In Defense of Jerusalem and Israel

A few weeks ago on Yom Yerushalayim Dr. Mordechai Kedar of Bar-Ilan University was on Al Jazeera's Arabic TV station, being confronted with the normal Arab issues, West Bank, Jerusalem, and I felt Dr. Kedar responded very well.
Of course the one critique I have is related to one line he said regarding the future of the "West Bank" and the creation of a PA state there.
Now I will admit that he did come of very strongly, not the typical apologetic Jew that we see in the media these days (click here for an example). But there still is an idea that the Jews don't belong in YESHA.
I was speaking to someone last year about this issue, and they told me that Israel was violating "international law."
Now I'm not a law student, but I have learned enough that when someone tells me something I'm not aware of to ask what their source is. So I asked them which law they were referring to.
They explained to me that Israel was an occupying entity that came into that land, started colonizing it, and started cleansing the locals from their places of birth. This was the crime they were committing.
I of course wouldn't have it, told them that I found that either they had an incredible bias for ignoring all of atrocities committed against the Jews by Arab countries in the early part of the 1900's, or they were simply ignorant of them and victims of other people who had these biases.
But furthermore, if you go by that rational that if a foreign entity (which the Jews most certainly are not) drives natives of their land and then starts colonizing that land and claiming it as their own, then you have just displaced at least 50 Million people on the East Coast of America, and even more if you branch further out west.
Because America WAS founded on this idea of colonizing the land and driving the natives out, yet I don't think that Left-Wing academics will say that the United States is occuping the natives of America (IE Native Americans), of course they probably will claim their occuping other countries, but it is certainly not for colonization. Israel, albeit with secular motivation which might be a topic for a different post, were not invading they were returning. The fact that the Jews lived previously in the land of Israel, is only in debate by anti-Semites. Anyone with an open mind who is presented with un-biased information, will find archaeological evidence of the Jews previous reign over the land everywhere. One of the reasons the Arabs will not allow archaeological research teams onto the Temple Mount is because it would disprove their claim that the Jewish Temple never existed..

Here's the Al Jazeera interview with Dr. Mordechai Kedar (in Arabic with subtitles):

A Banned Wedding

All right this is just weird and inappropriate. Imagine this: Girl goes to seminary in Israel, calls up her wealthy dad and tells him that she's found this incredible boy and wants to marry him. Father goes into a fit of rage because this isn't the type of boy he wants his daughter to marry, and goes on a rampage to break them up.
I'm not going to get into whether what the couple is doing or not, that's between them, but what really disgusted me was the reaction of the Charadim.
Now I try not to judge fellow Jews (except regarding Aliyah issues) but this really threw me. Maybe I'm not understanding the subtle nuances of what's going on, but the fact that this is going on should not be public knowledge. This should have been settled privatly between the families, they shouldn't have gone to Rabbi's who would post posters all over Mea Shearim telling people that this is wrong.
How is what they're doing wrong first of all? Let's say that they both are committed to Torah & Mizvot and want to build a strong Jewish household together, why should anyone want to stop them? There's no evidence in the article (after all it's Ynet, promoting liberal, secular values) that they are not planning to do this, and if they were going to "go off the derech" together it should have been settled privately. I don't think this is the case however, they could easily have had the wedding outside of Mea Shearim, but the fact that there are people outside protesting, waving signs, like the Netirei Karta do when they're protesting Israel, is frankly rather insulting.
Let's say this blows over, and the father accepts this. How do you think the kids are going to be treated. Knowing some of the things that are taught in some of these schools regarding tolerance, these kids are going to have to walk around with the label of a Mamzer.
This is, unfortunetly a sign of the times that we as the Jewish people are forgetting the core values of the Torah. Bait Hillel said that the Torah could be summed up with "Love your neighbor as yourself," and that's one of the core things that is missing from the Jewish people right now.

An Update...and a Death

Whew! It's been a while since I last posted. I figured that when I was on vacation I would have more time to write, and I found that I had less free time then when I was in school! But now that the semester's started I can start to have more free time.

I guess I'll just give you an update on everything that's happened in the last month before I get onto today's topic.

At the beginning of January I was visiting family in New Mexico. I love it out there, it really gives you a feeling of true serenity, being out in the desert and hearing absolutely nothing. Especially out on my uncle's ranch. My uncle is a very strange fellow, he had one goal in life, and that was to get as far away from humanity as possible. So he and his wife moved out to this beautiful 800 acre piece of land just outside of TorC.

I'll admit the lifestyle of living out of the city away from the "noise" of humanity is appealing, but I, as a Jew, can't go into hiding like that. I need to make a difference, one of the reasons I'm moving to Israel, I can get some of the serenity (at least the nature side of it) but still be making an intense statement about to future of the Jewish people.

Oh and speaking of Israel, I sent my Nefesh B' Nefesh application in last week. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and I'll get my grant and hove no problems with my Aliyah.

Now to today's story. As most of the people reading this know, this past Sunday was Super Sunday in America. A day of watching football for the guys and watching commercials for the women. It is the most expensive air time of the entire year and the cost of advertising is appoximetly 2.7 million dollars per minute.

In other words this is the ultimate in gratifying our physical desires. The guys want to watch other large men, reminiscent to the Coliseum in ancient Rome, basically try to kill the opposing players, with the excuse of a suicidal maniac running with a ball. Whereas the women want to watch the ads, ads that are meant to sell things to satisfy our physical wants. Last I checked you don't see many Super Bowl ads for things like bread, milk and toilet paper.

