FROM THE DESK OF
BARBARA GINSBERG
“ K A H A N E”
The magazine of the authentic Jewish Idea
Tevet 5737 January 1977
THREE TRANSGRESSIONS
Part one
“For three transgressions of Judah…” (Amos 2)
And so it begins and 1977 comes early. We are a people that dearly loves to fool itself and we look away from reality in the hope that it will go away. But though we look away it will not go away and illusion is but the father of delusion and myths are no substitute for answers to reality. The irony is that every time a Jew speaks up as a Jew and discusses the issues in Jewish terms and Jewish solutions, he is derided as “mystical,” and “impractical,” and “unrealistic.” We are at that unprecedented age when the Jew who speaks of history and events in terms of G-d and Divine direction, is mocked and looked upon as an embarrassment or worse. Non-believer and “religious” believer, alike, become diplomats and geopoliticians and the one never thinks of G-d while the other leaves him behind in the synagogue where he “belongs” since, when it comes to politics, we must be “practical.”
Well, 1977 will show just how impractical and absurd are the secularists and the “religious” allies who reject the mysticism of the truly religious and turn with “cleverness” and “cunning” to Washington, F-15 planes, Lebanese Christians and other “practical” allies and saviors. Those who trust in Man and mock the unrealistic Jew who follows the ancient and time-honored Jewish way of faith and self-help will learn quickly enough who is the truly practical and who the absurdly ridiculous fool.
We may struggle against wanting to see the truth and we may twist and turn our heads from looking at it, but the realities will never go away and we had best understand them even as they move ominously closer and closer with their threat to Jewish survival. The realities cannot be denied and they are, starkly and simply:
For Israel, no change. There remain tens of millions of Arabs, all dedicated to one thing: The elimination of any Israel, of any size or shape. There are no moderates – there are only Arabs like Sadat who are cleverer than those others who openly say what Sadat means. And so the Egyptian meets Congressmen and piously speaks of “peace” and “justice” if only Israel will retreat from the lands which Egypt had in its possession in 1967 and which did not stop her from going to war anyhow – for what purpose??? And the pathetic Ribicoffs stand and praise him as a man of “courage and peace” (as did so many Jewish and Israeli leaders in 1975) and the Arab deserves a medal for holding back his laughter…
And the reality remains. A United States whose interests are so different and so opposed to those of Israel and a Carter and a Ford differ only in accent, as far as Jews are concerned. America seeks oil, Arab business offers, Arab investment and non-involvement in any confrontation in the Middle East in this post-Vietnam era. America seeks to continue the very successful (from its point of view) Kissinger policy. The German Jew (Kissinger) was a tragedy for Israel, but for the United States – he drove the Russians out of the Middle East influence they once had. And this was done only by promising the Arabs that Washington could do for them, which Moscow could not – force Israel to retreat. If Carter does not do that, the Russians will return and American materialistic interests will be threatened. Only the “practical” fools, the gentilized Jews, prefer to believe that America will support Israel because it is a “democracy.” (Of course, America’s yardstick for supporting nations is whether they are democracies, witness Franco Spain, Salazar Portugal, Greece’s Colonel, South Korea…). American policy is and always has been the Roger Plan, total Israeli retreat from ALL the liberated lands in return for an Arab piece of paper. THAT IS THE REALITY for all the gentilized Jews of “practicality.”
The reality is that the sudden burst of Sadat “moderation” and PLO “change of heart” concerning a “Palestine” state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are both aimed at making things easier for America to abandon Israel. Indeed, Washington has long pleaded with the PLO to make “de facto” moderate statements so as to allow Washington to support the “Palestinian” cause without seeming to abandon Israel. We are seeing a coordinated Egyptian-Syrian-PLO-Washington plan to get a Geneva Conference that would set the ground for an overall “Peace Plan’ that would demand from Israel complete retreat from the liberated lands and place the onus for further Mideast conflict on Israeli “stubbornness” and “intransigence.” It will set the stage for more American “reassessment” and delay in arms and money shipments. It will set the stage for serious and permanent change in American policy towards Israel with a “clean conscience” and a massive sigh of relief from American leaders and people alike.
The reality is Israeli total isolation in the world as it joins South Africa and Rhodesia in the “pariah” class. And the irony will be that those who so derided and scorned Jews who said to trust alone in G-d will be left with neither G-d nor the Man they so avidly wooed… The reality is a retreat from lands on which a “Palestine” will be built that will sit a few miles from Israel’s heartland with its missile covering Israeli air space and “volunteers” from the Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland, Pakistan and North Vietnam moving up to the shadow of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
All this is the very real and practical result of the policy of the gentilized Jews who run both Israel and American Jewry. The ones who never allow the name of G-d to pass their lips, the ones who mock the truly religious, the ones who pompously pontificate on the need for practical thinking and allies. Well, there are no allies and the Jew who is “practical” today in the same un-Jewish sense that his forefathers were when they scorned the impractical Isaiahs and Hoseas and Jeremiahs and turned with fawning and flattery and prostration to Egypt and Assyria – will find that Assyrians and allies of our time will betray him as swiftly as they did in times of yore.
And the reality for American Jewry is that the Galut, the bitter exile of the Jewish people, did not stop at the western shores of the Atlantic and was not barred from entering the United States. The exile – that bitterest of all curses, punishments and sins – cannot and will not ever be a sweet refuge.
(conclusion next week)
Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:
barhow@netvision.net.il
Visit my blog for previously e-mailed Rav Kahane writings:
http:/www.barbaraginsberg.blogspot.com
I am also posting Baruch Marzel's Activities at:
www.baruchmarzel.blogspot.com
11.28.2009
Three Transgressions 1977
FROM THE DESK OF
BARBARA GINSBERG
“ K A H A N E”
The magazine of the authentic Jewish Idea
Tevet 5737 January 1977
THREE TRANSGRESSIONS
(Conclusion)
And the reality for American Jewry is that the Galut, the bitter exile of the Jewish people, did not stop at the western shores of the Atlantic and was not barred from entering the United States. The exile – that bitterest of all curses, punishments and sins – cannot and will not ever be a sweet refuge. The curse of the Tochach (admonishment) will never be changed even though Reform and Yeshiva men alike rip out its pages from their Torahs. “And the L-rd shall scatter thee among all peoples… and among these nations shall thou have no peace.” How we ignore those Torah parts that disturb our tranquility! How superb we are at rationalizing them away! How angry we become at those who persist in speaking about it. How we prefer to create the myth of American Jewish bliss that nothing can disturb since “it cannot happen here!” but, the reality is that it will because it must, because the All Mighty knows full well that unless we are forced to, we will never go willingly back to the Land.
