Category Archives: Jewish philosophy

defense of others, duty, Elsewhere, genocide, gun control, guns, hatred of Jews, Inspiration, Israel, Jewish philosophy, mindset, Political philosophy, Politics, self defense, Terrorism, Uncategorized

Zehut, The Politics of Identity

June 21, 2016 Carl Bussjaeger 2 Comments

by Sheila Stokes-Begley

When many people go to Israel, the want to see the historical sights. I do as well, especially military museums. There will most likely be a column on that. A lot of people want to eat the fabulous
food. Yes, me too. They want to shop, I’m SO there, especially when you talk about Yafo. They want to swim, did that. But what I really, really, really, really wanted to do, was interview Moshe Feiglin. At
which most tourist are probably saying “Excuse me?” But that was one of my very highest hopes for this trip. And I was successful.

I first learned about the former MK (Member of Knesset) when in response to something I had written my wonderfully kind team mate Y.B. sent me a portion of a Torah Thought from Mr. Feiglin. I loved it! I asked for more info and Y.B. told me who had written it and who he was. I did online research and signed up for the Manhigut Yehudite newsletter and was soon getting my own copies of Torah Thoughts included with each newsletter which I very much looked
forward to receiving. Each newsletter included Torah and politics. Does it get any better? Well, also a Dry Bones Cartoon. That’s pretty good too.

Last year I got to interview Mr. Feiglin by phone, and it was a great interview. This year it was in person. I feel very blessed.

So why my fascination? My respect first blossomed when he was writing articles calling for the Israeli government to make it easier for everyday Israelis to get weapons permits. Gun Control? Or Citizen Control?

With all that has been going on in Israel, I had a lot of questions for Mr. Feiglin. Especially since he along with the support of a lot of everyday people have founded a new political party. Zehut, which means “Identity”. Zehut is unusual in that they also allow people from places other than Israel to join. And with that I tell you I am a proud card carrying member. Well, I will be when my card gets here, but I am.

My first question was why form Zehut? Was it in response to the betrayal of leadership in politics? They campaign on one platform and then when elected turn and go another direction?

Feiglin: The average Israeli feels disenfranchised from their Jewish identity and the concept of a Jewish state. (I believe he said in a recent poll that 80% of Israelis identify as Jewish first, and as an Israeli second). The disenfranchisement started with the Oslo accords and now takes the form of things like a Judge appointed to the High Court who refused to sing HaTikvah, the Israeli national anthem after being sworn in. It shows in an army which is now refusing to allow soldiers to grow beards, “too much Jewish”. And very sadly when a Yad Vashem guide pointed out that the murder of Gil-Ad Shaer,16, Eyal Yifrah, 19, and Naftali Fraenkel,16 had occurred in Gush Etzion because they were Jewish. (That would seem evident to
me, but I guess political correctness can run amuck anywhere). Israel is a Jewish democratic state, but 10% controls the power and it is eroding Jewish values.

I have a few questions about everyday Israelis being allowed to carry weapons. Why are there areas where people are not allowed to have carry permits? A buddy moved from Jerusalem where he could carry, to Tel Aviv and now he can’t. He’s no less qualified in Tel Aviv. Yafo which suffered a terrorist attack is certainly within walking distance of Tel Aviv, I’ve done so! Why aren’t the military allowed to carry off duty, and why after people are out of the military can they not automatically be allowed to carry a weapon? As it turns out, the answer to all these questions are the same. Mr. Feiglin is very good at seeing the big picture and summing it up.

Feiglin: Because the concept of freedom is wrong. It should be the concept that the right of self- defense is G-d given! In Israel they believe that the right is given by the state. And if the state can give you the right to self defense, they can take that right away. In America they had the right concept, although they are losing the mindset. They believed anyone should be allowed to own guns unless they showed they were not to be trusted with them. (I pointed out that the UN does not believe self defense is a human right at all. Considering how anti-Israel the UN is, that is really not a good
combination). Zehut believes in planting in the Israeli mind the concept of true freedom. That everyone is responsible to defend their life, that of their family and the nation. Of course, there are those that oppose this. When I was in the Knesset I fought for more people to be allowed to carry. There were 150,000 people licensed to carry. But the Knesset wants to decrease that till terrorism decreases. You have the state as “Big Brother”.

