By Michael Freund
Is anyone out there awake? I'm beginning to suspect that the recent end-of-summer heat wave has lulled many of us into a peaceful snooze, so much so that we have become virtually oblivious to some rather important and far-reaching developments.
By any standards, the headlines of the past few weeks should have sparked a furious public outcry, accompanied by stormy demonstrations, irate parliamentary debates and massive protests and letter-writing campaigns.
But there has been none of that, nary a peep, as the prime minister of the State of Israel secretly negotiates away much of the country and its strategic assets.
What has happened to our sense of outrage? In the wake of his meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas last week, reports surfaced that Ehud Olmert had discussed wide-ranging concessions such as dividing Jerusalem, uprooting dozens of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and forgoing Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount.
The media even published what was said to be a copy of a two-page document outlining Olmert's willingness to cross the few remaining "red lines" Israel still has in what is clearly a transparent attempt to salvage his increasingly shaky political career.
With corruption investigations swirling around him and the final Winograd report on last summer's Lebanon war due out relatively soon, Olmert seems to have concluded that the only way to rescue himself from political oblivion is at the country's expense.
THINK ABOUT this for a second. We have a prime minister about as popular as acute inflammatory acne going behind the nation's back, making fateful decisions that will endanger the future of the state and agreeing to establish a Palestinian terrorist entity alongside our country's shrunken borders. And he's doing this not because it is in the nation's interest, but for his own narrow political gain.
And yet, it has been greeted by little more than a yawn. Instead, we sit back quietly, go on with our lives and do nothing as our government accelerates its head-long rush toward disaster.
Even the ongoing Palestinian rocket attacks against Israeli towns and villages seem to evoke barely more than passing public interest. On Monday, Islamic Jihad fired over half a dozen Kassams into southern Israel, mockingly describing them as "a gift for the opening of the school year." One of those "gifts" slammed into the courtyard of a day care center for toddlers in Sderot, nearly causing a disaster.
This kind of incident should have shocked us to the very core of our being, but the fact is Palestinian rocket attacks have become so common, thanks to the government's lack of response, that they hardly register on our collective conscience any more.
AND WHILE we are on the subject of remaining silent, how about the hush that has come over us as we watch the Muslim Wakf rip apart the Temple Mount and bulldoze our nation's priceless religious and cultural heritage? Israel may be sovereign on the Mount, but it is clear from our television screens who runs the show. In defiance of the law, the Wakf has been openly and brazenly digging a trench three foot deep from north to south along the Mount, in the process destroying precious artifacts that may date back to the First Temple period.
Our holiest site is being vandalized in broad daylight, while our government and police look on, refusing to step in and halt the destruction.
Were an Israeli newspaper to publish a cartoon deemed offensive to Islam, it would invariably elicit a greater outcry than that which has greeted the wanton physical devastation being carried out by Muslims on the Temple Mount.
It is as if the people of Israel have gone off to a slumber party, tucking themselves snugly into sleeping bags and wiling away the hours as though we have not a care in the world.
But the truth is that everything this nation holds dear is coming under attack. Our freedom, our future, our land and our legacy are all being pummeled and no one seems ready to stand up and do anything about it.
IF YOU aren't walking around outraged, then you must not be paying attention. So put down the sports pages, put aside those DVDs and start following the news. We must take to the streets and rouse ourselves from this slumber. Our apathy and indifference are what enable this failed government to continue to stumble toward catastrophe.
Today it is Sderot under fire. But don't be surprised when Kfar Saba, Netanya and even Tel Aviv come under attack.
The alarm clock is ringing, if only we will hear. Now, more than ever, is the time to get up and put the nightmare of terror, weakness and retreat behind us, once and for all.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Ki Tavo (When you will come)
Deuteronomy 26-29:8
This week's portion opens with the ceremony of first fruits that is performed in the Temple, once the Children of Israel enter the Land of Israel. "And when you will come to the land that the Lord your G-d has given you as a territory and you will inherit it and settle in it. And you will take from the first of the fruits of the earth which you will bring from your land which the Lord your G-d has given you..." (Deuteronomy 26:1-2). There are a number of words in these first verses that provide the focus for the entire section. The fact that the land has been given to Israel by G-d is mentioned twice in these two sentences, clearly as a means of emphasis in this chapter. Also, the word that I have translated as territory in the first verse, is actually the Hebrew word "Nahala", which includes the concept of inheritance. In other words, Nahala is not merely a piece of land, but one that has been designated as the rightful possession, in essence an inheritance from G-d, of the Jewish people. Following this introduction, the instruction is given to bring the first fruits to the Temple and recite a specific statement which begins with the acknowledgement of Jewish history, the enslavement of the people in Egypt, the exodus brought about by G-d, and the entrance into the Land of Israel, made possible by G-d who has granted the people this "land flowing with milk and honey." (Deut 26:9)
This, then, is a thanksgiving ceremony in the fullest sense of the word. It is not only a ceremony which thanks G-d for the harvest and for the richness of the fruits. It is also, and perhaps primarily, a thanksgiving for the entire process of Jewish history, for the fulfillment of the process that began with the Exodus and culminates with the bringing of the first fruits in the Land of Israel. It emphasizes the fact that the Exodus was not completed with the Revelation at Sinai, which was certainly a monumental event, when the Children of Israel became a people and when they cemented their relationship with G-d in an everlasting covenant. For it is only when they enter the land of Israel, take possession of it and farm it, that the process is truly completed, that the nation is truly free, to worship G-d and settle in their own land. (It is worth comparing this process to the antecedents of the Thanksgiving holiday in the US - a holiday that has always symbolized not only a successful harvest but a sense of entitlement to the land that became the USA.)
