Category: Thought

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Liberation is Now

“The King of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the first was Shifrah and the name of the second was Puah – and he said, ‘When you deliver the Hebrew women, and you see them on the birth stool; if it is a son, you are to kill him, and if it is a daughter, she shall live.’ But the midwives feared G-D and they did not do as the king of Egypt spoke to them, and they caused the boys to live.” (SHEMOT 1:15-17)

It is taught that Shifrah and Puah are alternate names for Yoḥeved and Miriam – mother and sister to Moshe and Aharon. We further learn that the midwives “feared G-D” and therefore HaShem built them “Houses in Israel” (the priesthood emerged from Yoḥeved and the Davidic dynasty descended from Miriam) – a teaching that highlights the necessity of understanding what it truly means for someone to “fear G-D.”

To fear G-D is actually the highest level of courage because when a person possesses genuine awe of HaShem as the Creator and Source of all that exists, he cannot possibly fear Pharaoh, poverty, prison, torture or even death. “Fearing G-D” is essentially a deep awareness and conviction that nothing exists outside HaShem, which in turn eliminates the ability to fear anything subordinate. It is precisely this elevated consciousness that enabled the midwives to give birth to the greatest leadership our people has known.

Because a slave naturally fears his master and the Hebrews in Egypt were brought up to fear their oppressors, the behavior displayed by Yoḥeved and Miriam was a revolution against the social order of their day. HaShem had not promised these women any reward for endangering themselves and they had no guarantee that they would survive Pharaoh’s wrath. What the midwives did, however, was adhere to the most ancient of Hebrew traditions.

When thrown into Nimrod’s furnace for his crusade against idolatry, Avraham had no expectation of being saved. He understood himself to be a soul – a unique expression of HaShem – temporarily playing the role of a character name Avraham on earth. Rather than contaminate his true inner essence, he was ready to give up the role of Avraham.

During the terrible Holocaust in Europe, there were Jews who felt themselves as having no choice but to actively collaborate with the Germans. Faced with unspeakable conditions and desperate to make it through the horrors of the Shoah alive, they pragmatically understood that the answer to their predicament was to try and survive by assisting the Nazis. But there are prohibitions in the Torah for which one must be willing to give his life rather than transgress. One clear example is that a Jew must die rather than participate in the murder of his own people. “Fearing G-D” in such a situation would prevent the soul from being able to contaminate itself through the act of handing over a fellow Jew to be killed. Therefore, one with a deep and genuine awe of HaShem could not have allowed himself to deliver his people to the slaughter. Life itself would simply no longer feel worth living after having betrayed the very essence of his soul.

A person who genuinely fears HaShem has no personal fear for his own private safety and is automatically infused with a spirit of valor. While this is certainly not an easy level to attain, one can begin to approach it through asking honest questions and being prepared to accept the challenges of difficult answers. The true courage of fearing G-D involves emotional maturity, intellectual honesty and the willingness to burden a national responsibility. Yoḥeved and Miriam risked their lives for what was right, knowing that they could have very easily been killed and forgotten. Like Avraham, they feared G-D because that was the truth of their souls and not because they had any guarantees of survival.

“Fear of G-D” is actually a loyalty to one’s deepest inner truth without any preconditions or expectations for reward. Such self-awareness ultimately makes a person unbreakable – even in the face of overwhelming adversity – as anything one can possibly be threatened with simply becomes inconsequential when viewed within the context of HaShem as the timeless ultimate Reality without end that creates all, sustains all, includes all and is beyond all.

In addition to being the wellspring of great heroism, fearing HaShem is the basis for attaining true love – the ability to give freely without expectations. Rabbi Akiva teaches that the commandment, “you shall love your fellow as yourself” (VAYIKRA 19:18) is the mitzvah that encompasses the Torah in its entirety. It is the base that the Torah rests on in order to be fully revealed in our world. Whether it has a personal, national or universal expression, true love empowers one to not fret about whether or not his love is reciprocal because genuine compassion exists only to give. This love, built on courage, is actually the context and most essential foundation for properly understanding Israel’s Torah.

