Dedicated To Meir & Jenny Solomon: “Heading east” was the deed he chose to clothe himself in. Friends sought to dissuade Rabbi Yehuda Halevi. He argued with them. To one, he wrote an angry poem. “Your words were salved with smoothest myrhh,” it began with a touch of sarcasm, which quickly changed to the accusation that the friend’s remarks, while “sweetly stated,” concealed “stinging bees, their honeycomb a bed of thorns.” Although we are not explicitly told what these were, it is possible to reconstruct their two main points from Rabbi Yehuda’s reply.

The first was that it was foolhardy to put himself at peril by jounreying to a country that was in the hands of barbarians. Although the love of Zion was praiseowrthy, one had to be sensible. It was reckless to “seek the peace of Jerusalem” when the city belonged to “the blind and the lame” – an allusion to the Crusaders taken from the Book of Samuel, where the words contemptuously refer to Jeruslaem’s Jebusite rulers before King David’s conquest of the city.

Rabbi Yehuda made short shrift of this argument. Was Abraham being sensible, he asked, when he left everything at God’s bidding for a promised land? If personal safety came first, “our forefathers erred in being strangers” in a land in which “unjustifiably they built their altars/ and sacrificed upon them to no end.” To challenge his, Halevi’s, decision on such a basis was to accuse the biblical patriarchs of recklessness.

The friend’s second point concerned Spain. In no other country was Jewish life more thriving or secure. How could one abandon it for a wilderness where there was hardly a synagogue to pray in, much less the amenities of civilized life? How could Halevi reject the home in which his ancestors were buried and his family had lived for generations? Surely loyalty to Judaism and its traditions called for remaining in Spain, not leaving it.

The poem’s response to this was scathing. The dead, it declared, command our loyalty not by virture of being dead, but only by virtue of being models for the living, “Are we to haunt old wormy graves,” it demanded,

And turn away from life’s eternal source?

Are synagogues our sole inheritance,

And is God’s holy mount to have no heirs?

And where, in East or West, are we more safe

Than in the land whose many gates all face

The Heavens?

Hillel Halkin – Yehudah Halevi (Pages 131-132)

The friend’s arguments are still repeated in the minds of many of us who choose to remain distant from Zion. Rabbi Yehuda Halevi’s poems challenge us to ask ourselves:

“And where, in East or West, are we more safe

Than in the land whose many gates all face

The Heavens?”

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

Finally! Since the beginning of this fiasco, where the international community has lined up against Israel for legally enforcing its blockade on the genocidal Islamists in Gaza, CJHS has been waiting for someone to put together a fully documented expose on the lies and fabrications being thrown around in the media. That video has finally arrived.

Please watch this explanation, which begins with the blockade itself and moves backward and forward, exposing the “humanitarian disaster” and the “Israeli aggression” myths for what they are – calculated and dishonest attacks meant to delegitimize the very possibility of Jewish self-defense.

http://vimeo.com/12555636

You probably don’t remember the  name Eric Hoffer. 


He was a longshoreman who turned  into a philosopher, wrote columns for newspapers and some books. 
He was a non-Jewish American social  philosopher. 
He was born in 1902 and died in 1983, after writing nine books and winning the Presidential Medal  of Freedom. 
His first book, The True Believer, published in 1951, was widely recognized as a  classic.

 

Eric Hoffer was  one of the most influential American philosophers and free  thinkers of the 20th Century.  His books are still  widely read and quoted today.  Acclaimed for his  thoughts on mass movements and fanaticism, Hoffer was  awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983.   Hopewell Publications awards the best in independent  publishing across a wide range of categories, singling out  the most thought provoking titles in books and short prose,  on a yearly basis in honor of Eric Hoffer. 


Here is  one of his columns from 1968 — 42 years ago! Some  things never change!

 

ISRAEL ‘S PECULIAR POSITION

…by  Eric Hoffer



Los Angeles  Times May 26,  1968.



The Jews are a peculiar people:  things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. 


Other  nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee  problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. 
Turkey  threw out a million Greeks and Algeria a million Frenchman. 
Indonesia  threw out heaven knows how many Chinese and no one says a word about  refugees. 
But in the case of Israel , the displaced Arabs have become  eternal refugees. 
Everyone insists that Israel must take back every  single one. 


Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an  atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. 


Other nations when  victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. 


But when Israel is  victorious, it must sue for peace. 
Everyone expects the Jews to be  the only real Christians in this world. 


Other nations, when they are  defeated, survive and recover but should Israel be defeated it would be  destroyed. 
Had Nasser triumphed last June [1967], he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the  Jews. 
No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own,  is worth the paper it is written on. 


