As I watch the information come out about what Demoncrats and the corrupt intelligence services have done to our country over the last few years, I realize I’m due a reminder. A reminder that this world is G-d’s. He created it and us, we are to create a home for him in this world. And that brings me to the topic of today’s very short column. But, there are movies! You must however supply your own popcorn and drinks.
You see today, the 28th day of Iyar is Jerusalem Day! Yom Yrushalayim יום ירושלים
On that day in 1967, despite Israel’s very best efforts not to reunite Jerusalem, it was. Many Israeli soldiers paid a very high price for it. But many Israeli citizens had been paying a high price before it was reunited in terms of ongoing terrorism.
Here is some back ground on what lead up to the Six Day War
http://zelmanpartisans.com/?p=6098
http://zelmanpartisans.com/?p=50231
http://zelmanpartisans.com/?p=4308
http://zelmanpartisans.com/?p=3196
Yes, I’ve written about it once or twice.
But this year I’ll give you a link to a set of old photographs taken in Jerusalem, I think all are pre-1967
There a links to many film clips in those columns, but I can’t leave it without putting a couple of movies in.
This one is about the battle, the one in 1967 and the one going on now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFWAzMC-_7I
You must understand the police will not allow Jews to prostrate themselves on the Temple Mount and pray. Now Muslims? Oh yeah, they can throw rocks, fireworks attack and kill people and then run and hide in the mosque. They can have picnics and desecrate things, that’s all “status quo”. Sort of like Demoncrats and peaceful riots. They destroy things, that’s what they do.
This next one is short, but very interesting:
Rabbi Zvi Yehudah Kook, the Rosh Yeshivah (Dean) of the Merkaz HaRav Yeshivah in Jerusalem, addressed his students on Israel Independence Day, 1967, just two and a half weeks before the outbreak of the Six Day War. In the video, the rabbi can be heard bemoaning the fact that Israel’s holy sites and cities were all in the hands of her enemies, and Jews had no access to the holy places.
You know, Israel tried to do everything it could to keep peace. They tried to compromise with entities that hate them and want to see them destroyed. They tried it, they tried to act reasonably and honorably. And all that happened was that was used against them. Israel told Jordan not to get involved, Israel had been helping the King of Jordan whom some of the other Arab countries had been threatening. And yet, when King Hussein heard the Arab version of cnn and msnbc saying they had Israel in a box, the walls were closing in on them. Any day now they were going to be destroyed forev….oh wait. Wrong topic for those particular lies. Those lies came from another group that want to destroy a different country and a different leader. But, like people that are on their 17th Covid booster, King Hussein believed the Egyptians and Syrians that they were ripping the Israelis a new one. And so, they jumped in and began shelling Israeli civilian areas in Jerusalem. And G-d gave a miracle paid for in the blood of innocent Israelis fighting throughout the city. The odds were horrible, Syria, Egypt and Jordan against Israel. The soldiers talked about how they didn’t really have maps or much familiarity with the parts of Jerusalem they were fighting in. Some went down wrong alleys, took wrong turns, but they fought on. There comes a time when you realize with some parties there can and will never be a compromise possible. Peace will only come when one side is defeated. Much like the battle of good and evil, will you compromise with evil to achieve peace? Israel must never again give up land for peace, and conservatives must quit trying to reach reasonable compromise with the left which has been taken over by the communists. As they said they would. The media will portray U.S. as “extremists” and “radicals”, no matter what they do. Trying to compromise with evil is always a losing proposition. They have the media (propaganda arm of the communist party) to spin their story anyway they want it.
And that brings me to this point, Should You Trust It Will Be Good When Everything Looks Bad?
Here’s a story, told in the Talmud,1 to recall whenever ominous clouds stand overhead:
When King Chizkiah (Ezekiah) fell ill, Isaiah the prophet came to visit him. But rather than console him, he announced a heavenly decree: He was to die in this world and he would not receive a share in the World to Come.
“Isaiah,” countered the king. “Cease your prophecy and leave! So have I received from my ancestor David: Even as a sharp sword rests upon your neck, do not refrain from pleading for divine mercy.”
Then he turned to the wall and began to pray from the innermost of his heart—and he lived another 15 glorious years.
I realize things look rather grim, but that’s why I think this is a good time to remember that the despite all appearances, there can be things in play that we have no idea. Would things be better now if the Communist Moshe Dayan hadn’t given Har HaBayit back to Jordan? Of course. That’s why G-d gave it to us. But I suppose it’s best to end this little column with bitachon (from the above link)
Really, it’s beyond faith. Faith is when, despite all that you know and see, you hold tight to the conviction that G‑d is good and all He does is good, even if for the moment you can’t fathom how it is good—because it comes from such a high place that it is impossible for you to fathom.
But trust—bitachon—is an emotional response. To trust in G‑d is to stay calm and confident, just as if you could see the good clearly and enjoy it with all your senses.
Even if you can’t achieve such calm, you can imagine someone who really does live in such a way. You can say to yourself, “I know that this is so and it makes sense to me that I should feel calm and confident, just like Zusia of Anipoli or some other great tzadik.” Imagine that calmness, embrace the moment, and it will become much easier to attain it.
And of course, my favorite movie clip. Mordechai (Motta) Gur, at 24 seconds in. Whole thing is under a minute though.
יום ירושלים שמח
Happy Jerusalem Day!
At the Kotel (Western retaining wall of the Temple complex)
May G-d bless U.S. with many miracles too, and may Moshiach comes speedily and in our days.
I sometimes forget that even when things look the worst, and feel like nothing will turn out for good, that G-d is in control. And has always been in control, since before the beginning of the universe. I look back to the Book of Job, when He asks Job, where were you when I made the heavens and the earth, etc.?
So I must thank you for reminding me that no matter how bleak things may seem to my human eyes, I am not responsible for anything, because there is someone else who is in control, and I merely need to have faith, and to remind myself of that.
As far as the history of the present nation of Israel and the comparison of the present nation of the United States is concerned, as you pointed out, and as I look at it, the similarity is almost too close to even compare.
If it were not for the fact that our leaders are allowing our nation to be invaded wholesale from the south by people whose motives we don’t even know, there would not be much difference at all. Instead of locking us away from our Temple Mount, they are destroying many of our most treasured monuments to some of the greatest leaders of the past, due to the idea that they were somehow tainted by the times that they lived in, when it was normal for some people to own slaves, or to otherwise participate in that part of our history. The seem to feel like by tearing down the monuments to these heroes, they can bury the history of a time that we no longer follow.
At one time, I thought that there was a way to reunite this nation. But like the popular meme says, you can vote your way into socialism, but you must fight your way out of it. I do not think that we will ever have a fair election again. It is a sad thing to say, and an even sadder thing to have to believe. But if the next presidential election turns out to be what I fear, the second civil war will likely begin on the second Wednesday of the month of November of 2024.