On the tenth of this month, every man must take a lamb for each extended family, a lamb for each household... Hold it in safekeeping until the fourteenth day of this month. The entire community of Israel shall then slaughter [their sacrifice] in the afternoon. They must take the blood and place it on the two doorposts and on the beam above the door... Eat the meat during the night, roasted over the fire. Eat it with matzah and bitter herbs. Do not eat it raw of cooked in water, but only roasted over fire, including its head, legs and internal organs.
(From this week's Maftir reading, Ex. 12:3, 6-9)
The whole Passover sacrifice in Egypt revolved around trusting in G-d and sanctifying His Name in face of terrifying dangers. After all, the lamb was an Egyptian idol. The Egyptians “revered” and worshiped it, and it was holy to them. One can imagine their wrath when they saw how the Israelites were taking it and degrading it by tying it to the bedpost from the tenth to the fourteenth of the month, and then slaughtering it and consuming it festively.
By all rules of logic, the Egyptians should have been expected to attack and annihilate the Israelites. Let every Jew who stays in the exile ponder what the nations would do to Jews living under their rule if those Jews were to publicly treat their faith with contempt. Yet precisely such faith and trust did G-d demand of Israel – faith and trust that He could defend them against their foes.
Following is Mechilta (Bo, Mesechet DePischa, 5):
“Hold it in safekeeping” (Ex. 12:6): Why was this said? Because it says, “Take for yourselves sheep” (Ex. 12:21), Israel said to Moses, “Could we sacrifice the sacred animal of the Egyptians before their very eyes and not have them stone us?” (Ex. 8:22). Moses responded, “From G-d's miracle for you when you took the sheep [ i.e., the Egyptians' inability to do anything while you bond their deity for four days], you can deduce G-d's reaction when you slaughter it.
And Pesikta DeRav Kahana teaches (Parashat HaChodesh, page 55):
This teaches that they were tied to the Israelites' bed posts starting from the tenth of the month, and the Egyptians would come in and see them, and become incensed. R. Chiyah, son of R. Ada of Jaffa said, “Take for yourselves sheep” (Ex. 12:21): “Every Israelite must take an Egyptian god and slaughter it before an Egyptian, and let whoever is angered by it, speak.”
In remembrance of this bitachon [trust] and Kiddush Hashem, and by virtue of it, G-d split the Jordan for Israel, and its merit protected them in Haman's day, for everything Israel did with the lambs indicated their trust in G-d. Following is Pesikta DeRav Kahana (Ibid.): “The taking of the lamb stood by them at the Jordan, and its consumption protected them in Haman's day.”
Moreover, G-d established the steps involved in the Passover sacrifice in remembrance of the greatest bitachon that there could have been – our Forefather Abraham's readiness to slaughter his son Isaac at Mount Moriah. Following is Midrash Chadash on the Torah (220, quoted in Torah Shleimah, Ex. 12:6, letter 70):
In accordance with Abraham's response to “Take your son”(Gen. 22:2), so did G-d tie the ram for him at that very moment [i.e., when G-d saw that Abraham was ready to trust Him and slaughter his son, He immediately prepared and bound the ram to replace Isaac]. Abraham delayed for three days, as it says, “On the third day” (Gen. 22:4). G-d therefore said to Israel, “Go early and tie the animal as of the tenth, so that you will be remembered before Me like your ancestors.”
Thus, true trust in G-d by the Jewish people is tied exclusively to their self-sacrifice in face of danger of death. This expresses itself also in G-d's command that they place the lamb blood on the two doorposts and the beam above the door. Here, there is a controversy over whether they placed the blood on the outside or on the inside. In Mechilta (Ibid., 6), R. Yishmael and R. Natan comment that the blood was placed on the inside, yet R. Yitzchak differs, saying, “Certainly they put it on the outside, so the Egyptians would see it and become livid with anger.” Yonatan translated verse 12:7 according to R. Yitzchak, saying, “They shall take of the blood and place it on the two doorposts and the beam above the door, from the outside.”
All this was to magnify our trust in G-d while we were provoking the Egyptians. This is also the reason for the manner of consuming the sacrifice, commanded by the Torah: “Do not eat it raw ... but only roasted over fire (Ex. 12:9). Following is Da'at Zekenim MiBa'alei HaTosafot (Ex. 12:9):
Ibn Ezra interpreted G-d as saying: “Since you are sacrificing the deity of Egypt, you might say, 'Let us not roast it fully, lest the Egyptians notice'.
It therefore says, 'Do not eat it raw.'
Lest you say, 'Let us cook it and hide it in a pot,'
it therefore says, 'Do not cook it in water'(Ibid.).
Lest you say, 'Let us cut off the head and legs to make it unrecognizable,'
it therefore says, 'including its head, legs and internal organs' (Ibid.).” Clearly, G-d wished to establish for Israel the principle of trusting in Him against all the power of mortal man. He wished to emphasize that there is no power on earth that can stand up to Israel when Israel does G-d's will, and that we should not fear the nations at all, even the strongest king or kingdom.
A fundamental principle of trust in G-d is that complete faith and trust in G-d include a person's readiness to sacrifice himself, to give up his life, for the sake of Kiddush Hashem, where such a duty exists. Many righteous, G-d fearing people who indeed trust in G-d, have succumbed in this matter of completeness of trust in G-d, i.e., regarding their readiness to sacrifice their lives for this trust. Even Aaron the Kohen, holy from the womb, the first Kohen Gadol of Israel, who was the symbol of faith and trust in G-d, as we shall see, failed in this matter of self-sacrifice, such that he needed rectification for what was lacking.
Shemot Rabbah (41:7):
At that moment [when Israel sought to fashion an idol because Moses was delayed], Chur faced them and said, “Headless people [referring to their having no memory, or having incurred a death penalty]! Do you not remember what miracles G-d performed for you?” They immediately accosted him and killed him. Then they turned to Aaron ... and said: “Just as we did to that one, so shall we do to you.” When Aaron saw that it was so, he feared, as it says (Ex. 32:5), “Aaron saw and he built an altar [mizbe'ach] before him.” What is meant by “mizbe'ach”? “Motivated by the slaughtered one [min hazavuach] before him.”
Aaron had a reason for doing this.
As our sages said (Sanhedrin 7a):
Aaron saw Chur lying slaughtered before him, and he said, “If I do not heed them, they will now do to me what they did to Chur. Through me will be fulfilled (Lam. 2:20), 'Shall a Kohen and Prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the L-rd?' and their sin will never be rectified. Better they should worship the calf. Perhaps they will find atonement through repentance.”
Even so, Aaron sinned by doing this.
This is the substantive difference between Aaron and Chur. Certainly, both trusted in G-d, but Chur trusted in G-d completely. Such trust includes willingness to sacrifice one's life for G-d's name and for the sake of preventing His name from being profaned. Chur took hold of this faith and trust and it led him to perfection: he sacrificed his life for Kiddush Hashem.
By that same merit, G-d chose precisely Betzalel to construct the Tabernacle, the earthly seat of perfection. Certainly Betzalel was not chosen because of his artistry or expertise, for he was only thirteen at the time, as our sages said (Sanhedrin 69b), and he lacked experience in craftsmanship. Yet it says in Shemot Rabbah, 48:8, “'I have filled him with a Divine spirit [and with wisdom]' (Ex. 31:3): Where was all this wisdom from? From G-d. And all of Betzalel's Divine spirit ... and understanding were from G-d as well.”
Rather, he was chosen by virtue of his grandfather Chur, who sacrificed his life for Kiddush Hashem, thereby demonstrating complete and perfect faith. Betzalel, therefore merited to construct the complete and pure place where the Divine Presence was confined. This was the reason it says, “I have selected Betzalel son of Uri son of Chur, of the tribe of Judah” (Ibid., v.2).
Only very rarely does the Torah mention someone's father and grandfather. The reason for it here, however, is that Chur's name had to be mentioned, for only by his merit was the thirteen year-old lad selected to be the architect of the Tabernacle.
Most certainly, when G-d [...] decrees that we must perform some deed, one must not look for reasons, however pious they may be, not to do that deed. Rather, if G-d or Jewish law requires us to fulfill some decree, then we must sanctify His Name and sacrifice our lives for it, this being the fullest expression of Kiddush Hashem and bitachon. It says, (Lev. 22:32-33), “Do not profane My holy name. I shall be sanctified in the midst of the children of Israel. I am the L-rd who is making you holy and bringing you out of the Land of Egypt,” and our sages comment (Torat Kohanim, Emor, 9), “Sacrifice yourself and sanctify My Name,” and (Ibid.), “I took you out of Egypt on condition that you sacrifice yourselves to sanctify My Name.”
Self-sacrifice is the ultimate proof of trust in G-d, it is bitachon in its fullest form. Let a Jew not evade his duty, claiming that today there is no Divine revelation, no heavenly voice or prophecy of any other sort by which G-d could decree the need for an act of self-sacrifice. Surely, the whole Torah, all the deeds of our ancestors and of the judges and prophets, and the words of our sages, were meant to be a lamp unto our feet and to show us the path we must follow. These deeds and G-d's ways were set down in our sages' homiletics as eternal guidelines, presenting our duty regarding how we must act when there is no Divine Revelation.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rav Meir Kahane HY”D
Monday, March 8, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Ki Tisa - For My Name's sake – Rav Meir Kahane
Moses pleaded before Hashem, his G-d, and said, “Why, Hashem, should Your anger flare up against Your people, whom You have taken out of the land of Egypt, with great power and a strong hand? Why should Egypt say the following: 'With evil intent did He take them out, to kill them in the mountains and to annihilate them from the face of the earth' ? Relent from Your flaring anger and reconsider regarding the evil against Your people. (Ex. 32:11,12)
Hashem reconsidered regarding the evil that He declared He would do to His people. (Ex. 32:14)
[similarly, we find in Ezekiel 20:5, 21-22]:
But the children rebelled against Me. They walked not in My statutes nor kept My ordinances which if a man do, he shall live by them. [...] I said I would pour out My wrath on them, to spend My anger on them in the wilderness. Yet I withdrew My hand and acted for My Name's sake, lest it be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose sight I brought them forth.
This last quotation, regarding Israel's sins in the wilderness and G-d's decision not to destroy them lest His Name be profaned, relates to the sins of the golden calf and of the spies.
