Wednesday 31 December 2008
OUR RABI & TZAHAL - ISRAEL DEFENCE FORCE -PART Q
Posted by Mordechai Friedfertig at 2:00 PM
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31
Dec
2008
Ha-Rav Tzvi Yehudah Ha-Cohain KookOur Rabbi related: "A student of our Yeshiva approached me. I said to him: 'At first I did not recognize you.' He was wearing the army uniform. You know that I relate to this uniform in holiness. A lovely and precious man, full of G-d-fearing and holiness was approaching, and he was wearing an army uniform. At that occurrence I mentioned what I said at one wedding [of Ha-Rav She’ar Yashuv Cohain], when the groom came dressed in an army uniform. There were some who were pointing one that it is inappropriate for a groom to stand under the chuppah with an army uniform. In Yerushalayim, the Holy City, it was customary that they came with Shabbat clothing, holy clothing, like a streimel. I will tell you the truth. The holiness of the streimel - I do not know if it is one-hundred percent clear. It was made holy after the fact. Many righteous and holy Geonim (great rabbis) certainly wore it. There is certainly so much trembling of holiness before them, and we are dirt under the souls of their feet, and on account of this fact, the streimel was made holy. Also Yiddish, the language of Exile, was made holy because of its great use in words of holiness. But from the outset - it is not so certain. In comparison, the holiness of the army uniform in Israel is fundamental, essentially holiness. This is the holiness of accessories of a mitzvah, from every perspective, of all of the tanks, the holiness of our tanks will appear tomorrow [in the military parade of Yom Ha-Atzmaut]." (Sichot Rabbenu, Yom Ha-Atzmaut 5727, Mizmor 19 of Medinat Yisrael, pg. 76 #11).
It once happened that our Rabbi sat next to a taxi driver who was wearing a Tzahal uniform, and our Rabbi was tapping on his leg during the entire trip. Before he got out the driver turned in surprise to the student who was escorting Ha-Rav and asked why the Rabbi was acting this way. The student responded that this was on account of our Rabbi's great love of the holy Tzahal uniform.
Our Rabbi was teaching a class and a student, who was on leave from the army, was standing next to him. During the entire time, our Rabbi rested his hand on the student's arm. At the end of the class, another student asked about this. Our Rabbi explained: "It is simple. He was wearing a Tzahal uniform and I was touching holiness the entire time." (Ha-Rav Yehoshua Zuckerman – Iturei Yeryshalayim #6)
taken from : Torat HaRav Aviner
HILCHOT TZAVA - HALACHOT OF THE ARMY
Posted by Mordechai Friedfertig at 5:36 AM
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Dec
2008
A soldier/cohain who killed an enemyQuestion: Can a soldier/cohain who kills an enemy still say the "Birkat Cohain" (In the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:35, Rav Yosef Karo rules that a cohain who killed another person may not recite this blessing)?Answer: Certainly. He is not a murderer but, on the contrary, a rescuer of Jews (see Shut Yechaveh Da'at 2:14).
A soldier who did not davenQuestion: If a soldier did not daven because of a military operation or guard duty, should he do "tashlumim" (one who misses davening the Shemoneh Esrei due to circumstances beyond his control can compensate for the missed Shemoneh Esrei by davening a second Shemoneh Esrei during the next davening)?Answer: There is no need. One who is involved in a mitzvah is exempt from another mitzvah.
A soldier mistakenly killedQuestion: Is a soldier who is mistakenly killed by another soldier who thought he was a terrorist considered to have been killed "al Kiddush Hashem" (sanctifying Hashem's Name)?
Answer: Yes, since there are errors within the framework of Tzahal's activities and this is taken into consideration by the military. This is also the ruling for someone who is killed in training exercises, since the exercises also contain a level of deterrence.
Freezing semen before being draftedQuestion: Is it permissible to freeze semen before being drafted into the army or is it wantonly destroying one's seed?Answer: It is not wantonly destroying seed since the purpose is to produce offspring. However, we do not act in this way since if a child is born from a soldier who is killed, he will be fatherless. This would also cause a weakened sense of military courage."Get Milchama" – A wartime divorceQuestion: We learn in the Book of Shmuel (2 11) that anyone who went to war in King David's army wrote a divorce for his wife to avoid her becoming an "Agunah" (a wife unable to remarry) in case he went missing in battle. Why don't we act this way during our time?
Answer: The truth is that Rabbis did do this various times, including when Jews served in non-Jewish armies, but they ceased doing so when they saw that it broke the soldiers' spirit. By the way, the Ba'al Ha-Turim says that Moshe Rabbenu already acted this way, and King David learned it from him (See Ba'al Ha-Turim to Bamidbar 31:21).
An order to evacuate
Question: I understand the need to obey military orders in order to prevent a breakdown in the army and a crisis, but I simply am unable to evacuate my brothers. I have served in the reserves for over a year and am loyal to the State and army, but I am unable to fulfill this command. I can refrain for participating with any excuse, but I see an importance in my commanders knowing that in my view it is impossible to be involved in this sin. What should I do?
Answer: If you are unable, then you are unable, Baruch Hashem. Although they say in the army: "There is no such thing as unable, there is only 'I don't want to,'" this is not always true. Occasionally, a soldier is truly unable. A soldier is sometimes unable to shoot, because he simply does not have a weapon, and sometimes a soldier is unable because he does not have motivation. Motivation is essentially built upon the soldiers’ world of ideals. Napoleon said: motivation is three times greater than a weapon. If I had to evacuate my brothers, I would either faint on the spot or feel sick, lacking any ability to perform it. I have seen nurses faint in a hospital from what they saw. But waving the flag of refusal as an instrument to influence the political process is a very distant path. It is not possible that soldiers, with all their value and importance, can alone decide the political process. It must be decided by the entire Nation.
An aliyah to the Torah on a fast day for a soldier who ateQuestion: Can a soldier who must eat in order to perform his duty on a fast day receive an aliyah to the Torah?
Answer: There are arguments either way, and everyone should act in a manner which seems proper to him.
taken from:Torat HaRav Aviner
WHAT WE TEACH OUR CHILDREN - 2
What we Teach Our Children - 2
Following my earlier post with this title, which mentioned that my son is preparing to go to war, Faux Ibrahim responded in an accusatory tone:
In this case also. It just so happens that my laptop contains something I wrote seven years ago that relates head on to Faux-Ibrahim's question; the son in the story was Meir, Achikam's older brother.
I dare Faux-Ibrahim or anyone else to show me parents anywhere in the world, and anytime in history, who do or did as good a job of preparing their sons to be moral warriors. The story of Meir and I in December 2001 is highly unusual - everywhere except in Israel. Here, it's banal. The only advantage I can claim over all the other fathers around here is that my ability to write English is better than most, Hebrew being their language.
taken from :Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations(http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
If your son was ordered to shoot a bound and blindfolded prisoner in the foot, what do you think he would do?Ibrahim is the false name chosen by a Lefty fellow from Rosario, Argentina, who realizes that his obsession with Israel's wrongdoing and mostly with what he perceives as its wrongdoing, must be cast as coming from an Arab; otherwise the only explanation can be that he's an antisemite. Like many of his fellow antisemites, most of what he has to say is foolish, silly, or otherwise unserious; the main reason to give him any attention at all is not for the content of his rants but for insights into his impulses and rationalizations. Still, as some readers will have noticed, from time to time I use him as a useful foil.
And, perhaps more importantly, what do you think he should do?
In this case also. It just so happens that my laptop contains something I wrote seven years ago that relates head on to Faux-Ibrahim's question; the son in the story was Meir, Achikam's older brother.
