Posted on 10/15/2009 7:28:50 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
Approximately one thousand years after the destruction of the second temple and Israel's exile from its homeland, deep in the depths of the harsh exile and one thousand years before the beginning of the return to Zion - the great Torah commentator Rashi opens his monumental commentary on the Torah with the question of the ownership of the Land of Israel. What with all the hardships and troubles facing European Jewry at the time, with the Land of Israel but a vague and distant memory, the most pressing problem demanding Rashi's attention is what we will answer the non-Jewish world when it will claim that we are robbers in our own land, usurping its ownership from the local Canaanites.
The Torah should have begun with the first commandment G-d gave to Moses, Rashi quotes his father. Why, then, does the Torah open with the story of creation? His answer may not have seemed relevant then, but it is certainly pertinent today and reads like a current events account. Rashi explains that the Torah opens with the story of creation to establish the fact that G-d created the world. "If the nations of the world say to Israel, 'You are robbers - you have conquered the lands of other nations,' Israel can answer as follows: The entire world belongs to the Holy One, Blessed Be He. He created it and gave it to whom He pleased."
During the Sunday Manhigut Yehudit Sukkot event in Jerusalem, Rabbi Yitzchak Brand gave me a paper with some of his Torah thoughts. "With all due respect to Rashi," Rabbi Brand, head of a large faction of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Manhigut Yehudit begins his presentation, "wouldn't it have been better if we had received the Land of Israel empty of previous residents? Why did the Creator of the world choose to bring us to a land that was already occupied? Why didn't He give us the Land of Israel first - just like he gave France to the French and England to the English? Why do we first have to conquer and then look for excuses?"
Rabbi Brand answers that if we would not have been forced to conquer the Land of Israel, nobody could have accused us of robbery. But then we would not have been able to answer with the irrefutable facts that Rashi points out in his commentary on this week's Torah portion, Genesis. And, after all, the reason for our presence in the Land of Israel is specifically so that we may give this answer. In other words, when the Nation of Israel - the nation that is a living testimony to the existence of the Creator of the world - drives out it enemies and settles the Land of Israel, it essentially declares that there is a higher authority in this world. He created the world and He determines the path that it will take. The only reason that we merit to live in Israel is so that we may proclaim that G-d is King of the World. This is the only way that we can justify our presence here in the eyes of the world.
When I read what Rabbi Brand had written, I remembered a short article that Manhigut member Meyer Goldmintz had sent me. The State of Israel expelled Meyer from his home in Yad Yair, destroyed it and turned the place into an Arab garbage dump. Today, Meyer lives with his family in the settlement of Haresha. In his article he asks a simple question:
How is it that we, the settlers, who have taken the utmost care not to settle lands privately owned by Arabs, who searched for strictly state-owned lands to settle and were sure to distance ourselves from even the slightest hint of robbery of Arab-owned land - are nevertheless constantly accused of robbing Arab lands, while the kibbutzim of the leftist Shomer Hatzair, almost all of which were built on lands that had belonged to Arab villages that were conquered and destroyed in 1948 - are considered bastions of "peace"? Meyer answers that it is specifically the fact that the settlers are careful not to build on Arab land that has brought about their dismal reputation. Very simply, they (we) have betrayed our mission and cannot give the answer that Rashi gives at the beginning of the Torah.
The leftist kibbutz member, who had ostensibly disassociated himself from the Torah, did not deny the fact that he was a Jew. As a Jew, he drove out the non-Jew living in his land and settled in his place. By doing so, even though he likely did not intend to - our leftist fulfilled the essence of the reason for the return of the Jews to their Land. He showed the world that there is a Creator and that He decides when non-Jews will live in His land and when His children will live in their place. Thus, the borders of Israel in the places from which the Arabs were forcibly expelled are not questioned today. But we, the settlers, who strive to fulfill G-d's commandments - have not yet fulfilled the basic reason for settlement of the Land. On the contrary, we have avoided it. We were careful not to drive the Arabs out - the complete opposite of the sanctification of G-d's Name accomplished by the leftist kibbutzim.
True, it is the State of Israel that decides when and whom to expel - not private people. But we never protested and enthusiastically adopted this approach. Today, we are suffering the consequences of our actions.
Shabbat Shalom,
Moshe Feiglin
Ping.
But we never protested and enthusiastically—————————————————I recall a feller named KAHANE that protested loudly and said “they” will take over because we let them stay here and ‘they’ reproduce like rabbits....?.....Is my old memory recalling incorrectly?
No one was expelled (this time).
They left to clear path for an attack. That’s their problem.
But if you believe in the Bible at all, G-d makes so many references to the ownership of the land in Genesis alone that there is no need to research the deed.
And as the late Rabbi Me'ir Kahana' (zt"l; Hy"d) pointed out, it is precisely those three sites whose Jewish ownership is most denied and disputed by the world at large.
But if you believe in the Bible at all, G-d makes so many references to the ownership of the land in Genesis alone that there is no need to research the deed.
Unfortunately, most people today do not believe in the Bible. Even "pro-Israel" liberal Jews (who are allergic to everything chr*stians believe, even their own Bible) base their belief in Israel's legitimacy on the Holocaust and "democracy."
“legalistically speaking, there are three sites in Israel mentioned in the Torah which were purchased free and clear by the Jews; the Temple Mount itself, the Cave of Machpelah where Abraham and Sarah were laid to rest, and Jacob’s tomb”
Yes, and who controls those now?
Temple Mount -— Jordan
Cave of Machpelah — waqf (most of the time)
True, those sites are among the “occupied territories”, and I hope the current squatters don’t trash the sites like they did the greenhouses in Gaza. I hear they did a lot of damage to Jacob’s Tomb. But someday soon, the rent will be due, and the land will be reclaimed. I do believe it. But first, there will be an unprecedented attack against Israel. Something Big is about to happen. And then the world will see that G-d is bigger than their ill-conceived plans.
My bad; it was Joseph’s Tomb, not Jacob’s.
I thought Moshe Dayan gave it to the waqf after it was liberated by the IDF in 1967
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
Dayan combined a kibbutznik's secular identity and pragmatism with a deep love and appreciation for the Jewish people and the land of Israel --but not a religious identification. In one recollection, having seen rabbis flocking on the Temple Mount shortly after Jerusalem was captured in 1967, he asked "what is this? Vatican?" Dayan later ordered the Israeli flag removed from the Dome of the Rock, and gave administrative control of the Temple Mount over to the Waqf, a Muslim council. Dayan believed that the Temple Mount was more important to Judaism as a historical rather than holy site.
It’s a distinction without a difference, IMHO.
I use them all interchangeably.
Specifically, Sheik Azzam Khateeb is the new manager of the Waqf is a Jordanian monarchy stooge.
They’ve been buying up surrounding land, too.
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