Chapter X
The Zionist State
Ephraim Goes Backwards
Now LEARN the parable of the Fig Tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that SUMMER is near...(Matthew 24:32-34).
Summer is in the North (Psalms 48; 75:6), and the New Moon of the Seventh Month is always in the West...Lev.23:24.
The Shekinah is always in the West...The Sun sets and worships before the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, saying, O Lord of all worlds, I have done according to all that Thou hast commanded me...(Baba Bathra 25a, TB; Sanhedrin 91b).
The world did not`LEARN the parable. When the Tree shot this branch in 1948 it failed to see that it was completely FRUITLESS...(Matthew 21:18-22).
THREE STRONG OATHS
THE TEACHINGS OF R. YOEL TEITELBAUM
(And other True Torah Sages)
The true Jewish position on Zionism and the state called Israel is found in the Scriptures in the Talmud and in the oral traditions transmitted to us by our parents and teachers.
AT THE OUTSET OF THE JEW'S EXILE TO BABYLONIA, THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, IN THE 29TH CHAPTER OF HIS BOOK PROCLAIMED G-D'S MESSAGE TO ALL THE EXILED…Verse seven reads, "Seek out the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray for it to the Almighty, for through its welfare will you have welfare." This has been a cornerstone of Jewish "foreign policy" how to behave in the lands of the nations throughout our ensuing exiles till this very day.
There Jeremiah adds in the name of G-d (verses 8 and 9), "Do not let your false prophets among you and your sorcerers seduce you, do not heed your dreamers which you cause them to dream. For they speak falsely to you in My name. I did not send them." This too has applied to all the would-be misleaders of Jewry whether they presented themselves as prophets or as sorcerers or as dreamers of national aspirations.
King Solomon in Song of Songs thrice adjured the "daughters of Jerusalem" NOT TO AROUSE OR BESTIR THE LOVE UNTIL IT IS READY." The Talmud explains That we have been foresworn, by three strong oaths, not to ascend to the Holy Land as a group using force, not to rebel against the governments of countries in which we live, AND NOT BY OUR SINS, TO PROLONG THE COMING OF MOSHIACH; as is written in Tractate Kesubos 111a .
Throughout the seventy years of the Babylonian exile, throughout the 200 years of the Hellenic exile and throughout the 1917 years since the destruction of G-d's Holy House, we have steadfastly maintained our loyalty to G-d and have not transgressed His oaths. And we have prayed for the welfare of the cities and the countries of our host nations that did not oppress us, and in their welfare we indeed always found ours.
Whoever violates Jeremiah's principles or Solomon's oaths immediately imperils the welfare of Jews locally and elsewhere in the world.
MAIMONIDES, IGGERES TEIMAN -- LETTER TO YEMEN
[Maimonides wrote this Letter to the Jewish Community of Yemen almost 1,000 years ago]
And as King Solomon knew with divine inspiration that the Jewish People would face the consequences of this and that suffering would come upon them, and warned the Jewish People not to do this (i.e. violate the Three Oaths), and in a metaphorical way made them swear not to commit these acts, as it is written in Song of Songs, 3,5: I made you swear Daughters of Jerusalem by the deer and gazelles of the field should you not arouse or awaken love until it is so desired.
Therefore, you, dear brethren, must accept the Oath and do not attempt to arouse the love until the proper time when the Alm-ghty shall remember us and you with his trait of mercy to gather his portion from Exile to behold his glory at his holy Temple and redeem us from the Valley of the shadow of Death where he has placed us, THEREBY REMOVING THE DARKNESS FROM OUR EYES AND THE FOG FROM OUR HEARTS. HE WILL THEN FULFILL IN OUR DAYS AND IN YOURS THE VERSE FROM ISAIAH 9:1 The nation wandering in darkness shall see a great Light, and a Light shall shine on those residing in the land of the shadow of death. At that time G-d shall darken the eyes of all those who rise up against us, and fulfill the verse from Isaiah 9:2 Verily darkness shall cover the land and fog shall cover nations, but the light of G-d shall shine upon you, and you shall display his honor.
The Maharal of Prague (Rabbi Betzalel Lowy who lived in the 17th century) explained that the prohibition of violating the Three Oaths applies even if the other nations force the Jewish People to do so.
In addition, he wrote in his book Netzach Yisroel (Chapter 24) that these Oaths may not be modified so as to affect the decree of Exile, and he expanded on the description in the Midrashic text on Song of Songs 2:18.
“Even if the nations wanted to kill the Jews with terrible torture, the Jews are forbidden to change the applicability of the Oaths. This is relevant to every one of these oaths and must be understood.” Therefore, not only is it forbidden to leave the Exile even with the permission of the nations, but even if they force the Jewish People to do so under pain of death, it is forbidden to violate these Oaths in the same way it is required to give up one’s life rather than accept another religion.
Rabbi Avraham Galanti, who other rabbis described as outstanding in his level of holiness, and who was a student of the great kabbalist Rabbi Moshe Cordovero in the 16th century, explained aspects of the Three Oaths in his book Zechus Avos [Merit of the Patriarchs] where he recounts how some Jews in Portugal wanted to revolt against the kingdom rather than submit to forced conversion. A rabbi quoted the verses from Song of Songs to the people who wanted to revolt, and pointed to the Talmudic tractate Ketuboth p. 111 which states that G-d made the Jewish People take three Oaths – one was that they should not rebel against G-d by rebelling against the nations. Thereafter the Jews submitted to death rather than forced conversion. Although the description in Ketuboth does not say that the Oaths involve directly rebelling against G-d, it is clear that the very violation of these Oaths is rebellion against G-d himself. Jews Against Zionism.com
A ZIONIST LAMENT
"There are two obvious conclusions that emerge from the death march of the last decade. First, there is no peace and there will not be peace, notwithstanding all of our good intentions. There will be no peace, not in our generation, perhaps not for several generations, and perhaps not until the Messianic era...
And take heed to yourselves...that that day come upon us unawares.
For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth...(Luke 21:34,35).
'There will be no peace' is a reality that has to penetrate our psyches. We should recognize it and deal with it...We must avoid falling into the trap of thinking that 'now if we only make more concessions, then peace will come.' Peace is not coming, no matter what we do. This realization calls for a major paradigm shift, an abrupt change in focus, and an end to the lies and prattle that constitute political discourse in the Jewish world. Peace is not coming! Jews, get used to it...The disappointment is intense, because our expectations were so high. We thought Israel was the end of the exile, instead of the same old exile in another form and venue.
Israel is still Israel, and the Jewish people dwelling in the land of Israel according to the laws of the Torah is still our vision of the future...We will mourn, recover and rebuild, and steel ourselves for the next wave, and like the Jew of the exile, we again realize that we rely upon our Father in Heaven, and His abundant compassion. We will davan and recite tehillim, we will support our suffering brethren psychologically and financially, AND WE WILL PRAY FOR THE DAWN OF HIS NEW WORLD ORDER WITH THE COMING OF MOSHIACH." Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, The Jewish Press, December 14, 2001.
Rabbi Pruzansky is right of course, but for all the wrong historical and spiritual reasons. The Zionists are not dwelling in the Land of Israel, and are in fact very far from it.
ISRAELI WHO LOVES ISRAEL LISTENS, SEES AND WEEPS
A Book Review by Richard Eder
"I may well be wrong but I know that something in me is dying. I no longer have that spark inside that life here always ignited in me. With all my criticism and all my pain, I also had joy, even pride, about belonging to such a unique, unprecedented human enterprise. So full of promise."
The writer is David Grossman, who has been what one might call the happy warrior among Israel's doves. A novelist, whose masterpiece was "See Under: LOVE," a kind of Holocaust transfiguration. He went on to write two extraordinary books about Israel's treatment...of the West Bank Palestinians and its own Arab citizens....Mr. Grossman wrote with the zest of someone who had an inherent faith in his people, their conscience and their ability, in a heritage of the prophets, to be stirred by words into self-examination and perhaps change.
The quotation above reflects the erosion of such faith. It comes at midpoint in "Death as a Way of Life," a collection of commentaries written between 1993 in the hopeful time of the Oslo accords and late last year amid the bloodshed of suicide bombings and of Israel's crushing forays into Gaza and the West Bank...
Mr. Grossman charts the decline of his own hopes, along with those of some on each side, that understanding the other and acting on the understanding would allow a future. Instead: "Noise...gunshots and shouts, incendiary words and mournful laments, and explosions and demonstrations, and heaps of clichés and special broadcasts from the scenes of terrorists attacks, and calls for revenge. The New York Times.
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to (Daat) knowledge.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
FOR MESSIAH IS THE END (the fulness) OF THE LAW FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS to everyone that believeth...(Romans 10:1-3).
Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: WHERE IS THE HOUSE THAT YE BUILD UNTO ME? AND WHERE IS THE PLACE OF MY REST?
For all those things hath my hand made, and all those things hath been, saith the Lord, but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite heart, and trembleth at my word...(Isaiah 66)...
Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, thy watchmen waketh but in vain...(Psalm 127:1,2).
__________
My people are destroyed for lack of (Daat) knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing how thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
As they increased, so they sinned against me: therefore I will I change their glory into shame...(Hosea 4:6,7).
__________
Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be. (Please see Revelation 7:4-8. Ephraim is mssing)...(Hosea 5:9) .
__________
Yet will I leave a Remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries...(Ezekiel 6:8; Romans 11).
_________
Who is wise and shall understand these things? prudent and shall know them? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall fall therein...(Hosea 14:9).
An Interview With Gershom Scholem
"Mukti: We are confused, lost, searching. Strange images that I have encountered in the kabbalah were not as strange as the history around me, as this twentieth century of ours. Did the kabbalah feed your inner world--you have lived through such stormy years in such a strange world?