There is a cry of outrage all  over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Blacks are executed in   Rhodesia . 
But, when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one demonstrated  against him. 


The Swedes, who were ready to break off diplomatic  relations with America because of what we did in Vietnam , did not let out a  peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. 
They sent Hitler choice iron  ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troops in Norway . 


The Jews  are alone in the world. 


If Israel survives, it will be solely because  of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources. 


Yet at this moment, Israel  is our only reliable and unconditional ally. 
We can rely more on   Israel than Israel can rely on us. 
And one has only to imagine what  would have happened last summer [1967] had the Arabs and their Russian backers  won the war, to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the  West in general. 


I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it  goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. 
Should Israel perish,  the Holocaust will be upon us all.

‘War-torn’ land is in fact economic, scientific, cultural powerhouse

Yoram Ettinger

1. Bankruptcy rate in Israel is one of the lowest in the world (19% increase during the first half of 2009), compared with the US – 45% increase, Spain – 58%, Spain – 75% and Switzerland – 15% (Yedioth Ahronoth, July 27, 2009).

2. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has rebounded to its September 10, 2008 (meltdown) level, scoring a 50% surge (Yedioth Ahronoth, July 27).

3. Sequoia Capital and Tanya Capital led a $15.5MN round of private placement by Israel’s Kontera (Globes, July 24). Intel Capital, Cisco, Greylock Ventures and Menlo Ventures participated in a $13MN round by Israel’s AeroScout (Globes, June 29). The Boston-based media giant, Medtronics, invested over $10MN in the Israeli VC fund, TriVentures (Globes, June 23). Motorola Ventures, Stata Venture Partners, Argonaut and Walden participated in a $10MN 4th round by Israel’s Amimon (Globes, July 15). Arts Alliance Digital Ventures invested $9MN in Israel’ YCD Multimedia (Globes, June 23). Innogest, Italy’s largest venture capital fund, invested $8MN in the Israeli-Italian company, beeTV (Globes, June 4). The Boston-based Globespan Capital and Spark Capital invested $7.5MN in Israel’s 5min, their 3rd investment in Israel (Globes, July 24).

4. Intel Vice President for Technology and Manufacturing Group and General Manager of Intel Israel (6 plants, 6,500 employees!), Maxine Fassberg: “We have developed breakthroughs in Israel that have changed the face of computerization…In Israel, we are developing and manufacturing network and communication products as well as microprocessors – in parallel to spearheading the mobile domain in Intel Corp. Among the technologies developed here are MMX, which constitutes the basis of the Pentium processor, platforms for Intel Centrino mobile computers and the Intel Core 2Duo processor. In addition, the first fast Ethernet and first wireless LAN (Local Area Network) were developed here…(Jerusalem Post, May 23, 2009).

5. The Med’s best-kept secret (excerpts of Willy Stern, The Weekly Standard, July 27, 2009):

“Perhaps nowhere else on the globe does there exist a greater discrepancy between perception and reality than Israel. The press portrays the country as a savage land racked by war and terrorism… The reality, though, is a country of 7.4 million people whose stock market and economy are humming along quite nicely (at least in contrast to the rest of the globe) and whose citizens revel in their chic Mediterranean lifestyle…

“In Israel, life goes on. The Western newspapers just don’t notice… Israel today has become a vibrant, functioning jewel of a nation tucked into the eastern flank of the Mediterranean. Tel Aviv looks more like San Diego or Barcelona than Baghdad or Kabul. On a recent five-mile run along Tel Aviv’s Gordon Beach, I saw Israeli yuppies cycling the boardwalk on $1,500 Italian mountain bikes, teenagers in full-body wetsuits surfing the breakers, a deep-cleavaged Russian model (nobody seemed to know her name) doing a photo shoot in a skimpy bikini whilst middle-aged Israeli men with potbellies and hairy chests shamelessly gawked, rows of high-priced yachts docked at the Tel Aviv marina, an endless stream of private planes on final approach to small Sde Dov Airport, and two Israeli soldiers in drab green uniforms making out in the sand and drinking Heineken. A nation at war? It seemed more like high season at Coney Island…

“Israel has a world class cultural scene. Want to see Franco Zeffirelli and Daniel Barenboim? No problem. The Alvin Ailey Dance Company visits. The opera plays to audiences at 97 percent capacity. Even at lower pay, (Israel) attracts the best talents from around the globe…