But Yishai Fleisher I think summed it up the best, because the next day there was a Jew killed in Dimona, a city near Be'er Sheva. A suicide bomber went into a crowded area (and it has to be a crowded area) and blew itself up.

Now just to give you an idea how sick these people are after a the medical teams had come and a crowd had gathered around, it was discovered that there had been a second terrorist who had been walking around waiting for a crowd to build up so it could set off its bomb in an even larger crowd of people.

Thank G-d it was discovered and killed, but the point, as Yishai put it, how many Jews could tell you about this attack and how many Jews could give you a play by play blow of the football game, that now really doesn't matter anymore (if it ever did).

Something to think about.

Do We Care?

There's one thing I don't get. Why do people think that parts of davening are unnecessary, and don't require that they do them?

Take for instance Karbanot, the first part of davening. Why do people assume that it's OK to come late and that they can miss them. The truth is that this is the only part the people don't do that might have a legitimate reason, and that reason being that it's hard to get up in the morning. That's pretty much the only reason, and my response it to wake up five minutes earlier.

But there are other, more pressing things. I'm only going to highlight one today, and that's Tehllim after davening.

At about the start of the 2000 Terror War the Arabs started waging against Israel, Rabbanim in America decided that that instead of moving to Israel to show support (chas v'shalom) they would start saying 3 chapters of Tehillim after davening as a way to show support for the Jews who lived in Israel.

Over the years it's trickled down to one, and maybe they'd say an extra one if there's R"L an illness or other current serious threat.

So how's that support?

"Oh, it's optional."

That's right, leaving at the Tehillim and going home is more important than waiting, oh, about ONE AND A HALF MINUTES!!! And that's with saying two chapters of Tehillim. My Rav started saying the most common one Chapter 130 and more recently 122 for Yerushalyim.

As soon as we hit eithier the end of Kriat HaTorah, or Tachanun (depending on the day) there are people who have started to take of their tifillin and as soon as the last Kaddash finishes they are out the door ("come on, those Tehillim are optional right? They're not really part of davening right?")

YES! THEY ARE!!!

Think about it, you're saying to G-d, I've finished with my davening but I'm going to stay JUST A LITTLE BIT LONGER and prove to you that I'm sincere and am willing to say something extra to let you know that I CARE ABOUT YERUSHALAYIM!!

My rule is that you don't start taking off the tifillin until the Chazzan is completely done. And that means he has stopped talking as is able to take of his tifillin. That's just a common courtesy, to not take off you're tifillin unless the Chazzan is able to.

Care. This is the Jewish people we're talking about, and it makes me wonder if there are Muslims who are skipping out early on their prayers so they can go home and check the sports scores, or whatever, before they have to go to work of school.

Something to think about.

Great, I'm a Missionary, and the history of Christianity

OK Tuesday, that means more fun with my lab partners. This week I was talking with my remaining lab parter (one was absent and the other was, well, lets just say indisposed as I wrote a few weeks ago), and the topic got to politics, religion, and other fun stuff.

One of the things we were discussing was our former lab partner who took his anger out by going downtown to hang out with the crack heads. I mentioned to him what I'd written, that without a good relationship with your parents or teachers, you really don't have anywhere to turn to for support.

Here we go with some history, when the Romans entered Israel 2000 years ago, one of the things they were shocked to find in the Jewish community was that everyone was literate, there was a welfare system set up for the poor, and the entire community provided for the orphans.
The Rambam says that it is an absolute requirement to educate your children, period. The Gemara in Kiddusin (I think 29b, but I might be wrong, it's around there though) says that educating your son (teaching Torah and a trade) are one of the things that a father is required to do (I don't remember off the top of my head what it says about the girls, but the Gemara in Ketubot 52b says that a father has to adorn his daughter with pearls so the men would be attracted to her).
And as all good Jews know and do (right?) that you have to give 10% of your pre-tax earnings to charity.

So my lab partner found all of this stuff fascinating, and said to me, "That's awesome, man, I want to become Jewish!"

Of course I probably could have mentioned Brit Milah to him, and I think he would have changed his mind. (What I could have done was tell him baout the 7 Noahide laws. Oh well, next time)

So this leads to the next thing I want to talk about.

Christians.

I had said that there were three things I had to defend from three different sets of people.
I had to defend the Land of Israel from the Arabs and Leftists (why they go together I still don't know)
I had to defend the Torah from the Christians.
And I had to defend G-d tom the non-religious Jews and Aliyah from the religious.

So regarding point #2, some more history, regarding our favorite people. . .the Romans.

I'm listening right now to a phenomenal audio series from Rabbi Ken Spiro, I highly recommend it. (you can download it here)

Anyways, one of the things he talks about is how the Roman conquering worked.

I guess the Romans liked to collect things, and whenever they'd conquer a new city, province or country, they'd all of the local gods to their own collection.

Then they found the Jews.

The idea of one G-d was entirely new and very cool to them, a single, invisible, all powerful G-d, what a concept.

They also liked all of the cool things that those crazy Jews did, like Shabbos, and eating kosher, but we'll get back to that, now for some history of the J-man.

At the time the Romans entered Israel the Jewish people were a wreck. The Kehuna (High Priests) was corrupt, the people were divided on every issue, no one followed the Oral Torah, which led to false messiahs popping up all over the place.

Mr. J was not unique in any way, there were hundreds if not thousands of these false prophets coming out of the woodworks, each preaching his own, corrupt version of the Torah. Anyways JC never said anything about atoning for sin, or the perfection of man, that can a few decades later when Paul came on the scene.