The golden calf was an unbearably grave sin, and part of its punishment attaches itself to every single punishment brought upon the Jewish People, as our sages said (Sanhedrin 102a):
There is no punishment that comes to the world which does not contain a minuscule portion of the [punishment for the] golden calf, as it says (Ex. 32:34), “On the day I visit, I will take this sin of theirs into account.”G-d was furious at a nation which, less than forty days after He revealed Himself at Sinai and they said they would first fulfill the Torah and only then seek explanations, exchanged their glory “for the likeness of an ox that eats grass” (Ps. 106:20). G-d decided to destroy this sinful nation, as it says (Ex. 32:10 ), “Now do not try to stop Me when I unleash My wrath against them to destroy them” and (Deut. 9:14), “Leave Me alone and I will destroy them, obliterating their name from under the heavens.” Moses, in his infinite love for the Jewish People, prostrated himself in prayer and entreaty for forty days and forty nights to tear up the evil decree, and none of his arguments had any effect – except for one!
It says (Deut. 9:25-29):
Because the L-rd said He would destroy you, I threw myself down before Him for forty days and forty nights. My prayer to the L-rd was, “L-rd G-d! Do not destroy Your nation and heritage, which You liberated with Your greatness and which You brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Pay not attention to the stubbornness of this nation or to their wickedness and sin. Do not let the land from which You took them say, 'The L-rd brought them out to kill them in the desert, because He hated them and was powerless to bring them to the land He promised them.' After all, they are Your people and Your heritage. You brought them out with Your great power and Your outstretched arm.”
“Powerless!” Moses, the faithful shepherd who sacrificed himself for his love of Israel, entreated G-d on behalf of his people and cried out his last argument: “What will the nations say, in ridicule and mockery? Surely they will curse and blaspheme G-d , scornfully claiming that He is 'powerless'”.
Israel were the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, chosen to be G-d's holy treasure, His special nation. Their destruction would have constituted G-d's reneging on His covenant due to inability to fulfill it.
For this reason alone, “G-d refrained from doing the evil that He planned for His people” (Ex. 32:14).
[About 1400 years later,] R. Yishmael ben Elisha was the last Kohen Gadol before the destruction of the Second Temple. It was clear to R. Yishmael in his holiness and divine inspiration that G-d was about to pour out His wrath on His nation, His land and His Temple.
[See] Berachot 7 a:
One time I entered the Holy of Holies to bring the incense, and there I saw Akatriel Y-H, the L-rd of Hosts, sitting on a high and lofty throne. He said to me, “Yishmael, My son, bless me!” and I said to Him, “May it be Your will that Your mercy should conquer and override Your anger, and You should treat Your children with mercy, going beyond the letter of the law,” and He nodded His head to me.
These words are hard to understand [...]. Does G-d need a blessing from mortal man on Yom Kippur, when He judges and rules over the whole world? Even stranger is R. Ishmael's blessing. How did he know that G-d would find it favorable?
R. Yishmael knew that G-d was about to destroy His Temple and exile His children, which would lead to terrible Chilul Hashem. The nations' derisive question, “Where is their G-d?” would deprive G-d of His sovereignty, and He, too, would be in exile and servitude, so to speak.
R. Yishmael understood that in this “zero hour”, G-d desired a solution that would spare His having to profane His name through the exile of His children and destruction of His Temple.
[We learn from this that for the sanctification of His Name G-d is even willing to forgo strict justice.
But if so to speak, G-d can overcome himself and bridle His anger for His Name's sake, this must be reciprocated by us overcoming ourselves, even our love for others and our personal values, for His Name's sake and His eternal values]
When Moses saw the terrible Chilul Hashem of the golden calf episode, in which “they exchanged their glory for the likeness of an ox that consumes grass” (Ps. 106:20), he immediately understood that only self-sacrifice and Kiddush Hashem would save Israel from G-d's ire.
It therefore says (Ex. 32:26-27, 29):
[Moses] announced, “Whoever is for the L-rd, join me!” All the Leviim gathered around him. He said to them, “This is what the L-rd G-d of Israel says: Let each man put on his sword ... Let each one kill [all those involved in the idolatry], even his own brother, close friend or relative”... Moses said, “Today you shall be spiritually completed as a tribe dedicated to th L-rd, with a special blessing. Men have been willing to kill even their own sons and brothers [at G-d's command].”
Because of the self-sacrifice and Kiddush Hashem of the Leviim, which demonstrated their complete trust in G-d, G-d replaced the firstborn, chosen originally to be G-d's priests, with Leviim: “I have now taken the Leviim in place of all the firstborn Israelites” (Num. 8:18) G-d did this only because they had reached the pinnacle of self-sacrifice and Kiddush Hashem, when they were ready to kill their relatives and parents. This act demonstrated that their love of G-d superseded even their love for their most cherished relative.
Following is Ramban (Ibid., v. 26):
Seeing that the people were an object of ridicule in their neighbor's eyes, this being a Chilul Hashem, he stood at the gates of the camp and cried out, “Whoever is for the L-rd, join me!” (Ex. 332:26). He publicly killed all those who worshiped the calf, so that Israel's enemies should hear and the Name of Heaven should be sanctified through them, instead of the Chilul Hashem they had perpetrated.
Or HaChaim (Ex. 32:29) relates to the killing of Israelites:
We might think that someone who did such a thing was spiritually flawed, possessing cruelty associated with wickedness. Moses therefore said, “Today you shall be spiritually completed” (Ex. 32:29). This is not a command, but an announcement that this day their spiritual powers would be made complete. Their deed was not a sign of any spiritual flaw. Quite the contrary, their “willingness to kill even their own sons” (Ibid) signified their approaching spiritual perfection.
The pinnacle of bitachon, sacrificing oneself for Kiddush Hashem, involves being ready to elevate one's love of G-d above one's love of people.
[Similarly] G-d commanded us regarding the apostate city. If we hear of a city led astray by evildoers, such that its inhabitants went and worshiped idols, we must destroy that city and all its inhabitants with their property, until it remains an eternal ruin.
Kill all the inhabitants of the city by the sword... Burn the city along with all its goods, entirely, to the L-rd your G-d... The L-rd will then have mercy on you, and in His mercy he will make you flourish... (Deut. 13, 16-18)
No mitzvah in the Torah is harder for the Jew than to destroy an entire Jewish city, and his whole nature rebels against this command. [If this goes even for a Jewish city, please understand its implications regarding non-Jewish entities in the Land of Israel!] If, all the same, he overcomes his selfishness and suppresses his evil impulse via this mitzvah, how great shall be his reward! How fully has he brought G-d, the Supreme King, to reign over him and accepted G-d's yoke. It is truly as if he has fulfilled all the mitzvot.
Imagine how hard it is, how cruel it is for a person to obey G-d with such self-sacrifice as this!
Yet, only in this way will G-d sanctify His Name and bring the redemption.
Our sages, likewise, said (Pesikta Rabbati, 31):
“If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand lose its cunning” (Ps. 137:5): R. Elazar HaKapar envisioned G-d saying: “My Torah is in your hands and the end of days is in My hands, and we both need each other. Just as you need Me to bring the end, I need you to keep My Torah, to hasten the rebuilding of My house and of Jerusalem. Just as I cannot possibly forget the end, as it says, 'Let My right hand lose its cunning,' so have you no right to forget the Torah, which stated, 'From His right hand went out a fiery law for them' (Deut. 33:2).”
Listen well, O Israel! G-d, Himself, decrees His dependency upon Israel, so to speak, our “both needing each other.” Had our sages not said this, who could have dared express it? Yet, once they did say it, how can we continue our rebellion against G-d, a rebellion rendered foolish and inane in light of these words? After all, G-d admits, so to speak, that in order to hasten the building of Jerusalem and the Temple, in order to return once more as King, thereby sanctifying His Name and eliminating the terrible Chilul Hashem, He needs Israel. That is, it is enough if Israel resume Torah observance, and then, for His own sake, to sanctify His Name, He will return to Eretz Israel and bring the redemption. Thus, G-d is “dependent” on us, and why should we not understand this?
One might ask: Why does G-d enable flesh and blood to dictate decrees to Him?
The answer is simple:
G-d fiercely longs to sanctify His Name, profaned daily by the nations, but He demands that Israel sanctify His Name first through complete and perfect faith and trust in G-d. They must take hold of the dangerous, frightening mitzvot which leave them isolated and alone with the nations opposing them, for only this can prove their real trust in Him.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rav Meir Kahane HY”D
Hashem reconsidered regarding the evil that He declared He would do to His people. (Ex. 32:14)
[similarly, we find in Ezekiel 20:5, 21-22]:
But the children rebelled against Me. They walked not in My statutes nor kept My ordinances which if a man do, he shall live by them. [...] I said I would pour out My wrath on them, to spend My anger on them in the wilderness. Yet I withdrew My hand and acted for My Name's sake, lest it be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose sight I brought them forth.
This last quotation, regarding Israel's sins in the wilderness and G-d's decision not to destroy them lest His Name be profaned, relates to the sins of the golden calf and of the spies.
The golden calf was an unbearably grave sin, and part of its punishment attaches itself to every single punishment brought upon the Jewish People, as our sages said (Sanhedrin 102a):
There is no punishment that comes to the world which does not contain a minuscule portion of the [punishment for the] golden calf, as it says (Ex. 32:34), “On the day I visit, I will take this sin of theirs into account.”G-d was furious at a nation which, less than forty days after He revealed Himself at Sinai and they said they would first fulfill the Torah and only then seek explanations, exchanged their glory “for the likeness of an ox that eats grass” (Ps. 106:20). G-d decided to destroy this sinful nation, as it says (Ex. 32:10 ), “Now do not try to stop Me when I unleash My wrath against them to destroy them” and (Deut. 9:14), “Leave Me alone and I will destroy them, obliterating their name from under the heavens.” Moses, in his infinite love for the Jewish People, prostrated himself in prayer and entreaty for forty days and forty nights to tear up the evil decree, and none of his arguments had any effect – except for one!
It says (Deut. 9:25-29):
Because the L-rd said He would destroy you, I threw myself down before Him for forty days and forty nights. My prayer to the L-rd was, “L-rd G-d! Do not destroy Your nation and heritage, which You liberated with Your greatness and which You brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Pay not attention to the stubbornness of this nation or to their wickedness and sin. Do not let the land from which You took them say, 'The L-rd brought them out to kill them in the desert, because He hated them and was powerless to bring them to the land He promised them.' After all, they are Your people and Your heritage. You brought them out with Your great power and Your outstretched arm.”
