#161 - The X Factor

Guess that I had to pick a catchy title for this post.  But as you will soon see, the source for the title of this post in essence has nothing to do with the topic that I will be writing about today.

When a major tragic event happens in the world, or more specifically in Israel, one who looks for the truth can see the message that Hashem intends to bring to us; for after all, if we could not figure out the message that Hashem wants to relay to us, then there would be no reason for Hashem to punish other than to punish.  However, when Hashem does punish a nation, even if it is meant for that nation to perish once and for all, it is still a lesson for others to improve their ways so they would not be punished likewise too.  In any case, we often see Hashgacha Peratit (Divine Providence) in how Hashem brings on these forces of nature - where for example, at times when a person either just escapes being hurt or killed, while another arrives at the scene just in time to be hurt or killed.

Even in what may seem totally secular, we see amazing parallels that even leave atheists wondering.  For example, there are amazing parallels between the assassinations of U.S. presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy; however this post will not be the post for these events.  However, I will be writing about two other non-Jews who were assassinated, and the similarities between the two of them.

I am referring specifically to Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., two black leaders, if they are to be called leaders, who spoke up for rights of blacks, though their methods of doing so were quite a bit different.  But as much as they had amazingly in common, perhaps what we can learn most from are the differences between them.

Two black rights or civil rights leaders who were contemporaries of one another. Two leaders whose names begin with the letter M. Two leaders who were assassinated. Two leaders who were gunned down in their 40th year.  Two leaders who were the sandwich babies in their families -  Malcolm X was the middle of seven siblings, and MLK was the middle of three siblings.      

We see that in Malcolm X's first name, it begins and ends with the letter M.  And as for MLK's last name, the Hebrew for the word king is Melech, which begins with the letter Mem.  In any case, we know that as per these two people whose lives were suddenly cut short in their 40th year, the numerical value of Mem - and the letter M of the alphabet is the obvious corresponding letter - is 40.

So as you can see, the letter Mem/M with its corresponding number 40 clearly shows up between these two people, and one is left wondering like, yes, it seems that there is a message here, but what is it?

I will address the answer to this in just a bit.  But first, I want to note the differences between these two leaders.  You see, they both preached civil rights for blacks as whites had received.  However, while MLK was more based on EQUAL rights, that is, upgrading the level of rights for blacks to what whites were receiving, Malcolm X's focus was that blacks should be superior.

You see, Malcolm X, who was raised in a Christian environment, converted to Islam.  And in the Islam religion, perhaps more than in any other religion, those who practice Islam are the good guys, and everyone else is dirt to say the least, and of course, the Jews are the worst.  And so, while Malcolm X may have been preaching for equal rights for blacks, he was really for blacks, especially the ones who practice Islam, to be on top of the world.  He also was an anti-Semite, part of the Nation of Islam group that produced another well known anti-Semitic black Islam preacher Louis Farrakhan.

In sharp contrast, Martin Luther King, Jr., though ironically named after an anti-Semite, a Lutheran minister from hundreds of years earlier, was quite fair in his speeches dreaming of the day that whites and blacks could live together in peace.  Moreover, liberal Jews were welcome and joined him in his marches, though some of these Jews who risked arrest would never have done the same for Rabbi Kahane, but at least for MLK, this was his good side.  However, in terms of being a worthy non-Jew, he messed up by committing adultery, which is one of the seven sins for non-Jews for which they are liable to death if a court were to properly administer punishment, and so he not only is not considered among the righteous gentiles, but rather, he damned himself to hell for doing so.

One thing that we do see in sharp contrast between these two leaders is that while one would be hard pressed to find a street named after Malcolm X, one will find hundreds of streets named after MLK, and there is a national holiday in the United States that started since 1986 named Martin Luther King Day.  You see, our rabbis tell us that Hashem does not hold back reward from any creature that does good.  And so, while Malcolm X was a bit older than MLK and was early on the scene in terms of preaching civil rights for blacks, his hatred for others didn't help him much in being appreciated by the world at large.  However, MLK was a bit smarter than him, and knew that in order to receive what you want, you have to consider everyone equal.  And so, because he did accomplish good in helping people, in helping blacks, he was also an advocate of unity for all.  And so, in reward for this, Hashem paid him back with hundreds of streets being named after him, and an established national holiday in the States.

Now for Malcolm X, I should note the history behind the letter X.  But first, pronouncing the letter X in Hebrew as a word, using the letters Aleph-Koof-Samech, this word in Hebrew is the Gematria of 161, and this is my 161st Post.  Now in fact, I am not making any special relationship of this number 161 to anything else.  However, I do want to focus on why he is known as Malcolm X.

The truth is that his family name was Little.  However, being that he didn't want to remain with a name given to his ancestors who were slaves in the States, he changed it to X, symbolizing him wanting to erase his ancestors' slave past.  Now, we see that Ham, ancestor of the blacks, is called HaKatan, which literally means "the LITTLE one", and he was the youngest of the three sons of Noah.  However, it is important to note the context of where this title of Ham is written.  Following Ham sexually mistreating his father Noah was was lying naked from a drunken stupor, the verse states that "Noah awake from his wine, and was aware of what his little son had done to him" (Genesis 9:24).  Rashi defines the word HaKatan as "the unfit and the disgraceful one", backing this up from a verse in Jeremiah (49:15) using this word Katan in reference of disgrace.  Following this, Noah cursed Ham's descendants that they would be slaves in world history.

And so, we see that Malcolm X refused to accept the yoke of slavery bearing the name given to his slave ancestors by their master, fulfilling the curse that Noah had led on Ham's descendants, thereby violating the wishes of a righteous person, and is considered as though one refuses to accept the punishment that Hashem gives him, for which one deserves even more punishment.  What is worse is that he gave himself the letter X as the family name to spite this, and not simply a normal different name.  Ultimately, he behaved just the opposite of how a slave is supposed to behave, and made himself a leader, looking down on whites, and especially Jews, something that MLK never did.

Now technically, one could say that MLK also attempted to negate the slavery status of blacks, even though they already were no longer slaves for many decades.  However, since his ultimate goal was unity, this is a most worthy trait among people, and as we see regarding the people who built the Tower of Babel in their rebellion against Hashem, since they stared with unity between each other, even though it was misused to rebel against Hashem, they were not punished anywhere near the level that the generation of the Flood, who mistreated one another, were punished being drowned in total annihilation.

In any case, there is a very practical side to Malcolm X that simply cannot be ignored.  You see, he had spoken at one point about having a secret son who would be raised with his ideals.  And guess who this "secret son" is?  You guessed it - our present United States president Islam follower Barack Hussein Obama!

Now, whether it is actually true that Obama's real father is Malcolm X or not, which would be real significant since he was known to only have daughters (six of them), there are several pictures that show the look-a-likes between the two of them.  But even if Obama is in fact not his real son, in terms of theology, Obama thinks very much like Malcolm X.  You see, Malcolm X hated the United States.  Similarly, Obama used to be a vivid listener of  Christian minister Jeremiah Wright for some 10 years, who instead of saying "G-d bless America", he spoke statements more like "G-d damn America".  In any case, what is well known is that Obama's face looks very similar to the Egyptian king Pharaoh, under whose rule was the Exodus of the Jews after his many refusals to let them out of his land; and both of their respectives wives also look very much similar to each other.  Indeed, it has been said that Obama and his wife are the reincarnates of this Pharaoh and his wife, respectively.

With the above said, we see that the Hebrew word for Egypt is Mitzrayim, and this word begins and ends with a Mem.  Accordingly, Malcolm X's first name also begins and ends with a M/Mem, who is at least the spiritual father, if not also the physical father, of Obama, who in turn is considered the reincarnate of the king of Mitzrayim.

O.K., we see numerous connections here with the letter Mem/M, but what does this have to do with the number 40 other than being the numerical value of Mem?

Let me take you to the Haftara reading for Parshat Ve'aira, the Parsha in which Egypt gets hit with the first seven of 10 plagues for their refusal to let the Jews leave their land.  As we see in Ezekiel Chapter 28, at the time of the prophecy in this book, Hashem said that he was going to make Egypt totally desolate for 40 years.  The ultimate purpose of this was that so Egypt would no longer ever be a world power again as it was at one time.  In any case, we see that 40 such years of desolation was imposed on Mitzrayim, whose name begins and ends with the letter that has the numerical value of 40.

Now, while Egypt was beset with 40 years of physical desolation, no doubt that this also refers to Egypt's spiritual desolation.  And hence, at least in terms of Malcolm X, he lived a life devoid of spiritualism as being devoted to G-d, but rather, chose superiority that he had no right to, and so in essence, his life that spanned close to 40 years represents these "40 years of desolation", whose name beginning and ending with the letter Mem is the same as Mitzrayim, the name of the country which was hit with 40 years of desolation.  And as we know from our rabbis, all prophecies that are mentioned in the Bible are not only applicable for the time that they were mentioned, but are also prophecies for some future date.  And so, this future date had arrived in recent times, and hence, this prophecy about 40 years of desolation hints to Malcolm X's life, if symbolized by the near 40 years of his life, until a bullet ended the life of one who really preached hatred for everyone, especially of Jews, except for his own type of race, the same way that Hitler praised the Aryan race above all, while at the same time, had hatred for other groups who far from fit this category (ironically, he himself didn't fit the exact features of whom he called the Aryan race), and most certainly the Jews.  Hence, regardless of religion, Malcolm X's philosophy was hardly different than Hitler's, except that he didn't have the chance like Hitler had to demonstrate his level of hatred of others whom he was intolerable of.

As we see with Hitler, the Gematria of his last name, using the letters Hei-Teit-Lamed-Reish , is 244, being the antithesis of the 244th Mitzva of the Torah - "Thou shalt love your fellow (Jew) as thyself".  In a similar way, Malcom's new family name as X symbolises the hatred of one spouse for another who are presently divorced as being called one's ex, the pronounciation of the 24th letter of the alphabet; for as it happens in life, the hatred that one has for someone that one once lived is typically far greater than the hatred one has for others whom he never liked to begin with.  Now, while not all divorces happen this way, this is only because in these recent times, people have what are called these "friendly divorces", but really comes to show the lack of seriousness that some have for marriages, or committed lifetime relationships.

So, while one may feel more connected to certain Jews based on one's culture, at the very least, one is forbidden to hate others who aren't like him.  No one may ever ask of him or his children to marry from what seem a different culture, even as today, Jews are no longer living a lifetime in the small area that they grew up in, the way that it was for Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews for the most part until recent times between modern technology and being chased out of various countries until the majority of them left for Israel or the Americas; but at the very least, to have respect for other Jews, even if one would never feel comfortable hanging out with them being that they may be so different than his culture.  Because if one does have hatred of Jews not like him, this is exactly what is called Sinat Chinam (baseless hatred), even if one would never dream to do to others what Malcolm X wished to do, and what Hitler accomplished.  For that matter, the word Sinah (hatred) shares the same Gematria as the word America in Hebrew - 356.  Though the name America refers to the whole land from the north where Alaska and Canada is to the bottom of South America, it is used quite often to refer to the United States, a country that is supposed to represent unity among all nations.  And as the name of Ham consists of the letters that is the number 48 in Hebrew, this co-relates to the 48 states of the continental United States, the one country in the world that is so tolerant of blacks in a way that never happened before in history in terms of so many nations living together, that they have just hired Obama, the first black president of the United States, for a second term, despite much evidence of his ineligibility of his being able to be president due to major challenges of his citizenship which a good percentage of United States citizens wished to overlook, despite violation of the Constitution.

In conclusion, we see an amazing thing in this week's Parshat Vayishlach.  Despite Esau having gone out of his way so many years earlier in his attempt to murder his brother Jacob, via his son Eliphaz who instead robbed Jacob of everything that he had on him except for his stick, which was the result of Jacob having received the birthright blessings instead of Esau, we see that at least for a few moments, he was able to stop hating.  We see that after 36 years since Jacob left his parents' home, he finally came back, and Esau was on his way to greet him - which was really for the purpose of doing away with him, that at actually greeting one another, that Esau hugged him, kissed him, and they both cried.  Rashi, noting the dots on top of the letters "he kissed him", as written in the Sefer Torah (Torah Scroll), mentions the Midrash in which Rabbi Shimon Ben Yochai (author of the teachings of the Zohar) states that it is a Halacha that is known that Esau hates Jacob, but at that moment, his mercies became aroused, and he kissed him with all his heart.