I dare Faux-Ibrahim or anyone else to show me parents anywhere in the world, and anytime in history, who do or did as good a job of preparing their sons to be moral warriors. The story of Meir and I in December 2001 is highly unusual - everywhere except in Israel. Here, it's banal. The only advantage I can claim over all the other fathers around here is that my ability to write English is better than most, Hebrew being their language.
taken from :Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations(http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
THE DEMON HISTORY BEQUEATHS US
History matters. Not because people know about it, think about it, and learn its lessons so as not to repeat its mistakes. As a general rule people don't know history, they often don't think, and learning from history is an extremely rare art.
History matters because it forms the world we live in even when we never give it a thought; it informs our understanding of the world, our decisions and our actions. This is not necessarily bad, though the founders of rational thought did think we should develop the ability to question our inheritance and form our own opinions of it. They were only partially successful, and the counter forces often seem stronger, three or four centuries later.
The pathologies of the progressive intellectuals of rich and pampered Western Europe are so well known I'll merely run by them for a moment, by way of context for a pathology I've written less about. The gang I sometime call the Guardianistas (not my invention, of course) have three major pathologies. First, they're so stricken with guilt for the colonial, or imperial, past of their nations (UK, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Iberia, and, with a stretch, Italy) that they think colonialism is the arch-template for understanding the relationships between national groups, always and everywhere, and that the top dogs of colonialism are mostly dogs, simply because they were on top: it's an understanding of the world that starts from the need to condemn and the need to exonerate, and thinks in theoretical categories which may be useful for understanding what goes on or went on, but often isn't. I suppose this categorizing imperative comes from Marxism, unless it's the other way around and they used to flock to Marxism because it categorized people so comfortingly.
The second pathology is hatred of the Jews. This emotion is so deeply embedded in Western culture, so central to it, that a concerted and conscious effort is required to extirpate it. Some individuals were always immune, others learned to resist, and the example of both groups condemns the rest by demonstrating that it is possible, and those who don't free themselves from the pathology bear responsibility for their choice not to. Hatred of the Jews, alas, is very much alive and thriving, in a variety of versions, in much of what used to be called Christendom, and in large swathes of the Muslim world.
Declaring the Jews, contrary to all evidence, as the worst of colonials, combines the two pathologies beautifully, and oh-so-conveniently. It even adds potency to the hatred of the United States, perceived of, in this scheme, as the largest colonial power enamored with Israel, the worst colonial force.
America is a large place, and there are quite a number of self-hating Americans who have eagerly accepted this mantle, but they are nevertheless a small minority (and they have not just elected a like-minded president, as they fervently hoped). America's history dictates that it's pathologies are different - indeed, the new president stands at their center, and demonstrates that sometimes, at least, America is rather good at facing its demons.
The third pathology of of the Guradianistas, but shared with many others, is the destruction of moral thought.
Actually, however, my intention for this post was to write about the Germans. The Germans don't share the Guardianiasta's pathology, because they have a different history. The antisemitism of their history was far more violent and destructive, for starters, which makes them far more wary. Not necessarily more successful, mind you, on more intelligent, but wary. Discussions of things Jewish in Germany are often stilted, shallow, inhibited and frustrating, because everyone is frightened of saying something wrong; as a German-speaking Jew I've often had the comic experience of being the only one in a room full of intelligent Germans willing to speak his mind - to gasps of astonishment from everyone else.
When it comes to Israel, the German history dictates that German positions be measured, and indeed German diplomacy traditionally is closer to Israel's positions than just about anyone else in Western Europe. (The Eastern Europeans, with yet another history, do it differently. See the Czech Foreign Minister, for example, earlier today saying simply and out loud that Hamas is to blame for the present round of violence. Czech history expressing itself on matters of the Mideast). Former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and present Chancellor Angela Merkl come to mind as impressive examples of this German expression of history.
And yet there is another way to go, too, and it plays out differently when relating to Israel. Perhaps the single most important pathology of post-Nazi Germany is the refusal to countenance warfare of any sort. You can see where this came from. Twice in the 20th century the Germans started major wars so as to achieve the goals they'd set themselves. The first time was a disaster, the second time was calamitious on an epic scale - for the Germans. Then, having achieved none of their goals and all of that destruction, the decades of peace gave them just about everything they'd itended to acquire, or a better version of it they hadn't even thought of. Ergo: War is always bad, it can never achieve anything positive, no warlike action can ever be justified in any way, and idiots who insist on wagnig war in spite of all this are criminals of the worst sort.
Israel insists on waging war from time to time. Do you see where this leads?
For those of you who are germanically-challenged, the article is a silly stirnging together of some of the evidence that Israel's wars haven't yet brought it German-style peace with its neighbors, combined with a scrupulous refusal to see any cases where Israeli use of power has ever achieved anything. It's interesting in that the author has no patience for Hamas, and couches his deliberations, sort of, in the normative German template: if you refrain from violence you'll glean all the benefits we'd like you to have (after all, we're not antisemites, and we're not against Israel; only against its stupidity).
It quite overlooks that Hamas has every intention of achieving all sorts of political goals by the use of violence. Which brings us to the German corollary of the Gurdianista's amalgamation of pathologies, anti-colonialism with hatred of the Jews. Germans such as Mr. Schmitz, writing in the second-most important paper in Germany, applies the "no violence ever" thesis to the Israelis, but not to their enemies (Or, I expect, to the Russians, or the Chinese). One wonders where this selectivity comes from, doesn't one.
As for the pathologies Jews have inherited from their history: tomorrow, perhaps.PS. No, I'm not following the Marxist tradition of explaining people's actions and determining their moral stature by their group. I'm describing common patterns - but individuals are free, and often do, shake them off.
taken from : Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
The Parade of antisemites at The Guardian includes an article by one Ed Husain. He trots out all the usual claptrap about how Palestinian hatred is all Israel's fault; given his elevated status of Person of (light) Color at a newspaper where skin color confers moral stature, he admonishes his readers that actually, they, the descendants of imperialism, are the true culprits for the mess and must now rectify the damage. So for, so boring. But then he has this magnificent line:
How can the children of Holocaust survivors become such brutal killers? And during the Sabbath?
taken from: Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
IN ISRAEL, HOSPITALITY REPLACES THE NEED FOR REFUGEE CAMPS
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3646534,00.html
For those who don’t speak Hebrew well, my summary:
In most countries, in a time of war which forces a population to be displaced, you get a refugee problem.
In Israel, when rockets force the southern population to be displaced, you get an overflow of hospitality from the rest of the country.
Truly inspiring.
taken from : Tzipiyah.com
MAY HE BLESS THE FIGHTERS OF THE ISRAEL DEFENCE FORCE
-- may He bless the fighters of the Israel Defense Forces
He Who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- may He bless the fighters of the Israel Defense Forces, who stand guard over our land and the cities of our God, from the border of the Lebanon to the desert of Egypt, and from the Great Sea unto the approach of the Aravah, on the land, in the air, and on the sea.May the Almighty cause the enemies who rise up against us to be struck down before them. May the Holy One, Blessed is He, preserve and rescue our fighters from every trouble and distress and from every plague and illness, and may He send blessing and success in their every endeavor.May He lead our enemies under our soldiers' sway and may He grant them salvation and crown them with victory. And may there be fulfilled for them the verse: For it is the Lord your God, Who goes with you to battle your enemies for you to save you.Now let us respond: Amen.
taken from B'NAI ELIM (http://bnaielim.blogspot.com/)
Tuesday 30 December 2008
WHAT WE TEACH OUR CHILDREN
This morning we completed the Kidushin tractate; tomorrow we start Bava Kamma. The final Mishna in the Kidushin tractate talks about the education and vocational training a father must give his sons. The final viewpoint, that of rabbi Nehorai, is that the single most important, perhaps even exclusively important one, is to teach them Torah.
