Can We Fix the Vessels of Redemption Within the State of Israel?

Everything in the physical world can be used as a vessel to either draw or contain Divine Light or the opposite to block it. After all, the Creator seeks to always shine his Will on all of the Creation. The State of Israel as a tool for renewed Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel can either be used to complete the process of Redemption or the opposite and stall it. The chaos we are now witnessing in the State is nothing more than the vessel itself as it is structured coming to a close. The tools that came into being when it was established were either incomplete or fashioned in a way in which the light from above could not be contained.

When the State of Israel was created, it was done so as a hasty declaration and a response to the invasion of five Arab armies. True, the Zionist movement had been moving towards an independent state, but the invasion gave the Mapai a chance to take full control over the Zionist project. This had been Ben Gurion’s aim from the beginning. After all, the usurpation of the formal Zionist movement did not give them control over the street. The Revisionist Zionist movement, through the oratory and ideology of Valdamir Jabotinsky were far more beloved in the eyes of most Jews in Israel.

It was only when the British decided to end their control over the Holy Land due to the Jewish rebellion led by Menachem Begin’s Irgun and the late Avraham Stern’s Lechi that Ben Gurion and others used this as a pretext to take full control over the Zionist movement.

In taking control, the Labor Zionists were able to rewrite the history books, glorifying their leadership as well as injecting Western governing concepts into the body-politic. The parliamentary structure, so unstable and not suitable for a Jewish State was used. The courts were structured in a way to enable continuous Labor and internationalist control. Any chance for a true indigenous and authentic Jewish expression so desired by the initial waves of Jewish pioneers as well as Jews that had already been living in Israel for thousands of years, were stamped out to make way for an internationalist, communist controlled bureaucracy.

Not About Redemption

The Labor Zionists never saw the State as anything but a tool to establish their long term control over the Holy Land. Any thought that the State of Israel that had risen was meant to be a vessel for the Redemptive process was an anathema for them. True, Ben Gurion paid homage to the return and could have harbored positive feelings to the idea, but the superstructure of control that was created painted a different story.

Begin’s 1977 Revolution Not Enough

When Menachem Begin surprised the Labor establishment by breaking their electoral control of the state, the Revisionists as well as the Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent believed that a revolution was underway.

While there was a cosmetic change, Begin and Shamir after him never put full energy into the areas of true Labor control – the courts, economy, and the media.

It was not until Prime Minister Netanyahu came along that the media or at least some of it began to change as well as the economy. As things began to open up and the disastrous effects of Oslo felt, the populace turned its back on the Two State-Solution as well as social welfare programs championed by the Left.

With the current political stalemate in Israel showing no signs of letting up, one must take a look at the entire structure of the State itself within the context of how it was formed and understand that the system is begging to be changed in order to take the Redemptive Process to the next level.

Rav Kook teaches the following in Orot HaTechiya 28:

“The holiness that is expressed from within the physical is the holiness of the Land of Israel. When the Shechina (Divine Presence) descended into exile with the Nation of Israel, holiness stood in opposition to the physical. But holiness which battles the physical is not a complete holiness. It is necessary that holiness become subsumed within the Divine from above, which leads to a holiness that is expressed through the physical itself. This is the foundation of repairing the entire World.”

Ultimately, the vessels of Redemption which flow from Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel were never seen as conduit for the Holiness of our Divine mission in this world. The two remained disconnected and so 72 year later the State itself requires a true fusion of the Vessels within it to the Holiness we seek to draw into the World.

The light of Redemption can be harnessed within the State of Israel, but the concept that this is what is necessary must be injected into the conversation. The Left would like to continue its subversive control over the institutions and the Right would like to pretend it only cares about being a capitalistic Western Democracy, but neither can stand up against the current wave of yearning for something beyond what we have. The only thing missing is the right leader to clarify the path ahead and by doing so repair the vessels of Redemption strewn out in front of us.

Navigating The Coming Chaos and Understanding Israel’s Direction

The political stalemate in Israel continues to drag on, with most people assuming there will be a third round of elections. What is going on and how does the root of this current crisis stem from the creation of the State?

There is no question about it, the present political quagmire between the so called right-wing block and the left-wing block is directly rooted in the way Israel’s political system was designed from the outset. The challenges in Israel are systemic and understanding this will enable real change and rectification across the national fabric.

