G-d, Torah, Eretz Yisrael = ONE!

This is a dvar Torah I put in my shul newsletter a few months back. I wonder if people got the message ;)

“Whoever forgets one thing of his Torah learning, it’s as if he bears guilt for his soul.” (Avot 3:10) This is a very interesting line that Perkei Avos brings, but what does it mean? Surely someone who forgets something that he learns isn’t chayiv b’nafsho!? Rav Avraham Twerski brings this line into a more clear light by explaining that we shouldn’t read it as ‘Whoever forgets one thing,” rather we should read it, “Whoever forgets the One,” i.e. Hashem. Rav Twerski goes on to explain that there are many of us who will go about our lives doing Mizvot, learning Torah, but in the process of doing this we forget about our ultimate goal.

It is taught that Hashem, Torah, and Eretz Yisrael are considered one, and if we are not striving to acquire all 3 of these, we won’t be able to serve Hashem in the best possible way. We can’t learn Torah properly without knowledge of Hashem, without the Torah Eretz Yisrael is meaningless, and we can’t properly fulfill all of the mitzvos in the Torah while being outside the land of Israel.

If we treat each one of these as individual items, without a connection between each one, life looses its spirituality and the endeavors we strive for, will turn into ‘just another aspect of out life,’ without being the true goal of life. For instance, if someone learns Torah without the knowledge of G-d, and doesn’t incorporate what he learns into his life, the gemarah or halacha he learns, is no different to him, than learning a math or science book.

To solve this problem is easy; we have start being more aware of each of these aspects which define a Jew, and start doing whatever we can to, instead of these elements being part of our life, start to incorporate these as being our life. Once we are able to do this, we will be able to lead more productive and enjoyable lives, because our purpose and goals will be more clearly defined.

What if Israel was more comfotable?

I heard an interesting question today: If Israel was more comfortable, economically more stable and more prosperous, would more American Jews want to make aliyah more than they do now? This is coming off a rather daring move on my part to put an article by Riva Pomerantz in our shul's weekly newsletter. This of course brought the usual conversations from people on both sides of the arguments, with one person telling me that he absolutely will not make aliyah until Mashiach comes, to the father of a family that will be making aliyah in December, telling me how proud he and his wife are that these kinds of things are being put in our newsletter.
But would I have gotten the same answer from the first guy, if we lived in a less comfortable country than Israel? I mentioned the fact that I'm making aliyah to an older couple in the community and the wife asked me, "You think you'll be more comfortable there?"
No one (from America) moves to Israel because it's more comfortable. There are many obstacles that one must overcome to make a successful aliyah, from the bureaucratic nightmares, to ulpan, to adjusting to life without a dishwasher, Starbucks, or ziploc bags. I read an article by someone I know who made aliyah 2 years ago about their Lag B'Omer experience and how a neighbor, who had returned from the States 2 days before had treated everyone to 'real' American hot dogs.
I certainly am not moving to Israel for comfort reasons, I'm not moving to escape anything, and I'm not moving because it will be 'easier.' I'm moving because Israel, even with all of the challenges and problems that it has, is still my home as well as the home of the entire Jewish people, and I want to live in a country where my holidays are the national holiday, where I don't have to explain to my boss what a succah is and why I have to take off of work to sit in it, and I want my children to be the first generation of my family to speak Hebrew as a first language.
But most importantly, I want to be able to say that I've done my part to put an end to the image of the wandering Jew, and be able to say that I'm home. Finally.

Was I right or was I wrong?