Moshe was destined to liberate Israel from bondage and lead the Hebrew tribes to receive the Torah at Sinai. But he first grew up in the house of Pharaoh, a place embodying the dark forces standing in starkest opposition to his role. In order to develop the personal qualities necessary to lead Israel from slavery to freedom, Moshe grew up surrounded by the very power that stood against the fundamental essence of his mission. It was precisely this environment that forced Moshe to ask true questions, grow to emotional maturity and realize his destiny as Israel’s savior.

“It happened in those days that Moshe grew up and went out to his brethren and observed their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man, of his brethren. He turned this way and that and saw that there was no man, so he struck down the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.” (SHEMOT 2:11-12)

Moshe witnessed an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave and decided to intervene. His compassion for his people was clearly displayed by his preparedness to forfeit his princedom in order to save his brother from harm. At this point Moshe left the world of Egyptian royalty and began to actively express his inner self.

“He went out the next day and behold! Two Hebrew men were fighting. He said to the wicked one, ‘Why do you strike your fellow?’ He replied, ‘Who appointed you as a dignitary, a ruler and a judge over us? Do you propose to murder me as you murdered the Egyptian?’ Moshe was frightened and he thought, ‘Indeed the matter is known!’” (SHEMOT 2:13-14)

The Torah clearly states that Moshe “saw that there was no man” yet here – only a couple verses later – we see another Hebrew with knowledge of his deed. If the matter was known, then obviously there had to have been witnesses around to see Moshe’s act. When the verse writes that he “saw that there was no man” it is coming to teach that he saw no one willing to intervene. No Hebrew slave would stand up for his brother. Pirke Avot teaches that “where there is no man, be a man” (2:6) – no one was intervening so Moshe neutralized the Egyptian himself, knowing that he could lose his royal status and possibly even his life. He readily took this risk because his soul could not bear the suffering of his brother.

Regarding his deed of killing the Egyptian, the Maharal of Prague teaches inGvurot HaShem that “Moshe’s soul was clothed in greatness” – his soul consciously unified with Knesset Yisrael – the larger collective soul of the Hebrew Nation. Moshe had not yet received any prophecy and he certainly had not been commanded to slay the Egyptian. In fact, the prophesied years of Hebrew bondage in Egypt were not even close to complete. Without receiving any Divine sign or command, Moshe could not bear the sight of Hebrew suffering. And his compassionate reaction to the pain of his brother triggered a process of redemption that transformed him from a prince of Egypt to the savior of his people and history’s greatest prophet.

Not able to stomach strife among his brothers, Moshe attempted to make peace. When one responded by asking “do you propose to murder me, as you murdered the Egyptian?” Rashi explains that Moshe suddenly understood that his people were actually not ready for redemption. And the Maharal explains in his Gur Aryeh super-commentary on Rashi that so long as there were informers within Israel, slavery was an appropriate condition for them. This Hebrew threatened Moshe by implying that he could easily turn him over to the authorities. But by exposing Moshe, the informant would have not merely been turning in one man but actually betraying the entire essence of Israel’s redemption. When slavery runs deep into the psychology of a person, it becomes difficult to express the crucial courage and self-sacrifice necessary to break the chains of mental bondage. But when one cares for another to the extent that nothing can deter him, this compassion becomes the power of Israel’s salvation. Whether in Egypt, Europe, America or even Israel, one who internalizes and experiences this love can never cooperate with those seeking to obstruct our national mission. The courage to resist tyranny and stand strong against injustice is actually the first step in attaining a powerful love that will bestow great blessing not only upon Israel but also on the whole of humanity at large as the Hebrew Nation begins to effectively actualize our role of bringing world history to its ultimate goal.

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Running from the State

Samuel the Prophet says the following concerning Israel’s demand to have a King (Samuel 1 8:12-16): “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots.  Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.  He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.  Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

We know that the people of Israel did not want to listen to the warnings Samuel told them and G-d told the prophet to listen to them anyway.  King Saul, despite his righteousness went mad with jealousy of David and eventually took the Kingdom down because of it as he stumbled in war against the Philistines.

David rose up and eventually took the reigns of power from the previous system of government.

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As I stand over the river bed that David took to run away from Saul, it occurs to me as it always does, that it wasn’t just Saul who chased after David, but the entire system. David was fleeing from a system that lacked the flexibility for independent thought and true service of the divine. It was David and his 400 followers on the run from King Saul and the rest of the Nation.

