Epilogue: Nation of Israel
Imagine what modern Israel would look like upon absorbing world Jewry. I get tingles. You think New York is exciting! Israel is already the world’s hottest melting pot, blending Jews from every culture and country around the planet into a crazy, hugely creative and yet very down to earth society.
Yes, it has immense social and political issues. Yes, it faces many challenges just in order to survive. But we stand only at the beginning of a new golden age for Israel. I believe with all my heart that the Land (and People) of Israel will be a great and positive influence upon the world in the next century (if not millennium!).
We think it’s hard to live in Israel, because it is. But that pressure-cooker society coupled with the stress of living among murderous enemies has also toughened the Israeli will, so that this tremendous creativity finds its way into real life applications. Odd as it might sound, one could make the argument that the Arabs have only helped us by sharpening our wits, just as our enemies did in the past.
Regardless of politics, once we throw into the current rainbow coalition of Israeli society the combined human talent, resources, and good naturedness of (most of) exilic Jewry, we have a recipe for a world superpower like never before in history.
Am Yisroel Chai!
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.
He is the Only One, and if He Wills it, it is no dream.
But of course we are speaking of the Holy Land, and yet the scenario we just painted mentioned nothing of Torah observance! So before we end this book, we must lastly delve into the relationship between the Land and Torah observance.
In order to do so let’s recognise that the modern State of Israel has contributed to the betterment of all human society many times more than all of the Arab nations combined, and has never initiated an unprovoked attack on any neighbour, and that even includes the Palestinians if we look at the record with objective and “across the board” standards for all countries. It is obviously so, and yet Israel is constantly forced to defend itself, verbally in the press (the public mind) and literally with it’s armed forces, in order to survive. And yet, just as in Ol’ Egypt; the more the nations oppress Israel, the more they grow and the more productive they are! Amazing. Truly.
But still many people buy the lies that are being spread once again about Jews and Israel by those who hate us. And boy do they hate us! Wait a minute. Who really hates us? Let’s think, is it those Chinese? Indians? Aboriginal Australians? O, I don’t know, let’s think. Isn’t it really only Christian and Moslem societies that hate Jews? Huh. Funny. Aren’t those the two religions that took the “Bible” (what Jews call the Torah) and made up their own religions with it? Aren’t those the two that in their bloody fighting over Jerusalem made it “home to three great religions?”
I hate that phrase, by the way. Jews were here thirteen hundred years before Christ, and you’ll have to add another half millennium for the Prophet. So it was our place and religion which was coveted that we’re discussing, not the birthplace of three equals. Please, there is really little hope of trying to understand Torah or have peace in Israel without recognising the Jews for who they are. The idea is absurd. It has never worked, and it never will. Early Christians made Jews out to be the Devil, just as modern fanatical Islamists do. Using the exact same tactics, for the exact same jealous evil purpose. To ignore this is more than criminal, it is to actively choose to side with evil.
In any event, how are we as Jews to respond to this crisis of conscious that the world has thrown down before us, to call us thieves of our own land, to call us murderers and Nazis as if to call us that alone makes it true?
Should we attack every anti-Semitic talkback in every article on the net? Ha! What a waste of time.
As with all things, the Torah provides guidance as to what to do in this situation. Because it was spoken about long ago, by the Sages of the Talmud in a Midrash.
That Midrash forms the basis of the first commentaries of both Rashi and Nachmanidies first comments to the Torah.
As Ramban quotes Rashi and then expounds on him, we will quote the Ramban here, in a truncated form so as to save the reader a very long quote. But the Sahib encourages you to see the quote in full to fully understand.
“Rabbi Isaac says: ‘It wasn’t necessary to begin the Torah until the verse: “This month is to you…” which is the first commandment that Israel was commanded in.
What is the reason then, that is begins with Genesis?
So that if the Nations of the World should say: “You are violent thieves, for you conquered the lands of seven nations!” They (the Jews) will say to them: “All the world is the Holy One’s, and He gave it to whom was straight in His eyes. It was His will to give it to them, and it was His will to take it from them and give it to us.’”
This is the aggadah as our teacher Shlomo writes it in his commentary.