And the reality of Soviet Jewry is that never since Stalin have they faced such a potential for pogroms and physical threats. The illusion was that public protests and demonstrations could only hurt and when Jewish militants disproved that, the myth arose that it was really the twice-a-year establishment picnics and the respectable protests that had been the true cause of the sudden emigration flow and that became a delusion that everything would always remain as a permanent victory. But, the reality is that Jewish refusal to mount ever-greater attacks on détente and Jewish betrayal of Henry Jackson and now the worst perfidy of them all – the Israeli and Jewish treachery and selling out of all Soviet Jews who will not go to Israel – are all things that are aiding a potential Holocaust for Soviet Jewry. Where is the sense of urgency, where is the note of emergency? They are the realities and in the delusion that is born of such apathy, we prefer not to see the danger and be forced to act and do unpleasant things.
We are a people that dearly loves to fool itself and deeply resents those who refuse to allow us to. But the reality is here and it is clear. Jewish destiny and Jewish history are not things of chance, of permutations and combinations. They are directed and ordained and we cannot avoid that which shall be unless we do that which should be. A refusal to be Jewish under the pretense of being “practical” will only make us un-Jewish and the most impractical of peoples.
Faith. Only this is the key to the redemption and salvation of the Jew and how tragic it is that from one end of the spectrum to the other, from the secularist and Marxist Jew to the pious, practitioner of ritual in the yeshivas, real faith and real understanding of this era and the call of Jewish destiny is so lacking. It is the era of the final redemption that can come so quickly and so magnificently if only we are prepared to believe in the G-d of history, the Jewish Creator of all and director of that which will be. There is a Jewish destiny that awaits us and this is ours for the asking and taking. The Messiah knocks and the door waits to be opened if only we turn the key. The key is faith; real faith. Faith based on courage and boldness and sacrifice. Faith that is more that lip service but is measured by three intensely practical concrete yardsticks:
1)Faith and courage in knowing that the rise of the State of Israel is the decree of the L-rd and the end of the humiliation of the exile. That every victory won by Jews is proof that the L-rd, G-d of Israel, is the true Creator and the Decreer of history. That every retreat and defeat is a retreat to that Hillul Hashem that saw two millennia of humiliation for the Jew and his G-d. That retreat from Jewish land, from any part of Eretz Yisroel is a Biblical prohibition and is more than a retreat from land. It is a retreat from Kiddush Hashem, a retreat from redemption, a retreat from faith in G-d, a retreat from Jewish Destiny. “Not one inch” is not a political or military imperative – it is a theological and Torah cry. If we stand firm and call out to the L-rd, rejecting fear of man and rejecting need of man if that need is based on prostration and fawning flattery – then we will have been true in one aspect of our faith. Then we will have rejected the stupid, impractical and unrealistically mystical belief in the gentile – in Man – and returned to the practical realistic, Jewish believe in trust in the All Mighty.
2)Faith and courage in leaving the comfortable Exile with its fleshpots and luxuries that so tempts us and seduces us. The strength to leave comfort for duty, obligation and commandment. The courage to choose to fulfill the difficult mitzvah of living in the land rather than wallowing in the impurities and spiritual filth of the Exile. The faith in G-d that allows us to admit that we, irreligious and religious alike, small and great together, have sinned against the land. Rejection of the rationalizations and false “pilpul” that helps us to stay and rot in the inevitable graveyard that the Exile will become. Faith in the land, strength to go home.
3)Faith and courage in doing what we must for fellow Jews. Feeling the pain of each and every Jew who is in pain and the readiness to sacrifice and suffer with him, to save him. A rejection of apathy, a throwing off of indifference, a burial of fearful contemplation and selfish interests. Massive and powerful demonstrations and attacks on the Russians – clear warnings at what awful thing could happen should Soviet Jewry be under physical attack.
Massive and powerful protests now, even before the full United States pressure
begins, against any possible US strangulation of Israel. Jewish action instead of
reaction. Massive and powerful demands that American Jewish leadership
become democratized so that the poor and the elderly and the weak will be aided
–so that Jewish funds go only to help Jews. Faith and courage to consider what the gentile wills say and to reply: Who cares? Faith and courage to know that if we do what the All Mighty wishes – the love or hate of the gentile is irrelevant.
Three acts of faith that can absolve us of our three transgressions. Only thus can we be practical, realistic, pragmatic. Only by being Jewish can we stop being ridiculously mystical and believe that our salvation lies in the hands of the gentile. We are a people that is different, that is chosen, that is great, that can never be destroyed. Why do we persist in refusing to recognize ourselves? Why, if we are giants, do we insist on being dwarfs?
Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:
barhow@netvision.net.il
Visit my blog for previously e-mailed Rav Kahane writings:
http:/www.barbaraginsberg.blogspot.com
I am also posting Baruch Marzel's Activities at:
www.baruchmarzel.blogspot.com
BARBARA GINSBERG
“ K A H A N E”
The magazine of the authentic Jewish Idea
Tevet 5737 January 1977
THREE TRANSGRESSIONS
(Conclusion)
And the reality for American Jewry is that the Galut, the bitter exile of the Jewish people, did not stop at the western shores of the Atlantic and was not barred from entering the United States. The exile – that bitterest of all curses, punishments and sins – cannot and will not ever be a sweet refuge. The curse of the Tochach (admonishment) will never be changed even though Reform and Yeshiva men alike rip out its pages from their Torahs. “And the L-rd shall scatter thee among all peoples… and among these nations shall thou have no peace.” How we ignore those Torah parts that disturb our tranquility! How superb we are at rationalizing them away! How angry we become at those who persist in speaking about it. How we prefer to create the myth of American Jewish bliss that nothing can disturb since “it cannot happen here!” but, the reality is that it will because it must, because the All Mighty knows full well that unless we are forced to, we will never go willingly back to the Land.