Now remember how the Romans were really fascinated with Judaism? Well there were a few things hindering them from becoming Jewish, namely, laws.

A big turn off for them was the fact that they would have to get circumcised, a big no-no to them because they saw the human body as something sacred, and not to be "desecrated."

So what did Paul do?

He saw a market.

Take away the "bad stuff" about Judaism, and bing bang boom, you're in business.

So think about this, Christianity, one of the worlds major religions, has its entire basis, created solely on a really good marketing strategy.

So let me ask you this. This man, was supposed to atone for all of our sins, was perfect right? Not to much mention in the Christian text on JC's mess ups right? Why does the Torah mention Moshe's and Avrahams and Aharon's mistakes?

To show that they're human, and humans by definition are fallible. They way we can learn from them. How do the Christians learn?

Lets say that a man kills 100 people. He gets to go to Heaven for being "saved" while the little Jew in Israel, is sent to Hell?

Logic, man.

Anyways, not to knock Christians out there, there are some great Christians who are friends to the Jewish people and to Israel, but the point is don't try to missionize us. We're happy to accept your support, but with no strings attached. My mom's family is Christians, some of them are in this group of friends, while the other is in the group of, "We need to be saved." (I have noticed that these conversations start after I leave the room, but...

Anyways, next I want to write about how frum Jews don't use the name of G-d in their daily speech like the Christians do. But that's for a different post.

A Strange View into a Different World

I had two experiences today that really let me take a peak into the non-Jewish world. But just happened to be during my Environmental Science lab.

Story #1
Well this story is about my missing lab partner. We were assigned lab partners about a month ago, and after one week this guy didn't show up again. He wouldn't return phone calls or emails either.
Anyways, this dude decides to show up today, all like "OK, lets get to work!"
Me, being the Jew, had a hard time telling him, "Well, you know you actually haven't been here for the entire duration of the building of the project (we're building solar hot water heaters) and we can't go back to square one to explain the whole thing to you."

My other partners and teacher took quite a different approach.

"He hasn't shown up, he hasn't done the work, he's out."

So as he was leaving the room, he announced, "Well this sucks, I'm gonna go downtown and empty my bank account out on some crack."

I was wondering what I would do it I had been put in a similar situation.

I'd probably do one of two things: either I'd go home and watch Star Trek for 6 hours or I'd go to the Beit Midrash for 6 hours (or a combination of both).

After my mind was cleared I'd go find out how to fix the problem, or I'd deal with it. I wouldn't look for some temporary fix to my problem (of course I did mention Star Trek, so maybe I would) but drugs? I mean, come on.
Obviously similar things happen in the Jewish world, but at least Jews have someone to turn to, a Rabbi, mentor, but a non-Jew without a good relationship with his parents, and who doesn't do well in school, who does he have to turn to?

Story #2
So after this incident, I went with one of my other lab partners to the Home Depot to pick up some supplies for our project. On the way over there he was listening to some music, which, to my musician ears, sounded horrible.

It wasn't just the arrangements, it the was the extreme profanity in the lyrics, I found it extremely offensive and disgusting.

But I didn't mention anything during the whole trip about it, and after we got back to campus I noticed that these colorful words were falling out of his mouth as well.

At some point in the afternoon he let out one of these swear words in front of the professor. The professor asked him to stop it, not because he was offended, but for my lab partners own good.

Then he went rambling on about how, when you get a job you can't use words like that, how it's unprofessional, blah, blah, blah.

I would have said the reason not to use swear words was that it's disgusting and vile. If you think about it, all swear words revolve around one of two things: sex & poop.

So here you're taking something that is one of the most beautiful things that a person can do with their body (you know the Gemarah does call if 'kodesh') and equating it with. . .well you get the picture.

That's what got me to stop using swear words, I used to be a real punk in high school, thought it was cool to sing Metallica (I still do, but shhhhhh, don't tell anyone) but when I realized this, I stopped. As one wise man I know put it, "It's a people express themselves, but if that's the best you can do, you have some serious problems expressing yourself. I don't think R' Moshe Feinstein ever had problems expressing himself, and I guarantee that he never used a swear word."

Anyways I thought it would be awkward to tell this to my non-Jewish lab partner, but I had to let it out, hope it didn't annoy you.

Thanks for reading (even those of us who happen to be in the back of a classroom during class right now).

I'm going to go to the Beis now and learn a daf Gemarah.

Shalom

Ahhh some humor-The Interactive Teshuva Hotline

Thank you for calling the Interactive Teshuvah Hotline here in Heaven. Due to the approaching High Holidays, which is our busiest season, all of our telephone lines are temporarily busy. Please wait patiently as your call will be answered in sequence - and remember, patience is a virtue. You will no doubt enjoy our musical selection of Yeshiva Rock and the Best of Shlomo Carlebach, while you wait. Please note that these telephone lines will not be available on the two days of Rosh Hashanah, and on Yom Kippur. For a voice recording in Ashkenazic English dialect, press 1, for Sephardic, press 2, for New York, press 3. If you are uncertain, press 4. This line is also available in other languages. For Hebrew, press 5, for Yiddish, press 6, for Russian, press 7, for others, press 8. Please note that our service is not available in Arabic or French.

If you have never used the Interactive Teshuva Hotline before, you will need to listen carefully to our simple sequenced instructions. This service is available for touch-tone telephone users as a supplement to your davening (praying) at shul over the Ten Days of Awe. It is not a substitute. Let us now begin.