Scholem: I can't say. Maybe it fed me more than I'm willing to admit. I suppose that I considered kabbalah as one of the possibilities for Jewish survival in history, that gave a dimension of depth to those who decided to remain Jews. I saw that there was something to kabbalah, but I didn't see it as the be-all and end-all. I was not out to be a promoter of kabbalah but to state what I understood and did not understand. Historical processes generally lead to quite different results than they seemed headed to at the outset.
I cannot say that if I decided today on matters of principle, I would decide according to the instructions of the kabbalists...I don't think the Talmud will help us much (either), even though I am far from denigrating the Talmud...But I don't think that the Talmud or the kabbalah will provide us with the answers to the fateful questions which Zionism has posed which we have to struggle to find the answers to...
But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken...(Isaiah 28:13).
Mukti: I was not referring to the political-messianic dimensions but to a different aesthetic aspect--to the linguistic style of our strange era. The kabbalists were struggling with ineffable things--the sense of chaos all around--and precisely this speaks to us, even though it was written in a different conceptual world than ours.
Scholem: If you ask me, I say that the kabbalists had a fundamental feeling that there is a mystery--a secret--in the world. The world is also--but not only--what is apparent to us...
Modern man lives in a private world of his own, enclosed within himself; and modern symbolism is not objective: it is private; it does not obligate. The symbols of the kabbalists, on the other hand, did not only speak to the private individual, they displayed a symbolic dimension to the whole world. THE QUESTION IS WHETHER IN THE REALITY IN WHICH TODAY'S SECULAR PERSON LIVES, THIS DIMENSION WILL BE REVEALED AGAIN...
If humanity should ever lose the feeling that there is A MYSTERY--A SECRET--IN THE WORLD, then it is all over with us. But I don't believe we'll ever come to that." On Jews and Judaism in Crisis, Gershom Scholem, p.48.
The Turn of the Twentieth Century
"A new sense of Jewish peoplehood had begun to dawn upon Herzl at the end of 1891, when his paper assigned him as a correspondent in Paris. In the ensuing years the public agitation over the Panama scandal and the trial of Captain Dryfus demonstrated to a young man already troubled by the persistence of anti-Semitism in Austria and Germany that there were no limits upon this disease if it could so virulently infect even the land of the great revolution. His imagination began seeking dramatic cures--first in the form of a play, then in thoughts of a novel, and finally in succession of plans for some grand 'coup de theatre' on the stage of life itself. Soon he had vaguely formulated a scheme for the mass regeneration of European Jews and their emigration to some distant land where they could form a political entity...
Herzl soon found himself with a succession of invitations. One was from the chief Ashkenazi rabbi of the British Empire...with whom conversation was easy since he was a native of Germany. On Saturday evening, after the close of the Sabbath, Herzl was among a handful of guests invited to dinner at Rabbi Adler's home. Over glasses of red wine...he expounded his ideas...
At lunch at (one Sir Samuel Montagu's home), Herzl had a glimpse of the synthesis of traditions that had been uniquely achieved by the aristocrats of English Jewry. 'A house of English elegance in grand style,'...'Kosher food, served by three liveried footmen.' In the smoking room afterward, Herzl unfolded his scheme. Sir Samuel...was aroused to enthusiasm AND ENVISIONED SETTLING IN PALESTINE WITH HIS WHOLE FAMILY; he would not even consider Argentina, which Herzl still regarded as a possibility. He was ready to join in, he said, 'AS SOON AS ONE OF THE GREAT POWERS TAKES THE MATTER SERIOUSLY.' (Understand Matthew 24).
That evening Herzl spoke before the Maccabeans, AN ORGANIZATIONS OF INTELLECTUALS dedicated to the spread of Jewish culture. Zangwell was prominently involved in it, and Colonel Goldsmid was a former president. Herzl was unanimously elected an honorary member...
Goldsmid rejected Argentina out of hand and insisted 'that only Palestine could be considered.' HE ARGUED THAT THE 'PIOUS CHRISTIANS OF ENGLAND WOULD HELP US IF WE WENT TO PALESTINE. FOR THEY EXPECT THE COMING OF MESIAH AFTER THE JEWS RETURNED HOME.'
Herzl concluded his English stay with a visit to the London home of Rabbi Singer...Among (others there) was Asher Myers, editor of the Jewish Chronicle of London, the august weekly that had been the journalistic spokesman for English Jewry since 1841. Myers had his doubts about Herzl and disliked his lack of religious commitment; nevertheless he asked Herzl to send him a summary of the pamphlet he was then preparing...Herzl did so after he got back to Paris, with the result that, in January 1896, Herzl's plan made its first appearance in print in the pages of the Jewish Chronicle. His full-length bid to change history, 'Der Judenstaat' (The Jewish State), was published IN VIENNA the following month...
The Jewish nationalist student circles of his own Vienna--within which the term Zionism had recently been coined--took warmly to his ideas and personality and through their network of contacts began promoting their goal of a general Zionist congress...Ordinary Jewish folks wrote him letters of thanks, even as (others) denounced his stress on Jewish nationality over religion.
Important political contacts had also come about. The Reverend William Hechler, chaplain to the British embassy in Vienna and author of the pamphlet called 'The Restoration of the Jews to Palestine According to the Prophets,' had presented himself to Herzl in March...
In the ensuing year, Herzl, indefatigably speaking, writing, traveling, organizing--succeeded in creating a mass movement. And on August 29, 1897, a dream was realized: the First Zionist Congress assembled in Basel for three days of deliberation...(Other voices in Judaism were) withering before the overwhelming personality of the 'marvelous and exalted figure'--in the words of one witness--who stood before the congress in frock coat and white tie: 'It is no longer the elegant Dr. Herzl of Vienna; IT IS THE ROYAL SCION OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID, risen from among the dead, clothed in legend and fantasy and beauty.'
As for Herzl himself, he went home at the end of the congress and wrote in his diary: 'At Basel I founded the Jewish State...Perhaps in five years, and certainly in fifty, everyone will know it.'" The High Walls of Jerusalem, by Ronald Sanders, pp.21-27.
1 KINGS, CHAPTER 8...(KJV)
Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you...(Habakkuk 1:1-5; Acts 13:40,41. KJV)
"Such are the principal features of the ancient Israelitish worship, and in every point they agree with the Druidical, the same rites, the same ceremonies, the same feasts, the same God, and in fine, the same religion. If the comparison were carried still further, the identity would become still more striking...
It is not, however, in the more modern times of Greece, when under the jurisdiction of the Roman governors, that we are to expect to find traces of Druidical and Israelitish worship, but in the times of her Homers and Hesiods: then we discover that the same religion and the same rites were in use among the Greeks as among the Egyptians, Persians, Arabians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Gauls, Estruscans, Hindus, Israelites and Druids." Identity of the Religions Called Druidical and Hebrew, London, 1829.
__________
"This was the course of events in Palestine: for this is the name that has been given from old to the whole country extending from Phoenicia to Egypt along the inner sea. They also have another name that they have acquired: the country has been named Judaea, and the people themselves Jews.
I do not know how this title came to be given to them, but it applies also to the rest of mankind, although of alien race, who affect their customs. This class exists even among the Romans." Dio's Roman History, 37.
A Letter Written by Rabbi Chayim Oizer Grodzinski of Vilna to Chief Rabbi Dr. Guedeman of Vienna
"Your honour knows that in the matter of the Zionists and the Mizrachi (the Zionist Religious Party), I am in correspondence with the Gaonim of this generation, AND ALL OF THEM HAVE DECIDED THAT ZIONISM IS THE WORK OF THE DEVIL with all its seductions and incitement, for the purpose of turning Israel from the good path and, that a great danger arises from it all for the Congregation of the Exile--heaven forbid--and that all those who venture to defend the Zionists are no better than they.
To our shame, some rabbis in our country have joined the Zionists and have founded an organization under the name of Mizrachi, and they have rejected all of the rebukes of Gedoilei Hatorah (teachers of the law), and they pretend to be men with respect for the Word of the Lord...
But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, AND WENT BACKWARDS AND NOT FORWARD...(Jeremiah 7:23-28).
They have founded committees and it is likely that they will turn to Your honour. I am therefore informing Your honour that all the Gedoilim in our land are perplexed at the matter. In the books...there is no suggestion that it is our duty to found a kingdom. On the contrary, our sages, the Tanoim and the Amoiroim, have expressly forbidden this. These rabbis of the Mizrachi have no faith, and do not trust in the salvation of the Lord and their minds have become deranged into believing that in a state founded by the hands of man there will be peace for us.
Woe unto me if I do not speak although I am not a man of words. If it were not a matter of life and death, I would not be willing to write...It is not a time to keep silent.
If the thoughts of these Zionists were really for the good of Israel as they claim, they would withhold themselves from the matter, and there would be an end to all the calamities that spring from it. At first sight there seems no reason why I should expand on this theme, seeing that it is clearly forbidden in the tractate 'Kesubos' to go up to the land in a column, meaning with a multitude. I in my innocence venture to fear, that one sin brings on another, and if they transgress the prohibition to go up in a column, they will later transgress the prohibition against rebelling against the nations of the world.
I have pain in expanding on this theme. I spoke seriously to one of the Mizrachists in our country, and I told him that all their activity was against the Torah. He regarded me as if I were deluded, and told me that there was no other way to rid ourselves of the Exile, AND ASKED HOW LONG WE SHOULD HAVE TO WAIT FOR REDEMPTION THROUGH MIRACULOUS MEANS...
But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His Name there, even unto His habitation shall ye seek, and thither shalt thou come...(Deuteronomy 12:5).
I became convinced that there was no hope of these people listening to the voice of the mighty men of the Torah. We are able to know at a glance that our healing will not spring from them, AND THAT THEIR GLORY SHALL NOT BE FOREVER, especially seeing that it is publicly known that a certain one of them has denied the God of Israel...WHAT HAVE THEY TO DO WITH ISRAEL, AND WITH THE HOLY LAND?