Amazing!  Esau had the greatest hatred for Jacob in the last 36 years, and all of a sudden, his feelings for him changed over 180 degrees in virtually split second.  Was this simply Hashem who changed Esau's feelings all of a sudden, or did Esau find a reason why Jacob no longer deserved to be hated?

To note, Esau's hatred of Jacob had long bearing applications, and as we see, his own grandson was Amalek, ancestors of a nation who was the very first nation to dare attack the Jews following the Exodus, and following this, Hashem gave orders to one day get rid of this nation, even the little babies, and that meanwhile, we are to remember and not forget what Amalek did to us, in effect, we are ordered to hate Amalek.  However, he himself had a spark of Jewishness within himself, and so, when he saw Jacob for who he was, and not someone wishing to get back at others as Esau was, he then felt the truth, and all of Esau's baseless hatred of Jacob, for hating him despite having willing sold him his birthright, went out the window the moment that he was able to feel Jacob for all that he was.

And so if others, who were so wicked, were able to stop hating for once, than certainly we, the Jewish people, having gone through so much from other nations who truly hated us, are expected to be beyond the reasons that cause hatred, and if anything, to love other Jews despite the outward differences.

12 Kislev 5773                                                                                                       

#160 - The MONEY Difference

As it goes in this world, there are pros and cons to everything.  Even something good that happens can make people complacent about possible dangers; and even a tragedy, no matter how tragic, can bring out the best from people when they help one another.

When it comes to money, there are very obvious good results and very evil results.  Among the good results, it helps the poor, establishes educational systems, and gives incentive to people to help in society.  And among the evil results, it causes jealousy, fighting, stealing, bloodshed, undue power, and wrecks family life.

And writing on the internet, we know that it comes with its blessings and curses.  Its blessings include finding spouses, friendship, and work.  Its curses include addiction to general prolonged use, and sometimes more specifically such as money scams, porn, and being caught as a result of following through on an undercover child sex set-up by cops.

Having just read Parshat Vayeitze this past Shabbat, we see a prime example of jealousy pertaining to wealth coming from cousins.  Yeah, we know that while cousins sometimes may be beloved relatives, cousins such as the Arabic race, and Lehavdil (to separate), the Jewish race aren't necessarily the best of relationships, but have proven quite the opposite.

Well first, when it comes time for Uncle Laban to figure out Jacob's wages, he himself admits that since Jacob's arrival some 20 years earlier, he had brought blessing to him.  The Midrash explains that until Jacob arrived, he didn't have the riches that he acquired later on; and that until 20 years earlier, he only had daughters and no sons.  Being the evil idol-worshipper that he was, Laban was not so quick to rush out and offer a thanksgiving offering to Hashem, but rather, he knew the reason for his upgraded lifestyle and family due to his divining with black magic, and hence "Hashem has blessed me on your account".

As the story continues, Laban kept changing the terms of payment on Jacob, and so, Jacob came up with a unique plan for increased cattlehood, as detailed in the text, and it worked most successively.  The real problems for Jacob, however, began after this, which resulted in Laban's children being jealous of their cousin Jacob, accusing him point blank of taking EVERYTHING that belonged to their father Laban, and that Jacob made a fortune off of this.

Actually, this is not the first instance of Jew hatred being aroused by wealth.  Jacob's father Isaac incurred the jealousy of Avimelech, king of Gerrar and his town from Isaac becoming so wealthy, that people were contrasting the wealths of Isaac and the king.  Now of course, Isaac did nothing illegal, and it was only thanks to Hashem that the king didn't harm him.  However, the king did ask him to leave, and after some time, the king had guilt feelings about having chased him from town, and he himself came to where Isaac was presently residing admitting that Isaac's wealth was due to Hashem blessing him.

Ironically, even though Avimelech had some type of logical reason why Isaac's wealthy status was bothering him so people were contrasting the wealth of the two, and certainly, the king didn't want to loose his respectful status in front of his nation; Laban's sons, who had just barely grown into manhood, despite their cousin Jacob being a good relative and being a very devoted shepherd to Laban's flock, aside from the fact that they should have had the greatest gratitude to Jacob for even being in existance since they were only born due to Jacob's arrival though they probably wouldn't have believed it or want to deal with it even if their father Laban would have told them as such, were only looking for an excuse to hate the Jew, even though Jacob did not actually steal anything, but simply employed methods that created wealth for himself without taking anything from Laban.  And of course, these sons of Laban totally ignored the fact that is was their father, if anyone, who attempted to rip off Jacob of 20 years of hard labor worth of hard earned money.

Now, there is more than one terminology for money in Hebrew.  Now in the Bible, the word for money is Kesef, which for some reason, is the exact same word used particularly for silver.  In any case, the Gematria of this word is 160, and this is my 160th post.

I will get into more detail about the significance of this number 160 a little later on.  But first, let us continue on in this Parsha, in which Jacob, seeing how Laban and his sons were looking at him with disdain, knew that this could not continue, aside from the fact that Hashem told him to leave Laban's quarters.  And so, after a talk with Laban's daughters who were his wives, Jacob and his family packed up, and left - without informing Laban.  Of course it was O.K. for Laban to play tricks on Jacob, from lying about whom Jacob was going to marry, using him to work more years unexpectedly, and the various changes of wages, which interestingly, though according to the text, it mentions that it was 10 times that Laban changed the terms, the Midrash states that it was 100 times.  However, it apparently wasn't O.K. as far as Laban was concerned for anyone to play tricks on him.  Of course it would have been nice if Jacob would have let Laban know beforehand of leaving; but Jacob, whether it was the mentchlich thing or not, felt that under the circumstances, that it was just best not to let him know.

And so, Laban, upon finding out what happened, wasted no time, energies, and resources to track down his nephew, daughters, and grandchildren.  For after all, Laban was not only Jacob's uncle, he was also his father-in-law and ex-employer.  And then, it was confrontation time.  In any case, among Laban's words to Jacob, he makes it aware knowing that Jacob was desirous/longing to go to his parents' home.  Now, the wording used for desirous/longing in the text is Nichsof Nichsafta.  We see from this double wording here that Laban, though he was a most shrewd and selfish person, himself well understood that Jacob hadn't seen his parents for a few decades, which at this time was a good 34 years, and so he expressed this using a double wording showing this.  But as we see in the Hebrew, both words have the root word that also spells the word Kesef.

Coincidence?  You see, as Rashi translates this wording, he translates the word Nichsafta as "you have desired".  The Torah could have used a different wording based on the translation that Rashi suggests, so why particularly the wording that is related to money?

Apparently, Laban's whole life was based on money, even when he didn't have much.  Way back when Eliezer, Abraham's servant, came to fetch a marriage partner for Isaac, and wound up taking Laban's sister Rebecca for this purpose, Laban as a young man "ran out to the man", and as Rashi explains, when Laban saw the jewelry on Rebecca that was just placed by the servant, he said to himself  "This guy is rich", as he set his eyes on money.  Now, nearly 100 years later, when Jacob arrived, the Torah states once again that Laban "ran out to greet him", and Rashi again wastes no time to state that Laban though that Jacob was loaded with money, since after all, if even a servant of the family came with some wealth, all much the more so would be the case with the family itself.  Theoretically, Laban was right.  However, the problem with Jacob is that while he left with some money obviously since he needed money to travel from his parents' home, he was robbed by a different family member - Nephew Eliphaz, whom Jacob's brother Esau sent as his son to kill Jacob due to Esau's jealousy of Jacob having received the birthright blessings instead of him.  Now, Eliphaz, though was not raised Jewish by his pop Esau, did have some good influence from Zaide Isaac, and so in lieu of outright killing Uncle Jacob, thought it would be justifiable instead to rob him of whatever he had on him.  And so to Laban's great disappointment, following Laban's hugging and kissing Jacob for the real purpose of checking if Jacob would have snuck a few bucks in his bosom or a little change in his mouth, realized that this was not the case, and the rest is history.

And so, the Torah teaches us that Laban, though we know that he was idol worshiper and had disrespect for his papa, his biggest weakness was his desire for money, whether he had much or little, and accordingly, related everything in terms of money.  And so, the only way he was really able to understand Jacob's longing for home was Laban's own longing for more money, and based on this, Laban was the big trickster that he was, including as the Midrash notes, he found a ploy to use on the townspeople to give him food supplies for the wedding feasts that he threw for Jacob marrying his daughters, and then when it came time for the town asking him to pay them back, he squirmed out of doing so. And hence, it is of no big surprise that raising his children obviously with his philosophy about money, that his sons felt that if someone in the family had more than they had, regardless of who earned what or if Jacob was so much older than they, that automatically in their minds, Jacob was nothing but a crook and a highway robber, which is exactly what they would be themselves being that Laban trained them the way that he was himself.  This is of course aside from the fact that it was none other than a Jew who made all this big money, regardless of how he earned it.

I had a good friend of mine who passed away a decade ago, who, as a young rabbi, when he was a patient in the hospital for the first time for the sickness that he was diagnosed with, found himself in the same room as a black minister.  Now, my friend didn't exactly look like someone who had big money, even as he looked more dressed up as a patient than one with suit and tie.  In any case, the minister, at one point, told my friend, "It's true that both the Jews and blacks have suffered much.  But you know, there is big difference between the two of us - it's the money," moving his hand to demonstrate this.  Perhaps if I would be this minister, I would feel the same way.  After all, no doubt that there were quite a few slave owners in the earlier part of the United States history who were Jewish, even as the big financier of the Revolution War was a Jew named Hyman Solomon.

The truth is that anti-Semitism wasn't necessarily or always caused by money.  Even when the Jews were for the most part poor, as it was the typical situation in Europe, the Jews were hated with the excuse that they were primates.  And of course, there were the blood libels, which was based on something that totally opposes Judaism - accusing them of using human blood for Matzot, but that was all that was needed to start a riot among the ignorant masses of thugs to murder Jews.  Or, blaming the Jews for the black plague which was really caused by lack of sanitation; but ironically, the Jews were the highest among the level of sanitation, being that our religion requires washing of hands at various times during the day, bathing for Shabbat, women going to the Mikva (ritualarium) once a month, etc.

But there is a special significance between money and anti-Semitism.  Now, I did write about this in a previous post (#152).  And as I wrote in this post about the Torah using the terminology of money in Laban's words for the definition of desiring or longing, so was the word Jew used by anti-Semites in the past to indicate that someone "Jewed" another, referring to taking money from someone else.  Now though partly due to the fault of anti-Semites that Jews weren't able to find easy employment, some Jews who were looking a way to make a living, lent money on interest to non-Jews, but this was the perfect excuse for non-Jews to be jealous of Jews, even as the majority of Jews were lucky  for their little ones to have even one half-decent meal a day.

Now, getting back to Gematria, the word Kinah (jealousy) is the Gematria of 156.  Now, in terms of Gematria, one out of many methods used is to count the word or the amount of letters added up to the total Gematria sum.  Though I rarely use this method, I think that based on what I wrote here, it would be hardly far fetched to say, that when you add the four Hebrew letters of the word Kinah, the total amount is 160, the same Gematria as Kesef, for as I mentioned earlier about the word Kesef as related to desiring or longing, that is exactly what jealousy is, for one is desiring or longing for either oneself to have the same thing, or wanting what the other person has.


EQUAL DIVISIONS OF 160

As vivid readers of my Gematriot blogspot will know, the letter MEM has been a hot topic.  And so, being that the numerical value of Mem is 40, four times this is 160.  Now, there is good reason for me to mention this.  You see, as in the song Echad Mi Yodea  "Who knows one" near the end of the Haggada of Passover, there are four Imahot (Matriarchs) which are Sara, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah; and for practical purposes, many bless their daughters, as I do for my daughter, every Shabbat night, that G-d should bless them like these four Matriarchs.  Another connection of the number in connection with women are the four women that Jacob was intimate with (only two were his wives, the other two were maidservants) from whom the Jewish people via the Twelve Tribes issued forth.

