An open, albeit brief, letter to New Zealand’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, New York, United States:
Dearest Ladies and Gentlemen,
I see where, after second thoughts on the part of Mr. al Sisi of Egypt (especially in light of his cooperative venture with the State of Israel in seeking to eradicate Daesh operations in the Sinai), YOUR Permanent Mission re-introduced the latest U.N. Resolution condemning the State of Israel for not acting to establish Judea & Samaria as Jüdenrein.
Furthermore, I see where the Glorious Sun King of the Potomac has subsequently withheld his veto, consistent with his & the United Nations’ utter abhorrence for even minimal probity.
Thereafter, your vaunted body has passed said Resolution.
1 Then his son Judas, who was called Maccabeus, took his place.
2 All his brothers and all who had joined his father supported him, and they gladly carried on Israel’s war.
3 He spread abroad the glory of his people, and put on his breastplate like a giant. He armed himself with weapons of war; he fought battles and protected the camp with his sword.
4 In his deeds he was like a lion, like a young lion roaring for prey.
5 He pursued the lawless, hunting them out, and those who troubled his people he destroyed by fire.
6 The lawless were cowed by fear of him, and all evildoers were dismayed. By his hand deliverance was happily achieved,
7 and he afflicted many kings. He gave joy to Jacob by his deeds, and his memory is blessed forever.
8 He went about the cities of Judah destroying the renegades there. He turned away wrath from Israel,
9 was renowned to the ends of the earth; and gathered together those who were perishing.
10 Then Apollonius* gathered together the Gentiles, along with a large army from Samaria, to fight against Israel.
11 When Judas learned of it, he went out to meet him and struck and killed him. Many fell wounded, and the rest fled.
12 They took their spoils, and Judas took the sword of Apollonius and fought with it the rest of his life.
13 But Seron, commander of the Syrian army, heard that Judas had mustered an assembly of faithful men ready for war.
14 So he said, “I will make a name for myself and win honor in the kingdom. I will wage war against Judas and his followers, who have despised the king’s command.”
15 And again a large company of renegades advanced with him to help him take revenge on the Israelites.
16 When he reached the ascent of Beth-horon,* Judas went out to meet him with a few men.
17 But when they saw the army coming against them, they said to Judas: “How can we, few as we are, fight such a strong host as this? Besides, we are weak since we have not eaten today.”
18 But Judas said: “Many are easily hemmed in by a few; in the sight of Heaven there is no difference between deliverance by many or by few;
19 for victory in war does not depend upon the size of the army, but on strength that comes from Heaven.
20 With great presumption and lawlessness they come against us to destroy us and our wives and children and to despoil us;
21 but we are fighting for our lives and our laws.
22 He* will crush them before us; so do not fear them.”
23 When he finished speaking, he rushed suddenly upon Seron and his army, who were crushed before him.
24 He pursued Seron down the descent of Beth-horon into the plain. About eight hundred* of their men fell, and the rest fled to the land of the Philistines.
25 Then Judas and his brothers began to be feared, and dread fell upon the Gentiles about them.
26 His fame reached the king, and the Gentiles talked about the battles of Judas.
I’ll be honest, I love Hanukkah. I didn’t grow up loving it, but once I understood it, and what it meant, I fell in love with the Maccabees. The real ones, the real meaning of Hanukkah. The one Y.B. wrote about. The Hanukkah that makes me realize in every and all generations we must safeguard those things that we hold most dear. Judah knew what was at stake, he assumed command after his father Mattathias died, he and his brothers had been with Mattathias as he began the fight to save the Hebrews from the orders of Antiochus that were meant to eradicate the practice and knowledge of Judaism. To restore the land and the people to a way of live they were meant to live. But they had to survive the soldiers to do that. Judah didn’t just pray and hope for the best.
Verse 3, “He armed himself with weapons of war; he fought battles and protected the camp with his sword.”
Weapons of war was not a “bad” phrase, or a “hate speech” or used in a denigrating way. It was a fact of life. You want to live? Be prepared, because there are bad evil people out there, they do not care if you’re a pacifist or not. This phrase always makes me pause. A couple years ago I was in Tel Aviv and I was a woman with a mission. I wanted to find a model of a Centurion tank circa 1973 Yom Kippur war. I went in a toy store and looked around and a clerk, a young man, came up and asked if he could help me. They had a model battleship, and some airplanes, I couldn’t find the tanks. I explained as best as I could what I wanted. He finally got it and had a shocked and appalled look on his face. “You mean a weapon of WAR??” he exclaimed horrified. Yes, I want a tank. “We do not want weapons of war in this store!” he informed me self-righteously. I shot a sidelong glance at the battleship. Uh huh. I was pissed but it wasn’t worth the argument and I didn’t know enough good words then. I thought to myself, buddy, if it weren’t for those “weapons of war” and some of the people that knew how to wield them you’d have been in a world of hurt more than once. It was a couple weeks after that Hama$$ began firing rockets into Israel again from Gaza, the prototype of how the two state solution will work. Weapons of war can be an excellent thing you have to defend your camp.
13 But Seron, commander of the Syrian army, heard that Judas had mustered an assembly of faithful men ready for war.
14 So he said, “I will make a name for myself and win honor in the kingdom. I will wage war against Judas and his followers, who have despised the king’s command.”
15 And again a large company of renegades advanced with him to help him take revenge on the Israelites.
16 When he reached the ascent of Beth-horon,* Judas went out to meet him with a few men.
17 But when they saw the army coming against them, they said to Judas: “How can we, few as we are, fight such a strong host as this? Besides, we are weak since we have not eaten today.”
