from G-d's Truth, the Torah, he creates new rules for himself and invents new moral standards. One who does not worship HaShem worships himself, placing his trust in his own frail abilities, in his talents, skills, money, or strength. These things are emptiness and vanity! They have no strength other than what HaShem gives them! If a person does not serve G-d, he serves an illusion, the fancies of his own limited mind.

By accepting G-d's supremacy, man fulfills his purpose in creation. Rashi comments on the first verse of the Torah- Bereishit barah Elokim- for the sake of Reishit, the Beginning, G-d created the world. "The world was created for the sake of the Torah which is called 'The beginning of His way' (Proverbs 8:22), and for the sake of Israel who are called 'The beginning of His grain crop.'(Jeremiah 2:3)". The entire world was created for the sake of the Torah, G-d's Blueprint in creation which He gave to guide people towards Him, and for the sake of Israel, the nation that testifies to His existence. When a Jew declares morning and evening "Sh'mah Yisrael, Hear O Israel, HaShem is our G-d, HaShem is One", and accepts the yoke of heaven upon himself, he brings the world to a higher degree of perfection.

The difference between this world and the World to Come is that in this world, G-d is in hiding. He is not apparent and one must search hard to find Him. In the World to Come, HaShem will be apparent. There will be nothing that separates us from Him.

Prayer Meme

I've been tagged by Eitan to post 10 things which I would ask personally to HaShem. Here goes:

HaShem, my G-d and the G-d of my Forefathers, my heart is alight with love of You. I beg you that:

1) I develop complete, firm and unshaking emunah sheleimah in You, to know with a full heart that You rule the entire world, and that there exists no power besides You. Let me know that You control and manage everything and that everything You do is for the good. Let me be able to accept the harsh and the sweet from You with love.

2) HaShem, help me pray with kavanah, to serve You with devotion and love, to accept ol malchut shamayim, the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven. Help me bring others close to You, to bring Am Yisrael back to its Torah and to spread knowledge of You to the entire world.

3) Help me rid myself of anger. If you rule the world, why get angry? You certainly know better than me!

4) Help me fulfill the mitzvah of ahavat Yisrael, and let me see each Jew as a child of Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov. No matter hor far they've strayed, they always have their pintele yid, their Jewish spark.

5) HaShem, it says of You that You are good to all and that Your mercy extends to all of Your creatures. Who can love the Creator without loving the creations? Let me develop Your divine qualities of mercy and compassion for all of Your creatures.

6) Please, send us the Moshiach now. We are in such danger. Let us return to You, without the need of harsh punishments or decrees!

7) Let me subjugate my yetzer harah to serve You. All I want is You, and nothing else.

8) HaShem, convert all evil into good. Let us unlock the sparks of the klipah and elevate them into kedusha.

9) HaShem, help me develop a tranquil heart and a peaceful soul. My G-d, stop my tongue from evil and my lips from falsehood. And to those who curse me, let my soul be tranquil and my soul be as dust.

10) I want to serve You in the rebuilt Beit HaMikdash, speedily in our days, amen!

Haveil Havalim #162

Founded by Soccer Dad, Haveil Havalim is a carnival of Jewish blogs -- a weekly collection of Jewish & Israeli blog highlights, tidbits and points of interest collected from blogs all around the world. It's hosted by different bloggers each week and coordinated by Jack. The term 'Haveil Havalim,' which means "Vanity of Vanities," is from Qoheleth, (Ecclesiastes) which was written by King Solomon. King Solomon built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and later on got all bogged down in materialism and other 'excesses' and realized that it was nothing but 'hevel,' or in English, 'vanity.'

Go and check this wonderful selection of Jewish blogs. There is even something from yours truly.