“Powerless!” Moses, the faithful shepherd who sacrificed himself for his love of Israel, entreated G-d on behalf of his people and cried out his last argument: “What will the nations say, in ridicule and mockery? Surely they will curse and blaspheme G-d , scornfully claiming that He is 'powerless'”.
Israel were the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, chosen to be G-d's holy treasure, His special nation. Their destruction would have constituted G-d's reneging on His covenant due to inability to fulfill it.
For this reason alone, “G-d refrained from doing the evil that He planned for His people” (Ex. 32:14).
[About 1400 years later,] R. Yishmael ben Elisha was the last Kohen Gadol before the destruction of the Second Temple. It was clear to R. Yishmael in his holiness and divine inspiration that G-d was about to pour out His wrath on His nation, His land and His Temple.
[See] Berachot 7 a:
One time I entered the Holy of Holies to bring the incense, and there I saw Akatriel Y-H, the L-rd of Hosts, sitting on a high and lofty throne. He said to me, “Yishmael, My son, bless me!” and I said to Him, “May it be Your will that Your mercy should conquer and override Your anger, and You should treat Your children with mercy, going beyond the letter of the law,” and He nodded His head to me.
These words are hard to understand [...]. Does G-d need a blessing from mortal man on Yom Kippur, when He judges and rules over the whole world? Even stranger is R. Ishmael's blessing. How did he know that G-d would find it favorable?
R. Yishmael knew that G-d was about to destroy His Temple and exile His children, which would lead to terrible Chilul Hashem. The nations' derisive question, “Where is their G-d?” would deprive G-d of His sovereignty, and He, too, would be in exile and servitude, so to speak.
R. Yishmael understood that in this “zero hour”, G-d desired a solution that would spare His having to profane His name through the exile of His children and destruction of His Temple.
[We learn from this that for the sanctification of His Name G-d is even willing to forgo strict justice.
But if so to speak, G-d can overcome himself and bridle His anger for His Name's sake, this must be reciprocated by us overcoming ourselves, even our love for others and our personal values, for His Name's sake and His eternal values]
When Moses saw the terrible Chilul Hashem of the golden calf episode, in which “they exchanged their glory for the likeness of an ox that consumes grass” (Ps. 106:20), he immediately understood that only self-sacrifice and Kiddush Hashem would save Israel from G-d's ire.
It therefore says (Ex. 32:26-27, 29):
[Moses] announced, “Whoever is for the L-rd, join me!” All the Leviim gathered around him. He said to them, “This is what the L-rd G-d of Israel says: Let each man put on his sword ... Let each one kill [all those involved in the idolatry], even his own brother, close friend or relative”... Moses said, “Today you shall be spiritually completed as a tribe dedicated to th L-rd, with a special blessing. Men have been willing to kill even their own sons and brothers [at G-d's command].”
Because of the self-sacrifice and Kiddush Hashem of the Leviim, which demonstrated their complete trust in G-d, G-d replaced the firstborn, chosen originally to be G-d's priests, with Leviim: “I have now taken the Leviim in place of all the firstborn Israelites” (Num. 8:18) G-d did this only because they had reached the pinnacle of self-sacrifice and Kiddush Hashem, when they were ready to kill their relatives and parents. This act demonstrated that their love of G-d superseded even their love for their most cherished relative.
Following is Ramban (Ibid., v. 26):
Seeing that the people were an object of ridicule in their neighbor's eyes, this being a Chilul Hashem, he stood at the gates of the camp and cried out, “Whoever is for the L-rd, join me!” (Ex. 332:26). He publicly killed all those who worshiped the calf, so that Israel's enemies should hear and the Name of Heaven should be sanctified through them, instead of the Chilul Hashem they had perpetrated.
Or HaChaim (Ex. 32:29) relates to the killing of Israelites:
We might think that someone who did such a thing was spiritually flawed, possessing cruelty associated with wickedness. Moses therefore said, “Today you shall be spiritually completed” (Ex. 32:29). This is not a command, but an announcement that this day their spiritual powers would be made complete. Their deed was not a sign of any spiritual flaw. Quite the contrary, their “willingness to kill even their own sons” (Ibid) signified their approaching spiritual perfection.
The pinnacle of bitachon, sacrificing oneself for Kiddush Hashem, involves being ready to elevate one's love of G-d above one's love of people.
[Similarly] G-d commanded us regarding the apostate city. If we hear of a city led astray by evildoers, such that its inhabitants went and worshiped idols, we must destroy that city and all its inhabitants with their property, until it remains an eternal ruin.
Kill all the inhabitants of the city by the sword... Burn the city along with all its goods, entirely, to the L-rd your G-d... The L-rd will then have mercy on you, and in His mercy he will make you flourish... (Deut. 13, 16-18)
No mitzvah in the Torah is harder for the Jew than to destroy an entire Jewish city, and his whole nature rebels against this command. [If this goes even for a Jewish city, please understand its implications regarding non-Jewish entities in the Land of Israel!] If, all the same, he overcomes his selfishness and suppresses his evil impulse via this mitzvah, how great shall be his reward! How fully has he brought G-d, the Supreme King, to reign over him and accepted G-d's yoke. It is truly as if he has fulfilled all the mitzvot.
Imagine how hard it is, how cruel it is for a person to obey G-d with such self-sacrifice as this!
Yet, only in this way will G-d sanctify His Name and bring the redemption.
Our sages, likewise, said (Pesikta Rabbati, 31):
“If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand lose its cunning” (Ps. 137:5): R. Elazar HaKapar envisioned G-d saying: “My Torah is in your hands and the end of days is in My hands, and we both need each other. Just as you need Me to bring the end, I need you to keep My Torah, to hasten the rebuilding of My house and of Jerusalem. Just as I cannot possibly forget the end, as it says, 'Let My right hand lose its cunning,' so have you no right to forget the Torah, which stated, 'From His right hand went out a fiery law for them' (Deut. 33:2).”
Listen well, O Israel! G-d, Himself, decrees His dependency upon Israel, so to speak, our “both needing each other.” Had our sages not said this, who could have dared express it? Yet, once they did say it, how can we continue our rebellion against G-d, a rebellion rendered foolish and inane in light of these words? After all, G-d admits, so to speak, that in order to hasten the building of Jerusalem and the Temple, in order to return once more as King, thereby sanctifying His Name and eliminating the terrible Chilul Hashem, He needs Israel. That is, it is enough if Israel resume Torah observance, and then, for His own sake, to sanctify His Name, He will return to Eretz Israel and bring the redemption. Thus, G-d is “dependent” on us, and why should we not understand this?
One might ask: Why does G-d enable flesh and blood to dictate decrees to Him?
The answer is simple:
G-d fiercely longs to sanctify His Name, profaned daily by the nations, but He demands that Israel sanctify His Name first through complete and perfect faith and trust in G-d. They must take hold of the dangerous, frightening mitzvot which leave them isolated and alone with the nations opposing them, for only this can prove their real trust in Him.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rav Meir Kahane HY”D
Friday, February 26, 2010
Purim - Drinking for clarity - Rav Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane
The Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 695:2) brings down as law the words of our sages in Megillah 7b: “A man is required to mellow himself (with wine) on Purim until he cannot tell the difference between 'cursed be Haman' and 'blessed be Mordechai'”. Many fine Jews have pondered this somewhat bizarre utterance, and have given different explanations.
Is the phrase teaching us that we should get absolutely “plastered” on Purim, to the point where our minds cannot distinguish properly? It seems odd that the sages would encourage such a thing. After all, Purim, like any other holiday, is intended to convey to the Jew certain ideas. Since one of the central ideas of Purim is the struggle between good and evil; between Mordechai and Haman – why would the sages want to muddle and obscure these concepts? Furthermore, the expression, “to mellow oneself” does not connote that one should be “rip-roaring drunk”, and certainly it is not likely the sages would endorse such a state of mind.
Our teacher, Rabbi Meir Kahane, HY”D, offers a powerful explanation to this question. The point is not that one should drink until he becomes confused and says, “cursed be Mordechai”, G-d forbid. Rather he should understand that there is no difference between blessing Mordechai and cursing Haman, between blessing the righteous man and cursing the evil one. Both are mitzvot.
It is a mitzvah to fight and curse the evildoer precisely the way it is a mitzvah to bless the righteous man. The two are equal, completing one another.
Let us develop this idea. It would not be a shocking revelation if we said that Jews in our generation, as well as in past generations, have a serious problem with the concept of cursing and hating evil. Despite the fact that this subject is a central part of Judaism, permeating the Tanach, Mishnah, Talmud, and Halacha, for all kinds of reasons it is difficult for Jews to internalize the need for the burning out of evil, and the hating of the evildoer. It is a hang-up we are familiar with from the days of King Saul (who in his misguided mercy spared Agag the Amalekite, which eventually brought upon us the episode of Haman!) - until this very day, where mercy on enemies and murderers has brought us to the brink of tragedy.
For the record, Queen Esther did not fail in this area. After the first day of Jewish vengeance against their enemies, Achashverosh asked her if she had another request. She answered: “If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to this day's decrees, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.” In other words, Esther did not have the galut complex of taking pity on a fallen enemy. On the contrary – she requested that the Jew-haters be killed one more day.
When the sages tell us that we should not distinguish “between cursed is Haman and blessed is Mordechai”, they are coming to tell us: You are required to mellow yourselves with wine, so that you will not hesitate to come to the full understanding that the concept of “blessed is Mordechai” is equal to the concept “cursed is Haman”. That is, hatred of evil is no less important or fundamental than love of good, and there is no one without the other.
Purim is the time to elevate ourselves in our thinking. Precisely by getting a little tipsy on wine, we can remove the usual inhibitions and hesitations, which commonly prevent us from cursing and hating evil!
The Rav has taught us something tremendous. Purim is not a holiday of drunken confusion and chaos, or for casting off our heavenly yoke. On the contrary. Purim is the day to cast off the hypocrisy of our everyday lives, and to sever ourselves from the phony self-righteousness which causes us not to want to condemn the wicked. Getting mellow or tipsy on wine straightens us out. If foreign, un-Jewish concepts permeate our thoughts all year round, on Purim we reveal our authentic, uninhibited selves. Without apologies, without “the mercy of fools” (as termed by the Ramban); without being “more righteous than our Creator” (as the Midrash depicts Saul when he refuses to kill Agag).