The Holy One, blessed be His Name, knows the thoughts of human hearts. He knows that I have written all these words from concern for our brethren, the children of Israel, lest He withdraw His care of us--heaven forbid--for whoever reads the words of the Zionists will know, that even the best of the Gentiles will be turned into our enemies.
LET OUR BRETHREN KNOW THAT UNTIL THE TIME OF THE MESSIAH, WE ARE DESTINED TO BE IN EXILE and to be subordinated to the nations until the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself will deliver those whom He collects and, eye to eye, will Israel see G-d return to Zion." The Rabbi of Vilna.
Just as we have followed the mind and the precepts of ancient Israel out of the East, and up into Europe in the time of Joshua (and have found Israel everywhere under the name of Dan, or the Danaans), and then again in the time of Christ (in the name of risen Joshua), so adversely we are tracing the path of Ephraim out of Europe again, away from the center of Israel's own mysteries again, and into the present and very troubled affairs of the Middle East again. Once have I spoken, yea twice, but men have perceived it not. (Job 33:14). This backwards path of Ephraim will shed meaning on all the words of the ancient prophets, and a light, we lament to say, not only on the historic and spiritual illegitimacy of the Zionist State of Israel but on the sentiments of those in this century who possessed in their time (even without realizing the extent) a measure of true DAAT (true Knowledge). A letter from the Lubivitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Shulem ben Shneersohn, to a proponent of the Zionist ideology in the early days of the movement out of Europe:
"You state that at any rate the Zionists have influenced men who are far from Israel to draw nearer. May I ask in what way they have drawn nearer? Have they begun to observe the Torah and its commandments? No, on the contrary, through the Zionist movement they have moved even further from the fulfillment of the Torah and the commandments and from belief in God.
(The Lubivitcher Rebbe could not imagine how correct he was in this pronouncement).
The Zionists have done more harm than the Society For the Spread of Enlightenment. The Society gave the people something that was in addition to the Torah by spreading their evil view that "enlightenment" was necessary and obligatory. (Actually, of course, it is)...In the course of time these studies prevailed over the Torah until those who occupied themselves with them became heretics and infidels and cast off from upon them the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven and the yoke of the Torah...But the Zionists are more cunning in their evil and THEY HAVE MADE NATIONALISM A SUBSTITUTE FOR TORAH AND COMMANDMENTS.
It is clear...that the Zionist ideal has not only failed to bring near those who were far from Israel, but has even driven them further away Moreover it has led right-thinking Jews to uproot from their hearts every concern with the holiness of the Torah, faith in G-d and the fulfillment of the active commandments. By that it has taken from them the basis of the obligation of Torah and commandments altogether, and has planted in their hearts instead the belief that through nationalism they are complete Jews. (continued)...
THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF A 2,000-YEAR OLD DREAM: THE REBIRTH OF ISRAEL.
At four o'clock in the afternoon of May 14, 1948, in a museum in Tel Aviv, David Ben-Gurion solemnly proclaimed the rebirth of the Jewish State in the ancient homeland of the Jewish people. Over his head was a portrait of Theodore Herzl, the AUSTRIAN newspaperman who had founded the Zionist movement barely half a century before.
"Yet in that happy carousel, there were voices of dissent. Bowing in the dark sanctuary of their synagogue, the leaders of the rabidly fanatic Neturei Karta sect of orthodox Jewry were in virtual mourning. To those deeply religious men who believed the Divine alone could order the homecoming of the Jews, the state their fellows were celebrating was an abomination, a miracle wrought by the hands of men when only those of God would do."
God is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered? WHICH REMOVETH MOUNTAINS AND THEY KNOW NOT; which overturneth them in His anger...(Job 9:4,5).
__________
The Kingdom of God is like a woman who was carrying a jar filled with meal. As she walked down a long stretch of road, the jar broke, the meal poured out behind her; she did not know it, she did not realize the problem. When she reached her house the jar was empty...(The Gospel of Thomas).
Theodore Herzl, the man from Vienna, said: "We are here to lay the Foundation Stone of the house which is to shelter the Jewish Nation." (The First Zionist Congress, 1897). But of that ancient place that lay hidden under the precincts of modern Vienna and its surroundings, the prophets said:
Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a Foundation a Stone, a tried Stone, a precious Corner Stone, a Sure Foundation: HE THAT BELIEVETH SHALL NOT MAKE HASTE.
Judgment also will I lay to the line (the Middle Pillar on the Tree of Life), and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, AND WATERS SHALL OVERFLOW THE HIDING PLACE...(Isaiah 28: 16,17).
__________
(Rabbi Shneersohn continued): Naturally, all who are caught in their toils, are lost without hope. Everyone who has even a little knowledge will admit the fact that the agitation of Herzl and Nordau in favor of Zion is not attributed to any religious feeling stirred in their souls.
Our brethren who fear the Lord, love the Holy Land (which in the end is not "land" at all but a Holy State of Mind) through the divine feeling that is in them. Their will and delight in the Lord and in His service leads them to delight in the place the Lord has chosen. (YHVH. The number 6 is Tipheret). This love is an inward feeling, a powerful inward love for this place that brings them actually to kiss the dust. That such is not the cause of the agitation for Zion raised by Herzl and Nordau is clear. WHEN HERZL WAS IN THE HOLY LAND HE WAS FAR REMOVED FROM THE LORD...
The true reason for the agitation raised by the Zionists who deceive and incite the people of Israel away from the Lord and away from His holy Torah, is that THE FEEBLE LIMBS OF THE BODY OF ISRAEL were already mingled among the nations and joined with them. A Jew of this kind who in Germany regarded himself as a German, and in Austria as an Austrian, etc., and felt that he belonged to his native land and had a part in its government in exactly the same way as all other citizens, led a life of ease and luxury, according to his material attitude, and married with the people of the land so that all might be one people.
The Holy One, blessed be He, Who desires the redemption of Israel THROUGH MOSHIAC ben DAVID and Israel can be redeemed only through repentance, has set up foes and adversaries against His people and His inheritance to afflict and oppress them. They are the anti-Semites who in every state have begun to isolate Jews from themselves to remind them that they are Jews...These kinds of Jews have the desire and the will to be particularly on the level of the princes of these countries and the rulers of these lands. The more they are rebuffed, the more actively do they work to rise and exalt themselves and to boast of their wealth and wisdom.
Our G-d fearing brethren know that they are beneath the yoke of the Exile and that they must be subdued in whatever situation and position they are in, in the knowledge that they are in exile under the rule of other peoples, and that it is their duty to bear the yoke of the Exile because it is the Divine Will that in this way their sins will be atoned up to the time when the Lord will have mercy on us and speedily redeem us." The Transformation, by I. Domb, pp.186-190; 224-231.
__________
And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, AND THE LAND OF THEIR PILGRIMAGE, WHEREIN THEY WERE STRANGERS...(Exodus 6:4).
What land is this? It is not the land of Palestine, but the land to which God (figuratively and historically) brought the children of Israel back up into, following the course of the Sun of Righteousness in the time of Christ. It is the land into which God also drove them at the hand of the Roman legions because of Ephraim's hardened and violent heart). It is the Pure Land of Buddhist thought. It is the whole transcendent State of Mind through which all the children of Light (both Jews and Christians, and all others), have been sojourning these last two thousand years.
THE TWO JERUSALEMS
By Berel Wein
Today being Jerusalem Day--Yom Yerushalayim--my thoughts naturally tend toward contemplating this sacred and scarred city. When I refer to the two Jerusalems in the title of this article, I do not intend to imply any territorial, demographic, or political division of the city. Rather I am referring to the classic Two Jerusalems of Jewish tradition--THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM AND THE EARTHLY JERUSALEM.
The heavenly Jerusalem is the Jerusalem of our dreams and hopes--the perfect society and MOST BEAUTIFUL CITY IN THE WORLD; a harmonious place where tolerance, goodwill, and common sense reign. Heavenly Jerusalem is the repository of all our memories and our eternal destiny, the reaffirmation of our traditions and religious beliefs and observances, the utopian MESSIANIC JERUSALEM.
And then there is the Earthly Jerusalem...There are suicide bombers that destroy its buses and murder its innocent citizens, and the promised canopy of peace of the Hebrew prayer book has yet to be spread over its environs. The Earthly Jerusalem is also home to religious fanatics, and its population is one of the poorest in all Israel. Yet Earthly Jerusalem also contains many and great yeshivot, and Torah is studied everywhere in the city by all groups and ages of Jews...
It has become increasingly clear that those who no longer have a vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem have also loosened their ties to Earthly Jerusalem. Ehud Barak's wild gamble with the Temple Mount and a redivision of Jerusalem is an example of this...
It was the Heavenly Jerusalem with its fantasy and pristine unreality that helped create the grimy, real, pulsating Jerusalem of our time. The founders of the State were non-observant, and many of them were anti-religious. But they came from a Jewish existence in the Diaspora that remained imbued with the idea of JERUSALEM AS THE CENTRAL CITY IN THE JEWISH WORLD. They still had a glimpse of Heavenly Jerusalem tucked away in their memory.
Ben-Gurion fought to make Jerusalem the capital of the country. Later in the Six-Day War, the Jewish title to Jerusalem was restored in blood and tears and joy and hope. The nonJewish world, which never acknowledged the existence of the Heavenly Jerusalem still refuses to recognize the Earthly Jerusalem as well...Without an ability to explain the Jewish vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem to the world, our rights to Earthly Jerusalem will always remain contested and contentious...
All Jews--secular, religious, and all shades in between--should realize that it is only the idea and belief in the Heavenly Jerusalem that allows the Earthly jerusalem to continue to grow, build and prosper. I am certain that the Heavenly Jerusalem extends to the Earthly Jerusalem its blessings on this Jerusalem Day.
