Only nine months after the slaughter in the synagogue at Har Nof, and in the face of a remarkable number of knifings, shootings, fire-bombings, rock attacks, and “automobile accidents”, the bureaucracy in Israel is slightly loosening their hold on civilian firearms carry. And people are responding with vigor. Maybe they should emulate Puerto Rico and move to dump the whole scheme?
Until recently the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico had some of the most restrictive body of victim disarmament laws of any place under the jurisdiction of the United States.
The process for obtaining permission from the government to obtain, carry or operate firearms was onerous in the extreme, complicated, expensive, and designed to dissuade.
Last year there was a news report of a fellow discovering to his horror that, he was a criminal, due to recent false document filings made by an attorney that he, and some five thousand other licensees, had used to navigate the process, years before.
Accordingly, their target, carry, and ammunition permits had been summarily revoked. He had done no wrong. But he was now under threat of criminal prosecution and his firearms and ammunition were subject to government seizure anyway.
The Commonwealth government is constantly trying to expand their abuse. These actions of the Puerto Rican government, under their licensure scheme substantially impairing a fundamental human right, were and are outrageous and intolerable.
To their great credit, using the one field where they seem to have both competence and zeal in advancing the cause of human liberty, various organs under the Alan Gottlieb umbrella were recently instrumental in legally challenging some of Puerto Rico’s victim disarmament statutes as violative of the U.S. Constitution.
Although subject to appeal, several of the provisions of Puerto Rico’s victim disarmament laws have now been ruled to be unconstitutional in their courts.
The claimed result is Puerto Rico now has so called “Constitutional Carry”, like an increasing number of States in the U.S.
If so, congratulations are in order on this noteworthy win. Good job!
This is part 3 in a series.
Part 1 here.
Part 2 here.
When Jacob and his family returned to the lands of his father, Isaac and grandfather, Abraham, he had a huge family already. He purchased land from the Canaanites and openly worshiped Hashem.
His first ten sons were known for being strong willed and hard-working, but also tended towards rash action and violence. It served them well (tactically) in retrieving their sister from the forced affections of a Canaanite prince, but created new problems in their wake. They were brave soldiers, as well. They loved and respected their father, but did not always follow his guidance.
Instead, their passions ruled them.
The eleventh son, Joseph; the first-born of Jacob’s wife, Rachel, was very different in personality and aptitude. Favored by his parents for his love of learning in the academy of Shem & Eber, Joseph soon developed into a handsome young man with good character, manners, reasoning, and perception. His elder brothers thus were jealous of him, in varying degrees. Sometimes Joseph helped that jealousy along.
Joseph had begun having strange dreams. Despite his father’s warning to keep them to himself, he, parading in a brightly colored coat his mother made him, prodded his brothers with these dreams. One day he related a dream, which his brothers took to mean that he would lord over them as a master.
Not long thereafter, sent to find his brothers tending their flocks in the hills of Shomron, his increasingly angry brothers decided to be rid of Joseph and his “dreams”. They dug a deep pit, grabbed him, and put him in it.
The eldest brother, Reuben, knew this was terribly wrong, but afraid of his brothers’ wrath, did not stop them. Instead, he planned to return later and retrieve Joseph safe and sound. When he did so, Joseph was gone.
The other brothers had sold him to Ishmaelite traders. The Ishmaelites resold Joseph to Midianite traders heading to Egypt. In Egypt, Joseph was spotted by Potiphar, aide to Pharaoh, as being an unusual value. So Potiphar bought Joseph to be a servant in his household.
Joseph’s looks and breeding were noted by the roving eye of Potiphar’s wife. An opportunity came for her to act on her desires, but Joseph refused her advances and fled, leaving his cloak in the rush.
Potiphar’s wife, spurned by a mere slave and, furious, claimed attempted rape. Potiphar knew both of Joseph’s good character and his wife’s proclivities, but he determined to side with his wife’s “honor” even over a valued servant. Joseph was thrown into prison and awaited death.