But we can ask a question on it – because there is a great need to begin the Torah from “In the beginning God created…” for this is the root of belief (in God). One who does not believe in creation but thinks that the world has always existed denies the essence and has no Torah at all!
The answer is, that the act of Creation is a great secret that cannot be understood from the verses (alone). It cannot be understood properly save by the tradition that Moses received directly from the Almighty, and those who know it are obligated to hide it.
Therefore Rabbi Isaac says there is no need to begin the Torah with “In the beginning God created” and the story of what was created on the first day and made on the second day, and to go at length into the formation of Adam and Eve, and their sin and punishment, and the story of the Garden of Eden and the human being’s divorce from it.
Because all of these cannot be wholly understood from the verses, and all the more so the stories of the Flood and the Dispersion, which have no necessity at all, and it would have been sufficient for the people of Torah without these verses at all.
They would believe in a general sense in the way it was told to them in the Ten Commandments: “Because in six days God made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in it, and He rested on the seventh day.” And the (true) knowledge would remain with those individuals who have the law from Moses from Mt. Sinai as the Oral Torah.
So Rabbi Isaac gives the reason for this, that the Torah begins with “In the beginning God created,” and the entire story of the formation through to the creation of Adam, and that God caused him to rule the work of His hands, and placed everything beneath his feet….
And the garden of Eden – which is the choicest location created in this world, was made his dwelling place. Until his sin divorced him from there, and the people of the generation of the Flood were divorced from the world altogether, and the one righteous person among them escaped, he with his sons.
And then their offspring sinned and it caused them to be flung out to places and spread them out into all the lands. And they grabbed places for their families and their nations according to what worked out for them.
If so then it is fitting, that if a nation continually sins, that they should lose their place and another nation should come and take their land. Because this has always been God’s law on earth, and all the more so when we consider what is said in the verse, that Canaan was cursed and sold forever as a slave, and it’s not fitting that he should have the choicest location for settlement. Rather it should be inherited by the servants of God, the offspring of His beloved, as in the verse: [Psalm 105:44-5] “And He gave to them the lands of nations, and the toil of peoples did they inherit; In order that they should guard His statues, and His teachings keep, praise be to God.”
That is to say, that He divorced from there those who rebelled against Him, and settled His servants there, and made it known that it because of His service that they inherited it. And if they (the Jews) sin against Him, the land will spit them out. Just as it spit out the nation before them.
As I’ve explained here it is expressed in Midrash Breishis Rabbah, where it is written with this language:
“Rabbi Yehoshua Diskin in the name of Rabbi Levi opened: ‘The power of His deeds He told to His nation” Why did the Holy One reveal to Israel what was created on the first day and the second day…? Because of the seven nations, so that they shouldn’t be dunning Israel and saying to them: “Behold you are a nation of plunderers!” And (now) Israel can say to them: “And you! Behold it is plundered in your hand! For behold the Kaftorim who came from Kaftor destroyed them (the original inhabitants) and dwelled there after them. The whole world and all that is in it belongs to the Holy One. When He wanted, he gave it to you. And when He wanted, He took it from you and gave it to us. This is what’s written: “The power of His deeds he told to His nation, to give them the inheritance of nations.”
Rabbi Isaac says the Torah could have begun in the middle of the second book, Exodus, with the commandment God gave to the Jews to sanctify the new moon in preparation for the first Passover offering, the korban Pesach. It could begin there as it was the first legal obligation of the Jews as a people, and the Torah is after all, a book of law. It is not coincidental that both the mitzva of sanctifying the moon and the Passover offering would be the beginning of Torah, as both mitzvos symbolise the birth of the Torah Nation, the people of Israel. Birthed from amidst the suffering of Egypt, much as modern Israel was born from the suffering of world Jewry in the last world war.
In any event, I think Rabbi Isaac’s advice is a great strategy for Israel to adopt towards the UN, and anyone else. Who’s land was this really? Who stole it? Let’s use history - come on. Get real. We are back. Get used to it.
But you know what - let’s do two crazy things. Let’s forget about God and the Bible (sorry God) and let’s even forget history and entertain the notion of the 1967 borders as “real” for a second. Still, in a defensive war to save it’s population from decimation, the brilliant Israeli armed forces captured territory from it’s enemies. Now tell me - do you expect me to believe than any of those very countries would return land to Israel if the situation were reversed?