__________
The yeshiva was an outgrowth of the Bet Midrash, the "House of Study," the place in every Jewish community where men meet to study and discuss the Torah and the Talmud. The great Mishna, compiled by Judah the Prince in the latter part of the second century, drew upon the vast accumulated body of knowledge, interpretations, and debates of the innumerable and unending seminars in the innumerable "houses of study" where Jews carried on their unending discussions on God, faith, good, evil, responsibility...
Relatively few of the students at a yeshiva in Eastern Europe received or wanted a rabbinic degree. The purpose of the yeshivas was not primarily to produce rabbis, but to produce Jews who were well versed in the Talmud, learned men, erudite men, men disciplined in their thinking and ascetic in their habits, men who would dedicate themselves to live according to the Torah...
The cities and towns were...full of learned householders who studied not only...to fulfill the commandment to study, but because they actually felt an urge to study. They sang their studies; they sang them fervently, AND FELT TRANSPORTED TO A HIGHER WORLD. The Joy of Yiddish, by Leo Rosten.
The following is from a work entitled Next Year in Jerusalem, written by one of the many Christian evangelicals who presently pride themselves on their biblical and prophetic expertise, and in their "great understanding" of contemporary Jewish affairs. (Such a work must be added to the great number of other works on the subject which the teachers and prophets of Ba'al are producing in our time):
AN ANCIENT PROPHECY FULFILLED
"The Talmud says, 'As the olive tree has its future in the end, so too has Israel.' After two thousand years of waiting, the harvest is about to be realized.
Invitations had been secretly delivered to two hundred leaders among the Jews of Palestine. They were invited to gather at the Municipal Museum in Tel Aviv on the afternoon of May 14, 1948...At sunset the Sabbath would begin, and nothing could be done for another twenty-four hours. Promptly at four P.M. the gathering rose and sang the Zionist hymn--Hatikvah--which was to become the Israeli National Anthem.
So long as still within our breasts the Jewish heart beats true...So long as still TOWARDS THE EAST to Zion looks the Jew...So long our hopes are not yet lost, Two thousand years we cherished them, To live in freedom in the land...of Zion and Jerusalem.
David Ben-Gurion, standing beneath a portrait of Theodore Herzl and flanked on either side by the blue Star of David, would for the next seventeen minutes read from a 697-word document...The Proclamation of Independence:
The Proclamation
In the land of Israel the Jewish people came into existence. In this land was shaped their spiritual, religious, and national character. Here they lived in sovereign independence. Here they created a culture of national and universal import, and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.
EXILED BY FORCE (see Romans 13:1-5) still the Jewish people kept faith with their land in all the countries of their dispersion, steadfast in their prayer and hope to return and here revive their political freedom...
This right was acknowledged in the Balfour Declaration on 2 November, 1917 and confirmed in the mandate of the League of Nations, which accorded international validity to the historical connections between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel, and to their right to establish their National Home.
The Holocaust that in our time destroyed millions of Jews in Europe again proved beyond doubt the compelling need to solve the problem of Jewish homelessness and dependence by the renewal of the Jewish State in the land of Israel, WHICH WOULD OPEN WIDE THE GATES of the Homeland to every Jew and endow the Jewish people with the status of a nation with equality of rights within the family of nations...
In the midst of the reading of the Proclamation of Independence, David Ben-Gurion was interrupted with a wild storm of applause when he read the words: 'The State of Israel will be open to Jewish immigration and the ingathering of exiles.'...With the return of each new immigrant to Israel, we are seeing further fulfillment of many Old Testament prophecies which predict that the Jews will return to the land just prior to the return of the Messiah.
The remarkable prophecy of Theodore Herzl was fulfilled--THE STATE OF ISRAEL HAD COME INTO BEING, FIFTY YEARS AND NINE MONTHS AFTER HERZL PREDICTED IT WOULD." Next Year in Jerusalem, p.52.
The world had not learned the parable of the Fig Tree. This tree was FRUITLESS. (Galatians 5:22-23).
OH THAT THEY WERE WISE, THAT THEY UNDERSTOOD THIS...Deuteronomy 32.
HEAR O ISRAEL THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE
(Understand the sublime implications: There IS only ONE)
"Who can really fathom the significance (writes I. Domb in The Transformation), of the fact that at the time when Hitler's Germany was fighting for its life, and when every pair of hands were needed for the war effort, he preferred to destroy six-million Jews who would have been only too willing to be obedient slaves in Hitler's war machine in return for their lives?...Why did Hitler feel impelled, to withdraw tens of thousands of S.S. brutes from the fighting line in order to employ them in his devilish extermination process at Auschwitz and Treblinka, in order to destroy the very source of manpower which might have brought him great advantages and the attainment of victory? Which of us, while pondering over these facts can fail to see the relevance to them of these unforgettable verses in Deuteronomy:
For a fire flames in my wrath, and shall blaze unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundation of the mountains. I will exhaust my evils upon them: I will spend my arrows upon them. They shall be emaciated with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send forth the teeth of wild beasts upon them, with fury of those crawling in the dust. The sword without, and horror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling with the man of gray hairs. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end; except that G-d had sold them, and the Eternal has delivered them.
(With I. Domb's permission we would add the following verses to his very terrible and correct application of the words in Deuteronomy 32. We must focus our thoughts here on all of the events that came to pass after Hitler's triumphant march into Vienna in March of 1938:
He cried also in my ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
And, behold, SIX men (an allusion to Tipheret, and Vienna) came from the way of the Higher Gate, which lieth toward the North, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and ONE MAN among them was clothed in linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and he went in and stood before the brasen altar.
And the glory of the Lord of Israel was gone up from the Cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the House. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side;
And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:
Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark (see Revelation 7:1-4); and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men that were before the house.
And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth and slew in the city.
And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord God! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?
Then he said unto me, the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not.
And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but will recompense their way upon their head (See Daniel 8:14; Matthew 24:15-22).
And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me...(Ezekiel 9).
The Destroying Angel standing in the Holy Place...(Matthew 24...KJV)
And they had a king over them, which is The Angel of the Bottomless Pit (the abyss, which is the very depth of the Consciousness of God itself), whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon... (Revelation 9:11).
__________
And Abram said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I inherit it?...
And when the Sun was going down (at the end of the age), a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him...(Genesis 15:8,12).
__________
And when you see Jerusalem (the City of David in the center of Europe) surrounded by armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
Then let those who are in Judaea flee to the mountains (into the nations); and let them that are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.
For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled...(Luke 21:20-22).
I. Domb continues:
The application of these verses to a work of destruction calculated from every point of view--moral, political, propaganda, military, and economic--to hinder everything else that Hitler hoped to achieve, was clear to some of Hitler's victims. A young rabbinical scholar, who suffered in Auschwitz, once seized the opportunity of asking his S.S. torturer why he was behaving in that way and received the reply: 'I don't know, I am just obeying orders.' When he was asked what was the purpose of these orders, he said: 'They don't know themselves.' The rabbinical scholar made the following instructive comment on this conversation: 'After that I could no longer see S.S. and gas chambers in Auschwitz, but I could see only verses from the Bible, moving in front of my eyes in the full living horror of their fulfillment.'
Not only this recent catastrophe but the whole path of blood and tears leading throughout the long exile cannot be understood otherwise; but Zionism, with its atheistic approach has desecrated all the holy and fundamental truths, diverted the Jewish way of thought into a temporal direction and marched roughshod over the ideals and values, and beliefs sacred to the Jewish people. Instead of drawing the right conclusions and accepting the manifestation of G-d's will as a rebuke, they deliberately took advantage of the confusion which reigned after that stunning blow, to exploit it for their own political ends which are, in fact, the very reverse of those designed for His people.
The mighty Zionist propaganda machine set to work soon after the conflagration to distort and misinterpret the meaning of the event by allegedly logical reasoning. 'This happened,' they shouted from the rooftops, 'because the Zionist idea was not accepted long ago; because we did not have the means to defend ourselves and to fight back; we must therefore arm ourselves on a territory of our own, and once our Zionist nation has been established, our future will be secure.'" The Transformation, pp.8-13.
The author of Next Year in Jerusalem continues:
"It is near two o'clock in the afternoon, August 16, 1949, when an airplane, flown by an American pilot, appeared over the Mediterranean coast of Israel. Immediately it was joined by four fighter planes from the Israeli air force. That day this plane had flown from Austria. It carried the remains of a Jew who had died forty five years before and whose body slept quietly, all these years, wrapped in a blue and white flag of Zion, in a cemetery in Vienna...And now, in 1949, only one year after the new State of Israel had been formed, the body of that man was being brought to Israel, where it would lie in the sacred soil of Mount Herzl outside of Jerusalem.
Prime minister David Ben-Gurion said, 'This is the second most important return of a dead hero to Israel in Jewish history. The first occurred over 3,300 years ago when the body of Joseph was returned in a coffin from Egypt. (Which was, of course, a wholly apocryphal event; and it was not to Palestine that the body was brought, but from it).
Laid to rest in the soil of his beloved Fatherland (not Motherland mind you) was the founder of modern political Zionism, Theodore Herzl. ('King Herzl'). This man...called 'the seer of the Jewish State of Israel,' was not the first Zionist, but he was the most successful one. He was 'the first statesman the Jews had since the destruction of Jerusalem,' declared Israel Zangwell in 1901.
The name Zionism was given to the movement of Jews back to the land in 1893 by Nathan Birnbaum. Originally, Zion was king David's fortress which he purchased from the Jebusites. (A prophetic people who lived in Central Europe not Palestine). THE PROPHETS USED THE NAME ZION FOR THE ENTIRE CITY OF JERUSALEM, BUT ESPECIALLY FOR THE TEMPLE AREA. IT ALSO STOOD FOR THE WHOLE LAND OF ISRAEL. In the middle ages, the term 'Zion' came to stand for the entire cultural heritage of the Jews--PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE...
