Hashem spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: Any man whose wife shall go astray and commit treachery against him [“u-ma'alah bo ma'al”], and a man could have lain with her carnally, but it was hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she became secluded and could have been defiled ...The man shall bring his wife to the Kohen and he shall bring her offering for her... (Num. 5: 11-13,15)
In Me'ilah 18a we find:
"Ma'al" can only mean “change” [i.e., acting differently from what G-d commanded us to do]. Thus it says, “If a woman deviates and commits a “ma'al” against her husband” (Num. 5:12) [i.e., switching mates for a strange man]. It also says (I Chron. 5:25), “They committed a “ma'al” against the G-d of their ancestors and strayed after the gods of the nations of the land” [i.e., they they switched from worshiping G-d to worshiping idols.]
A woman who profanes her holiness by turning to harlotry is called a “zonah”, and a married woman who commits adultery is called a “sotah”. Both words convey deviation, altering the role one was commanded to follow (see Torat Kohanim, Vayikra, Parsheta 11).
In actual fact, change and deceit are one. Whoever veers from his role is untrue to it. Change, deceit and “me'ilah” are all one, as well, because “me'ilah” means casting off one's yoke, which is what one does when he wishes to alter his role and lie about his mission in the world.
“Me'ilah” means betraying [begidah] one's duty, and “me'ilah” [deceit] and “begidah” [treason] resemble “me'il” and “beged”, two words for clothing. Our clothing symbolizes the Divine yoke and holiness G-d placed on Adam, naked of mitzvot and holiness, as a covering. “Me'ilah” and “Begidah” indicate the removal of this spiritual garb. As Ibn Ezra (Lev. 5:15) writes, “If anyone commit a trespass [“ma'al”]: I.e., he removes his “ma'al”, his covering, from the same root as “me'il”, cloak.”
If someone casts off G-d's yoke, he is a “ben beliya'al”, a person without a yoke [“beli ol”]. This expression connotes and evildoer, as we find regarding the apostate city: “Base people [bnei beliya'al] are gone out from the midst of you” (Deut. 13:14). Sifri comments (Re'eh 93), “Persons who broke off G-d's yoke.” Similarly, Sanhedrin 111b teaches, “Bnei beliya'al”: Persons who broke off the yoke of Heaven from their necks.” Yet they are not just “beli ol”, without a yoke, but “beli ya'al”, the serve no benefit [“to'elet] to anyone. Man was created only to accept the yoke of G-d's kingdom, and if he shirks this, then he serves no purpose and is better off dead.
The sin of such a person is “me'ilah”, which connotes “change”. As our sages said (Me'ilah 18a):
If anyone commits a trespass [“ma'al”] (Lev. 5 :15): “Ma'al” always refers to some change, as in, If any man's wife go astray and act unfaithfully [“ma'al”] against him” (Num. 5:12), or “They broke faith with the G-d of their fathers and went astray after the gods of the peoples of the land” (I Chronicles 5:25).
“Me'ilah" refers to change involving straying from the path, changing one's role, pursuing something foreign. The “mo'el” betrays his duty, the command given him. It is as though the “mo'el” has removed the cloak [“me'il”] that covers him, like the adulterer [“boged”] removing his clothing [“beged”]. Both are naked because they cast off their “me'il”, their “beged” and their “ol”[yoke].
In the Temple, the Torah established a “me'ilah” offering to atone for the person who betrayed the holy objects of G-d, deriving benefit from them as if they were non-holy, and transferring the holy to a non-holy domain. When G-d created the world, He defined and separated His beings and gave them borders and places of their own, domains to which they belong. The word domain [“reshut”] also means “place”, and can also connote a license to be somewhere or do something.
A woman is set aside specifically for her husband. When she fornicates, she betrays him and her own domain, because her domain was sanctified and set apart. She received permission to be in her husband's place, and he becomes her domain. She has no license to be with another man who is not her domain.
Similarly, the Jewish People were set apart fro G-d. He is their portion and inheritance. When they substitute idolatry or a foreign culture in His place, this constitutes change, straying, betrayal. The general rule is this: man was created to accept unto himself the yoke of Heaven and thereby to transcend his own egotism and fulfill his purpose in the world and the purpose of the world itself. Whoever breaks off his yoke betrays his task and forfeits his domain on this earth, because his presence here, in fact, his very creation, is no longer of benefit.
How few, indeed, are the elite! Even so, we were commanded to study and to teach, to preserve and to practice G-d's idea of Jewishness as it was given to us, as we were truly and straightforwardly commanded. We must reject every trace of foreign culture, of falsification and distortion, and accept the yoke of Heaven.
Woman is the symbol of man's love and desire, for there is no love in man's nature greater than his love for woman. Precisely for this reason G-d created man and woman, so they would be bound together with fierce love and desire, ready to sacrifice for each other and to give of themselves to an extent unheard of in any other relationship. They would be willing even to sacrifice their lives for each other, so strong is that love. Being so fiercely bound to another human being is the apex of man's breaking down his selfishness, arrogance and evil impulse. G-d created this bond so that man would understand from it – at least in part – how powerful must be his love for G-d. Thus, if a husband is ever unfaithful to his wife, it constitutes betrayal of the true concept of love and a dreadful lie looming over the marital relationship. G-d decreed that this must be an exclusive relationship founded on mutual trust, a symbol of the prohibition against the dreadful sin of polytheism, worshiping idols as well as G-d (Ex.20:3).
At the same time, an evil woman is a symbol of the opposite – idolatry. Whoever falls deeply in love with a woman who incites him to sin, even to heresy and idolatry, brings death unto himself. In his fierce love, he will be ready to do all she asks, even commit terrible sins. Thus, a woman can either symbolize love of G-d, or, Heaven forbid, love of heresy. After all, even heresy involves emotional attraction. As Berachot 12 b teaches:
Why was the third paragraph of the Shema (Num. 15:37-41) established to be recited daily? R. Yehuda bar Chaviva said, “Because it contains six elements: 1) the mitzvah of Tzitzit; 2) the Exodus from Egypt; 3) the yoke of mitzvot; and admonitions against 4) heretical belief; 5) immoral sexual thought; and 6) idolatrous thoughts...” Indeed it was learned: “After your heart” (Num 15:39) refers to heresy, and it says (Ps. 14:1), “The fool says in his heart:'There is no G-d'”.
Here we have proof that heresy depends on the heart and involves desire and attraction. Hence the woman, symbol of male desire, can either symbolize devotion to G-d or pursuit of heresy. Rashi interprets the verse, “I find more bitter than death the woman” (Eccles. 7:26): “Death is the harshest of ten harsh things created (Bava Batra 10a), and I find 'woman' – i.e. heresy – harsher still.”
Listen then to the truth.Let us savor the bitter fruits of our love affair with the world of gentilized civilization. It is a war for the hearts and souls and minds of the Jews. It is a war between those who wish to be amongst and like the nations, the gentiles, to embrace their culture and ideas and values and abominations; and between those who recognize their uniqueness and chosenness and who embrace the holiness of a separate, distinct, isolated, different people, living apart from all the others, unsullied by the abominations of cultures conceived in impurity and born in profane vanity.