We understand that the vessels for the Redemption of the Jewish people and in return the entire world were meant to manifest in a particular manner as to enable the Divine light of the Infinite to flow into the universe, thus rectifying and repairing the world. When those of us who were meant to take hold of these vessels passed up on the opportunity, the vessels fell into the wrong hands.

These hands belonged to the socialist wing of the Zionist movement who succeeded in building the beginning of the bureaucratic apparatus of the state in a way which allowed them to remain in control. With the six million Jews of Europe burnt up and the Jews of Middle Eastern origins broken once they moved to the transit camps within the State, permanent control seemed to be inevitable. However, something miraculous happened along the way.

In 1967, Israel won the Six Day War receiving the Biblical heartland of the Jewish people. This reinvigorated the Religious-Secular debate and inspired the real beginnings of Israel’s Jewish renaissance. A few years later, another unforeseen event took place: The Likud’s Menachem Begin of the Irgun together won a sweeping election after the near disaster of the 1973 Yom Kippur war. This brought the Left’s most “hated” enemy into the premiership for the first time. Worst of all for the Left, the Sefardim (Jews of Middle Eastern origin) who had been economic slaves to the Socialist elite, broke ranks and supported the rightwing camp. This political partnership has for the most part stayed intact.

This ended the Left’s overt control of the State. However, the Israeli Deep State is run by the Left’s bureaucratic control of the military and courts.

Where Are We Now – A Third Revolution?

With Jews returning to a traditional lifestyle increasing year in and year out as well as the Arab-Israeli peace initiatives floundering due to a realization that “Land for Peace” does not work, the Begin revolution that upended Israel has now led the political super structure into proverbial brick wall.

Ultimately, the traditional blocks of the Left and Right are now implacably butting heads as the Israeli Arab parties have essentially required someone to shift one way or the other. Traditionally, this has been Avigdor Liberman’s role. However, since the Palestinian-Israeli peace plan appears to be frozen indefinitely, Liberman’s views on Secular-Religious issues have become the new divide in the political landscape.

Chaos Leads to New Order

Israel’s present situation is untenable. While there are many long term solutions to reconfiguring the political structure, none of those will be implemented in the current climate.

Iran is surrounding Israel, while the State budget cannot be past in a caretaker government. The IDF needs upgrades and no new foreign policy initiatives can be undertaken. There will be a war sooner rather later. With the vacuum in politics, coupled with an external threat, the chaos coming will lead to a new paradigm.

The current vessels of the State were built within the darkness of the Bundist and self-loathing Jewish socialist leadership at the beginning of the State. This leadership was vicious and determined to root out any vestiges of Jewish roots of Israel’s raison d’etre. The coming chaos provides a unique opportunity to rectify the vessels of sovereignty and redemption, uplifting from the darkness from which they came.

Expect many surprises along the way.

PASSOVER: “May His Great Name be exalted and sanctified.”

Between Israel’s slavery in Egypt and the final redemption in Jerusalem, the story of the Exodus continues throughout time. In every generation we find challenges and heroes in our unbroken struggle for complete liberation as we inch ever closer toward history’s ultimate goal.

The festival of Pesaḥ is the holiday of Israel’s initial emancipation, marking the birth of the Hebrew Nation and HaShem’s great love for us. It was on this day that the Kadosh Barukh Hu took Israel out from Egyptian slavery in order that we become His human representatives in this world. We were brought from subjugation to freedom in order that we establish the civilization meant to express His Divine Ideal and bless humanity with the light of His Truth – a light that can only be illuminated through Israel experiencing complete independence in our historic homeland. It is therefore precisely on Pesaḥ – on the birthday of the Hebrew Nation – that we must educate ourselves to the true value of freedom.

Rashi teaches that the miracles of the Exodus began on the tenth of Nissan, a few days prior to the festival. It was on this date that Israel overcame our fears and psychologically freed ourselves from the chains of bondage. Each household prepared to slaughter a lamb, one of Egypt’s most prominent national deities, and displayed it defiantly for our oppressors to see. Although the Egyptians would naturally seek to punish their Hebrew slaves for such an offense, the Children of Israel remained miraculously unharmed. This was therefore the day on which the miracles of redemption truly began and when Hebrew courage was first demonstrated after so many years of persecution.