“Israel enjoys top universities, upscale restaurants, million-dollar homes, hoity-toity architecture, and the like. In the fourth quarter last year, when the global economy went all to hell, Israel’s annual, quarter-over-quarter rate of GDP was only off 0.5 percent, the best figure in the industrialized world. (The United States was off 6.3 percent and Japan 12.1 percent.) ‘Think about the resistance of our economy in recent times,’ suggests Zvi Eckstein, deputy governor of the Bank of Israel. ‘Our prime minister (has a stroke). The war in Gaza. The war in Lebanon. The government gets replaced. But we’ve maintained a stable macroeconomic structure and a strong high-tech sector…’

What’s the secret? A very conservative banking system…No mortgage crisis…A current account surplus since 2003…Negligible inflation…Prudent governmental fiscal policy… Healthy integration into the world economy. Last year, 483 Israeli high-tech companies raised a whopping $2.08BN (only US companies raised more). All the major tech players – Google, Microsoft, IBM – have large research centers in Israel. They go where the talent is…’Israel is today the third-hottest spot (after Silicon Valley and Boston) for high-tech venture capital in the world…’ Israel produces more science papers per capita than any other country. Israel lags behind only the United States in number of companies listed on NASDAQ. Twenty-four percent of Israel’s workforce has a university degree; only the United States and Holland have a higher number. Israel leads the world in scientists and technicians per capita…

“The cell phone? Developed in Israel. Ditto for most of the Windows NT operating system and for voice mail technology. Pentium MMX Chip technology? Designed in Israel. AOL Instant Messenger? Developed in Israel. The list goes on. Firewall security software originated in Israel. The latest breakthrough is the “PillCam,” a video camera that can be swallowed and aids physicians in diagnosing intestinal cancer…it seems the other Israel – the land not of terrorists but of milk and honey and goats – may finally be being discovered.”

Subject: Re: *The other Israel*

Manley Cohen added:

I can attest to the million dollar homes, and the achievements of the past.

Also to the corruption, bureaucracy, inefficiency, and theft of my purse with all my cash, passport, and credit cards, which I’d like to believe was by Arab teenagers who slashed a tyre of my rented car: but my fear is that these hooligans were Jews as it was in a suburb of Tel Aviv. Also to the prostitution and solicitation around Dizengoff square, and even in Jerusalem. But worst of all, for me, are the Neturei Karta, who throw stones at cars on the streets of Jerusalem, and worse. Believing as I do that sinat chinom must be eliminated first, that ALL Jews must cooperate with each other and give one face to the world we wish to improve, I find these fringe fanatics difficult to accept. Perhaps because when I try to see the whole picture, I sometimes wonder “Could these crazies be correct, and I be wrong?” Yet the more I learn about them and other very black hats, do I not understand how “ve’ahavta lereacha kamocha” can be applied to them. Certainly, I do not hate them. But how can I agree with them, who will not even accept me as Jewish?

mc

The Ta Phrom Buddhist temple in Angkor Wat stands out from all other structures because the government has chosen to leave the entire site in its overgrown, dilapidated, original state of discovery. The temple is crumbling and being absorbed back into tthe jungle in a manner that is both beautiful and frightening. The giant banyan trees are spilling, at glacial speed, over the tops of the temple walls, wrapping around pillars, and pouring into the nooks and crannies between the bricks. Teratological rhizomorphic tentacles grow over the ruins and each other in thick ancient layers. Green creeping vines bubble up out of every crevice and embrace the collapsing sandstone architecture. In the 1930s, H.W. Ponder, in Cambodian Glory, described Ta Phrom beautifully: “Everywhere around you, you see Nature in its dual role of destroyer and consoler; strangling on the one hand, and healing on the other; no sooner splitting the carved stones asunder than she dresses their wounds with cool, velvety mosses, and binds them with her most delicate tendrils; a conflict of moods so contradictory and feminine as to prove once more – if proof were needed – how well “Dame” Nature merits her feminine title!”

The agony of seeing the ruins of Jerusalem is softened by the powerful signs of life renewed. The city grows, expands, vibrates with energy and passions, and most of all, continues to express the victory of Life over Destruction.

Yet, where Ponder saw “Dame” Nature, we see Menachem Av – The Comforting Father: We are not passive observers to roots, branches and mosses. We are active, empowered participants in this victory of life and hope that pumps through the air and earth of Jerusalem and Israel. Ponder observes Nature. We, see God.

God’s Chesed, or Life Force, permeates this world, and resonates more powerfully in Jerusalem than any other place in the Universe.

Destruction comes only when we fail to witness the miracle of this victory of Life Force. Perhaps this is the essence of Rabbi Akiva’s laughter when he observed foxes prancing through the ruins of the Temple Mount: He appreciated the miraculous victory of Life Force over destruction.

We have survived with this vision of victory flowing through our hearts and souls.

Author Info:

Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

http://www.onejerusalem.org/sign.php