Now, the Hebrew for mother is Eim, which consists of Aleph and Mem; and the Aramaic for mother is the same except it ends with an additional Aleph.  In any case, we see that aside from the silent letter Aleph, which is the head of the letters, just as the mother is the head of the family - as well as the father for which the word in Hebrew begins with an Aleph as well, and in Aramaic also ends with an Aleph - being that both parents are in a way compared to the Alupho Shel Olam  "Master of the World", since just like Hashem, howbeit in a very physical way, created a whole new being.  But the bottom line here is that the mother is particularly represented  by the letter Mem, just as the father is particularly represented by the letter Beit (as we see in the Torah - Beit Avicha  "House of your father", while we don't see it saying Beit Imecha "House of your mother").  And so, when the letter Mem, representing the woman, the mother, is multiplied by four, it yields the Gematria of the word Kesef (money), for in fact, in the very beginning of Tractate Kiddushin which is all about the laws of marriage, the Mishna, a woman is acquired in marriage via three ways: money, marriage document, and conjugal relations; using particularly the Hebrew word Kesef, as opposed to the usual Mishnaic terminology of the word Mammon, and mentioned as the first of these three ways.


JEWISH LEADERS' NAMES BEGINNING WITH A MEM

Perhaps a parallel can be made here in terms of major Jewish leaders whose names beginning with Mem.  Well first, the first leader of the Jewish people was Moshe Rabbeinu, and then for the Purim story - the leader was Mordechai, and then for the Chanuka story - the leader was Matsyahu, and finally - Moshiach will be the leader ushering into the final Golden Era of the Jewish people, though it is his title, rather than his name, being that this is what he has been referred to for thousands of years.  Hence, the first letter Mem of these four pivotal leaders adds up to the sum total of 160.

In addition, we see other major Tzadikim (righteous people) and leaders whose letters also start with a Mem.  In the Ashkenazic world, Rabbi Moshe Isserleis is the author of the notes, noting the difference of laws and customs between Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews, in the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) that was composed by Rabbi Yosef Karo who was Sephardic, and before a quarter of a century ago, the leading Halachic authority was Rabbi Moshe Feinstein.  And then of course, we had the number one outspoken, fierce leader Rabbi Meir Kahane, without whom, despite the sad plight that Israel is in today with  both the lack of good leadership and dictators, we would not have at least a small group of people who bravely fight for our rights in following Kahane's teachings.  And in terms of the Western Wall since its liberation over 40 years ago, the first rabbi of the Wall was Rabbi Meir Yehuda Getz.

In the Sephardic world, we have the Rambam (Maimonides) who is Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon, and the Ramban (Nachmanides) who is Rabbi Moshe Ben Nachman.  Now for the name Mordechai, we have had in more recent times - Rabbi Mordechai Sharabi and Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, both among the greatest of Sephardic rabbis in recent times.

In the Hasidic world, there have been quite a few Chasidic Rebbes with the name Menachem Mendel, a double name that both start with a Mem, and the first name Menachem also ends with a Mem (Sophit).

And let me not forget, the women need representation here too.  In fact, the name of Miriam, sister of Moshe and Aharon, begins and ends with a Mem, who was rewarded with being the ancestor of King David and Moshiach in terms of royalty, being that together with her mother Yocheved while in Egypt, helped Jewish babies being born virtually around the clock, despite the danger of being punished by the Egyptian Pharaoh.  As the Midrash notes, this physical task on the young Miriam made her rather not look pretty, and so was most unattractive to the young bachelors, and it was only at a much older age that Caleb, like 40 years younger than her, married her as we would say "for the sake of heaven", accompanied with his general righteousness of staying steadfast of insisting that Israel was a good place to move to, in sharp contrast to the 10 other spies, aside from Joshua, who lured the Jewish people with their gossip of the land into wanting to enter it, resulting in rewarding him to live long enough to live for some time on the Hebron land that he inherited in his mid-eighties.  In any case, I must mention here that my wife's second Hebrew name is Miriam.

Now, as Hashem made this world, there is a parallel between two different, or more specifically put, opposite realms - between heaven and earth, between land and sea, between good and evil, and between Jews and non-Jews.

While non-Jews don't use Hebrew for their names, they can be spelled in Hebrew just the same and be hinted to in the Torah as such - first names and/or last names.  And as I have just mentioned here some of the greatest Tzadikim of all time whose names begin with the letter Mem, so do we find a parallel among non-Jews leaders too.  But according to the dictates of Judaism, we are supposed to say L'Havdil between the mention of Jews and non-Jews.  But more than just that, I will demonstrate just that, and my topic of non-Jewish leaders with the connection of Mem will not be in this 160th post, but will be the topic of my next post, which G-d willing, I will be posting within the next 24 hours, so stay tuned...


Motzoei Shabbat Parshat Vayeitze 5773

#159 - Message of Malachi, LAST of "MINOR Prophets"

While most unfortunately, there are constantly tragedies happening in our Holy Land due to Arab terrorism - or rather put - due to the anti-Torah Communist regime that is dominating Israel spending good tax money from Jews' hard earnings to constantly send food, water, and electricity to our Arab enemies in Gaza - there was an incident that happened this past Thursday morning, Rosh Chodesh Kislev, that simply cannot be ignored.  Yes, it is this evil Communist government in Israel that while it is quite tough dealing with Kahane followers and self sacrificing Jews who live in bare minimum structures in so called outposts in their attempt to settle every part of our G-d given land, it shows major weakness giving constant supplies to our Arab enemies who reciprocate by throwing rockets at Jews.

And so, while several cities were on the alert with rockets being thrown at them - including Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Be'er Sheva, some of the bigger cities in the south of Israel, one of the lesser sized towns - called Kiryat Malachi, which hadn't been until now for the most part been dealing with the constant rockets situation, a few days ago, got hit with rockets that murdered three Jews.  Actually, it was four Jews, for you see, one of them was a pregnant woman.

Actually, Kiryat Malachi isn't so unfamous.  After all, this is where Moshe Katzav, former president of Israel who is now serving time in prison for rape charges, hails from, whose family, or at least his wife, resides at until this day.  And speaking of which, in a twist of irony, among Katzav's anti-accomplishments, at one point signed for several hundred Arab terrorists to walk free from their zoo cage.  But before this happened, Rabbi Sholom Dov Wolpe, a Lubavitcher rabbi who is most outspoken about the rights of Jewish settlement in Israel, wrote to Mr. Katzav in his attempt to dissuade him from doing this evil thing, asking him to imagine if G-d forbid, if one of these terrorists were to be freed and then attack one of his own children, how he would feel.  The reaction?  Mr. Katzav wrote back to Rabbi Wolpe that he is arrogant for writing such a letter, and proceeded to sign just one more death warrant, among this Communist dictatorship's many death warrants for Jews in their pieces-of-Jewish-body-parts treaties with the bloody hands of Arab dictators,  for more innocent Jews to be murdered.  It is true that Mr. Katzav had admitted since his sentencing on the rape charges that he was being punished by G-d for his vote and support of Jews being thrown out of their homes in the Gush Katif Disengagement, but apparently, he has quite a few sins to atone for, if he could even begin to theoretically make any kind of repairs for his fair share of the pie, among other Knesset Communist dictators, of endangering the Jewish people.

But ironically, while Katzav was safe in prison, Nachalat Har Chabad, the Lubavitch neighborhood of Kiryat Malachi, of all places, is what received fatal blows.  One of them, the preganant woman, named Mira Scharf, was an Lubavitch emissary with her husband in New Delhi, India, were presently visiting Israel to attend a memorial service scheduled to be held on this very day commemorating the memory of another Lubavitch emissary couple in India, the Holzbergs, who were murdered four years ago in the famous terrorist attack there.  Another of the murdered in this Lubavitch neighborhood was one of the first Lubavichers to have joined the Israeli army.

So as you can see, there is no just thing as mere coincidence.  Now, while the main message of what happened this past Thursday is of a national warning from Hashem as I will delve into shortly, these tragedies that happened to the Lubavitch community is no doubt a warning to them as well.  You see, the Jewish date that this happened - 1 Kislev, is first and foremost, was Rosh Chodesh, which is treated as a happy day in our Jewish calendar.  But more specifically for Lubavitch, this day is also celebrated as the official date of the  late Lubavitcher Rebbe's return to health following a heart attack that he sustained several weeks earlier on the Shemini Atzeret holiday quite a few decades ago.  And so most ironically, the husband and children of Mrs. Scharf, on this very date, were sent to the hospital due to the rocket injuries that they sustained.  Now, while I may not be able to judge and pinpoint as to where Lubavitch has gone wrong as of late, though it is true that I know of an incident from some years back, in which a seminary student from the States whose parents were given a hard time for not paying sufficient tuition to a Lubavitch seminary in this town despite the thousands of dollars of tuition from their hard earned money that they already gave, this is just one small thing out of the big picture that Lubavitch, especially in this town, has to face.

Now, lo and behold, we read the Parsha of the week - Parshat Toldot - on Shabbat, which does mention of Hashem telling Isaac to stay put in Israel without leaving the land, concluding with Esav marrying the daughter of Yishmael, ancestor of the Arabs.  And then, we read the Haftara, the selected reading from the Nevi'im (Prophets) section of the Tanach (Bible) for the Parsha, from out of all places - MALACHI!  Now mind you, this is the last of 12 sections from the single Holy book called Trei Asar, which is actually Aramaic (rather than Hebrew) for the number 12, and in English is called "The Minor Prophets", for unlike the major books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, which has much material from these prophets, there is relatively much less material from these 12 prophets.  So, while the official English name of this holy book is not the translation of the name given to it by the Anshei Knesset HaGedola, the group of Sages at the time of the beginning of the Second Temple who officialized the remaining books of the Tanach that had yet to be included in the total list of 24 Tanach books, it is hardly coincidence that this is the English name given for this.

You see, the Hebrew word for Katan, which means minor or small, has the same letters as the Hebrew number 159 - and this is my 159th post.  Now, I did a little research in the Hidden Codes of the Torah program, and found an amazing discovery.  The letters of the name Malachi - is spelled in consecutive letters, in the same order as the letters of this name - exactly 159 times!  That's right my friends, the name of the LAST of the 12 sections of the "MINOR Prophets", the LAST of the Prophets parts of the Bible, is spelled the same amount of times as the Gematria of the word Katan, which means MINOR!

Now interesting to note, we see that Jacob, who was beat out by a few moments earlier by his brother Esau exiting their mother Rebecca's womb a few moments earlier, is called HaKatan "the small one", though it would sound better to say the younger one, in the context of Rebecca putting on Esau's clothes on Jacob to receive the blessings, reserved for the firstborn, from his father Isaac, in lieu of Esau to whom Isaac told that he would give him the blessings following a pot stew from Esau's hunted animals, as Esau was wicked, and so Rebecca made every effort possible for Jacob to receive their father's blessings instead.  Indeed, the very beginning of the Haftara from Malachi, which consists of the first and the beginning of the second of its three chapters, mentions Hashem's relationships to both Esau and Jacob - "I have loved Jacob, but I hated Esau".
Moreover, Malachi is the LAST OF THE TWELVE of the MINOR Prophets, just as Benjamin is the LAST OF THE TWELVE Tribes, who corresponds to this very month of Kislev, the month in which this Haftara for Parshat Toldot is always read  (Note: In some years, Shabbat Parshat Toldot falls out on 29 Cheshvan, but the Haftara read is the one that is called Machar Chodesh, as the next day is Rosh Chodesh).

With this said, we see a special correlationship here between Malachi AND Jacob and Benjamin.  You see, the truth is that technically, based on the fact that Esau was born first, he should have been entitled to the special firstborn blessings.  But, because he was evil, it wound up at the end that it was Jacob, ancestor of the Jewish people, who received these blessings.  However, most unfortunately, the government of Israel, in part capitulating to the demands of the United States, which is Kabbalistically today considered Edom, the name of the country that Esau helped establish, which later would be associated with Rome, the country who destroyed our Second Temple, instead gives its physical blessings - from food to weapons - to our Arab enemies, while throwing out good Jews from their homes and imprisoning outspoken Jews who are the true Zionists; giving jobs to our enemy primates instead of so many poor Jews who would be most happy to work these same jobs instead of receiving handouts.