That’s a good one.
But you know campers - the real point of Rabbi Isaac is not to try to convince the UN, Obama, CNN or anyone else. It is simply to believe it ourselves as Jews. Everyone who has successfully stood up to a bully knows this to be true. Believe in yourself, it is all you can do - and it’s usually enough. Especially when you’ve got backup.
Because if we really get real, it is hard to leave God out of the picture (yea God!) Ask any soldier from that war if there were miracles, you will not find many (if any) deniers. We have backup.
The world wants to make Jerusalem an “international” city. I agree with the notion this far - that every people and country should be able to have an embassy in Jerusalem the eternal capital of the Jewish People. These embassies can be bases for the people of those countries when them come on pilgrimage to Jerusalem to offer at the Temple.
This is at least what it says in Isaiah:
And the foreigners who join with the Lord to serve Him and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, everyone who observes the Sabbath from profaning it and who holds fast to My covenant.
I will bring them to My holy mount, and I will cause them to rejoice in My house of prayer, their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be acceptable upon My altar, for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
So says the Lord God, Who gathers in the dispersed of Israel, I will yet gather others to him, together with his gathered ones.
But that Jerusalem will ever be under anything other than Jewish rule, as if 1967 never happened, is foolish and insulting. It was plundered in their hands, and God gave it to us with the miracle of the six day (defensive!) war, end of story.
Reading this Ramban today is both heartening and frightening at the same time. The Ramban is teaching us that the entire hold of the Jewish people on our land is how we use it to live according to Torah. One look at modern Israeli and even Chareidi society reveals that we are far as a people from living the ideals of Torah. I am concerned, but I know it will be ok. I trust the innate goodness of the Jewish people to eventually work out their social differences, without everyone needing to wear furry (or even black) hats on the Shabbos/Shabbat. This is not to say we can live in Israel without Torah observance, we cannot. The verses, as well as our experience with history, makes that abundantly clear. But how can we begin to grow in observance - how can we make ourselves more worthy of this beautiful and fruitful land?
Let’s bring this down to us on a practical level. How can we make our lives more Torah-like? How can we make ourselves more tahor (pure) and kadosh (holy)? The fact that neither kedushah nor taharah have an accurate English translation even though they make up a full third of the Talmud is proof enough that some realities of a full Torah life are far from Western-thinking minds. The words that we usually use to translate them, that is: “holy” and “pure” connote something, but it’s not clear what.
For taharah I find the closest English word is translucent, meaning something that allows for the passage of light.
Kedusha (holiness) refers to something set aside for God. But what does it mean to be “set aside?” On one level it simply means to be dedicated to an other-wordly purpose, for example a cow could become a McDonald’s cheesburger, or it could become a Red Heifer which purifies the body from contact with a corpse. The first cow does not transcend it’s “cow-ness,” whereas the life of the latter is transformed into a sacred, higher purpose. Holiness takes the energy of this world and gives is transcendence.
I believe that kedushah is the actual presence of transcendent energy. When this energy is present in a physical being, it transforms that person by infusing them with life-force. If you’ve ever seen a holy person and felt that their face shined, that was this energy. Do I mean to imply that holiness manifests in a physical, and therefore measurable reality? I’m not a mystic nor a scientist, so I couldn’t really say. But I have seen that shine, and to me, I’ve never seen anything more real.
If kedusha is the presence of transcendent energy, perhaps we can understand that it’s prerequisite, taharah, is necessary for that energy to be present in the physical. Anything and anyone in the physical world can either be a conduit of that energy, can be holy, or they can God forbid be blocked, opaque, trapped within the confines of their body, their ego, and the walls of their imagination.
In a human, the opposite of taharah, which is called tumah, is translated as defilement, but let’s think of it as a blockage which prevents the soul from being sensed by the body. The feeling is one of being “cut off” emotionally and psychologically from our best self. The laws of what creates tumah and how to become tahor are too detailed for this book, however an example which is familiar to many is the mitzvah of Taharas Hamishpacha, “Family Purity” I.e. Mikvah.