What about the shooting in Hevron? (Sheila’s article on this incident) WHY is this soldier being prosecuted? Didn’t the fact that the video came from B’Tselem raise suspicions? This produced a wealth of information. This is so much more to this than a simple case of Katie Couric media malfeasance. I really think you should go read Moshe’s whole article on this topic, but here is what we covered.

Feiglin: This is a war of Israelis and Jews. It’s the soul of the Israeli, for what comes first, a concept of citizen or Jewish state. It’s been going on a long time. For the Israeli (in this comparison, sounds to me like your typical “enlightened” leftist who doesn’t have good sense about how this will play out) it’s the citizen, not Jewish state or identity. It was certainly evident when the Eichmann trial took place in Israel in 1961. A Jewish writer Hannah Arendt wrote a book, “Eichmann In Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil,”with basically the premise that Eichmann was just there, wrong place, wrong time. Can’t blame him, can’t blame anyone but Hitler. Anyone would have acted the same. Apparently some Israeli “intellectuals”
felt the need to agree. This kind of thinking is evident in the IDF today. The former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon recently said that “If someone rises to kill you, kill him first” is not the IDF’s strategy. The Deputy Chief of Staff equated those who subscribe to that value with Nazis. He would rather lose soldiers who protect citizens than kill terrorists. There is no difference in the value of the life of a person just out doing their shopping and the terrorist that comes to kill them. Certainly had nothing to do with ideology, right? But yet today some Arabs want to kill any Jew, soldier, civilian, man, woman, child or baby, it doesn’t matter. It IS the ideology. When Arafat was sick in Ramallah I had a sign on my car that said Hurry up and kill him before he dies. For someone that had that much blood on his hands to die in his own time is immoral. For terrorists to go to trial is immoral. A healthy Jewish response is you kill the attackers. You kill the terrorists that have
declared their own war on Jews. After the soldier killed the terrorist, the stabbings stopped. He did more than all the speeches.

What about the Temple Mount, Har HaBeit? Why are the Israeli police so quick to remove Jews? One young boy was even recently removed not for saying anything but because he had tears in his eyes. And for those that wonder, yes I did express my opinion of Moshe Dayan’s decision.

Feiglin: It has to do with losing identity. We must let Jews have their identity on the Temple Mount. There are those replacing Jewish identity, and they fear what Israel will become with it’s Jewish identity. Arabs do not really have an identity so much as filled with hatred. It’s in their textbooks, their schools, mosques, social media and how they are raised. If Israel disappeared from the map, there would be no more “Palestinian”. Their reason for being would be gone. The first Zionists were colonialists from Europe, and they just wanted to be one big happy family. They didn’t understand the Arab mindset. Most Israelis are Jews first, Israeli second but they are being led by a minority that doesn’t have that mindset.

What about the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) or as I call it (BS) movement? Has it had an effect? Is it just plain anti-Semitism in increments?

Feiglin: BDS is about the delegitimizing of Israel. When did the holocaust start? (He did ask me this, and I thought for a second and answered “the night Hitler was conceived”) That was the correct answer. When Hitler spoke again and again against the Jews it had it’s effect. In 1939 or 1940 when Jews ran to their neighbors to hide, they were killed. It was about eliminating the right of Jews to exist. Israel has to attack Iran, there is a real danger of Jewish history being written in Jerusalem. Not Warsaw. It’s needed to make a moral point. There is a correlation between the speeches made in Iran 12 ½ years ago by Ahmadinejad and the delegitimization of Israel, and it’s growing.

My last question to him “We’ve had a possible Kenyan as a president, at least someone not really raised as an American, I think we should try having an Israeli for a President, would you run?”

Feiglin: I’ve been asked about the current election. My answer is it doesn’t matter which one wins. If Israel will do what is best for Israel, then all will be better.