Systems that are not rooted in the Divine almost always lean towards totalitarianism before they fall. The concept of a centralized state is an anathema to the Torah, which provides for power to be held locally, leaving the King as a uniter and central symbol for the Nation, whose collective energies are expressed by uniting the individual talents of each member.

The modern State of Israel and the system that rules it, is based on a statist concept of governing.  This is a system which lifts the needs of the State above the expression of individual thought and freedom. Loyalty to the State is paramount and those who express it are hoisted above all other citizens as paragons for true righteousness.

The State is everything and everything is the State. The individual’s liberties are only granted to them because the State wills it. The move to false collectivism occurred early on in the modern Zionist movement through the socialist wings usurpation of the National Zionist Congress in the early 1900’s.

The Haganah and the Labor Zionists won over the young State over Begin’s Irgun and the Lehi, when the Haganah fired on the Altalena, destroying armaments needed to ensure a hold on Jerusalem as well taking all of the Land of Israel in 1948.  Begin didn’t fight and with that the old boys network that had become the mainstream Zionist movement expanded complete control over the courts, media, labor, and government.

The young state, small in population and resources had no time to discuss the nature of the bureaucracy forming in its nascent stages. Allegiance was paramount or all would fall apart.

By the time Menachem Begin took the reigns of power, the citizenry’s concept of the State as the ultimate provider of rights was second nature.

The right swept into power time and again, but the bureaucracy remained enshrined in its original form, unmoving, and ever present.

By 2005 the State of Israel reached a crossroads. Ariel Sharon, the architect of the settlement enterprise decided to uproot the very communities he birthed.  After all they were his to build and destroy. The State is always right.

The States decides when to destroy personal property for the sake of the State and when not to. It is arbitrary. The security forces selectively punish one group, but others get away with a slap of the wrist. Security is afforded to the center of the country, but rockets can reign freely on the periphery as long as they don’t bother the cafes of Tel Aviv. Settlers are left to drive on roads surrounded by terrorists, while checkpoints are thrown up stifling morning traffic for both Israelis and Palestinians in order to ensure a false sense of security for the major population centers.

It is no longer about right or left, but about Statism and Individualism. If one critiques the government, loyalty is questioned.

Israel and Zionism have been synonymous since the Jews began to return to their ancient homeland. The question that needs to be asked now is whether Zionism’s goal was a state like all others or does the State act as a tool to further the dreams and aspiration of Zionism and the people who live within the Land of Israel.

The admonishment of Samuel the Prophet rings as true today as it did when he first said it. The dangers of a centralized government are clear. When one side uses their controls over the levers of power to stifle opposition, free thought, and expression, then the transformation into something much darker has begun.

Sometimes we want so much to change the situation that we see no other way to do it but to rise up in open rebellion. We cannot afford that here in the Middle East. Perhaps David’s way is a far more potentially successful approach. Run and build.  Statism never lasts forever. Maximum control breaks when exerted to its limits.  The truth is that all rights that are truly eternal are rooted in the Creator. For that reason, they can never be taken away no matter who controls the levers of power.

Israel can and will reach its true potential only when the Nation understands it can no longer live under a bureaucracy that places the State above individual liberties. When that happens a true awakening will occur and a true revelation and union between the individual expression of Divinity and the collective consciousness of the Kingdom will crystallize.

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The Quiet Revolution

Darkness feels like it’s everywhere these days.  From ISIS, Iran, and Hezbollah on our borders and the slow motion Palestinian Intifada within, our enemies are literally surrounding us.  Old friends are in disarray and our new partners are untrustworthy. The government in Israel seems almost wishful in its outlook on our geopolitical situation and far too fixated on political gain by locking up young settler activists without trial.

The government has gone seemingly mad.  One day they are building an alliance with Greece, Cyprus, and Egypt and the next they are entertaining the idea of rapprochement with Turkey.

So why the confusion?

The State of Israel was born out of two conflicting historical movements. One was the 19h century nationalist movement that had swept the European continent and inspired European Jews to build for themselves a National Homeland in their historic home located in the Land of Israel.