The values of Judaism are, in so many areas, and so overwhelmingly, different from those of western-gentilized Hellenism. What is ethical and what is moral and what is merciful and what is just? The answers of Judaism and of Hellenism are far apart. Political equality? Democracy? Tolerance of abomination? Freedom in social, personal affairs? The role of authority? Poles apart are the views of the Jews and the Hebrew-speaking gentiles.
Sinai is cast away for Times Square and the purity of the Chosen people is exchanged for the material vomit of Los Angeles. The modesty of holiness is contemptuously abandoned and the nation wallows in the nakedness of gentile culture.
“Thou hast built thy lofty place at every head of the way and hast made thy beauty an abomination and hast opened thy feet to everyone that passed by and multiplied thy harlotries.” (Ezekiel 16:24-25)
Let us rise and garb ourselves with the cloak of sanctity; wrap ourselves in the regal robes of holiness. Every Jew a sacred child of G-d, the State of Israel the hallowed palace of the King of Kings. Let the Sabbath sing forth in joy from every home and the food that enters the mouth be as pure as the words that leave it. Let values be clean as the fresh mountain air of Zion and let degeneracy and vanity vanish as the morning mist before the warm sun of Jerusalem. Let hatred and violence and evil against brothers be buried beneath the centuries-old memories of common suffering.
“I will betroth you unto Me via faith, and you shall know the L-rd” (Hosea 2:22). The “faith” referred to is the knowledge that there truly exists a Creator of the world, and that He is L-rd of hosts, the G-d of history and of truth. Such knowledge, and man's submission to G-d's ways and commandments, is man's purpose, and “this is the doctrine Moses placed before the People of Israel” (Deut. 4:44).
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea" and from "Forty Years" of Rav Meir Kahane, HY”D
Monday, May 30, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Parashat Bamidbar - Dear Jew, you are precious to G-d! - Rav Meir Kahane
Hashem spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai ..., saying: Take a census of the entire assembly of the Children of Israel according to their families, according to their fathers' household, by numbers of the names, every male according to their head count. (Num. 1:1-2).
Tanchuma, Bamidbar, 20, teaches:
A man had glass vessels, and he would take them to the market, set them out and gather them back up without ever counting them. Because they were of glass, he did not keep track of them.
He had other merchandise, fine pearls, which he would count before taking to the market, before setting them out, and before gathering them back up. Because they were pearls, he loved them. In the same way, so to speak, G-d said, “I did not count the nations, since they have no importance for Me, as it says, 'all the nations are as nothing before Him, they are accounted before Him as things of naught and vanity' (Isaiah 40:17). Yet, you, Israel, 'are borne by Me from birth, carried by Me from the womb' (Isaiah 46:3). Therefore, I count you constantly.”
Thus it says, “Make a tally of the male firstborn among the children of Israel” (Num. 3:40)
Israel are G-d's “reshit”, first and foremost among all the nations, and superior to them all. Israel are also G-d's firstborn, as it says, “You must say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the L-rd says: Israel is My son, My firstborn'” (Ex. 4:22). The word for firstborn, bechor, is close to the terms bachur and nivchar, connoting selection, because the firstborn is the one G-d selects, and then “the birthright – bechora – is legally his” (Deut. 21:17), the bechira, i.e. selection.
It is probable that the word bechira, selection, which includes examination and thought about what and whom to choose, is close to the word bakar, a root meaning to examine, clarify and choose, as in the verse, “No distinction must be made – lo yivaker – between better and worse” (Lev. 27:33).
Israel are G-d's chosen people, His treasure, His children, majestic and royal. As R. Shimon said (Shabbat 128a), “All of Israel are the children of kings.”
And R. Ashi said in Zevachim 19a:
Huna bar Natan told me, “I was once standing before[the non-Jewish]King Izgadar, and my sash was too high and he lowered it, saying: 'The Torah calls you "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation"' (Ex. 19:6).
My father and teacher [Rabbi Yechezkel Shraga Kahane ztz”l] once pointed out to me that, unfortunately, a large segment of the nation, and perhaps a majority, acknowledge their Jewishness only because of the hatred of the non-Jews who do not allow them to assimilate and disappear. For this, a Jew who keeps Torah and mitzvot is obligated to recite the blessing “She lo assani goy” (“Who didn't make me a non-Jew”) which [also] can be translated “That not the non-Jew made me [be a Jew]”. Rather, I myself, chose to be part of the Jewish People because of G-d's Torah.
Israel endures forever! And why? What do they have that the nations of the world lack? Is their skin different? Is there no wisdom among the nations? Surely, our sages explicitly said (Echa Rabbah, 2:13), “If a person says, 'There is wisdom among the nations', believe him.” Rather, there is only one difference between Israel and the nations. There is only one logical, rational reason for a person to be proud of his being a Jew: The Torah. As our sages said (Torat Kohanim, Bechukotai, 8:11): “What remains to them that has not become vile and loathsome? Were not all the fine gifts that were given to them taken away? If not for the Torah that remained with them, they would be no different from the nations at all.” This is the secret of Israel's uniqueness and exclusiveness. Only this Torah hallows, exalts and sets Israel apart from all the nations. All the rest, nationalism and national pride, are nothing but a meaningless farce.
Yet, since G-d chose Israel to be His holy people and to fulfill His Torah, they were granted extraordinary love and a special status, and they became the mate and partner, so to speak, of Him Whose word brought the world into being.
The Jew called up to the Torah blesses loudly and with joyous devotion, the One “Who chose us from all the nations and gave us His Torah.” Regarding our sages' utterance (Bava Metzia 85b) that the Second Temple was destroyed because Israel “did not recite the blessing over the Torah before studying Torah,” a great rabbi once commented that they did not make sure to say “Who chose us from all the nations,” which is the content of the blessing recited before reading from the Torah. So great is Israel's selection from among all the nations!
How great is our duty to be happy and thank G-d every single moment for pour having been born as part of the chosen people, supreme and holy! Our sages established that each day before morning prayers we must say, “Happy are we! How good is our destiny, how pleasant is our lot, how beautiful our heritage!” How disgraceful it is that a Jew is ashamed of taking pride in his role and in his exalted spiritual level, fearful of what the nations will say, trying to belittle the importance and definition of Israel as a chosen, supreme people! Consider the blight of exile and servitude. Observe how it has made the alien culture rule over us and harmed our healthy spirits. What healthy nation would not want to be chosen, treasured and unique? It was in response to this that King David said, “In You did our fathers trust; they trusted, and You did deliver them. Unto You did they trust, and were not ashamed” (Ps. 22:5-6). Faith and trust in G-d must be without shame. What times these are, when belief and trust have turned into something “illogical” that a Jew is ashamed to talk about openly. Likewise, the concept of chosenness has become a source of mockery and scorn. Under the sway of the alien culture, it has become a negative, racist concept and many good people have been ashamed to take pride in it; hence the separation between Israel and the nations has been blurred. Listen, my friend, and cast off all your shame regarding the superior status given you. Rejoice in your exalted inheritance!
