Archives: 2015

If, in theory, dismantling settlemets would bring about peace and a cessation of teror and hostility, most would agree that it is justified. After all, Judaism allows all Torah commandments save idolatry, adultery and murder, to be violated if it is necessary to save a life. One can certainly argue that achieveing peace is a life-saving accomplishment.

On the other hand, the Jewish People are commanded to dwell in their land. That is even obligatory if it means fighting. Otherwise, what is the difference between the West Bank and Tel Aviv? If Israel voluntarily dismantles itself and all the Jews move to the US, that may be said to bring about peace and save lives. Yet no one in their right mind would suggest such a thing.

So is one part of the Land of Israel different than the whole of the Land? I think yes, and historically we find that King Solomon gave cities in the North to the King of Tyre. So perhaps a small territorial gift that enables the rest to live in peace is justified.

The problem with all this talk is that it is based on a theoretical that is non-existent. There is no guarantee that ceding territory and dismantling settlements will bring peace. There is a guarantee that it would weaken Israel strategically. It seems to me that the "life-saving" argument actually goes the other way and forbids giving away territory.

But it's not just theory, there is precedent. Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza strip. Thousands of families in dozens of settlements were uprooted. The end result? Missile fire and terrorism. No peace.

There is no reason to think that further uprootings would have any different result.

Also, the western world does not know how small Israel is. To leave the post '67 areas would again leave Israel with a narrow belly of only 11 miles! Imagine putting enemy guns across the Hudson and trying to keep New York safe. Same deal. The heavily populated central Israel area would be only 11 miles from Arabs. If they follow Gaza precedent, all of Tel Aviv will be in and out of bomb shelters.

Nope, saving lives implies keeping the settlements and the territories. Only if there is a clear destination of peace could we even think of compromise. There is no such destination, and there is no partner ready for it. If they wanted peace, they'd have had it long ago. They want Israel to be theirs to transform into Palestine, and eliminate the Jewish State.

Read the news, the leaders can't bring themselves to recognize that Israel is a Jewish State.

Sorry to disappoint, but reality must be faced.

At the beginning of the section of "Pekudei" in Exodus, there is a precise accounting of the materials donated for the Tabernacle. Such an amount of gold was used for this, and so much silver was used for that, etc... Moses made this accounting so he shouldn't be a headline in the newspaper. He did not want the slightest doubt to his honesty, and made sure that the accounting was very public and very accurate.

Which is what the people demanded. And yet, by contrast, they demanded no such accounting for all the gold and silver that they had given for the Golden Calf!!! On the surface, this is an indictment! It seems they were more generous for that tragic sin than for the Holy Sanctuary! How can this be?

The answer lies in two Hebrew terms used for the creative work in the sanctuary: avodah and melacha. The former means "labor". The latter means "artistic labor". What is the difference?

My teacher, Rav Ahron Soloveichik, explains it as follows. Avodah-Labor is fulfilling the technical requirements of a job, in a manner where the work is mechanical and extraneous to the personality of the doer. Melacha-Artistic Labor is where the doer invests their personality, their soul into the work.

In practical business terms, it is a tale of two salesmen. Both have a sheet of leads to call. The avodah laborer will call the numbers, read the sales script, and probably not sell too much. It is extraneous to him, his soul is not in it. The melacha-laborer will also call the leads, but will have an enthusiasm about him that will close many sales.

With this explanation, we now see how, indeed, the demand for accounting from Moses when the people donated to the Sanctuary, and the lack of such a demand when they donated for the Calf is a great merit. Rav Sorotzkin, in his work Oznaim Latorah, explains the difference:

The people did not really connect to the Calf with their souls. It was an extraneous act that they temporarily fell into. Thus, they really didn't care where the money went. Subconsciously, they would have been happy if the Calf never happened. But the Sanctuary was dear to them, was part of their very being. Therefore, they wanted to be absolutely certain that every penny was used for its intended purpose.

Perhaps this is why the term for idolatry is "Avodah zara," a foreign Labor, as opposed to "melacha zara."

So how about the minute? When a person prays, or performs any commandment, do they do it "to fulfill the obligation?" Are they meeting the technical requirements without thyat soul connection? The test is in the minute before. If the person pauses, gathers their concentration, recites a prayer that the commandment they are about to fulfill should find favor in God's eyes, then odds are that they connect personally to this good deed.