I started this interview by telling him that I felt like I cared more about Israeli lives than some Israeli politicians did.

After talking to him, I am quite certain that is not how it is when it comes to Mr. Feiglin. He has a very sound political platform based on a Jewish identity in THE Jewish state, living by Jewish laws and principles. Laws that will protect the innocent, laws that will allow every citizen living their daily lives be it in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Be’er Sheva, Judea and Samaria to know their lives are worth defending and giving them the means to do so. It will allow the IDF to return to being the fine army it was meant to be and not a social experiment.

Zehut is a party based on knowing who we are, and what we are, and where we belong. And embracing it!

Honestly, I think there is a lesson in this for Americans as well. Because I’m very, very tired of having values that the majority of U.S. believe in being derided and told “that’s not who we are”.
Yeah, it is. And as the politicians and their compatriots in the media crank up to hype another round of gun control tripe, we would do well to remember it. It makes me think so much of “You can live
by G-d’s law or die by man’s.

I want to thank three wonderful people, Aryeh Sonnenberg who is the international director of Zehut and so warmly welcomed me when I joined. He put me in touch with Shmuel Sackett (who I got to talk with on the phone, really) who set the meeting up with Moshe. Shmuel also writes excellent articles. And I very much want to thank Moshe Feiglin for giving me an hour of his very valuable limited time. And since I often like to close with a video, this one is perfect!

(source)

Inspiration, Israel, Jewish philosophy

Cleaning the Menorah for Next Year

December 13, 2015 Y.B. ben Avraham 1 Comment

As the last cold latke gets tossed into the microwave oven, and the candle wax is scraped off the menorah, this year’s Hanukkah winds down. We look out into the world and see hope and fear, success and failure, as always. Hmmm.

What is the “point” of celebrating Hanukkah, anyway?

A Jewish response to Christmas? An excuse to eat fried foods? A historical series of battles, defeating a military giant? Clinging stubbornly to one’s own culture, in the face of foreign challengers?

Yes, all of that…sort of. But that’s only the surface.

Columnist Daniel Greenfield declares it a “Dangerous Holiday”, and that it surely is.

In the end the answer is hinted at by the declaration “Am Yisrael Chai”; “The People of Israel Live”. As the Jews survive, against all odds… indeed, contrary to all reason, then the world has hope.

Hanukkah, it’s successes, and it’s failures, shows us once again that everything exists because G-d wills it to be so.

gun control, Jewish philosophy

Faith and Firearms

October 31, 2015 Nicki 21 Comments

I’m not a religious person, and most people who know me know this. I have a pretty good sense of who I am as a Jew who escaped the Soviet Union in 1979. I have written on the topic of being Jewish, being abused by one’s government, and being able to stand up to it. Being a Jew is what formed my views on gun rights to begin with before I ever knew what the Second Amendment was.

But I’m not religious at all. If I had to describe myself, I’d say I’m more of the agnostic/atheist variety. So when I tackled the subject of faith and firearms for Concealed Carry magazine more than a decade ago, I had to approach my father – a faithful Jew since we stepped foot onto American soil in 1980 – and some of his contacts.

I wanted to know whether many Jewish organizations in the United States had any basis for supporting disarmament, and whether they were misinterpreting Jewish law.

This week’s poll prom faith-and-firearms-cover pted me to see if the article I wrote all those years ago is available online, since it is still as appropriate today as it was more than 10 years ago when I wrote it.

The full article is here, along with a view from the Lutheran perspective. Here’s a bit.

The fact is that gun control subverts and violates Judaic law. According to Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO), the sanctity of life is a core Jewish value. Rabbi Isaac Leizerowski, after having conferred with several of his colleagues, agrees that the right to self-defense is MANDATED by Jewish law. From the sanctity of Life comes an imperative to safeguard Life. The directive to defend your life is written in the Talmud, the 70-volume Code of Jewish Law, in at least three places. “And the Torah says, ‘If someone comes to kill you, arise quickly and kill him.’”