I said last week that something big would happen (or start to happen) this week in Israel. Hopefully something that will lead to the destruction of out enemies and peace in the Homeland.
Well the big news of last week is that Hamas and Fatah have started another civil war in Gaza. This has unfortunately lead to a large number of kassam rockets being fired into Sderot and other parts of Israel, but this has finally called on Olmert to take some kind of action.
Not that his action has been very helpful, but the IAF has started firing at the missile launchers n Gaza and there's been talk (at least from the right-wing in the Kenesset) of a large scale ground operation into Gaza.
I remember back in 2005, the arguments that took place about the expulsion of Gush Katif, how the right-wing side was saying yehdi lo migaresh yehudi, Jews don't throw other Jews out, and the Left saying that, by giving the Arabs their own land, would give Israel the ability to treat them like an enemy country if they shot rockets into Israel, and wipe them out. Ariel Sharon even said at one point the if one rocket came into Israel the IDF was going to go in and wipe them out.
Almost 2 years and hundreds of rockets later, Israel still has not taken any significant action against Gaza. I hope that the current situation will eventually lead to the expulsion of the Arabs, to other lands, and the Jews can once again populate all of Eretz Yisrael.
Now for the incompetence of the PM. Olmert made an absolutely outrageous statement last week that had Tovia Singer in an uproar. Olmert announced that the current attacks in Sderot would not warrant a serious response because no one had been killed.
If a rocket was ever launched from Mexico into Texas, the US would have a bout a 45 second delay from the moment the report came in until the fighter jets dropped bombs, and destroyed the entire area from which the rocket came from.
Why does Israel refuse to respond to rockets that are being fired into it's own country.
Tamar Yonah has been talking now for about a year about MEFTA, Middle East Free Trade Agreement. How the US State Department wants to bing peace to the area, not for the sake of Israel or the Arabs, but so the stability in the region will open up the ability to create a free -trade-bloc and that would translate into more money in the world economy.
The truth is, I don't have a problem with this, but the desire for this trade bloc should not be at the expense of Israel's security and future. A new way should be found to solve this conflict and I truthfully believe that, unless something drastic happens, the only way to achieve this is to get all of the Arabs out of Israel and settled somewhere else.

American Jews? tut, tut, tut

Rockets are continuing to fall in Israel and there have some serious injuries from them the past few day. I feel really guilty here in America, here I am sitting at my computer writing without any fear of being shot at. Why is the world silent about this!? More importantly why are the Jewish people silent about this? Why is every Rabbi in every shul in America not getting in front of their congregation and demanding that we as American Jews should be organizing donations, rallies, SOMETHING! American Jews really disgust me, everyday I pass by a shul that is in the middle of building an enormous simcha hall, apperently when it's finished, it will be the biggest in the area. Every time I drive by there all I can think is why they don't put a big sign out front with big letters saying "GALUS WE LOVE IT HERE." I've said it before, and I'm going to continue saying it until every Jew in America is planning to move to Israel. I understand that there are some people who can't manage it at the moment, but everything that they do should go with the question "Is thus getting me closer, or further away from Israel?" I do it every day with everything I do. What really kicks me is the whole idea of 'there's no chiyuv because Mashiach's not here, blah, blah, blah."
If they start rounding up Jews and putting them in cattle cars like the did 65 years ago will it be the right time then? And even if Mashiach comes, it's not like he's going to appear and we're all going to magically float to Israel and have a house set up, and a community and know how to do things there. There will be an adjustment period, just like there is today when one makes Aliyah, but the difference between someone who makes Aliyah today, and someone who's "waiting for "Mashiach" is that one is being proactive and saying, "G-d, I'm going to make a sacrifice and I'm willing to suffer if it means securing the future of the Jewish people and getting closer to you," while the other says, "This is the place I am because of the decision of my parents, this is my native homeland, I don't see why I should suffer in any way in moving to foreign country."


On the other hand there are a lot of people who simply are never exposed to the idea that Jews belong in Israel. Period. As well as non-religious Jews who don't know anything about Judaism. So (I've heard this one before) Rabbi's have to stay behind to be able collect everyone, right?
Wrong!
Think about it, who will most likely bring other people on Aliyah with them? I'm give you three guesses. If a Rabbi of a shul, especially a shul in which the Rabbi is really loved, decided to make Aliyah, how much of the congregation is likely to follow? Depending on the situation I would guess that 5% would go with him and between 15%-40& would come over the following years.
There are more then 500 people in some communities, that's between 75 and 200 olim. How awesome would it be for there to be a Nefesh B'Nefesh flight that's all from one shul? I think that if one shul in America could pull that off, more would follow. Nefesh B'Nefesh made aliyah history, and it's time to do it again. If an major Aliyah Revolution of this caliber would happen the non-religious Jews would ask themselves why all of the religious Jews were moving to Israel. This would then lead to a large number of them making Aliyah.
But there will definitely be people who will say that they are comfortable in America and stay. An those people will be in big trouble. Why? Because during makah of Chosech, darkness, all of the Jews who to comfortable in Egypt and unwilling to leave, were killed by G-d. I'm really afraid for these people and I wish there was someway to help them. People attack me for being pro-aliyah, they don't realize that I'm not doing this to make their miserable, I'm doing this because I love them I just want the best for them and the Jewish people.