And then for Benjamin- he was the only one of the 12 tribes to be born in Israel, and even as his name in Hebrew indicates - Ben Yamin "son of the right", the direction right referring to Israel (This is probably the source from which "right-wing" comes from, even though in fact, as Rabbi Meir Kahane himself noted, there is technically no such thing as right-wing or left-wing, but rather, what the Torah says.)  And so, in the End of Days, which refers to the final period of Jewish history before our Final Redemption, which is presently taking place with prophecies associated with the End of Times taking place in front of our ours, the present Prime Monster of Israel, whose name is also Benjamin, who makes it appear that he is "right-wing" when he is anything but, is living quite the opposite of what his name represents, and in terms of his LAST name Netanyahu, which means "Hashem has given", which is a sign that Hashem has given US the land of Israel, he is continuing his vicious past of giving land or autonomy of our Promised Land to our Arab enemies, which began when he was formerly Prime Monster by allotting to them 97% of our second holiest city Hebron to them, along with their constant desecration of the Mearat HaMachpela, the burial area of our Avot and Imahot (Patriarchs and Matriarchs), causing much Jewish bloodshed especially in the greater Hebron area.  Along with this, Netanyahu doesn't desist from making every effort in his vain attempt to give more land for peace (I say vain attempt, because based of what I have seen encoded in the Torah, Gush Katif will be the last land given to the Arabs that took place in 2005, but Netanyahu will still be eternally damned in hell for what he is presently doing in his constant endangerment of the Jewish people).

Now, a question can be asked here.  Why is Trei Asar the name given for this section of the Tanach?  Couldn't it be given the Hebrew word(s) that means "twelve"?

As you may notice, there are a few places in the prayer liturgy that Aramaic is mentioned instead of Hebrew.  Of course, there are reasons given for any given prayer that is recited in Aramaic, instead of the regular "Holy Tongue".

You see, as you leaf through the Tanach, especially the prophecies of the later prophets, beginning with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, you will see how Hashem constantly warns the Jewish people of their devious behavior, calling on them to repent, or else they will see the tragic results of their actions.  Now, while in fact, some of the "Minor Prophets" lived within the time of the former three prophets, it seems that the fact that this final book of the Prophets called by a title in Aramaic, indicates the declining spiritual level of the Jewish people, especially in the days leading to the destruction of the First Temple, as well as the spiritual situation of the nation when some Jews return to Israel from Babylonia in time for the construction of the Second Temple when some Jews married non-Jewish women, and were living together as such even in Israel.  The point that I am making here is that as time went on, Hashem had to relate to the Jewish nation more to their current spiritual low level, speaking to them more "in their own language", as in fact, Aramaic was the official language of Babylonia, and that is why a good percentage of the Babylonian Talmud is in this language.

Now, fast forward to today, the LAST days of our exile, as we know that Moshiach is coming very soon, and the only question is how the events of the Messianic era will unfold, partly based on our present actions, and while yes, there has been certain improvements in Judaism today, including more Yeshivot in the world than ever in the last 2,000 years, an ever increasing movement of Jews returning to the fold, and the availability of Jewish books as there has never been before in Jewish history, there are other areas which have been in the dumps more than ever - such as some, even in the Torah world, who pursue much materialism while attempting to maintain holding on to their hats in their observance of Judaism, especially for the ones who live outside of Israel.  And more practically in terms of Israel, while many who live in the land that Hashem orders us to live in are what I will call living practitioners of Judaism, including rabbis who are viewed as Zionists in terms of preaching about the importance and uniqueness about Israel, some of them have clearly missed the bat.  While in formal times, Jews would have massively protested against the constant gross injustices that are being perpetrated against our nation, in the midst of favoring its enemies; some of them today are more supportive of the government of "Medinat Yisrael" than of Torat Yisrael, called in the Tanach as Torat Hashem.  And even when some espouse more or less the views of the Torah in terms of Israel, and do a little more than tell their students that they shouldn't listen to the army when told to throw Jews out of their homes, they don't want to sound too vocal for fear of repercussions from the ones in the government who send them money, and justify themselves feeling that their lone protest will hardly do anything anyways.

And so, reading the message of the Haftara from Malachi, we see how Hashem criticizes one who is able to bring a choice animal as an offering in the Temple, but instead, offers a blemished animal.  Accordingly, one who is in a position to being vocal about what the Torah really tells us in terms of true nationalism, which includes taking revenge without mercy on our enemies, and not obeying orders in the army when being told to do things against the Torah; but however, is afraid of being labeled racist and a fanatic, and so wants to appear more "moderate", is automatically categorizing oneself in the same group as the left-wing self-hating Jews who neither care about the constant endangerment of Jews.  Oh sure, I am not saying that they would ever go out of their way to sign a document that Jews should leave Gush Katif due to "practical" reasons, as some who label themselves as "religious" Jews because they wear a skullcap, keep Shabbat, and observe Kashrut did, including a prospective date suggested to me, following in the footsteps of her father, a professor in Judaic studies, having made Aliyah from the States, who thought that it was a good idea to sign a supportive death warrant to throw out 9,000 Jews from their rightful homes to make it easier for Arabs to attack Jews, and we all good Jews know the various tragedies that happened to most of these Jews following their expulsion - including lack of half-decent housing, less chances of mating, divorces, lack of good education, being jobless, kids turning to crime, suicides, etc.  Of course, this is not to speak of the fact that as of record, NOT ONE of the ones, even the "religious" ones who called for soldiers, or the soldiers themselves, to throw Jews from their homes, invited any of them to even so much as spend a Shabbat at their homes, or give any financial assistance to help these hapless, helpless, and hopeless Jews get back on their feet.  In any case, even these "moderate" rabbis, who are afraid to have their name associated in a list with Rabbi Kahane of fear of being labeled a terrorist, have a part in the endangerment and murder of Jews by Arab terrorists, and will no doubt have to give an accounting on Judgment Day for all the harm that they caused the Jewish people.

Now, let us turn to the LAST verse of the Haftora from Malachi for Parshat Toldot - "For the lips of a Cohen will observe knowledge, and they will seek Torah from his mouth, for he is a angel of the L-rd of Hosts" (2:7).  The Talmud notes on this verse that if one teaching Torah resembles an angel in the sense that his behavior matches his level of Torah knowledge, then indeed, he is someone to learn Torah from.  However, if one who seems to be a Torah scholar doesn't appear as such by the way that he behaves, hence, not authentically representing the Torah, then one is not to learn Torah from such a person.

As I mentioned in my previous post, there are most unfortunately today those, while they may have earned their rabbinic degree, literally do not behave according to what the Torah demands.  In this context, I am referring specifically of their behavior of helping Jews to live in physical (and in effect also spiritual) danger by attempting to assist the evil regime in Israel to throw these good Jews out of their homes into the street for all practical purposes.  These types of rabbis included Moti Alon, Shlomo Aviner, and quite a few more, the ones who were wearing vests at the time of the Post Tisha B'Av 5765 Gush Katif Expulsion with the word "Rav" - as shown on video, ironically referring to one as a "rabbi", but in fact, hints to the phrase that includes this word - Eruv Rav "mixed multitude", which in the original context, was a group of non-Jews who while may have gone through Jewish conversion in time for the Exodus from Egypt, but were in fact a bunch of rotten apples who were the very ones responsible for getting the Jews to worship the Eigel HaZahav (Golden Calf) that changed things for the Jewish people for both the spiritual and physical worse.

Indeed, it this these type of rabbis who are definitely called Eruv Rav as far as the Kabbalistic Zohar is concerned, who are not what the Prophet Malachi refers to as "an angel of G-d".  For as the Talmud (Moed Katan 17a) on this verse in Malachi notes: "If the Rav (the exact wording of the Gemara) resembles "an angel of Hashem" then seek Torah from his mouth, but if not, than do not seek Torah from his mouth".

In a most ironic twist, as I was looking on the internet for the exact source of this statement, guess who is featured on top of the Google list of all those who wrote a Dvar Torah (Torah lesson) on this very verse (as well as for this whole Haftora)?  The very Eruv Rav Shlomo Aviner, who can be seen in a photo smiling together with the Israeli Nazi Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi on the day that these two evil people helped throw out Jews from Gush Katif! And while Shlomo Aviner may happen to be a Cohen, and even heads a Yeshiva that is called Ateret Cohanim right near the grounds of the holiest area in the world where the Cohanim used to serve Hashem in the Holy Temple, he is the antithesis of what an angel of Hashem is supposed to represent - total dedication to Hashem without motives of renumeration of money, power, politics, etc.  And this is aside from the fact that several years ago, he was forbidden by former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, may the memory of the righteous be for a blessing, to decide matters of Jewish law after there were some complaints of Shlomo Aviner making wrong decisions about the Laws of Family Purity, of which violation of such laws carries the spiritual punishment of eternal extinction, G-d forbid.  Now, the fact that the sheep, Jews who don't give a damn to what Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu declared or what Shlomo Aviner has done to harm the Jewish people, continue following him, reading his tainted Torah teachings, and including them in the Parsha sheets which includes his tainted decisions in Jewish law, does not give any more credibility in Jewish law for such a hypocrite.  No doubt, the Evil Inclination continues with free reign wish these type of evil rabbis who are writing the very things that describe themselves - not of course as an "angel of Hashem" - but quite the opposite, the ones from whom it is FORBIDDEN to learn Torah from!

Now, there will be some who will ask, "It may be true what you are saying, but what you are saying is Lashon Hora (evil speech) about another Jew, especially a rabbi who teaches Torah to other people, and it isn't up to you to decide who is a good or evil rabbi, for he is still saying or writing words of Torah that could help Jews serve Hashem better, despite his past mistakes.  In fact, we even see in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) that there is a teaching from Elisha Ben Avuya, who was a rabbi that later went astray, so what is the difference between these two rabbis?"

Yes, I will answer these unnecessary questions shortly.  However, one thing that I can guarantee you is that people who are followers of another Cohen, Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose words of Torah truly came from "the lips of a Cohen who observe knowledge", will never ask these kind of questions, for they know all too well, whether they may know much or little Torah, that the Torah is not the type of knowledge that one day you can say one thing, and then tomorrow, say the opposite due to political reasons - such as Shlomo Aviner's statement about throwing out Jews from Gush Katif  "This is the sin of the State (the government)" -and still speak authentic Torah.  That is, either what one says is authentic Torah, or not.  It is not a compromise all of a sudden because one will be criticized or ostracized by the government or world opinion for being too "radical" or "racist".  If the Torah says that we Jews are to live alone, without the non-Jews in our surroundings, then this is what we must do, even if the whole world will call us these names, which actually describe everyone else who don't have respect enough for the Bible to acknowledge that we Jews are the "Chosen Nation", as how the Bible describes us.  Oh sure, Christians who are supposedly Bible believers may have a hard time grasping this, but either they believe and want to follow the Bible, or not.  There are no three ways about it, but of course, only Jews are really expected to believe this, for we are the only ones who were commanded all 613 commandments of the King of Kings.

Speaking of which, why not mention something about the Haftara of Malachi, the LAST of the 48 Prophets in Biblical times, from Rabbi Kahane, one of the few prophets of this LAST generation of exile in the End of Days - as the word Acharon (last) is the very Gematria of Rabbi Kahane's Hebrew name Meir Dovid (265).

Quoting from the Talmud at the end of Tractate Menachot (110a), based on the verse in Malachi (1:11): "From the rising to the setting of the sun, My name is great among the nations..." where Rav Shimi Bar Chiya says on this verse that this refers to the nations throughout the world who know of the existance of Hashem, that indeed, the non-Jew, even as he has his own gods, may very well believe in Hashem.  However, the emphasis that needs to be made is on what they don't know or wish to acknowledge - that is, that the Big Power is the Holy One Blessed Be He, and that He gave the Torah to the Chosen Nation whose name is Israel.  (See "The Jewish Idea" Chapter 28).

Yes indeed, we owe NO apologies, not to the United Nations, not to the United States, and certainly not to the Arab leaders or citizens with their cries of injustice.  Hence, any Jewish politician, policeman, judge, government leader, or rabbi, who says ANYTHING that is in some way, shape or form, makes a statement that is supportive of these lame claims from non-Jews who dare question our Divine Jewish rights to our land of Israel or rights of defense, or rather offense until TOTAL ERADICATION of our Arab enemies which includes even the "innocent" civilian babies who will otherwise grow up to hate and murder Jews as well - in opposition to what our holy Torah tells us - has a share in the shedding of Jewish blood from shootings, rocket attacks, suicide bombings, etc that have taken place in the thousands especially since the Oslo Accords, although much of the damage already began technically from when first the holiest spot in the world was given back to the Arab Moslems by another person, Moshe Dayan, who misused the name of the lawgiver Moshe Rabbeinu, as well as the Camp David accords, which included giving away the Sinai - the area which includes where the Torah was given.  This of course includes all the members of Shas, the Sephardic "religious" party who abstained from voting against the Oslo Accords, as per the wishes of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who sadly failed in terms of protecting the Jewish people via his misguided decisions of Jewish law, who began his political and crooked party Shas specifically when Rabbi Kahane began his Kach party, the ONLY party in the Knesset not afraid to speak the Torah truth.