...For generations the Jews have repeated the words of Ezekiel, 'Thus saith the Lord God, I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.' (Ez.11:17)...
(This verse has not been fulfilled yet, for the children of Israel are still scattered among the nations, and the land of Israel is not inhabited yet. It is not land at all, but a promised State of Mind centered in the City Above, the Mother of Us All...Galatians 4:24-26 ).
...And so rambles the prideful and "authorative" narration of the author of Next Year in Jerusalem, who imagines himself, as does the entire prophetic school of American evangelicals in our time, to be privy to the word of God concerning Israel. These imagine themselves the foremost interpreters of all the events leading up to the manifestation of Christ in our time. Religious bookstores are stacked high with their teachings. All of them for sale. Another in this genre is John Hagee's Final Dawn Over Jerusalem. This boastful man's spiritual eye is also welded shut:
The World's Future Hangs In The Balance With The Battle For The Holy City
The English statesman and author Benjamin Disraeli once said, "The view of Jerusalem is the history of the world; it is more, it is the history of earth and of heaven."
I'd like to amend Disraeli's astute comment--in a view of Jerusalem we uncover more than the history of the world, we also discover the "forecast." In Jerusalem we find the key to the future of the universe and the hope of all mankind. One day in the not-too-distant future a king will come, the promised Messiah. Then Jew and Gentile alike will see him walk the streets of Jerusalem. Together we will shout for joy as we look upon the King of kings, and the Lord of lords...
Woe unto you that desire the Day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the Day of the Lord is darkness and not light...(Amos 5:18).
The Messiah for whose coming we yearn will establish a kingdom of lasting peace--how fitting that His capitol will be Jerusalem, whose very name means "city of peace." As the nations of the world cry out for peace the winds of war are gathering over the ancient city of Jerusalem. THE SUN--THE GOD-ORDAINED TIMEKEEPER THAT HAS FAITHFULLY RISEN AND SET OVER THAT BELOVED SITE SINCE TIME BEGAN--will descend behind the Holy City's walls one last time. And in the morning, when that final day dawns over Jerusalem, the King of kings will establish his kingdom. The Chosen People, the Seed of Abraham, will welcome their Messiah, and He will be the Lamp of the City and the Light of the World
I have a deep and abiding love for Jerusalem. I made my first visit to that Holy City in April 1979, when as a goy tourist preacher I walked through those ancient streets and marveled at THE "BEAUTY" (parenthesis mine) of the city and the spirit of its peoples. I could not write about the war and desolation to come without a broken heart UNLESS I HAD THE CONFIDENCE TO ALSO WRITE ABOUT THE VICTORIOUS FINAL CHAPTERS IN JERUSALEM'S HISTORY. Darkness will come, and it will be the darkest night in Israel's history. But with the morning come great joy and the final dawn....
COME WITH ME AS WE EXPLORE THE HOLY CITY AND THE CHOSEN PEOPLE OF GOD WHO STAND TO INHERIT IT. If we are to understand why God will do what he is planning to do in the future, we must understand "the people" through whom He has chosen to work. THE DAWNING OF JERUSALEM'S GLORY IS NOT FAR AWAY.
The First chapter of Hagee's book starts out with the words:
June 7, 1981, began like any quiet Sunday in Washington, D.C. A hot afternoon sun flooded the Rose Garden behind the White House and lit the white pillars of that stately residence. Nothing seemed amiss; President and Mrs. Reagan were away at Camp David for a restful weekend retreat.
(So much for Hagee's visit to the Holy City).
Thus saith the Lord God; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing (absolutely nothing)...(Ezekiel 13; Isaiah 55:2-4).
They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity...Micah 3:1-12.
"THE ROOM WAS FILLED WITH THE MOST POWERFUL EVANGELICAL AND JEWISH LEADERS IN THE NATION. I was sitting in the White House listening to the President's envoy to the Middle East explain that the status of Jerusalem must be determined by negotiation with the Moslem world. The United States does not recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
I rose to my feet and interrupted, "Excuse me!"
The spokesperson looked at me but said nothing.
The Word of God recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital. God himself does not recognize your non-recognition. And furthermore, the Bible is non-negotiable...
As I interviewed the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem on the subject of Jerusalem being Israel's Holy City, he said to me, "Mr. Evans, why have you entitled your book Jerusalem D.C.?" HE THOUGHT POSSIBLY I WAS ASSUMING SOME CONNECTION BETWEEN JERUSALEM AND WASHINGTON. I smiled and said, "No, Jerusalem does not need to be tied in with Washington to receive recognition and approval. D.C. STANDS FOR DAVID'S CAPITAL, and for the fact that 3,000 years ago God Almighty proclaimed Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and for the fact that the Messiah himself will stand in the Holy City of Jerusalem to rule and reign." Mike Evans, Jerusalem D.C.
These prophets of Ba'al are childishly enthralled in all of their own writings with the great names of our times, and with their own privileged access to noted personalities (to places of authority and the seats of Power), constantly citing them in their own interpretive accounts of the scriptures in order to lend weight to their prophetic (and almost always purely literal, and thus almost always incorrect and dangerous) analyses of the times. Like the Zionists and other wicked men that they extoll, they are impressed with Power, and believe that military might and power were necessary to the establishment of Israel, and that it still is, despite the words which say: Not by might, and not by power, but but My Spirit saith the Lord. In characteristic style they pay no heed to dissenting voices (true prophetic voices), certainly not to those outside of their own non-denominations who have called them, and their literal and nationalistic doctrines of Christ, into question, nor to those outside of the "mainstream" of Judaism who have called the doctrines of Zionism and the Jewish Nation State itself into question:
Whoso keepeth the Fig Tree shall eat the fruit thereof: so he that waiteth on his master shall be honoured...(Proverbs 27:18).
Blessed art thou O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness...(Eccelesiastes 10:17).
WHO GAVE JACOB FOR SPOILS AND THE JEWS FOR PLUNDER
The New York Times, June 3, 1994
'NO PEACE, G'D SAID, FOR THE EVIL DOERS.' Yeshayah 48 and 57, (Isaiah). They did not succeed in making their state secure by military force and they will not succeed with any "peace deals." G'd is laughing at them. Tehillim 2:4, (Psalms).
According to the Torah we Jews are obliged to state the Jewish belief. Before the Almighty gave us the Holy Land 3265 years ago, He made these conditions. If we will abide by the Torah, it is ours, if not, we will be expelled. Alas, we sinned and we were exiled from the land. Only through complete repentance will the Almighty alone, without any human effort or intervention (on our part), redeem us from exile. At that time there will be universal peace. This will be after the coming of the prophet Eliyu and the true Moshiac. The Zionists rejected the Jewish belief and claimed that Jews were exiled because of military and economic weakness.
Jews lived in peace with the Palestinians until Zionists intruded, usurped their land, destroyed hundreds of villages, killed and terrorized them and then demonized and blamed them. We Jews are against the atrocities committed against the Palestinians and others with Zionist weapons whether in the hands of the Irgun, Stern Gang, Haganah, the army, or settlers, Goldstein or anyone. We deplore photos of Zionists, dressed as religious Jews carrying machine guns. This gives a false picture of a Jew. Even if a Zionist advocates religious observance, he is still an atheist.
The world must know that being a Jew means being faithful and devoted to Torah and rejection of the Zionist heresy which is a complete negation of the fundamental tenets of the Jewish faith.
The shocking aspect of the Zionist rebellion against the Palestinian nation is that after taking their land and inflicting so much suffering on them, the Zionist occupiers forced the Palestinians to recognize them as a condition for talking to them and imposing a Zionist dictated 'divide and conquer' scheme, specifying a zone here and a zone there, a kind of internment. According to the Torah, all Palestine should be returned to the Palestinians and all other occupied lands should be restored to their (original) owners. According to the Torah, Jews are not allowed to shed blood, harm, humiliate or dominate other people. A Zionist is not a Jew. "Israel" is a Zionist state, NOT a Jewish state and cannot speak in the name of the Jewish people. The American Neturei Karta.
DECLARATION BY JEWS OPPOSED TO ZIONISM
1. The Definition of the Neturei Karta group.
The Neturei Karta group is a spearhead group within the Jewish People, who are prepared to stand up and express openly a religious and humanitarian philosophy held in essence by large numbers (hundreds of thousands) and possibly the majority of authentic Orthodox Jews. A philosophy totally opposed to the attitude adopted by the Zionists and to Zionism as a whole.
The philosophy in essence is that for the last two thousand years or so the Jewish people have been in a state of exile decreed by the A-lmighty. The Jews were exiled from their land because they did not maintain the standards expected of them. This state of exile is the situation that exists right up to the present day. It is a basic part of our belief to accept willingly the Heavenly decree of exile and not to try and fight against it or to end it by our own hands. In practical terms, exile for us means that Jews must be loyal subjects of the countries in which they live and not attempt to rule over the established indigenous populations of those countries. And of course this includes Palestine.
The Zionist movement founded approximately 100 years ago based on secular nationalistic aims, was a complete abandonment of our religious teachings and faith - in general - and in particular regarding our approach to our state of exile and to the peoples among whom we live.
2. Neturei Karta's position towards Israel
The ideology of Zionism is to take the law into ones own hands and to try to force the outcome in the form of a State irrespective of the cost in life and property to anyone who stands in the way. The Palestinians stood in the way.
The practical outcome of Zionism in the form of the State known as 'Israel' is completely alien to Judaism and the Jewish Faith and has been and continues to be the cause of untold suffering and bloodshed both Jewish and non-Jewish. The apparent connection between Judaism and Zionism is false. The connection has been nurtured by the Zionists in order to ensnare as many Jews as possible within their net.
According to the Torah and Jewish faith, the present Palestinian Arab claim to rule in Palestine is right and just. The Zionist claim is wrong and criminal. It follows, therefore, that the Jewish people have no right to rule today in Palestine.