The way the Hellenists and assimilationists fear the nations' reaction is just part of what compels them to deny Israel's selection. Infinitely worse is the influence of the alien culture which has so penetrated their bones that the idea that there really is a nation chosen from all the rest and spiritually superior appears to them an abomination. Surely they are hostages of the nonsensical concept of equality, which brings everything – goodness and evil, wisdom and folly, the genius and the simpleton – to one standing. Nothing brings greater ruin than this foolishness, and regarding this alien culture it says, “Do not bring any offensive idol into you house, since then you may become just like it. Shun it totally and consider it absolutely offensive, since it is taboo” (Deut. 7:26); and, “Let nothing that has been declared taboo there remain in your hands” (Ibid., 13:18). A thick wall divides Israel from the nations, a Divine partition which separates between the sacred and the profane, between Israel and the nations. Indeed, holiness and separateness descended upon us from Heaven as a beloved pair, bound to one another by Divine decree.
Our sages said (Tanchuma, Kedoshim 5): G-d said to Israel, “I am not like mortal man. With mortal man, non-royalty are forbidden to have the same name as the king.” As proof, when a person wishes to get his fellow man into trouble, he can call him by the emperor's name, and that man's life will be forfeit. Israel, however, were called by G-d's name. Every lovely name G-d had, He called Israel by it. He called Himself Elokim and He called Israel Elokim, as it says, “I said that you are elohim [G-d-like beings]” (Ps. 82:6). G-d was called chacham, wise, as it says, “He is wise of heart and mighty in strength” (Job 9:4), and He called Israel chacham, as in, “This great nation is certainly a wise and understanding people” (Deut. 4:6). He was called dodi, “my beloved”, as it says, “My beloved is white and ruddy” (Song of Songs 5:10), and He called Israel His beloved, as it says, “Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved” (Ibid., v. 1). G-d was called bachur, “select”, as it says, “select as the cedars” (Ibid., v. 15), and He called Israel select, as it says, “The L-rd your G-d selected you” (Deut. 7:6). He was called chassid, “saintly”, as it says, “I am saintly, says the L-rd” (Jer. 3:12) and He called Israel saints, as it says, “Gather My saints together unto Me” (Ps. 50:5). He was called holy, as it says, “Holy, holy, holy is the L-rd of hosts.!” (Isaiah 6:3); and, “For the L-rd our G-d is holy” (Ps. 99:9), and He called Israel holy, as it says, “You must be holy” (Lev. 19:2).
Consider what our sages said about the greatness, holiness, supremacy and belovedness of Israel – that even though G-d is the G-d of all living creatures, He still associated His name exclusively with Israel. As Shemot Rabbah, 29:4, teaches: “G-d said to Israel, 'I am the G-d of all creatures on earth, but I did not associate My name with any but you. I am not called the G-d of the nations but the G-d of Israel.”
Pesikta Rabbati (10) teaches, “G-d said to Moses, 'Moses, exalt this nation as much as you possibly can, for it is as though you exalt Me.'”
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea" of Rav Meir Kahane, HY”D
Tanchuma, Bamidbar, 20, teaches:
A man had glass vessels, and he would take them to the market, set them out and gather them back up without ever counting them. Because they were of glass, he did not keep track of them.
He had other merchandise, fine pearls, which he would count before taking to the market, before setting them out, and before gathering them back up. Because they were pearls, he loved them. In the same way, so to speak, G-d said, “I did not count the nations, since they have no importance for Me, as it says, 'all the nations are as nothing before Him, they are accounted before Him as things of naught and vanity' (Isaiah 40:17). Yet, you, Israel, 'are borne by Me from birth, carried by Me from the womb' (Isaiah 46:3). Therefore, I count you constantly.”
Thus it says, “Make a tally of the male firstborn among the children of Israel” (Num. 3:40)
Israel are G-d's “reshit”, first and foremost among all the nations, and superior to them all. Israel are also G-d's firstborn, as it says, “You must say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the L-rd says: Israel is My son, My firstborn'” (Ex. 4:22). The word for firstborn, bechor, is close to the terms bachur and nivchar, connoting selection, because the firstborn is the one G-d selects, and then “the birthright – bechora – is legally his” (Deut. 21:17), the bechira, i.e. selection.
It is probable that the word bechira, selection, which includes examination and thought about what and whom to choose, is close to the word bakar, a root meaning to examine, clarify and choose, as in the verse, “No distinction must be made – lo yivaker – between better and worse” (Lev. 27:33).
Israel are G-d's chosen people, His treasure, His children, majestic and royal. As R. Shimon said (Shabbat 128a), “All of Israel are the children of kings.”
And R. Ashi said in Zevachim 19a:
Huna bar Natan told me, “I was once standing before[the non-Jewish]King Izgadar, and my sash was too high and he lowered it, saying: 'The Torah calls you "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation"' (Ex. 19:6).
My father and teacher [Rabbi Yechezkel Shraga Kahane ztz”l] once pointed out to me that, unfortunately, a large segment of the nation, and perhaps a majority, acknowledge their Jewishness only because of the hatred of the non-Jews who do not allow them to assimilate and disappear. For this, a Jew who keeps Torah and mitzvot is obligated to recite the blessing “She lo assani goy” (“Who didn't make me a non-Jew”) which [also] can be translated “That not the non-Jew made me [be a Jew]”. Rather, I myself, chose to be part of the Jewish People because of G-d's Torah.
Israel endures forever! And why? What do they have that the nations of the world lack? Is their skin different? Is there no wisdom among the nations? Surely, our sages explicitly said (Echa Rabbah, 2:13), “If a person says, 'There is wisdom among the nations', believe him.” Rather, there is only one difference between Israel and the nations. There is only one logical, rational reason for a person to be proud of his being a Jew: The Torah. As our sages said (Torat Kohanim, Bechukotai, 8:11): “What remains to them that has not become vile and loathsome? Were not all the fine gifts that were given to them taken away? If not for the Torah that remained with them, they would be no different from the nations at all.” This is the secret of Israel's uniqueness and exclusiveness. Only this Torah hallows, exalts and sets Israel apart from all the nations. All the rest, nationalism and national pride, are nothing but a meaningless farce.
Yet, since G-d chose Israel to be His holy people and to fulfill His Torah, they were granted extraordinary love and a special status, and they became the mate and partner, so to speak, of Him Whose word brought the world into being.
The Jew called up to the Torah blesses loudly and with joyous devotion, the One “Who chose us from all the nations and gave us His Torah.” Regarding our sages' utterance (Bava Metzia 85b) that the Second Temple was destroyed because Israel “did not recite the blessing over the Torah before studying Torah,” a great rabbi once commented that they did not make sure to say “Who chose us from all the nations,” which is the content of the blessing recited before reading from the Torah. So great is Israel's selection from among all the nations!