And the reality of Soviet Jewry is that never since Stalin have they faced such a potential for pogroms and physical threats. The illusion was that public protests and demonstrations could only hurt and when Jewish militants disproved that, the myth arose that it was really the twice-a-year establishment picnics and the respectable protests that had been the true cause of the sudden emigration flow and that became a delusion that everything would always remain as a permanent victory. But, the reality is that Jewish refusal to mount ever-greater attacks on détente and Jewish betrayal of Henry Jackson and now the worst perfidy of them all – the Israeli and Jewish treachery and selling out of all Soviet Jews who will not go to Israel – are all things that are aiding a potential Holocaust for Soviet Jewry. Where is the sense of urgency, where is the note of emergency? They are the realities and in the delusion that is born of such apathy, we prefer not to see the danger and be forced to act and do unpleasant things.
We are a people that dearly loves to fool itself and deeply resents those who refuse to allow us to. But the reality is here and it is clear. Jewish destiny and Jewish history are not things of chance, of permutations and combinations. They are directed and ordained and we cannot avoid that which shall be unless we do that which should be. A refusal to be Jewish under the pretense of being “practical” will only make us un-Jewish and the most impractical of peoples.
Faith. Only this is the key to the redemption and salvation of the Jew and how tragic it is that from one end of the spectrum to the other, from the secularist and Marxist Jew to the pious, practitioner of ritual in the yeshivas, real faith and real understanding of this era and the call of Jewish destiny is so lacking. It is the era of the final redemption that can come so quickly and so magnificently if only we are prepared to believe in the G-d of history, the Jewish Creator of all and director of that which will be. There is a Jewish destiny that awaits us and this is ours for the asking and taking. The Messiah knocks and the door waits to be opened if only we turn the key. The key is faith; real faith. Faith based on courage and boldness and sacrifice. Faith that is more that lip service but is measured by three intensely practical concrete yardsticks:
1)Faith and courage in knowing that the rise of the State of Israel is the decree of the L-rd and the end of the humiliation of the exile. That every victory won by Jews is proof that the L-rd, G-d of Israel, is the true Creator and the Decreer of history. That every retreat and defeat is a retreat to that Hillul Hashem that saw two millennia of humiliation for the Jew and his G-d. That retreat from Jewish land, from any part of Eretz Yisroel is a Biblical prohibition and is more than a retreat from land. It is a retreat from Kiddush Hashem, a retreat from redemption, a retreat from faith in G-d, a retreat from Jewish Destiny. “Not one inch” is not a political or military imperative – it is a theological and Torah cry. If we stand firm and call out to the L-rd, rejecting fear of man and rejecting need of man if that need is based on prostration and fawning flattery – then we will have been true in one aspect of our faith. Then we will have rejected the stupid, impractical and unrealistically mystical belief in the gentile – in Man – and returned to the practical realistic, Jewish believe in trust in the All Mighty.
2)Faith and courage in leaving the comfortable Exile with its fleshpots and luxuries that so tempts us and seduces us. The strength to leave comfort for duty, obligation and commandment. The courage to choose to fulfill the difficult mitzvah of living in the land rather than wallowing in the impurities and spiritual filth of the Exile. The faith in G-d that allows us to admit that we, irreligious and religious alike, small and great together, have sinned against the land. Rejection of the rationalizations and false “pilpul” that helps us to stay and rot in the inevitable graveyard that the Exile will become. Faith in the land, strength to go home.
3)Faith and courage in doing what we must for fellow Jews. Feeling the pain of each and every Jew who is in pain and the readiness to sacrifice and suffer with him, to save him. A rejection of apathy, a throwing off of indifference, a burial of fearful contemplation and selfish interests. Massive and powerful demonstrations and attacks on the Russians – clear warnings at what awful thing could happen should Soviet Jewry be under physical attack.
Massive and powerful protests now, even before the full United States pressure
begins, against any possible US strangulation of Israel. Jewish action instead of
reaction. Massive and powerful demands that American Jewish leadership
become democratized so that the poor and the elderly and the weak will be aided
–so that Jewish funds go only to help Jews. Faith and courage to consider what the gentile wills say and to reply: Who cares? Faith and courage to know that if we do what the All Mighty wishes – the love or hate of the gentile is irrelevant.
Three acts of faith that can absolve us of our three transgressions. Only thus can we be practical, realistic, pragmatic. Only by being Jewish can we stop being ridiculously mystical and believe that our salvation lies in the hands of the gentile. We are a people that is different, that is chosen, that is great, that can never be destroyed. Why do we persist in refusing to recognize ourselves? Why, if we are giants, do we insist on being dwarfs?
Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:
barhow@netvision.net.il
Visit my blog for previously e-mailed Rav Kahane writings:
http:/www.barbaraginsberg.blogspot.com
I am also posting Baruch Marzel's Activities at:
www.baruchmarzel.blogspot.com
11.14.2009
IT IS MY OX! 1990
FROM THE DESK OF
BARBARA GINSBERG
RABBI MEIR KAHANE
ON JEWS AND JUDIASM
January 19, 1990 - 22 Teveth 5750
But It Is MY Ox!
Once upon a time, there was a man who owned several beautiful oxen. They were strong and well-mannered and just a delight. He had a neighbor, however, who was a bad man and very jealous of the beautiful oxen, because the bad man’s oxen were ugly and ill-tempered. And the jealousy of the bad man gave him no rest, so that one day he deliberately let his ill-tempered oxen into the field where the beautiful oxen were grazing and they gored one of them, killing it. The owner of the dead ox was angry at this terrible and deliberate outrage that, in the middle of the night, he entered the field where the ill-tempered oxen were and killed one of them.
The neighboring villagers and cattle people were very moral and ethical people and they were aghast at the man who had taken revenge on the ill-tempered ox and its bad owner. Their leader, Mr. Morality, was especially indignant. “What you did was very immoral,” he told the poor man. You cannot sink to his level. And you cannot enter someone else’s field even if there is a dangerous ox there. You cannot take the law into your own hands.” In vain did the poor fellow protest that someone had to teach the bad fellow a lesson and that unless that were done, he would do it again. Nothing helped. Mr. Morality was adamantly ethical: “You do not take the law into your own hands; you do not enter other people’s property; you do not sink to his level.” And with that, Mr. Morality and his merry band of ethical cattlemen walked off, heads high and breasts filled with a sweet sense of righteousness.