One must add to this wrong, the fact that in order to achieve an ill conceived nationalistic ambition, a shocking contravention of natural and humanitarian justice was committed by the Zionists in setting up an illegitimate regime in Palestine completely against the wishes of the established population, the Palestinians, which inevitably had to be based on loss of life, killing and stealing. Our attitude to Israel is that the whole concept is flawed and illegitimate. It is a tragedy for the Palestinians and also for the Jewish people.
3. Neturei Karta's position towards Zionist Jews
The Zionists have made themselves to appear as the representatives and spokespeople of all Jews thus, with their actions arousing animosity against the Jews. But, this is simply not true! Zionism is not Judaism. Zionists cannot speak in the name of Jews. Although, it must be remembered that a large number of people living within the Zionist State are there by force of circumstances and are by no means ideological Zionists. Their support for the Zionist State is by force of habit and circumstance. They would be quite happy to live under a Muslim regime if they would be allowed to do so in safety.
4. Neturei Karta's position towards Muslims and Arabs
The connection between Muslims and Jews goes right back into ancient history. Mostly the relationship was friendly and mutually beneficial. Historically, the situation frequently was that when Jews were being persecuted in Europe they found refuge in the various Muslim countries. Our attitude to Muslims and Arabs can only be one of friendliness and respect.
To sum up. We consider the Palestinians as the people with the right to govern in Palestine. The Zionist oppression, abuse and murder of Arabs is a tragedy not only for the Palestinians but for the Jewish people as well. The continuing existence of the Zionist State is the underlying cause of the strife in Palestine.
It must be clear that opposition to Zionism and its crimes does not imply hatred of Jews. On the contrary Zionism itself and its deeds are the biggest threat to Judaism. Governments of the world should realise that supporting Zionists and Zionism is not helping Jews or Judaism but only perpetuates the tragic impasse and constant bloodshed in the Middle East. We are waiting for the annulment of Zionism and the dismantling of the Zionist regime, and would welcome the opportunity to dwell in peace in the holy land under a rule which is entirely in accordance with the wishes of the Palestinian People. We pray for a solution to the terrible and tragic impasse that exists. Hopefully based on results brought about by moral, political and economic pressures imposed by the nations of the world.
Neturei Karta - UK Rabbi Ahron Cohen; http://www.nkusa.org
Crowds of jeering, cursing American Zionists were held at bay by police barricades at a recent demonstration in support of the state of Israel in New York City. The demonstration was held in front of the Israeli Consulate, near the United Nations, and barracades were in place to separate the crowds from a small, courageous group of Neturei Karta who had appeared to state the Jewish cause. The four orthodox Jews, who were holding up signs in support of Palestinian rights, and against the Israeli occupation of that land, had to be whisked away in a taxi so that they would not have to walk through the thick of that (violent) mob.
"When we see how the whole Torah is neglected and even annulled by a large section of Jewry (and may we add Christians) in our day, and to a lesser extent in other generations, somehow we find ourselves all the more unable to understand how the process will eventually be resolved. What one part of Jewry seeks to remedy, the other seeks to spoil, and the devastation seems much greater than the extent of the remedy. The devastation seems to be leading in a completely different direction and we are unable to see any change for good. On the contrary, we see things leading to an even steeper decline.
When we think of all the calamities, the slaughters and the persecutions the Jews have suffered throughout the generations, and especially the experiences of our own generation...WE CANNOT REALLY SEE THE DIRECTION IN WHICH ALL THESE CALAMITIES ARE LEADING, NOR CAN WE GRASP WHAT ALLL THIS SUFFERING IS MEANT TO ACHIEVE NOR THE CAUSE OF IT, NOR THE WAY IT IS GOING TO END.
It is difficult to suppose that all these sufferings and afflictions are leading the suffering Jewish people to repentance or to an improved observance of the Torah. We cannot see this at all clearly if we look at the history of previous sufferings, and we certainly cannot see it today. All this adds to our bewilderment.
WE CAN BE SURE THAT WHATEVER HAPPENS IS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE DIVINE PLAN, and that all the afflictions have been stirred in motion in accordance with that plan. We can be sure on the authority of the Torah that there is eventual good in all these sufferings and that they are not, Heaven forbid, merely a matter of vengeance and punishment for sins and evil deeds. Of course there is a close connection between the sufferings of the Jewish people and sins and transgressions committed against the Torah, but we cannot believe that the punishments inflicted on the Jews for those sins constitute an end in themselves. We believe that the punishment does not end in punishment, but that there is something further that comes afterward...
Shem Yisborach (G-d, May His Name be Blessed) is fulfilling His aim in every detail, but that aim permits of two alternatives leading to the same ultimate end. One path is speedy and even, the most convenient of paths, the path of the Torah and Commandments. That is to say, from our observance of the Torah there can be created all the illuminations and remedies constituting the Remedy of the World. WHEN ALL THE LEVELS OF SANCTITY HAVE BEEN REACHED ACCORDING TO THEIR MEASURE, THE FINAL DESTINY WILL BE FULFILLED, THE DESTINY OF THE COMING OF THE MESSIAH AND ALL THE GREAT EXPERIENCES OF EXALTATION RESULTING FROM IT.
THE REMEDY OF THE WORLD IS A DIVINE MATTER, A MATTER OF DIVINE COMPLETION ON THE HIGHEST LEVEL LEADING TO THE DIVINE MATTERS WHICH WILL THEN BE REVEALED. It will be accomplished by great material benefits, but the detailed content of the whole matter, as well as the content of the Torah and Commandments in quality and quantity which will be required to constitute the Light of Messiah and, the whole Remedy of the World, are known only to Shem Yisborach.
The general faith that is spread and proclaimed by the Nation of Israel through our sages, and those upon whom the Holy Spirit has descended, holds, that Torah and the Commandments constitute the material from which the ultimate end is constructed. Apart from the individual reward, which every Jew will receive for his fulfillment of Torah and Commandments in this world and in the next, the sum total of the sanctity acquired by all generations, all the good deeds of the Jews, and all Jewish attempts to approach nearer to Shem Yisborach, combine to form that great Light. Torah and Commandments bring sanctity into the life of every individual Jew and, out of a unity of all these individual acquisitions of sanctity, the whole world will be sanctified with a general sanctity. This process is continuing the whole time unnoticed. But the time will come when the process will be revealed to every living person.
EVERYTHING THAT HAS BEEN CREATED IN SECRET WILL THEN BE OPENLY REVEALED. The Transformation, By I. Domb, p.160.
Christian evangelicals speak of religious Jews from a distance (and perhaps they have no choice), but also with an air of self-certainty, as well as a measure of dishonesty, because they also believe it is these Jews, as well as the present nation of Israel, and not themselves, who still have a final spiritual lesson to learn. (After all, it is they who are to be "raptured" away while the Jews and the rest of us are left here to experience the "tribulations" of the last times). And Jews speak of Jews, and to Jews, well, as if Christians did not exist, and as if they, or at least a remnant of them, had nothing whatsoever to do with the redemption of Israel. I. Domb, however, has touched the truth of it all (and, it is quite certain, not with the hidden doctrines of Christianity in mind), when he says that "the whole world will (begin to) be sanctified with a general sanctity at the coming of Messiah." It is only then that the true Israel will be manifest, both to itself and the world. And though it will thoroughly repent before the other peoples of the world for all of the evils that have been accomplished in the name of G-d, and though it will recommit itself to its own high calling--as bearer of the oracles of God, and servant to the peoples of the world--it will not ask permission from the other nations of the world to exist in the same way as the Zionist State did in 1948. As every child is born from its own Mother's womb, so the true Holy Nation will have no choice but to come into existence. Divine Nature is already rising up in all of Her manifestations to compel it to exist. In fact the Universal Nation itself is named after Her...
I SR a EL
The name "Israel" (Yod, Shin, Resh, Alef, Lamed), is composed immediately of the letter Yod, the Hebrew equivalent of the number Ten. The number Ten expresses the relationship that exists on the Tree of Life between the doctrines of the Universal Israel and all of the other nations and religious traditions of the earth. Israel is a nation being taken out of and removed from the midst of all the other nations of the earth--the Zionist nation among them. (Revelation 5:9). The Number Ten (expressing Fulness) encompasses and includes all of the nations of the earth, from the East as far as the West, with the Universal Israel emerging out of them. The name is completed with the suffix "el" (Aleph and Lamed), an ancient manifestation of the Divine Name, one which is also expressed in the dimensions of this same Tree of Life. (Please see the chapter on Elijah and the Holy Name). Between them are the letters Shin and Resh. These derive from the name of SR(H). The name Sarah, in turn, has its roots in the name Sarasvati, the Vedic Goddess of Wisdom. Thus the words in the Hebrew texts: Call Wisdom thy sister. (Proverbs 7:4; Genesis 20:2, 26:7): (Please see chapters 4 and 5, and the chapter entitled The Vedic Connection in the Addendum to this work).
Sarah and Abraham...(Sarasvati and Brahma)...The early River Goddess, Sarasvati, becomes identified with speech (Vach), (the Word). She appears as the spouse of Brahma and the Goddess of Wisdom and Eloquence. She is called the Mother of the (Four) Vedas...
"Further evidence of a common source is found in the doctrine common to Indian, Greek, and Babylonian systems, that all things originate from a watery abyss (the Middle region), and again from the cosmic egg (the opening of planetary consciousness). Indian lore combines the idea of creation through Water and the Word in the double meaning of Saras, which can be taken as Water and Voice, hence Sarasva(ch)ti...'The Lady of the Deep, The Voice of the Deep, and Possessor of Knowledge concealed from men.'" Pagan Christs, pp. 59, 60.
_____
And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah (Divine Wisdom herself), and said, Make ready QUICKLY...THREE MEASURES OF fine MEAL...(Genesis 18:6).