When there is no more Jewish life in America, the other variable that is killing the Jewish demographic in Israel, Yiridah, will end. A secular Israeli sees a very frum looking Jew in Boro Park or Baltimore, and says "Hey he's a Jews and he's living a better Jewish life then I am in the Exile. He also has very comfortable and is living in the 'land of oppurtunity.' If he, a frum Jews, can do it, why can't I leave Israel?" And another Jew is lost.

It's not all bad. . . "The Sky is Burning"

I wrote this poem during one of the days my English teacher was trying to get us to be 'creative,' So I wrote a poem about terrorism in Israel and disguised it as an Iraq situation. The class loved it and I enjoyed it as well, but they didn't know what it really was. . .

The sky is burning
A fire lite by uninvited guests
Uninvited guests riding noisy machines
Birds, whose lives are under siege

The sky is burning in an orange haze
A suicide bomber has escaped his maze
Slipping past distracted eyes
He's gone to fulfill what he's been told, lies

The sky is burning and I don't know why
As fighters streak across the sky
To attack a vicious foe
But what do they really know?

The sky has cleared but what remains
Wanderers in the street are game
As a house turns to black
We know we won't be going back

An Eagle's flying in the sky
It's been put there because of a lie
I catch one of its tears in my hand
It's only trying to defend its land

Charred corpses litter the ground
Moving only by the sound
Of a sonic boom of a jet
flown by a soon to be vet

Threats of death at every turn
The sun's now up and it's starting to burn
Hope of a bright future that lay ahead
Now I'm afraid will soon be dead

Broken windows, roads, and sidewalks
Make this war too real
But I know someone, somewhere is sitting comfortably behind the wheel

Sending brainwashed youth to do the deed
A leader watching his TV laying in his bed
wondering what it would be like
To have his kin there instead

The sun is up now past noon
Blazing hot, and its only June
Looking for non-existent shade
Lack of water is starting to fade

The electricity and water are now back on
But who knows for how long
As explosions are going on outside
All I want to do is hide

The Eagle's crashed, I don't know where
But dusk is rapidly approaching out there
The beast that sleeps during
The day, comes out at night to play
A smart person would stay away
But as the moon starts to rise
A scream pierces the night
Silencing the former eagle of slight

The Israeli Eagle

Here's a video made by some friends of mine who fought in the IDF.

Radical Islam's Coverup and the Left's denial

Interesting stuff going in my English today. Thank G-d I only have to sit through that class one more time, but this final class period will prove interesting. We're having a debate on whether violence is 'ever' okay, or if it's never okay. Then of all of the things my Christian and Judaism denying teacher has to do is quote one of the Commandments, "You should not kill." Of course if you actually look at the Hebrew, I believe it translates as "You should not murder," but I didn't feel like debating with my teacher. I'm done next week and I've realized that I'm not going to change her and she isn't going to change, so our verbal jousts are really pointless.
Anyways, she was explaining how this 'no violence' thing was going to work. Apparently America should lay down it's arms and once we do that all violence will disappear.

Yeah, right.

That might have been one of the stupidest statements I've ever heard. Not that I'm against peace, but I don't think that the way to peace is to stop fighting and put the next move in your enemies court.
But this really explained a lot about how the Liberal mind works. They have convinced themselves that Radical Islam is a myth (or that it's misunderstood) and they that the way to deal with it is to not seem aggressive to them, and not attack something we don't understand. I don't thing that it takes a genius to realize that when someone has the means to kill, and says he's going to kill, there probably a good chance that he's going to eventually come and kill you. Of course my teacher would tell you the Radical Islam doesn't exist, that it was something that was invented to create an excuse to attack Arabs.
I wish that we didn't have to fight anyone, but when I see video's of Arab leaders chanting 'Death to Israel and the Jews,' and 'Death to America,' the last thing I want to do is sit back and see how this unfolds. I want to do something about it, because something has to be done, even if 'violent' action must be taken.

My research paper last semester was about how Radical Islam is taking over America, not with weapons and force, but by indoctrinating the minds of college students. Arab countries send thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Arabs to college campuses all over America with the one goal of creating sympathy or the Arabs, and for some other strange reason, hatred for Israel (go figure). I'm seeing it in this class, how can she be shown a video of cartoon characters telling Arab children to grow up to be a suicide bomber, and not be disgusted with it. The goal is to have the next generation, not have any animosity towards Arab's and then they don't have to fight a battle, they've already won.

I saw it today, she believes that America is the terrorist. America have isolated who they deem a 'terrorist' and then they attack. She almost makes it seem like that the Arabs were good guys.

Go figure.