18 But Judas said: “Many are easily hemmed in by a few; in the sight of Heaven there is no difference between deliverance by many or by few;
19 for victory in war does not depend upon the size of the army, but on strength that comes from Heaven.
The Maccabees, my partisan heroes. The Warsaw ghetto partisans, the partisans of the forests, the hills, the caves. Small but determined groups that were willing to fight and risk all for freedom. Because what they fought for was what they treasured. Just as Judah knew and told us, deliverance comes from Heaven. To G-d deliverance from a few or from many is all the same. 1967, 1973 and for the Maccabees G-d does not respect political correctness or numbers and no task is too much for G-d. He’s in the miracle business and he’s very good at it. Do I know why he hasn’t granted miracles every time I think there should have been one? No. But maybe someday I will understand, or ask him. Zelmans Partisans may be a small group, but we are a small group of determined people who know what we are about and are tenacious as wolverines. We understand what we fight for.
The Maccabees were having none of this compromise our rights, compromise our Torah, our feasts our way of life, our Shabbat. No. Compromising on “evil black rifles” “high capacity (adequate capacity) magazines is the same folly. We can follow “man’s” “king’s” laws to the death, or we can live by G-d’s commands.
I was talking with a friend about wars, Israel and history. I was told that today Israel doesn’t fight to win. Not really. They fight a little. Enough to keep things at bay, enough to keep the status quo. Yes, yes, I suppose that is right. Fight that battle and get it done. Fight it fast and hard and keep the knowledge of what you are fighting for in the front of your mind. Fight to win. If you have to fight, no halfway measures.
The Maccabees didn’t fight for sufganyot or latkas, not even the yummy jalapeno cheddar ones. They fought to live as G-d commanded them. And the things that we hold most precious, most dear are the things we must be willing to fight for. I suppose one could evaluate what really is most dear to them by looking at the things they really are willing to fight for.
I have seen miracles, this time of year. I don’t believe they are limited to this time of year at all, but I have seen some rather amazing things happen this time of year. I believe G-d is still in the miracle business. And so I pray for my much loved teammates and for our members and readers a season blessed with miracles.
If I were a Reform rabbi; if I were a leader of the establishment whose money and prestige have succeeded in capturing for himself the leadership and voice of American Jewry; if I were one of the members of the Israeli Government’s ruling group; if I were an enlightened sophisticated, modern Jewish intellectual, I would climb the barricades and join in battle against that most dangerous of all Jewish holidays – Chanukah.
It is a measure of the total ignorance of the world Jewish community that there is no holiday that is more universally celebrated than the “Festival of Lights,” and it is an equal measure of the intellectual dishonesty and hypocrisy of Jewish leadership that it plays along with the lie. For if ever there was a holiday that stands for everything that the masses of world Jewry and their leadership has rejected – it is this one. If one would find an event that is truly rooted in everything that Jews of our times and their leaders have rejected and, indeed, attacked – it is this one. If there is any holiday that is more “un-Jewish” in the sense of our modern beliefs and practices – I do not know of it.
The Chanukah that has erupted unto the world Jewish scene in all its childishness, asininity, shallowness, ignorance and fraud is not the Chanukah of reality. The Chanukah that came into vogue because Jewish parents – in their vapidness needed something to counteract Christmas; that exploded in a show of “we-have-lights-just-as-our-goyisha-neighbors” and in an effort to reward our spoiled children with eight gifts instead of the poor Christian one; the Chanukah that the Temple, under its captive Rabbi, turned into a school pageant so that the beaming parents might think that the Religious School is really successful instead of the tragic joke and waste that it really is; the Chanukah that speaks of Jewish Patrick Henrys giving-me-liberty-or-death and that pictures the Maccabees as great liberal saviors who fought so that the kibbutzim might continue to be free to preach their Marx and eat their ham, that the split-level dwellers of suburbia might be allowed to violate their Sabbath in perfect freedom and the Reform and Conservative Temples continue to fight for civil rights for Blacks, Puerto Ricans and Jane Fonda, is not remotely connected with reality.
This is not the Chanukah of our ancestors, of the generations of Jews of Eastern Europe and Yemen and Morocco and Spain and Babylon. It is surely not the Chanukah for which the Maccabees themselves died. Truly, could those whom we honor so munificently, return and see what Chanukah has become, they might very well begin a second Maccabean revolt. For the life that we Jews lead today was the very cause, the real reason for the revolt of the Jews “in those days in our times.”
What happened in that era more than 2000 years ago? What led a handful of Jews to rise up in violence against the enemy? And precisely who was the enemy? What were they fighting for and who were they fighting against? For years the people of Judea had been the vassals of Greece. True independence as a state had been unknown for all those decades and, yet the Jews did not rise in revolt. It was only when the Greek policy shifted from mere political control to one that attempted to suppress the Jewish religion that the revolt erupted in all its bloodiness. It was not mere liberty that led to the Maccabean uprising that we so passionately applaud. What we are really cheering is a brave group of Jews who fought and plunged Judea into a bloodbath for the right to observe the Sabbath, to follow the laws of kashrut, to obey the laws of the Torah. In a word everything about Chanukah that we commemorate and teach our children to commemorate are things we consider to be outmoded, medieval, and childish!
At best, then, those who fought and died for Chanukah were naive and obscurantist. Had we lived in those days we would certainly not have done what they did for everyone knows that the laws of the Torah are not really Divine but only the products of evolution and men (do not the Reform, Reconstructionist, and large parts of the Conservative movements write this daily?) Surely we would not have fought for that which we violate every day of our lives. No, at best Chanukah emerges as a needless holiday if not a foolish one. Poor Hannah and her seven children; poor Mattathias and Judah; poor well meaning chaps all — but hopelessly backward and utterly unnecessary sacrifices.