Another parable spake he unto them: THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE UNTO LEAVEN, WHICH A WOMAN TOOK, AND HID IN THREE MEASURES OF MEAL until the whole was leavened...(Matthew 13:33).
Concerning the views of Rabbi Meir ben Simeon of Narbonne, of the Kabbalists of his generation, which he completely disdained:
"'They (the Kabbalists) boast in mendacious speeches and statements of having found confirmation and encouragement (for their ideas) in countries uninhabited by scholars and knowers of the Torah. But God save us from inclining to such heretical words, concerning which it would be best to keep silence in Israel. And we have heard that a book has already been written for them, which they call "Bahir," that is, luminous, but no light shines through it...'
What was it that so aroused the indignation of this pious reader? (wrote Gershom Scholem). It was the reappearance, in the midst of medieval Judaism, of a frankly mythical statement, presented, moreover, without the slightest apology for its boldness, as though it were the most natural thing in the world...(The following passage from the Bahir is an illustration):
It is I who planted this "Tree," that all the world may delight in it, and with it I have spanned the All and called it All; for on it depends the All, and from it emanates the All, all things need it, and look upon it, and yearn for it, and from it all souls go forth. I was alone when I made it, and no angel can raise himself over it and say: I was there before thee; for when I spanned my earth, when I planted and rooted this Tree and caused them to take delight in each other and (myself) delighted in them--who could have been with me to whom I might have confided this secret?
This Tree of God, which is the Tree of the world but at the same time the Tree of souls, is spoken of in other fragments of the 'Bahir.' In some passages, however, it is not represented as something planted by God, but as the mythical structure of God's creative powers:
And what is this Tree of which you have spoken? He said to him: All powers of God are (disposed) in layers and they are like a Tree: just as the Tree produces its fruit through WATER, so God through WATER increases the power of the Tree. And what is God's WATER? It is Hokhmah (WISDOM), and that (i.e., the fruit of the Tree) is the Soul of the righteous men who fly from the source of the Great Channel, and it rises up and clings to the Tree. And by virtue of what does it flower? By virtue of ISRAEL: when they (the children of Israel) are good and righteous, the SHEKINAH dwells among them, and by their works they dwell in the bosom of God, and He lets them be fruitful and multiply..." Gershom Scholem On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism, pp.90-92.
The true and higher Israel is ultimately comprised of every soul who can understand the spiritual and historical connections that exist, not only between one religious tradition and the next but between the Torah and its fullest expression in the universal doctrines of the Kabbalah. Its meanings will not only unfold, but will mandate themselves in the final events of our time. (As we were first writing this chapter, the state of Israel was being rocked by a succession of terrorist attacks which it could not contain--without, of course, resorting to acts of terrorism itself. The Zionist dilema is irresolvable. "Deep answers to deep:"
A CHALLENGE TO BARAK
By A.M. Rosenthal
"It is just the beginning. The pressure will now increase for Israel to risk its very existence. The purpose will be to force Israelis to agree to the creation of a new country that would have a deep political, religious, and national drive to expand over the years into all of Israel.
Few countries have been asked to do that--risk nationhood by carving out a piece of territory and handing it to an enemy without a fight. Not many nations return from the graveyard of surrender."
I wrote those sentences almost ten years ago (says Rosenthall). Now I read them with a sickening lurch of understanding that with the growth of Islam, even fewer people in the world care about Israel's security. At least as many Muslim's as ever would be delighted at Israel's demise--and long speed to it. They believe that the withering of the spirit that preceeds the death of a small nation is visible on Israel's face.
Why are so many friends of Israel as fearful of its future as its enemies are gleeful? How did it get to this point--Israel of the tested-strong army, nuclear-armed, Israel with a computer economy whose young people keep producing new communications wizardry, the only Mideast country even approaching democracy, with the most powerful friend in the world as an ally--how?...
Israel's humiliation in Lebanon is making more Israelis and Americans examine other nasty realities. One reality is that the Palestinians do not just want peace. They also want Israel. Before peace, during peace, after peace--they want all of it. They did not hide it before the negotiations, and they do not hide it now, except from those who cannot see.
From the beginning of the Palestinian movement, the message was written clearly and officially: death to Israel, immediately or in phased political, economic and military warfare. But death.
When America and Israel made repeal of the Palestinian death covenant against Israel a condition of talks, Palestinian leadership took years to say, All right, it's repealed--with a huge wink at the Palestinian people.
Israel knew it was a mockery to "repeal decades of a death covenant--one that runs deep with Palestinian fury, blood and terrorism--without attempting to resolve the hate at its root. But on and on it goes--the vicious propaganda against Israel and Jews...
Israel has not surrendered its claim to Jerusalem, but even before the "final" talks, Barak has signed away a couple of adjoining villages and permitted East Jerusalem to be encircled by Palestinian neighborhoods.
Why Israeli governments, particularly the present one, give in to U.S. pressure is easy to see. Washington is Israel's only major ally. Israeli officialdom wants its help but tends to fear its anger. Why most U.S. administrations pressure Israel is also no great mystery--God's covenant with Jews gave Arabs the oil.
Clinton's Mideast policies are shaped by aides whose careers and egos are tied to the Peace Now hope that Israeli concessions will buy a secure peace. They won't. Jews who want some tangible, traceable Palestinian concessions are invited to get lost. We won't.
CLINTON HINTS THAT HE IS READY TO MOVE EMBASSY TO JERUSALEM
Barak Asks For His Help With Political Problems
By John Kifner
JERUSALEM, July 28, 2000__Acting to help shore up Prime Minister Ehud Barak's shaky political base, President Clinton went on Israeli television tonight promising concrete rewards for peace, hinting that he was ready to move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem.
The move would be a major triumph for Israel and Jews around the world who have long sought international recognition for Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state. The United States and most other nations have kept their embassies in Tel Aviv on the argument that the status of the Holy City remains unresolved...Interviewed for half an hour on Israeli television, Mr. Clinton himself introduced the issue of moving the embassy while answering a question about the relationship between the United States and Israel, calling it "very strong."
After talking about a long-term committment to help modernize the Israeli Army and provide more security assistance now that Israeli troops have been withdrawn from Lebanon, the president said:
"You know, I have always wanted to move our embassy to West Jerusalem. We have a designated site there. I have not done so because I didn't want to do anything to undermine our ability to help broker a secure and fair and lasting peace for Israelis and for Palestinians.
"But in light of what has happened, I've taken that decision under review and I'll make a decision sometime between now and the end of the year on that..." The New York Times.
It is plain to see that there are no possibilities for peace in this land, not only because this land is not the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but because the ways of peace know they not. And that there is only one outcome to this impasse (short of yielding to God of course--the God who is known by the judgments He executes), and that is to further empower the spirit of antichrist in the West to act more aggressively, and more cunningly, in its own ongoing attempt to create the world in its own (also double-minded) image...The antichrists of the earth speak of peace, but, like the spirit of Zionism in the East, they are for war, or, like Jimmy Carter, will resort to war in the end). Mark those coming to perfection, however, for their's are the ways of True Peace. Their's is the true Mount Zion, the true, higher City of JeruSALAM. (Of course the struggles of Zionism are not limited to the affairs of the Middle East. Please understand Hebrews, chapter 12 [KJV]. The whole of it is being fulfilled here in the West, in the very presence of the spirit of antichrist itself)...
It is now October, Ariel Sharon has already taken his famous walk across the confines of Haram al Sharif. What more can we add to what has already been said?
It is now February, Ariel Sharon has been elected Prime Minister of the state of Israel: World Zionism is moving inexorably toward its own divine judgments:
ITS SHARON BY LANDSLIDE
By Matthew McAllester
Jerusalem__By a huge margin, Israeli voters yesterday chose the often bellicose former general Ariel Sharon to lead them at a moment of great fragility in the Middle East peace process. After crushing Prime Minister Ehud Barak by what appears to be the biggest vote margin in Israel's history, Sharon invited the humbled premier to join him in a national unity government...
At the Tel Aviv headquarters of Sharon's Likud Party, supporters were euphoric at the size of the victory. "Ehud go home!" they chanted as exit-poll results were annou nced...Others held banners that pronounced the end of the peace process."
In the streets of Jerusalem, Sharon supporters were quieter but still delighted. "Sharon is a strong military man, and he knows how to demonstrate his power," said Dikla Shabtai, 20, a recently discharged army officer..."I hope Sharon won't disappoint us and that he'll be as fierce as he was in Israel's prior wars." Newsday, Feb.7, 2001.
FOR LIKUD PARTY, SHARON IS THE KING OF ISRAEL
By Joel Greenberg
The hangar-like structure housing the Likud Party's victory rally, erupted, and the rafters shook with cheers. "ARIEL! ARIEL! ARIEL!" the crowd chanted for the winner. "Bye-bye, Ehud," they chanted against the loser...A group of young men, index fingers pointing skyward, began a line dance, singing hoarsely, "Arik, king of Israel." Shahar Malmillian, 24, brought up the rear, "I'm in the clouds," he said. "I don't believe it."
Someone shouted, "There is a God!"...The clapping, whistling, chanting crowd that packed the hall looked and sounded like fans at a soccer match, but the slogans were decidedly political: "JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM, "they sang, "THE TEMPLE MOUNT IS IN OUR HANDS."
Mr. Sharon pledged to "turn over a new leaf" with Israel's Arab citizens, who deserted Mr. Barak to protest the killing of 13 Arabs during protests in support of the intifada. He also reiterated his pledge that Jerusalem would remain a "united Jerusalem, capital of Israel and the eternal capital of the Jewish people."
When Mr. Sharon was done, the crowd lustily sang "Hatikva," the national anthem, and belted out the final refrain as if it were a Likud campaign song: "To be a free people in our country, the land of Zion and Jerusalem." The New York Times.