As we’ve no doubt heard, women’s menstrual cycles are analogised to the waxing and waning of the moon. If we think of a woman’s reproductive cycle as a source of spiritual energy in the world, we can begin to appreciate that when this light, this potential soul, must abandon it’s perch because it’s fertile time has passed, this Egg-Queen of her domain leaves home with an entourage, all which would would have nourished her had she mated successfully. This loss of potential life leaves a type of hollow, a temporary withdrawal of energy, and so that it can be renewed after a week of purge, the body needs time to itself until it’s energy comes around again, in full.
When this aspect of married life is observed according to Torah law, the clarity of purpose that mitzva bathes it in gives it holiness and direction and profound desire, and doesn’t that just give our future children the best possible start in life?
What is another way to bring kedushah into our lives? Well, every Friday night when we say the Kiddush over wine we utter the words: “Bless you God, Who has sanctified Shabbos” What do we mean by “sanctifying Shabbos?” Let’s reword it. “To set Shabbos aside.”
For what? From what?
God set Shabbos aside from the rest of the week, as a day of unique holiness. So what does that mean? What does God want out of my Saturday? It’s a misinformed thought to say He wants you to set aside some time for Him in shule and at the Shabbos table. That’s really still missing it.
The set of behaviours we call “keeping Shabbos” are there to create a mindset, a rhythm and schedule of being with God and with everyone you love. To touch the TV, the computer, or the mobile phone… is to leave the company of the real people in your life, and the real life you star in. And worst of all, as God makes Himself especially available on Shabbos so to speak by granting us an “extra soul,” one who breaks Shabbos to play with this world exchanges the Almighty for a game of golf or worse, a TV show. Reality is better than Reality TV.
The seventh is the day to stop, and appreciate the world you live in without trying to be it’s master. Take the day to appreciate just being alive, with those you love. Is that so hard?
God wants you to love being alive on Shabbos. God knows the week can be rough. He created Mondays after all. But God also gave us Shabbos as a great gift wherein we can find energy for the whole week. So we have long meals with great food, a nice stroll, a shmooze, hopefully some Torah learning….
We make a statement when we observe Shabbos. We say: “There are things that I set above all others. There are relationships, which I nourish in a totally devoted way – because they are the highest priorities in my life, first and foremost being my awareness that this world is God’s creation.”
There are joys of sharing this life that can be felt on Shabbos that wouldn’t be there if we made Sunday (or any other day) our holy day. And the reason for this is I hope by now obvious. Because the source of that joy is the holiness itself. The otherworldly energy which is very much present every seventh day.
We know that life is holy. But for some reason we often fall for the mistaken notion that all we are is this bag of bones. And after all, it takes more effort to appreciate life then to sit in front of the T.V. But find me the person who truly loves Shabbos, and even so has a midlife crises about their mortality, and I’ll find you a flying elephant. Because Shabbos puts the “why” in life.
I’m reminded of another story from a class:
For about two years Leigh was a regular. She was in her forties, recently divorced, no-nonsense and built like a professional athlete. She was tough. Think of the lady coach in Glee. In any event, she originally showed up to learn because her crazy son (who was really quite normal) had gone and become Orthodox in Israel, so she figured she better find out what it’s all about. But after the first couple of classes I’m pretty sure she came for her own reasons.
In any event, the class was discussing the idea of growth in mitzvos as being more an outcome of steady learning than a sudden “decision.” The basic suggestion was that the more we know, the more we are capable of doing. The logical follow up being, the more we can do, the more we should do.
At one point Leigh suddenly leaned forward, looked me in the eye and said: “Do you mean to tell me that the more time I spend in this class the more commandments I have to do? What you’re telling me Rabbi, is that I’m better off not coming to class! Whoopee, next week I’m going out!”
Me: “Of course Leigh, you could. Have fun if you do. But just consider that by saying what you just did, you’ve already admitted mitzvos might be real, and you would just be avoiding them. You may feel freer today by avoiding learning more about yourself, but knowing that you could know more will haunt your dreams. Human beings are programmed for truth. If you corrupt that, by accepting that truth exists but refusing to think about it, how meaningful can anything else be?”