Now obviously not all Arabs are bad, but the situation is that it is almost impossible for Arabs who have a moderate voice to speak out. Arab families are very large and most of the Arabs who leave Arab countries have large amounts of family that are left behind. This creates a situation where they can't speak out against the Arab countries for fear of their families being killed.
Look at the few who do speak out, Nonie Darwish, Brigitte Gabriel, none of the them have family left in the countries they were raised in. Walid Shoebat rejected Jihad and was alienated and threatened by his own family.
This is unfortunately the case with many of these Arabs, they simply can't speak out.

This of course puts the Arabs and the Left in a position of power.

I hope we have some strong people who will lead America in the future, people who will really recognize the threat that is facing America. I will B"H be in Israel by the time any of this happens.
I'm not worried, because America has people protecting it. Israel has the G-d of the Jewish people and the entire world.

I'm comforted by the fact however that we will win, in the end. It just depends how many trials and tribulations we have to go through.

Am Yisrael. . .Chazak!

I was watching this video today. This is a very moving video that was released in the hight of the suicide bombings a few years ago. Chazak-We Will be Strengthened

Some more thoughts

I want to repeat something Rav Gold of Har Nof once said about the 'secular' government and society of the current day of Israel. In this 'secular' country we have seen the biggest growth of Torah learning in the Galut then any other time in history (besides maybe Bavel) and in the meantime America's Jewish community is rapidly declining into assimilation ans intermarriage.
Israel may be secular but it's still Jewish, albeit not Frum. 80% of the population fasts on Yom Kippur (In America it's probably more like 15% but I'm just guessing) everybody speaks Hebrew, Jewish identification is very high, Jewish birth rate are through the roof and going higher, and even if someone doesn't marry a Frum person, they still in all likelihood will end up marrying a Jew.
The topic of Yerida is a different topic for later, but right now the point I want to make is that Israel is not the problem, it's the solution to all of the 'problems' that Jews face here in America.

My Predictions for the Israeli Government

I want my view's put out there so that next week, when Olmert resigns, I have proof that my predictions were right (if they're wrong, then I delete this post and no one ever has to know). As I said before, next week is the 40th anniversary of the recapture of Jerusalem by the Jews. 40 is a mystical number in Judaism (40 years in the desert, 40 days and 40 nights by Noah's flood, etc.) and I believe that the last 40 years have been a 'wandering' time for Israel and the Jewish people. I think we have sunk to the lowest level that we can go, just like the Bnai Yisrael in the desert, and now we have nowhere to go but up.
I think that Olmert will resign sometime next week, my dad thinks he won't last until the end of this week.
But Bibi Netanyahu will be the next PM, I have no doubt in my mind about. I think that we will finally start to see some strong leadership in this country, and hopefully by the time I make Aliyah, all of the bureaucratic nonsense will have been resolved (hey, I can always dream can't I).

Nefesh B'Nefesh's Secret. . .

I remember how last year I my big thing was trying to prove to the Christians how I was right and they were wrong about about G-d, the Torah, and the 'Messiah.' Now my big thing is fighting for Israel's right to exist from radical left-wingers. I'm worried that the next thing I'm going to face is actually going to be a Muslim.

But as I always said, I needed to be able to do 3 things when I left yeshiva.

1. I had to be able to defend the Torah from the Christians

2. I had to be able to defend Israel from the Muslims and the Left Wingers

3. and I had to be able to defend G-d from the Non-religious (or even religious!) Jews

Now that I've been back in America for a while I've realized that there is a fourth category:

4. I have to be able to convince the Jews of America to make Aliyah

One of the things that have really helped Nefesh B'Nefesh become so successful, has been that they are not approaching the Aliyah process from a religious or spiritual perspective. They've realized that the reason a comfortable Jew in America doesn't make Aliyah, is primarily for physical, not spiritual, reasons. So they have been basing their recruitment on more of a business field. In fact they had a representative of NBN on the Israel National Radio's Aliyah show a few weeks ago, who said that a happy customer will bring more customers.

This past summer, 50% of the olim who came on Aliyah, either had friends or relatives who had been on previous NBN flights. If you give the customer a satisfactory experience, they will tell everyone about it and encourage them to experience it themselves.

Because Israel really is the greatest place in the world

Am Chazak

A Battle. . .and DEFEAT of a Left Wing Wacko!

I had a very proud moment today. Last week we watched the 'let's promote killing Jews" movie Paradise Now. I had emailed my teacher with my (obvious) concerns about showing this movie to a room of ignorant students, how the viewpoint of this movie would cloud their judgement when it came to Israel and the Middle East.
Of course this has been the teacher that has been preaching tolerance, and acceptance of the Arabs the entire semester. What did I expect?