The second movement popped up after the Holocaust and before National Independence in 1948. It what an international movement by the world to give the Jews a State a sort of amelioration for the slaughter that was purpotrated by the Nazis and their supporters during WW2. This movement came at the tailend of the Revolt in which the three competing Jewish paramilitary units in the Holy Land were attempting to push out the British. It is no accident that the British would have have saved millions of Jews if not for their whitepaper and yet despite the loss to the Jewish Nation, the Jews of the Palestinian Mandate pushed on against the one of the World’s strongest Nations.

Before the British could be embarrassed the amelioration movement, which had nothing to do with Zionism came in and saved the British. On the 29th of November 1947 Resolution 181 was passed by the UN and despite its never being implemented the Resolution cemented in the World’s mind that the State of Israel, (which would have been born with or without the UN) was birthed exclusively by the United Nations as a reaction to the Holocaust.

The sad irony that it was in fact Britain whose policies kept Jewish immigration to the mandate at near standstill while Jews were being slaughtered by the Nazis by the millions standing behind the fledgling Jewish State is not accidental. The young state would not last against the British trained Arab forces and in due time would have to invite the British back in. Of course the opposite happened and yet the colonial mentality persists and pervades the ruling elite in Israel.

The idea that Israel is a creation of the UN buries the gains the Zionist Revolution made within the hearts of the masses before the partition plan was drafted.  After all it was not us with the Almighty at our backs that pushed the British out, it was they they British who gave us our State. This causes a yearning to be loved by the Nations and creates an incoherent geopolitical strategy.

Noting the historical amnesia of the Jewish Nation, Rabbi Yehuda HaKohen, founder of Lavi Olami notes in a 2008 op-ed the following:

“Like the American Revolution, the Zionist Revolution succeeded in liberating a country from the mighty British Empire. And this was no small achievement for Jewish people who, only three years earlier, were being systematically butchered by the millions in Europe. Freedom was won in blood and fire by heroic young fighters willing to give their lives so that future generations would see a Hebrew flag over Jerusalem. But aside from this near-impossible feat, the Zionist Revolution also had – and still has – several more seemingly unattainable tasks to accomplish.”

Despite the setbacks and void in leadership at the national level, a quiet revolution is afoot. More and more people are recognizing that the path forward is to once again cultivate our roots. Silently and nearly methodically there has been an organic growth in young activists looking out at the regional landscape and seeing their own indigenous experience and wanting to hook back into it. It is this connection to the Land and Nation that young zionists within Israel are beginning to lay as the foundation for going forward.

More than this though, the Zionist Revolution calls on the people of Israel to elect and support leaders that partner with like minded indigenous nations in the region as well as economic and military policies that are independent from the needs of the interests of the global elites and neo-conservative elements entrenched in American foreign policy institutions.

A successful revolution means foreign organizations and global corporations who do not have the Jewish Nation’s best interests are to be kept out of decision making. Sadly our current leaders, from Naftali Bennett to Bibi Netanyahu at the very least believe the State of Israel has achieved its revolution and perhaps they have succumbed to the spirit that we were in fact born out of the ovens and gas chambers of the Holocaust rather than as a result of the immovable destiny of our ancient Nation.  

Thankfully, there are those who see things differently, who place the revolution still ahead of us. From the throngs of Temple Mount activists, to the young guard in the Likud as well Moshe Feiglin’s new party Zehut, Israel’s future is bright as the body politic across the country has begin to shed to darkness of the exile in order to embrace a far more expansive future.  

The challenges ahead are immense and in many ways the Nation of Israel has survived far more dire circumstances, but at the end of the day the leaders of our past were guided by the fears of the Holocaust without concern to the future. If Israel can embrace a complete faith in its cause and tap into the strength of its forefathers it will acquire the ability to deal with its enemies, while properly deciphering wrong from right. Only then will the Zionist Revolution have the ability to fulfill its true potential.

The world finds itself in a moment of chaos. Our leaders have been swept up by foreign ideals and goals.  Ultimately only a clear sighted vision based on truth and faith will lead us out of the darkness we are in.