As I've written elsewhere, the tradition of Daf Yomi, the daily page of Gemara learned in cycles of seven and a half years, is new: it was invented a mere 80 years ago or so, even if by now hundreds of thousands of people, men and women, participate. The tradition of learning, however, is ancient. On any given day, and every single given day over the past 2,200 years, through thick or thin (there has been lots of thin), Jews have been studying the Mishna and its ever-growing supplementary layers; the Mishna itself looks back to centuries of learning Biblical sources. When we participate today, and tomorrow, and next year, we're participating in a lively conversation that has been going on, literally uninterrupted, for more than 2,500 years. The conversation has spanned the entire Jewish world, with contributions coming from today's Iran westward to America (recently); from Northern Europe to Yemen. At all times the discussion included intricate and detailed things about the Land of Israel, Erez Yisrael; most of the time, though not for a few centuries before and after the fist Christian millennium, some of the participants have been Jews living here. The last time this wasn't true was about the time Columbus was discovering America, perhaps a bit earlier. Ever since then, however, there has been an uninterrupted presence of scholars contributing to the discussion from this holy and unique land.
Zionism is not, by and large, a religious phenomenon, nor even a cultural one, though it is also them. It is not to be explained simply by the Jewish insistence on carrying on that conversation no matter what, nor because of their insistence on doing so here. But it is also that. Jews who wish to look away from these facts may do so: we're an argumentative bunch and we always argue about everything, including crucially important things. Non-Jews, however, who take for themselves the right to decide what we may or may not dream of, may or may not aspire to, may or may not attempt: they surely are denying us the right to be who we've always been. This, most emphatically, is a form of antisemitism, have no doubt about it. No matter how they play with words or profess otherwise.
We teach our children to be Jews: we teach them to be part of the discussion, with all the responsibilities that entails.
Achikam just called. They're turning off their cellphones now. We've done our best to teach him; now he's shouldering the responsibilities.
taken from :Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
ANOTHER COMMENT ON ARAB SOLIDARITY
Apparently the Egyptian leadership isn't happy that Hezbullah's Nassrallah has called for masses of Egyptians to rise against their leadership and march to the assistance of the common brothers in Hamas. According to Y-net (but not the BBC), the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Aboul Ghreit, said earlier today
"This man (Nasrallah) spoke of Egypt's armed forces. These honorable armed forces are meant to protect Egypt and if he does not know that, I am telling him: No and no! "The honorable armed forces are capable of defending this homeland from people like you. You want to create chaos in this region as a service to interests that are not for the good of this region.
"Now, it's of course a pleasure to poke fun at the prophets of "the angry Arab street" in the Western media, and since these are grim days, finding things to draw pleasure from is OK. On a more significant level, the divisions in the Arab world are a sign of hope. If they all operated by the same Stalinist (or Nasserite) Groupthink, it would be impossible ever to live with them in peace because the extremists would dictate the line for everyone.
The Groupthink folks in the West, by the way, look at the same set of facts and tell you that the Arab regimes are all evil puppets of the even more evil Americans, themselves controlled by the Big Corporations and Oil Companies, while it's the Nassrallahs of this world who represent the brave alternative, as demonstrated by the fact that the Arab Street backs them, across the Arab World. All 12,000 of them.
taken from :Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
SO WHAT DOES THE ARAB WORLD THINK ?
The Arab world is mostly not democratic. Iraq seems seriously to be trying to get there; Lebanon sometimes is and most-times isn't. The Jordanian non-democratic regime is benign - but not democratic. Actually, when it comes to democracy the Palestinians are closer than most Arabs, except when they aren't.
This means it's not easy to know what "the Arabs" think about issues. Not that it's easy to know what "the Americans" think, even less "the Europeans" and their interesting layers of doing business. It's not even clear if there's any particular significance to what "the Arab World" thinks about anything.
Though of course there is the rock-solid constant that representatives of Arab countries at the UN will always be against Israel, and that includes Egypt and Jordan who are officially at peace with Israel. Even regarding Israel, however, there are differences, tones, shadings, and complexities among the hundreds of millions of Arabs.
In order to really get an understanding of what's going on in the Arab world, you'd need first to have complete command of the Arab language, which itself is common as a literary language, but is extremely diverse in its local vernaculars to the extent of mutual incomprehensibility. Yet that's not enough. You also have to know a lot of facts. I speak English, but that doesn't mean I can tell you much about Australian society, nor about India. Just look at Juan Cole: he knows all sorts of languages but doesn't understand the countries he talks about.
So when Western journalists assure you that
the Arab "street" is unanimous in its support of the Palestinians as the demonstrations from Damascus to Baghdad showed.
(that's Anne Penketh in The Independent), it's either unnecessary, because of course the Arabs prefer the Palestinians over the Jews, or it's Ms. Penketh yearning for some confirmation of her own emotional needs: the Evil Israelis Armed by the Evil Americans are hated by the Noble Downtrodden. Or some such psychoanalytical mumbo-jumbo.
But it's not only The Independent. This morning, the rot is rather clearly on display even at the New York Times. Their top article at the moment is titled Israeli Troops Mass Along Border; Arab Anger Rises.
The continued strikes, which Israel said were in retaliation for sustained rocket fire from Gaza into its territory, unleashed a furious reaction across the Arab world, raising fears of greater instability in the region.
Remember, it was only two days ago the New York Times itself said the Israeli attacks were a response to Hamas rockets, but maybe a three-day memory is too much to ask from journalists. But let's stay on message. The NYT tells us about these furious reaction, and also adds that their danger is that they'll create greater instability. We're not told who is the person or people with the rising fear levels. It's general, generic, something like that. Until we read the very next paragraph of their own item:
Much of the anger was also directed at Egypt, seen by Hamas and some nearby governments as having acceded to Israel’s military action by sealing its border with Gaza and forcing back many Palestinians at gunpoint who were trying to escape the destruction.
Witnesses at the Rafah border crossing described a chaotic scene as young men tried to force their way across into Egypt, amid sporadic exchanges of gunfire between Hamas and Egyptian forces. Egyptian state television reported that one Egyptian border guard was killed by a Hamas gunman. A Palestinian man was killed by an Egyptian guard near Rafah, Reuters reported.
To the best of my knowledge, Egypt is the largest (though not richest) Arab country. It's decidedly not democratic, so who knows what The Egyptian Street thinks, but the Egyptian government is hardly pro-Hamas in this conflict, and Egyptian troops in Rafah seem to be killing and being killed in confrontations with - well, I'd say, other Arabs, for lack of better information.
Meanwhile, all according to the same single NYT news item, there may be other inter-Arab tensions:
In Lebanon, the leader of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, put his fighters on alert, expressing strong support for Hamas and saying that he believed Israel might try to wage a two-front war, as it did in 2006. He called for a mass demonstration in Beirut on Monday. And he, too, denounced Egypt’s leaders. “If you don’t open the borders, you are accomplices in the killing,” he said in a televised speech.
Sounds brotherly, doesn't it. The article goes on to tell us about other folks who are angry about the lack of Arab solidarity:
Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, condemned the silence of some Arab countries, which he said had prepared the grounds for the “catastrophe,” an Iranian news agency, ISNA, reported.
“The horrible crime of the Zionist regime in Gaza has once again revealed the bloodthirsty face of this regime from disguise,” he said in a statement. “But worse than this catastrophe is the encouraging silence of some Arab countries who claim to be Muslim,” he said, apparently in a reference to Egypt and Jordan.