How great is our duty to be happy and thank G-d every single moment for pour having been born as part of the chosen people, supreme and holy! Our sages established that each day before morning prayers we must say, “Happy are we! How good is our destiny, how pleasant is our lot, how beautiful our heritage!” How disgraceful it is that a Jew is ashamed of taking pride in his role and in his exalted spiritual level, fearful of what the nations will say, trying to belittle the importance and definition of Israel as a chosen, supreme people! Consider the blight of exile and servitude. Observe how it has made the alien culture rule over us and harmed our healthy spirits. What healthy nation would not want to be chosen, treasured and unique? It was in response to this that King David said, “In You did our fathers trust; they trusted, and You did deliver them. Unto You did they trust, and were not ashamed” (Ps. 22:5-6). Faith and trust in G-d must be without shame. What times these are, when belief and trust have turned into something “illogical” that a Jew is ashamed to talk about openly. Likewise, the concept of chosenness has become a source of mockery and scorn. Under the sway of the alien culture, it has become a negative, racist concept and many good people have been ashamed to take pride in it; hence the separation between Israel and the nations has been blurred. Listen, my friend, and cast off all your shame regarding the superior status given you. Rejoice in your exalted inheritance!
The way the Hellenists and assimilationists fear the nations' reaction is just part of what compels them to deny Israel's selection. Infinitely worse is the influence of the alien culture which has so penetrated their bones that the idea that there really is a nation chosen from all the rest and spiritually superior appears to them an abomination. Surely they are hostages of the nonsensical concept of equality, which brings everything – goodness and evil, wisdom and folly, the genius and the simpleton – to one standing. Nothing brings greater ruin than this foolishness, and regarding this alien culture it says, “Do not bring any offensive idol into you house, since then you may become just like it. Shun it totally and consider it absolutely offensive, since it is taboo” (Deut. 7:26); and, “Let nothing that has been declared taboo there remain in your hands” (Ibid., 13:18). A thick wall divides Israel from the nations, a Divine partition which separates between the sacred and the profane, between Israel and the nations. Indeed, holiness and separateness descended upon us from Heaven as a beloved pair, bound to one another by Divine decree.
Our sages said (Tanchuma, Kedoshim 5): G-d said to Israel, “I am not like mortal man. With mortal man, non-royalty are forbidden to have the same name as the king.” As proof, when a person wishes to get his fellow man into trouble, he can call him by the emperor's name, and that man's life will be forfeit. Israel, however, were called by G-d's name. Every lovely name G-d had, He called Israel by it. He called Himself Elokim and He called Israel Elokim, as it says, “I said that you are elohim [G-d-like beings]” (Ps. 82:6). G-d was called chacham, wise, as it says, “He is wise of heart and mighty in strength” (Job 9:4), and He called Israel chacham, as in, “This great nation is certainly a wise and understanding people” (Deut. 4:6). He was called dodi, “my beloved”, as it says, “My beloved is white and ruddy” (Song of Songs 5:10), and He called Israel His beloved, as it says, “Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved” (Ibid., v. 1). G-d was called bachur, “select”, as it says, “select as the cedars” (Ibid., v. 15), and He called Israel select, as it says, “The L-rd your G-d selected you” (Deut. 7:6). He was called chassid, “saintly”, as it says, “I am saintly, says the L-rd” (Jer. 3:12) and He called Israel saints, as it says, “Gather My saints together unto Me” (Ps. 50:5). He was called holy, as it says, “Holy, holy, holy is the L-rd of hosts.!” (Isaiah 6:3); and, “For the L-rd our G-d is holy” (Ps. 99:9), and He called Israel holy, as it says, “You must be holy” (Lev. 19:2).
Consider what our sages said about the greatness, holiness, supremacy and belovedness of Israel – that even though G-d is the G-d of all living creatures, He still associated His name exclusively with Israel. As Shemot Rabbah, 29:4, teaches: “G-d said to Israel, 'I am the G-d of all creatures on earth, but I did not associate My name with any but you. I am not called the G-d of the nations but the G-d of Israel.”
Pesikta Rabbati (10) teaches, “G-d said to Moses, 'Moses, exalt this nation as much as you possibly can, for it is as though you exalt Me.'”
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea" of Rav Meir Kahane, HY”D
Monday, May 9, 2011
Israel's Independence Day – A play in four acts – assembled from the writings of Rav Meir Kahane
[First Act: While reading this, imagine you are standing on a crowded place, surrounded by music, lights, blue and white flags, beaming faces – celebrating. Planes fly artistic formations overhead, to the cheers of the crowd.]
“The State of Israel came into being not because the Jew deserved it, but because the gentile did. It came into being not because the Jew was worthy of it but because the Name of G-d had reached its fill of humiliation and desecration. “I do this not for your sake, O House of Israel, but for Mine holy Name's sake which ye have profaned among the nations.”
That is the essence and foundation of foundations. We say Hallel on Yom HaAtzmaut, not because the government or we are worthy of the miracle but because G-d has decided to put an end to Chilul Hashem. The sins and demerits of the Jews who created that State are of absolutely no relevance to its creation. Israel came into being because Israel is the essence and the apex of Kiddush Hashem! Israel is the Jew who hits and is no longer hit. Israel is freedom and not bondage. Israel is living proof of the falsehood that is Christianity [and Islam]. Israel is Kiddush Hashem.
And so, happiness for the Jew is watching the Phantoms zoom past the roofs of Zion and Jewish children shouting and waving at them. It is seeing “Jewish planes” after existing in a world for so many years in which every plane was “theirs”. In a world in which planes spit their deadly bullets into Jews, their swastika markings etched into Jewish souls as they pronounced “Auschwitz” upon us; in a world of planes wearing British bullseyes which guaranteed that a limping refugee ship would be stopped before it could reach the gates of Zion; in a world of planes with crescent and star promising to wipe the budding Jewish community of Eretz Yisroel off the map. But those are days that once were and will never return because today there are Jewish planes, too, and only those who endured the eternity when there was no such thing can understand true happiness and serenity.
Happiness is watching the Jewish army and knowing that the spirit of Zion cannot live without a body and that this army is the guarantor of that body's existence. And happiness is thinking, just for a moment, about what Jews have accomplished in just a few years since they returned home. From thousands to millions of Jews; from ghettos to cities and farms that are all Jewish; from a motley medley of foreign tongues to the resurrection of Hebrew – and how sweet it is to hear the military commands and the most technical of phrases spoken in the tongue of Abraham and the Book of Genesis. Happiness is to walk, on the eve of Independence Day, down King George Street, and have youngsters hit you on the head with the silly, plastic musical hammers that have become a permanent part of the day. Happiness is to thread your way past the incredibly crowded streets where cars are banned for the night and to listen to the music playing over the loudspeakers strung along the streets and the people dancing and laughing. Happiness is watching the non-Jews looking at a Jewish parade in the Jewish capital city of the Jewish State. Happiness is knowing that most of the non-Jewish countries who have consulates and embassies in the City of David boycott the Independence Day parade lest their presence be construed as recognition of the Jewishness of the City – and not giving one solitary hoot whether they show up or not!