SHARON'S MANDATE, ABANDON OSLO ACCORDS
By Tom Gross
"I will call upon our Palestinian neighbors to cast off the path of violence and return to the path of dialogue and solving the conflicts between us by peaceful means," said Sharon...But he also vowed not to make concessions on the status of Jerusalem, receiving thunderous applause as he read from Psalm 137: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem."
President Bush called Sharon to congratulate him on the victory. During their five-minute conversation, Bush said the U.S. would work with Sharon on peace efforts, and he declared the United States' relationship with Israel "ROCK SOLID." The New York Daily News.
ROCK SOLID ?...Psalm 118:19-23; Isaiah 8:13-16; Isaiah 28:14-18; Matthew 21:33-44; Ephesians 2:17-22; 1 Peter 2:6-8; Daniel 2:34-45.
It is now October, 2001. The World Trade Center has already been destroyed in fulfillment of the words at Isaiah 30:25 (KJV)--a direct result of the Zionist transgression. The world is at war once again according to the words of the prophet Joel, 3:9-21; and the judgments are proceeding against the Zionist state.
August 20, 2003. The headlines read:
BOMBING KILLS 18 AND HURTS SCORES ON JERUSALEM BUS
By James Bennet
JERUSALEM__A Palestinian suicide bomber killed at least 18 people, including children, when he detonated an explosive packed with ball bearings tonight aboard a city bus crowded with families, some of them returning from Judaism's holiest site, the Western Wall...More than 100 people were reported hurt, many seriously, in one of the deadliest attacks in almost three years of conflict...
Israel officials reacted to the bombing with fury tonight, and expressed frustration toward a peace plan they said was endangering their security. "Israel cannot be a perpetual testing ground for peace proposals that the Palestinians fail to implement," said Dore Gold, an advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon...
Since June 29, Hamas has claimed responsibility for only one other lethal suicide bombing, killing one Israeli a week ago in stated retaliation for Israel's killing days earlier of two Hamas militants...Fireworks burst over Hebron tonight as Palestinians there celebrated the bombing...Israel killed a leader of Islamic Jihad last week in Hebron and the group has vowed to avenge that death.
In the videotape, the man identified as the bomber, Raed Abdul Hamad Misk, 29, appeared with a rifle in one hand and a Koran in the other. "We are proud to offer ourselves and our lives and our houses as a present to this religion," he said in Arabic. Switching to English, he said, "The people of Palestine commit themselves to cease-fire, but the criminal Sharon refused this commitment and killed many people in Palestine. Mr. Misk left behind two children and a wife...in the sixth month of pregnancy. She said of her husband, "All his life he was saying, 'Oh God, I wish to be a martyr.'"
"It was a miracle," Yehiya Luria said of his survival. "I prayed at the Western Wall today." The New York Times.
The voice of the Divine Mother, Holy Wisdom Herself, does not only lead the soul coming to perfection to the meanings of Her parables but, at last, She leads it to the very center of Her Mysteries themselves--just as She did with the Soul of Israel when it came back up into the center of the World Tree in the time of Joshua. The people entered at that time into the cosmic realization that the Pure Land, the Law, and the Presence of the Holy One (as well as the Doorway that leads through the dimensions of this Present World into the higher dimensions of Time and Space), are all ONE. Divine Wisdom led the mind of Israel up into center of the Oracle, to that hidden place named Beauty, and to a long-range and far-seeing vision of events that would emanate into the world from that same place in future times. She led them to the Higher Sinai, and to Israel's first collective vision of the Terrible Glory of God. The people saw, and realized in their time, what we must see again, and realize again, in our time--the Glory of God. (Exodus 19). The entire 20th century is the expression of this Glory. (Please see the next chapter).
TIPHERET
And Jacob (the soul of humanity) awaked out of his sleep (see Ephesians 5:14, and Psalm 126), and said, SURELY THE LORD IS IN THIS PLACE AND I KNEW IT NOT.
He was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place: THIS IS NONE OTHER THAN THE HOUSE OF GOD, AND THIS IS THE GATE OF HEAVEN...(Genesis 28:13-22)
But how many times in history do we find those who have understood these things reduced to a remnant? How does it happen? From innovations to be sure. But it is not simply that, because God is continually instructing the mind of humanity, drawing it ever closer to perfection, and certain individuals must always defy the orthodox opinion to attain it. But it happens when men arise who remove us from our own centered frame of mind, or from its emerging potential, into a state of disharmony (uproar and finally bloodshed), as did Herzl and others (including those religious Zionists who came before them, in America); and then when others after them find that they are unable now to change course, and to submit to the righteousness of God without being called a traitor, or, in the case of the Zionist state, an anti-Semite. It is not anti-Semitic to be against the existence of the state of Israel. To stand in opposition to the Vedic-Judeao-Christian-Islamic Mysteries is to be anti-Semitic.
The center is where ALL things are reconciled to God: heaven and earth, light and darkness, good and evil, the left and the right, East and West, North and South, the male principle to the female, Judaism to Christianity, and these to all of the other religious traditions of the world. And most of all, the invisible things of God to the things that are seen. (As such, the sins of the world become Israel's sins, and Israel must bear responsibility for them and make (a blood) atonement for them. This because Israel was not only entrusted with the oracles of God--with the doctrines of reconciliation and atonement--but in its own fallen state, and in its arrogance, it also has claimed to know the Law, and to be a light to the other peoples of the earth)...
(Nevertheless): For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
Which shew the works of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another...(Romans 2).
Life, as well as holiness, is engendered at the center, but strife, turmoil, and death when we are removed from it. Jewish Zionism--a mule that could not, and would not, be yoked to the Solar Bull (nor even to its Lunar Sister; for the New Moon, as we know, always appears in the West)--has been turned backwards by the Lord of History, not only to reflect the rise of American Zionism in the West, creating a Center of Consciousness between them, but as exemplars or bearers of the words which say:
O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto Thee, but unto us confusion of faces, AS IT IS THIS DAY, to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and UNTO ALL ISRAEL, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither Thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee...(Daniel 9:7,8).
This prophecy in Daniel speaks to the great mass off us today who are laboring, senselessly and without direction, in the various corners of our own religious imaginations, and far away from the center of Spiritual Reality, from which God has driven us because of our violent ways. (These ways began to be revealed to us, and in us, with the giving of the very first principles of the Law in the time of Adam, which immediately resulted in the birth of two contending spirits, Cain and Abel. Please understand 1 Corinthians 15:42-49). The whole course of human history was designed to teach us the spiritual lessons that we must learn if we are to fully inherit the Mystery above and the world to come. It is part of the Remedy (the Cure), which we could not have discovered without the experience (the disease) itself. It is the disease, not only of latent violence but of Ignorance, and of Pride and Self-will, which breaks out constantly in fitful rashes of religious hysteria on the one hand and religious (intellectual) arrogance on the other.
THE SEDRA OF THE WEEK
"Parashat Nitzavim-Vayelech"...When Chutzpa Rears Its Ugly Head
"The Talmud (see Sotah 49b and Rashi) states that among the many ominous manifestations that will be seen in the days just prior to the coming of Moshiac, will be chutzpa yasga, meaning that chutzpa will attain unprecedented heights (or depths). By that indication of the imminent arrival of Moshiac, he should be just at the outskirts of our cities. For chutzpa in general society, as well as in the Jewish community, is rearing its ugly head. The Torah in this Sedra, without using the specific word "chutzpa," speaks of it in the following words: Lest there should be among you a man or woman, a family or tribe whose heart turns away this day from the L-rd our G-d to go and serve the gods of these nations...and who will bless himself in his heart saying 'I shall have peace though I walk as my heart sees fit...G-d will not be willing to pardon him. (Deut.29:17-19). Rashi explains that the chutpzadik person brags that nothing will happen to him (or them) for following the inclinations of his heart. The chutzpa element here is the brazen arrogance of publicly proclaiming Shalom Yiye Li (nothing will happen to me). (Compare Micah 3:10-12).
(The Rabbi goes on to say): These days we see an alarming rise of chutzpa on yet another level. In addition to people's certainty of immunity from the grim consequences of their actions detailed in this Sedra (in the balance of chapter 29), there is an insistence that their behavior must be accepted by those who do not wish to 'serve the false gods,' or follow fly-by-night fads, and public posturing of certain unacceptable orientations...
It is also this brand of chutzpa that enables the spiritual leaders of the non-Orthodox movements here and in Israel to demand recognition as rabbis. One would think that once these leaders cast off the Ol Malchus Shoymayim (the authority of the kingdom of Heaven), by not submitting to the binding character of the Oral and Written Law, thus releasing themselves from the discipline of the Halacha, they would be satisfied. But that gain is not enough. They also want the Orthodox Rabbinate to grant them Halachic legitimacy and authority. They want it both ways. Freedom from the Torah and acceptance by the Torah community. This is not possible. In these days of Chesbon Hanefesh (self-examination) we turn to the non-Orthodox spiritual leaders and say to them: THIS IS NO TIME FOR CHUTZPAH. MAKE A CHOICE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. As the Torah says in this sedra: CHOOSE LIFE SO THAT YOU AND YOUR DESCENDANTS MAY LIVE. (Deut.30:19)." Rabbi David B. Hollander, The Jewish Press.
We have here a classic example of the Scriptural precept which informs us that we shall all have to give an account of our own words in the time of Messiah, for With what judgment we meet, so shall it be meted unto us. Rabbi Hollander and his co-religionists will have to make the same changes in the same "right direction" as they accuse all others, as it is also written: But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out off all your tribes TO PUT HIS NAME THERE, even unto His habitation shall ye seek, and thither shalt thou come. (Deuteronomy 12:5). This place, again, is not situated in Palestine:
THE BIBLE AS HISTORY FLUNKS NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL TESTS
By Gustav Niebuhr
The Bible's account of King David is so well known that even people who rarely crack the Good Book proba