Now as we all know (don't we?), Iran isn't part of the Arab World, so it's not clear what they're doing in this article, which certainly implies that they are. The article then continues in the same vein: Protesters in Beirut are furious at Israel - abut also at Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
So what do we really learn from this? First, that the Arab world is complicated, even in the ways if faces the universally accepted enemy of Israel. Second, that even the journalism of the New York Times is probably not a very good way to learn about the world. In more ways than you'd like to think, even they are not that much better than bloggers, especially when the bloggers write about things they're really specialists at, in ways the journalists aren't.
Third, that even the NYT looks over its shoulder all the time and fits its message to some perceived "public sentiment" (Liberal Street?): else how to understand this paragraph from the same item:
News agencies reported that a rocket fired Monday from Gaza killed a man and wounded seven people in the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon. Three Israelis were also stabbed by a Palestinian in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, the reports said, quoting the Israeli military.
News agencies said. The rising Arab Anger is so factual it goes into the title. The death of an Israeli, the wounding of ten others, not to mention that they're all civilians, this is unverified information that has come in to the notice of our reporters, but we can't vouch for its veracity at this stage.
taken from: Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
Monday 29 December 2008
Ofra Haza - Shir ha-shirim be-sha'ashu'im
SHIR HASHIRIM BESHA'ASHU'IM
Im yishakeni min'shikot
pihu, mah yagid li?
al ken mikol ha'alamot
shar shirim hu li.
Im chavatzelet hasharon
la'amakim koret li
im yismachuni ba'ashishot
el shadai, shmor li.
Shir hashirim besha'ashu'im
shineicha eder ktzuvot
bli chor ustimah ban.
Shir hashirim besha’ashu’im
shir hashirim b’gil urenana
shir hashirim besha’ashu’im
tamtanainainai!
Eineicha osher ledorot
barak tzochek le'or ben
al mishkavi sham baleilot
ka'avti mibeten
Umi elai, elai yavo
im lo atah harchek sham
elai tid'har kesus par'o
atah li mikulam
Al mishkavi sham baleilot
ka'avti et kulan
tz'rur hamor hafach li mar
kshedodi amar bashir
sus par'oh shekvar avar
et panav mazkir
Shir hashirim besha'ashu'im...
Kol dodi hineh zeh ba
medaleg s'vevah
kol dodi hineh zeh ba
ba be'ahavah.
Az bo n'linah bechramim
bli chov umishkanta
bo nohav k'zug yonim
kach bli de'agah
Shir hashirim besha'ashu'im.
THE SONG OF SONGS IN AMUSEMENT
If he shall kiss me with the kisses
of his mouth, what shall he tell me?
Indeed of all the virgins
he sings songs to me.
If the tulip of the Sharon
calls upon me to the vallies
if they shall let me lean against the stout trunks
the Almighy God, guard me.
The song of songs in amusement
your teeth are a numbered flock
without a hole or filling in them.
The song of songs in amusement
the song of songs in joy, and joyful music
the song of songs in amusement
tamtanainainai!
Your eyes are bliss to generations
a laughing thunder to their light
By night there on my bed
I hurt from my stomach
And who shall come, come to me
if not you, there afar
you shall ride to me like Pharao's horse
you from among all
By night there on my bed
I hurt for all
bundle of myrrh turned sour on me
when my lover said in song
that the Pharao's horse already passed
reminds of his face
The song of songs in amusement...
The voice of my beloved, behold he comes
leaping around.
The voice of my lover, behold he comes
he comes in love.
So come let us lodge in vineyards
without a loan and without a mortgage
let's love like a pair of doves
so, without a worry
The song of songs in amusement...
"Mishehu holech tamid iti" - Someone always walks with me - Ofra Haza
MISHE'HU TAMID HOLECH ITI
Hayu yamim chamim yemey batzoret
Panai yavshu kesedek adama
Sadi kamel velo notar liktzor
Sha'alti lachashti bishvil ma
Hachoref shuv hika bi kar kacherev
Vehamabat ko sagriri bishtey enai
Umisidkey kirot nibat ha'etzev
Sha'alti lachashti ad matai
Ach le'et ere vim ru'ach erev
Ale nosher lo al gag beti
Ani yoda'at ani shoma'at
Mishehu holech tamid iti
Ani zocheret bdiduti zo'eket
Alit panai bishtey kapot yadai
Et tza'ari chilakti im pat lechem
Sha'alti ha'omnam ve'im kedai
Et tfilotai esa kach hal'ha hal'ha
Od lochashot sfatai mitoch on'yi
Ani yoda'at mishehu lema'ala
Ro'e or ashashit bachaloni
SOMEONE ALWAYS WALKS WITH ME
Hot days, drought days
My face was dry like a crack in the soil
My field withered, nothing left to harvest
I asked, I whispered: what for?
Winter hit me again, cold as a sword
The glaze in my eyes, so cold and rainy
Sadness stares from the cracks in the walls
I asked, I whispered: until when?
But when evening came, with the evening wind
A leaf falls on the roof of my home
I know, I hear,
someone always walks with me
I remember my screaming loneliness
I will cover my face with my two hands
I have shared my sorrow with a piece of bread
I asked: is it all worth it?
I will carry my prayers on and on
My lips whisper out of my poverty
I know, someone up there
Will see the lamp light in my window
WAR IN GAZA EVENING 2 : MEDIA AND BLOG WATCH
The events in Gaza are proving to be an interesting litmus test for one's ability or inability to think in rational terms about Israel.
The Guardian, we've already demonstrated, is deep in the irrational camp that condemns Israel no matter what. This is getting worse as the hours pass; by now, the evening of the second day of Israel's attack on Hamas, they're into their obsessive mode. As anyone who has ever designed a website will tell you, the most important place on it is the upper left corner, and from there on down and right the significance dwindles; what's below the scrolling line is almost non-existent. So the Guardian this evening has filled the upper left column with a picture from Gaza, and then 14 separate links. Only beneath them all is the forlorn 15th link: Afghan suicide bomb kills 14 children. (I'm linking to their web page here, but it will change by tomorrow. I suppose I could post a print-screen of their travesty, but they're not worth the effort).
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has a long and wordy article by Jorg Bremer. Would I sign him up for an AIPAC seminar? Perhaps not, but it's a reasonable post. So we've got the top German newspaper being far more rational about the Jewish State than an important British one. Funny the way history changes, isn't it.
The BBC tells that the whole Arab world is in an uproar; the proof being that thousands participated in demonstrations today. Thousands? Out of hundreds of millions? Including this enigmatic sentence:
A suicide bomber blew himself up at a rally in Mosul, northern Iraq, killing a protester and wounding 16.
Sort of sounds as if the suicide bomber was for the Israelis, doesn't it.
Among the blogs, Juan Cole sides with the frenzied reports of al-Jezeera, always more reliable in his opinion than, say, the New York Times. His thesis: Israel is committing war crimes. Israel is committing war crimes. Israel is committing war crimes. Do I make myself clear?
Less important than Cole, but even more loony, Dianne Mason has come out of semi-retirement. The last anyone heard of her she was bemoaning Obama's choice of Secretary of State, back in November; then she went silent and one hoped perhaps she'd been knocked off by Madoff's ponzi scheme or some such. Alas, she's back, with a long article about how the Jews don't deserve a state of their own, and since they insist on having one, they do deserve anything the Palestinians try to do to them for the crime of their existence. Not much room for nuanced discussion with that one, is there?