But there is more. Not only is Chanukah really a foolish and unnecessary holiday, it is also one that is dangerously fanatical and illiberal. The first act of rebellion, the first enemy who fell at the hands of the brave Jewish heroes whom our delightful children portray so cleverly in their Sunday and religious school pageants, was not a Greek. He was a Jew. When the enemy sent his troops into Modin to set up an idol and demand its worship, it was a Jew who decided to exercise his freedom of pagan worship and who approached the altar to worship Zeus (after all, what business was it of anyone what this fellow worshiped?) And it was this Jew, this apostate, this religious traitor who was struck down by the brave, glorious, courageous, (are these not the words all our Sunday schools use to describe him?) Mattathias, as he shouted: “Whoever is for G-d, follow me!”
What have we here? What kind of religious intolerance and bigotry? What kind of a man is this for the anti-religious Ha’shomer Ha’tzair, the graceful temples of suburbia, the sophisticated intellectuals, the liberal, open-minded Jews and all the drones who have wearied us unto death with the concept of Judaism as a humanistic, open-minded, undogmatic, liberal, universalist (if not Marxist) religion, to honor? What kind of nationalism is this for Shimon Peres (he who rejects the ‘Galut’ and speaks of the proud, free Jew of ancient Judea and Israel)?
And to crush us even more (we who know that Judaism is a faith of peace which deplores violence), what kind of Jews were these who reacted to oppression with force? Surely we who so properly have deplored Jewish violence as fascistic, immoral and (above all) un-Jewish, stand in horror as we contemplate Jews who declined to picket the Syrian Greeks to death and who rejected quiet diplomacy for the sword, spear and arrow (had there been bombs in those days, who can tell what they might have done?) and “descended to the level of ‘evil” thus rejecting the ethical and moral concepts of Judaism.
Is this the kind of a holiday we wish to propagate? Are these the kinds of men we want our moral and humanistic children to honor? Is this the kind of Judaism that we wish to observe and pass on to our children? Where shall we find the man of courage, the lone voice in the wilderness, to cry out against Chanukah and the Judaism that it represents – the Judaism of our grandparents and ancestors?
Where shall we find the man of honesty and integrity to attack the Judaism of medievalism and outdated foolishness; the Judaism of bigotry that strikes down Jews who refuse to observe the Law; the Judaism of violence that calls for Jewish force and might against the enemy? When shall we find the courage to proudly eat our Chinese food and violate our Sabbaths and reject all the separateness, nationalism and religious maximalism that Chanukah so ignobly represents? Down with Chanukah! It is a regressive holiday that merely symbolizes the Judaism that always was; the Judaism that was handed down to us from Sinai; the Judaism that made our ancestors ready to give their lives for the L-rd; the Judaism that young people instinctively know is true and great and real. Such a Judaism is dangerous for us and our leaders. We must do all in our power to bury it.
We’re a little over a week out from Hanukkah. I love Hanukkah, absolutely love it. I think Christians should pay a lot more attention to Hanukkah than some do. A short synopsis is that Antiochus IV didn’t want Judaism to continue as well, Judaism. He wanted HELLENIZED Judaism, Judaism “lite”. In other words, not Judaism. The penalties for actually being Jewish AND living Jewish were very severe. Women and infants were not excepted from the bloodshed. Shabbat and festival observance, forbidden. Possession of the Torah, forbidden. And he burned all the copies he could find. Circumcision, forbidden. Ritual sacrifice, forbidden. In other words, he might, maybe let you live, but not as a Jew. Not a real one, not a Torah observant one. Going along with this was the progressives know as Hellenistic Jews. They were evil then, they are evil now. Antiochus IV did his best to eradicate Judaism and Jews from the land of Israel. He failed. He failed because of a family living in Modi-in מוֹדִיעִין
The Maccabees. The Maccabees had a Southern girl kind of attitude. Someone showed up on their farm and told them they were going to sacrifice a pig to a pagan god. They said “HELLenized NO, Judah, get the shotgun!”. From there the Maccabees opened up a can of “whoopbutt” and in the end, not only did G-d work through the Maccabees to ensure the continuation of Judaism as it was written, but they retook the Holy Temple, cleaned it out, literally, and restored and rededicated it. And Torah continued to be taught, people continued to learn it, and Jews continued to live as Jews in the land of Israel.
I’m sure my hero Judah Maccabee is absolutely astonished to find out that part of Modi-in is not in Israel. According to the PeeeeUEU, they think part of it is Jordanianishish.
These types of misunderstandings seem to be a common occurrence in Israel.