The poor man was so beaten that he could not bear the thought of continuing as before. He was so depressed that he decided to sell the rest of his beautiful oxen to anyone who would buy them. To be sure, there was no lack of buyers and, in the end, it was Mr. Morality himself who offered the highest price. Beaming, he took possession of the beautiful, quiet, well-mannered and delightful oxen.
But the change in ownership had not changed the way the bad man felt. Every time he would see the beautiful oxen, he was blinded by jealousy and envy. And so, one night, when he could no longer contain his jealousy, he sent his ugly and ill-tempered oxen into the field of Mr. Morality and they again killed one of the beautiful oxen.
When Mr. Morality heard of what had happened, his anger knew no bounds. And without a second thought, he took a number of his merry ethical friends, entered the field of the bad man and killed not one, but two of his oxen.
When the original owner of the oxen heard of this, he hurried over to Mr. Morality. “I do not understand. What did you do? When I did the same thing, you told me that one does not take the law into one’s own hands; one does not enter other people’s fields and one does not sink to their level. What happened now?”
Mr. Morality looked with pity on the poor, uncomprehending man. “I see that you really don’t understand, poor fellow. Let me explain. There is a difference between your going into his field and my going into his field. In your case, you really should not have done such a thing. In this case, it was my ox…”
I wallow in glee over events in Panama and Romania. O, Panama! O, Romania! I watch as the United States troops go into someone else’s field, invade a foreign country with 25,000 troops, shoot up its capital city, kill some 70 Panamanians, and install their own government.
And then I remember Israel’s invasion of Lebanon after years of attacks on Jewish towns from that country; after scores of Jews were murdered by attacks launched from that land; after life was made a living hell for the Jews of Kiryat Shmona, one third of whom fled the city. And I remember Israeli troops reaching Beirut and installing their Lebanese as President in order to put an end to murder and attacks upon Jews.
And I remember Messrs. Morality! ALL of them! President Reagan, Vice-President Bush, the State Department, the Defense Department and all the merry, ethical Americans (and British and French and, and, and, ad infinitum. Ad nauseum). How they condemned and how they railed and how they moralized and how they ethicalized! Merrily. “You do not sink to the level of the PLO. You do not enter someone else’s field (land). You do not take the law into your own hands.” Messrs. Morality, Post Office Box One Million, Washington, DC.
And so now there is Panama. And should any simple-minded type ask President Morality, High-minded Bush of morality, why he did everything he told Israel it should not do – he would give a sympathetic nod to the poor simpleton who really does not understand, and the answer would be: But it is my ox…
I remember Israeli troops entering the field of Lebanon to capture a Moslem Sheikh who was leader of a group of Moslem Shiite thugs holding Israelis as hostages; and President Morality and his merry ethical State Department cattlemen with their shouts of condemnation! And now I see the same moralists invading the field of Panama to try and catch a thug named Noriega because he deals in drugs that harm Americans and because he tweaks America’s nose. And I finally understand the difference and can even hear President Morality say it: But it is my ox...
And I remember the outcry by all the democrats and anti-racist equality types demanding that William Nakash be extradited from Israel to France and rising up in righteous indignation over the thought that just because someone is a Jew, he should not be extradited. After all, all human beings are equal and being Jewish is no reason to refuse to hand him over to strangers. And what would the world say to any such tribalism! And then I read that under Panamanian, law, a Panamanian cannot be extradited to a foreign county and I understand the difference: But it is my ox…
I watch as, in Romania, the dictator is captured and he and his wife are shot in secret trial, with summary justice dealt out within less than two days and no appeal allowed. And I know that Israel did not give the death penalty to any murdering terrorists and goes through elaborate procedures of “justice” in order that terrorists sit and eat and drink at our expense until they are exchanged for hostages. And I know what the outcry from Romania and other ethical nations would be if Israel would do to murdering terrorists what Romania did to its former President. But I have already learned the difference; THIS IS MY OX…
And having said all that, I do not – as so many professors and intellectual doers on the right – merely weep, complain and wring my soul. I have no intention of wasting a precious few moments of my finite life in the House of Eternal Kvetching, in which so many of the right-wing spend their lives. The lesson for me in this morality lesson of Whose Ox is gored? is not that there are hypocrites in this world. Boker Tov! Good morning! There are hypocrites in the world! Surprise…
For me, the only lesson here is that there is, indeed, a difference. Not the one that the moralists of hypocrisy give, but the objective and eternally true one of divine Torah Law. There is a difference, the one that cannot be grasped unless one has knowledge and sense. In the words of the rabbis, “Im ein da’at havdala minayin?” “If one has no knowledge, how can he differentiate?”
The lesson is that there is objective good and objective evil, objective truth and objective falsehood, and the same action taken against the one is good while the same act done against the other is wrong and evil. Yes, it is good and right and a mitzvah to go into Panama to eliminate the slime named Noriega and yes, how much more so was it right and a mitzvah to enter Lebanon and eliminate the PLO and other Moslem terrorist swine. And yes, it was wrong and evil for the Russians to do exactly the same in Afghanistan and for the Chinese to invade Tibet. Yes, the German bombing of Coventry and London is not the same as the Allied bombing of German cities and yes, the hanging of evil criminals is good and that of decent people, bad, and anyone who does not understand this havdala, differentiation, needs a good grounding in knowledge. Divine knowledge. Torah knowledge.
Until then, at the very least, let the Jew learn the simple message of normal gentiles who – when their basic interests are threatened – do not hesitate to enter strange fields and to kill evil oxen. It is time the Jew learned there is nothing for which to apologize or retreat when his people are killed and his interest threatened. It is time that he learned to tell President Morality and any other merry ethical type: “But it is my ox and no one touches it; understand?”
Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:
barhow@netvision.net.il
Visit my blog for previously e-mailed Rav Kahane writings:
http:/www.barbaraginsberg.blogspot.com
I am also posting Baruch Marzel's Activities at:
www.baruchmarzel.blogspot.com
BARBARA GINSBERG
RABBI MEIR KAHANE
ON JEWS AND JUDIASM
January 19, 1990 - 22 Teveth 5750
But It Is MY Ox!