On Pesaḥ of 5707 (1947), the last year of British rule over Palestine, an important seder took place in the Jerusalem Central Prison. A few days before their scheduled executions by the foreign regime, six young men were conducting the Pesaḥ seder with Rabbi Yaakov Goldman. They were Dov Gruner, Mordekhai Alkaḥi, Yeḥiel Drezner, Eliezer Kashani and Meir Feinstein from the Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organization) and Moshe Barazani from the Loḥamei Ḥerut Yisrael (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel). Dressed in their red death row jumpsuits, these boys were provided with haggadot and food so that they could sit together and celebrate the holiday of their people’s freedom for the last time.

The young men eventually arrived at the part of the haggadah that relates Rabbi Akiva and other Sages discussing the Exodus from Egypt all night in B’nei Brak. When dawn broke, their students came to inform them that it was time to say “Shema Yisrael.”

The prisoners sitting around the table discussed where these rabbis might have been that they could not see the light of day in order to know the time. It is well known that these Sages had supported the Bar Kokhba Revolt against the Roman Empire and that Rabbi Akiva had even served as Bar Kokhba’s personal arms bearer. Acting as the spiritual leader of the insurrection, Rabbi Akiva had gone so far as to proclaim Bar Kokhba the Messiah. These rabbis must have been hiding in caves from where they were organizing the revolt against Rome. They were discussing the Exodus – the importance of freedom – all night long and when dawn broke, their students came to tell them that it was time for “Shema Yisrael” – time to sanctify G-D’s Name through liberating the Land of Israel from foreign rule.

Nearly two thousand years later, these six young men – freedom fighters captured and sentenced to death – were reading the story of the rabbis in B’nei Brak. Dov Gruner remarked to the others: “It is a shame that our political leaders do not learn what Rabbi Akiva said, that if the Egyptians had not received fifty makot (plagues/strikes) and another two hundred and fifty makot at the sea, they would never have granted the Hebrews their freedom. If Rabbi Akiva understood that in order to become free, there had to be makot, then why is it so difficult for Israel to understand now that we must give makot to the British in order to win our freedom?”

Dov Gruner – ready to be executed by the British administration – internalized the teachings of Rabbi Akiva, who had himself been brutally executed by Rome. Now, after nearly two thousand years of terrible degradation, the students of Rabbi Akiva had at long last arrived. The students that history had been waiting for had come to proclaim that dawn was finally braking. The students – all dressed in red and eating a prison seder only days before their executions by a modern incarnation of Rome – had arrived to reestablish a sovereign Hebrew state – even if at the expense of their lives. These were men who walked in the path of Rabbi Akiva, knowing that it was their final Pesaḥ seder before singing HaTikvah and mounting the British gallows. And without fear or regret, they questioned why the official Jewish leadership of their generation had not understood the eternal teachings of redemption.

Prior to his execution, Gruner wrote a farewell letter to his commander, Menaḥem Begin:

“Sir,

From the bottom of my heart I thank you for the encouragement that you have given me during these fateful days. Be assured that whatever happens I shall not forget the principles of dignity, generosity and resolve. I shall know how to uphold my honor, the honor of a Jewish soldier and fighter.

“I could have written in high-sounding phrases something like the old Roman ‘Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’ (‘it is sweet and proper to die for one’s country’). But words are cheap, and skeptics can say ‘after all, he had no choice.’ And they might even be right. Of course I want to live. Who doesn’t? But what pains me, now that the end is so near, is mainly the awareness that I have not succeeded in achieving enough. I too could have said ‘let the future take care of the future’ while enjoying life and being content with the job I was promised upon my demobilization. I could even have left the country altogether for a safer life in America. But this would not have satisfied me, neither as a Jew nor as a Zionist.

“There are many schools of thought as to how a Jew should choose his way of life. One way is that of the assimilationists who have renounced their Jewishness. There is also another way, the way of those who call themselves Zionists – the way of negotiation and compromise, as if the existence of a nation were but another transaction. They are not prepared to make any sacrifice and are therefore forced to make concessions and accept compromise. Perhaps this is a means of delaying the end but, in the final analysis, it leads to the ghetto. And let us not forget that in the ghetto of Warsaw alone there were five hundred thousand Jews.