Have a good weekend!

Jewish philosophy, mindset, Sellouts and traitors

Lost In the Wilderness

August 2, 2015 Y.B. ben Avraham 2 Comments

Daniel Greenfield has a superb piece at his Sultan Knish weblog about the utility of “deeply concerned” Jewish organizations. He leaves them with nowhere to run after a brief review of their shameful and self-serving history in the face of Zionism, the Holocaust, and demanding freedom for Soviet Jewry. They are worse than useless. They prop up evil and line their pockets with kopecs from rubes.

How very similar it is with so many “pro Second Amendment”, and firearms industry groups. Their forearms grow weary from pulling the dagger out of our backs so as to thrust it in again and again. Stopping ever so briefly to wipe our blood off their faces and hands, for a photo-op, a fund-raiser with some pin-stripe ghoul, or to sign off on another mass mailing.

In many ways it reminds me of the Israelites at Kadesh Barnea. Not only did they just betray G-d with the Golden Calf, but now, they paid heed to ten gutless “scouts”, who, despite personally witnessing miracles, loyalty, and boundless love, despite being wrapped up in the arms of G-d, feared mere mortals. They thus refused to enter the Land; preferring the familiar, to the challenge of their destiny.

G-d once again had had his fill. He told Moses that this was the last straw. Moses pleaded. G-d relented. Excepting two ( the budding leader, Joshua and the arguably even finer-souled Calev) all those over the age of twenty would never enter the Promised Land. They would die in the desert. Safe. More or less secure. But, doomed.

For freedom-oriented organizations, perhaps there is a lesson here. So enmeshed with being respectable, reasonable, well liked, wealthy, and influential, they have lost their purpose in the wilderness, and are doomed to remain there.

Jewish philosophy, Politics

A Sad Study in Contrasts

July 31, 2015 Y.B. ben Avraham 2 Comments

This week a maniac stabbed six people at a “Gay Pride” parade in Israel.

He had just been released from prison for a 2005 stabbing of three other people at the same parade .

In response, among the chorus of condemnations from Jews in every direction, from the man in the street to the Prime Minister of Israel, religious Zionist leader, Rabbi Chaim Druckman said:

“(He) is a lowly murderer and by his (religious) outward appearance he also adds an awful desecration of G-d’s name.”

“Our rabbis teach us that everyone who has mercy for mankind is known to be of the seed of our forefather Avraham , and everyone who does not have mercy for mankind is known not to be of Avraham’s seed. The behavior of (the maniac) is the complete opposite of Jewish behavior, and he must be treated severely likely every criminal.”

This same week, an Arab family’s home was firebombed. A child died, and others in the family were grievously injured. Although not yet captured, it appears that the attackers were also Jews.

The survivors of this attack are being treated by the best doctors in the finest medical facilities available.

Like the stabbing attack above, the condemnations are resounding and widespread.

The full power of the Israeli police and courts are in play to arrest, try, and punish those who commit such vile acts.

Rabbi Druckman is uncompromising on this abomination, as well:

“I find the need to once again say these are criminal acts that are anti-Jewish, anti-humane, and of course anti-ethical,” said Rabbi Druckman. “These acts must be condemned and denounced.”

In a call for action, he added, “the security forces must do everything to quickly find those behind these awful acts and to bring them to justice.”

“Rid evil from your midst,” he said in conclusion, quoting Deuteronomy 17:7.

Sadly, but predictably, the Arabs are mostly silent on the first case. Their preeminent institutions tend to throw gay people to their deaths off the roofs buildings, hang them from hydraulic construction cranes, or saw their heads off with dull knives.

On the second case, that of the firebombing of a family, the Arabs, true to form, blame the Israeli Government for the act of savages.

Jewish history, Jewish philosophy

Betrothal, Betrayal, Forgiveness, and Refinement

July 24, 2015 Y.B. ben Avraham 1 Comment

Moses was a great, but reluctant leader. Born to Hebrew slaves, he was raised in the royal courts of Pharaoh. When tasked by G-d to lead his people up out of Egypt and to advance towards their destiny, he made excuses.