To access your personalized account of all your known aveiros (transgressions), including dates and affected parties, please press 1 now. If you have not already apologized to the affected parties, please hang up now and call back when this has been done. For a personalized list of aveiros towards HaKadosh Baruch Hu, (Him) please press 2. Please note that in order to provide timely service to all callers, there is now a limit of 20 aveiros per person at one time. Politicians and Reform Party supporters will require several visits to complete their inventory. Humour columnists who frequently exceed their word counts or use big words should hang up now and try calling later, say, after the Millennium.

Please select the aveiros you have committed this past year. In case you have forgotten, we offer a list of the most popular aveirot. To activate this function, please press the pound (#) key. Once you have chosen the proper aveirah, enter the code and press the pound key to enter it. As you enter your aveirah, our service will prompt you for your Explanation. If you committed the aveirah because he/she did it, press 1.

If you did so by accident, but did not mean to, press 2. If you have a good reason, but won't tell anyone what it is, press 3. If you did so knowing you were wrong, but didn't think you would get caught, press 3. If you blame your legal counsel for the aveirah, press 4. If you blame the influence of Freud or television, press 5. If you blame it on Rock n' Roll, Rap and/or drugs, press 6. If you want to blame someone else for the aveirah but can't think of anyone in particular, press 7.

At the conclusion of your aveiros, enter the star (*) key. For those of you with 7 aveiros or less, we offer a Tzadik Express Line. Please press 1 to access this Express line now. This is only for real tzadikim: if you think you are a tzadik or tzadeket, you are probably not. Remember, no sneaking in with 8 or more aveirot. Please note that the same aveirah committed against two individuals counts as two items.

Now that you have entered your personal aveirot, you may access the Selichot component of our service. As our computer reads out each aveirah you have indicated, please enter the contrition code.

For example, a "1" means you are only mildly sorry for your action, "2" means you are somewhat sorry, but have mitigating circumstances and a good lawyer, "3" means you are very sorry but will likely repeat it and have a great lawyer, "4" means you are very very sorry, and will not repeat it unless there are mitigating circumstances and you have Dershowitz on retainer, and "5" means you are extremely sorry and will not repeat the aveirah under any circumstances, since you have only your second cousin's son-in law who failed the bar twice. Please proceed with your Selichos sequence now....

Our computer has now processed your request for Kaparah (atonement). Before we reveal the decision results, you may increase your score by pledging additional tzedakah to your favourite charity.

All major credit cards are accepted. Please enter your pledge amount (in US dollars), followed by your credit card number and expiry date. Thank you. Based on your Aveirah Score, Selichos Score and Tzedakah Score, you have been granted conditional atonement. This offer expires within one calendar year.

Thank you for visiting the Teshuva Hotline today, and remember, we know everything.

Please Remove Me from your email list

Whew! I didn't even realize it, we've past post #100!

I wrote about a month ago on this guy in my shul who didn't like the Good Shabbos messages I sent out in my email notifying that the shul newsletter for the week had been posted online. I decided to not respond to his email and the next week I sent an email specifically with him in mind, with a Bracha that we should notice the blessings that we get every single day.

He then sent me an email asking for me to remove him from the shul mailing list. I very politely sent him an email telling how to do it himself.

My question is why didn't he just go to the shul website and unsibscribe from the mailing list himself? Well it's quite simple really, he wanted to me to know how much he was upset by this. In reality I don't care. He has an issue (this has not been the first time he and I haven't seen eye to eye on certain issues) and he has to work on it, I asked a Rabbi if there was anything else I could of done, and I can't see any.

But I'm not here to talk about that, I'm here to talk about Pastor Joel Hunter and Jeremy Gimpel.
For those of you who don't know, one of the people I really look up to is Jeremy Gimpel. He is doing something for the Jewish people that, as far as I know, no one else in the Jewish world is doing, he's reaching out to the Christians.
Most of use Jews when we hear the word 'Christian,' we immediately go on the defensive, because of our experience with missionaries. Jeremy is reaching out to all of the other Christians and he sees them not as enemies, but as allies in the war against radical Islam.

Anyways, Pastor Joel Hunter is a pastor in a Church in Orlando FL, and he has Jeremy and his partner Ari Abramowitz, up in arms.
Why?
Pastor Hunter is an advocate for a Palestinian State.

Read previous posts on my blog to see my stance on that, but what's really shocking is that he's doing it in a rather cowardly way. He didn't tell anyone in his congregation about it, he wouldn't go on Ari & Jeremy's show, and . . . Well that's a whole other paragraph.

Mr. Hunter finally agreed to do a debate with Jeremy, on his own terms. . .on NPR.
NPR wasn't able to host the debate, so Hunter then chose the BBC.

Now both of the above radio stations have a bias against Israel, and it showed when the debate between Hunter and Jeremy took place.

I'll admit that I have not heard the debate, and that's because the BBC didn't release it. They didn't even release it to Jeremy like they promised. Instead they aired a condensed version of it which consisted of Hunter talking for 4 minutes, and Jeremy getting in about 15 words before the cut him off in the editing.

Fine, balanced journalism.

Anyways, what does this have to do with the above story?

I found a blog called Tzemach, on which they had an interview with Jeremy. It is a Christian website, and when scrolling down to look at the comments, this is the first one I found:

Shmuel

The cornerstone is Jesus, not the Tanak, not the Torah. Old Covenant Israel rejected the Messiah. Your are advocating a dispensational understanding of Israel, which is nonsense. The modern state of Israel was created by Zionists, and Zionism has nothing in common with Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God.