Faux Ibrahim of Rosario, by the way, is so off the map that the best he can think about to write today is some tall tale about Israeli telephone books. Feverish, if you ask me.
taken from : Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
Brandi Carlile - The Story (Official Video)
THE STORY
All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I've been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don't mean anything
When you've got no one to tell them to
It's true...I was made for you
I climbed across the mountain tops
Swam all across the ocean blue
I crossed all the lines and I broke all the rules
But baby I broke them all for you
Because even when I was flat broke
You made me feel like a million bucks
Yeah you do and I was made for you
You see the smile that's on my mouth
Is hiding the words that don't come out
And all of my friends who think that I'm blessed
They don't know my head is a mess
No, they don't know who I really am
And they don't know what I've been through like you do
And I was made for you...
All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I've been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don't mean anything
When you've got no one to tell them to
It's true...I was made for you
Oh yeah, it's true... I was made for you.
Sunday 28 December 2008
WE WILL NOT PUT OUR HEADS DOWN IN SHAME
Written by: Dan Illouz
For 2000 years, during our horrible exile, whenever a Jew was insulted, beaten or tortured, all he could do was put down his head in shame. For 2000 years, if a Jew ever tried to defend himself, he would be confronted to a system which excluded any possible defense for him and would get punished of any attempted to defend himself. He was forced to “turn the other cheek”, even when that meant letting his relatives be maimed, raped, tortured or killed.100 years ago, we said: “No More”. 100 years ago, we decided that we will start a movement that will bring back national pride to the Jewish people. We decided we will not be the punching bags of humanity. We decided that, for the first time in 2000 years, “Jewish blood will not be cheap anymore”. No, this was not a statement of blind racism speaking about a different DNA makeup. It was a statement which strove to bring back justice to a world which has unjustly cheapened the blood of Jews for over 2000 years. We were saying: “You will not be able to kill us without expecting a strong response from us! You will not be able to insult us without expecting us to defend our pride! You will not be able to shoot rockets at us without expecting us to exercise our right to self defense!”
Over the past few years, rockets have been constantly fired on the southern cities of Israel. The only thing these rockets could have been a response to, when they started, was the unimaginable concessions the Israeli government gave to the Palestinians by undertaking the expulsion of its own citizens from the Gaza Strip and giving away full control to the Palestinians. Not only were those rocket attacks constant and terrifying, they were joined together with other types of attacks, including, over 917 days ago, the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit who is still being held captive by Hamas. Over the past few years, 10 046 missiles fell on southern Israel. Yes, I did not mistakenly add a zero! 10 046 missiles!!
And what did we do?
In our constant, extreme, characteristic, blinding and sometimes problematic hope for peace, we did not do anything. We had a few minor operations here and there, in which we tried shooting at the launchers of the Kassam rockets, but those were never successful because by the time we could respond, the launchers of the rockets were already gone from the scene of the launch.
So, instead of responding, we kept on asking for calm. We kept on requesting a ceasefire. One day, as the limit to our unexplainable patience was obviously coming closer, and as Hamas was obviously in a need for a time of calm in order to renew its arsenal and better attack us in the future, we agreed to a ceasefire. Yes, everyone knew that a ceasefire would be detrimental to Israel because everyone knew that while we would try to use this time to plant the seeds of peace, Hamas would use it to regroup in order to better attack. Still, what can you do - we continued to hope!
After the ceasefire expired, Hamas had effectively regrouped. They refused to extend the ceasefire and started, once again, shooting rockets at Israel. Yes, the ceasefire actually gave them more strength! Some of their rockets could now hit Ashdod – one of the bigger cities of Israel!
Finally, after months – no, years!- of staying back, Israel decided it was time to defend itself. Over the weekend, Israel has started an operation in the Gaza strip. However, even after those years of attacks which make this response more than justified, there is a sense of shock at the numbers coming out of Gaza. Over 280 dead. Wow! 280 human beings were killed. For people who hate death, this is, honestly, a horrible tragedy. So, how are we to react to that?
In today’s world, there is an underlying pressure for Jews, and Zionists, to put their heads down in shame after seeing these numbers. Yes, even the strong Zionists are afraid to switch their facebook status in support of the Gaza operation. Yes, even the strong Zionists are afraid to scream their support for the State of Israel in such a time of bloodshed and conflict.
The Torah does tell us that we cannot, we are forbidden, to rejoice in our enemies’ suffering. So, we should not rejoice in their death. However, let’s make no mistake: I am not, in the slightest way, ashamed of the State of Israel. I am proud of the State of Israel for finally standing up and defending it’s citizens. Yes, every single death is a tragedy – a HUGE tragedy. I cannot express how annoyed I am that people need to die. However, the most basic moral duty of a government is to ensure it’s citizen’s safety. Finally, after many years of holding back, the State of Israel has regained its moral standing by once again ensuring the safety of its citizens. We should not rejoice in our enemy’s suffering or death but we should rejoice that the State of Israel is finally defending its citizens and that the Israelis living in the south will, hopefully, finally be able to start living a normal life again!
Let us not be blinded by the reports which have gone out in the past few days. The Israeli attacks are not an aggression – they are a legitimate response in self defense.
They are not in response to a few rocket attacks which came out in the past few days – they are in response to 10 046 missiles which have been launched on Israel in the past few days.
They are not un-proportional: Can someone tell me what the proportional response to 10 046 rockets would be? Can someone tell me what the proportional response is to years of living in fear where every few hours you must go hide under a desk because there is an alarm going off signaling an incoming rocket? Please! Let me know! What would be more moral than ensuring that the rocket attacks end!
The Israeli attacks are not targeting civilians but rather the Hamas infrastructure. While 100% of the rockets fired by Hamas have been targeting civilians, out of the 280 people who have been killed in Gaza in this past weekend, only 15 were confirmed to be civilians. Trust me, I know that 15 civilian deaths is a tragic number. It is huge. However, let us not forget to put things into perspective. Let us not forget that, as we see numbers of dead climbing in the news media, we can also rest assured that Israel is doing its best to ensure the safety of civilians while Hamas is doing its best to ensure the death of civilians.
Yes, I am shocked at the number of deaths in Gaza. Yes, I am appalled at that number. Yes, I mourn those who died innocent. Yes, I mourn the fact that those who deserved to die did not decide to live a better, more productive, more peace loving, life. However, I put the blame of every single one of those deaths on one organization – Hamas. If legitimate self defense causes death, the responsibility of that death must rest on the shoulders of the original attacker. I am angry at the number of deaths but I know, having studied the situation, that my anger must be direct towards Hamas and the other terrorist organizations who have constantly attacked the peace loving Israel.
As the attacks continue, I will not bow down my head in shame. I will raise my head up high in pride for a country who is not afraid to defend its citizens, after having tried for the longest amount of time a peaceful route. I will raise my head up high in pride for a country who is targeting the infrastructure of terrorist organizations in order to ensure the rocket attacks on Israel will finally stop. I will raise my head up high and say: “Thank You Israel, I support you!”
It is precisely in this time where moral relativism is pushing Jews to go in hiding, and hide their support for Israeli actions in shame, that we must stand up and scream with pride that we support Israel. We must stand up, and break the moral relativism, to show that there is clearly only one moral actor in this conflict between Israel and Hamas and that actor is Israel. I encourage all of you to express your support for Israel in any possible way – on blogs, on Facebook, on twitter, by email, by phone, etc…
May this conflict which we never wanted bring about the peace which we have always yearned for.
taken from :Tzipiyah.com (http://www.tzipiyah.com/)
ISRAELI OPERATIONS IN GAZA : AN OPEN LETTER TO THE "UNBIASED" WORLD PRESS
Dear Professional "Unbiased" Journalists of the World Press:
It never ceases to amaze me that so little has been said by you regarding the callous attacks by the palestinians of Gaza against Israeli civilians, schools, hospitals, children, etc., etc. with rockets and mortars day after day.