Personal growth is not something we should take lightly. I hope that in these pages you have found some insights that help you grow as a Jew, and that your time here has been well spent. I once read a plaque hanging above the the desk of one of the most self-aware people I know:
The Pain of Regret is Far Greater than the Pain of Hard Work.
Yes, it has immense social and political issues. Yes, it faces many challenges just in order to survive. But we stand only at the beginning of a new golden age for Israel. I believe with all my heart that the Land (and People) of Israel will be a great and positive influence upon the world in the next century (if not millennium!).
We think it’s hard to live in Israel, because it is. But that pressure-cooker society coupled with the stress of living among murderous enemies has also toughened the Israeli will, so that this tremendous creativity finds its way into real life applications. Odd as it might sound, one could make the argument that the Arabs have only helped us by sharpening our wits, just as our enemies did in the past.
Regardless of politics, once we throw into the current rainbow coalition of Israeli society the combined human talent, resources, and good naturedness of (most of) exilic Jewry, we have a recipe for a world superpower like never before in history.
Am Yisroel Chai!
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.
He is the Only One, and if He Wills it, it is no dream.
But of course we are speaking of the Holy Land, and yet the scenario we just painted mentioned nothing of Torah observance! So before we end this book, we must lastly delve into the relationship between the Land and Torah observance.
In order to do so let’s recognise that the modern State of Israel has contributed to the betterment of all human society many times more than all of the Arab nations combined, and has never initiated an unprovoked attack on any neighbour, and that even includes the Palestinians if we look at the record with objective and “across the board” standards for all countries. It is obviously so, and yet Israel is constantly forced to defend itself, verbally in the press (the public mind) and literally with it’s armed forces, in order to survive. And yet, just as in Ol’ Egypt; the more the nations oppress Israel, the more they grow and the more productive they are! Amazing. Truly.
But still many people buy the lies that are being spread once again about Jews and Israel by those who hate us. And boy do they hate us! Wait a minute. Who really hates us? Let’s think, is it those Chinese? Indians? Aboriginal Australians? O, I don’t know, let’s think. Isn’t it really only Christian and Moslem societies that hate Jews? Huh. Funny. Aren’t those the two religions that took the “Bible” (what Jews call the Torah) and made up their own religions with it? Aren’t those the two that in their bloody fighting over Jerusalem made it “home to three great religions?”
I hate that phrase, by the way. Jews were here thirteen hundred years before Christ, and you’ll have to add another half millennium for the Prophet. So it was our place and religion which was coveted that we’re discussing, not the birthplace of three equals. Please, there is really little hope of trying to understand Torah or have peace in Israel without recognising the Jews for who they are. The idea is absurd. It has never worked, and it never will. Early Christians made Jews out to be the Devil, just as modern fanatical Islamists do. Using the exact same tactics, for the exact same jealous evil purpose. To ignore this is more than criminal, it is to actively choose to side with evil.
In any event, how are we as Jews to respond to this crisis of conscious that the world has thrown down before us, to call us thieves of our own land, to call us murderers and Nazis as if to call us that alone makes it true?
Should we attack every anti-Semitic talkback in every article on the net? Ha! What a waste of time.
As with all things, the Torah provides guidance as to what to do in this situation. Because it was spoken about long ago, by the Sages of the Talmud in a Midrash.
That Midrash forms the basis of the first commentaries of both Rashi and Nachmanidies first comments to the Torah.
As Ramban quotes Rashi and then expounds on him, we will quote the Ramban here, in a truncated form so as to save the reader a very long quote. But the Sahib encourages you to see the quote in full to fully understand.
“Rabbi Isaac says: ‘It wasn’t necessary to begin the Torah until the verse: “This month is to you…” which is the first commandment that Israel was commanded in.
What is the reason then, that is begins with Genesis?
So that if the Nations of the World should say: “You are violent thieves, for you conquered the lands of seven nations!” They (the Jews) will say to them: “All the world is the Holy One’s, and He gave it to whom was straight in His eyes. It was His will to give it to them, and it was His will to take it from them and give it to us.’”
This is the aggadah as our teacher Shlomo writes it in his commentary.
But we can ask a question on it – because there is a great need to begin the Torah from “In the beginning God created…” for this is the root of belief (in God). One who does not believe in creation but thinks that the world has always existed denies the essence and has no Torah at all!