While in prison, Joseph had more strange dreams. Increasingly, he, and others, found them to be instructive and prophetic. Joseph also had discovered he had the ability to interpret the dreams of others, in much the same way. Eventually, this reputation came to the notice of Pharaoh, himself. Pharaoh was greatly troubled and, having had no relief from his advisors, sought out Joseph.
Saved from death, retrieved from imprisonment, and now in the court of Pharaoh; Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams. In so doing, Joseph predicted a coming drought and famine. He advised that during the times of plenty preceding it that vast quantities of grain be stored away to weather the times of want. In so doing, Pharaoh would preserve his people and his rule. It was a bold plan, and wildly unpopular. Nonetheless, upon the advice of Joseph, and his interpretation of dreams, the plan was executed exactly as advised.
The predicted drought came, and the crops withered to nothing. It lasted years. But, there were years of emergency food available to preserve their nation. And so they did. Pharoah was the salvation of Egypt, and Joseph was his greatest advisor. He titled Joseph, “Zaphenath-Paaneah”. Egypt was not merely saved, but became a food exporter to their starving neighbors, becoming all the more wealthy and powerful.
So far had Joseph come: From his father’s house, to a hole in the ground, to a slave auction, to the house of a nobleman, to prison awaiting death, to a national hero and grand vizier to Pharaoh.
One would think, given his power and wealth, that Joseph would have endeavored to return to the hills of Shomron; to the tents of his father. But, he did not. As a great and powerful man, Joseph had made Egypt his new home. He married an Egyptian girl, the daughter of his former master, Potiphar and had two sons by her, Ephraim and Menashe.
Meanwhile, Jacob mourned the loss of his beautiful son, Joseph. The brothers, had deeply regretted their brutal and rash act but, could not find, much less retrieve Joseph. When asked by Jacob where Joseph was, they concocted a story of their brother being killed by a wild animal. Over time, they must have concluded Joseph was indeed dead, or as good as dead. How could this ever be made right?
Years later, drought came to Canaan. The grasses were dry and sparse. The herds suffered. Jacob’s household, numbering in the many hundreds, faced very dire times. Jacob sent his sons to Egypt, to lease grazing land in the lush borderlands of Goshen, on the Nile Delta, until the rains returned and restored their own lands.
When they came to Egypt to negotiate the lease, the man they had to see was a vizier to Pharaoh. So “Egyptian” was this powerful man that the brothers had no idea that he was their “dead” brother. On the other hand, Joseph knew exactly who they were. Joseph determined to test his brothers and give them a taste of what they had put him through. He set them up as thieves. Held his little brother as a “guarantee”. Joseph generally put them through the gauntlet, before finally revealing who he really was.
The Israelites came to sojourn in Egypt, initially as guests of Pharaoh, through his vizier, Joseph. The incredible prosperity of the land was seductive. Despite living on the edge of the kingdom, and largely preserving the teachings of their forefathers, the connection with their land made it harder to maintain a closeness to G-d. The pagan culture of Egypt was everywhere. Still… they stayed… in this foreign land of wealth, of prestige, of power. They assimilated.
They stayed. And stayed.
Until… one day, “ a new king who did not know of Joseph arose on Egypt.”
Now, they COULD not return to their Promised Land.
They could not leave AT ALL.
Or had his family slaughtered in their beds.
A Chabad rabbi in Los Angeles has launched a mitzvah campaign called “Fighting Fire With Fire” after his car was torched in an arson attack that took place outside his home while the family was asleep during the night.
“We were awakened by the blaring of a car alarm and what sounded like gunfire, explosions and fireworks. It was 2 a.m. My wife and I ran out to see what was going on,” recounts the rabbi. “To our shock and disbelief, we saw our car engulfed in a blazing inferno of fire. There were explosions coming out of it every few seconds.