Let’s look briefly at Judea and Samaria. Biblical history, and archeological history show us Jews lived there for thousands of years. They didn’t leave on their own, they were conquered and forced to leave. When the one Jewish state in the whole world was established the arabs were offered a two state solution. They rejected it and went to war. Israel, the tiny one day old nation, won. In 1950 Jordan illegally annexed Judea and Samaria. The outrage from the UN was heard round the world. Just kidding. You know who was outraged? The annexation was regarded as illegal and void by the Arab League and others. Huh. Of course Jordan also controlled Har Habayit, the Temple Mount. And while they controlled it, it was SO important to arabs it was left to decay pretty much. Egypt occupied the Gaza strip. Israel and Jordan signed an agreement, sort of a land for peace deal. In it Israelis were to be allowed access to their holy places. From the same link:
A Special Committee was to be formed to make arrangements for safe movement of traffic between Jerusalem and Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, along the Latrun-Jerusalem Highway, free access to the Holy Places, and other matters. The committee was never formed, and access to the Holy Places was denied to Israelis throughout the Jordanian occupation. The remainder of the area designated as part of an Arab state under the UN Partition Plan was partly occupied by Egypt (Gaza Strip), partly occupied and annexed by Israel (West Negev, West Galilee, Jaffa). The intended international enclave of Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan. The Jordanians immediately expelled all the Jewish residents of East Jerusalem. All but one of the 35 synagogues in the Old City were destroyed over the course of the next 19 years, either razed or used as stables and chicken coops. Many other historic and religiously significant buildings were replaced by modern structures. The ancient Jewish cemetery on Mount of Olives was desecrated, and the tombstones were used for construction, paving roads and lining latrines; the highway to the Intercontinental Hotel was built on top of the site.
In other words, it worked out as well as all Israel’s land for peace deals have. It didn’t.
So Jordan had control of Judea and Samaria on the West Bank of the Jordan River, until 1967. When G-d gave it back to Israel along with Har Habayit. As we all know by now, Moshe Dayan promptly gave that back. In 1967 tiny Israel won back large amounts of land. But unlike any other country that won land in a defensive war, they tried trading it back to the attacking countries for peace.
But this is about Judea and Samaria and the Jordanians. While the land was under Jordanian control, Jordan awarded land to people, to have arab names listed as owners. They did not purchase the land, they have not lived on the land, they have not cultivated the land, nor have they payed taxes on it. I’m sure somewhere in Israel in a nice rural area there is a farm with my name on the title. One with a lovely horse barn and indoor riding arena. I have memories of it, I’m sure. Yes, it’s kind of like that. The “owners” in fact, may not even know they own it.
Which brings me to Amona. Amona is a little town in one of those areas. It was built with the knowledge of the Israeli government. The permits to run water and electricity were provided by the Israeli government. Established in 1995 Amona has seen her share of sorrow. More than her share. In 2006 it was decided that part of the homes there were on “private falestinian land” and they were demolished. This sentence doesn’t even BEGIN to describe what took place. Effie Eitam is actually a friend of a friend of mine, and former MK Eitam called it as a pogrom. The video story in the “Eitam” link is fascinating if you have a few minutes, but it’s not about Amona.
But the houses that weren’t demolished, were allowed to stay, all is well. Carry on, nothing to see here. Until now. Now it’s been decided due to a activist high court and the help of some anti-Israel left wing activists that Amona must go. The homes will be torn down, just like 10 years ago. Families will be displaced, just like 10 years ago. Will people die just like 10 years ago? I don’t know, please G-d no.
It’s not like things like this have never happened in the United States for political reasons. They have. During the civil war, or the War of Northern Aggression, depending, there was General order #11. A truly horrific thing of which the Lone Jack Historical Society stated:
Order #11 was the most heinous order ever issued during the Civil War. It depopulated Jackson, Cass, Bates, & part of Vernon Counties and reduced this area to ashes. It wasthe first time in America’s history that a United States president endorsed such a violentact against citizens within his own country.
This order was issued, not in retaliation of Quantrill’s burning of Lawrence as so many believe, but to quell a rebellion within the state that was gaining momentum, one that the Federal Government was powerless to control.
People were evicted based on where they lived, if it was a mile outside of certain areas. And all your grain and crops were taken. Pretty much along with everything else.
And, it’s not like it couldn’t happen again what with barry’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, another frog in pot barry scheme. I heard Stanley Kurtz talking about this on the radio last year.
AFFH is easily one of President Obama’s most radical initiatives, on a par with Obamacare in its transformative potential. In effect, AFFH gives the federal government a lever to re-engineer nearly every American neighborhood — imposing a preferred racial and ethnic composition, densifying housing, transportation, and business development in suburb and city alike, and weakening or casting aside the authority of local governments over core responsibilities, from zoning to transportation to education. Not only the policy but the political implications are immense — at the presidential, congressional, state, and local levels.
So yes, some poor day we could find ourselves in the same predicament as Amona. And for about as sensible a reason. To fulfill some left-wing political loons vision. The high court of Israel? Left-wing. The “human rights” groups that help the poor falestinians that didn’t know they owned land or pay taxes on it to destroy a village, left-wing. The AFFH? Oh yeah, left-wing lunacy. A very potent reminder of why we don’t need or want a left-wing dominated Supreme Court.
And when is this destruction to take place in Amona? When are the people suppose to be evacuated or the government will send the troops and police to remove them? A mission that some of the police and troops have publicly said they want no part of? At the end of Shabbat, the 24th of Kislev, December 24th. The first night of Hanukkah. In Amona, there will be no joyful lighting of the hanukkiyah. No families gathering around to enjoy latkas and sufganiyot. Because a G-dless left-wing high court doesn’t even FLIPPING KNOW when Hanukkah IS??!! The holiday that celebrates Jews being allowed to live as Jews in Israel, and celebrates the miracle of the return of sanctity to the Temple. Har Habayit was AGAIN returned to the Jews in 1967 when they also won control of Judea and Samaria. But like the Maccabees of old, the current Maccabees fighting to retain control of the Jewish villages in Judea and Samaria face the Hellenized Jews of today who are more than willing to bow down and lick the feet of the EU and John Kerry and a world that will never believe that Jews belong in Israel until they themselves believe it.
So חג חנוכה שמחHappy Hanukkah Amona. Now grab you hanukkiyah and get out. Judah? Are you still around?