Please remove me from your email list.

Ahh, the magical "Please remove me from your email list."

Anyways these are Christians, so I don't follow anything that they hold religiously, but it is because of the Christians and the United States that we have a State of Israel today (well obviously it's the hand of G-d, but he's using them as his tool), and I can't knock them for that, even it some of them feel that the Jews are 'occupiers,' and 'settlers.'

Rabbi Ken Spiro said the reason that the beginning of the Torah talks about Abraham and the initial dwelling of the Jews in Israel, and not at the first Mitzvah, is for this very reason. To show that we were there first.

So United Nations, Jimmy Carter, Pastor Hunter, and Shmuel. We've got G-d on out side while you have the power of man, and history shows that all men who try to destroy the Jewish people and therefore try to destroy G-d, in the end get destroyed themselves. I encourage you to choose the right side before it's too late.

Shalom

Easy Money and Being Rude to the Bartender

I had a unique experience this morning. My neighbor is a photographer and he had been asked to do a Bar Mitzvah, always looking to make an extra buck I agreed to come and spend the morning helping him.
After about 20 minutes of dragging stuff to his car, driving it over to the social hall, and setting up, I found that there was nothing else to do.

So I came prepared with text books and sefarim.

The only job I had for the next 4 hours was to watch the photography stuff and make sure it stayed where it was supposed to. I had a prime seat right next to the (one-man) band, and behind the bar.

So their was, reading my E-Commerce book, when the bartender brought over a box of hard alcohol, at a Bar Mitzvah! He was a nice guy, and I think that I learned more from that experience then anything else I've done in the past year.

As people started to trickle in, people started to make their way over to the bar. Now for the most past people were very gracious, when conversing with the bartender, it was some of the other people who caused my look up and raise my eyebrow.

Like one woman who came over and demanded "Give me 2 orange juices NOW!"
The bartender looked a little surprised and fulfilled her request.
"I didn't want ice in this!" she shouted.
He took the two cups back and poured two more, without ice."
She had been distracted by something and when she turned around she said, "No, no, no, I didn't want ice in that that one, I did want it in this one."
Anyways lets just say I drank a little bit of orange juice after that.

It was a modern orthodox crowd, which is very weird to me, because I consider myself modern orthodox, but just watching some of the crowd interactions, made me want to reconsider how I define my Judaism. I guess I'm a more frum version of Modern Orthodox.

Overhearing the conversations, I didn't hear many words of Torah, to be fair, I obviously couldn't hear every conversation in the room, but I guess the Torah-talking people stayed away from the bar, or maybe they just weren't talking Torah when they were near it. I guess I fulfilled the Torah learning that was going on near the Bar, as after I finished my E-Comm text, I started learing Pirkei Avot. Today is the last day of learning Yevamot in Daf Yomi, and I decided to learn 2 dafim yesterday and finish early, because I knew I was going to have a full day.

Anyways, it was the easiest money I made, gave me an interesting insight into people, allowed me to learn, and I got free food. I guess it's been a good day.
Oh, and I'm leaving for a Simply Tzfat concert in a half and hour.

ANGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And faith in G-d

I had an interesting experience at the bank today. I was in line waiting to deposit some checks (I love the unemployment thing, it seems that I'm actually making more money then I did at my old job. Plus I have a lot more free time ). Anyways I figured that I would go at around 10 in the morning to avoid any lines, and I was in luck, when I arrived there was only one person in line in front of me.

Anyways, I thought this was going to be a quick visit.

The guy in front of me approached the counter, a real sketchy looking guy, with a ripped tee shirt, short shorts, and high black socks with sandals, and when he finished his transaction , started to walk away from the counter.

I took a step forward waiting for the teller to call me over when the man was back. He showed her his statement and demanded to know why there was a $2.50 charge on his statement. She told him that he had used the banks phone service more then the allotted free time a month, so he was charged an extra 50 cents for each time he used it.
Anyways he went into his whole "I didn't use it," and "the damn thing cut me off! They charged me for it?"

A line had started to form behind me and people started whispering, and asking if anyone wanted to just give this guy $2.50 so we could carry on with our business. The funny thing is that during this entire process that took about 10 minutes, there were three teller slots open, and this guy had managed to get every single one of them to stop what they were doing and help him.

I was just standing there, being very proud at myself for not getting angry like the people behind me were. If G-d was testing me, seeing if I could get angry or not, he's going to have to try harder.

The Gemarah in Yevamos 96 (the Daf 2 days ago) it says a story of two Rabbis in a shul in Tevaria, who were so angry with each other a Sefer Torah was ripped. Another Rabbi approached and told them that because of their anger, the shul would one day turn into a house of idol worship.

And it did.

I once heard one of my Rabbeim say that anger is like idol worship. He was quoting someone else whose name slips my mind right now. (Ironic since the case in the Gemarah was about one person being angry at another who didn't quote one of his teachings. Hopefully this post won't result in anything negative.)

How is anger like idol worship?

I'll put it like this: someone who (chas v'Shalom) gets angry he is saying that there is no G-d in the world.

Why?

If someone is angry about something, it usually has something to do with his frustration over a lack of control in a certain area. If he is upset with his lack of control, he's showing that he doesn't believe that G-d is in full control of everything. And if someone doesn't believe that G-d has full control of everything, it will lead to him not believing that G-d exists, which will then lead him into a life of idol worship.