And now, back to answering the unnecessary questions - there is a BIG difference between Elisha Ben Avuya, who failed only in terms of stopping to observe Judaism in his personal life and Eruv Rav Shlomo Aviner, who OPENLY defied the Torah, making false Torah statements, actively physically telling Jews in Gush Katif to listen to the police and leave vacant a part of our Holy Land to make it ever so easier for our Arab enemies to come closer and attack us, while his pockets were being stuffed with more money to support him and his cultish anti-Kahane Yeshiva.  You see, with someone like Elisha Ben Avuya, as long as you have the likes of Rabbi Meir (the first Rabbi Meir of truth) who, as a student of Elisha, knew how to pick out the fruit and throw away the husks, and so, a teaching from one who was once an authentic Torah teacher could be placed at the beginning of a Mishna that speaks about learning Torah, one can be rest assured that the Torah that comes from him is authentic. In fact, there was once an incident of Elisha and Rabbi Meir discussing words of Torah on Shabbat as they were walking, and when Rabbi Meir was just about to walk beyond the permitted 2,000 cubits on Shabbat, Elisha warned him about it.  It was at this point that Rabbi Meir attempted to use this opportunity for his teacher Elisha to return to the fold.  Although in fact, this did not happen, what is important to see here is that even as Elisha himself didn't care to continue to observe the teachings of the Torah, he at least still believed in it enough to not want other Jews to sin.

However, one who openly says things that could, G-d forbid, convince Jews to go astray of what the Torah says, when in fact, "all Jews are responsible for one another" than being just "the sin of the State", has no protection in terms of the laws of forbidden evil speech against another Jew.  For it isn't a situation when a Jew sins simply because he was turned off from Judaism such as Elisha Ben Avuya (called Acher ""the other" by the rabbis, rather than an open derogatory term), for such a Jew always has hope of returning to the fold.  However, rabbis who turn astray themselves in the midst of their attempt to turn others astray have NO CHANCE of returning to the right path, for as our rabbis tell us, it cannot be that one's followers will go to Hell, while he will go to Heaven, for one who causes others to go astray from the Torah does not merit the chance of repentance when he already did such damage to cause others to be punished in Hell.  And so, even if Shlomo Aviner will be well and alive after Moshiach comes and the Temple will be rebuilt, I will bet you all of my money, that this evil character will be denied access to the Temple, and will be turned down from serving as a Cohen in the world's holiest spot, the area that represents ALL of Israel, including Gush Katif from which some 9,000 Jews were banished and suffered major consequences and irreversible damages.  And so, what are called Torah teachings from such a person is supposed to automatically be suspect, for the Kabbala calls such a person who teaches Torah as a Shed Yehudi  "Jewish demon".

Indeed, it seems that Malachi, the last of the Biblical Prophets, with his description of  "Cohanim, who disgrace My name" (1:6) is referring to this very Shlomo Aviner and his Yeshiva called Ateret Cohanim, and "the lips of a Cohen observe knowledge" (2:7) is referring specifically to Rabbis Meir and Binyamin Kahane, the two Cohanim whose words of Torah were only the "The Torah of truth was in his mouth, and perverseness was not found on his lips, in peace and uprightness did he walk with Me, and he turned many from sin" (2:6).  It is in this very last period of Jewish history in our final exile that this type of spiritual battle between the forces of good and evil are taking place, when there is "good" that is packaged in an outward attractive gift package, only to be opened afterwards and smell from being kept inside without fresh ventilation for a long time.  However, the true good that while may be packaged in a plain wrapping, is hardly noticed or believed in, and so, we are suffering the consequences of not listening to "It's either Kahane or Arafat".  That is, Kahane - and not other rabbis who compromise, dilute, and distill the Torah-Kahane authentic Jewish way of life, and replace it with foul odors that only look a bit more attractive in the eye, but refuse to address the root of the problem that brings on the likes of Arafat who appear to look a little more human with Abbas's jacket and tie rather than the kaffiyeh of Arafat, and that Jewish hatred is all too alive and convincing for the world to deny Israel's humane help of free food, medicine and electricity for our Gazan Arab enemies, while criticizing Israel's few grenades to a few "key targets" in sharp contrast to the tens of thousands of rockets rained on Israel from the same area where Arabs know that Israel treats them better than their own people.

Hence, the ultimate reason why the events in Kiryat Malachi, in which four Jews were murdered, seven were injured, and six were traumatically shocked, took place is because Jews, especially in Israel, are learning the WRONG set of teachings of Shlomo Aviner and his ilk, instead of Rabbi Kahane's teachings, as per the meaning of the final verses of the Haftara of Malachi.  And in fact anyone thinks that I am making up things, and speaking politically in my own way, I have news for them.

In a previous post (#150), I wrote of the correlationship between the 36 books of the Tanach and the 36 volumes of the Babylonian Talmud.  Yes, there are 24 official books of the Tanach, but when divided up which include the 12 sections of Trei Asar "Minor Prophets", and the book of Ezra-Nehemiah as two sections, the magic number 36 shines.  And so paralleling the respective books in order, we see that Malachi and Tractate Makkot, whose name means blows (refers to the lashes that a Jewish sinner received in court) correspond to each other.  Moreover, both Malachi and Makkot each have three chapters.  And as it happened, there were three Jews who received blows of death (even though there was the unborn baby of the pregnant woman, the baby is within and considered part of the body of the person for all practical purposes) in the town of Kiryat Malachi.  And in terms of Makkot, referring to lashes - Malkot in Hebrew, the letters of this Hebrew word can be rearranged to read Mavet Kal "light death", for lashes was very minor  compared to death which some sinners received from the court for more severe sins.  In fact, the five letters of the name Malachi (Mem-Lamed-Aleph-Kaf-Yud) can read the sentence - Makkot L'Ta'arich Aleph Kislev Yeihareg - "Blows on the date of the 1st of Kislev will kill", that is, in Kiryat Malachi "City of Malachi".  Coincidence?

And why?  Because Jews - whether they may be a few or the vast majority - continuously refuse to listen to the Malach Hashem Tzevakot "the angel of the L-ord of Hosts", as mentioned at the very end of this Haftara of Malachi, and as we see in this phase, the name Malachi can be spelled in consecutive order of letters in the words Malach YKVK, and Rabbis Meir and Binyamin Kahane, the true angels of Hashem, who, like the angels, served Hashem with NO ulterior motives of money, power and politics.


WHY THE NAME KIRYAT MALACHI?

In fact, in case anyone wondered how this town received its name Kiryat Malachi, it is most interesting.  It is actually named after Los Angeles, which literally means "the angels", for the Jewish community in this city was responsible for the founding and establishment of Kiryat Malachi. (By the way, just as I know of a seminary student who was threatened with being thrown out of the Lubavitch seminary in Kiryat Malachi for not paying "sufficient" tuition when her parents already paid them thousands of dollars from their hard earned money in their tight financial situation, I had applied many years ago to learn in the Lubavitch Yeshiva in Los Angeles, but since the ones in charge didn't know me from Adam, and I had no Lubavitch connections as far as they were concerned, they would only accept me if I would pay full tuition of several thousand dollars, which of course didn't happen.  That's O.K., it was just one of several reasons why I am no longer part of the Lubavitch movement.  However, the point here is that there are strong spiritual connections, for the better or worse, between two cities that identify with one another).  It seems that for linguistic reasons as many cities in Israel are given names of people, it was named as Malachi rather than Malach (angel).  In any case, more than telling you the reason why this town of Israel received its name, there is another reason why I am mentioned this factoid.

You see, while few many know the reason of its name, that is O.K.  You see, Hashem is sending a messenger - me - to reveal the contents of this blog, including what I am about to write about an anti-Semitic incident, actually more than one, that took place like a decade ago in Los Angeles.  I hope that I can shake up a few Jews to warn everyone else to wake up to start realizing the Kahane truth, because for one thing, Kahane has yet to be proven wrong.

The first incident is what happened on U.S. Independence Day 2002, when Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, an Egyptian gunman, at the El Al airport in Los Angeles, murdered two Jews and injured four others.  While this was clearly an act of terrorism, much efforts was made to cover up this fact, including a piece the following day from the Miami Herald mentioning the possibility of the gunman being Hispanic, when there were those who knew right away that the gunman was Egyptian.  And as for the FBI, it refused for many months to declare this a terrorist act, and it was only because of much pressure that it finally admitted that this act "fit the definition of terrorism".  Now, while the reason why this gunman picked this date to murder Jews was because it was his birthday, and he was depressed being alone without his family as a terrorist refugee and so  he felt that he needed a "high" to perk up his spirits, there is NO SUCH THING AS COINCIDENCE.  This anti-Semitic event took place on the United States INDEPENDENCE DAY.  You see, the big problem with the Israeli government is due to its lack of trust in Hashem, quite contrary to the slogan on United States money "In G-d we trust", it is DEPENDENT on the United States, not learning from United States history that the independence of the United States from Britain was based in part in trusting in G-d.  And so, this incident of Jews being murdered in the States happened specifically at the El Al airport, the place from which people travel by air to and from Israel, on the date in U.S. history from which the dictatorship of Israel did not learn from.  Moreover, this act of terrorism was committed by someone coming from Egypt, the country in which Jews were slaves for 116 years and became independent from Egypt at the Exodus, the piece of history that the dictatorship under Menachem Begin did not learn from, and gave away the Sinai, the area in which the Jews heard Hashem saying "I am Hashem your G-d Who took you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves", to Egypt.  And as an added bonus, the name Mohamed is included in the gunman's name.  Of course, this brings to mind that the last two dictators of Egypt also have the name Mohamed within their name.  And these "coincidences" shouldn't be too much of a surprise, for after all, the grandfather of Yishmael, ancestor of the Arabs, was the Egyptian king in the time of Abraham, via Yishmael;s mother Hagar, an Egyptian princess.

And then for the FBI's active role in Anti-Semitism, shortly after 9/11 in which Arabs appeared to look in a bad light, the United States government felt that it had to do something to show that it wasn't racist against Arabs, and hence, arrested Irv Rubin and Eric Krugel from the Los Angeles based Kahane's JDL, accusing them of attempting of blowing up a nearby mosque based on the words of one informant, with no concrete, solid proof.  However, not wishing for Irv Rubin to look like a hero in the Jewish community, the FBI found a way to have him murdered in prison (though the blow to his head didn't kill him on the spot, but he died in the hospital), which happened later in 2002 while declaring his death a suicide, and refuses to its day to retract its statement on this. (By the way, the Gematia of his Hebrew name Yisroel Dovid is 555, and on his tombstone, it shows the drawing of a hand (the symbol of JDL), consisting of FIVE fingers.  And as for the mention of the number five three times in the number 555, we see that in the concluding verse of each of the sections of the sacrifices of the leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel, it mentions five of each of three different kind of animals among the sacrifices of these leaders.  So, since Hashem knew beforehand that his memory as a strong Jew would be attempted to be erased by the FBI, He found a way in the Torah to hint to Irv Rubin's sacrifices in his actions of helping to protect Jews.  Moreover, the initials of his Hebrew name spells the word Yad "hand", and this word also spells the number 14 in Hebrew, the Gematria of his second Hebrew name Dovid).

So as you can see, the tragic events of Kiryat Malachi within this past week bring to mind the anti-Semitic events that happened in its twin sister city Los Angeles one decade ago, in an attempt from Heaven to remind Jews that the United States, and certainly Egypt, is NOT a friend of Jews, and as long as the Communist dictatorship in Israel continues to rely on the United States' "friendship" and assistance, Israel will continue to have to deal with these rockets until it finally does what it needs to do - alone, without promises, threats, or conditions, to attack, attack, and attack, until the Arabs have no weapons left, and if any of them are left alive, that they surrender to us unconditionally, be chained, and immediately be shipped to one of their 22 countries.          