My anger aside, if you care to, would you please pray for Amona?
Recently UNESCO passed a resolution, for the second time this year, attempting to sever the Jewish People, and the modern State of Israel, from Har Habayit; the Temple Mount. Yes, the leveled hilltop where the First & Second Temples stood. The exhibition of such raw hubris in that vote is jaw-dropping.
Lots of ruffled feathers ensued. The Chair of UNESCO distanced herself & even got death threats. Mexico fired their (Jewish) ambassador to the UN when he walked out. Others wanted a do-over.
This stupid vote, one of hundreds of stupid UN votes, is hardly the last. Some believe that Obama has at least one last nut-kick waiting for Israel, before he leaves office. Probably so.
During the past few weeks, I have also (against my better judgment) seen chunks of the second and third Presidential Debates between Mr. Trump & Mrs. Clinton. I was mostly interested in the tactical skills utilized and the degree of overt bias the “moderators” exhibited. Plenty there to chew on.
What surprised me, however, was when the 2nd Amendment came up. Hillary was carefully prepped, and exhibited all the attributes of a skilled politician, masterfully stroking her “base” while proffering poll-tested, oleaginous, statements to the “undecided” voter.
Then, like a groggy man stepping in dog-poo in the dark, Mr. Trump maundered about, desperately trying to be all things to everyone. And failing, pitiably.
Most of the response to the UNESCO vote in the Jewish world has been the same time-worn things. Shock that the presumed leaders of the non-Jewish world still resent and hate them, despite numberless abasements and concessions, spanning two-thousand years of exile.
The tough-talkers typically fall back to established modes of “Hasbara”. Explanation. As if Titus, or Martin Luther, or Tomás de Torquemada, or Bogdan Chmielnicki, or Iosif Dzhugashvili, or Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, were merely misinformed about the true nature of the Jew and his mission in this World. Right.
Likewise, most of the 2nd Amendment groups, starting with that greatest advocate for (and often actual author of) victim disarmament legislation, the National Rifle Association, mewl about. Mincing words, and sharpening their dagger to stab US in the back when the next NRA “A” rated legislator barks.
Think about that the next time some NRA stooge talks about how they oppose “new” laws and only want the Government to enforce “existing” gun laws. Ahhh… But, we all have to be reasonable. Right? Law abiding.
Law. Abiding.
Is a “law” that contravenes the plain wording of the Constitution a “law”? What if the Constitution was amended to require the gassing of the Gun-Owners, or Jews, or Muslims, or Gays, or Redheads?
A few Jews are openly calling for Israel to withdraw from fishhook stuffed things like the Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Government, and all that money. American taxpayers’ money.
Some folks have long argued that, history or not, being in the United Nations is a very bad thing (for both Israel, and the U.S., for that matter) and that they should get out. Now.
The late Mike Vandeboegh, of blessed memory, was steadfast in his resolve to both be immovable on principle, and savvy on tactics. To fight the fight, as much as was possible, with “clean hands”. A few… sadly, a very few… others in this fight, follow his example.
Most others are satisfied with 2nd Amendment “hasbara”, and relying on the NRA & their Republican politicians “make the best deal we could get” in every future battle. The slow trudge into a muddy pit, I say.
Each of us has our “Line”. At least, I sure hope so. The point beyond which we will say “NO”, and mean it.
When do we say…NO? When do we MEAN IT? Worth thinking about.
Sukkot is the last of the three pilgrimage festivals. The other two are Pesach and Shavuot. Those are the festivals that the Torah commands to travel to the Temple in Jerusalem.
Following Yom Kippur, which is a very solemn holiday, Sukkot is joyous. Sukkot is commanded in the Torah in Vayikra, Leviticus 23.
33 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 34 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths 1 to the Lord. 35 On the first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. 36 For seven days you shall present food offerings to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation and present a food offering to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly; you shall not do any ordinary work.
And
39 On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. 40 And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your G-d seven days. 41 You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 43 that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your G-d.”
Now, about this business of dwelling in booths when G-d got brought the children out of Egypt. For a time, G-d also had a booth, the tent of meeting, the Tabernacle. It was during this time while they were dwelling in the Sinai that the Ark of the Covenant was created. After the children were in the land that G-d lead them, they set up the Tabernacle and the Ark. In Shiloh. And there it remained until the first Temple was built in Jerusalem. It was to Shiloh back then that the people journeyed three times a year with their offerings. It was there that for 369 years in the 11th and 12th century B.C.E. that Jewish spiritual life was centered.
In 957 B.C.E. King Solomon began construction of the Temple on the site chosen by his Father, King David. David has chosen the spot in Jerusalem where Avraham had been prepared to offer up his son. Before King David ruled from Jerusalem, he was anointed king and ruled from Hebron. For the next 400 or so years Jews were able to go to the Temple in Jerusalem. That ended in 597 B.C.E. when Nebuchadnezzar began the siege of Jerusalem. Little point of interest about Hebron, it is the site of the oldest Jewish community in the world
So, the command is to go to Jerusalem for the festival of Sukkot. The Temple, Beit HaMikdash has been there since 957 B.C.E. And it was on that spot that the Second Temple was built.
Islam was created in the 7th century. C.E.
And this concludes the history portion of our column.
Back-story is good though.
So it is with great shock, I tell you…..forget that. There is no shock on this end. Not a shred. But I will still tell you UNESCO has decided that there is NO connection to the Jewish people on the Temple Mount, Beit HaMikdash. And the Uninformed Nitwits Erroneously Spouting Complete Ordure, (UNESCO), wrote up their little proposal in which they said the Temple Mount AND the Western Wall are EXCLUSIVELY a muslim holy site. They put their Jewish Hebrew names in brackets, making it seem as though it was not valid, just a claim someone made.