"Oh, your absolutely right, but you see I have an agenda to brainwash my students so when the Islamofacists take over America this country will be unprepared."

So I managed to convince her to at least have a discussion about this trash film after we watched it.

For her, this was a big mistake.

Anyway, she had given us a journal entry to write about this movie. I just ranted for two pages about how she was wrong and slammed a bunch of questions that Left-wingers can't answer down her throat. At this point I don't care about my grade, I know that no matter what I do she's going to grade me on her political bias, and because of the fact that I'm a Jew (and a proud Israel-living Jew at that).

At first she had restricted this 'discussion' to what people had written in their journals. I wouldn't have any of that, and she knew it, so I threw my first question at her.

Michael Moore made a claim in his movie Fahrenheit 9/11 that President Bush was sending the poor and uneducated to fight in his war. My teacher at one point in the semester had made a similar comment.
I asked her how she can attack Bush on this point but be able to not call the terrorists on it. There is a scene in Paradise Now (actually many) that show the 'head' terrorists having no sympathy whatsoever to the poor brainwashed individuals they're sending to die. Even so much as to eat their lunch's as the terrorist is making his farewell speech. The movie obviously toned down the violent nature of these terrorists, but for this arguments sake. . .

She didn't answer the question. She went on a rampage saying that America has villain-ized the Arabs in an attempt to make it OK to bomb their countries. She then threw in a good icing-on-the-cake comment and said that America drops some kind of powder that burns through it's victims skin and bone.
She was using a classic side-stepping debate technique. Instead of answering the question she continues the attack in the hope of pulling the audience onto her side.

I decided not to respond, and waited if anymore juicy opportunities would arise. It was a good thing I waited.

At one point someone asked her why there was a conflict between the Arabs and Israel at all. She said that it was a matter of land, how the Jews stole it, blah, blah, blah.
Then they asked who was on that land first, and she said the Palestinians.

Now she either was lying, or she's really been brainwashed. Either way I had to call her on it.

"Excuse me, but that's not true."

She turned to me and said that the Jews believe they have a biblical claim to that land, and this is there justification for throwing the 'poor Palestinians' from their land. (Personal attack at me)

Then the comment that started the downward fall of her credibility. My class is about 80% Christian so these words rang real deep with them.
"Everyone knows that the Bible is just a myth."

Not wanting to get into that argument I pointed out that there is both historical and archaeological evidence that the Jews lived there first.

She still thought she was in control so I explained how, right now, the Arabs are digging under the Temple Mount and excavating tons and tons of ruins that prove that this was the place where the Temple stood. That Jewish archaeologists are going into the land fills the Arabs are putting all of these ruins in, and finding all of this proof that this was the location of the Temple.

She said, "Well that's the Temple, it doesn't really count."
More credibility lost.

But the turning point in which she lost any chance of being able to convince that class of her twisted point, came at the end of the discussion.

When she was attempting to wrap this up, she said that if anyone wants to continue learning about this topic to come see her and she would 'educate' them and give them some books to read (probably propaganda books but. . .). Then she said that they could also talk to me because I knew a lot on the subject.

After her next comment you could have heard a pin drop at the stunned silence that hit the room.

"I think I know more then him, but that's because I'm older." (Personal attack against me)

Whatever thought of credibility she had was now gone. I almost felt like G-d himself had put those words into her mouth.

I heard the two guys in front of my whispering that out teacher was, and I quote, "A Nutcase"

But the clincher for my credibility came later when she realized that her comment had been completely uncalled for. Well! I did disprove every one of her points and how many of mine did she disprove? Uh. . . none!

"I want to apologize I don't think that just because I 'm older means that I know more than him."

So grabbing my chance I told her about a video I had seen on MEMRI last week of an Egyptian version of the Doctor Phil show, in which they were discribing, not whether you should do it or not, but exactly how you should beat your wife. I asked how she could support these Arabs that go against everything that she, a feminist, hold true to.
I definitely rattled her with this, and she gave some lame excuse how not all Arabs think this way. This was a nationally syndicated (or what ever they call it in Egypt) broadcast, and it was obvious that it was a very popular show in Egypt.

So the message is GET EDUCATED there's a reason that these Anti-Israel people are on College campuses, and it's not because they're stupid. Get the facts straight! That way you can roll these people out straight. A great resource is Myths and Facts, Google it!
Shalom.