Tuesday, June 23, 2009

ICEBERG TIPS

One of the Baal Shem Tov’s primary teachings is how G-D’s providence reaches to the smallest details; consequently there is no such thing as coincidence. Therefore, the internal challenges to Jerusalem’s character, the parade and Shabbat opening of parking lots are symptomatic of the long standing tension whether the national soul is best called Israeli or Jewish.

The impurade as Rav Lazer Brody Shlita calls it imposes on the city, viewed as uniquely spiritual and sacred to most of humanity and in particular to Jewry as an old Zionist saying goes “Tel Aviv plays, Haifa works and Jerusalem studies /prays” The parade should be banned as this is an activity which violates community standards for obscenity. However, it is the failure to recognize that advocacy on behalf of same gender intimacy is contrary to the essential character of Jerusalem is truly tragic.

Similarly under the guise of promoting tourism, Mayor Barakat seeks to arrange for Safra Square parking lot remain open during Shabbat. Even if this parking lot is owned and operated used exclusively by Non-Jews the Shabbat experience in Jerusalem is diluted to some extent. All the more when the parking facility in question is in the shadow of the Old City. To be sure Jerusalem is not yet a fully Shabbat observant city, yet Shabbat in Jerusalem stand apart from Shabbat any other place on the planet. As Friday afternoon drifts towards evening one can see the city winding down. Big city hustle and bustle is replaced with a different type of rushing about. Those attending the Mikva replace the heavy foot traffic moving in and out of stores and markets. The home though it may be hectic down to the last minute is brought to an otherworldly calm as the candles are lit ushering in the Shabbat. As the siren heralds Shabbat’s arrival in Jerusalem pierces the air, people scurry about filling local synagogues. An after dinner stroll along the quiet Jerusalem streets, chance meetings between friends and neighbors further enhance the relaxed nature of the day. Or, if one is so inclined, attend a Chassidic Rebbe’s Tisch, table one can see an amazing display of camaraderie and spirituality not to mention Yerushalmi kugel.

After Shabbat the city springs back to its weekday mode but during the day of rest Shabbat is not just a place in time. Shabbat in Jerusalem is a presence that is experienced with all of one’s faculties. Needless to say, the stray vehicle traveling on Shabbat through Jerusalem is like a razor ripping fabric apart. Opening up a parking lot to accommodate large numbers of visitors on Shabbat may increase the numbers of tourist but will cause those who do come to miss the point of coming to Jerusalem in the first place.

What is disturbing is that to miss what is wrong with both the impurade and the Shabbat parking one is missing fundamental Jewish sensibilities which are learnt at home or as part of what would be called for lack of a better term, the national culture. What would be an axiomatic expression of Jewish pride and consciousness becomes lost when there is conscious decision by parents to transmit a generic set of liberal western democratic values to their children instead of the national heritage. Certainly, to assert a claim to Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people with Jerusalem as its Eternal capital there has to be substance in the national persona both on a de facto and de jure basis.

Several years ago when touring the Tower of London, George the Beefeater who was leading our tour took pride in describing the places reserved for beheading commoners and the more concealed area reserved for the nobility as well as some of the more notable guests imprisoned within. George took pride in these ghastly goings on not because of some macabre fascination with death but because it was part of English history. How many American families from all types of backgrounds take pride in their ancestors part in building and defending their country as well as their way of life? Pride in one’s heritage and its values are the basis for a national identity that cannot be undermined.

Therefore, opening Jerusalem to the impurade and opening the Safra Square parking lot on Shabbat are not as intended, acts of inclusion but instead serve to make the Jewish claim to the Land and to the City ring hollow.

However, maybe the answer is education and outreach. Shabbat does not belong only to Charidim nor is opposition to an impurade in Jerusalem limited to the narrow minded. It is telling the effect of the apolitical efforts of Chabad Lubavitch whose Rebbe’s 15th Yharzeit is on 3 Tamuz (June 25, 2009). Maybe each Jew who takes pride in his or her heritage must do what they can to reach out to family members, acquaintances, business associates and community generally to articulate what true Jewish values are and to convey the Heritage is truly the inheritance of all “Congregation of Jacob” .

Friday, June 05, 2009

CUTTING DOWN CAIRO

President Obama’s speech at Cairo University on June 4, 2009 evoked this simple reaction “Today for the first time in my life I am ashamed to be an American”

Whatever the reasoning the President of the United States and thereby, the executive branch of the government and even the Democratic Party has adopted the Arab narrative. Israel’s establishment was not as the President asserts, a haven for Europe’s displaced Jews. Jews pray several times daily to return from exile home to Israel. Even the casual scholar would recognize the city’s residents during the Second Temple period lead a Torah /Jewish Law based lifestyle. David and son Solomon who ruled in Jerusalem were not Shia or Baptists, they were more than Jews they are either my ancestors or the Kings to whom my ancestors were loyal to. To ignore or even deny a connection going back to antiquity between Jewry and Eretz Yisrael denies truth and embraces a falsehood so harmful that it approaches holocaust denial.