Happiness is watching young Jewish children who never knew what it meant to be a minority and never heard the words “zhid” or “kike” or “yahud”. Happiness is knowing that if anyone did call them that, he would find his face attached to the end of a Jewish fist. Happiness is watching the soldiers with beards and yarmulkas showing that mastering the intricacies of a mere sub-machine gun is child's play for a Talmudic scholar.
He who does not believe that the rise of the State of Israel is the hand of G-d is not only a non-believer; he is also blind. If this rebirth of a nation and state and language from the clutching jaws of the seventy wolves is not a miracle, then there are indeed no miracles. If the renaissance of a people in the face of every logic and sanity is not Divine decree then the Spring that brings rejuvenation to the dead earth is not Divine and the life that emerges from the mother's womb is profane and natural. Happiness is walking in Zion and embracing your father Abraham. Happiness, for the Jew, is Zionism.
[Second Act: Now, imagine the lights going dark and the music fading away... think of the other, the darker side of Israel as a cold breeze touches your face:]
They came at night. A knock on the door. And then another. There are four of them. One flashed his card. Good evening, Rabbi Kahane, we are from the police. I regret to have to ask you to come with us for a small clarification. What is it about? He smiles: I prefer to speak about it at the station.
It is not new to me. Just the previous week others had come – at midnight. I sat in prison for a week and was suddenly released. No charge. I assume this is one more petty harassment on the part of the government. I take my tefillin on the reasonable charge that I will be held overnight and tell my wife: I will see you soon – don't worry. She will, but not too much – she has seen this many times before.
- The Arab in East Jerusalem is not an Israeli, does not want to be an Israeli, hates Israel, and looks forward to the day of his “liberation”, when all Israel will become “Palestine”. -
It is for saying self-evident truths that I am being arrested and I muse ruefully about the fact that even the weather has turned bitterly cold on this unsmiling holiday. A sudden shift in the weather has brought uncommon rain for the middle of May and the cold wind seems to mirror the feeling in Israel and the country drifts, as a ship without a hand at the rudder.
We arrive at the Russian compound, the main police station. The officer in charge jumps out. I wait patiently, knowing the procedure. I will be taken inside for questioning. As always, I will greet the police – whom I know – and smilingly say: “I have nothing to say concerning any question.” I will be either released or held for 48 hours and brought before a judge. This is the usual procedure. But not this time. Israel has progressed. The officer returns. In his hand he has some paper. He gets in and turns to me. I regret that I must do this in the automobile but I must read to you the following. He proceeds to read: “Under my authority as Minister of Defense and under the administrative detention orders, I hereby order that Meir ben Yechezkel Kahane be held in Jerusalem and Shata prison for a period of six months.” (signed) Ezer Weizman.
That is it. No trial, no judge, no attorney, no charge, no opportunity to defend. I think: This is what the “one democracy in the Middle East” has come to. I remember the little blue and white Jewish National Fund pushka I would put a penny into each day as a child. The dream was to build a Jewish State – someday. I remember the years I gave as a youth to Begin's Zionist youth movement – Betar, and the final words of martyred Jewish underground soldiers going to the gallows under “emergency” laws. I think of how many speeches I have made pleading for Jews to come home – home to Israel. I regret nothing. The dream remains and will be, long after the neo-Hellenists and gentilized Hebrews of today are gone. Weizman is not Israel. He represents all that is foreign and un-Jewish in the land. He will pass but the dream will remain – and be fulfilled.
[Third Act: Now the scenery switches again. Imagine yourself sitting in an auditory, listening intently]
The Rabbi used to give a shiur every Saturday night in the museum of the Potential Holocaust in Jerusalem, usually informal and relaxed talks on the weekly Torah portion with direct implications for everyday life and current events.
His audience was mainly young Americans vacationing in Israel, who had come to hear his message, and one theme that the Rabbi always emphasized was the obligation for Jews to make Aliyah. It was in the spring of 1990 that a young American woman confronted the Rabbi on this issue: “I am studying in Neve Yerushalaim,” she introduced herself. “I do understand the obligation to live in Israel – but I hate the government so much, I couldn't stand it here.”
The Rabbi looked at her in disbelief: “You hate this government?” he echoed her words. Then he continued, giving his famous gentle smile though his voice was as hard as steel: “I've been arrested 68 times – and you hate this government?!”
Even she joined in the general laughter, as the Rabbi hammered his point home: a Jew does not come to Israel because he loves the government, but because he loves the land, and because it is a mitzvah to live in Israel.
[Fourth Act: You are sitting at home in front of your computer, reading all this. From now on, it's in your hands. What will you do? If you haven't made Aliyah yet – will you flee your obligation and bury yourself in the impurity of the exile, because it seems to be the easy way out? If you are already here in Israel – will you curse the secular State and “exile” yourself on a windy hilltop or in a Hareidi ghetto, disengaged from the rest of Am Yisrael because you are “better” than them? Maybe instead, do you feel tired and want give up on idealism, join the rush for blind materialism “like everyone” and just forget about why we are here?
Or will you continue the thorny, grueling path of pushing and pulling Israel from what it is now towards what it is meant to be? A JEWISH State, the beginning of our redemption, Kiddush Hashem?
It's a long way that may need a Referendum or a Revolution, a keyboard for writing or a sword to be drawn, a tent on a hilltop or an office in a Tel Aviv skyscraper. This is your chance - think and do.]
The quotes and excerpts in this compilation were taken from Rabbi Kahane's book “Listen World, Listen Jew” pp. 122 -125, from Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane's booklet “Confronting the Holocaust” Chapter “A knock on the door”, and from Lenny Goldberg's “The Wit and Wisdom of Rabbi Meir Kahane” p. 211-212. Compilation and conclusion by Tzipora Liron-Pinner.
“The State of Israel came into being not because the Jew deserved it, but because the gentile did. It came into being not because the Jew was worthy of it but because the Name of G-d had reached its fill of humiliation and desecration. “I do this not for your sake, O House of Israel, but for Mine holy Name's sake which ye have profaned among the nations.”
That is the essence and foundation of foundations. We say Hallel on Yom HaAtzmaut, not because the government or we are worthy of the miracle but because G-d has decided to put an end to Chilul Hashem. The sins and demerits of the Jews who created that State are of absolutely no relevance to its creation. Israel came into being because Israel is the essence and the apex of Kiddush Hashem! Israel is the Jew who hits and is no longer hit. Israel is freedom and not bondage. Israel is living proof of the falsehood that is Christianity [and Islam]. Israel is Kiddush Hashem.
And so, happiness for the Jew is watching the Phantoms zoom past the roofs of Zion and Jewish children shouting and waving at them. It is seeing “Jewish planes” after existing in a world for so many years in which every plane was “theirs”. In a world in which planes spit their deadly bullets into Jews, their swastika markings etched into Jewish souls as they pronounced “Auschwitz” upon us; in a world of planes wearing British bullseyes which guaranteed that a limping refugee ship would be stopped before it could reach the gates of Zion; in a world of planes with crescent and star promising to wipe the budding Jewish community of Eretz Yisroel off the map. But those are days that once were and will never return because today there are Jewish planes, too, and only those who endured the eternity when there was no such thing can understand true happiness and serenity.