At this juncture, let us mention that Purim is the annual yohrzeit for the holy Dr. Baruch Goldstein, HY”D. In all his deeds, we remember Dr. Goldstein as a man, who in his life and his death, was a symbol of “not knowing the difference between cursed is Haman and blessed is Mordechai”. On one hand, he was the epitome of good. His dedication as a doctor to heal his patients was incredible. “Ahavat Israel” conquered his heart. From this aspect, he was “blessed is Mordechai”. On the other hand, this love was not “out of control”. He knew that just as it is an obligation to love the good, it is also a “mitzvah” to hate the wicked. This is the “cursed is Haman” aspect.
May we merit to be whole in our attributes, and to internalize our understanding that the war against evil is part and parcel to the goal of bringing good to the world.
From " The writings of Rav Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, HY"D "
Is the phrase teaching us that we should get absolutely “plastered” on Purim, to the point where our minds cannot distinguish properly? It seems odd that the sages would encourage such a thing. After all, Purim, like any other holiday, is intended to convey to the Jew certain ideas. Since one of the central ideas of Purim is the struggle between good and evil; between Mordechai and Haman – why would the sages want to muddle and obscure these concepts? Furthermore, the expression, “to mellow oneself” does not connote that one should be “rip-roaring drunk”, and certainly it is not likely the sages would endorse such a state of mind.
Our teacher, Rabbi Meir Kahane, HY”D, offers a powerful explanation to this question. The point is not that one should drink until he becomes confused and says, “cursed be Mordechai”, G-d forbid. Rather he should understand that there is no difference between blessing Mordechai and cursing Haman, between blessing the righteous man and cursing the evil one. Both are mitzvot.
It is a mitzvah to fight and curse the evildoer precisely the way it is a mitzvah to bless the righteous man. The two are equal, completing one another.
Let us develop this idea. It would not be a shocking revelation if we said that Jews in our generation, as well as in past generations, have a serious problem with the concept of cursing and hating evil. Despite the fact that this subject is a central part of Judaism, permeating the Tanach, Mishnah, Talmud, and Halacha, for all kinds of reasons it is difficult for Jews to internalize the need for the burning out of evil, and the hating of the evildoer. It is a hang-up we are familiar with from the days of King Saul (who in his misguided mercy spared Agag the Amalekite, which eventually brought upon us the episode of Haman!) - until this very day, where mercy on enemies and murderers has brought us to the brink of tragedy.
For the record, Queen Esther did not fail in this area. After the first day of Jewish vengeance against their enemies, Achashverosh asked her if she had another request. She answered: “If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to this day's decrees, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.” In other words, Esther did not have the galut complex of taking pity on a fallen enemy. On the contrary – she requested that the Jew-haters be killed one more day.
When the sages tell us that we should not distinguish “between cursed is Haman and blessed is Mordechai”, they are coming to tell us: You are required to mellow yourselves with wine, so that you will not hesitate to come to the full understanding that the concept of “blessed is Mordechai” is equal to the concept “cursed is Haman”. That is, hatred of evil is no less important or fundamental than love of good, and there is no one without the other.
Purim is the time to elevate ourselves in our thinking. Precisely by getting a little tipsy on wine, we can remove the usual inhibitions and hesitations, which commonly prevent us from cursing and hating evil!
The Rav has taught us something tremendous. Purim is not a holiday of drunken confusion and chaos, or for casting off our heavenly yoke. On the contrary. Purim is the day to cast off the hypocrisy of our everyday lives, and to sever ourselves from the phony self-righteousness which causes us not to want to condemn the wicked. Getting mellow or tipsy on wine straightens us out. If foreign, un-Jewish concepts permeate our thoughts all year round, on Purim we reveal our authentic, uninhibited selves. Without apologies, without “the mercy of fools” (as termed by the Ramban); without being “more righteous than our Creator” (as the Midrash depicts Saul when he refuses to kill Agag).
At this juncture, let us mention that Purim is the annual yohrzeit for the holy Dr. Baruch Goldstein, HY”D. In all his deeds, we remember Dr. Goldstein as a man, who in his life and his death, was a symbol of “not knowing the difference between cursed is Haman and blessed is Mordechai”. On one hand, he was the epitome of good. His dedication as a doctor to heal his patients was incredible. “Ahavat Israel” conquered his heart. From this aspect, he was “blessed is Mordechai”. On the other hand, this love was not “out of control”. He knew that just as it is an obligation to love the good, it is also a “mitzvah” to hate the wicked. This is the “cursed is Haman” aspect.
May we merit to be whole in our attributes, and to internalize our understanding that the war against evil is part and parcel to the goal of bringing good to the world.
From " The writings of Rav Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, HY"D "
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Shabbat Zachor – The awful sin of Amalek – Rav Meir Kahane
“Remember what Amalek did to you, on the way, when you were leaving Egypt, that he happened upon you on the way, and he struck those of you who were hindmost, all the weaklings at your rear, when you were faint and exhausted, and he did not fear G-d. It shall be that when Hashem, your G-d, gives you rest from all your enemies around, in the Land that Hashem,
your G-d, gives you as an inheritance to possess it, you shall wipe out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven – you shall not forget!”
(Deut. 25:17-19, Maftir of Shabbat Zachor)
Amalek’s sin is the great and eternal sin of those who refuse “to know Hashem” and to accept His yoke upon themselves, and who thereby desecrate His Name. The Children of Israel were on the way, and the word ba-derekh (“on the way”) appears here twice, indicating that they were both on the way out of Egypt and on the way to the Land of Israel: both of these components together prove G-d’s power and might in the eyes of the nations, so that they would accept the yoke of His sovereignty. And now Amalek, the foremost and most brazen representative of “I do not know Hashem” launches himself against Israel, in an attempt to demonstrate both to Israel and to the rest of the world that G-d has no power, and that He is not the G-d of history. (Peirush HaMaccabee, Sefer Dvarim, Chapter 25)
This is the key to understanding why G-d was more angry at Amalek than at any other nation. . This was the awful sin of Amalek, regarding which it is said (Ex. 17:16), “The hand is on G-d's throne. The L-rd shall be at war with Amalek for all generations”.
Our sages also comment (Pesikta Rabbati, Ch. 12):
“The hand is on G-d's throne”: R. Levi said in the name of R. Chama of the school of R. Chaninah, “So to speak, as long as Amalek's offspring are on earth, G-d's name is not complete [In the verse, “G-d” is represented by the short form yud-kei], neither is His throne complete [represented by kes rather than kisei]. Once Amalek's seed is uprooted, G-d's throne is complete and His name is complete”.
King David said, “Enemy! The waste places are come to an end forever, and the cities which you did uproot, their very memorial is perished” (Ps. 9:7). What follows? “But the L-rd is enthroned forever. He has established His throne for judgment.”
Amalek set out to annihilate Israel, as our sages said (Tanchuma Yashan, Yitro 4), “Why was it called 'Amalek'? Because it is am lak, 'the nation that licks'. Amalek set out to lap up Israel's blood like a dog.”
Even more than this, however, Amalek came openly to insult G-d and blot out His name. Mechilta (Ibid., Parshah 1) comments regarding (Ex. 17:8), “Amalek arrived”: “Amalek came openly. In all their other attacks they came in stealth...but not here.”
Amalek attacked G-d's throne, as our sages said (Tanchuma, Ki Tetze, 11):
One verse reads, “You must obliterate the memory of Amalek” (Deut. 25:19), and another reads, “I will totally obliterate the memory of Amalek” (Ex. 17:14). How can the two verses coexist? Until Amalek attacked G-d's throne, Israel were commanded to obliterate them. Henceforth, however, G-d said He would do so Himself. Can flesh and blood attack G-d's throne? Rather, because they destroyed Jerusalem, of which it says (Jer. 3:17), “At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the L-rd”, G-d said He would obliterate them.
Amalek's sin is the waging of brazen warfare against G-d, as they did when Israel left Egypt.
Yet when any other nation, as well, curses and fights G-d, Amalek's sin clings to them and they become like Amalek.
Thus, although Amalek, the nation, did not destroy Jerusalem, our sages say that Jerusalem's destruction constituted Amalek attacking G-d's throne. This teaches that whoever attacks G-d's throne is called Amalek. We must understand and remember this principle for our own times.
Since, in the nations' eyes, Israel's weakness and lowliness, and their suffering at the nations' hands, are interpreted as G-d's weakness and inability to save His people, and that is a Chilul Hashem, it follows that Israel's power, exaltation and victory over their own enemies and the blasphemous enemies of G-d is a Kiddush Hashem.
[For illustration, this is a quote from one of Rabbi Kahane's earlier popular books, “Listen World, Listen Jew” pp. 120-122]
Do you want to know how the Name of G-d is desecrated in the eyes of the mocking and sneering nations? It is when the Jew, His people, His Chosen, is desecrated! When the Jew is beaten, G-d is profaned! When the Jew is humiliated – G-d is shamed! When the Jew is attacked – it is an assault upon the name of G-d!
What he [the non-Jewish persecutor] is really saying is: “There is no L-rd, there is no G-d of Israel and if there is, He is an impotent and helpless god. For if He truly existed as the Omnipotent and All-powerful Sovereign of the Universe, His people would not be in exile, they could not be at my mercy, they could not be beaten and shamed and humiliated by me.”
This is the desecration of G-d's name.
Every pogrom is a desecration of the Name. Every Auschwitz and expulsion and murder and rape of a Jew is the humiliation of G-d. Every time a Jew is beaten by a gentile because he is a Jew, this is the essence of Chilul Hashem.
An end to Exile – that is Kiddush Hashem.
An end to the shame and the beatings and the monuments to our murdered and our martyred. An end to Kaddish and prayers for the dead.
A shaking off of the dust of the Exile and its shame and a return to a Jewish state of our own created with the fire and the spitting of Jewish guns.
A Jewish fist in the face of an astonished gentile world that had not seen it for two millenia. This is Kiddush Hashem.
Reading angry editorials about Jewish “aggression” and “violations” rather than flowery eulogies over dead Jewish victims. That is Kiddush Hashem.
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”. [...]
G-d established a principle that as long as Israel possesses a sovereign government with the power to blot out Amalek's memory, it is a mitzvah and a duty for them to do so.
For this reason our sages said (Sifri, Re'eh, 67):
Israel were commanded regarding three mitzvot for when they entered the Land: to appoint a king, build the Temple and destroy Amalek's seed. I would not know which one comes first if not for Scripture saying, “The hand is on G-d's throne. The L-rd shall be at war with Amalek for all generations” (Ex. 17:16). As long as a king sits on G-d's throne, we destroy Amalek's seed. How do we know that “G-d's throne” refers to a king? It says (I Chronicles 29:23), “Solomon sat on G-d's throne to reign”.