“We immediately woke up the children from their beds and we ran with them outside, far down the street, fearful that the fire would spread to the house.”
People always say that America is different, and thus immune to Jew Hatred. Really?
Give it time.
It’s getting closer.
How did it come to this?
Who are these “Stiff-Necked” people, just freed from hundreds of years of enslavement under the Pharaohs of Egypt?
How did they end up there?
Why are they now free; granted the escape of millions of people from the absolute control of a regional superpower?
Why are these ragged and debased people given protection, guidance, and even nourishment through a series of dramatic and unrelenting miraculous interventions? All lead by a convicted murder who, after years on the lam in the desert, returns as their spiritual and physical shepherd?
Why?
The Israelites had lived in their tribal lands in what is now most of modern Israel, and adjacent portions of today’s Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, since a very unusual man and his wife traveled all the way from Ur Kasdim, in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, through mountains and deserts, to purchase and settle their family and make a home.
This man, Abraham, rebellious son of an idol maker, challenged all the prevailing beliefs of the time, asserting that all of the universe was from the act of, and under the absolute dominion of, but ONE, unique, all encompassing, incorporeal, limitless, G-d.
This man, Abraham, was directly communicated to by this G-d, first, while being raised hidden in a cave, as a young child, and many times thereafter.
Abraham was a descendant of Shem; the youngest son of Noah a witness to the Great Flood, and the Covenant renewed at its end
Shems’s grandson, Eber, unique among his siblings, refused to participate in the construction of the Tower of Babel, and thus he retained not only what he learned from Shem, but the original language in which he was taught. This language is Ivrit, what we call in English, Hebrew.
Abraham was the great-great-great-grandson of Eber.
Eleven generations of this family in all had been taught by Shem, before he died. From Shem, via Eber, through Abraham, all the way to Jacob.
Abraham and his wife Sarah braved many challenges, and yet prospered. Together they developed a reputation among the great and small alike for intelligence, morality, and gracious hospitality to all who sought out their tents. Abraham and Sarah recognized that all mankind’s blessings, indeed all of existence, came from G-d.
So, when challenged by G-d with a terrifying, soul-wrenching test; to sacrifice his adult son, Isaac, to this same G-d, both father and son were nonetheless willing. At the last moment, Heaven stayed Abraham’s hand.
This event, known as the Akedah, established an eternal promise, from G-d himself, to Abraham, Isaac and (through Jacob) their descendants to have title to this good land forever. So long as they loved G-d, and followed his guidance, they would multiply and prosper. A nation of priests; witness to the World that Hashem is G-d and He is “One”.
Indeed, through Isaac and his children, and their children, and their children, the message, devotion to G-d, and their promised prosperity was solidified. So was the unquestioned title to their land. Their HOME. The People of Israel dwelt in the Land of Israel.
Thus it was, that, facing a terrible drought, the children of Jacob; now known as Israel, sought permission of their neighbor, the Pharaoh of Egypt, to feed and water their livestock ,to sojourn, in the outlying fields of Goshen, on the Nile Delta, only a few days walk from their home, TEMPORARILY.
Next: Seduction, Debasement, and Slavery on the Nile
When Moses led the Hebrews out of captivity in Egypt, the plan was straightforward.
First, to travel to Mt. Sinai to “serve” the G-d of their forefathers. This trip was only a few days travel.
Then, at Sinai, Moses and the Hebrews were to receive the Torah; a covenant unique to their role, and complimentary to the Noachide Covenant (after the Flood) binding on all of Mankind. This preparation would take forty days.
Thereafter, another eleven days travel would bring them to Canaan, the land promised to Abraham and his descendants, at which Moses would erect the Holy Temple to G-d.
Finally, properly refined and instructed, the Hebrews were to, by following the Torah, create a model society, teach and, by their example, guide, the World back to their Father. Thus they would be completing G-d’s creation.
But, it did not work out that way.