But if they rush in, hurry to get it over with and their mind is elsewhere, they have missed a chance to grow tremendously as a spiritual person. All it takes is a minute, and a minute, and a minute.

A gnawing question. The Canaanites were not good people. Their societies practiced serious abominations, including human sacrifice and orgiastic religious ceremonies. They were warlike and, simply, barbaric. Compared to the Israelites, Jacob and his family, they were simply evil. Jacob espoused humanity and dignity. When his sons committed acts of war against Shechem, he sternly rebuked them and the crime was not repeated.

So it is puzzling that these Canaanite nations gained Divine merit at the direct expense of the Israelites. It happened when Joseph, his brothers and an Egyptian honor guard came to Canaan in order to bury their patriarch, Jacob. The procession stopped at a place called Goren HaAtad, and there a tremendous mourning took place. According to the sages, the Canaanite kings had come out in a belligerent mood, intending to destroy the rerurnin Israelites,

But when they saw the intensity of the mourning, they hung their crowns above Jacob's coffin. They showed him respect. According to our sages, he was respected because the famine in Egypt ceased when Jacob arrived their, and resumed when he passed away. Thus, he became revered. When the Canaanites became aware of this, they, too, showed him respect and hung the crowns.

All is fine so far. The problem starts with the aftermath of this display of respect for the Tzaddik, the righteous one. The Canaanites were granted another long period of time in the soon-to-be Holy Land, while the Israelites went back to Egypt, eventually to suffer the worst of oppression and slavery. Is that fair? So they showed some respect, but they didn't change their basic ways! Why do they get a free pass at the expense of the far-more-moral Israelites?

In a sense, this was the question that lead the prophet Jonah to run away on a ship rather than preach to the gentiles of Nineveh. Jonah knew that the Assyrians of Nineveh would threaten his kingdom in the future, so he felt it would be better for Israel if they don't receive God's message of repentance and thus merit destruction. If it's us or them, better them, thought Jonah. After all, even if they repent (from the sin of lawlessness and theft), they will still not be nearly as righteous as Israel! They will still be idolaters.

God eventually forces Jonah to fulfill the mission, and Jonah succeeds in motivating all Ninevenians to repentance, thus saving them from God's threatened destruction. Jonah is now despondent, and he places himself on the ground outside the city. God will now teach him a lesson, and answer the gnawing question.

Overnight, God causes a beautiful tree to grow, giving Jonah shade. Just as Jonah enjoys it, a worm eats its roots and the tree instantly withers and dies. Jonah is even more despondent. He wants to die. Then God gives him the core message: You had mercy on this tree that came overnight and disappeared overnight. Shall I not have mercy on such a large city as Nineveh and all the humanity and animals therein?

In the words of the Radak, a Biblical commentator, Jonah was upset because his pleasure, in the shade of the tree, was taken away. God says to Jonah that His glory is present in ALL mankind, and thus if they sin and are destroyed, God's glory is diminished.

I believe that this is the core message of what God wants in the world. He wants perfection, to be sure, but is teaching us that the way to get there is through Tikun, through fixing. We do not fix that which is already fixed, but that which is broken. That being the case, Tikun is far more important than anything else. Fixing the Ninevenians, fixing the pagan Canaanites, takes precedence over the "already fixed" Israelites. Or, one could say, by fixing the Ninevenians and Canaanites, God is preparing the tools to further fix the Israelites. After all, Assyria will chastise Israel, and the Egyptian slavery will forge them into an even holier nation.

In either case, the emphasis is on fixing. Even a small fix, which may or may not last, carries great weight with God.

The lecturer I heard suggested that the route to achieving goals runs through focusing on all the potential blocks, obstacles and problems. If, instead of simply planning to reach my goal, I plan to surmount all of the obstacles to my success, I will end up with a far better plan.

My teacher, Rav Ahron Soloveichik, stressed the importance of educating mentally handicapped children. Why, society may ask, focus on that? They won't become great scholars. Maybe all the resources should be put into elite education!

Rav Ahron gave a resounding "no". We are a chain, and a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. By strengthening the weak link, the whole chain will hold better. The Haggadah urges us to engage the "Child who cannot ask," which Rav Ahron identifies as a child with disabilities. One famous Talmudic sage would teach such a student a simple lesson 400 times! It is that important, because God's glory is in ALL humanity. Therefore, by pursuing Tikun - Fixing, we enhance God's glory and move toward the universal goals of the messianic era far more effectively.