Happiness is watching the Jewish army and knowing that the spirit of Zion cannot live without a body and that this army is the guarantor of that body's existence. And happiness is thinking, just for a moment, about what Jews have accomplished in just a few years since they returned home. From thousands to millions of Jews; from ghettos to cities and farms that are all Jewish; from a motley medley of foreign tongues to the resurrection of Hebrew – and how sweet it is to hear the military commands and the most technical of phrases spoken in the tongue of Abraham and the Book of Genesis. Happiness is to walk, on the eve of Independence Day, down King George Street, and have youngsters hit you on the head with the silly, plastic musical hammers that have become a permanent part of the day. Happiness is to thread your way past the incredibly crowded streets where cars are banned for the night and to listen to the music playing over the loudspeakers strung along the streets and the people dancing and laughing. Happiness is watching the non-Jews looking at a Jewish parade in the Jewish capital city of the Jewish State. Happiness is knowing that most of the non-Jewish countries who have consulates and embassies in the City of David boycott the Independence Day parade lest their presence be construed as recognition of the Jewishness of the City – and not giving one solitary hoot whether they show up or not!
Happiness is watching young Jewish children who never knew what it meant to be a minority and never heard the words “zhid” or “kike” or “yahud”. Happiness is knowing that if anyone did call them that, he would find his face attached to the end of a Jewish fist. Happiness is watching the soldiers with beards and yarmulkas showing that mastering the intricacies of a mere sub-machine gun is child's play for a Talmudic scholar.
He who does not believe that the rise of the State of Israel is the hand of G-d is not only a non-believer; he is also blind. If this rebirth of a nation and state and language from the clutching jaws of the seventy wolves is not a miracle, then there are indeed no miracles. If the renaissance of a people in the face of every logic and sanity is not Divine decree then the Spring that brings rejuvenation to the dead earth is not Divine and the life that emerges from the mother's womb is profane and natural. Happiness is walking in Zion and embracing your father Abraham. Happiness, for the Jew, is Zionism.
[Second Act: Now, imagine the lights going dark and the music fading away... think of the other, the darker side of Israel as a cold breeze touches your face:]
They came at night. A knock on the door. And then another. There are four of them. One flashed his card. Good evening, Rabbi Kahane, we are from the police. I regret to have to ask you to come with us for a small clarification. What is it about? He smiles: I prefer to speak about it at the station.
It is not new to me. Just the previous week others had come – at midnight. I sat in prison for a week and was suddenly released. No charge. I assume this is one more petty harassment on the part of the government. I take my tefillin on the reasonable charge that I will be held overnight and tell my wife: I will see you soon – don't worry. She will, but not too much – she has seen this many times before.
- The Arab in East Jerusalem is not an Israeli, does not want to be an Israeli, hates Israel, and looks forward to the day of his “liberation”, when all Israel will become “Palestine”. -
It is for saying self-evident truths that I am being arrested and I muse ruefully about the fact that even the weather has turned bitterly cold on this unsmiling holiday. A sudden shift in the weather has brought uncommon rain for the middle of May and the cold wind seems to mirror the feeling in Israel and the country drifts, as a ship without a hand at the rudder.
We arrive at the Russian compound, the main police station. The officer in charge jumps out. I wait patiently, knowing the procedure. I will be taken inside for questioning. As always, I will greet the police – whom I know – and smilingly say: “I have nothing to say concerning any question.” I will be either released or held for 48 hours and brought before a judge. This is the usual procedure. But not this time. Israel has progressed. The officer returns. In his hand he has some paper. He gets in and turns to me. I regret that I must do this in the automobile but I must read to you the following. He proceeds to read: “Under my authority as Minister of Defense and under the administrative detention orders, I hereby order that Meir ben Yechezkel Kahane be held in Jerusalem and Shata prison for a period of six months.” (signed) Ezer Weizman.
That is it. No trial, no judge, no attorney, no charge, no opportunity to defend. I think: This is what the “one democracy in the Middle East” has come to. I remember the little blue and white Jewish National Fund pushka I would put a penny into each day as a child. The dream was to build a Jewish State – someday. I remember the years I gave as a youth to Begin's Zionist youth movement – Betar, and the final words of martyred Jewish underground soldiers going to the gallows under “emergency” laws. I think of how many speeches I have made pleading for Jews to come home – home to Israel. I regret nothing. The dream remains and will be, long after the neo-Hellenists and gentilized Hebrews of today are gone. Weizman is not Israel. He represents all that is foreign and un-Jewish in the land. He will pass but the dream will remain – and be fulfilled.
[Third Act: Now the scenery switches again. Imagine yourself sitting in an auditory, listening intently]
The Rabbi used to give a shiur every Saturday night in the museum of the Potential Holocaust in Jerusalem, usually informal and relaxed talks on the weekly Torah portion with direct implications for everyday life and current events.
His audience was mainly young Americans vacationing in Israel, who had come to hear his message, and one theme that the Rabbi always emphasized was the obligation for Jews to make Aliyah. It was in the spring of 1990 that a young American woman confronted the Rabbi on this issue: “I am studying in Neve Yerushalaim,” she introduced herself. “I do understand the obligation to live in Israel – but I hate the government so much, I couldn't stand it here.”
The Rabbi looked at her in disbelief: “You hate this government?” he echoed her words. Then he continued, giving his famous gentle smile though his voice was as hard as steel: “I've been arrested 68 times – and you hate this government?!”
Even she joined in the general laughter, as the Rabbi hammered his point home: a Jew does not come to Israel because he loves the government, but because he loves the land, and because it is a mitzvah to live in Israel.
[Fourth Act: You are sitting at home in front of your computer, reading all this. From now on, it's in your hands. What will you do? If you haven't made Aliyah yet – will you flee your obligation and bury yourself in the impurity of the exile, because it seems to be the easy way out? If you are already here in Israel – will you curse the secular State and “exile” yourself on a windy hilltop or in a Hareidi ghetto, disengaged from the rest of Am Yisrael because you are “better” than them? Maybe instead, do you feel tired and want give up on idealism, join the rush for blind materialism “like everyone” and just forget about why we are here?
Or will you continue the thorny, grueling path of pushing and pulling Israel from what it is now towards what it is meant to be? A JEWISH State, the beginning of our redemption, Kiddush Hashem?
It's a long way that may need a Referendum or a Revolution, a keyboard for writing or a sword to be drawn, a tent on a hilltop or an office in a Tel Aviv skyscraper. This is your chance - think and do.]
The quotes and excerpts in this compilation were taken from Rabbi Kahane's book “Listen World, Listen Jew” pp. 122 -125, from Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane's booklet “Confronting the Holocaust” Chapter “A knock on the door”, and from Lenny Goldberg's “The Wit and Wisdom of Rabbi Meir Kahane” p. 211-212. Compilation and conclusion by Tzipora Liron-Pinner.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Parashat Emor - The Omer: Countdown to Faith - Rav Meir Kahane
When you come to the land that I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, you must bring an Omer of your first reaping to the Kohen. He shall wave it in the motions prescribed for a wave offering to the L-rd so that it is acceptable for you. The Kohen shall make this wave offering on the day after the first day of the [Pesach] holiday [see Torat Kohanim, Emor, Ch. 12] .