“The only way that seems, to my mind, to be right, is the way of the Irgun Zvai Leumi, the way of courage and daring without renouncing a single inch of our homeland. When political negations prove futile, one must be prepared to fight for our country and our freedom. Without them the very existence of our nation is jeopardized, so fight we must with all possible means. This is the only way left to our people in our hour of decision: to stand on our rights, to be ready to fight, even if for some of us this way leads to the gallows. For it is a law of history that only with blood shall a country be redeemed. I am writing this while awaiting the hangman. This is not a moment at which I can lie, and I swear that if I had to begin my life anew I would have chosen the same path, regardless of the consequences.

Your faithful soldier,

Dov”

Dov Gruner embodied the teachings of Rabbi Akiva and understood the struggle for freedom in Eretz Yisrael as the highest and truest service to HaShem. After receiving Gruner’s letter, Menaḥem Begin wrote:

“Great is the courage in Israel at a time of destruction and in this time of resurrection. We will be proud of them all and in all of them we will recognize holiness. But in the ladder of Jewish heroism, there is one level that is supreme. And from that level arises those who are Harugei Malkhut (martyrs of the kingdom). They were fighters whose fighting was not passive. It was active. They were revolutionaries whose revolution was not without choice but initiated. They went to the gallows and their heroism was not once. It is eternal. From their bleeding hearts, a song of freedom was sung. The song that sang how there is no purpose in being slaves anymore and that freedom would win and justice would arrive. And now, G-D of Israel, I tell You: Because You have given Israel such children as these, I say ‘Yitgadal V’Yitkadash Sh’mei Rabbah.’”

Begin declares “Yitgadal V’Yitkadash Sh’mei Rabbah” – “May His Great Name be exalted and sanctified.” The evidence that G-D’s Name is exalted and sanctified is that Israel has sons who are prepared to give their lives – boys ready to sacrifice themselves on the alter of Israel’s freedom so that the next generation would see a Hebrew flag over Jerusalem.

The legendary tzadik of Jerusalem, Rabbi Aryeh Levine, came to see Yeḥiel Drezner before he was taken to the gallows. When Drezner asked the pious sage for help with the confessional viddui before death, Rabbi Levine began to cry. He told the young fighter not to worry about death and that the viddui tefillah is not necessary for martyrs.

And dawn broke. The British retreated from Eretz Yisrael shortly after the execution of these courageous boys. A Hebrew flag signifying renewed Jewish independence once again soared over portions of our homeland, initiating the first flowering of Israel’s redemption.

The Talmud (Brakhot 20a) asks why Israel experienced less open miracles in Talmudic times than in Biblical times. The Sages question if it might be because the Jewish people in Talmudic times were less immersed in the study of Torah. But the Talmud dismisses this and answers that it can be proven that there were Biblical generations that studied less Torah yet still experienced greater miracles. The Talmud continues by revealing that the difference is not due to a distinction in scholarship but rather to a distinction in self-sacrifice for the Hebrew mission. Israelis in Biblical times were more willing to give their lives for the sanctification of G-D’s Name. The Talmud therefore concludes that miracles are a result of courage and selfless devotion. When Israel is ready to meet HaShem half way, we are rewarded with assistance and great Divine kindness.

So dawn breaks not when Rabbi Akiva has students who merely study the Torah but rather when he has students who actually live the Torah and are willing to give their lives for the fulfillment of the Hebrew mission. The young death row inmates understood what the haggadah means when it proclaims that next year the Jewish people will be free. In blood and fire Hebrew sovereignty fell and in blood and fire it would again rise. The haggadah is not simply a book that teaches us what took place once upon a time in Egypt. Nor is it merely an instruction manual for properly conducting the rituals of a seder. The haggadah in every generation is meant to teach Israel how to liberate our people and to understand the basic values of our freedom. The heroic martyrs of the pre-state Jewish underground were not simply fighters. They were educators – educators for a generation who did not yet understand the true meaning of freedom. And when the Jewish people will understand the true significance and value of Hebrew liberation, there will no longer be any necessity for such martyrs.