On the one side, Moses was “the most modest of men”, and yet was guided by a strong moral compass. When he finally acted, he inspired greatness in others.

On the other, these twelve tribes had a well-deserved reputation as ”a stiff-necked people”, with a propensity to retributive violence and passion. They also had an unique ethical tradition centered about one, incorporeal, unlimited, god. A loving, mysterious, and jealous god.

Any earthly leader of these people had to be, even if he had to be pushed into it, strong-willed to the point of ruthlessness.

These sons of Abraham and Sarah had been freed from nearly three hundred years of bondage in a pagan land.

They had seen miracles wrought on their behalf, over and over, to break the will of Pharaoh. They saw Egypt’s finest soldiers swept away in the Sea.

They complained and were given an oasis of water and dates to ease their travels. They had been fed with quail and manna in the desert. They were protected by day by a pillar of cloud and by night by a pillar of fire.

They had been attacked by Amalek and, despite ignoring G-d, and thereby delaying their response, had defended themselves, with at least partial success.

They had spent forty days refining themselves to receive the Torah at Sinai, and came directly before the Creator, to learn how to serve him, and thus how to teach the World by example.

First and foremost, they learned that He was G-d. He was One. There was no other. Period.

In all this we witness the birth of a Nation like no other, with a destiny like no other.

Yet a mere forty days later, many of these same people had turned their back to G-d.

While Moses was receiving instruction from G-d, and the Tablets of the Law were fashioned, an idol of gold had been fashioned and sacrificed to, and many were preparing to return to Egypt in an orgy of debasement.

Still, Moses pleads with G-d that they not be utterly destroyed. G-d relented, leaving Moses to resolve this rebellion.

Moses destroyed the Golden Calf, grinding it fine dust, and scattering it upon the water. The people drank of the water in a trial and judgment for their sin.

He rebuked Aaron for his weakness in allowing the people to prevail upon him in returning to idolatry. Finally, Moses called to those of the people who still were loyal to G-d to come to him.

Seeing those who still were immersed in sin before G-d, Moses ordered Levite warriors to cut down some three thousand rebels in their midst. In so doing, the Levites, having proved their integrity, above tribal or familial loyalty, became ordained as priests to G-d, until the End of Days.

At Sinai, G-d had (figuratively) taken the Israelites as his beloved, much like a wife. He revealed himself in ways unique to their bond. He plots a course with her for their life together. A great adventure. He placed himself directly at her guard, forgiving slights, providing for everything and destroying those who threaten her.

Then, barely through the honeymoon, G-d finds his bride has turned away and sought out others… former suitors, and a path of debasement. He withdrew, still in love, but deeply betrayed. He hid his essence away once again.

The next morning Moses told the assembled Israelites that he would again plead with G-d to spare those remaining. Moses told G-d that if what had been done was not enough, that if G-d still intended to destroy these people and start over, that he, Moses should be blotted out, as well.

G-d responded that “I will erase from my book whoever has sinned against Me.” G-d then struck the people with a plague to drive the point home.

He also told Moses that from here on an angel would go ahead of the people, rather than G-d’s own “Presence” (the Shechinah), the pillar of cloud in the day and the pillar of fire in the night that had thus far guided and protected the Israelites in the desert.

Moses informed the people of the departure of the Shechinah from their before their encampment. The people, realizing the severity of their betrayal mourned and feared its loss.

Moses then moved his tent about one thousand yards away from the others, and referred to it as the “Tent of Meeting”. The Shechinah then returned and rested above the Tent of Meeting, signifying when it did, that G-d was meeting with Moses. The Israelites, seeing this, did not dare approach, but rather bowed down from the entrances of their own tents.

Moses asked G-d to reconsider his distancing from the people. G-d responds by expressly prohibiting idolatry again, and details a series of specific commandments binding on the Israelites.

God instructed Moses to carve a second set of Tablets to replace those Moses had broken in fury and despair. God then affirmed that he would resume being slow to anger, and quick to forgiveness, towards the people.