Do you ever feel like you just woke up in the middle of a Twilight Zone episode?
The response was pretty quick from some. Most Israeli politicians responded at once. In America Senator Ted Cruz and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen were joined by Jerrold Nadler in sending a letter from many in Congress to the UNESCO executive board condemning the decision and urging opposition. And to get their heads out, never mind, to get their heads on straight. While most of the world was outraged the F.A., the Falestinian Authority expressed pleasure with the announcement. No shock there.
Let me ask a question here, if mohammerhead tied his horse to the Western Wall, which is a retaining wall from the JEWISH temple, where do muslims think the wall came from he tied his horse to? Apparently mohammerhead had never taught his horses to ground tie.
So, if this piece of ordure resolution had been allowed to stand, let me tell you what it would look like. Currently on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, Jews and Christians are not allowed to pray. Only muslims are allowed to pray there. There are ten gates for muslims to enter. Only one for Jews and Christians, and you will stand in line to be allowed in, you can be thrown off for any or no reason. Because the Al Aqsa mosque is located there. Why?
Over the centuries, the Muslims who eventually took control of Jerusalem built two mosques on the Temple Mount, the site of the two Jewish Temples. (This was no coincidence; it is a common Islamic custom to build mosques on the sites of other people’s holy places.) Since any attempt to level these mosques would lead to an international Muslim holy war (jihad) against Israel, the Temple cannot be rebuilt in the foreseeable future.
Now you understand a bit more why the muslims wanted to build a mosque on the site of the twin towers, at ground zero?
Now, at the Western Wall, which is under Israeli control, Jews, Christians and muslims are allowed to just walk up and pray. You might have to wait for a spot to get to the wall, but that is determined by how many people are there, and how long it takes them to walk away from a spot. People just kind of line up behind people standing far enough back as to be respectful.
But let us go back even a bit further. Let’s take a look at Hebron, shall we? Where King David ruled before he relocated to Jerusalem. In Hebron you will find the Cave of Machpelah.Itis the world’s most ancient Jewish site and the second holiest place for the Jewish people. The cave is divided into three rooms, Jews and Christians have no access to the largest room except 10 days a year. Would you like to go to the cave? You will only be able to go with armed Israeli guards to protect you. You see, the muslims, the pieceful Falestinians have control of this site as well.
Now let’s go back a little further, to Shiloh. Shiloh is located in Shomron. And Shomron and Judea are what some people call the “West Bank”. It is not the West Bank, it is Judea and Shomron, or Samaria if you will. It is not “occupied territory”. It is in Israel, and there are Jews living in Israel, and some of them live in Judea and Shomron, Samaria. Caroline Glick had a column out recently regarding, basically, Israeli sovereignty. I don’t know of any other country in the world that has to justify building homes in their country. They do not have to justify to the UN, the US, the EU or anyone else when they build homes, they just do so. Part of Caroline’s column pointed out that Israel is going to have to change how it looks at things, and how it approaches solutions.
For a generation Israel’s governments have rejected the idea that we can succeed if we resist the UN. It is time that we abandon this defeatist attitude and work diligently to broker deals with member states to reduce the room for Obama and Clinton, if she is elected, to maneuver against us in the Security Council.
And
Over the past eight years of the Obama Administration, US condemnations of Israeli construction beyond the 1949 armistice lines, including in Jerusalem, have become steadily more obsessive.
This has been part of an unambiguous policy to delegitimize Israel in America. Until Obama entered the White House in 2009, there was a clear difference between the attitudes of Europe and the attitude of the United States towards us. Under Obama we have witnessed the Europeanization of American attitudes towards the State of Israel.
So far, Obama’s efforts have only been successful in the Democratic Party. Party activists have worked hand in hand with anti-Israel movements, most notably the BDS movement. In addition, several Democratic lawmakers have shown their willingness to abandon Israel, and that number is growing.
And it’s working. I recently worked a Ethnic event where many countries come together in a park, we have food sometimes, and sometimes our dance group comes and performs, usually some goodies from Israel to sell, maps, brochures and other information we give out and we answer questions. This was our first time to have some of our goods from Lev HaOlam. I was sitting there minding the table and watching people when a lady came up to the table, took a look at me, and our table and asked “how many mooooslims go to your church”? You ask the girl with the big Magen David on her shirt how many mooooslims (that’s how she said it, drawing out the ooooo) go to her “church”? Lady, you are a bit confused on your religions aren’t you? Told her none, moooooslims go to mosques. I explained this is a cultural event, not a religious event. There were people there from many countries. The point is the country the culture, our table was sponsored by the JCC, not a particular Synagogue. She then informed me that Israel is a mooooslim country. I kid you not. I informed her “It is the ONE JEWISH state in the world, and it IS JEWISH”. I perhaps was a bit adamant. She said there were more moooooslims living there than Jews. No, there aren’t.
This is a battle, and it’s not about “co-existing”. If you think it is re-read the part about how other religions that have ties to the Temple Mount, Har HaBeit, are allowed to worship there. They aren’t. Read the part about Hebron again, how others can go see the holy sites without armed guards, they can’t. You can not “co-exist” with someone that wants to wipe you out.
So here it is, Sukkot, one of the three pilgrimages when we are suppose to go to Har HaBeit. And UNESCO says it’s not Jewish.