The answer is, that the act of Creation is a great secret that cannot be understood from the verses (alone). It cannot be understood properly save by the tradition that Moses received directly from the Almighty, and those who know it are obligated to hide it.
Therefore Rabbi Isaac says there is no need to begin the Torah with “In the beginning God created” and the story of what was created on the first day and made on the second day, and to go at length into the formation of Adam and Eve, and their sin and punishment, and the story of the Garden of Eden and the human being’s divorce from it.
Because all of these cannot be wholly understood from the verses, and all the more so the stories of the Flood and the Dispersion, which have no necessity at all, and it would have been sufficient for the people of Torah without these verses at all.
They would believe in a general sense in the way it was told to them in the Ten Commandments: “Because in six days God made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in it, and He rested on the seventh day.” And the (true) knowledge would remain with those individuals who have the law from Moses from Mt. Sinai as the Oral Torah.
So Rabbi Isaac gives the reason for this, that the Torah begins with “In the beginning God created,” and the entire story of the formation through to the creation of Adam, and that God caused him to rule the work of His hands, and placed everything beneath his feet….
And the garden of Eden – which is the choicest location created in this world, was made his dwelling place. Until his sin divorced him from there, and the people of the generation of the Flood were divorced from the world altogether, and the one righteous person among them escaped, he with his sons.
And then their offspring sinned and it caused them to be flung out to places and spread them out into all the lands. And they grabbed places for their families and their nations according to what worked out for them.
If so then it is fitting, that if a nation continually sins, that they should lose their place and another nation should come and take their land. Because this has always been God’s law on earth, and all the more so when we consider what is said in the verse, that Canaan was cursed and sold forever as a slave, and it’s not fitting that he should have the choicest location for settlement. Rather it should be inherited by the servants of God, the offspring of His beloved, as in the verse: [Psalm 105:44-5] “And He gave to them the lands of nations, and the toil of peoples did they inherit; In order that they should guard His statues, and His teachings keep, praise be to God.”
That is to say, that He divorced from there those who rebelled against Him, and settled His servants there, and made it known that it because of His service that they inherited it. And if they (the Jews) sin against Him, the land will spit them out. Just as it spit out the nation before them.
As I’ve explained here it is expressed in Midrash Breishis Rabbah, where it is written with this language:
“Rabbi Yehoshua Diskin in the name of Rabbi Levi opened: ‘The power of His deeds He told to His nation” Why did the Holy One reveal to Israel what was created on the first day and the second day…? Because of the seven nations, so that they shouldn’t be dunning Israel and saying to them: “Behold you are a nation of plunderers!” And (now) Israel can say to them: “And you! Behold it is plundered in your hand! For behold the Kaftorim who came from Kaftor destroyed them (the original inhabitants) and dwelled there after them. The whole world and all that is in it belongs to the Holy One. When He wanted, he gave it to you. And when He wanted, He took it from you and gave it to us. This is what’s written: “The power of His deeds he told to His nation, to give them the inheritance of nations.”
Rabbi Isaac says the Torah could have begun in the middle of the second book, Exodus, with the commandment God gave to the Jews to sanctify the new moon in preparation for the first Passover offering, the korban Pesach. It could begin there as it was the first legal obligation of the Jews as a people, and the Torah is after all, a book of law. It is not coincidental that both the mitzva of sanctifying the moon and the Passover offering would be the beginning of Torah, as both mitzvos symbolise the birth of the Torah Nation, the people of Israel. Birthed from amidst the suffering of Egypt, much as modern Israel was born from the suffering of world Jewry in the last world war.
In any event, I think Rabbi Isaac’s advice is a great strategy for Israel to adopt towards the UN, and anyone else. Who’s land was this really? Who stole it? Let’s use history - come on. Get real. We are back. Get used to it.
But you know what - let’s do two crazy things. Let’s forget about God and the Bible (sorry God) and let’s even forget history and entertain the notion of the 1967 borders as “real” for a second. Still, in a defensive war to save it’s population from decimation, the brilliant Israeli armed forces captured territory from it’s enemies. Now tell me - do you expect me to believe than any of those very countries would return land to Israel if the situation were reversed?
That’s a good one.