Over the next forty days and forty nights on the mountain, G-d reiterated his Covenant with the Israelites to Moses, in detail.

G-d declared that he will drive the current inhabitants of the land promised to Abraham and his descendants (Amorites, Cana’anites, Chitites, Perizites, Chivites, and Jebusites) out of this land for the entering Israelites.

G-d warned Moses against the Israelites making any agreements with the prior inhabitants, nor mixing with them. All altars and monuments to their false gods were to be destroyed. The Israelites were to take possession of, and dwell in, this land, as people apart.

At Moses’ instruction a beautiful Tabernacle was constructed to serve as a portable “resting place” for G-d as the Israelites prepared to enter and secure their land. Elaborate and precise orders of sacrifices and services were established.

Aaron and his family, as a subset of the Levites became ordained into a priesthood to conduct these services correctly. The remaining Levites are tasked to support them in their duties. The Tabernacle is erected and the Shechina now rests there.

Soon thereafter, two of Aaron’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, deviated from these precise orders, and bringing “extraneous” fire “each in their own pan”, not as commanded by G-d, were instantly themselves consumed by fire. Such was the dangerous power of this Tabernacle and that which “rested” there.

All in all, six hundred thirteen mitzvot, specifically binding on this new Nation, were taught to the people at Sinai, in critical preparation for their great mission; to be a light unto the Seventy Nations of Mankind.

Each of the twelve tribes was given duties and well trained in their execution. This rabble of miraculously freed Hebrew slaves was being crafted into a well-oiled and sophisticated machine.

The town of Kadesh Barne’a; the mountainous gateway to the Land of the Edomites, was only eleven days march from Mount Sinai. Just beyond that lay their goal.

Inspiration, Israel, Jewish history, Jewish philosophy

These “Stiff-Necked” People: Who? What? Why?

June 23, 2015 Y.B. ben Avraham 2 Comments

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.

Abraham and Issac Rembrandt van Rijn, 1634 — **Abraham and Issac**
**Rembrandt van Rijn, 1634**

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

Jewish history, Jewish philosophy

Two thoughts for Shavuot

May 22, 2015 Y.B. ben Avraham 2 Comments

First, be humbled by the tremendous legacy G-d has given us.

Second, never be a valley. Instead, be a mountain.

(sorry for the blurry 2nd video)

authoritarian swine, duty, gun control, hatred of Jews, Israel, Jewish history, Jewish philosophy, Politics, spirit of rebellion, Voting

The Watchmen (and women) on the Wall

March 19, 2015 Sheila Stokes 3 Comments

My colleague Y.B. has nailed it. Again.

There are those that see what is happening around them and see the pattern, and see it for what it is, they recognize that pattern. Then there are those that see the pattern and because it is ugly they tell themselves they can’t possibly be seeing exactly what they are seeing and pull the covers back over their head and top it off with a pillow. Then there are those that see the pattern, look at it for two seconds and ask what time “American Idol” comes on that night. Ok, if it were National Finals Rodeo I could maybe understand a little, maybe, but sure not much. That is sad, very sad. Then there are those that see the pattern, know exactly what it is, and in fact maybe helping to contribute to it but deny that it is a pattern and vilify those that point it out. They spend their resources assuring the nervous that all is well, it’s just fine,nothing to see here, move along.

A few random things, a NY city Council man David Greenfield went on a trip to Israel, while there he went to Ramallah. While there, after a visit with the American Consul-General in Jerusalem at his Ramallah office he and the group prepared to go back to their transportation. He was asked to remove his Kippah. He refused.

“I walked into Ramallah with my yarmulke on, of course,” he said. “I was pulled aside by security personnel and was told that I should not wear my yarmulke when I was leaving the building.” The surprised Greenfield asked why he was being told this, and the answer was that “there was a security situation on the ground” and that it was not safe.”I specifically asked them if it was unsafe for me or for the group – they said it was definitely not an issue for the group but they could not guarantee my personal safety. I explained for them that for me it’s a very significant issue and that quite frankly, had I been told this in advance, I never would have agreed to come to Ramallah.”I was told that the US government was providing security and as an official, I expected them to keep up their end of the deal,” he said, adding that the request to have him remove the kippah had come from the Palestinian hosts.