The lesson is clear. Freedom is a miracle and miracles require valor. History demands that Israel establish a kingdom that will manifest the Divine Ideal in all spheres of national life in order to liberate humanity from a world of systemic injustice and false dogmas. But in order to accomplish this lofty mission we must first psychologically free ourselves, as did our ancestors in Egypt on the tenth of Nissan. The sooner we believe in ourselves and in our ability to stand proud as a strong moral force among nations, the closer we will come to expressing the full grandeur of HaShem’s Ideal for this world and ushering in an era of total blessing for humankind.

The British, the Holocaust, and the Responsibility for Fighting for Your Own Freedom

On May 16th 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto lay in ruin. The uprising that lasted nearly a month was extinguished by German forces. 12,000 Jews who would not go quietly died ts the hands of their merciless enemies and yet, something about the uprising changed the energy in regards to the Jewish Nation.  

For centuries Jews had gone willingly to their deaths.  Exile in Europe and the Arabs lands had beaten down the Jewish soul, grinding it to become one of sheeplike submission. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising gave a new message: “We are not your slaves.  We will not go quietly.”

Whether or not the fighters in the ghetto knew it, their valiant effort to restore a certain amount of respect and humanity into the Jewish Nation injected a new spirit in their brothers and sisters fighting for freedom in Israel.

The Holocaust was designed to destroy the hope of the eternal nation.  Hitler was not content at wiping out European Jews.  He sought to destroy them everywhere, including Israel.  The British fought Germany in WW2, but when it came to Israel the Nazis and Brits colluded in attempting to stamp out the fledgling Jewish community in the Land of Israel.  The Nazis worked to destroy the Jews of Europe, the Brits ensured they could not get into Israel, and of course the Arab street in the Holy Land acted as their willing foot soldiers in their continued attempts to wipe out the Jewish presence in the land.

It is not clear that a Jewish State could have happened before 1948, but what is clear is that if the British had allowed open immigration, there would have never been a Holocaust.

The World has been nurtured on the myth of an Israel born from the Holocaust, but this myth has perpetuated the lie that the Jews are to be eternal victims.  The State of Israel came about, because the Jews decided not to be victims anymore.  The Jews of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa decided that it was time to actualize the promise that the Creator had given to them.  It is not clear that a Jewish State could have happened before 1948, but what is clear is that if the British had allowed open immigration, there would have never been a Holocaust.  

Most people bring up the demographic challenge in Israel in regards to the Arabs that live West of the Jordan River, but the same Europe that challenges Israel on this issue is the Europe and especially Britain that is responsible for the demographic challenges.  By colluding with Israel’s enemies, the British sought to do what they did in all of their colonies and that is underhandedly ensure that a violent population opposed to the legitimate indigenous people would in effect dictate the future of the colony.  

The tool for this policy was the White Paper, seen below.  The key sentences are bolded:

Section 1

“His Majesty’s Government believe that the framers of the Mandate in which the Balfour Declaration was embodied could not have intended that Palestine should be converted into a Jewish State against the will of the Arab population of the country. […] His Majesty’s Government therefore now declare unequivocally that it is not part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State. They would indeed regard it as contrary to their obligations to the Arabs under the Mandate, as well as to the assurances which have been given to the Arab people in the past, that the Arab population of Palestine should be made the subjects of a Jewish State against their will.”

‘The objective of His Majesty’s Government is the establishment within 10 years of an independent Palestine State in such treaty relations with the United Kingdom as will provide satisfactorily for the commercial and strategic requirements of both countries in the future. [..] The independent State should be one in which Arabs and Jews share government in such a way as to ensure that the essential interests of each community are safeguarded.’