We must understand that today, with G-d kindly having restored our land and sovereignty, we must once more share with Him in blotting out Amalek if its existence is clear to us.
[Asides from current events like Arab attacks on Israel, Iran’s threats and other brazen attempts to delegitimize or coerce Israel, there is one more aspect of this in our times, mentioned by Rabbi Kahane in another one of his popular books, “Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews”, p. 271]:
Jewish self-respect and honor must be resurrected with an end to the humiliating obscenity of carefree political relations with the Amalek of our times, Germany. Was there a greater abomination than that of Israel establishing relations with Germany less than a decade after Auschwitz? And for money reparations, of course! Today, there is not the slightest feeling of guilt on the part of the Israelis who happily travel on business or vacation to Munich and Frankfurt and Hamburg; many of whom live there. There is no guilt on the part of a state that regularly sends youth on cultural and sports excursions to walk on the land stained with Jewish blood. There is no guilt felt when Jewish and Israeli leaders [...] travel to Germany and eat and drink with the Germans at state dinners, or when a high-ranking German official arrives in Israel and the Israeli army band plays the German national anthem, “Deutschland Uber Alles” as the new Hebrews stand at attention with respect. The Germans owe us reparations. The money does not absolve them of one sin, of one crime, of one murder. But they owe us reparations for property and we owe them nothing. Political and cultural ties will be cut with the Germans and they will be expected to fulfill, to the letter, their obligations to the Jewish people.
G-d will go forth to avenge His great name, profaned among the nations, and to avenge the Jewish People, through whose humiliation and distress at the hands of the nations His name was profaned.
The Prophet Obadiah was an Edomite convert, as our sages say (Sanhedrin 39b): “Obadiah was an Edomite convert, illustrating the adage that, 'the axe comes from the very forest.'” Rashi explains, “From the forest, itself, comes the wood for the handle of the axe that chops it down.
Such was Obadiah to Edom and David to Moab, David being descended from Ruth the Moabite.
Who, as much as Obadiah, a former non-Jew, knew the nations hatred of the Jewish People! Addressing the redemption, Obadiah prophesied (Obadiah 8-12, 15): Surely, says the L-rd, on that day I shall destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the Mount of Esau. Your mighty men, O Yemen, shall be dismayed, such that everyone from the Mount of Esau shall be cut off by slaughter. For your violence against your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you and you shall be cut off forever. On the day that you stood aloof, that strangers took his force captive and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem, you too were one of them.
You should not have looked on the day of your brother, the day of his misfortune, nor rejoiced over the children of Judah on the day of their destruction. [...] For the day of the L-rd is near upon all the nations. As you have done, so shall be done to you. Your deeds shall return upon your own head.
As long as exile and servitude were decreed for Israel, G-d restrained Himself. Hence, the fools thought He did not exist, and they mocked the Jewish people (Ps. 115:2): “Why should the nations say, 'Where is their G-d'”? Yet His silence in the face of His name being profaned was a heroic act.
G-d, despite His silence, has not forgotten the insult, there being no forgetting before His throne of glory. Revenge is concealed with Him for the future, sealed up in His treasury, and vengeance and retribution are His.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rabbi Meir Kahane, HY”D, with quotes from his books “Peirush HaMaccabee, Sefer Dvarim” (translation by Daniel Pinner), “Listen World, Listen Jew” and “Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews”.
“Also the sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending to you and all who despised you shall prostrate themselves at your feet.” (Isaiah 60:14)
your G-d, gives you as an inheritance to possess it, you shall wipe out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven – you shall not forget!”
(Deut. 25:17-19, Maftir of Shabbat Zachor)
Amalek’s sin is the great and eternal sin of those who refuse “to know Hashem” and to accept His yoke upon themselves, and who thereby desecrate His Name. The Children of Israel were on the way, and the word ba-derekh (“on the way”) appears here twice, indicating that they were both on the way out of Egypt and on the way to the Land of Israel: both of these components together prove G-d’s power and might in the eyes of the nations, so that they would accept the yoke of His sovereignty. And now Amalek, the foremost and most brazen representative of “I do not know Hashem” launches himself against Israel, in an attempt to demonstrate both to Israel and to the rest of the world that G-d has no power, and that He is not the G-d of history. (Peirush HaMaccabee, Sefer Dvarim, Chapter 25)
This is the key to understanding why G-d was more angry at Amalek than at any other nation. . This was the awful sin of Amalek, regarding which it is said (Ex. 17:16), “The hand is on G-d's throne. The L-rd shall be at war with Amalek for all generations”.
Our sages also comment (Pesikta Rabbati, Ch. 12):
“The hand is on G-d's throne”: R. Levi said in the name of R. Chama of the school of R. Chaninah, “So to speak, as long as Amalek's offspring are on earth, G-d's name is not complete [In the verse, “G-d” is represented by the short form yud-kei], neither is His throne complete [represented by kes rather than kisei]. Once Amalek's seed is uprooted, G-d's throne is complete and His name is complete”.
King David said, “Enemy! The waste places are come to an end forever, and the cities which you did uproot, their very memorial is perished” (Ps. 9:7). What follows? “But the L-rd is enthroned forever. He has established His throne for judgment.”
Amalek set out to annihilate Israel, as our sages said (Tanchuma Yashan, Yitro 4), “Why was it called 'Amalek'? Because it is am lak, 'the nation that licks'. Amalek set out to lap up Israel's blood like a dog.”
Even more than this, however, Amalek came openly to insult G-d and blot out His name. Mechilta (Ibid., Parshah 1) comments regarding (Ex. 17:8), “Amalek arrived”: “Amalek came openly. In all their other attacks they came in stealth...but not here.”
Amalek attacked G-d's throne, as our sages said (Tanchuma, Ki Tetze, 11):
One verse reads, “You must obliterate the memory of Amalek” (Deut. 25:19), and another reads, “I will totally obliterate the memory of Amalek” (Ex. 17:14). How can the two verses coexist? Until Amalek attacked G-d's throne, Israel were commanded to obliterate them. Henceforth, however, G-d said He would do so Himself. Can flesh and blood attack G-d's throne? Rather, because they destroyed Jerusalem, of which it says (Jer. 3:17), “At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the L-rd”, G-d said He would obliterate them.
Amalek's sin is the waging of brazen warfare against G-d, as they did when Israel left Egypt.
Yet when any other nation, as well, curses and fights G-d, Amalek's sin clings to them and they become like Amalek.
Thus, although Amalek, the nation, did not destroy Jerusalem, our sages say that Jerusalem's destruction constituted Amalek attacking G-d's throne. This teaches that whoever attacks G-d's throne is called Amalek. We must understand and remember this principle for our own times.
Since, in the nations' eyes, Israel's weakness and lowliness, and their suffering at the nations' hands, are interpreted as G-d's weakness and inability to save His people, and that is a Chilul Hashem, it follows that Israel's power, exaltation and victory over their own enemies and the blasphemous enemies of G-d is a Kiddush Hashem.
[For illustration, this is a quote from one of Rabbi Kahane's earlier popular books, “Listen World, Listen Jew” pp. 120-122]
Do you want to know how the Name of G-d is desecrated in the eyes of the mocking and sneering nations? It is when the Jew, His people, His Chosen, is desecrated! When the Jew is beaten, G-d is profaned! When the Jew is humiliated – G-d is shamed! When the Jew is attacked – it is an assault upon the name of G-d!
What he [the non-Jewish persecutor] is really saying is: “There is no L-rd, there is no G-d of Israel and if there is, He is an impotent and helpless god. For if He truly existed as the Omnipotent and All-powerful Sovereign of the Universe, His people would not be in exile, they could not be at my mercy, they could not be beaten and shamed and humiliated by me.”
This is the desecration of G-d's name.
Every pogrom is a desecration of the Name. Every Auschwitz and expulsion and murder and rape of a Jew is the humiliation of G-d. Every time a Jew is beaten by a gentile because he is a Jew, this is the essence of Chilul Hashem.
An end to Exile – that is Kiddush Hashem.
An end to the shame and the beatings and the monuments to our murdered and our martyred. An end to Kaddish and prayers for the dead.
A shaking off of the dust of the Exile and its shame and a return to a Jewish state of our own created with the fire and the spitting of Jewish guns.
A Jewish fist in the face of an astonished gentile world that had not seen it for two millenia. This is Kiddush Hashem.
Reading angry editorials about Jewish “aggression” and “violations” rather than flowery eulogies over dead Jewish victims. That is Kiddush Hashem.
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”. [...]
G-d established a principle that as long as Israel possesses a sovereign government with the power to blot out Amalek's memory, it is a mitzvah and a duty for them to do so.
For this reason our sages said (Sifri, Re'eh, 67):
Israel were commanded regarding three mitzvot for when they entered the Land: to appoint a king, build the Temple and destroy Amalek's seed. I would not know which one comes first if not for Scripture saying, “The hand is on G-d's throne. The L-rd shall be at war with Amalek for all generations” (Ex. 17:16). As long as a king sits on G-d's throne, we destroy Amalek's seed. How do we know that “G-d's throne” refers to a king? It says (I Chronicles 29:23), “Solomon sat on G-d's throne to reign”.
We must understand that today, with G-d kindly having restored our land and sovereignty, we must once more share with Him in blotting out Amalek if its existence is clear to us.
[Asides from current events like Arab attacks on Israel, Iran’s threats and other brazen attempts to delegitimize or coerce Israel, there is one more aspect of this in our times, mentioned by Rabbi Kahane in another one of his popular books, “Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews”, p. 271]:
Jewish self-respect and honor must be resurrected with an end to the humiliating obscenity of carefree political relations with the Amalek of our times, Germany. Was there a greater abomination than that of Israel establishing relations with Germany less than a decade after Auschwitz? And for money reparations, of course! Today, there is not the slightest feeling of guilt on the part of the Israelis who happily travel on business or vacation to Munich and Frankfurt and Hamburg; many of whom live there. There is no guilt on the part of a state that regularly sends youth on cultural and sports excursions to walk on the land stained with Jewish blood. There is no guilt felt when Jewish and Israeli leaders [...] travel to Germany and eat and drink with the Germans at state dinners, or when a high-ranking German official arrives in Israel and the Israeli army band plays the German national anthem, “Deutschland Uber Alles” as the new Hebrews stand at attention with respect. The Germans owe us reparations. The money does not absolve them of one sin, of one crime, of one murder. But they owe us reparations for property and we owe them nothing. Political and cultural ties will be cut with the Germans and they will be expected to fulfill, to the letter, their obligations to the Jewish people.