Councilman Greenfield certainly gets it. This is a response he presented at a meeting. He gets it very well.

Then there is this speech by the French Prime Minister.

He gets it.

Then we have those that have walked the streets of Europe wearing a Kippah, to show reactions.

And in Paris for ten hours, but this one just loops, it’s not really that long.

We have the 51 Democrats that are Anti-Semitic and Anti-Israel. They whined that they didn’t like how John Bohner invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to give the speech. Well, I don’t like Bohner. But I suspect he was correct, if he went through the White House aka the House of Hussein, there would be no speech. I’m pretty confident that if Iran develops a nuclear weapon it will affect the US as well as Israel. But barry is too busy trying to be buddies with the people that want to kill US than to allow mere facts to interfere with his enjoyment of his rainbow stew. This link has the speech embedded in the web site. Nancy Pelosi showed she could edge 20 steps closer to Prozac and a padded room when she called the speech “Insulting and condescending.” It would seem Democrats are far more invested in towing the barry boat than living in reality. They do not get it, and they also attempt to mislead the uninformed that vote for them. There is a very real threat.

I have a very sweet lady in a class I take and we had a conversation about guns. She told me she and her husband absolutely respect the Second Amendment, but they belong to the Brady campaign and they just think that all guns need to be registered to stop crime. Class was over and we were all leaving, but I suggested she do a quick internet search for the “Nuremberg Laws”. I pointed out that Hitler could easily keep Jews from owning weapons to protect themselves because they already had a list of who owned what. So when Hitler decided Jews could have nothing to do with firearms, or own them, they knew where the were, duck soup, round up. She doesn’t get it, at all. But she said she still loved me, and I still think she is a lovely lady. An easy target, but a lovely lady. That “Nuremberg Laws article is pretty interesting by the way. Some compare and contrast in it.

So knowledge and interpretation certainly play a role in what you see, and how you see it. But another aspect is your attitude about it. I recently had a very brief discussion with a Rabbi. It involved my wish that Moshe Feiglin would have been returning to the Knesset. He seemed to think that wasn’t such a great thing. I said I just think Jews should be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount, and I do, and I mean right now yesterday. His comment was “When the Messiah comes back”. Really. Because this attitude of accepting little scraps of freedom, the little bits of the Jewish identity people are allowed to retain, the areas where it is safe to walk or as Y.B. pointed out, worship should all be determined by others? The Southern Cowgirl in me rears up and says “OH HELL NO”!

Because when you see attacks on a persons religion, on their ethnicity on their belief system when it harms no one else, you can just about bet the farm that not long after follow the physical attacks. WHY does it need to get to that point?

There are people who see what is happening, they see what is coming. And while the current regime uses government agencies to go after those that speak out, they still must.

1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, speak to your people and sayto them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a manfrom among them, and make him their watchman, 3 and if he sees the sword comingupon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then if anyone whohears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes andtakes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 5 He heard the sound ofthe trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if hehad taken warning, he would have saved his life. 6 But if the watchman sees thesword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned,and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in hisiniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.~~Ezekiel 33: 1-6

These people are called Watchmen.

There is a name for those that attempt to mislead people into thinking everything is fine too, or should agree to things that have been disastrous in the past and would be again. And this song keeps going through my mind when I think about them. Yesh lanu tayis.

Keep your eyes open, and choose carefully who you listen to.

duty, Israel, Jewish philosophy, self defense

Sorry, Reb Margolin… You are (mostly) full of crap.

January 11, 2015 Y.B. ben Avraham 3 Comments

In the wake of the Islamic terrorist attacks on the French, culturally-leftist (Do I repeat myself, here?) publication, Charlie Hebdo, and the aligned slaughter at Hyper Cacher, Chabad Rabbi, and European Jewish Association Director, Menachem Margolin advised against mass emigration of his charges from France to Eretz Yisrael. In doing so, he directly disputed with many Jewish leaders, including Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu, styling such “Aliya” (literally, “going up” or “ascending”) as an ill-advised “Pavlovian” response.