 

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These are the Tribes of Israel

“All these are the tribes of Israel – twelve – and this is what their father spoke to them and he blessed them; he blessed each according to his appropriate blessing.” (BEREISHIT 49:28)

Just prior to his passing, Yaakov blessed his sons for the final time. The Abarbanel teaches that the patriarch bestowed a blessing upon the tribal heads according to each one’s particular task in the larger mission of building the Hebrew Nation. He blessed them individually – each in line with his own specific aptitudes and capabilities – so that all would direct their talents and energies towards the path for which HaShem had uniquely suited them. This understanding illustrates the point that each Hebrew tribe has its own distinct role as part of Israel’s larger national mission. Far from breeding disunity, however, the separate tribal callings bind Israel more firmly together. The tribes are likened to spokes of a wheel – though the spokes point in different directions, they are all part of the same wheel and are each essential to its proper function.

The sons of Yaakov and their tribes each have a distinct role to play within the larger Hebrew Nation. While Yehuda is destined for royalty, Levi priesthood, Yissakhar scholarship, Zevulun commerce, et cetera, all twelve contribute their talents and unique abilities to serving HaShem and manifesting His Ideal. The Midrash teaches that there are seventy faces (facets) to the Torah (Bamidbar Rabbah 13:15). There are numerous ways to facilitate the revelation of HaShem’s Divine Oneness to mankind. While this understanding is crucial for achieving a broader and more inclusive perspective, it is unfortunately all too often misunderstood and taken to a counterproductive extreme. The various faces of the Torah are only legitimate so long as they fit into the framework of Israel’s historic mission and earthly function. An interpretation that runs contrary to the Torah itself cannot be considered a valid understanding of G-D’s Truth.

While there is one truth and not seventy, this one absolute and all encompassing truth can possess within it a multiplicity of smaller truths, which can each be viewed from various angles and perspectives. The Torah can be approached and understood in an assortment of ways so long as these are all in line with its fundamental essence. And although this might seem to disqualify movements within the Jewish world that negate the importance of Torah Law, the binding authority of our Sages, the commandment to reside in Eretz Yisrael or the prohibition against surrendering any portion of it to other peoples, even those who champion these positions are often expressing something deep within the collective Hebrew soul that in its own way contributes to the advancement of the Israeli mission.

The various faces of Torah are not conflicting philosophies but rather different ways of contributing to the objective mission of Am Yisrael. The Hebrew Nation is one body with one common purpose – to bring this world to the awareness of HaShem as the timeless ultimate Reality without end that creates all, sustains all, empowers all and loves all.

In order for Israel to achieve this lofty goal, we must first constitute a healthy nation in our homeland. Our society must encompass scholars, doctors, engineers, farmers, pilots, accountants, lawmakers, firefighters and sanitation workers, all serving the Kadosh Barukh Hu and working in unison to build His kingdom in our physical world – a kingdom that will provide material expression to all of our Torah’s highest spiritual values. Not as a “religion” or philosophy but rather as a living reality – a kingdom who’s very life force and national culture is the Divine Ideal being fully expressed in every field of human endeavor. A “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (SHEMOT 19:6) – where even the bus drivers drive their buses and the merchants sell their wares in such a way that manifests HaShem’s Ideal in their specific spheres of life – is the true concrete meaning of the Torah’s seventy faces.

Am Yisrael – the uniquely created receptacle and conduit through which Divine energy and blessing radiates into our world – is once again experiencing a national rebirth on our soil. Israel has returned to the world stage in what has so far been merely the introduction to a revolutionary process destined to lead mankind towards history’s ultimate goal. While Torah scholars must serve as the heart of the Israeli national body and work to properly direct it according to HaShem’s Will, each organ and limb is essential to the healthy function of that body. Each of us was created unique with our own special attributes and prospective contributions to the collective whole. And whatever our individual talents might be, they must be constantly directed towards the realization of Israel’s national mission of elevating human existence to its highest potential and bringing this world to its goal of absolute good that preceded Creation and continues – like gravity – to pull history towards it. Only as a kingdom of priests and holy nation that reveals HaShem’s Oneness over all spheres of life can Israel fully express the grandeur of His Ideal and lead mankind to experience a world of total blessing.

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[podcast] Duma: The War From Within

Shai and I discuss the current investigation concerning the Duma arson in the Northern Shomron and why this is a landmark civil rights case involving torture and human rights violations in connection with the alleged suspects. We also touch on the tension between statism and individual liberties in Israel and the need to put an emphasis on individual liberties despite the security situation and the desire for the system to preserve itself.

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