G-d will go forth to avenge His great name, profaned among the nations, and to avenge the Jewish People, through whose humiliation and distress at the hands of the nations His name was profaned.
The Prophet Obadiah was an Edomite convert, as our sages say (Sanhedrin 39b): “Obadiah was an Edomite convert, illustrating the adage that, 'the axe comes from the very forest.'” Rashi explains, “From the forest, itself, comes the wood for the handle of the axe that chops it down.
Such was Obadiah to Edom and David to Moab, David being descended from Ruth the Moabite.
Who, as much as Obadiah, a former non-Jew, knew the nations hatred of the Jewish People! Addressing the redemption, Obadiah prophesied (Obadiah 8-12, 15): Surely, says the L-rd, on that day I shall destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the Mount of Esau. Your mighty men, O Yemen, shall be dismayed, such that everyone from the Mount of Esau shall be cut off by slaughter. For your violence against your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you and you shall be cut off forever. On the day that you stood aloof, that strangers took his force captive and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem, you too were one of them.
You should not have looked on the day of your brother, the day of his misfortune, nor rejoiced over the children of Judah on the day of their destruction. [...] For the day of the L-rd is near upon all the nations. As you have done, so shall be done to you. Your deeds shall return upon your own head.
As long as exile and servitude were decreed for Israel, G-d restrained Himself. Hence, the fools thought He did not exist, and they mocked the Jewish people (Ps. 115:2): “Why should the nations say, 'Where is their G-d'”? Yet His silence in the face of His name being profaned was a heroic act.
G-d, despite His silence, has not forgotten the insult, there being no forgetting before His throne of glory. Revenge is concealed with Him for the future, sealed up in His treasury, and vengeance and retribution are His.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rabbi Meir Kahane, HY”D, with quotes from his books “Peirush HaMaccabee, Sefer Dvarim” (translation by Daniel Pinner), “Listen World, Listen Jew” and “Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews”.
“Also the sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending to you and all who despised you shall prostrate themselves at your feet.” (Isaiah 60:14)
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Parashat Terumah – The holiest object on earth – Rav Meir Kahane
“They shall make an Ark of acacia wood” (Ex. 25:10)
G-d established the whole framework of a holy Temple, holy objects and holy people (Kohanim and Levi'im) to create a miniature world, perfect and complete, holy and pure.
It was meant to symbolize the larger world and to guide us in how our world is supposed to look. One of our most important principles is: “To the L-rd belongs the earth and everything in it” (Ps. 24.1). Everything belongs to G-d, and nothing that ostensibly belongs to man is really his. Rather, it is only given to him to use. The concept of holiness provides a concrete example to help us understand the essence of property here on earth – that it belongs exclusively to G-d and not to man.
The ark is the essence of the Tabernacle and the Temple, both of which were established for its sake. As Rashbam wrote (Ex 25:10), “For the sake of the ark, which is the essence of “they shall make Me a sanctuary”(Ex. 25:8), it was necessary to make a Tabernacle.” This accords with Shemot Rabbah, 34:2:
First it says, “Have them bring Me and offering” (Ex. 25:2), and then, “Make an ark of acacia wood” (v. 10). Just as the Torah preceded everything, so too, in the fashioning of the Tabernacle, the ark preceded all the other vessels. The reason that the ark came first was that the two tablets and the Torah scroll were inside it. The ark was the only object standing inside the Holy of Holies behind the partition [parochet]. G-d made it the holiest object on earth, when He confined, so to speak, His Divine Presence, and spoke to Moses from between the two cherubs: “I will commune with you there, speaking to you from above the ark cover, from between the two cherubs that are on the Ark of Testimony”(Ex. 25:22); and, "Moses would hear the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubs on the ark cover over the Ark of Testimony. The L-rd thus spoke to him”(Num. 7:89).
G-d made the Ark “His place”, so to speak, in this world, thereby making it a symbol of His omnipotence, isolation and aloneness, a symbol that we must trust in Him alone, as Hezekiah said when he prayed to G-d to save the city from Sennacherib (II Kings 19:15): “O L-rd, G-d of Israel, Who sits upon the cherubs. You are G-d, alone, of all the kingdoms on the earth. You made heaven and earth.”
Indeed, the ark was the earthly seat of G-d, “Who sits upon the cherubs”, and it became a symbol of G-d's omnipotence and Israel's obligation to trust in Him. R. Shmuel bar Nachmani said (Pesikta DeRav Kahana 123a):
Wherever Scripture uses the term “Master” [adon], it alludes to G-d's uprooting one group and bringing in another. The prototype is, “Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Master of all the earth” (Josh. 3:11). There G-d uprooted the Canaanites and brought in Israel.
Thus the Ark is the symbol of the L-rd of all the earth, its Creator and Master, Who removes nations from lands – the Canaanites and Ishmaelites – and brings in other nations – Israel – and none can protest.
Yet the ark symbolizes more than that, for it also symbolizes G-d's ability to control and alter all the laws of nature, laws He established. Following is Bereshit Rabbah, 5:7:
“Joshua said to the Children of Israel, 'Come hither'” (Josh 3:9): R. Huna said, “He made [the Children of Israel] stand between the two poles of the ark.” R. Acha bar R. Chanina said, “He made them lean between the two poles of the ark.” The Rabbis said, “He made them fit precisely between the two poles of the ark.” Joshua said to them, “From the fact that you all fit between the two ark poles, you know that the Divine Presence is among you.”
G-d transformed the ark into the symbol of His control over the laws of nature, for here, the smaller contained the larger. Where was this? “Between the poles”, the poles with which the Levi'im carried the ark.
Our sages likewise said (Sotah 35a):
As soon as the last Israelite ascended from the Jordan, the water returned to its place: “As the Kohanim who bore the ark of the covenant of the L-rd came up out of the Jordan, as soon as the soles of their feet were drawn up onto dry ground, the water returned to its place” (Josh. 4:18) [...] It turns out that the ark and its carriers and the Kohanim were on one side, and the rest of Israel were on the other. The ark carried its carriers, and it crossed...
For this Uzza was punished, as it says, “When they came to the threshing-floor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark” (I Chron. 13:9). G-d said to him, “Uzza, if the ark carries its carriers, surely it can carry itself!” And the L-rd's anger was kindled against Uzza, and He smote him there for his error” (II Sam. 6:7).
Thus, here, too, the ark took control of the laws of nature when it carried its carriers, demonstrating to Israel the Law of Faith and Trust: G-d's ark does not need carriers. Rather, it carries itself as well as all those who ostensibly carry it. For this reason, it was forbidden to carry the ark in a wagon. Being able to carry itself, it needed no help. Yet, G-d decreed that the ark must be carried on shoulders to emphasize that if Israel “carried it on their shoulders” (i.e. accepted the yoke and burden of the ark), then the ark would carry them always.
Whoever forgets this law and tries to “help” G-d is punished, all the more so that someone who thinks the ark and its Master lack the power to help, and instead trusts in the nations, commits an unbearable sin.
The ark is the symbol of G-d's place int the world, and the poles that carry it are the concrete symbol of G-d's unlimited power, His omnipotence, greatness and majesty.
G-d desired that these poles – symbolizing G-d's greatness and our duty to trust in Him infinitely – would be before the eyes of Israel always. He therefore decreed a wondrous decree:
The Kohanim brought the ark of the covenant of the L-rd to its place, into the Temple sanctuary, into the Holy of Holies, even under the wings of the cherubs... The ark poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place, even before the Sanctuary, but they could not be seen outside. (I Kings 8:6, 8)
Our sages comment (Menachot 98 a):
“The ark poles were long”: I might think they did not touch the partition. It therefore says, “They were seen.” If they could be “seen”, I might think they tore through the partition to the other side. It therefore says, “They could not be seen without.” How can this be? They pushed and protruded against the partition like a woman's two breasts, as it says, “My beloved is unto me as a bag of myrrh that lies between my breasts” (Song of Songs 1:13)
The Talmud's point is that G-d wished every Jew who came to the Sanctuary to always see the poles and remember what they symbolized: that we are obligated to have perfect, complete faith in G-d's omnipotence. Yet since the partition separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple, G-d established that the poles should stretch so far that they abut the partition, protruding like a woman's breasts. Thus, whoever passed by saw the protrusion and drew the lesson.
[...] 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).
Observe the fierce love between Israel and G-d, which is always compared to the love between a man and woman, the fiercest love man can imagine. G-d compared the ark poles to a woman's breasts. This would seem to be the reason that one of G-d's names is Shad-dai [Hebr. shad = breast].
Likewise, as we have written, the cherubs hug each other, like the love between man and woman. How fortunate one would be to reach this level of love for G-d!
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rav Meir Kahane HY”D
G-d established the whole framework of a holy Temple, holy objects and holy people (Kohanim and Levi'im) to create a miniature world, perfect and complete, holy and pure.
It was meant to symbolize the larger world and to guide us in how our world is supposed to look. One of our most important principles is: “To the L-rd belongs the earth and everything in it” (Ps. 24.1). Everything belongs to G-d, and nothing that ostensibly belongs to man is really his. Rather, it is only given to him to use. The concept of holiness provides a concrete example to help us understand the essence of property here on earth – that it belongs exclusively to G-d and not to man.
The ark is the essence of the Tabernacle and the Temple, both of which were established for its sake. As Rashbam wrote (Ex 25:10), “For the sake of the ark, which is the essence of “they shall make Me a sanctuary”(Ex. 25:8), it was necessary to make a Tabernacle.” This accords with Shemot Rabbah, 34:2:
First it says, “Have them bring Me and offering” (Ex. 25:2), and then, “Make an ark of acacia wood” (v. 10). Just as the Torah preceded everything, so too, in the fashioning of the Tabernacle, the ark preceded all the other vessels. The reason that the ark came first was that the two tablets and the Torah scroll were inside it. The ark was the only object standing inside the Holy of Holies behind the partition [parochet]. G-d made it the holiest object on earth, when He confined, so to speak, His Divine Presence, and spoke to Moses from between the two cherubs: “I will commune with you there, speaking to you from above the ark cover, from between the two cherubs that are on the Ark of Testimony”(Ex. 25:22); and, "Moses would hear the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubs on the ark cover over the Ark of Testimony. The L-rd thus spoke to him”(Num. 7:89).