Once upon a time, there was a man who owned several beautiful oxen. They were strong and well-mannered and just a delight. He had a neighbor, however, who was a bad man and very jealous of the beautiful oxen, because the bad man’s oxen were ugly and ill-tempered. And the jealousy of the bad man gave him no rest, so that one day he deliberately let his ill-tempered oxen into the field where the beautiful oxen were grazing and they gored one of them, killing it. The owner of the dead ox was angry at this terrible and deliberate outrage that, in the middle of the night, he entered the field where the ill-tempered oxen were and killed one of them.
The neighboring villagers and cattle people were very moral and ethical people and they were aghast at the man who had taken revenge on the ill-tempered ox and its bad owner. Their leader, Mr. Morality, was especially indignant. “What you did was very immoral,” he told the poor man. You cannot sink to his level. And you cannot enter someone else’s field even if there is a dangerous ox there. You cannot take the law into your own hands.” In vain did the poor fellow protest that someone had to teach the bad fellow a lesson and that unless that were done, he would do it again. Nothing helped. Mr. Morality was adamantly ethical: “You do not take the law into your own hands; you do not enter other people’s property; you do not sink to his level.” And with that, Mr. Morality and his merry band of ethical cattlemen walked off, heads high and breasts filled with a sweet sense of righteousness.
The poor man was so beaten that he could not bear the thought of continuing as before. He was so depressed that he decided to sell the rest of his beautiful oxen to anyone who would buy them. To be sure, there was no lack of buyers and, in the end, it was Mr. Morality himself who offered the highest price. Beaming, he took possession of the beautiful, quiet, well-mannered and delightful oxen.
But the change in ownership had not changed the way the bad man felt. Every time he would see the beautiful oxen, he was blinded by jealousy and envy. And so, one night, when he could no longer contain his jealousy, he sent his ugly and ill-tempered oxen into the field of Mr. Morality and they again killed one of the beautiful oxen.
When Mr. Morality heard of what had happened, his anger knew no bounds. And without a second thought, he took a number of his merry ethical friends, entered the field of the bad man and killed not one, but two of his oxen.
When the original owner of the oxen heard of this, he hurried over to Mr. Morality. “I do not understand. What did you do? When I did the same thing, you told me that one does not take the law into one’s own hands; one does not enter other people’s fields and one does not sink to their level. What happened now?”
Mr. Morality looked with pity on the poor, uncomprehending man. “I see that you really don’t understand, poor fellow. Let me explain. There is a difference between your going into his field and my going into his field. In your case, you really should not have done such a thing. In this case, it was my ox…”
I wallow in glee over events in Panama and Romania. O, Panama! O, Romania! I watch as the United States troops go into someone else’s field, invade a foreign country with 25,000 troops, shoot up its capital city, kill some 70 Panamanians, and install their own government.
And then I remember Israel’s invasion of Lebanon after years of attacks on Jewish towns from that country; after scores of Jews were murdered by attacks launched from that land; after life was made a living hell for the Jews of Kiryat Shmona, one third of whom fled the city. And I remember Israeli troops reaching Beirut and installing their Lebanese as President in order to put an end to murder and attacks upon Jews.
And I remember Messrs. Morality! ALL of them! President Reagan, Vice-President Bush, the State Department, the Defense Department and all the merry, ethical Americans (and British and French and, and, and, ad infinitum. Ad nauseum). How they condemned and how they railed and how they moralized and how they ethicalized! Merrily. “You do not sink to the level of the PLO. You do not enter someone else’s field (land). You do not take the law into your own hands.” Messrs. Morality, Post Office Box One Million, Washington, DC.
And so now there is Panama. And should any simple-minded type ask President Morality, High-minded Bush of morality, why he did everything he told Israel it should not do – he would give a sympathetic nod to the poor simpleton who really does not understand, and the answer would be: But it is my ox…
I remember Israeli troops entering the field of Lebanon to capture a Moslem Sheikh who was leader of a group of Moslem Shiite thugs holding Israelis as hostages; and President Morality and his merry ethical State Department cattlemen with their shouts of condemnation! And now I see the same moralists invading the field of Panama to try and catch a thug named Noriega because he deals in drugs that harm Americans and because he tweaks America’s nose. And I finally understand the difference and can even hear President Morality say it: But it is my ox...
And I remember the outcry by all the democrats and anti-racist equality types demanding that William Nakash be extradited from Israel to France and rising up in righteous indignation over the thought that just because someone is a Jew, he should not be extradited. After all, all human beings are equal and being Jewish is no reason to refuse to hand him over to strangers. And what would the world say to any such tribalism! And then I read that under Panamanian, law, a Panamanian cannot be extradited to a foreign county and I understand the difference: But it is my ox…
I watch as, in Romania, the dictator is captured and he and his wife are shot in secret trial, with summary justice dealt out within less than two days and no appeal allowed. And I know that Israel did not give the death penalty to any murdering terrorists and goes through elaborate procedures of “justice” in order that terrorists sit and eat and drink at our expense until they are exchanged for hostages. And I know what the outcry from Romania and other ethical nations would be if Israel would do to murdering terrorists what Romania did to its former President. But I have already learned the difference; THIS IS MY OX…
And having said all that, I do not – as so many professors and intellectual doers on the right – merely weep, complain and wring my soul. I have no intention of wasting a precious few moments of my finite life in the House of Eternal Kvetching, in which so many of the right-wing spend their lives. The lesson for me in this morality lesson of Whose Ox is gored? is not that there are hypocrites in this world. Boker Tov! Good morning! There are hypocrites in the world! Surprise…
For me, the only lesson here is that there is, indeed, a difference. Not the one that the moralists of hypocrisy give, but the objective and eternally true one of divine Torah Law. There is a difference, the one that cannot be grasped unless one has knowledge and sense. In the words of the rabbis, “Im ein da’at havdala minayin?” “If one has no knowledge, how can he differentiate?”