That is why it is extremely important to never become angry.

I remember a story I heard Rav Avraham Twerski (see I remembered to quote him this time!) once say about a certain couple. The husband said that he and his wife simply didn't fight anymore. When asked why they didn't fight the husband replied very simply:

"I realized that the point of our fighting was so that I could win the argument. But then I realized that if I won the argument, she lost it. I didn't want to be married to a loser so we just stopped arguing!"

How's THAT for a Shalom Bayis story!

So remember anytime you feel angry about anything, try to identify why you're angry. Is it because you're trying to compensate for something? If you need to vent, do what I did and start writing a blog, I've found that this is a great way to blow off steam while at the same time doing a productive positive thing.

In most cases the reason someone is angry at someone/something has nothing to with that particular person, animal or object. Say someone asked for a raise at work and was refused. So instead of taking his frustrations out on his boss (probably a good thing) he goes home and vents on his kids, wife, dog (not such a good thing), without ever getting to the root of his problem.

Why does he want to get a raise in the first place? Is it because he is having trouble making ends meet? Or is it because he wants to buy an expensive car or another 'thing?'

If it's because he wants another toy (I think I've already written a post about that) he has another issue, an issue in his self esteem and self worth. Thinking that he needs "things" to define his self worth.

If that's the case, his boss is the least of his worries.

If it's because he can't make ends meet, there are other issues that need to be addressed. I don't want to claim that I have answers to parnussa issues, but we all have to remember that Hashem has already written how successful we'll be financially at Rosh Hashana time.

(But for practical tips on various financial endeavorers I would recommend subscribing to Early to Rise, as well as reading Michael Masterson's blog.)

Anyways a few things to think about in our future and hopefully calm lives.

"May you be comforted. . .Jerusalem"

I was looking at the pasuk that you are supposed to say when you visit a house of mourning.
"May you be comforted with all of the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem."
What does that mean?
This past Tisha B'Av was very surreal to me. I realize now that I will, B'Ezrat Hashem, never have to spend another Tisha B'Av in Chutz L'Aretz, whether it's a day of sadness or of joy.
But as I was sitting on the floor in shul, listening to the conversations that were going on around me, it made me wonder why we're doing this.
I can tell you for sure that the teenagers weren't getting it, with a comment every so often about how hungry they were, or how uncomfortable sitting on the floor was. Not a lot of mention of the loss of the Beit Hamikdash.
But it wasn't only the teenagers, I overheard two guys talking about sports, more discussing trips they would be taking after Tisha B'Av was over.
Not a lot of tears, I can tell you that.
The only person who I did see cry was the Rabbi, while were saying the Kinah about the loss of people in the Holocaust.

I cried later, after shul was over. The atmosphere there was simply not conducive to an environment of sadness.

I went home and I cried for three hours.
I cried because we didn't have the Beit Hamikdash. I cried for how desensitized everyone around me was. I cried for the loss of Jewish lives in the world. I cried for Jews who were thrown out of their homes.

I then cried the next day, as I was listening to someone describe how you could really feel the destruction when you spent Tisha B'Av night at the Kotel.
Apparently the Kotel also is a social scene on Tisha B'Av, but the fact that you're there, the place where the Beit Hamikdash stood, and you look over the Kotel and all you see is black. Even if it's a social scene, it makes a big difference when you can actually see it, and physically be there.

This desensitization is brought to light in the pasuk "mourn like the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem."
When someone dies, you cry. You just do, and no one will look at you funny because they understand. If someone were to start hysterically crying for seemingly no reason, and when asked why he was crying, he answered "because we no longer have a Beit Hamikdash," in all honesty, what would you think about him?

The reason we say "mourn like the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem," is because the feeling one gets when a loved one dies should be the same exact feeling one should have about absence of the Beit Hamikdash!
Why don't we have this feeling? Maybe because we were never taught about the importance of the Temple or why we should be sad that it is destroyed. I don't know the answer, but I do know that we live in a generation where all the outside world wants to do is to desensitize everybody. News stories of death are told in the exact same tone as a news story about the installation of a new traffic light.
Get with the picture and think about what's really important. We only have one life, and it's up to us to decide how we're going to use it and what kind of a difference we are going to make.

Very Cool. . .

A Death and a Realization

One of my sister's best friends was killed this morning in a car accident. And the worst part is that she wasn't even in Baltimore when it happened. Apparently she was down in South Carolina visiting someone and she was a passenger in a car that was hit. I don't know the details, but apparently she was killed on impact.

So anyways, you can imagine it's been a bright cheery day at my house. I came back from Minyan this morning to find my sister's and mom crying.

I was in shock. My sister's friend was one of those "everything" kinds of girls who, literally, did everything, and well. And I guess G-d decided that she did enough and took her from this world.

So my parents went over to the grieving parents house and they've been there all day, my sister and I are preparing Shabbos. The fact of how fragile we are really hit me hard.

After a certain amount of craziness of running around all morning I stopped at the Bais Medrish to do the Daf and I wandered into the Kollel kitchen for a cup of coffee.

It was cold.

The damn cup of coffee was cold.

I started laughing (to myself) here we are, with a dead girl and I'm feeling bad about a cold cup of coffee? Ha'levie the worst thing that should happen to anyone should be having to drink a cold cup of coffee in the morning.

Just another realization that we only have one life to live and any second, even right now, G-d could decide that we, or someone we know, have fulfilled our purpose and take us back.