UNESCO chairman Michael Verbes said, “I am aware of the connection between Israel and Jerusalem, and I will never deny it. Jerusalem’s Old City and its walls are a UNESCO world heritage site since 1982, and have been recorded as being holy to three religions. This is our stance on the issue, and it trumps all decisions that the principal committee has recently made.”
But in this article lies a key to part of the problem.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett was unimpressed by Bokova’s statement, however, saying it was not enough.
“The Al Aqsa Mosque [or] Al-Haram al-Sharif, the sacred shrine of Muslims, is also the Har HaBayit – or Temple Mount – whose Western Wall is the holiest place in Judaism,” Bokova said in a statement Friday, according to Haaretz.
No, no it isn’t Naftali. Har HaBeit is. The Western Wall is just the closest we can get to Har HaBeit right now because Moshe Dayan handed it over to the muslims. And that’s why we can’t go there for Sukkot.
But this is about far more than Sukkot, this is about a world that is buying a historically false narrative that Jews didn’t live in Israel. It’s about erasing the past so it’s easier to erase the present. It’s about attacks on Jews living in their historic homelands of Judea and Samaria and those attacks being excused by the world, the mainstream media and the democrat party as “justified” or perhaps understandable because they lived in “settlements”. They lived in the “occupied territories”. So, democratic party, liberals, media, UN, EU and UNESCO, where exactly is it you think Jews should be allowed to live. Because the same attacks in Judea, Shomron and Hebron are being carried out in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Yafo. Where is it that you think we should be allowed to build our Sukkah?
Crickets.???
Well, here’s the deal. Sukkahs are up, prayers are being said, meals are being eaten and conversation is taking place. It’s a joyous festival. So as far as UNESCO, US liberals and democrats, EU and UN? Chag Sukkot Samach, now get out of my Sukkah!
Two wondrous news stories this week got me thinking about our upcoming — and disastrously non-wondrous — presidential election.
Neither of the stories had the slightest thing to do with electoral politics. Quite the opposite. They are rather amazing “feelgood” stories. Neither has anything to do with the U.S. or politics at all. But both are about the triumph of individuals or small groups over decades, or even millennia, of adversity.
First is the tale of Ysrael Kristal. He just celebrated his bar mitzvah.
He also just got named as the world’s oldest man by Guinness. Yes, he finally celebrated his bar mitzvah at the age of 113.
As a young boy, Polish-born Yisrael Kristal looked forward to turning 13 when he could celebrate his bar mitzvah, the Jewish coming-of-age ritual. But that was 1916 and World War I crushed that hope. Little did he know that he would wait a century for that ceremony.
Kristal barely survived the next world war as a prisoner in Auschwitz. After WWII, he rebuilt his life in Israel, raising a family and opening a business. Earlier this year, he was recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest man.
Some accomplishment, eh? And after so much tragedy and loss.
They are black Africans. Physically, they resemble other sub-Saharan tribespeople. But their own legends and traditions have told them they are Jews. Part of the Diaspora. From Israel. And what do you know? A few years ago, DNA analysis backed up those legends.
Lemba men carry the Cohen Modal Haplotype, a set of Y chromosome characteristics typical of the Jewish priesthood, at about the same rate as that of major Jewish populations. For many, the genetic findings validated the Lemba’s connection to Judaism, further inspiring their quest to reconnect with the faith. Their relationship with the larger Jewish community is now helping them preserve their culture and look out for vulnerable community members just as Lemba traditions once did.
And now they’re building their first synagogue with help from a U.S.-based group that serves isolated, emerging, or returning Jewish communities. This and other help come at a perfect time, when the tribe has been struggling to take care of itself and its members.
So after 100 years Ysrael Kristal celebrates his coming of age and after thousands of years, the Lemba discover their true identity and begin to build a spiritual base to match their cultural and genetic one.
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But why would their heartwarming stories bring me to think of the no-good-news election lying less than a month ahead of us?
I’ll get to that in a second, but first I have to say I’m speaking only for myself when I talk politics. The Zelman Partisans as an organization takes no position on the presidential race (or any other). A couple of our board members are Trump supporters. A few more of us here on the blog consider Trump to be, shall we say slightly untrustworthy on Second Amendment issues and all other issues of life, liberty, and the universe. No one hereabouts is insane enough to v*te for Hillary Clinton because even though she lies about everything else, we believe her 100% when she says she wants the “Australian option” on our guns and gun rights.
But I think it’s clear to most everybody that this election is a rolling catastrophe, and that — whoever wins, whatever happens — the catastrophe will continue to roll long beyond the inauguration of the next president of the U.S. We are in angry, desperate, perilous times — and may only be at the beginning of them.
Maybe these perils will pass and we’ll emerge safe and prosperous in a few years. But maybe we’ll end up in WWIII. Or a deeper-than-ever depression. Maybe we’ll end up with either “left-wing” or “right-wing” brownshirts in the streets. Curbs on free speech. Border walls that fence us in but fail to fence others out. Increasing surveillance, with increasing “security” breaches that leave us far less secure. No matter who wins, we’ll almost certainly end up with further restrictions on our gun rights (perhaps mild, perhaps draconian). We are already so polarized that it’s certain that the losing side will nurse grudges while the winning side gloats and tries to wield power by executive diktat. Faction will continue all-out-war with faction and any illusion of the rule of law or respect for the poor old battered Constitution will be shattered. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the indomitable bureaucracy will march on, controlling life more and more — as it always does, no matter what party imagines it’s in power.
You can argue all you want about which side is less bad. But you can’t credibly argue that our immediate political future looks good.
We are in for hard times. And our freedoms — any of them, probably all of them — are going to suffer.