The death of an Israeli child or student or housewife or the destruction of an Israeli home never makes for news...but let Israel say enough is enough and what do you say? That the Israeli "retaliation" was "disproportionate ".
What do you mean by retaliation? Israel has been absorbing rocket and mortar fire from Gaza into its cities for months upon months without an incursion into Gaza. How long do you think the United States would tolerate San Diego being shelled by Mexico? This action is not retaliatory...it is Purely Defensive.
When Israel decides that enough is enough, and attacks Hamas military targets (which they always locate in populated urban areas) then you call the Israeli attacks "disproportionate ". Well you can kiss my Jewish touches you left-wing bleeding heart bastards!
Collateral damage is exactly what Hamas wants and you play right into their hands by portraying Israel as the aggressor. Never mind who has been supplying Hamas and Fatah and Hizbullah with rockets (which they launch from schoolyards and from behind civilian apartment complexes), mines, explosives and arms; never mind that Israel is the only free and democratic country in the Middle-East; never mind that Israel always supports and stands behind the United States; never mind that the same people who are now being attacked in Gaza are of the very same philosophy and mindset as those who attacked the United States on 911, killing thousands of innocent civilians and women and children (and the very same who danced in the streets afterwards); never mind any of that.
What matters to you, is that in your holier-than-thou judgment, Israeli response should be restrained - tempered and humane. Have you ever seen what’s left of an Israeli bus and those people inside after a palestinian (suicide bomber - no such thing) murderer blew up inside that bus...Or, the inside of a crowded restaurant after a palestinian murderer strapped with explosives exploded amongst the tables...Or, the inside of a Israeli classroom after a rocket came crashing through the roof?
How long would you take it and how restrained would be your response against those responsible? You never use the word "Terrorist" in conjunction with "Palestinian". No, you call them "Militants" like some unruly child. Well they are not militants, or unruly children, these so-called palestinians are Murdering Terrorists by every definition of the word.
Israel has tried all that is humanly possible to bring about peace between the palestinians and Israel. They don't want peace! They want Israel's destruction and will settle for nothing less. They are like a cancer that has been eating through the center of the body...What do you do with a cancer? If it will not respond to conventional therapy then you excise it!
There will never be a "Two State Solution", the so called palestinians don't want it, and the rest of the Arabs will never let it happen. Therefore, there should be a One-State-Solution...Israel from the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea - and if the Arabs in between don't like it, then let them go back to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan - where they originated. If you don't like this Blogmaster's opinion, this is one Jew who doesn't give a damn! Never Again! Blogmaster
taken from : B´NAI ELIM (http://bnaielim.blogspot.com/)
ISRAEL'S FIERCEST CRITICS : HOMEGROWN
Gideon Levy has a one-track mind: Israel is awful. The funniest example for this came a few years ago when he was sent to Beijing to cover some event; while there he managed to dig up a Palestinian businessman. The fellow is married to a Chinese woman, drives a Mercedes and makes millions in the skyrocketing Chinese economy, but he was willing to give Levy an hour and to tell how awful it is to be a Palestinian refugee.
He has a regular column in Haaretz on weekends, called "The Twilight Zone", where he tells about the suffering of the Palestinians. This morning he published an extra-curricular column. His animosity against his country is even more explicit than what you find at the Guardian.
Yet I can live with Gideon Levy. One significant difference between him and our foreign critics is that he's here. When Palestinian terrorists were blowing themselves up in Tel Aviv, before we figured out how to block them, his life was in the same danger the rest of our lives were in, as Peter Beaumont's life isn't. The second difference is that he's criticizing his own county, not someone else's. Anyone who knows how to read between the lines knows that the American and British forces fighting their just wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are less scrupulous than the Israelis when it comes to trying not to his civilians, yet to the best of my knowledge no-one in any major media outlet in either country does what Levy does. The Guardian screeches about Israeli war crimes, factual or other, but never treats its own forces to a similar level of scrutiny. They're not only antisemites, they're also hypocrites, an accusation that can't be leveled at Levy. Third, since Levy is an Israeli, he has the right to hold his own society up to a higher standard, even one so high as to be cruel and unreasonable. It's his society he making his demands from, not someone else's.
He's wrong of course, in his interpretations, and not always accurate in his factual depictions, but he's a sign of our democratic strength, and I can live with him.
taken from :Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
WAR IN GAZA DAY 2 :MEDIA WATCH
Times of London can't make up its own mind abut the facts. First, it has us understand Israel is killing Palestinian civilians:
Children on their way home from school and policemen parading for a graduation ceremony were the principal victims of a bloody few hours that left the territory in flames.
Neat sleight of hand, that: children and celebrating policemen, one single category. Then, deeper into the news item, we're informed that
The strikes caused panic and confusion as black clouds of smoke rose above the territory. Most of those killed were security men — including Gaza’s police chief — but an unknown number of civilians were also among the dead.
If you keep on going all the way to the bottom of the page, you finally get some numbers:
Earlier in the day, when the death toll stood at 155, police spokesman Ehud Ghussein had said about 140 Hamas security forces were killed.
Yesterday I speculated that The Independent is probably awful. Perhaps I spoke too hastily. Their leader this morning is perfectly reasonable. They haven't become Zionists, but if everyone wrote like this, I wouldn't need to blog about it.
The Guardian, meanwhile, is even lower today than it was yesterday. They've got a column written by Peter Beaumont, none other than their Foreign Affairs editor. Obviously everything is all Israel's fault, you wouldn't expect anything else from the Guardian, but Beaumont goes even further and hopes that Israel has finally given the Arab world something that will focus their minds on how evil their real enemy is:
But perhaps in a wider Arab world, becoming more uncomfortable by the day about what is happening inside Gaza, something is changing. And Israel has supplied a rallying point. Something tangible and brutal that gives the critics of its actions in Gaza – who say it has a policy of collective punishment backed by disproportionate and excessive force – something to focus on.
Something to be ranked with Deir Yassin. With the Sabra and Shatila massacres. Something, at last, that Israel's foes can say looks like an atrocity.
Creepy, isn't it? The fellow is hoping that the Arabs will actively hate the Israelis as much as he, his newspaper and his readers do, and that the overtly antisemitic killers of the Hamas will serve as their rallying point. (Sabra and Shatilla, by the way, were massacres by Arabs of Arabs).
As a small side story, it's interesting to note the URL given to Beaumont's column:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/27/israelandthepalestinians-terrorism. Israel and the Palestinians terrorism. And you thought the Guardian never uses the word "terrorism" in the context of the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Mahmoud Abbas apparently doesn't read his Guardian, because he's blaming Hamas for what he's calling a massacre, while standing next to the Egyptian Foreign Minister. It would be hard to make up such a story line, wouldn't it: Arabs condemning Hamas, while the Guardian prays they'll join it in its hatred of Israel.
taken from :Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
UNIVERSAL TORAH : MIKETZ
UNIVERSAL TORAH: MIKETZ
By Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum
Torah Reading: MIKETZ Gen. 41:1-44:17
"AND PHARAOH WAS DREAMING."