These verses speak powerfully to me today in many ways. Even as some Jews question the extent to which Judaism is a nationality or a religion, this verse makes it clear that one cannot be divided from the other. For our relationship with G-d is inherently connected to our relationship to Him as a people, and our worship in the Temple, which functions as the epicenter of the relationship with G-d, is inherently connected to our presence in the Land of Israel and the blessings that G-d will bestow upon us when we settle and farm that land. There is no Jewish religion without Jewish nationalism and there is no Jewish nationalism without the Jewish religion. And when nationalism and religion come together in the Land of Israel, we have a great deal to be thankful for. (A special thank you to my son David, currently serving in the Israeli Army, who, while on leave for Shabbat, shared a beautiful Biblical thought with me that became the basis of this message.)
Greetings from Samaria
Sondra Baras
Director, Israel Office
This week's portion opens with the ceremony of first fruits that is performed in the Temple, once the Children of Israel enter the Land of Israel. "And when you will come to the land that the Lord your G-d has given you as a territory and you will inherit it and settle in it. And you will take from the first of the fruits of the earth which you will bring from your land which the Lord your G-d has given you..." (Deuteronomy 26:1-2). There are a number of words in these first verses that provide the focus for the entire section. The fact that the land has been given to Israel by G-d is mentioned twice in these two sentences, clearly as a means of emphasis in this chapter. Also, the word that I have translated as territory in the first verse, is actually the Hebrew word "Nahala", which includes the concept of inheritance. In other words, Nahala is not merely a piece of land, but one that has been designated as the rightful possession, in essence an inheritance from G-d, of the Jewish people. Following this introduction, the instruction is given to bring the first fruits to the Temple and recite a specific statement which begins with the acknowledgement of Jewish history, the enslavement of the people in Egypt, the exodus brought about by G-d, and the entrance into the Land of Israel, made possible by G-d who has granted the people this "land flowing with milk and honey." (Deut 26:9)
This, then, is a thanksgiving ceremony in the fullest sense of the word. It is not only a ceremony which thanks G-d for the harvest and for the richness of the fruits. It is also, and perhaps primarily, a thanksgiving for the entire process of Jewish history, for the fulfillment of the process that began with the Exodus and culminates with the bringing of the first fruits in the Land of Israel. It emphasizes the fact that the Exodus was not completed with the Revelation at Sinai, which was certainly a monumental event, when the Children of Israel became a people and when they cemented their relationship with G-d in an everlasting covenant. For it is only when they enter the land of Israel, take possession of it and farm it, that the process is truly completed, that the nation is truly free, to worship G-d and settle in their own land. (It is worth comparing this process to the antecedents of the Thanksgiving holiday in the US - a holiday that has always symbolized not only a successful harvest but a sense of entitlement to the land that became the USA.)
These verses speak powerfully to me today in many ways. Even as some Jews question the extent to which Judaism is a nationality or a religion, this verse makes it clear that one cannot be divided from the other. For our relationship with G-d is inherently connected to our relationship to Him as a people, and our worship in the Temple, which functions as the epicenter of the relationship with G-d, is inherently connected to our presence in the Land of Israel and the blessings that G-d will bestow upon us when we settle and farm that land. There is no Jewish religion without Jewish nationalism and there is no Jewish nationalism without the Jewish religion. And when nationalism and religion come together in the Land of Israel, we have a great deal to be thankful for. (A special thank you to my son David, currently serving in the Israeli Army, who, while on leave for Shabbat, shared a beautiful Biblical thought with me that became the basis of this message.)
Greetings from Samaria
Sondra Baras
Director, Israel Office
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