Section 2

‘His Majesty’s Government do not [..] find anything in the Mandate or in subsequent Statements of Policy to support the view that the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine cannot be effected unless immigration is allowed to continue indefinitely. If immigration has an adverse effect on the economic position in the country, it should clearly be restricted; and equally, if it has a seriously damaging effect on the political position in the country, that is a factor that should not be ignored. Although it is not difficult to contend that the large number of Jewish immigrants who have been admitted so far have been absorbed economically, the fear of the Arabs that this influx will continue indefinitely until the Jewish population is in a position to dominate them has produced consequences which are extremely grave for Jews and Arabs alike and for the peace and prosperity of Palestine. The lamentable disturbances of the past three years are only the latest and most sustained manifestation of this intense Arab apprehension […] it cannot be denied that fear of indefinite Jewish immigration is widespread amongst the Arab population and that this fear has made possible disturbances which have given a serious setback to economic progress, depleted the Palestine exchequer, rendered life and property insecure, and produced a bitterness between the Arab and Jewish populations which is deplorable between citizens of the same country. If in these circumstances immigration is continued up to the economic absorptive capacity of the country, regardless of all other considerations, a fatal enmity between the two peoples will be perpetuated, and the situation in Palestine may become a permanent source of friction amongst all peoples in the Near and Middle East.’

“Jewish immigration during the next five years will be at a rate which, if economic absorptive capacity permits, will bring the Jewish population up to approximately one third of the total population of the country. Taking into account the expected natural increase of the Arab and Jewish populations, and the number of illegal Jewish immigrants now in the country, this would allow of the admission, as from the beginning of April this year, of some 75,000 immigrants over the next four years. These immigrants would, subject to the criterion of economic absorptive capacity, be admitted as follows: For each of the next five years a quota of 10,000 Jewish immigrants will be allowed on the understanding that a shortage one year may be added to the quotas for subsequent years, within the five-year period, if economic absorptive capacity permits. In addition, as a contribution towards the solution of the Jewish refugee problem, 25,000 refugees will be admitted as soon as the High Commissioner is satisfied that adequate provision for their maintenance is ensured, special consideration being given to refugee children and dependents. The existing machinery for ascertaining economic absorptive capacity will be retained, and the High Commissioner will have the ultimate responsibility for deciding the limits of economic capacity. Before each periodic decision is taken, Jewish and Arab representatives will be consulted. After the period of five years, no further Jewish immigration will be permitted unless the Arabs of Palestine are prepared to acquiesce in it.”

Section 3

“The Reports of several expert Commissions have indicated that, owing to the natural growth of the Arab population and the steady sale in recent years of Arab land to Jews, there is now in certain areas no room for further transfers of Arab land, whilst in some other areas such transfers of land must be restricted if Arab cultivators are to maintain their existing standard of life and a considerable landless Arab population is not soon to be created. In these circumstances, the High Commissioner will be given general powers to prohibit and regulate transfers of land.

 

The Revolt and Never Again

The White Paper was built to create a Jewish dependent within the Land of Israel.  The British knew the Jews had no hope of surviving under a majority Arab rule, which they created by allowing open Arab immigration while restricting Jewish immigration.

Each section can be summed up in the following way: “We British have no interest in a sovereign Jewish State and will ensure this by preventing Jews from moving to their ancestral homeland and restricting land sales to Jews.”  

The White Paper was the British way of creating another Warsaw Ghetto The Jews of Israel began a Revolt in February of 1944, less than a year after their brothers and sisters in Europe rose up to fight instead of being gassed like passive sheep.

The revolt led by the Irgun of Menachem Begin and the Lehi of Shamir, Eldad, and Mor succeeded in taking the spirit of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to the front lines of the war for Hebrew freedom in the Land of Israel.  This war lasted until the the British left, licking their wounds on what is now Israel Independence Day.

 

Holocaust Remembrance Day is more than remembering the fallen Jews of the Holocaust, it is about understanding that it is up to us to ensure a prevention of profaning the name of G-d, which occurs when his children are wantonly destroyed.  We may lose or win, but the fight is necessary to preserve the name of the Creator in the World. Blessings are eternal, but they can only be actualized by action.  

Driving the British out and defeating five British trained Arab armies from destroying the Jewish state, restored the Name of G-d to its rightful place. The action which began this reversal was the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Never Again, does not mean we always win.  It means from now on the Jewish Nation will not allow the name of G-d to be tarnished by our passivity.  Never Again!

Confining Meir Ettinger, Israel Tries to Derail a Revolution

When one strolls the streets of Jerusalem these days, Meir Ettinger’s picture is everywhere. The posters demand justice for the young activist.  After all no one has charged him with anything and yet he remains in administrative detention, now for another four months.  Ettinger tried to influence the latest decision by going on a hunger strike, which rallied many rightwing activists behind him, but the security apparatus appeared unshaken.