When modern Israel’s roots are presented as being out of the ashes of Auschwitz and the other factories of death the Arab experience can be examined in comparison. After all if one relies primarily on a recent default connection to the land, how does that in a world that rejects racism create moral authority for a superior claim to the land?

Consequently, how can there be any moral authority to occupy lands not sanctioned by the international community especially those places with populations that claim prior residency? Therefore following this reasoning a Jewish presence in Yehudah, Shomron and Jerusalem would indeed be illegitimate.

The Arab claims of a distinct national identity or a connection with the Canaanites or Philistines , Temple denial and so become secondary arguments that merely provide a basis to justify rejection of even an ancient Jewish claim to the land and weaken a claim resting on the authority of British Home Office or the UN. Therefore, struggle to liberate the land from this third party allocation has moral justification that defies serious scrutiny.

Condemnation of Anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and Terrorist violence can be articulated but does not dislodge the line of reasoning stated above. Righteous indignation over these Arab excesses justifies the silencing of strident assertion of Jewish claims to the land. Thus a comparison can be made between installing a swing set in a Beit El or Efrat backyard and grad missles being fired in to Ashdod or Sederot.

The logic apparently embraced by the President is painfully ignorant of history and fact. The logic apparently embraced by the President is painfully ignorant of how much of the Arabs’ present situation is self inflicted. If there were no security concerns regarding the Arab population would Arabs living under the PA have to endure check points or border closure? If were it not because of rampant corruption both under Hamas and Fatah spheres of influence would the PA area economy be in shambles or would there be wide spread poverty or unemployment?

Lastly, by embracing the Arab narrative leaves open the question “what compromise
would satisfy the Arabs? The question presumes there is a possible point of compromise. This is not a mere rhetorical straw man as each offer of territory for a 23rd Muslim state was rebuffed in 1947, 2000 or during the waning days of President Bush (43) Prime Minister Olmert’s terms of office, not to mention the inaction by Jordan and Egypt between 1948-1967 on behalf of their brethren in creating a State as contemplated presently. The concern that tolerance of a Jewish State within the borders of Eretz Yisrael maybe an act of heresy offensive to Islam is ignored . In which case can anything short of complete capitulation i.e. the removal of Israel and Jewish presence in the land be acceptable?

Frankly it is doubt Prime Minister Netanyahu has any greater fortitude or backbone than his predecessors including his own first go round as Prime Minister so rejecting Mr. Obama’s dictates underscores how totally absurd and how nationally suicidal accepting then would be. Denying settlement growth including natural growth taken literally would ban people from having children or keeping generations together, positions that offend any notions of human rights and calls upon the Jewish State to adopt a racially restrictive policy against its own population. Adopting the Zero tolerance to growth and declaring the settlements as illegitimate is more than discriminatory if creates the absurd result that America has endorsed a policy the excludes the Biblical people from Biblical lands.

Remember this analysis has not begun to include the nod to Iran’s right to develop nuclear power.

Any expectation that the President’s Hoiff Yidden (Court Jews) do not agree or fully support their boss is a redefinition of naïve.

Quite simply Israel’s survival and that of all Jewry rests with our faith and the nation’s embrace of its history and heritage. The call from Cairo can be turned to a mere footnote let Jewish Hearts and all who are devoted to G-D meet the Present ‘s call with prayer , principle and persistence.

Monday, June 01, 2009

REALITY CHECK

National leaders privy to information from many more sources than the man or woman in the street or os it would seem. Therefore,if national policy defies logic one could believe the chices made are based on comprehensive intelegence and the promotion of national interest. Then again there is Israel.

If a Jewish resident in Yehudah and Shomron installs a awing set or baseketball hoop it is an obsticale to peace. Jewish Parents building housing for their married children is a hostile act. A group of scholar farmers more interested in meditation than munitions, genorah and granola over guns are viewed as an occupying military force.

These other worldly folks are villified not just by those who preach the virtues of violence as an element of policy but even by those who feel threatened by the settlers' belief in eternal principles and maintaining fidelity to their national heritage.

The willingness of those in charge to shed their heritage or minmize its influence in terms of pragmatic realities where red lines are penciled in pink and can be erassed with ease.

The Obama Administration recent assertion that Israel adopt a Zero Growth policy in Yesha including Jerusalem was so blatantly offensive to Israel that Prime Minister Netanyahu rebuffed, albeit for the time being Washington's demands.

Even if one is ideologically oopposed to the Settler enterprise there can be no justification to discriminate against where Jews may choose to male their lives. just on the basis of one's faith.

Maybe there is something far more worriesome than oopposition to Jews settling throughout their ancestral homeland. It is opposition to the underlying ideology that underlies the national return to Zion. There is hostility to Judaism, as its beliefs takes away power and position from those holding power and prestidge.
A Jew praying on a hilltop in serene conversation with G-D is precieved as the enbodiment of all the region's and world's problems, evils.

What is threatened is arrogance which abhorrs truth, like darkness cannot tolerate light. Rabbi Nachman of Breslev ZT'L taught that just before Mashiach's arrival there would be a generalized intolerance to faith. Faith requires humility, arrogance consequently rejects faith and the faithfull as well.