The exile of the Children of Israel in Egypt and their subsequent redemption and exodus are the paradigm of all exile and redemption, physical and spiritual. The chief oppressor is Pharaoh, King of Egypt, a figure first introduced in the Torah several parshiyos earlier, in LECH LECHA (Ch. 12, v. 10ff). Famine had forced Abraham to go down to Egypt, the "nakedness of the earth" (just as in our parshah, famine forces his descendents down to the same place). Egypt is the stronghold of MITZRAYIM, second son of the accursed Ham, who had "uncovered" his father Noah's nakedness. In the same tradition of sexual immorality, Pharaoh, representing the evil, self-seeking aspect of earthly power, kidnapped Sarah, embodiment of the Indwelling Presence of G-d, until a divine plague forced him to release her. According to tradition, Sarah was released on the night 15 Nissan, the date of the later Exodus of her descendants from Egypt.
Our parshah of MIKETZ traces the successive stages in which the snare was laid to force Jacob and his Twelve Sons to follow Joseph down into exile in Egypt in preparation for the ultimate redemption of the Children of Israel years later on that same date. The net is artfully prepared by Joseph, who alone of all the sons of Jacob had the power to stand in the House of Pharaoh. Joseph is the archetype of the Tzaddik who enables us to survive in This World. Having been drawn down to Egypt by Joseph, the Children of Israel are eventually redeemed by Moses, who, having been brought up in the House of Pharaoh, had the power to stand there. Moses is integrally linked with Joseph, and thus Moses "took the bones [= the essence] of Joseph with him" up out of Egypt. Moses is the Tzaddik who teaches us the path leading through the wilderness of This World to the Land of the Living -- the Land of Israel.
This World is but a dream. Pharaoh is dreaming. Pharaoh is the "back-side" (PHaRAO = ORePH, the back of the neck) -- the external appearance of This World as opposed to it's inner "face", the inner spirituality and meaning. The outward appearance is frightening: plump prosperity turning into wizened waste.
Pharaoh is the worldly ego. "So says the Lord G-d, Here I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great crocodile [=primordial serpent] lying down in his rivers, who says: 'The river is mine, and I made myself' (Ezekiel 29: 3, from the Haftara of parshas VO-ERO which recounts the plagues sent against Egypt). Pharaoh thinks he is all-powerful -- "I made myself" -- but in the end he is humiliated by G-d's plagues, which show him his limitations. As yet his downfall is still far-off -- a distant vision, a bad dream. Yet already Pharaoh is being humiliated. The dream is terrifying. Pharaoh's own magicians and wise men are helpless: they cannot give meaning to his dream. The only one who can help Pharaoh is "a man who has the spirit of G-d in him" (Gen. 41:38), the truly righteous Tzaddik: Joseph.
* * *
THE VIRTUE OF THRIFT
Temporal leaders may imagine they are pulling the strings, but the underlying forces that drive human history are great global cycles of success and decline ("Seven years of plenty" / "Seven years of famine") that are in the power of G-d alone. Likewise, G-d alone has the power to send truly wise leaders to guide us through these cycles to a better end.
While Pharaoh is the archetype of the self-seeker, Joseph is the archetype of self-discipline. The latter is the virtue needed to get through This World successfully. Pharaoh knows how to consume to gratify the self here and now -- to live the dream of This World. This may work as long as the river keeps flowing. But Pharaoh does not know what to do when the flow stops. He is unprepared, because Pharaoh is PARU'AH, undisciplined. He does not know how to conserve and save for lean times.
Pharaoh's self-seeking is rooted in the fundamental flaw of Adam: KERI, spilling the seed in vain -- waste. Thus it is said that the sparks in the seed spilled by Adam fell to Egypt, where they had to be rectified in the generation of Joseph and in the generation of Moses. The rectification in the generation of Joseph was accomplished by the DISCIPLINE which Joseph brought to the country. Joseph used the Seven Years of Plenty to teach the Egyptians to put limits on IMMEDIATE CONSUMPTION AND GRATIFICATION in order to SAVE for the FUTURE.
(Similarly in the generation of the Exodus, the Children of Israel, incarnation of Adam's spilled seed, were rectified through the building of Pharaoh's "store-cities".) We must all learn how to set limits to the physical gratification we receive from this world in order to make the best use of our time here to acquire and "save" Mitzvos and good deeds. These are our TZEIDAH LA-DEREKH, the "sustenance for the way" that leads to the Land of the Living, the Future World.
The world today is suffering from the catastrophic effects of IMMEDIATE CONSUMPTION on the global ecology in the form of reckless depletion of resources, pollution etc. and on the moral fabric of contemporary society. The model of happiness entertained by most of the world -- CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION -- is unsustainable and destructive, and must be replaced with Joseph's model: that we must "circumcise" ourselves and learn self-discipline. Only by thriftily "saving" Torah and good deeds can we attain true happiness. Thus Joseph told the "Egyptians" to "circumcise" themselves (see Rashi on Gen. 41:55).
The world today is suffering from the catastrophic effects of IMMEDIATE CONSUMPTION on the global ecology in the form of reckless depletion of resources, pollution etc. and on the moral fabric of contemporary society. The model of happiness entertained by most of the world -- CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION -- is unsustainable and destructive, and must be replaced with Joseph's model: that we must "circumcise" ourselves and learn self-discipline. Only by thriftily "saving" Torah and good deeds can we attain true happiness. Thus Joseph told the "Egyptians" to "circumcise" themselves (see Rashi on Gen. 41:55).
* * *
CHASTIZEMENTS OF LOVE
"It is good when manifest reproof stems from hidden love" (Proverbs 27:5).
The essence of good leadership is to teach people to lead themselves -- to take themselves in hand and use self-discipline to attain the good that is available in this world.
Had Joseph revealed himself to his brothers immediately on their first arrival in Egypt, he would have elicited little more from them than superficial expressions of contrition for a sin whose seriousness they still did not understand. "Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor" (Leviticus 19:16) -- don't "sit down to eat bread" when your brother is screaming in the pit (Gen. 37:25).
Joseph used his consummate wisdom to engineer events that would put his brothers in the same situation in which they had placed him. As the compassionate leader, Joseph sought to make his brothers draw their own conclusions, knowing that the lessons we learn on our own flesh are more deeply inscribed and instilled than those we simply hear from others.
Joseph engineered events that would force his brothers to "read" and "interpret" for themselves the message of reproof the events implied. So it had been from the beginning. When Joseph dreamed of the sheaves bowing down to him, it was the brothers who interpreted the message for themselves. "Will you surely rule over us?" (Gen. 37:8).
Years later, the brothers bowed before the Egyptian Viceroy TZOPHNAS PA'ANEAH ("Interpreter of that which is Hidden", as Joseph had been named by Pharaoh, Master of the Dream).
"And Joseph saw his brothers and he recognized them, AND HE MADE HIMSELF STRANGE [vayisNACHER] to them" (Gen. 42:7).
In order to chastise his brothers and bring them to genuine contrition, Joseph acted not like a BROTHER but like a NOCHRI, a STRANGER. He clothed himself in the garb of a stranger with a heart of stone, deaf to all appeals.
Joseph's way of teaching and educating his brothers can help us understand how G-d may sometimes have to beat down the walls of people's insensitive hearts by chastising them with enemies that appear strange and incomprehensible to them.
"G-d will bring up a people against you from afar from the end of the earth, like the eagle swoops, a people whose language you will not understand, a people of fierce countenance who will not show respect to the old or compassion for the youth." (Deuteronomy 28: 49).
But like Joseph's indirect, roundabout reproof to his brothers, G-d's reproof has but one purpose: "And they will confess their sin and the sin of their fathers and the treachery that they have committed against Me, that they went contrary [with KERI] against Me; So I will go with them contrary [with KERI, apparently chance events] and I will bring them in the land of their enemies, and then their uncircumcised heart will be humbled and then they will make appeasement for their sin. And I will remember my COVENANT." (Leviticus 26:40-42).