The question that remains is what is the State of Israel so threatened by, which causes them to hold Ettinger for so long?

To answer this one must look back into the annals of Zionist history.

Although the Zionist movement’s goals were to attain statehood in the Land of Israel, the movement grew in various ways and approaches in reaching this goal. For most the state was a solution to a greater issue. Three distinct types of Zionism had formed by the time the Jews of the Holy Land revolted against the British Empire.

Settling the Land Leads to Sovereignty

Practical Zionism sprung forth in the late 19th Century by way of land purchases in Israel. Led by the “Lovers of Zion” movement Practical Zionists believed that the most important action to take was to settle as much of the Land of Israel as possible.  In their eyes independence would be driven by control and could only be sought after once the land was settled.  Statecraft was not on their radar.  

Speeches Will Gain Us Standing

Political Zionism took to heart the failure of the European Jews’ emancipation and decided to win supporters for resettlement in the Land of Israel.  Those who ascribed hope for the Jewish Nation in the international community believed that a Jewish State could be attained by appealing to “friendly” nations of the need to avoid a Jewish catastrophe.

Herzl was a Political Zionist.  Although the World Zionist Congress and World Zionist Organization (under Jabotinsky) achieved global notoriety, sovereignty was not decided in the halls of law around the world.  Only one form of Zionism merged all the necessary components to be able to take on the British Empire.

Zionism is about National Jewish Liberation

When Menachem Begin became the head of the Irgun he adopted the Lehi’s outlook on Revolutionary Zionism.  This is of course not a surprise as the Israel Eldad became the philosophical head of Lehi after Avraham Stern was killed. Eldad and Begin were good friends and chess partners. Their brand of Zionism saw the direct need to push each and every occupying power out of the Land of Israel.

Zev Golan writes in his book Stern and his Gang, “For Lehi, sovereignty was not a solution but a goal, an expression of Jewish culture, as any nation-state is the expression of a people’s culture. The few hundred Lehi fighters of 1943 declared themselves determined to fight  war to liberate the homeland from the foreigner.  It mattered not to them whether this foreigner was Turk, as it had been, British as it was then, or someone else in the future.”

The Lehi fighters desired to “establish the Hebrew kingdom based on our historic rights, on our national desire as expressed in all the messianic longings and attempts [Lohamey Herut Israel, Collected Writings].”

The Revolution Continues

When we succeeded in chasing the British Empire out of the Land of Israel, the nation was not ready for its destiny.  It’s true the State of Israel is successful, but goals of the Zionist Revolution as envisioned by Begin and Eldad have never been accomplished.  

Building a true Jewish State, one that pushes its sovereignty to all corners of our biblical promise has not come about.  Large areas of our ancestral homeland lie under the feet of foreign occupation.  The Temple Mount, “liberated” by fearless Jewish warriors in 1967, stands defiled and trampled by the urinating masses of Muslims who care more about controlling the holiest site to Jews than treating it with respect.

Jews are still murdered for daring to return to their ancestral homeland and politicians care far more about Western values than being proud Jewish leaders.

Meir Ettinger was arrested six months ago, and is still confined because he dared to speak the truth.  There have been no charges filed against Meir, but he is the most “dangerous man in Israel.” Why? Simply, because he called for the revolution to continue.  And why not?  Afterall Jewish destiny at the end of the day is Messianic. Meir’s revolt was not physical.  If it was it would not last.  The government in Israel is scared of the most potent revolt of all, an awakening that we have incomplete work here.  For that the elites who run the State of Israel are truly scared.

They are scared because their destiny expresses the internal struggle held within.  That we may actually be who we say we are and our return is more than just a temporal liberation, but rather the ultimate liberation which if allowed to reach fruition can liberate the entire world.

Deep down inside we all know the system we live in is a system that defines state institutions as divine. However, a system that disconnects itself from its divine mission does not get to claim inherent divinity.  Divinity is attained by expressing that which is held within each one of us.  The Zionist Revolution will only be complete when the State returns to the mission it was intended for and that is the complete and total liberation of Zion with the goal of setting up a true and righteous kingdom.

 

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.

****

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.