Currently, the estimated Jewish population in France is somewhere between 400,000 and 500,000 people, and falling fast. This represents perhaps 10% of the quickly growing Muslim population in France. Both nativist and Islamic attacks on Jews throughout Europe have been climbing steadily. The leader in this trend is France, followed, arguably by Britain and the Scandinavian countries.

In France, there are more than SEVEN HUNDRED FIFTY neighborhoods classified officially as “sensitive”, or unofficially, as “No-Go” zones for the police. These areas have been effectively excised from the country, and are managed exclusively by the most radical (some say Islamically observant) Muslim individuals and groups. Nearly every horror seen in the international press associated with Islam happens also within these neighborhoods; “Honor” Killings, “Grooming” Gang-Rapes, Torture, Slavery, Violent and Racist Assaults, Child Marriages… on, and on, and on.

The rest of Europe dare not be smug, either. They all have their own, albeit, smaller variations. They have their “No-Go” zones, their “Honor” Killings, Rapes, etc. Each of their governments and lick-spittle press desperately tries to hide, mischaracterize, or deny what is happening. Their police and courts have been neutered by decades of politically correct policies aimed at maintaining their social(ist) welfare systems and industries in the face of declining native birthrates and the harsh mathematics that must implode any Ponzi Scheme. Europe is in a pickle… and the Jews will be the first victims (it is a tradition), but hardly the last.

I understand the problems Rabbi Margolin has to deal with.

First, as a shaliach (emissary) of the Rebbe, not unlike a captain on a sinking ship, he is duty-bound to serve the religious needs of every Jew within his reach. If every single other Jew has left France, save one, then he helps that one Jew. He should be literally the last one to leave.

Second, while a shaliach does this holy work, he must try to obtain critical cooperation from the civil authorities. Openly calling for mass “Aliya” frames France, or any other country similarly situated, as a “failed state”. Better to remain silent on the question, and quietly, but vigorously help anyone so inclined.

The ideal scenario would be one where soon, and much to everyone’s surprise, all the Jews are gone, and are learning Hebrew in their new, albeit modest, home, in the hills of Judea and Samaria.

Third, there is the belief that “Aliya” to the schizophrenic modern State of Israel need not be at the top of one’s priorities. That increasing observance of Torah and Mitzvot will hasten the coming of Moshiach. Upon his arrival, the stage is set for all the Jews of the world to (perhaps supernaturally) return home to Israel, anyway.

All well and good, but last I looked, at the Passover Seder, and many-many other times of prayer, we do not long for the return to , nor say “Next Year in Crown Heights” or “Next Year in Williamsburg”, or “…Monsey” or “…Lakewood”… or Paris. There is no avoiding the mitzvah of returning home… to the Land of Israel, in order to do even more mitzvot, including those that can ONLY be done there.

Besides…dead Jews are very limited in the kind of mitzvot they can perform. Live ones, eh, not so much!

In his favor, Rabbi Margolin called on the government to “ease” the availability of gun permits (oh, how I bristle at the Idea of asking, nay, begging, government for permission to have the tools to stay alive). He also threw a bone to the general rectitude of “Aliyah”, but desperately tried to sever it from practical concerns like continuing to be alive.

All in all, he should have just shut up.

~~~~~

An afterthought…

Any Jews reading this from the U.S. or Canada and thinking it doesn’t apply equally to each and every one of YOU (and your kids… and grandkids) had better damned-well reconsider. The same issues are already here. Yes, you may have some time to get a little more for your house or business, than those poor slobs in Europe, but don’t dawdle. The last time we did, the price was very, very high.

And to those “Rabbis” and “Jewish Community Leaders” who openly oppose “Aliya” for any Jew, especially now, you should be profoundly ashamed of yourselves. What are you thinking?

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