What Merkaz Harav could have been

Taking a break from my more "political" posts...

"To organize a yeshiva in Jerusalem for the Jewry of the entire world, [which would] have a broader program including Jewish philosophy, Jewish ethics and Jewish history, and an opportunity will be given to those desiring secular training to study outside the yeshiva."

-Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, March 18, 1924, upon arriving in New York, on his vision for the newly established Central Universal Yeshiva (popularly known as Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav)

Believe it or not, Rav Kook even entrusted a close friend/student, Dr. Benjamin Menashe Lewin, with creating a six-year program of study for boys ages 16-22, which included subjects such as Land of Israel studies, literary writing style, and the art of rhetoric (homiletics), in addition to those mentioned above.

Rav Kook's broad vision was never realized. Times changed, and with his death, the yeshiva was reshaped by The Rav's son, Rav Tzvi Yehuda, and Rav Yaakov Moshe Charlop. They now focused the emphasis on the uniqueness of Am, Torat and Eretz Yisrael, not on an academic approach to Jewish studies.

Inspiration by Trumpeldor!

"We need people ready to serve at all cost[s]... Is there a wheel lacking? I am that wheel. Nails, screws, a block? Take me. Must the land be dug? I will dig it. Are soldiers needed? I will enlist. Policemen, doctors, lawyers, teachers, water carriers? If you please, I am ready to do it all. I am not a person, I am the pure embodiment of service, prepared for everything. I have no ties. I only know one command: Build."

-Joseph Trumpeldor, the legondary one-armed officer, war hero, pioneer and symbol of Jewish self defense, in 1917, on his conception of the G'dud HaAvodah (Labor Battalion) plan for group employment.

Kinda makes you want to get up and expand a settlement, build an outpost... or at least plant a tree in your backyard!

The modern-day chalutzim who give daily of their bodies and souls to fight for our right to this land, are Trumpeldor's spiritual heirs. He was a living example of dedication to the growth and development of the land.

Did you know that Kiryat Shmona (Town of Eight) is named after Trumpeldor and the other seven men who were killed defending Tel Chai?

London got it, why can't Washington?

"The surest foundation of peace and prosperity in Palestine would be an understanding between the Jews and Arabs"

-British White Paper of late 1938, formally giving up hope on the notion of dividing Palestine.

Given that the realization of the impractibility of the partition was a consequence of the violent Arab rejection of any recognition of Jewish sovereignty, the underlying tone of this statement is clearly fanciful to say the least.

While the statement does speak the truth in theory, the reality has been and continues to be proven otherwise. Although the current political constitution is drastically different today than it was at the time of the above statement, nevertheless, today, just as then, the Arabs viciously oppose any recognition of the Jewish Land of Israel.

Some things never change. Wake up Obama.

The ultimate Jewish (Arab?) goal

"This (Jewish) State now being proposed to us is not the (Zionist) aim, for it is impossible to solve the (Jewish) problem in such a territory. But this will be a decisive state in bringing about the great (Zionist) aims. In the shortest possible time it will build up the real (Jewish) strength that will carry us to our historic objective."

-Ben-Gurion, in a speech before his Labor colleagues, on his vision of a temporary agreement to the proposal of the Royal Commission Report (the Peel Report) of July 7, 1937, which detailed the partitioning of Palestine and Transjordan into three regions.

Now, replace the words, "Jewish" and "Zionist", which I enclosed in parenthesis, with the words, "Palestinian" and "Arab", respectively.

What do you get? A speech that could be made today by Mahmoud Abbas and friends!

The difference is - and this is clear from Ben-Gurion's writings - that what he was proposing was not to overtake the Arab sections of the country via bloodshed and terrorism, but through economic and social agreements.

The similarity between the Jewish and Arab goals is eerie, yet the contrast is most revealing!

The lost call for the Sate of Israel

"Ye exiled, arise! Now is the moment... to claim your political existence as a nation among nations, and the unlimited natural right to worship [Hashem] according to your faith..."

-Napoleon, marching on Palestine in April 1799, inviting the Jews of Asia and Africa to unite under his flag and reestablish their ancient capital of Jerusalem.

Unfortunately, the Jewish settlement in Israel, not to mention the other Jews of Africa and Asia, didn't even hear of this proclamation until it was too late. Within a month, the French army was pushed back, and Napoleon quickly led his tattered troops back to Egypt.

Of course, one can never say, "what if..." about historical events, but just imagine how the entire course of history might have been different...

Shofar at the kotel

I was very early for a meeting in Jerusalem this morning, so I wandered around and stumbled upon a plaque containing the following tidbit:

In the summer of 1944, after a nearly 14 year ban on Jews blowing the shofar at the kotel, the Irgun (or, Etzel) sent word to the officials of the British Mandate that they planned on blowing the shofar at the end of the upcoming Yom Kippur... at the kotel. The Irgun warned that members of the British forces should keep clear of the kotel at that time, and that the Irgun would "punish" those who chose to ignore this warning.
To everyone's surprise, the British took the warning seriously. No British official showed up, the shofar was blown, followed by a spontaneous outburst of the singing of Hatikva.