Despite an amazing array of miracles (the Plagues, the Parting of the Sea, the Pillars of Fire and Cloud, the Manna, etc. ) wrought by G-d on their behalf, complaints and rebellion were constantly occurring. This was especially true of the “mixed multitude” who had opportunistically accompanied the Hebrews out of Egypt.
Nonetheless, the massive group arrived at the foot of Sinai.
G-d, enveloped by a thick cloud, spoke directly to the people below, declaring the Ten Commandments, as the core of this new and special covenant.
The interface of G-d with mere mortals was so overwhelming that their souls left their body. The Hebrews accepted the entire covenant; written, oral, and mystical, at once. Facing G-d was so intense that Moses ascended the mountain to receive further instruction on their behalf.
G-d had just spoken directly with over a million people at the same time. An event such as this had never before happened in human history, and has never happened again, since. One would think that this would have removed any doubt. Steeled the people against any challenge. Cured any shortcoming.
But, it was not to be.
Many of the multitude encamped below (There were six-hundred thousand adult Hebrew males, alone! ) soon resumed agitating to give up (again) and return to captivity. By the fortieth day, the rebellion below had reached a fever pitch. Moses brother, Aaron was the temporary leader. He and Miriam’s son Hur argued strenuously for patience, but to no avail. Hur was killed by the mob.
Aaron; understanding that Moses would be back by morning, decided to play for time. Convinced they would refuse to part with their treasure, he told the people to collect their gold for the construction of an idol. To their eternal discredit, they readily agreed.
Stuck; Aaron built the pagan idol. Debauched rituals and sacrifices commenced, as many of the people, the “mixed multitude” and many Hebrews, as well, actually celebrated their impending return to degradation and enslavement.
G-d informed Moses that, despite all that they received, all they had witnessed, including the Torah itself, these people had turned away from Him. They had not just failed. They had rushed to refuse and abandon their destiny. Like those before the Flood, they would now be destroyed.
Distraught, Moses begged G-d to allow him to take the just-formed Tablets down the mountain. There he hoped to prevail upon the people, and thus save both them, and their holy mission, from destruction. Joshua met him as he descended.
Upon hearing, and then seeing the depraved pagan orgy of his people; the contrast with his last forty days in loving embrace and tutelage by the Creator of the Universe was too much for him. In boundless despair, Moses threw the Tablets, written by the finger of G-d, to the ground, shattering them. He could not save them.
To be continued.
A few days ago one of our valued readers recommended we check out a new group and their website, called Canary Mission.
In the event you had not been aware, many on the political Left have undertaken a Boycott-Divest-Sanction (hereinafter, BDS) movement against the modern State of Israel, its supporters, businesses, citizens, etc.
Modeled upon similar efforts undertaken against pre-Mandela/pre-ANC South Africa, they wish to pressure individuals, commercial enterprises, associations of every stripe, and governments themselves to boycott, divest from, and sanction any and all activities with Israel, Israelis, their businesses, associations, academia, government, etc.
This movement is intended make them a pariah, and thus to submit to the will of the BDS proponents, conforming everything about their lives, their land, and their society to these peoples’ dictates.
Even a brief review of various BDS proponents, organizers, and activists readily reveal, beyond their dripping self-righteousness, is that they 1) seethe with hatred for Israel and anything remotely like an observant Jew or patriotic Israeli, and 2) they vociferously hide and deny it whenever before an English-speaking, outside-the movement, audience.
Enter Canary Mission. Using the very methods of the BDS’ers themselves, they provide profiles on people and organizations active in the BDS movement. Further, they seem to have done their research and provide it for the reader.
At this point you might be asking “Is it not possible to criticize Israel, especially the actions of its government, without being a Jew Hater?”
Of course you can. In fact, the most harsh and unrelenting critics of Israel are Israeli Jews, followed closely behind (although, admittedly… for reasons that may become obvious, among fellow Jews) by Jews outside of Israel.
But is that not what the BDS movement is doing. Not at all.