But you know campers - the real point of Rabbi Isaac is not to try to convince the UN, Obama, CNN or anyone else. It is simply to believe it ourselves as Jews. Everyone who has successfully stood up to a bully knows this to be true. Believe in yourself, it is all you can do - and it’s usually enough. Especially when you’ve got backup.
Because if we really get real, it is hard to leave God out of the picture (yea God!) Ask any soldier from that war if there were miracles, you will not find many (if any) deniers. We have backup.
The world wants to make Jerusalem an “international” city. I agree with the notion this far - that every people and country should be able to have an embassy in Jerusalem the eternal capital of the Jewish People. These embassies can be bases for the people of those countries when them come on pilgrimage to Jerusalem to offer at the Temple.
This is at least what it says in Isaiah:
And the foreigners who join with the Lord to serve Him and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, everyone who observes the Sabbath from profaning it and who holds fast to My covenant.
I will bring them to My holy mount, and I will cause them to rejoice in My house of prayer, their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be acceptable upon My altar, for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
So says the Lord God, Who gathers in the dispersed of Israel, I will yet gather others to him, together with his gathered ones.
But that Jerusalem will ever be under anything other than Jewish rule, as if 1967 never happened, is foolish and insulting. It was plundered in their hands, and God gave it to us with the miracle of the six day (defensive!) war, end of story.
Reading this Ramban today is both heartening and frightening at the same time. The Ramban is teaching us that the entire hold of the Jewish people on our land is how we use it to live according to Torah. One look at modern Israeli and even Chareidi society reveals that we are far as a people from living the ideals of Torah. I am concerned, but I know it will be ok. I trust the innate goodness of the Jewish people to eventually work out their social differences, without everyone needing to wear furry (or even black) hats on the Shabbos/Shabbat. This is not to say we can live in Israel without Torah observance, we cannot. The verses, as well as our experience with history, makes that abundantly clear. But how can we begin to grow in observance - how can we make ourselves more worthy of this beautiful and fruitful land?
Let’s bring this down to us on a practical level. How can we make our lives more Torah-like? How can we make ourselves more tahor (pure) and kadosh (holy)? The fact that neither kedushah nor taharah have an accurate English translation even though they make up a full third of the Talmud is proof enough that some realities of a full Torah life are far from Western-thinking minds. The words that we usually use to translate them, that is: “holy” and “pure” connote something, but it’s not clear what.
For taharah I find the closest English word is translucent, meaning something that allows for the passage of light.
Kedusha (holiness) refers to something set aside for God. But what does it mean to be “set aside?” On one level it simply means to be dedicated to an other-wordly purpose, for example a cow could become a McDonald’s cheesburger, or it could become a Red Heifer which purifies the body from contact with a corpse. The first cow does not transcend it’s “cow-ness,” whereas the life of the latter is transformed into a sacred, higher purpose. Holiness takes the energy of this world and gives is transcendence.
I believe that kedushah is the actual presence of transcendent energy. When this energy is present in a physical being, it transforms that person by infusing them with life-force. If you’ve ever seen a holy person and felt that their face shined, that was this energy. Do I mean to imply that holiness manifests in a physical, and therefore measurable reality? I’m not a mystic nor a scientist, so I couldn’t really say. But I have seen that shine, and to me, I’ve never seen anything more real.
If kedusha is the presence of transcendent energy, perhaps we can understand that it’s prerequisite, taharah, is necessary for that energy to be present in the physical. Anything and anyone in the physical world can either be a conduit of that energy, can be holy, or they can God forbid be blocked, opaque, trapped within the confines of their body, their ego, and the walls of their imagination.
In a human, the opposite of taharah, which is called tumah, is translated as defilement, but let’s think of it as a blockage which prevents the soul from being sensed by the body. The feeling is one of being “cut off” emotionally and psychologically from our best self. The laws of what creates tumah and how to become tahor are too detailed for this book, however an example which is familiar to many is the mitzvah of Taharas Hamishpacha, “Family Purity” I.e. Mikvah.
