ch.I'm well aware that I make people here in America uncomfortable. I like to, as Rav Meir Kahana says, "Ask uncomfortable questions to comfortable Jews."
So I'm becoming a Jewish history obsessor, regarding the post I did last week, I've really started to wonder why no one learns history. The beginning of Judges makes it very clear that you have to know where you came from, that's the only way to know where you're going. Why is the first bracha in Shemone Esrei about our Patriarchs? Should the next one be first as it talks about the strength of G-d? I sat down with someone over Shabbos and we went through every single Bracha and asked ourselves if we, and other people around us really cared about what we were saying. History, G-d, Eretz Yisrael, how often are these things on our minds? Well I can say personally that E"Y is (and I'm not joking) always on my mind. In fact some people have told me to get some other interests (maybe because I'm making them uncomfortable).
I was talking with one of my Rebbeim back in February about my seder in Tanach. I asked him how it was possible to learn Tanach, and not want to make Aliyah.
He gave me his unique, crooked smile and told me that's probably the reason why most American Jews don't learn Tanach.
I was thinking about that this past week when I was reading an article in the Mishpacha, an interview with Rav Berel Wein. In the interview they asked him why Frum Jews didn't learn Jewish history, and particularly Tanach.
He said that it's very simple, these topics have been taken over by secularists, and since secularists have taken it over, the Frum community decided to ignore it. This allowed these very important subjects to be hijacked and distorted.
Case in point, the secular Zionists say that the Jews started coming to Israel in large numbers in the 1800's. The Hamodia has been doing stories now for the past few months, documenting large numbers of Frum Jews who were coming to Israel in large numbers from Europe, for the last 900 years. But because Frum Jews don't spend a good amount of time learning history, everyone, including the enemies of Israel, are using this as a proof that we have no claim to our land.
Learn your history! If you need a quick overview of the last 3000 years Rav Ken Spiro has a great series of articles on Aish, what they call a 'crash course,' and it gives a very good overview. I've been doing my shul newsletter for the past 7 months and I went a little overboard in my whole "Promote Israel" campaign. Putting lots of pictures of E"Y in the newsletter, and articles about Aliyah, and why Israel is so great. Anyways I pissed a lot of people off, so I scaled back and decided to go with the more subliminal way, and I've been publishing these articles for the past few weeks.
The biggest mistake we can make is to not think that we are allowed to be proud of being Jews. Spending so much time in the Exile has obviously taken its toll on us, but it's time to stand proud and understand who we are. Once you know who you are, you will get a great strength of your purpose and mission on this little world.
So I'm becoming a Jewish history obsessor, regarding the post I did last week, I've really started to wonder why no one learns history. The beginning of Judges makes it very clear that you have to know where you came from, that's the only way to know where you're going. Why is the first bracha in Shemone Esrei about our Patriarchs? Should the next one be first as it talks about the strength of G-d? I sat down with someone over Shabbos and we went through every single Bracha and asked ourselves if we, and other people around us really cared about what we were saying. History, G-d, Eretz Yisrael, how often are these things on our minds? Well I can say personally that E"Y is (and I'm not joking) always on my mind. In fact some people have told me to get some other interests (maybe because I'm making them uncomfortable).
I was talking with one of my Rebbeim back in February about my seder in Tanach. I asked him how it was possible to learn Tanach, and not want to make Aliyah.
He gave me his unique, crooked smile and told me that's probably the reason why most American Jews don't learn Tanach.
I was thinking about that this past week when I was reading an article in the Mishpacha, an interview with Rav Berel Wein. In the interview they asked him why Frum Jews didn't learn Jewish history, and particularly Tanach.
He said that it's very simple, these topics have been taken over by secularists, and since secularists have taken it over, the Frum community decided to ignore it. This allowed these very important subjects to be hijacked and distorted.
Case in point, the secular Zionists say that the Jews started coming to Israel in large numbers in the 1800's. The Hamodia has been doing stories now for the past few months, documenting large numbers of Frum Jews who were coming to Israel in large numbers from Europe, for the last 900 years. But because Frum Jews don't spend a good amount of time learning history, everyone, including the enemies of Israel, are using this as a proof that we have no claim to our land.
Learn your history! If you need a quick overview of the last 3000 years Rav Ken Spiro has a great series of articles on Aish, what they call a 'crash course,' and it gives a very good overview. I've been doing my shul newsletter for the past 7 months and I went a little overboard in my whole "Promote Israel" campaign. Putting lots of pictures of E"Y in the newsletter, and articles about Aliyah, and why Israel is so great. Anyways I pissed a lot of people off, so I scaled back and decided to go with the more subliminal way, and I've been publishing these articles for the past few weeks.
The biggest mistake we can make is to not think that we are allowed to be proud of being Jews. Spending so much time in the Exile has obviously taken its toll on us, but it's time to stand proud and understand who we are. Once you know who you are, you will get a great strength of your purpose and mission on this little world.
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