The lesson is that there is objective good and objective evil, objective truth and objective falsehood, and the same action taken against the one is good while the same act done against the other is wrong and evil. Yes, it is good and right and a mitzvah to go into Panama to eliminate the slime named Noriega and yes, how much more so was it right and a mitzvah to enter Lebanon and eliminate the PLO and other Moslem terrorist swine. And yes, it was wrong and evil for the Russians to do exactly the same in Afghanistan and for the Chinese to invade Tibet. Yes, the German bombing of Coventry and London is not the same as the Allied bombing of German cities and yes, the hanging of evil criminals is good and that of decent people, bad, and anyone who does not understand this havdala, differentiation, needs a good grounding in knowledge. Divine knowledge. Torah knowledge.
Until then, at the very least, let the Jew learn the simple message of normal gentiles who – when their basic interests are threatened – do not hesitate to enter strange fields and to kill evil oxen. It is time the Jew learned there is nothing for which to apologize or retreat when his people are killed and his interest threatened. It is time that he learned to tell President Morality and any other merry ethical type: “But it is my ox and no one touches it; understand?”
Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:
barhow@netvision.net.il
Visit my blog for previously e-mailed Rav Kahane writings:
http:/www.barbaraginsberg.blogspot.com
I am also posting Baruch Marzel's Activities at:
www.baruchmarzel.blogspot.com
AN HISTORIC MOMENT - 1977
FROM THE DESK OF
BARBARA GINSBERG
“K A H A N E”
The magazine of the authentic Jewish Idea
Tevet –5737 January 1977
AN HISTORIC MOMENT
We live in momentous times, in an historic point that reaches out to us and offers us greatness. We no longer stand on the threshold of the Messianic era; we have taken our first steps INTO it. Those who disagree are not skeptics – they are blind; they are not scoffers, but foolishly ignorant people.
The end of the great era of man’s wandering and stumbling through life in search of meaning and truth is drawing to a close and the drama of Jewish history with its crescendos of persecution and heroism, its drama and pathos, its kaleidoscopic wandering and journeys is coming to an end. How can one not see that which confronts his very senses, which seizes him and demands to be heard and understood?
The massive Holocaust that thundered down upon the Jewish people and which, within the briefest moments, undid the work and creation of centuries – carrying away the best and the finest of our people is hardly an accident of history.
The inexplicable return of a people from 2,000 years and a hundred nations of wandering and bitter persecution; the revival of a language dead for longer than others where revival has been attempted and failed so that today children play in it and physicists create upon it, is not really inexplicable.
The majestic and soaring rise of Jewish resistance and force of arms, the explosion of the Jewish National Liberation Movement in the form of the Irgun Zvai Leumi, the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel and the Hagana; the shattering of the myth of the Jew as one whose blood is cheap and whose life is the gentile’s for the taking; the creation from the ash heap of history, of the Third Jewish Commonwealth, the State of Israel, is surely not a natural occurrence.
The astounding and massive ingathering of the exiles from North, South, East and West; the return of the Children of Israel from the far reaches of Yemen and the laboratories of London; the Second Exodus of the people of Israel from the Land of Muscovite – all part of the Redemption that is ordained and in full force today.
The hysterical and historical, wildly wonderful and dreamy victory of six days in June; the flight of the enemies of the Jew before the legions of the Hebrew people; the affirmation of the Biblical trumpet: “And thou shalt pursue thine enemy and they shall fall before your sword. And five of you shall pursue one hundred and a hundred of you ten thousand shall pursue, and thine enemies shall fall before your sword…”; the return to ancient Eretz Yisroel, the paratroopers who clutched with their fingernails, deeply, into the Wall and the others who run past the evil seventh barrier-step into the Cave of Machpela and those who prostrated themselves upon the grave of Rachel, our mother; the echo of the One who pledged: “Every place that your heel shall trod I will give to you…”
It is an historic moment and we live within it. The exile is coming to an end for all Jews – those who wish it and those who do not. The sands of time for the Diaspora are running out – in good ways and in terrible ones. The Jewish people are being returned home by its Maker – of that there is no longer a doubt. There is no longer a choice. The Soviet Union is opening its gates and they will soon let out those who wish to leave – there is no choice. The lands of wealth and prosperity will be afflicted with hatred of Jews and a tidal wave of persecution – there is no choice. We are going home to Eretz Yisroel, or we will disappear in the exile. That is clear. The Holy One, Blessed Be He, is bringing us back to the Land of Israel and those who wish to remain behind will be unable to do so – as Jews.
What a time in which to live! What an opportunity to choose greatness! Will we understand? Will we, in the United States, be capable of perceiving and reaching that greatness?
Consider carefully; look about with eyes that are open, America, bitter, frustrated, filled with anger and self-doubt, ripped by violence and seething rivalries, moves swifter and swifter to an
explosion of hatred that will put an end to the safety, security, freedom and perhaps the very life of the Jews. On the other hand, there stands the miracle of Eretz Yisroel – the Land of Israel.
It is a large land, this Eretz Yisroel. It stands from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, from Hermon through Sinai to Sharm-a-Sheikh. It stands, capable of absorbing millions, many, many millions of its sons and daughters who have yet to come. It is the land where one cannot move without colliding with the Jewish past. This is the land where Abraham walked and Isaac and Jacob traveled; this is the land where David and Saul fought the enemy and Deborah and Samson smote the foe; this is the land where the Prophets raised their eyes unto the heavens and spoke to the people; this is where the Macabees preserved Judaism with the sword and where the Sanhedrin and Ben Zakkai continued it with the book; here died Bar Kochba and here is where his children will return. Here is Eretz Yisroel – here is home.
What a glorious challenge we have been given! The gauntlet has been thrown down before us and we are presented with a demand that we climb the heights of greatness!
Aliya – going up to the land, going home to Eretz Yisroel, this is the task at hand. Let us leave behind the dust of exile, the terrible fate that awaits us, our enemies of the Diaspora, who thirst for our blood and plan yet another Auschwitz. Let us begin to make our plans to leave the graveyards of Galut and live in our own land – free, a majority, alive. Let us guarantee the preservation of our children and children’s children. Let us watch them grow tall and tanned, strong and proud, secure and sovereign.