Wow, our founding fathers sure had guts.

Obama's alternative solution

"We can perhaps ask England for Cyprus; we may even consider South Africa or America until the day of Turkey's dissolution."

-Theodore Herzl, in the July 1, 1898 entry into his diary, in the context of the growing anti-zionist mood as well as the restlessness within the Zionist Organization.

In an effort to find a closer territorial objective, while retaining Zion as the ultimate aim, Herzl momentarily considered these alternatives (not to mention the well known Uganda Plan of 1903) to the True Jewish Homeland.

America? Hmm, this got me thinking. It isn't exactly p.c. today to suggest "transfer" as a solution to the Palestinian problem, however, I was rereading Obama's Cairo speech, and noticed that he actually invited all the Palestinians over to his country! Yes, that's right, he slipped it in about a quarter way through the speech. It went unnoticed by many, but not me.

First, Obama noted that, "freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's religion." This was to warm the Arabs up to the notion. Then, in order to make them feel at home, Obama assured them that, "there is a mosque in every state in our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders." And lest they think that they would only be allowed to feel at home within their places of worship, Obama clarified that even the "US government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab [in public], and to punish those who would deny it." And finally, to hit it home, "let there be no doubt: Islam is a part of America!"

Now, if that's not an outright invitation for all Arabs to get up and settle in the US of A, I don't know what is. Actually, my sources tell me that Obama deleted from his speech at the last moment, that there is currently a sale in Wal-Mart on rugs.

Well there you have it - an alternative solution: send the Palestinians to the US! There are vast tracts of land in the mid-west that are larger than the entire state of Israel. The Palestinians should have no problem acclimating to their new surroundings, considering Obama's alluring description of a flourishing Islam on America's shores.

Arab wisdom of the ages

"Be very careful, gentlement of the Zionist movement. Governments come and governments go, but a people remains forever."

-Nasif-al-Khalidi, spokesman of the Arab Congress, to Nachum Sokolow of the World Zionist Congress, in May 1914, after learning that the Zionist Executive turned down a meeting with the Arab leadership for fear of provoking Constantinople.

Our elected officials should take heed as they vie to remain favorable in the eyes of our Western "friends". Within just a few short years of the above quote, the Turks were no longer of interest, yet the imprint of the Zionist snub to the Arab outreach remained clear in the minds of the Arab leaders.

While it is without a doubt in the best interest of Israel to maintain good terms with the US, when the relationship turns abusive and overbearing, as it has, Israel must remember that it is ultimately the Arab people who will remain as our enemies, long after Obama or any US policy leaves the scene.

The difference between us and them

"I can't understand why the Jews make such a fuss over a few dozen of their people killed in Palestine. As many are killed every week in London in traffic accidents, and no one pays any attention."

-Beatrice Webb, wife (and active partner in all political activities) of the colonial secretary, Sidney Webb, upon meeting Chaim Weitzman in 1929 following the Arab massacre in Hevron, which left 60 Jews dead and 50 injured.

What is most revealing in this quote, besides the blatant disregard for human life exhibited by Webb, an educated and influential woman of her time, is the distinction made between the "fuss" that the Jew makes over the loss of one of its own vs. that made by the non-Jew over the loss of one of its own.

As anyone living in Israel knows too well, the loss of even one life, particularly under terrorist or other tragic circumstances, is mourned by thousands, no matter if that life was in this world for only one day or one hundred years.

The above quote can be understood from a different angle, when thinking about it in the terms that Golda Meir put it, "we will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us."

When did the Land of Israel become Jewish?

Long before 1948.

"Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine, and to the grounds for reconstituting their National Home in that country..."

-League of Nations mandate to transfer control of Palestine to Britain (formally approved in 1922)

Reconstitute \(ˈ)rē-ˈkän(t)-stə-ˌt(y)üt\: to restore to a former condition.

That is, even long before 1922!

This, as Carolyn Glick points out, dispels the myth that the only reason that Israel was established was to soothe the guilty consciences of Europeans, who were embarrassed about the Holocaust. In fact, the international community recognized the legal, historic and moral rights of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel before anyone had ever heard of Hitler.

One of those who has swallowed this myth whole - hook, line and sinker, as they say - is the misinformed, B.H. Obama. As he noted in his unfortunate speech in Cairo the other day, "the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history." This, of course, couldn't be further from the truth, as our homeland became our homeland well before our "tragic history" ever took place. I hope Rahm Emanual reminded his boss what Disraeli once pointed out: "When your ancestors were still swinging from the trees, mine were serving as priests in Solomon's Temple."