As we’ve no doubt heard, women’s menstrual cycles are analogised to the waxing and waning of the moon. If we think of a woman’s reproductive cycle as a source of spiritual energy in the world, we can begin to appreciate that when this light, this potential soul, must abandon it’s perch because it’s fertile time has passed, this Egg-Queen of her domain leaves home with an entourage, all which would would have nourished her had she mated successfully. This loss of potential life leaves a type of hollow, a temporary withdrawal of energy, and so that it can be renewed after a week of purge, the body needs time to itself until it’s energy comes around again, in full.
When this aspect of married life is observed according to Torah law, the clarity of purpose that mitzva bathes it in gives it holiness and direction and profound desire, and doesn’t that just give our future children the best possible start in life?
What is another way to bring kedushah into our lives? Well, every Friday night when we say the Kiddush over wine we utter the words: “Bless you God, Who has sanctified Shabbos” What do we mean by “sanctifying Shabbos?” Let’s reword it. “To set Shabbos aside.”
For what? From what?
God set Shabbos aside from the rest of the week, as a day of unique holiness. So what does that mean? What does God want out of my Saturday? It’s a misinformed thought to say He wants you to set aside some time for Him in shule and at the Shabbos table. That’s really still missing it.
The set of behaviours we call “keeping Shabbos” are there to create a mindset, a rhythm and schedule of being with God and with everyone you love. To touch the TV, the computer, or the mobile phone… is to leave the company of the real people in your life, and the real life you star in. And worst of all, as God makes Himself especially available on Shabbos so to speak by granting us an “extra soul,” one who breaks Shabbos to play with this world exchanges the Almighty for a game of golf or worse, a TV show. Reality is better than Reality TV.
The seventh is the day to stop, and appreciate the world you live in without trying to be it’s master. Take the day to appreciate just being alive, with those you love. Is that so hard?
God wants you to love being alive on Shabbos. God knows the week can be rough. He created Mondays after all. But God also gave us Shabbos as a great gift wherein we can find energy for the whole week. So we have long meals with great food, a nice stroll, a shmooze, hopefully some Torah learning….
We make a statement when we observe Shabbos. We say: “There are things that I set above all others. There are relationships, which I nourish in a totally devoted way – because they are the highest priorities in my life, first and foremost being my awareness that this world is God’s creation.”
There are joys of sharing this life that can be felt on Shabbos that wouldn’t be there if we made Sunday (or any other day) our holy day. And the reason for this is I hope by now obvious. Because the source of that joy is the holiness itself. The otherworldly energy which is very much present every seventh day.
We know that life is holy. But for some reason we often fall for the mistaken notion that all we are is this bag of bones. And after all, it takes more effort to appreciate life then to sit in front of the T.V. But find me the person who truly loves Shabbos, and even so has a midlife crises about their mortality, and I’ll find you a flying elephant. Because Shabbos puts the “why” in life.
I’m reminded of another story from a class:
For about two years Leigh was a regular. She was in her forties, recently divorced, no-nonsense and built like a professional athlete. She was tough. Think of the lady coach in Glee. In any event, she originally showed up to learn because her crazy son (who was really quite normal) had gone and become Orthodox in Israel, so she figured she better find out what it’s all about. But after the first couple of classes I’m pretty sure she came for her own reasons.
In any event, the class was discussing the idea of growth in mitzvos as being more an outcome of steady learning than a sudden “decision.” The basic suggestion was that the more we know, the more we are capable of doing. The logical follow up being, the more we can do, the more we should do.
At one point Leigh suddenly leaned forward, looked me in the eye and said: “Do you mean to tell me that the more time I spend in this class the more commandments I have to do? What you’re telling me Rabbi, is that I’m better off not coming to class! Whoopee, next week I’m going out!”
Me: “Of course Leigh, you could. Have fun if you do. But just consider that by saying what you just did, you’ve already admitted mitzvos might be real, and you would just be avoiding them. You may feel freer today by avoiding learning more about yourself, but knowing that you could know more will haunt your dreams. Human beings are programmed for truth. If you corrupt that, by accepting that truth exists but refusing to think about it, how meaningful can anything else be?”
Personal growth is not something we should take lightly. I hope that in these pages you have found some insights that help you grow as a Jew, and that your time here has been well spent. I once read a plaque hanging above the the desk of one of the most self-aware people I know:
The Pain of Regret is Far Greater than the Pain of Hard Work.