I would urge our readers to visit Canary Mission and draw their own conclusions.
For myself, the shrill, spitting, outrage with which the BDS’ers are reacting to the appearance of this new voice is very heartwarming. I think they hit a vital organ in a very dangerous, and previously successful beast.
Forty eight years ago through the heroic efforts of a beleaguered and outnumbered force, and the blessings of G-d, the whole of the city of Jerusalem, including the very center of the Jewish world; Har Habayit, the Temple Mount, was wrested from two thousand years of captivity.
Sadly, despite witnessing this incredible miracle, just as in ancient times, leaders of the Jewish People failed in their resolve, handing back functional sovereignty of the Temple Mount, to the enemy within days. It has remained so ever since.
The lesson to be learned is two-fold. First, while it takes more than conviction to persevere against adversity, without it any gains are soon lost. Second, that G-d, like a patient, devoted father, prepares harsh tests. He hopes that we will succeed but knows that we will often fail. These tests are lessons, too.
Seventy-two years years ago today, exhausted and dispirited, long-time labor leader and member of the Polish Government in Exile; Szmul Mordekhai Zygielbojm, wrote a letter, and then tragically took his own life. Here is his letter:
May 11, 1943
To His Excellency
The President of the Republic of Poland
Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz
Prime Minister
General Wladyslaw Sikorski
Mr. President,
Mr. Prime Minister,
I am taking the liberty of addressing to you, Sirs, these my last words, and through you to the Polish Government and the people of Poland, and to the governments and people of the Allies, and to the conscience of the whole world:
The latest news that has reached us from Poland makes it clear beyond any doubt that the Germans are now murdering the last remnants of the Jews in Poland with unbridled cruelty. Behind the walls of the ghetto the last act of this tragedy is now being played out.
The responsibility for the crime of the murder of the whole Jewish nationality in Poland rests first of all on those who are carrying it out, but indirectly it falls also upon the whole of humanity, on the peoples of the Allied nations and on their governments, who up to this day have not taken any real steps to halt this crime. by looking on passively upon this murder of defenseless millions tortured children, women and men they have become partners to the responsibility.
I am obliged to state that although the Polish Government contributed largely to the arousing of public opinion in the world, it still did not do enough. It did not do anything that was not routine, that might have been appropriate to the dimensions of the tragedy taking place in Poland.
Of close to 3.5 million Polish Jews and about 700,000 Jews who have been deported to Poland from other countries, there were, according to the official figures of the Bund transmitted by the Representative of the Government,** only 300,000 still alive in April of this year. And the murder continues without end.
I cannot continue to live and to be silent while the remnants of Polish Jewry, whose representative I am, are being murdered. My comrades in the Warsaw ghetto fell with arms in their hands in the last heroic battle. I was not permitted to fall like them, together with them, but I belong with them, to their mass grave.
By my death, I wish to give expression to my most profound protest against the inaction in which the world watches and permits the destruction of the Jewish people.
I know that there is no great value to the life of a man, especially today. But since I did not succeed in achieving it in my lifetime, perhaps I shall be able by my death to contribute to the arousing from lethargy of those who could and must act in order that even now, perhaps at the last moment, the handful of Polish Jews who are still alive can be saved from certain destruction.
My life belongs to the Jewish people of Poland, and therefore I hand it over to them now. I yearn that the remnant that has remained of the millions of Polish Jews may live to see liberation together with the Polish masses, and that it shall be permitted to breathe freely in Poland and in a world of freedom and socialistic justice, in compensation for the inhuman suffering and torture inflicted on them. And I believe that such a Poland will arise and such a world will come about. I am certain that the President and the Prime Minister will send out these words of mine to all those to whom they are addressed, and that the Polish Government will embark immediately on diplomatic action and explanation of the situation, in order to save the living remnant of the Polish Jews from destruction.
I take leave of you with greetings, from everybody, and from everything that was dear to me and that I loved.
S. Zygielbojm