G-d made the Ark “His place”, so to speak, in this world, thereby making it a symbol of His omnipotence, isolation and aloneness, a symbol that we must trust in Him alone, as Hezekiah said when he prayed to G-d to save the city from Sennacherib (II Kings 19:15): “O L-rd, G-d of Israel, Who sits upon the cherubs. You are G-d, alone, of all the kingdoms on the earth. You made heaven and earth.”
Indeed, the ark was the earthly seat of G-d, “Who sits upon the cherubs”, and it became a symbol of G-d's omnipotence and Israel's obligation to trust in Him. R. Shmuel bar Nachmani said (Pesikta DeRav Kahana 123a):
Wherever Scripture uses the term “Master” [adon], it alludes to G-d's uprooting one group and bringing in another. The prototype is, “Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Master of all the earth” (Josh. 3:11). There G-d uprooted the Canaanites and brought in Israel.
Thus the Ark is the symbol of the L-rd of all the earth, its Creator and Master, Who removes nations from lands – the Canaanites and Ishmaelites – and brings in other nations – Israel – and none can protest.
Yet the ark symbolizes more than that, for it also symbolizes G-d's ability to control and alter all the laws of nature, laws He established. Following is Bereshit Rabbah, 5:7:
“Joshua said to the Children of Israel, 'Come hither'” (Josh 3:9): R. Huna said, “He made [the Children of Israel] stand between the two poles of the ark.” R. Acha bar R. Chanina said, “He made them lean between the two poles of the ark.” The Rabbis said, “He made them fit precisely between the two poles of the ark.” Joshua said to them, “From the fact that you all fit between the two ark poles, you know that the Divine Presence is among you.”
G-d transformed the ark into the symbol of His control over the laws of nature, for here, the smaller contained the larger. Where was this? “Between the poles”, the poles with which the Levi'im carried the ark.
Our sages likewise said (Sotah 35a):
As soon as the last Israelite ascended from the Jordan, the water returned to its place: “As the Kohanim who bore the ark of the covenant of the L-rd came up out of the Jordan, as soon as the soles of their feet were drawn up onto dry ground, the water returned to its place” (Josh. 4:18) [...] It turns out that the ark and its carriers and the Kohanim were on one side, and the rest of Israel were on the other. The ark carried its carriers, and it crossed...
For this Uzza was punished, as it says, “When they came to the threshing-floor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark” (I Chron. 13:9). G-d said to him, “Uzza, if the ark carries its carriers, surely it can carry itself!” And the L-rd's anger was kindled against Uzza, and He smote him there for his error” (II Sam. 6:7).
Thus, here, too, the ark took control of the laws of nature when it carried its carriers, demonstrating to Israel the Law of Faith and Trust: G-d's ark does not need carriers. Rather, it carries itself as well as all those who ostensibly carry it. For this reason, it was forbidden to carry the ark in a wagon. Being able to carry itself, it needed no help. Yet, G-d decreed that the ark must be carried on shoulders to emphasize that if Israel “carried it on their shoulders” (i.e. accepted the yoke and burden of the ark), then the ark would carry them always.
Whoever forgets this law and tries to “help” G-d is punished, all the more so that someone who thinks the ark and its Master lack the power to help, and instead trusts in the nations, commits an unbearable sin.
The ark is the symbol of G-d's place int the world, and the poles that carry it are the concrete symbol of G-d's unlimited power, His omnipotence, greatness and majesty.
G-d desired that these poles – symbolizing G-d's greatness and our duty to trust in Him infinitely – would be before the eyes of Israel always. He therefore decreed a wondrous decree:
The Kohanim brought the ark of the covenant of the L-rd to its place, into the Temple sanctuary, into the Holy of Holies, even under the wings of the cherubs... The ark poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place, even before the Sanctuary, but they could not be seen outside. (I Kings 8:6, 8)
Our sages comment (Menachot 98 a):
“The ark poles were long”: I might think they did not touch the partition. It therefore says, “They were seen.” If they could be “seen”, I might think they tore through the partition to the other side. It therefore says, “They could not be seen without.” How can this be? They pushed and protruded against the partition like a woman's two breasts, as it says, “My beloved is unto me as a bag of myrrh that lies between my breasts” (Song of Songs 1:13)
The Talmud's point is that G-d wished every Jew who came to the Sanctuary to always see the poles and remember what they symbolized: that we are obligated to have perfect, complete faith in G-d's omnipotence. Yet since the partition separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple, G-d established that the poles should stretch so far that they abut the partition, protruding like a woman's breasts. Thus, whoever passed by saw the protrusion and drew the lesson.
[...] 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).
Observe the fierce love between Israel and G-d, which is always compared to the love between a man and woman, the fiercest love man can imagine. G-d compared the ark poles to a woman's breasts. This would seem to be the reason that one of G-d's names is Shad-dai [Hebr. shad = breast].
Likewise, as we have written, the cherubs hug each other, like the love between man and woman. How fortunate one would be to reach this level of love for G-d!
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rav Meir Kahane HY”D
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Parashat Mishpatim – Slave of G-d or slave of man? - Rav Meir Kahane
*Shavua tov!*
“But if the bondsman shall say, “I love my master, my wife and my children- I shall not go free;” then his master shall bring him to the court and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore through his ear with the awl, and he shall serve him forever.” (Ex. 21:5-6)
The Jew is commanded to ascend via humility and lowliness and to break down his own egotism. He is obligated to liberate himself from his enslavement to himself and to be a free man vis-a-vis everyone but G-d. To be a slave to mortal man or to oneself is a profound sin. If the slave of a Jew does not wish to go free [after six years], his ear is pierced with an awl, and our sages explain (Kiddushin 22b):
How is the ear different from all other parts of the body? G-d said, “If one's ear heard Me say on Mount Sinai (Lev. 25:55), 'The Children of Israel are slaves to Me', slaves to Me, not slaves to slaves, and he still went and acquired a master for himself, that ear must be pierced.”
R. Shimon ben Rebbe's exposition on this verse was like a gem: How are the door and the doorpost different from all other parts of the house? G-d said, “They were witnesses in Egypt when I passed over the lintel and the two doorposts, saying, 'The children of Israel are my slaves', and not slaves to slaves, and I took them out of bondage. And this person went and acquired a master for himself? Let his ear be pierced in their presence.
A man of flesh and blood should not take another human being as his master, neither should he be a slave to himself. He is G-d's slave.
The Torah commanded us to keep laws and statutes which conceptually serve as a constant reminder of how abominable is conceit and how essential humility. In actual fact, the first commandment given to Israel when they ceased their bondage to mortal man was one intended to imbue them with humility; namely, the commandment to burn one's chametz [bread and other forms of leaven] before Pesach (Ex. 12:19; 13:7). Chametz, with its yeast which causes dough to expand, is a symbol of conceit which inflates a person's ego, enslaving and destroying him. The person enslaved by his pride and lust, the arrogant man who rebels against his task here on earth, rebels against the purpose of his and the world's having been created. He rebels against his Creator.
By contrast, someone who suppresses his evil impulse, overcoming his pride and lust, fulfills his task in the world.
This is man's whole purpose, the reason for his having been formed: to know G-d, cling to His attributes and fulfill His commandments. Within this very process, itself, comes self-effacement, subjugation of the evil impulse and a declaration: “The L-rd is G-d and there is no other – surely not myself – besides Him.”
Therefore, precisely during our season of freedom and national pride, when we celebrate liberation from the arrogant Egyptians and when exaltation would have been befitting and proper, G-d commanded base humility so Israel would remember that vis-a-vis G-d, they would always remain slaves, serving Him forever. As our sages said (Sifri, Shelach 115):
When G-d redeemed the seed of His beloved Abraham, He redeemed them not as sons but as slaves. Whenever He made a decree and they rejected it, He would say, “You are My slaves”. When they wnet out to the desert, He began to decree a few severe commandments and a few lighter ones... and Israel began to rebel. He said to them, “You are My slaves. I redeemed you on condition that I be able to decree and have you obey.”
Now, instead of being slaves of G-d, a title which is no disgrace, but the greatest praise a person can receive, we have become slaves of slaves.
Observe what our sages said (Sifri, Vezot HaBerachah, 357): “Slave of the L-rd” (Deut. 34:5): The Torah is not defaming Moses but praising him. We find that the first prophets were called slaves, as it says, “For the L-rd G-d does nothing without revealing His counsel unto His slaves the prophets” (Amos 3:7)
[Similarly we find in Rabbi Kahane's “Peirush haMaccabee” on Shemot, Chapter 2, regarding the Kohen:]
The Kohen is the one who serves and obeys, like a slave before his master. The Torah says: And Malchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine; and he was a Kohen of G-d, the Most High [which the Targum Onkelos renders: “and he served before G-d Most High”]. And he [Malchizedek] blessed him [Abram] saying: Blessed be Abram to G-d, the Most High, Possessor of Heaven and Earth (Genesis 14:18-19). Here we see that a Kohen of G-d is the person who begins with the understanding that Hashem is indeed the Possessor of heaven and earth – space, time, everything. And what exactly does the word koneh (“possessor”) really mean? – He is the Owner and the Master, because He has acquired everything by having created everything (as Rashi puts it: By having made them, He acquired them as His own). And this Kohen is a slave of G-d, and he is called by His Master’s Name because what the slave acquires his master acquires, because the slave is no more than his master’s hand. The Kohen in Israel is the one who has been sanctified to serve G-d in His Holy Temple, and only someone like that is worthy of placing Hashem’s Name on the nation, as the Torah says: And they [the Kohanim] will place My Name on the Children of Israel, and I will bless them (Numbers 6:27). The Torah also says: And you [Moses], draw close to yourself Aaron your brother and his sons with him, from among the Children of Israel, to minister to Me (Exodus 28:1).
...Aaron and the Kohanim were chosen to minister to Me, to be the slaves who would serve and obey Hashem in ministering to Him. They have been acquired as slaves to G-d the Most High, the Possessor of Heaven and Earth, and every day they testify to His omnipotence, and that He is Hashem, L-rd of Legions.
A slave of G-d is obligated to accept the yoke of his Master in heaven. He is lowly and belittles himself out of fear and reverence for his Master, the L-rd, and he esteems and praises Him as much as he can, as great, mighty and awesome. Precisely of all these reasons, precisely due to his fear of G-d, his fear of flesh and blood falls away. Any slave of G-d will never be a slave to a slave, i.e., to flesh and blood. Whoever truly stands in fear and trembling before the exclusive power and might of G-d will never fear mortal man, who comes from dust and returns to dust.