... You shall then count seven complete weeks after the day following the [Pesach] holiday when you brought the Omer as a wave offering, until the day after the seventh week, when there will be [a total of] fifty days. [On that fiftieth day] you may present new grain as a meal offering to the L-rd. (Lev. 23:10-11, 15-16)
In order to reinforce the principle of a holy nation, G-d tied Pesach, the time of national liberation, to Shavuot, the time of the Giving of the Torah, via the Sefirat HaOmer, the “counting of the Omer”. The counting is also tied to the Land, for it begins with the harvesting of the Omer.
This is why our sages declared (Menachot 83b), “All communal and individual offerings can come from the Land of Israel or from outside of it, from new grain or from old, except for the Omer and the two loaves of Shavuot, which can only be brought from new grain and from the Land.”
The mitzvah of the Omer bound Pesach to Shavuot and the people to their holiness. It completed the creation of Israel as a holy nation and ensured that this holy nation would merit Eretz Yisrael. Our sages said (Vayikra Rabbah, 28:6):
Never take the mitzvah of the Omer lightly, for Abraham merited through it to inherit the Land. It says, “To you and your offspring will I give the land where you are now living as a foreigner. The whole land of Canaan” (Gen. 17:8), and this was so that Abraham “would keep G-d's covenant” (Ibid., v. 9).
By fulfilling the mitzvah of the Omer, which ties Pesach to Shavuot, and thereby becoming a holy nation, Israel merited to inherit the Land from the nations; for had they not agreed to be a holy nation, why should G-d have taken the Land from the nations and given it to them?
Our sages ask why the Torah was not given immediately or shortly after Israel left Egypt, and they answer (Kohelet Rabbah, 3:[11]2): When Israel left Egypt, they were worthy of receiving the Torah immediately. Yet ... G-d said, “My children have not yet attained their lustre. They emerged from an enslavement of mud and bricks, and shall I give them the Torah? Let them enjoy two or three months of the Manna, well-water [Miriam's well that miraculously followed Israel] and quails, and then I shall give it to them.”
Nonetheless, the nation's faith was weak and abated very quickly. As our sages (Shemot Rabbah, 5:14):
“Moses and Aaron then went to Pharaoh” (Ex. 5:1): And where did the elders go that they were not mentioned together with Moses and Aaron, when G-d had previously said to Moses, “you and the elders will go” (Ex. 3:18)? Our sages answered, “The elders went with them, yet they stole away... and disappeared. By the time Moses and Aaron reached the palace, not one remained.”
Numerous other sources testify to Israel's lack of faith then. G-d, therefore, demanded of them at least a small sign of faith, albeit fleeting, before He would redeem them, because faith and trust are the root of serving G-d. Without them, without faith in the King, Redeemer and Savior, there is no Torah.
Therefore, the counting of the Omer not only underscores the bond between the people and holiness, between a holy nation and its holy land, but also establishes the formation of the people on the basis of faith. The Omer was harvested from the new grain, and until then it was forbidden to eat new grain and forbidden even to harvest it. As Rambam wrote (Hilchot Temidim U'Musafin 7:13), “It is forbidden to harvest in Eretz Yisrael any one of the five species of grain before the Omer is harvested.” Through this, we proclaim that G-d gives bread to all flesh and that we depend on Him for this grain, for His blessings, for His dew and His rain. Therefore, the first cutting is given to G-d as the meal offering, as an announcement that we have placed our hope in Him with faith and trust, and as an acknowledgment and giving of thanks for blessing us with this harvest.
This idea is also alluded to in the law that this Omer comes from barley (Menachot 68b), an animal food, as with the meal offering of the Sotah, the suspected adulteress, and of the Sotah we find:
All of the meal offerings come from wheat [a food consumed by humans] but [the meal offering of the Sotah] comes from barley [consumed by animals]... R. Gamliel says, “Just as her deeds were bestial, so is her offering from the food of the beast.” (Sotah 14a).
All this is so even though the Omer meal offering is not entirely like the Sotah offering, since the former requires oil and frankincense, whereas the latter does not. Furthermore, the former is brought as geresh, the finest grade barley flour (not normally consumed by animals), whereas the Sotah barley offering is brought as regular barley flour, the way animals eat it. Even so, G-d wished to hint to us at the start of the new grain that man, like the animal, depends on G-d's mercy. As King David described in Psalms (104:27), “All of them wait for You, that You may give them their food in due season.”
Our sages furthermore said (Vayikra Rabbah, 28:3):
It says, “Neither say they in their heart:'Let us now fear the L-rd our G-d, Who gives the early and late rain in due season'” (Jer. 5:24). [Let him not say], “Once G-d gives you everything, you no longer need Him.” “Who keeps for us the appointed weeks of the harvest” (Ibid.). G-d will protect us from evil winds and evil dews. When? During the seven weeks between Pesach and Shavuot.
In other words, we should not think that since the winter has passed and there was rain, and there is already grain, there is no more need to pray to G-d regarding this grain. Even when there is grain, if during harvest time rain falls and there are evil winds and evil dews, the grain will be ruined. As Samuel said, “Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call unto the L-rd that He may send thunder and rain... and all the people greatly feared the L-rd and Samuel” (I Samuel 12:17-18). For this reason, the Omer meal offering is waved, as our sages said (Vayikra Rabbah 28:5):
How would he wave it? R. Chama bar Ukva said in the name of R. Yossi bar Chanina, “He passes it back and forth, and up and down. He passes it back and forth for the One Who owns the entire universe, and he raises it up and down for Him Who owns those in Heaven and earth.” R. Simon, son of R. Yehoshua says, “He passes it back and forth to cancel harsh winds, and he raises and lowers it to cancel harsh dews.”
The main point here is that faith is a fixed component of the Omer meal offering, because the meal offering itself symbolizes faith.
Indeed, G-d established this interlude between national liberation and sanctification in order to exalt and refine Israel with mitzvot and values, precisely those of faith and trust in G-d – the manna, the well and the quail. All three served as signs that the sustenance and survival of man on the individual and national level are solely in G-d's hands.
As our sages said (Pesikta Rabbati, 18):
G-d said to Israel, “My children, when I used to give you the Omer [of manna that fell for each person], I would give each of you 'an Omer per person, according to the number of people each man has in his tent' (Ex. 16:16). Now that you are giving Me the Omer, you give Me only one Omer from all of you collectively.”
We see that the waving of the Omer, which makes the new grain permissible, serves as a reminder of the Omer of the manna, and as a symbol of Israel's faith and trust in G-d.
From here, we learn that even physical and national liberation do not make the people fit to assume the mantel of holiness.
After all, a secular nation, like all the nations, surely thinks exclusively in nationalist, “realistic” terms. For such a nation, only the size of its army and the quantity of arms and allies can make them secure.