THE LAST PARTY IN THE KNESSET IN THE END OF DAYS

While technically, I am finished with the message of Prophet Malachi that he taught us this past Shabbat in response to this past week's events I hope to bring here a message of hope that is specifially related to the number 12, as Prophet Malachi who is the 12th and last of the Minor Prophets.  You see, the Kahane flame is still burning, and thank G-d, there are quite a few who are majorly responsible for the flame to continue.

One of these individuals, Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, a staunch follower of Kahane, who talked the talk and walked the walk during these last four years in the Knesset, officially announced the name of his new party Otzma L'Yisrael  "Power to Israel" this past week on 28 Cheshvan, speaking of which the synonym of the word Otzma - Koach (as in the phrase Kochi V'Otzem Y also spells the number 28 in Hebrew, and both Rabbi Meir Kahane and his wife Libby were born on the 28th of a Hebrew month (28 Tammuz and 28 Adar respectively).

No doubt, there will be many good Jews who will vote again for Ichud Leumi (National Union) in which Dr. Ben-Ari has served as Knesset member.  After all, Katzeleh, the settlement legend who helped many Jews to settle in various parts of Israel, who lost a leg in fighting for Israel, headed this party in these last four years, and includes Uri Ariel, who has also been outspoken in favor of right-wing issues, who will be heading the party in this upcoming term.  It will also include a couple of rabbis, pending the amount of votes.

However, if Dr. Ben-Ari is not in Ichud Leumi anymore, it is for good reason.  For one thing, even though Katzeleh, even as he himself took a back seat as the seventh on the list, he requested Dr. Ben-Ari that he stay in the party.  The problem though is that the way things are set up, there would not be much of a chance for Ben-Ari to have a seat in this coming election.  You see, while Katzeleh had good intentions and wished to unify the "religious" parties, which happened with the "moderate national" Bayit HaYehudi "Jewish Home" party, the downside of this is that the Ichud Leumi is now not totally in control, and so, Ben-Ari could not be fourth on the list like he was last time.  Moreover, the Bayit Yehudi party is certainly not Kahanist, nay, they are anti-Kahane from their past statements about Kahane, and have not repented from being the three stooges or phonies that they are, while they pretend that they care about Israel.  So, even if these two parties, in the religious camp, are united, this does not mean that all the individuals in these two parties will vote for the same right things when push comes to shove.

You see, if Rabbi Kahane, when he first started with Kach party, felt that it would be a good idea to team up with a religious party, he would have attempted just that, or whatever would take for the religious to take over the country.  Oh, I forgot, it didn't seem that any of the religious parties wanted him since he was too "radical" for them, so of course, he had no choice but to start his own party to be the ONLY voice of Torah truth in the Knesset.  And so the same here, being that once you team up with a compromising party, such as the Bayit Yehudi, it is washing away the truth, so Dr. Ben-Ari had no choice but to start his own party.  So maybe he won't get the 12 deserved seats - like the Ichud Leumi-Bayit Yehudi parties are expected to receive - that Kahane's Kach party won in its second term only to be banned by the Israeli dictatorship, but only with time can this be possible.

Another major point about this new Kahane party is that Dr. Aryeh Eldad, who also served as a Knesset member in the Ichud Leumi, decided to leave his own time party, and began starting a new party called HaTikva "The Hope".  You see, though not what we would call an observant Jew, he is a Jew deep in heart when it comes to Zionism that represents the rights of Jews to their land with zero tolerance of Arabs, and was fed up with the hypocracies of the "religious" parties.  However, knowing Dr. Ben-Ari with whom he worked together in the Knesset, he immediately decided to be part of Ben-Ari's new party.

So, what is more important, quantity or quality?  Still not sure?  Read on.

I decided to see where Ben-Ari is hinted in the Torah, or in the whole Tanach for that matter.  As it turns out, spelling his last name Ben-Ari, it is spelled out exactly once in the entire Tanach (II Kings 4:19).

A brief description of the context of this source.  King Solomon, aside from being a king and the wisest person in the world, knew how to set up a financial system that would support the food intake of his palace.  He appointed twelve officers from different parts of Israel who would be in charge of collecting funds (i.e. taxes) from their region to supply the food for the palace for one month each.  In fact, two of these officers later on wound up each marrying a daughter of King Solomon.  Anyways, there are twelve separate verses which include the name of the particular officer and the region that he represented.  And get this - the TWELFTH and final one of these verses mentions the officer "Gever Ben-Uri in the land of Gilead, the land of Sichon the king of the Emorites and Og the king of the Bashan, THE ONLY OFFICER WHO WAS IN THE LAND".

Now, to make this verse clear, this officer Gever Ben-Uri was the only officer who was in what is called the Transjordan in contrast to the other officers who represented regions in Israel proper on the west side of the Jordan river.  If this is the case, then the question can be asked, why was it necessary to mention that he was the only officer in this part of Israel if the areas that these officers represented are mentioned?  Don't we know by know between the Chumash (Penteteuch) and the Book of Joshua as to the details of the boundaries of Israel?

Well first, while the last name (which in the old days was typically "son of ___") here may be pronounced as Ben-Uri according to its vocalization; in letter form without the Hebrew vowels, it can also be read as Ben-Ari, which literally means "son of lion".  Now, the word Gever, the officer's own name, is one of the descriptions or synonyms that mean a person, or a man.  But it is this particular description that is based on the word Gevurah (strength).  In fact, the similar word for lion in Hebrew - Aryeh, is the same Gematria as the word Gevurah - 216, and is also the name of Dr. Aryeh Eldad.

With this said, we know how Dr. Michael Ben-Ari has been the Number One person in the Knesset who shows NO FEAR in fighting for the truth.  As a fearless lion if I can call him that, he enters Arab towns (with an entourage of course) to show who are the real owners of Israel, he actively fought for the Sudanese to return home instead of invading Tel Aviv (who received sympathy from Prime Monster Bibi who found the time to sit down with one of the Sudanese to hear their "plight" rather than the real plight of the thrown out Jews from their homes when he personally ordered former Prime Monster Ehud Barak to throw them out, as well as the former Gush Katif Jews), and succeeded in having many of them deported, he once sat on an army van in protest of young Jewish protesters being arrested and having their rights illegally violated which resulted in getting arrested despite Knesset member immunity, he was the ONLY one of the 120 members of the Knesset who openly tore the New Testament Bible and threw it in the trash, that was sent to all of the Knesset members (even the few Moslem Arab Knesset members didn't have this nerve, for after all, Jesus is considered a prophet in the Koran), and he is the ONLY member of the Knesset who has been banned by the anti-Semitic United States (which I will not retract from saying especially in light in keeping Jonathan Pollard illegally imprisoned) from being allowed to enter its country, because he is considered more of a terrorist than the real Arab terrorist MK Ahmed Tibi who has openly called for Jews to be murdered.

A true Gever, whether one wishes to call him a radical and a racist or not, Dr. Ben-Ari has proven himself to be clearly a man of actions.  Indeed, THE ONLY OFFICER, the only Knesset member, IN THE LAND that as a Knesset member whose function is to represent the people and the land, has done just that.

Now, before describing more about this above verse about Gever Ben-Uri, I should note a most obvious thing - Dr. Ben-Ari's Hebrew name Michael HAS THE SAME FIVE LETTERS as the name of Prophet Malachi!  And Gever Ben-Uri is the LAST OF THE TWELVE officers listed who supported King Solomon's food intake, the same way that Malachi is the LAST OF THE TWELVE of the Minor Prophets.
For after all, Dr. Ben-Ari, as Kahane's follower, is ultimately representing Kahanism in its finest - for as a Knesset member, he is able to accomplish more in the political realm to help Israel and its citizens than other Kahane followers who aren't in the political position that he is in to fulfill one of the last missions of the Jewish people before the coming of Moshiach, as much as the words of Torah-Kahane are important, as in fact, the Mitzva of Torah learning is the greatest Mitzva, but also, "Talmud (synonym for Torah) is great, for it leads to action".  And so, along with the fact that he has a PH.D in Land of Israel and Archeology studies, he is the ultimate political representative of Israel, although unless over 50% of Israeli citizens voting vote for his new party, he won't be sitting in the official Prime Minister's chair, although he is the virtually the only political person worthy of this position.

Bearing this in mind, Benjamin, the LAST OF THE TWELVE TRIBES, was the ONLY one of the tribes who was born in Israel, his name meaning Ben-Yamin "son of the right" referring to Israel in terms of directions, but is apparently the basis for the concept of what "right-wing" represents, while ironically, Prime Monster Benjamin Netanyahu, bearing this very Hebrew name, has been among the worse Prime Monsters of Israel as I have already detailed of his anti-accomplishments.  But don't worry, Dr. Michael Ben-Ari represents another Jew who was a real Binyamin in every sense of the name - Rabbi  Binyamin Kahane, may Hashem avenge his blood.

And as the fatal rocket attack on Kiryat Malachi took place on Rosh Chodesh Kislev, THE HEAD of the month that corresponds to the Tribe of Binyamin, this is a most clear indication that the prime minister - THE HEAD - of the country, Binyamin Netanyahu, is ultimately the one most directly responsible for these type of attacks that are happening; and only one, especially once aware of these facts that I have put together, who does not look at this as a clear message from Hashem, can be so blind or a denier of Judaism not to believe this. (Of course, these warnings from Hashem is also due to our general misbehavior, but Hashem has ways of hinting to specific things for us to learn from). Moreover, this also hints to the fact that the words of another Binyamin are not being followed - the words of Rabbi Binyamin Kahane, who in his final letter, which he wrote addressing the Israeli army, exhorts them to do what is right in defending this country, and not follow orders that could possible endanger this country.  This means, as far as I am concerned, that if the army is given orders to desist from continuing fighting because the prime minister gives orders for a ceasefire due to international pressure, that the army should continue fighting, even if it means disobeying the orders of the head chief of the army, because in the long run,  Jews will be far more safer in the end, which is the whole purpose of having an army in Israel to begin with.

Now, you will also notice in the verse something about the name of Og, the king of the Bashan, who was personally conquered and killed by Moses, the first leader of the Jewish people, himself.  While in virtually every place in the Tanach, his name is spelled out as the letters Ayin-Vav-Gimel; in this particular instance, his name is spelled as Ayin-Gimel, without the letter Vav.  And indeed, the last two letters of this Hebrew year 5773, the year of Ben-Ari's new party and G-d willing, his installation in the Knesset as the head of this party, is Ayin-Gimel (73)!  So, while there may be anti-Kahane Jews who will be quick to mock what I am saying here with hints from the Tanach about Ben-Ari, his position, and the year of his leadership as the head of a Knesset party for the first time, one has to understand why the Tanach goes into great detail, in thirteen verses, about the support of King Solomon's food, which could have been mentioned in a mere verse or two.  After all, the Torah is all about teaching us lessons, and is not another history book or novel.  But no doubt, this whole thing was written TO HINT TO SOME FUTURE TIME IN JEWISH HISTORY, WHEN THE ELECTION OF OFFICIALS WILL BE CRITICAL TO THE SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE.  By the way, we have here a great rhyme - MICHAEL BEN ARI, IN SEVENTY THREE!

So, it isn't just about voting for some religious party who will "guarantee" religious rights in an anti-religious dictatorship in the Knesset, even though of course, we need to do our best to assure rights for those who observe the Torah.  However, this has to be done ONLY in the Kosher way, and with NO COMPROMISES, the principle that Rabbis Meir and Binyamin Kahane, and Dr. Michael Ben-Ari have proven to stand by, regardless of threats, arrests, and being banned from countries.  Otherwise, in the long term, Judaism in Israel will G-d forbid will be souped and watered down, the same thing that the Enlightment/Reform Judaism has done to the real, authentic Judaism.  And so, quantity in this instance simply doesn't quite cut it, for the anti-Kahane "religious" members are a band of evil people, and if anyone wants to dare me to say this to the present Knesset members of the Bayit Yehudi "Jewish (plus Arabic) Home" party, send me an E-mail with the time and place within Jerusalem that these phonies will be available, and G-d willing, I will openly show who they really are.  And so, with Katzeleh's good intentions of unity of religious parties, as well as he may truly care about Israel, even as he is even willing to take a chance taking a back seat as seventh place on the Ichud Leumi list, his intentions simply don't stand up to the ideals of the Kahane movement of zero tolerance of Arabs, as those who aren't members of his immediate own Ichud Leumi party have their own agenda, and have united simply because they thought it would be a good idea for their own interests.  Certainly, Rabbi Meir Kahane would have NEVER agreed to be part of such a party, or in this instance, part of the combined parties, being that some of these members are evil people, and it is forbidden to join forces with evil people.