I've mentioned before that I do my shul newsletter. I post it online on Thursday nights, and then send an email out to notify everyone that it's been posted on the shul website. In my emails I include some words of Bracha for the upcoming week, usually something on the lines of there being Shalom in the world, and how this should be an uplifting, energizing Shabbos, stuff like that.

Anyways there's one guy who, for the past two weeks has emailed me about how much he hates the emails I send him. (I believe his exact words were, "What are you smoking.") So this week he said that if I don't stop including the "stuff" in the emails he was going to take himself off the list.
I then sent him an email telling him how to do just that (don't worry, my tone was very professional)
So we'll see, everyone else who gets these emails keep telling me how much they like them, I guess this guy just can't accept a Bracha.
He probably had no idea that right before I'd read his email I'd heard the news about my sister's friend (in all honesty I think the guys a loser. If he doesn't like them, he just shouldn't read the email, I email the same link to the newsletter every week, it doesn't change). For some reason this person seems so irrelevant now. We'll see about the future.

This makes me sick

Please go to this page and look at the absolutely disgusting thing that is about to take place in Germany. 100 years ago the Jews of Berlin proclaimed that "Berlin is the new Jerusalem." More recently they have been actively DE-moting aliyah.

Now they've come up with a new thing to embarrass the Jewish people. They are spending over eight million dollars to create a replica of the Kotel in Berlin. Eight million that obviously could be used for more productive things, but it is their money. But that's not the worst part.

On Wedensday Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal told AP that the goal of creating this replica was "a symbolic part of making Berlin a central hub of Jewish life again."

Rabbi Teichtal is the grandson of HaRav Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal, author of Eim Habanim Smeicha, a sefer that talks about the importance of Aliyah to Berlin, whoops, I mean Israel. And here is his grandson who is trying to make Germany the "central hub of Jewish life again."

It's sick. Germany, like everyother place the Jews have ever been comfortable has of course done one of the worst crimes to the Jewish people in recent memory. Uh. . . does the Holocaust come to mind? And here are the Jews of Germany, who haven't got it yet. I understand if you want to live in Chutz L'Aretz, I understand if the tivah to make a good living is too strong, or if you don't have enough Bitachon to make the move. But don't replace Israel.

And of all things this announcment comes a day after Tisha B'Av, which is a time to mourn the loss of the Beit Hamikdash, and for some reason, watch movies about the Holocaust.

Hopefully the Jews of Germany will come to their senses, and won't have to wait for another Holocaust to happen before Mashiach comes.

I am a Zionist-I am a Jew

I'm going to transcribe a great video I found on Yideoz

I am a Zionist

I belong to a people who brought the Bible to the world. transmitting the Torah, the Ten Commandments, and the idea of One G-d from generation to generation.

I am part of an ancient nation that reclaimed its homeland two thousand years after being expelled from it, rising up like a phoenix from the ashes and impotence of the Holocaust.

I am a citizen of a country that has gathered in her scattered people, taking refugees from one hundred nations, rescuing the persecuted and the impoverished, welcoming idealists and adventurers and restless wanderers who chose to join her, like me.

I am defended by the IDF, the finest small fighting force in the world, a citizens army with high moral standards and purity of arms second to no other nation.

I am grateful to merit Jerusalem as my capitol, the place to which our people have always turned, the city that our soldiers reunited and redeemed from desecration after our enemies destroyed her synagogues and sacred sites, using her shrines as garbage dumps and the tombstones of our ancestors to line their sewers.

I am grateful to walk the streets in a land where a Jew can wear a skullcap or a star of David or a black robe without fearing ridicule or persecution or even looks askance.

I speak and understand Hebrew the sacred tongue of Holy Writ, a "dead language" revived by our people so that our nation would have common basis for communication. I am proud that every child can read the Torah in its original form.

I raise my children in schools where the victories and tragedies of our people are remembered, where the holidays celebrate our G-d and our traditions.

I participate in the only democracy in a region of the world where freedom of expression and human rights are otherwise absent.

I live in a land where I can speak of our nations flaws, our social failings, our fallible leaders - and there are many, many of each - without fear of being censored, imprisoned or executed.

I am proud that our country is hated by some of the most cruel, backward, repressive, terror-supporting dictatorships in the world.

I am proud that the mostly vapid governments of Europe, Africa, and Asia, along with the UN in which their majorities rules, have nothing better to do than condemn us.

I am proud that our strongest ally is the greatest nation in the world and proud that its people and elected representatives stand by us and prevent us from isolation and condemnation by lesser nations with weaker moral fiber.

I am proud of our entrepreneurial accomplishments, our research, our technologies, our innovative products.

I am proud of our artists, our musicians, our authors, our athletes, and our pilots. I'm proud of our national airline, and its legendary security checks, and I'm proud that by now they let me pass with a few perfunctory questions.

I am proud of my fellow citizens, who have shown such grace and courage under fire, refusing to allow their love of life and their passion for freedom to be sapped by death-seeking, freedom-hating terrorists.

I am proud of our compassionate leftist and our patriotic rightists.

I am proud of our un-bending ultra-Orthodox and our ultra-rational secularists.

I am proud of our pioneering settlers and our peace-seeking activists.

I am proud that we are a stiff-necked people.

I belong to a people who dwell alone, yet shine a light unto the world. We may not always be right, but we're never as wrong as our enemies claim. And even when we are wrong we are a nation that seeks to make things right.

Our people hold the birthright to the land in which we live, inscribed in the Bible, proven by archaeological excavations, and verified by the investment of agricultural, industrial, and financial investments we have made, sealed by our sweat and by our blood, by our tears of sorrow and of joy, to develop and defend our country.