They must advance to this by keeping mitzvot which express concepts, values and trust in G-d, which refine and elevate the nation from base secular nationalism.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rav Meir Kahane HY”D
... You shall then count seven complete weeks after the day following the [Pesach] holiday when you brought the Omer as a wave offering, until the day after the seventh week, when there will be [a total of] fifty days. [On that fiftieth day] you may present new grain as a meal offering to the L-rd. (Lev. 23:10-11, 15-16)
In order to reinforce the principle of a holy nation, G-d tied Pesach, the time of national liberation, to Shavuot, the time of the Giving of the Torah, via the Sefirat HaOmer, the “counting of the Omer”. The counting is also tied to the Land, for it begins with the harvesting of the Omer.
This is why our sages declared (Menachot 83b), “All communal and individual offerings can come from the Land of Israel or from outside of it, from new grain or from old, except for the Omer and the two loaves of Shavuot, which can only be brought from new grain and from the Land.”
The mitzvah of the Omer bound Pesach to Shavuot and the people to their holiness. It completed the creation of Israel as a holy nation and ensured that this holy nation would merit Eretz Yisrael. Our sages said (Vayikra Rabbah, 28:6):
Never take the mitzvah of the Omer lightly, for Abraham merited through it to inherit the Land. It says, “To you and your offspring will I give the land where you are now living as a foreigner. The whole land of Canaan” (Gen. 17:8), and this was so that Abraham “would keep G-d's covenant” (Ibid., v. 9).
By fulfilling the mitzvah of the Omer, which ties Pesach to Shavuot, and thereby becoming a holy nation, Israel merited to inherit the Land from the nations; for had they not agreed to be a holy nation, why should G-d have taken the Land from the nations and given it to them?
Our sages ask why the Torah was not given immediately or shortly after Israel left Egypt, and they answer (Kohelet Rabbah, 3:[11]2): When Israel left Egypt, they were worthy of receiving the Torah immediately. Yet ... G-d said, “My children have not yet attained their lustre. They emerged from an enslavement of mud and bricks, and shall I give them the Torah? Let them enjoy two or three months of the Manna, well-water [Miriam's well that miraculously followed Israel] and quails, and then I shall give it to them.”
Nonetheless, the nation's faith was weak and abated very quickly. As our sages (Shemot Rabbah, 5:14):
“Moses and Aaron then went to Pharaoh” (Ex. 5:1): And where did the elders go that they were not mentioned together with Moses and Aaron, when G-d had previously said to Moses, “you and the elders will go” (Ex. 3:18)? Our sages answered, “The elders went with them, yet they stole away... and disappeared. By the time Moses and Aaron reached the palace, not one remained.”
Numerous other sources testify to Israel's lack of faith then. G-d, therefore, demanded of them at least a small sign of faith, albeit fleeting, before He would redeem them, because faith and trust are the root of serving G-d. Without them, without faith in the King, Redeemer and Savior, there is no Torah.
Therefore, the counting of the Omer not only underscores the bond between the people and holiness, between a holy nation and its holy land, but also establishes the formation of the people on the basis of faith. The Omer was harvested from the new grain, and until then it was forbidden to eat new grain and forbidden even to harvest it. As Rambam wrote (Hilchot Temidim U'Musafin 7:13), “It is forbidden to harvest in Eretz Yisrael any one of the five species of grain before the Omer is harvested.” Through this, we proclaim that G-d gives bread to all flesh and that we depend on Him for this grain, for His blessings, for His dew and His rain. Therefore, the first cutting is given to G-d as the meal offering, as an announcement that we have placed our hope in Him with faith and trust, and as an acknowledgment and giving of thanks for blessing us with this harvest.
This idea is also alluded to in the law that this Omer comes from barley (Menachot 68b), an animal food, as with the meal offering of the Sotah, the suspected adulteress, and of the Sotah we find:
All of the meal offerings come from wheat [a food consumed by humans] but [the meal offering of the Sotah] comes from barley [consumed by animals]... R. Gamliel says, “Just as her deeds were bestial, so is her offering from the food of the beast.” (Sotah 14a).
All this is so even though the Omer meal offering is not entirely like the Sotah offering, since the former requires oil and frankincense, whereas the latter does not. Furthermore, the former is brought as geresh, the finest grade barley flour (not normally consumed by animals), whereas the Sotah barley offering is brought as regular barley flour, the way animals eat it. Even so, G-d wished to hint to us at the start of the new grain that man, like the animal, depends on G-d's mercy. As King David described in Psalms (104:27), “All of them wait for You, that You may give them their food in due season.”
Our sages furthermore said (Vayikra Rabbah, 28:3):
It says, “Neither say they in their heart:'Let us now fear the L-rd our G-d, Who gives the early and late rain in due season'” (Jer. 5:24). [Let him not say], “Once G-d gives you everything, you no longer need Him.” “Who keeps for us the appointed weeks of the harvest” (Ibid.). G-d will protect us from evil winds and evil dews. When? During the seven weeks between Pesach and Shavuot.
In other words, we should not think that since the winter has passed and there was rain, and there is already grain, there is no more need to pray to G-d regarding this grain. Even when there is grain, if during harvest time rain falls and there are evil winds and evil dews, the grain will be ruined. As Samuel said, “Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call unto the L-rd that He may send thunder and rain... and all the people greatly feared the L-rd and Samuel” (I Samuel 12:17-18). For this reason, the Omer meal offering is waved, as our sages said (Vayikra Rabbah 28:5):
How would he wave it? R. Chama bar Ukva said in the name of R. Yossi bar Chanina, “He passes it back and forth, and up and down. He passes it back and forth for the One Who owns the entire universe, and he raises it up and down for Him Who owns those in Heaven and earth.” R. Simon, son of R. Yehoshua says, “He passes it back and forth to cancel harsh winds, and he raises and lowers it to cancel harsh dews.”
The main point here is that faith is a fixed component of the Omer meal offering, because the meal offering itself symbolizes faith.
Indeed, G-d established this interlude between national liberation and sanctification in order to exalt and refine Israel with mitzvot and values, precisely those of faith and trust in G-d – the manna, the well and the quail. All three served as signs that the sustenance and survival of man on the individual and national level are solely in G-d's hands.
As our sages said (Pesikta Rabbati, 18):
G-d said to Israel, “My children, when I used to give you the Omer [of manna that fell for each person], I would give each of you 'an Omer per person, according to the number of people each man has in his tent' (Ex. 16:16). Now that you are giving Me the Omer, you give Me only one Omer from all of you collectively.”
We see that the waving of the Omer, which makes the new grain permissible, serves as a reminder of the Omer of the manna, and as a symbol of Israel's faith and trust in G-d.
From here, we learn that even physical and national liberation do not make the people fit to assume the mantel of holiness.
After all, a secular nation, like all the nations, surely thinks exclusively in nationalist, “realistic” terms. For such a nation, only the size of its army and the quantity of arms and allies can make them secure.
They must advance to this by keeping mitzvot which express concepts, values and trust in G-d, which refine and elevate the nation from base secular nationalism.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rav Meir Kahane HY”D
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