Quite possibly in the next few years and beyond, we’ll have moments, and more than moments, years, maybe decades, in which we lose both freedom and hope. We’ll despair. Some of us will be tempted to surrender. Friends will betray friends. Causes will implode. Losses will pile up. Injustices will pierce us to the heart. Good people will be punished for harmless deeds. Innocent people will be forced to turn outlaw. Many will suffer. Many will break down in grief.
So for those moments, I point you back to Ysrael Kristal and the Lemba Jews of Zimbabwe. They were lost but now are found. They suffered but ultimately triumphed.
And so bloody damn well will the keepers of freedom and the defenders of individual life.
The Nazis (and their helpers) were just learning then how to be efficient at the art of genocide. A few victims survived to describe their experiences.
You may not know about Babi Yar. But if you’re part of the gun-rights world, you’ve seen at least a few of the photos the proud murderers took.
Just a reminder of why we never disarm, why we never trust those who seek the power to make us helpless.
Last week I posted about a new Ken Burns documentary, Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War. I linked to a New York Times article by Nicholas Kristof, who rightly praised the courage of the Sharps and other “righteous Gentiles” who risked their lives to save Jews from Hitler’s beastiality. He spoke of how world governments rejected Jewish refugees, dooming many of them to death, while individuals (including a few “rogue” individuals within government bureaucracies) saved Jewish lives.
Unfortunately, Kristof also used his NYT pulpit to try to guilt-trip contemporary readers and leaders into being more liberal in acceptance of today’s headline refugees, Muslims from the chaotic Middle East.
Now comes another article on the documentary, this time from the Washington Post, which is less agenda-driven, but still quotes a White House official who uses a screening of the film to promote more U.S. acceptance of Muslim refugees:
“The Sharps are the better angels of America,” said Deputy Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken last week at a White House screening for scholars, diplomats, Holocaust survivors and other dignitaries. (The Obamas did not attend.) The film, Blinken said, humanizes relief work at a time when the world needs to do far more to aid refugees from war-torn Syria and elsewhere.
—–
In the NYT, Kristof wrote: “As today’s leaders gather for their summit sessions, they should remember that history eventually sides with those who help refugees, not with those who vilify them.”
And generally, that’s true. Generally.
I’ve lived among immigrants all my life, including spending a couple of years in a neighborhood of resettled Southeast Asian war refugees. Although the first members of my mother’s family arrived in the American colonies before the Revolution, on my father’s side I’m not far removed from starving Irish peasants who arrived in “coffin ships” and were caricatured by the natives as dumb apes. I’ve seen first-hand how immigrants have been stereotyped. And I know how refugees have enriched, and continue to enrich, our culture.
I am also an individualist who believes that every person deserves to be considered on his or her own merits. So it pains me on two counts to say this. But urging acceptance of Muslim refugees based on the fact that other refugees, in other times, have enriched our culture — or based on guilt because “we” didn’t aid WWII-era Jewish refugees who deserved rescue — is bogus.
From Paris to Minnesota, wherever in the West communities of Middle Eastern or African Muslims have been settled, terrorism has followed. Free speech becomes a capital offense. Women suffer. And Jews are in particular peril. Just ask the Jewish population of France — formerly of France, now fleeing the country.
Elitists, from their WaPost or Gray Lady perches, urge toleration for those who won’t tolerate us, acceptance for those who won’t accept us, and peace toward those who bring with them random violence in the name Allah. But of course Nicholas Kristof and his kind aren’t going to have to live in the Muslim neighborhoods where even police dare not go. They’re not going to be shopping in the malls or attending the schools that will be attacked. They’re going to be comfortable in their gated communities. When horrors happen, they can continue pontificating about tolerance — and oh by the way, the need for fewer guns in the hands of We the Peasants, more surveillance, more “security,” and less of that nasty, messy freedom.
Some Jews, whose ancestors were granted life in the West when they were desperate refugees from Nazism, now join the call for embracing Muslim refugees. Maybe it’s a generous, kind-hearted, and decent impulse.
But these remind me of the Jews who meaninglessly cry, “Never again!” while actively working to disarm all innocents, leaving us at the mercy of anyone with few scruples and evil intentions.
We all think we would. But the reality of WWII tells us that defying deadly power, especially for the sake of those we’ve been taught to think of as “other,” is an act of rare and admirable courage.
The linked article has an agenda. That agenda is not about helping Jews. That agenda is, in fact, a bait-and-switch. The article tells the tales of brave, principled individuals who saved hunted Jews from death. Then it shames us over the issue of what today’s governments should do about Islamic refugees.
My main reason for linking that article is the stories of individual courage and an upcoming Ken Burns documentary you may want to watch: Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War. Who were the Sharps?
Unto the breach stepped a 33-year-old woman from Massachusetts named Martha Sharp.
With steely nerve, she led one anti-Nazi journalist through police checkpoints in Nazi-occupied Prague to safety by pretending that he was her husband.
Another time, she smuggled prominent Jewish opponents of Naziism, including a leading surgeon and two journalists, by train through Germany, by pretending that they were her household workers.
“If the Gestapo should charge us with assisting the refugees to escape, prison would be a light sentence,” she later wrote in an unpublished memoir. “Torture and death were the usual punishments.”
Sharp was in Europe because the Unitarian Church had asked her and her husband, Waitstill Sharp, a Unitarian minister, if they would assist Jewish refugees. Seventeen others had refused the mission, but the Sharps agreed — and left their two small children behind in Wellesley, Mass.
The documentary about the Sharps comes out this Tuesday.
Jews. Guns. No compromise. No surrender.
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