We stretch out our hand in peace to our Arab neighbors, in full knowledge that they rejected the UN Partition of 1947, invaded our fledging state in 1948, tried to strangle us in 1967, surprised us on Yom Kippur in 1973.

We pray for just settlement with the Arabs in Israel, even though from the inception of the PLO in 1964, before the conquest of the Six Day War, their leadership has been dedicated to liberating "Palestine" which means eliminating Israel.

We have endured from the Arabs unceasing terror attacks ever since, and despite all political agreements and diplomatic initiatives, we see that the Arabs continue to incite their people to despise us and to aspire to destroying us. We have offered to share our land with our neighbors, but we will not give land to be used to drive us into the sea.

Even if hundreds of millions of people hate us, even if some nations pray that we do not exist, even if some of our enemies won't rest until they kill us and many in the rest of the world don't give a damn, I couldn't be prouder. We have come home, and this is it.

I am an Israeli, a citizen of the one and only Jewish homeland. I thank G-d that I was born in a time when I could fulfill the dream of 2000 years to return to Zion.

I am a Zionist, a believer and supporter and defender of our reborn nation.

And you who read these words with compassion, and understanding and identification - whether you are Jewish or not, Israeli or not You are a Zionist too.

Learn your *** ***** HISTORY!!

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.

Good News! You no longer actually have to live in Israel to get all the Mizvot of living there!

So apparently Eretz Yisrael is for sale. . . to Jews who live outside of it! That's right, it is no longer necessary to actually live IN Israel to be able to reap the spiritual benefits of settling the land. Plots of of the land can be bought for as little as $50 and a Jew who lives in the Exile can PAY another Jew to do the Mitzvah of settling the land for them.

This was what an article in this past week's Mishpacha was boasting. To tell you the truth, it makes me sick. COME TO ISRAEL AND SETTLE THE LAND YOURSELF! We as Jews have a deep connection to the land no matter what the Left Wing Whackos want to tell you, but we're not helping out case by "virtually" settling the land of Israel. If we don't come Home and settle our own land, and put our blood and sweat into the earth, there are plenty of people out there who would be more than willing to come, take the land, and do it for us.

The time of the Galus Jew is coming to an end. The only places left with large numbers of Jews are Western countries, and the number of Jews in these countries are rapidly diminishing. The majority of Jews now live in Israel. THE FUTURE IS IN ISRAEL! NOT AMERICA, NOT BRITAIN, NOT CANADA, NOT AUSTRALIA! ISRAEL!!

It's rather disturbing when I hear for Palestinian sympathizers that we should give them back their land, because, hey, we're not moving there, why did we have to kick this fictional group of people out?
Unfortunately he has a point.

But maybe this isn't true. We are at a unique point in history, a point where every single Jew is able to move the land that he's (hopefully) been praying for his whole life.

In fact this summer will have the highest number of North American olim EVER! The great organization Nefesh B'Nefesh will be bringing TEN plane loads of Jews, most from nice suburban homes and communities, home to Israel.

I have a date, do you?

I'm aware that I'm starting to get some serious readers from Israel as well as in the US (someone from India even managed to find his way to my blog). PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS! I want to get to know everyone!

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.

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.

We will continue fighting. . .and what Pesach's all about (kinda)

Well Pesach has come and gone and I've spent, now my third Pesach, really wishing that I wasn't in America. Three years with 2 sedarim, two 2 day yom tovim and just a feeling of longing for Eretz Yisrael, my homeland, where the true land of freedom is.
I got an email from my sister who lives in Israel and she has informed me that she really doesn't want to spend another Pesach in the States and I don't blame her. I don't want to spend another Pesach in the States, but, at least for now, I know I'll be spending at least one more here, possibly two.
I don't know what it is about the 2 day Yom Tov that gets to me. Just to clarify above what the '3 years' are, four years ago I had not gone to yeshiva yet, and had not been exposed what living in the Land of Israel really meant. Now that I have lived there all I want to do is get back there permanently. I want to have only one day of Yom Tov, I won't have to deal with anymore of these 3-days-without-a-shower thing. I get an extra day of Chol Hamoed, and I get to eat chometz a day (plus 7 hours) before anyone else here in America.
But I don't want to move to Israel for these physical benefits. I want to experience Pesach, the holiday of Freedom, in the LAND of Freedom. The sense of peace in Israel (ironic isn't it) is unlike anyplace else in the world for a Jew. Long gone are the days where foreign governments will persecute us, long gone are the days when the future of the Jewish people is in question, long gone are the days when we didn't know how we would be treated on a day to day basis, we are finally in our land, the land that is unique only to us. No one else has ever been able to get the land to respond like we have. Take Gush Katif, they had an entire industry growing plants in sand. If you were to ask any gardener if sand would make good soil they would tell you that sand is one of the worst things you could use to grow plants. Yet we, the Jews, managed to do it.
We are a unnatural illogical people who should have disappeared from the earth ages ago
But we're still here.
Part of that has to do with this holiday of Pesach, where we tell over the story of our beginnings and how, no matter what happens to us, we will eventually come out on top.
Maybe that's the reason we have two days of Yom Tom in Chutz L'aretz, here, surrounded by non-Jews we need to be reminded twice about our purpose in the world and how, eventually (whether welike it or not) all Jews will one day live in Israel and we will be a light from Zion going out to the world with everyone having knowledge of the true G-d and Shalom