And so, why should Dr. Ben-Ari be any different than Rabbi Kahane?  Now personally, if he would have still been part of this Ichud Leumi party, I would vote for this party as I voted for it in the last election four years ago- just for the reason alone that he would be part of this party, because we need a voice like his to shake things up for the benefit of the Jewish people.  But in the long term, it is necessary that for the voice of truth, that he runs his own separate party, the same way that Jews are supposed to live alone, away from the nations, as Rabbi Kahane had preached.  For truth, the true quality, simply cannot exist with falsehood.

And of course, I have to mention that Dr. Ben-Ari's Hebrew name Michael is the same name as the official angel representive of the Jewish people - Sar Shel Yisrael, which can also be translated as "Officer of Israel".  For indeed, the angel Michael is the true representative and defense attorney of the Jewish people in Heaven.

But before I conclude, I must say that part of the reason(s) why the rocket attack happend specifically in Kiryat Malachi, noting the same letters in the Hebrew names Malachi and Michael, is the message that if we are to avoid future rocket attacks, the ONLY solution in the elections is to vote for the ONE AND ONLY Dr. Michael Ben-Ari's party "POWER TO ISRAEL".  Because if not, G-d forbid, the Arabs will have no one else to fear, and will continue to do what they have been doing until now and even worse.  The only thing that the Arabs fear is fearless leaders as Kahane and Ben-Ari.

And indeed, the word Koach (POWER) is used in the beginning of a verse in Tehillim (Psalms 111:6) - Koach Ma'asav Higid L"Amo Latet Lahem Nachalat Goyim "The power of His actions He told to His people to give them the inheritance of nations", which of course refers to Israel, and is quoted in the VERY FIRST RASHI ON THE TORAH, answering the question as to why the Torah begins recounting the story of creation instead of beginning with the Mitzvot of the Torah, the ultimate purpose of the Torah; since it is Hashem's world, and it is Hashem Who decides as to whom Israel belongs, for at one time, it was the "Land of the Canaanites", and then when Hashem was ready, he took it away from these Canaanite nations, and gave it to Israel as a permanent inheritance, even if the Jews would be in exile at one point.  And so, if one professes true allegiance to the Torah, he can't go very far without dealing with the truth of the purpose of the very first verse of the Torah.

And speaking of the beginning of the Torah (Torah/Chumash/Tanach), let us turn to the very beginning of Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law): Yitgaber Ka'Ari La'amod BaBoker La'Avodat Bor'o  "One should strengthen himself like a lion to get up in the morning for the service of his Creator".  And as we see in the verse hinting to Dr. Ben-Ari, where the full name of the person in context is Gever Ben-Uri, Gever is related to the word Yitgaber "One should strengthen oneself", and Ben-Uri can be re-read as Ben-Ari (son of lion) with the same letter spelling, we see that nothing is coincidence, and from the Bible to the Code of Jewish Law, we see who is at the forefront of REALLY following what the Torah says to do in terms of helping the Land of Israel.

And if we do our part, even if it may be a small segment of the Jewish people voting in the elections in Israel, by voting for the ONLY VOICE OF TRUTH in the Knesset, the only voice that will actively do anything and everything in its power to oust our Arab enemies, as the Torah mandates of getting rid of our enemies as a prerequisite of living safely in Israel, and is not enough to simply build and live in Jewish settlements, then at least for the few good Jews who had a part in voting for truth, Hashem will the end seal us for eternal life with His seal of truth.  As we see in the beginning of Psalm SEVENTY THREE - "Hymn of Asaf - May it only be good for Israel".  And at the end of the section in the Book of Kings, where it mentions the details of King Solomon's food support, PARTICULARLY THE VERSE THAT SPEAKS OF GEVER BEN-URI (i.e. Michael Ben-Ari), reads "Judah and Israel were many in the land, as sand on the sea in multitudes, eating, drinking, and being happy" the result of what happens when we are not afraid of doing the right thing, having the courage of a lion.  May this be fulfilled in our lifetime.  Amen!


5 Kislev 5773

#158 - After 22 Years of Kahane Separation

Hashem created a beautiful world with sufficient resources.  Now, there will be some people who will challenge this because especially these days, people who especially do not follow any form of religion that involves a Higher Power looks at this world as a place that is manipulated by mankind; and therefore, will bemoan the fact that the way things are going, there will not be sufficient water, not sufficient oil, there are endangered species, etc.

The truth is Hashem knew beforehand everything exactly how this world would operate.  Indeed, He created a finite world that is slated to be in existence for only 6,000 years.  And it is true that only in rather recent times, major modern technology has taken place that has challenged nature.  But meanwhile, while some are worried about how in the near future, pending battery operated vehicles, we will be able to commute without a continuous supply of gas, thanks to modern plumbing, we have instant access to water in the kitchen sink, the toilet, and shower room, without ever needing to fetch heavy pails of water from the well.  Yes, it is true that we need to be careful not be wasteful and that everyone needs to do their part not to use excessive water beyond drinking and hygenic washing needs.  However, if we truly believe in G-d and do what He wants, we won't have to worry about how to access our basic needs.

Anyone, aside from avowed atheists who will make up 1,001 reasons why a miracle cannot occur or is an optic illusion in our eyes, cannot help but notice how this world was truly created in a most intelligent fashion.  You see, the number one thing that never costs anything (except for very sick/old people or their health insurance company) is air.  It's sure a good thing that air is free, for otherwise, no one would be able to survive beyond a few minutes.  And then for the most part - unless we buy bottled water, the water from our sinks at home to public drinking fountains carry no price tag.  And then for food, we have to start doing shopping, but if we have fruit trees or vegetable plants in our home yard, then we can save some money to be used for more expensive food items or towards other basic needs.  It makes sense, because after all, fruits and vegetables are the healthiest food on the planet.  Of course when it comes to gourmet foods, they will cost more than the average food.  And then for clothes, they generally cost more than any given food item.  So as you can see, Hashem created a hierchy of needs - the more vital being to our existence, the less it will cost us.

Another thing that we find about Hashem's created nature is that natural products can either be most helpful or most hurtful  to society.  For example, fire can either help illuminate a dark room, warm the family in the freezing winter, or cause major destruction to people's lives and possessions.  Water can either quench the thirst of a thirsty person who could be on the brink of death, or drown a person.  And so too with air - as vital as it is for a person's breathing, if the air is polluted, then even if one can breathe, there will be long-term damage down the road.

In short, just like fish if taken from their water habitat to the air will die shortly; so too, people and animals who stay in the water without an oxygen tank will die in a short time without air, or can be left in a vegetative state for life, which is more of a curse than a blessing for people who would be suffering far less if they just would have died.

Now, even when it comes to cutting off the air supply for a living being above water, this is not the only way that this can happen.  Tightening the neck of a being, especially in hanging someone for execution, has been a common way of doing this for thousands of years.  In the Jewish court system of yesteryear, this was one of the four forms of a court execution, though this was done strictly by two people pulling at opposite ends of the kerchief tied around the sentenced person's neck, and was only hung following his execution like it was with the other forms of execution.  In Hebrew, the word for strangulation, especially as one of the four methods of execution, is called Chenek, which when spelled backwards, is the Hebrew number 158 - and this is my 158th Post.

Now, let us turn to more spiritual matters, though all of nature is from Hashem.  Of course, the ultimate life force is Hashem, because without Hashem so to speak, all existence would immediately cease to exist, for in fact, while Hashem already created this world, it is actually being constantly remaining in creation only due to the constant life-force that Hashem gave it, as we say in our daily morning prayers - HaMechedeish B'Tuvo Bechol Yom Tamid Ma'asei Bereishit  "Who daily renews at all time the works of creation".

However, even all this is pertaining strictly to one's or the world's physical existence.  However, for one's continued spiritual existence, not only for the short-term, but for the eternal long-term, it is most crucial, at least for a Jew, to learn and live Torah, as demonstrated by the fact that there are 365 sinews and 248 limbs (unlike the false scientific figure of 206 or whatever number that serves the scientific at heistic community) that correspond to the 365 non-active or negative Mitzvot and the 248 active or positive Mitzvot.  In fact, the Torah is compared to water, fire, and air, howbeit in different contexts.

More specifically, we are more kept spiritually alive when we learn Torah from other people who especially have learned and remembered the entire Torah.  It is true that we have to observe the other Mitzvot as well, but the biggest source of life force as well as the greatest of all Mitzvot is the Torah.

Most unfortunately, there are so many among the Jewish population who are spitiually chocking - and definitely some of these people will be eternally damned or chocked off from their spiritual life force that they sadly ignored, living rather with the temptations of this temporary, fleeting world.

Fortunately, there are many righteous people and Torah scholars even in today's modernized world, which has had a terrible influence even on those who supposedly learn in Yeshiva all day.  However, there was one righteous person and Torah scholar who was degraded not only by the corrupt and double-standard media, but as well by virtually every level of Jewish practitioners of Judaism observance.

You may have guessed by now to whom I am referring to, but it is the one (though not necessarily the only) Rabbi Meir Kahane, may Hashem avenge his blood.  After all, in the opinion of the evil media, Kahane was a terrorist just like Arafat - except for a few differences.  Kahane was a terrorist, while Arafat was in essence a militant freedom fighter.  Kahane was a fanatic, while Arafat was only following his own religion of Islam (though he didn't necessarily follow it per se like most other Moslems, as well as being a homosexual which resulted in him dying of AIDS, and the attempt to exhume his remains is just a cover up of this by the world media to this effect).  Kahane was a denier of human rights to "Palestinian" refugees, while Arafat was only trying to help the Arab race from the fanatic Jewish settlers in Israel which happened to result in a few suicide bombings here, a few stabbings there, but of course, these human atrocities happened beyond Arafat's "control".  Of course this is not too surprising.  I remember the time when Arafat's "daughter" was born, and the news stations were busy reporting it.  You would think from the media that Arafat was a prime minister, president or vice president of some country if you never heard of him before, but the big irony is that being that he was a lifelong homosexual, his wife Fahima of his later years was a cover up for him, as she was living in France, far away from the Arab lands, and while Arafat was busy between screwing men in the bedroom and planning to murder more Jews, Arafat's "daughter" was conceived by his wife through some other way.

But before some would like to be critical of the media which is virtually like the media was in Communist Russia, as well as the leftist newspapers in Israel of course, it is really not all too surprising when most of Kahane's own people basically felt the same about him - just in perhaps a little different words so as not to appear anti-Semitic.  For the most part among Jews - the secular leftists abhorred him, the moderate modern  Orthodox criticized him, and the right-wing Yeshiva world ignored him.  To be sure, there were Jews of all spectrums of Judaism who even joined him, especially in the early days of the JDL, but they were far too few  and short lived in terms of support for Kahane.   In terms of the last few words of the previous sentence, I am referring especially to two cases - one who later became a lawyer, and was part of the legal team of the evil shameful irreligious Jew William Kunstler (his full name was William Moses Kunstler, may his name and his memory be blotted) who was the criminal attorney for Kahane's assassin, and as this former JDL member who even got arrested as an active JDL member who later turned money loving lawyer put it, he was negating his former JDL activities in his assistance in the defense of Kahane's assassin.  And then there is Avigdor Lieberman, the head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, who as a Russian Jew, was a member of the JDL which was the one and only outspoken Jewish voice on behalf of the Jews in Communist Russia, who in time joined his hands into the secular Israeli dirty politics, pretending to his own Russian Jewish kind that he cares about Israel, while secretly, or not so secretly, as of late, joined his party with Prime Monster Bibi Netanyahu's Likud, to ensure that this Holy Land will remain under the control of the secular government, fearing a majority of religious votes (even though most of the so to speak religious Jews in the Knesset are corrupt from money and power, and more or less are anti-Kahane, except they show it in various ways).