Such is the fear of G-d: Whoever stands in fear and trembling before G-d's majesty, astonished at His power and might, greatness and omnipotence, is at once seized with fear and reverence for his Maker and King; yet at the same time, all fear of flesh and blood leaves him, for of what importance is man?
Woe to us that, due to the curse of the exile, we have violated G-d's terrible prohibition which states, “The children of Israel are My slaves. They are My slaves because I brought them out of Egypt. I am the L-rd your G-d” (Lev. 25:55).
Due to our fear of the nations, we have become slaves to them of our own doing. We, thus, deserve the punishment of the slave whose ear is pierced: “He shall then serve his master forever” (Ex. 21:6).
Whoever takes a flesh-and-blood master because he fears him and relies on him and leans on his strength and kindness, denies the existence of G-d, the Supreme Master. Not only does he do this, but he profanes G-d's name (Torat Kohanim, Behar, 9): “The children of Israel are My slaves... I am the L-rd your G-d” This teaches that whenever Israel go into slavery here on earth, Scripture treats it as if G-d is going into slavery as well.” The simple meaning of this is that G-d took Israel out of Egyptian bondage to sanctify His name by showing the nations His power and might. Hence, when Israel once more become enslaved, where is G-d's power and where is His might? There is no greater Chilul Hashem than this. It is as though G-d is being enslaved by the nations, so to speak.
Now if it is so when a nation attacks Israel and enslaves them, what can we possibly say when a Jew fearfully enslaves himself to the non-Jew? Could any Chilul Hashem be greater? We must don sackcloth and ashes!
Our times constitute the beginning of the redemption and the footsteps of the Messiah. G-d in His kindness, in preparation for speedy redemption, presently demands of us Kiddush Hashem of the sort based on faith and trust in Him. Yet we, our children and our elders have sunk in the mire of exile, and have raised up on a miserable banner the fear and degradation of “It is forbidden to provoke the nations”. This theme, whose sorrowful conception and birth are in the exile, constitutes a humiliating affront to our people, and worse, a profanation of the great name of the Supreme King. If it suited the lowliness of the exile, when we were unwilling slaves to the nations, powerless to raise ourselves up to defend ourselves, how dare we bring that same disgraceful concept into the holy land, the land of G-d. While G-d has afforded us the greatest, most powerful miracles since the Hasmonean victories, we have remained that same exilic product, that same slave to the nations and slaves to slaves, with that same base spirit which led G-d to decree what He decreed against our ancestors in the desert.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” and “Peirush haMaccabee – Shemot” of Rav Meir Kahane HY”D
“But if the bondsman shall say, “I love my master, my wife and my children- I shall not go free;” then his master shall bring him to the court and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore through his ear with the awl, and he shall serve him forever.” (Ex. 21:5-6)
The Jew is commanded to ascend via humility and lowliness and to break down his own egotism. He is obligated to liberate himself from his enslavement to himself and to be a free man vis-a-vis everyone but G-d. To be a slave to mortal man or to oneself is a profound sin. If the slave of a Jew does not wish to go free [after six years], his ear is pierced with an awl, and our sages explain (Kiddushin 22b):
How is the ear different from all other parts of the body? G-d said, “If one's ear heard Me say on Mount Sinai (Lev. 25:55), 'The Children of Israel are slaves to Me', slaves to Me, not slaves to slaves, and he still went and acquired a master for himself, that ear must be pierced.”
R. Shimon ben Rebbe's exposition on this verse was like a gem: How are the door and the doorpost different from all other parts of the house? G-d said, “They were witnesses in Egypt when I passed over the lintel and the two doorposts, saying, 'The children of Israel are my slaves', and not slaves to slaves, and I took them out of bondage. And this person went and acquired a master for himself? Let his ear be pierced in their presence.
A man of flesh and blood should not take another human being as his master, neither should he be a slave to himself. He is G-d's slave.
The Torah commanded us to keep laws and statutes which conceptually serve as a constant reminder of how abominable is conceit and how essential humility. In actual fact, the first commandment given to Israel when they ceased their bondage to mortal man was one intended to imbue them with humility; namely, the commandment to burn one's chametz [bread and other forms of leaven] before Pesach (Ex. 12:19; 13:7). Chametz, with its yeast which causes dough to expand, is a symbol of conceit which inflates a person's ego, enslaving and destroying him. The person enslaved by his pride and lust, the arrogant man who rebels against his task here on earth, rebels against the purpose of his and the world's having been created. He rebels against his Creator.
By contrast, someone who suppresses his evil impulse, overcoming his pride and lust, fulfills his task in the world.
This is man's whole purpose, the reason for his having been formed: to know G-d, cling to His attributes and fulfill His commandments. Within this very process, itself, comes self-effacement, subjugation of the evil impulse and a declaration: “The L-rd is G-d and there is no other – surely not myself – besides Him.”
Therefore, precisely during our season of freedom and national pride, when we celebrate liberation from the arrogant Egyptians and when exaltation would have been befitting and proper, G-d commanded base humility so Israel would remember that vis-a-vis G-d, they would always remain slaves, serving Him forever. As our sages said (Sifri, Shelach 115):
When G-d redeemed the seed of His beloved Abraham, He redeemed them not as sons but as slaves. Whenever He made a decree and they rejected it, He would say, “You are My slaves”. When they wnet out to the desert, He began to decree a few severe commandments and a few lighter ones... and Israel began to rebel. He said to them, “You are My slaves. I redeemed you on condition that I be able to decree and have you obey.”
Now, instead of being slaves of G-d, a title which is no disgrace, but the greatest praise a person can receive, we have become slaves of slaves.
Observe what our sages said (Sifri, Vezot HaBerachah, 357): “Slave of the L-rd” (Deut. 34:5): The Torah is not defaming Moses but praising him. We find that the first prophets were called slaves, as it says, “For the L-rd G-d does nothing without revealing His counsel unto His slaves the prophets” (Amos 3:7)
[Similarly we find in Rabbi Kahane's “Peirush haMaccabee” on Shemot, Chapter 2, regarding the Kohen:]
The Kohen is the one who serves and obeys, like a slave before his master. The Torah says: And Malchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine; and he was a Kohen of G-d, the Most High [which the Targum Onkelos renders: “and he served before G-d Most High”]. And he [Malchizedek] blessed him [Abram] saying: Blessed be Abram to G-d, the Most High, Possessor of Heaven and Earth (Genesis 14:18-19). Here we see that a Kohen of G-d is the person who begins with the understanding that Hashem is indeed the Possessor of heaven and earth – space, time, everything. And what exactly does the word koneh (“possessor”) really mean? – He is the Owner and the Master, because He has acquired everything by having created everything (as Rashi puts it: By having made them, He acquired them as His own). And this Kohen is a slave of G-d, and he is called by His Master’s Name because what the slave acquires his master acquires, because the slave is no more than his master’s hand. The Kohen in Israel is the one who has been sanctified to serve G-d in His Holy Temple, and only someone like that is worthy of placing Hashem’s Name on the nation, as the Torah says: And they [the Kohanim] will place My Name on the Children of Israel, and I will bless them (Numbers 6:27). The Torah also says: And you [Moses], draw close to yourself Aaron your brother and his sons with him, from among the Children of Israel, to minister to Me (Exodus 28:1).
...Aaron and the Kohanim were chosen to minister to Me, to be the slaves who would serve and obey Hashem in ministering to Him. They have been acquired as slaves to G-d the Most High, the Possessor of Heaven and Earth, and every day they testify to His omnipotence, and that He is Hashem, L-rd of Legions.
A slave of G-d is obligated to accept the yoke of his Master in heaven. He is lowly and belittles himself out of fear and reverence for his Master, the L-rd, and he esteems and praises Him as much as he can, as great, mighty and awesome. Precisely of all these reasons, precisely due to his fear of G-d, his fear of flesh and blood falls away. Any slave of G-d will never be a slave to a slave, i.e., to flesh and blood. Whoever truly stands in fear and trembling before the exclusive power and might of G-d will never fear mortal man, who comes from dust and returns to dust.
Such is the fear of G-d: Whoever stands in fear and trembling before G-d's majesty, astonished at His power and might, greatness and omnipotence, is at once seized with fear and reverence for his Maker and King; yet at the same time, all fear of flesh and blood leaves him, for of what importance is man?
Woe to us that, due to the curse of the exile, we have violated G-d's terrible prohibition which states, “The children of Israel are My slaves. They are My slaves because I brought them out of Egypt. I am the L-rd your G-d” (Lev. 25:55).
Due to our fear of the nations, we have become slaves to them of our own doing. We, thus, deserve the punishment of the slave whose ear is pierced: “He shall then serve his master forever” (Ex. 21:6).
Whoever takes a flesh-and-blood master because he fears him and relies on him and leans on his strength and kindness, denies the existence of G-d, the Supreme Master. Not only does he do this, but he profanes G-d's name (Torat Kohanim, Behar, 9): “The children of Israel are My slaves... I am the L-rd your G-d” This teaches that whenever Israel go into slavery here on earth, Scripture treats it as if G-d is going into slavery as well.” The simple meaning of this is that G-d took Israel out of Egyptian bondage to sanctify His name by showing the nations His power and might. Hence, when Israel once more become enslaved, where is G-d's power and where is His might? There is no greater Chilul Hashem than this. It is as though G-d is being enslaved by the nations, so to speak.
Now if it is so when a nation attacks Israel and enslaves them, what can we possibly say when a Jew fearfully enslaves himself to the non-Jew? Could any Chilul Hashem be greater? We must don sackcloth and ashes!
Our times constitute the beginning of the redemption and the footsteps of the Messiah. G-d in His kindness, in preparation for speedy redemption, presently demands of us Kiddush Hashem of the sort based on faith and trust in Him. Yet we, our children and our elders have sunk in the mire of exile, and have raised up on a miserable banner the fear and degradation of “It is forbidden to provoke the nations”. This theme, whose sorrowful conception and birth are in the exile, constitutes a humiliating affront to our people, and worse, a profanation of the great name of the Supreme King. If it suited the lowliness of the exile, when we were unwilling slaves to the nations, powerless to raise ourselves up to defend ourselves, how dare we bring that same disgraceful concept into the holy land, the land of G-d. While G-d has afforded us the greatest, most powerful miracles since the Hasmonean victories, we have remained that same exilic product, that same slave to the nations and slaves to slaves, with that same base spirit which led G-d to decree what He decreed against our ancestors in the desert.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” and “Peirush haMaccabee – Shemot” of Rav Meir Kahane HY”D
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