With consummate skill, Joseph brought a series of "troubles" upon his brothers that would bring them to successive levels of self-understanding and genuine contrition. Joseph's first step was to separate one brother (Shimon) from the others and hold him in detention. The brothers read the message: "And one said to the other, But we are guilty over our brother, the pain of whose soul we saw when he pleaded with us and we did not hear: that is why this trouble has come upon us" (Gen. 42:21).
The final stage was when Joseph engineered the framing of Benjamin with Joseph's "stolen" divining goblet (Gen. ch. 44). Still appearing to his brothers as the Egyptian Viceroy Sourcerer, Joseph's choice of scenario was one that had special meaning for the brothers, as they had all (with the exception of Benjamin) witnessed their DIVINER grandfather Laban (Gen.30:27) searching the tent of Rachel, for his stolen TERAFIM (idols).
At last the brothers grasped the complete message. They had stolen their brother and sold him as a slave. "And Judah said, What shall we say to my lord, what shall we speak and how can we justify ourselves? G-d has found your servants' sin."
In next week's parshah we will continue with the beautiful story of how Judah steps forward to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS BROTHER. This was the goal of all Joseph's "reproof".
The above-quoted words of Judah are woven into our TACHANUN (supplicatory) and SELICHOS (penitential) prayers:
"What shall we say? What shall we speak? How can we justify ourselves? Let us search out and investigate our ways and return to You. For Your right arm is stretched out to receive those who return. Please G-d, save us."
Shabbat Shalom! Chodesh Tov Umevorach! Happy Chanukah
Avraham Yehoshua Greenbaum
--AZAMRA INSTITUTEPO Box 50037 Jerusalem 91500 IsraelWebsite: www.azamra.org
WAR IN GAZA : MEDIA WATCH
The London Times still has an item up from yesterday, about two Palestinian girls who were killed by rockets fired by their own side that were aimed at Israeli civilians but fell short. I mention this merely as a reminder of who Israel faces - and how it doesn't get reported in some media organs.
The New York Times gives the story in its context. Its top headline, "Israeli Gaza Strike Kills More than 200" is followed by the subtitle "Air Attacks are a Response to Hamas Rocket Fire on Israel". The following article tries to be factual:
Most of those killed were Hamas police officers and security men, including two senior commanders, according to Palestinian officials. But the dead included at least a dozen civilians, including several construction workers and at least two children in school uniforms.
The rest of the long new item is reasonable reporting. It doesn't dig back into the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, nor tell much about the Hamas charter which is blatantly antisemitic ("the Jews are to blame for both world wars"), but that's not how newspaper reporters understand the world; given how they do, this new item is fine. Only once does the reporters' (3 of them contributed to the item) lack of historical perspective trip them up:
The leader of Hamas in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, said in a statement that “Palestine has never witnessed an uglier massacre.” Later, in a televised speech, he vowed to fight Israel. “We say in all confidence that even if we are hung on the gallows or they make our blood flow in the streets or they tear our bodies apart, we will bow only before God and we will not abandon Palestine,” he said.
Any idea what he's talking about, Mr. Haniya? It's a deft piece of propaganda. To Western ears, he makes it appear as if Israel is trying to destroy the Palestinians, massacre them and exile them from their land, none of which is true. For Palestinian ears, however, the same set of sentences means something different: "We're in this fight because we'll never give up any of Palestine", i.e Israel has no right to exist. Neat, huh? The NYT folks missed it, because though they're good journalists, you need to be more than a good journalist to understand this story.
The BBC has a 1000-word, titled "Massive Israeli air raids on Gaza". The fact of Hamas rockets on Israeli civilians is noted only more than 600 words into the report, unless you count an attribution to an Israeli announcement in the 5th paragraph; the BBC however only gets around to admitting that there may be some truth to that Israeli claim near the end of the report.
And then you've got the Guardian. I suppose I ought also to look at the Independent, and maybe tomorrow I will, since it really isn't fair to single out the Guardian for its straightforward antisemitism, but a few years ago the Independent starting requiring readers of its website to pay for the torture, so I stopped going there. The Guardian has a larger readership, I'm told, and is the top-notch paper of the British Left, so when it's antisemitic, this is the responsibility of all those who go along with it.
The Guardian starts it report with a headline one can stomach: Air strikes in Gaza kill 205 as Israel targets Hamas. But this is the first paragraph:
Israel stood defiant tonight in the face of mounting international condemnation, as it vowed to continue a massive bombing offensive against key targets in the Gaza Strip that left 205 dead and 700 others injured.
Most of the article is about how the international community, including the White House, is critical of Israel's actions; in the entire article there is only one, cryptic mention of the Hamas rocket attacks and that comes in an attribution to Ehud Barak.
I expect the fools at the Guardian really believe what they write, but that's no excuse. As for the facts, let's wait a day or two and see if the world's mumbles of caution really are "mounting international condemnation", or if they're mumbles of condemnation. One way or the other, it's hard to see what happened on the international scene today that might be described as mounting international condemnation. When that happens, it of course still won't mean the world is right, but so far, it hasn't even happened. It's a weekend, between Christmas and New Years, the Europeans are all on vacation....
And then the Guardian offers us Ian Black's punditry:
Devastating air strikes may limit Hamas's capacity to attack – but will almost certainly increase its support among Palestinians.
He doesn't know this, mind you; he's speculating. As he does throughout his article:
The bomb and missile strikes by F16 warplanes this morning hit Hamas compounds and positions from Gaza City to Khan Yunis in the south of the coastal strip. Civilian casualties, on a normal school and working day, must have been inevitable in the densely populated area.
In other words, he doesn't have any facts, but he assumes the Israelis "must have" killed many civilians.
Retaliatory Palestinian fire killed one woman in southern Israel – underlining the unequal military balance.
It's just not fair, is it. The Palestinians can't kill as many civilians as they'd like. And it's totally unreasonable that Israel is killing so many Palestinians when all the Palestinians are doing is kill your ocasional Israeli. (It was a man, by the way, Beber Waknin of Netivot. Not a woman.)
opinion polls shows that Binyamin Netanyahu, leader of the rightwing Likud, is likely to beat Livni's centrist Kadima party in Israel's elections, set to take place in February. Prospects for revived talks, which were already slim, must have now diminished further.
Background, you see, so you get the general picture: not only are the Israelis attacking today and killing Palestinians civilians, but next month they're going to elect a government that will halt peace negotiations.
The looming general election is another reason Israel is not keen to send troops into Gaza on a large scale, which would expose its own forces to heavy casualties. Instead Israel prefers to use its unchallenged aerial superiority – clearly a blunt instrument that cannot distinguish between fighters and civilians.
Cowardly Israelis, killing Palestinian civilians from the air with blunt intruments (see "hammer", as in the title).
This is nothing short of a massacre, an outrage," the independent Palestinian MP Hanan Ashrawi – no friend of the Islamists – told the BBC from her Ramallah home. "The cycle of violence is generated by the occupation and by the ongoing state of siege that is attempting to collectively punish a whole people.
"This will enhance the standing of Hamas. People are sympathising with Hamas as the people who are being ruthlessly targeted by Israel. They are seen as victims of ongoing Israeli aggression."
Which is interesting, since Ashrawi lives - as noted - in Ramallah, and Ramallah - as not noted - is blooming. The economy is up, the quality of life is up, the distance from Hamas-controlled Gaza is growing ever greater, and all of this a stone's throw from Jerusalem. Weird, these Israelis; they try so hard to hit the Palestinains they don't even notice that right next door, in Ramallah, the Palestinians are beginning to do well for themselves.
taken from: Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)