We need this land and it needs us. Millions of new Jews pouring into Israel will fill up its empty spaces, guarantee the retention of all the liberated lands of Judea, Samaria, Golan, Gaza and Sinai; assure a vast Jewish majority despite the addition of a million new non-Jews; add western democratic and technical skills to the land. Eretz Yisroel will never again be lost to us.
Aliyah. Above all, it will assure that the liquidation of the exile – which is underway regardless of our wishes - will be completed with joy rather than with tragedy, with return rather than with disappearance. What a moment in history! How wonderful it would be if we were to understand it, clutch at it, become part of it.
Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:
barhow@netvision.net.il
Visit my blog for previously e-mailed Rav Kahane writings:
http:/www.barbaraginsberg.blogspot.com
I am also posting Baruch Marzel's Activities at:
www.baruchmarzel.blogspot.com
BARBARA GINSBERG
“K A H A N E”
The magazine of the authentic Jewish Idea
Tevet –5737 January 1977
AN HISTORIC MOMENT
We live in momentous times, in an historic point that reaches out to us and offers us greatness. We no longer stand on the threshold of the Messianic era; we have taken our first steps INTO it. Those who disagree are not skeptics – they are blind; they are not scoffers, but foolishly ignorant people.
The end of the great era of man’s wandering and stumbling through life in search of meaning and truth is drawing to a close and the drama of Jewish history with its crescendos of persecution and heroism, its drama and pathos, its kaleidoscopic wandering and journeys is coming to an end. How can one not see that which confronts his very senses, which seizes him and demands to be heard and understood?
The massive Holocaust that thundered down upon the Jewish people and which, within the briefest moments, undid the work and creation of centuries – carrying away the best and the finest of our people is hardly an accident of history.
The inexplicable return of a people from 2,000 years and a hundred nations of wandering and bitter persecution; the revival of a language dead for longer than others where revival has been attempted and failed so that today children play in it and physicists create upon it, is not really inexplicable.
The majestic and soaring rise of Jewish resistance and force of arms, the explosion of the Jewish National Liberation Movement in the form of the Irgun Zvai Leumi, the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel and the Hagana; the shattering of the myth of the Jew as one whose blood is cheap and whose life is the gentile’s for the taking; the creation from the ash heap of history, of the Third Jewish Commonwealth, the State of Israel, is surely not a natural occurrence.
The astounding and massive ingathering of the exiles from North, South, East and West; the return of the Children of Israel from the far reaches of Yemen and the laboratories of London; the Second Exodus of the people of Israel from the Land of Muscovite – all part of the Redemption that is ordained and in full force today.
The hysterical and historical, wildly wonderful and dreamy victory of six days in June; the flight of the enemies of the Jew before the legions of the Hebrew people; the affirmation of the Biblical trumpet: “And thou shalt pursue thine enemy and they shall fall before your sword. And five of you shall pursue one hundred and a hundred of you ten thousand shall pursue, and thine enemies shall fall before your sword…”; the return to ancient Eretz Yisroel, the paratroopers who clutched with their fingernails, deeply, into the Wall and the others who run past the evil seventh barrier-step into the Cave of Machpela and those who prostrated themselves upon the grave of Rachel, our mother; the echo of the One who pledged: “Every place that your heel shall trod I will give to you…”
It is an historic moment and we live within it. The exile is coming to an end for all Jews – those who wish it and those who do not. The sands of time for the Diaspora are running out – in good ways and in terrible ones. The Jewish people are being returned home by its Maker – of that there is no longer a doubt. There is no longer a choice. The Soviet Union is opening its gates and they will soon let out those who wish to leave – there is no choice. The lands of wealth and prosperity will be afflicted with hatred of Jews and a tidal wave of persecution – there is no choice. We are going home to Eretz Yisroel, or we will disappear in the exile. That is clear. The Holy One, Blessed Be He, is bringing us back to the Land of Israel and those who wish to remain behind will be unable to do so – as Jews.
What a time in which to live! What an opportunity to choose greatness! Will we understand? Will we, in the United States, be capable of perceiving and reaching that greatness?
Consider carefully; look about with eyes that are open, America, bitter, frustrated, filled with anger and self-doubt, ripped by violence and seething rivalries, moves swifter and swifter to an
explosion of hatred that will put an end to the safety, security, freedom and perhaps the very life of the Jews. On the other hand, there stands the miracle of Eretz Yisroel – the Land of Israel.
It is a large land, this Eretz Yisroel. It stands from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, from Hermon through Sinai to Sharm-a-Sheikh. It stands, capable of absorbing millions, many, many millions of its sons and daughters who have yet to come. It is the land where one cannot move without colliding with the Jewish past. This is the land where Abraham walked and Isaac and Jacob traveled; this is the land where David and Saul fought the enemy and Deborah and Samson smote the foe; this is the land where the Prophets raised their eyes unto the heavens and spoke to the people; this is where the Macabees preserved Judaism with the sword and where the Sanhedrin and Ben Zakkai continued it with the book; here died Bar Kochba and here is where his children will return. Here is Eretz Yisroel – here is home.
What a glorious challenge we have been given! The gauntlet has been thrown down before us and we are presented with a demand that we climb the heights of greatness!
Aliya – going up to the land, going home to Eretz Yisroel, this is the task at hand. Let us leave behind the dust of exile, the terrible fate that awaits us, our enemies of the Diaspora, who thirst for our blood and plan yet another Auschwitz. Let us begin to make our plans to leave the graveyards of Galut and live in our own land – free, a majority, alive. Let us guarantee the preservation of our children and children’s children. Let us watch them grow tall and tanned, strong and proud, secure and sovereign.
We need this land and it needs us. Millions of new Jews pouring into Israel will fill up its empty spaces, guarantee the retention of all the liberated lands of Judea, Samaria, Golan, Gaza and Sinai; assure a vast Jewish majority despite the addition of a million new non-Jews; add western democratic and technical skills to the land. Eretz Yisroel will never again be lost to us.
Aliyah. Above all, it will assure that the liquidation of the exile – which is underway regardless of our wishes - will be completed with joy rather than with tragedy, with return rather than with disappearance. What a moment in history! How wonderful it would be if we were to understand it, clutch at it, become part of it.
Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:
barhow@netvision.net.il
Visit my blog for previously e-mailed Rav Kahane writings:
http:/www.barbaraginsberg.blogspot.com
I am also posting Baruch Marzel's Activities at:
www.baruchmarzel.blogspot.com
11.01.2009
Who Said Violence Does Not Help - 1988
FROM THE DESK OF
BARBARA GINSBERG
RABBI MEIR KAHANE in 1988 wrote the following article. As you read it simply change the names and it could have been written today.
Who Said
Violence Does Not Help
A dozen Israeli leaders, including Shamir, Peres and Rabin, solemnly advised the Arabs (for their own good, we must assume) that “violence and riots do not help.”
“Riots do not help? Violence only hurts your cause?” our leaders said.
Balderdash! Of course, violence helps, why else did Mr. Shamir decide to help form the Stern group (cruelly called “gang” by the British and Jewish Establishment types who warned that “violence would not help”…)
And, if violence and rioting did not help the Arab cause, why is it that the “Palestine” question has been headline news almost every day. And what forced the Americans and West who, from the beginning were comfortably isolating themselves from the problem. Now they condemn Israel and demand that a political solution be found?
Who said, “Violence does not help?
The “Palestinians” seeing that every political effort had failed, reasoned, why should violence be perceived as not helping? Knowing that television and news media thrive on “action.” Why should the Arabs not attempt to give them that, knowing that hundreds of millions of people all over the world would be seeing it?
Who said, “Violence does not help?”
What put the Soviet Jewish issue on page on of The New York Times and as the major story on almost every television station, if not violence? And what made the British get out of Palestine? What led to the creation of a Jewish state, if not violence?
How much good did non-violence do for the Jews of the Holocaust? Of course violence helps. It helps to force an issue onto the headlines and consciousness of the world. It makes people talk about the issue. And then, if the violence is accompanied by clever propaganda, it helps remarkably well and that the confused object of your violence does not know how to deal with you and your violence, why – of course – you continue and escalate that violence.
The truth is violence has already succeeded in making Israel retreat. When Shamir and Rabin and Peres declare that as soon as order is restored, Israel will sit down to discuss “complete” autonomy and a political solution of the “Palestine” problem, that is exactly what the aim of the violence was. And had there been no violence, Shamir and the Likud would have been perfectly content to sit for another 20 years with the status quo.
The Arabs understand an essential truth of world relations. They understand that the world cares little about any issue unless it is prodded. Nations and peoples, for the most part, are involved and preoccupied with their own problems. If one wants to be heard, he must not only shout, for the world has long been inured to shouts. The one who wishes to be heard must shock. And there is nothing more shocking than violence.
This is true for all peoples whether their cause is right or wrong. And of course, the Arab case is wrong. But it does not remove the essential reality of the very great effectiveness of violence. On the day that the helpless and hapless Jewish “leaders” stop babbling about the ineffectiveness of violence and concentrate more on improving their own ineffectiveness by putting down of the violence, Israel will be in a much better position of security.
Violence helps the Arabs. Crushing that violence in the most effective and the quickest way helps the Jews.
Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:
barhow@netvision.net.il
Visit my blog for previously e-mailed Rav Kahane writings:
http:/www.barbaraginsberg.blogspot.com
I am also posting Baruch Marzel's activities at:
http:/www.baruchmarzel.blogspot.com
BARBARA GINSBERG
RABBI MEIR KAHANE in 1988 wrote the following article. As you read it simply change the names and it could have been written today.
Who Said
Violence Does Not Help
A dozen Israeli leaders, including Shamir, Peres and Rabin, solemnly advised the Arabs (for their own good, we must assume) that “violence and riots do not help.”
“Riots do not help? Violence only hurts your cause?” our leaders said.
Balderdash! Of course, violence helps, why else did Mr. Shamir decide to help form the Stern group (cruelly called “gang” by the British and Jewish Establishment types who warned that “violence would not help”…)
And, if violence and rioting did not help the Arab cause, why is it that the “Palestine” question has been headline news almost every day. And what forced the Americans and West who, from the beginning were comfortably isolating themselves from the problem. Now they condemn Israel and demand that a political solution be found?
Who said, “Violence does not help?
The “Palestinians” seeing that every political effort had failed, reasoned, why should violence be perceived as not helping? Knowing that television and news media thrive on “action.” Why should the Arabs not attempt to give them that, knowing that hundreds of millions of people all over the world would be seeing it?
Who said, “Violence does not help?”
What put the Soviet Jewish issue on page on of The New York Times and as the major story on almost every television station, if not violence? And what made the British get out of Palestine? What led to the creation of a Jewish state, if not violence?
How much good did non-violence do for the Jews of the Holocaust? Of course violence helps. It helps to force an issue onto the headlines and consciousness of the world. It makes people talk about the issue. And then, if the violence is accompanied by clever propaganda, it helps remarkably well and that the confused object of your violence does not know how to deal with you and your violence, why – of course – you continue and escalate that violence.
The truth is violence has already succeeded in making Israel retreat. When Shamir and Rabin and Peres declare that as soon as order is restored, Israel will sit down to discuss “complete” autonomy and a political solution of the “Palestine” problem, that is exactly what the aim of the violence was. And had there been no violence, Shamir and the Likud would have been perfectly content to sit for another 20 years with the status quo.
The Arabs understand an essential truth of world relations. They understand that the world cares little about any issue unless it is prodded. Nations and peoples, for the most part, are involved and preoccupied with their own problems. If one wants to be heard, he must not only shout, for the world has long been inured to shouts. The one who wishes to be heard must shock. And there is nothing more shocking than violence.
This is true for all peoples whether their cause is right or wrong. And of course, the Arab case is wrong. But it does not remove the essential reality of the very great effectiveness of violence. On the day that the helpless and hapless Jewish “leaders” stop babbling about the ineffectiveness of violence and concentrate more on improving their own ineffectiveness by putting down of the violence, Israel will be in a much better position of security.
Violence helps the Arabs. Crushing that violence in the most effective and the quickest way helps the Jews.
Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:
barhow@netvision.net.il
Visit my blog for previously e-mailed Rav Kahane writings:
http:/www.barbaraginsberg.blogspot.com
I am also posting Baruch Marzel's activities at:
http:/www.baruchmarzel.blogspot.com
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