Now, while Rabbi Meir Kahane was a Jewish activist for the most part since his teens, his founding of the JDL in 1968 marked the beginning of his full time Jewish activism in lieu of other means of livelihood until he was murdered in 1990, which was like 22 years.  Accordingly, since he was murdered, it has been now 22 years without him.  It is true that for the first 10 years since Rabbi Meir Kahane's ascent to Heaven that his most worthy son Rabbi Binyamin Kahane, may Hashem avenge his blood, took over the reigns of the Kahane movement, no less being attempted by the Israeli government and police to be silenced until he was also murdered by Arabs, the "big" Jew the son of the first "big" Jew.  However, not even everyone who were staunch supporters of Rabbi Meir Kahane were willing to be the same for his son Binyamin, and for their own selfish reasons, had baseless hatred for him, and so, the movement of the support of Kahane became far less, which especially affected Jews in Israel as well as its politics.  An example of this - when the Israeli government suddenly banned Kahane's Kach party before beginning his second term, he won 12 seats.  In the previous Israeli election, the Ichud Leumi (National Union) which included the settlement legend Katzeleh and staunch Kahane follower Dr. Michael Ben-Ari won only four seats, with its rival Bayit HaYehudi, a "moderate national" party, won three seats.  So as you can see, though we have yet to see what will be exactly in the near future Israeli election, the support of Kahane based parties have sadly dwindled.

Another major factor, as a trick of the Yetzer Hara (Evil Inclination), are the Parsha sheets.  The synagogues in Israel, especially of the ones whom are called Dati Leumi (national religious, which is for the most part equated with the Modern Orthodox in the States) are full of them - full of Torah sheets relating to the Parsha of the week. Yes, there may be an authentic Torah sermon in these sheets here and there, such as from Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Shlita, Chief Rabbi of Safed, and Rabbi Dov Lior, Shlita, Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Arba - Hebron, who aren't afraid to speak the truth about how the government is mishandling Israel, just like Kahane was, but for the most part, also include other subjects, including politics, especially the ads as of late, making most of the seemingly religious Jewish candidates of the anti-Kahane parties look like they are Tzadikim (righteous people) caring about Jews and Israel.  But the other half of the problem, is that in these Parsha sheets, there are also sermons as so-called words of Torah, from those who may be popular as rabbis, but are clearly turncoats of the Jewish people, such as those with the names Moti Alon (whose father Menachem Alon, though also with the title of rabbi, and judge in the unSupreme Court of Israel, was among those who helped ban Kahane from the Knesset) and Shlomo Aviner, who both came to Gush Katif to help the police and soldiers throw out Jews from there in the post Tisha B'Av 5765 ('05) exile of some 9,000 Jews, as evidenced on video.  And yet, it seems that most of the Dati Leumi community doesn't give a damn as to what these turncoat rabbis have done to some of their own brethren of their own religious kind, and you would think that these rabbis, as featured in these Parsha sheets, are the cream of the crop among rabbis.

And why is this so?  It is very simple.  It isn't simply that they don't exactly agree with everything that the fanatical Kahane said or did, though in terms of fanatics, he never called on killing Arabs, but simply to transfer them - instead of transferring Jews - to one of their 22 countries or whatever other country that would best suit them to live happily ever after.  It's that instead of the likes of Rabbis Kahane, Eliyahu, and Lior, they are for the likes of Alon, Aviner, and many more such Erev Rav rabbis who are quite happy that both Rabbis Meir and Binyamin Kahane are no longer "dominating" the scene.  You see, it is very simple.  Our rabbis tell us that one who is merciful to the cruel will in the end be cruel to the merciful, such as King Saul who was a bit merciful on the Amalekite nation by his keeping alive its animal and its King Agag; and as it happened later on, he ordered Doeg the Edomite to murder the Cohanim, along with their wives and even their baby children of the city of Nov, since the Cohen Gadol (High Priest) in the Tabernacle which was presently in the city of Nov, not knowing that King Saul turned against his own son-in-law the future King David, gave food to the latter.  The truth is that it works the other way around too - those who are cruel to the merciful wind up being merciful to the cruel.  And so, since these same type of Jews who downplayed and downtrodded Kahane, which included banning him, at the end wound up not only not banning the likes of Moti Alon and Shlomo Aviner who deserve according to the Jewish law to be excommunicated for helping to throw out their own Jewish brethren, but continuously praise these rabbis, allowing for their non-stop of "Torah" sermons, as though they are the ultimate authority in Jewish Law (aside from the fact that Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, ZTVK"L forbade Shlomo Aviner several years ago to decide matters in Jewish law after being discovered to have made misjudgments in Jewish law pertaining to the laws of Jewish family purity, which is even more important than the Sabbath and keeping kosher in terms of the purity and holiness of the Jewish family).

And so, you then wonder why so fewer Jews today vote for Kahane based parties today than they did some 25 years ago when Rabbi Meir Kahane was gaining momentum from all spectrums of Jews who knew that only Kahane was the real thing, and the only one who TRULY cared for ALL Jews, regardless of religious affiliation.  It is the spiritual poison of the above Erev Rav rabbis who twist the Torah to fit their personal agenda that they feel will be threatened by the authentic rabbis of truth.  Remember, there is a whole new generation of Jews grown up, being able to vote, and are most influenced by the Parsha sheets have to tell them, instead of what an authentic holy Jewish book from the Tanach (Bible) to the Talmud has to tell them, the very sources that Rabbi Meir Kahane used as the basis of his magnum opus - Ohr HaRahyon - "The Jewish Idea".  They really want to learn the Parsha?  Good.  Open a Chumash (Penteteuch), and see what Rashi and the other authentic Jewish commentators have to say, instead of quoted statements from them that the anti-Kahane rabbis hijack and take out of context to maintain their good standing with the self-hating Jewish, pro-Arab government, who are afraid that otherwise, they may cease receiving funding for their non-Torah institutions, which includes keeping-the-mouth-shut money when it comes to the constant expulsion of Jews from the various "outposts".

I have spoken quite strong before in terms of phony rabbis and other Jewish "leaders".  However, more than simply letting the cats out of the bag in this post, I have really gone into the knitty gritty of the REAL source of the problems going on today under the dictatorship of the Israeli government, courts, police, and army.  Every single one of these Erev Rav rabbis, from the "moderate", to the more outspoken left-wing ones, to the ones who simply don't speak up when it comes time to denounce the crimes by the police done against activist teenage girls who are ordered or forced to strip when illegally incarcerated, to the crimes done to the good teenage boys who are falsely accused of crimes against Arabs (including a rabbi of a city in Gush Etzion who sided with the police about the crime done on Arabs being supposedly done by a few youths of his city, whose name I will reveal in the near future when I hope to soon write to him if he doesn't recant what he said), who are also the cause of the murder of Jews by Arabs, including a few Jews in Kiryat Malachi in yesterday's rocket attack as a result of their silence, let alone when some of them are quick to denounce the likes of Kahane versus when Arab terrorists commit a terrorist act.

Yes, too many Jews today are being CHOCKED by the spiritual poison of rabbis and Jewish "leaders" who have failed them in the truth of Torah and nationalism.  As it is, the last 22 years since the first true BIG Jew was murdered have been especially a time of darkness, in which few have followed Kahane of his previous 22 years of Jewish activism, in which he constantly spoke of transferring the Arabs from Israel to one of their 22 countries of which they were supposedly refugees.

Though Rabbi Meir Kahane's Yahrzeit is 18 Cheshvan, which in this year, fell out on Shabbat Vayeira - when by the way, we read of Yishmael, ancestor of the Arabs, who was thrown out of Abraham's home following his attempted crimes against his half brother Yitzchak, the first one born as a Jew and ancestor of the Jewish people, and in which Yitzchak was willing to have himself sacrificed on the altar (while the Koran claims that this is what happened to Yishmael); when Rabbi Kahane was murdered, it was during the week of Parshat Chayei Sara, which begins with the mention of the 127 years of Sara's life, which is mirrored by the last 22 verses of Mishlei (Book of Proverbs) which is the Aishet Chayil (Woman of Valor) paragraph that we recite before the Kiddush on Shabbat night.

And as an example of one who isn't influenced by peers but sticks to the right pirinciples, like Kahane, when in this Parshat Chayei Sara, Rebecca was asked by her mother and evil brother Laban if she really wants to leave to marry Isaac, when they first attempted to discourage Abraham's servant Eliezer from taking her, she replied without hesitation that she wants to go.  Now mind you, she was only three years old, and had yet to learn of the real G-d, being surrounded with the idols of her home and town.  However, being the good person that she was, wanting to do kindness where needed, and she realized that she was being offered the real thing - a chance to be part of the "Hebrews", she said yes with no hesitation, even though this meant for all that she knew that she would never again see her mother or brother, considering the distance of traveling by camel in those days.

And for the finale of the Parsha, in which Yishmael's children and dwelling place is mentioned, the Parsha ends off with the literal words, referring to his family "in front of all his brethren, he fell".  May this happen very soon, Amen!

And in speaking of a true Jewish leader, from Moses to Kahane, while the name Moses may not have been part of Kahane's name like the middle name of the evil Jewish lawyer who had no shame defending Kahane's murderer, which wound up that the Arab murderer was not convicted of murdering Kahane, and was convicted only of everything else - as illegal gun possession, attempting to kill others, etc., he represented the basic leadership skills of Moses - love and sacrifice for his people.  And indeed, the Gematria of his full Hebrew name with the title of Cohen as Meir Dovid HaCohen is the same Gematria as the name Moshe - 345!

And while it is not Purim at this time of the year, the following is what I thought of about Kahane at Purim time last year, but I didn't have a chance then to write it.  Looking at Rabbi Kahane's name Meir Dovid - you will find an amazing thing - the date 14 Adar as the letters Yud-Dalet Aleph-Dalet-Reish, which is the very date of Purim!  Now in the Purim, we know that Mordechai, despite political pressure in his position to King Achashveirosh, wasn't afraid to tell the Jews not to join the king's feast, even as they didn't listen, and then they blamed him for Haman's hatred and threat of annihilation of the Jews, as well as his staunch refusal to listen to the king's viceroy Haman to bow down to him.  In any case, this very date 14 Adar is also the date of...the Brit Mila (circumcision) of Moshe Rabbeinu, since he was born on 7 Adar, and so his circumcision of one week later fell out on this very date which is included in Rabbi Kahane's Hebrew name!
Now, the remaining letters of his name are a MEM and VAV, which is the Hebrew number 46, which by the way is the Gematria of the name of Levi, parental great-grandfather of Moshe, and ancestor of the Cohanim.
Now to note especially for this year, we are presently in the 46th year from the liberation of the Old City of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount on which resided the holiest spot of the earth - the Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple).  And as Rabbi Kahane pointed out, it is a Chilul Hashem (desecration of G-d's name) that the Arabs have free reign on this holiest area of the world, when earlier in '67 following the recapture of this area, it was announced by Moti Gur - Har HaBayit B'Yadeinu "The Temple Mount is in our hands", also bemoaning the fact that some rabbis were more concerned about Jews not being allowed on the Mount according to Jewish Law (which is only applicable to certain areas on the Mount, and many rabbis, including the Rambam were on this mount) than the terrible desecration of G-d's name of Arabs being on the Mount.
And as Rabbi Kahane explains, the word Chilul which we define as desecration, comes from the Hebrew word Chalal - vacuum, for when Hashem is mocked, there is a vacuum or vacancy of the holiness and respect of Hashem.

Now, the closest thing we have to Kahane warning us of the impending dangers, G-d forbid, that could happen to the Jewish people - "It's either Kahane or Arafat", is the autistic child named Moishela, who as of late, has been warning the Jewish people of the impending doom, G-d forbid, and that we need to repent now if we are to avoid the worse.  You see, the Jewish people as a whole didn't listen before to a Cohen V'Navi (as mentioned in Megillat Eicha - Lamentations - about the Cohen and prophet Zechariah who warned the Jewish people as per their misdeeds, and Joash, the king of Judea, had him murdered in the Temple on the day that was both Shabbat and Yom Kippur), which perfectly describes both Rabbis Meir and Binyamin Kahane whose prophecies of troubles unfortunately came true, and so now, after suffering so much, we are being given one final chance -through the typing of an autistic child who, more than having a name that is the same Gematria as Moshe - has the name Moshe itself, being reminiscent of Moshe Rabbeinu in the beginning of the history of the Jewish people as a nation at the time of the first Redemption from Egypt, and now, right before the final Redemption, we are being given the final warning signs by someone named Moshe, just as Moshe Rabbeinu warned us in the Torah of the troubles that would befall the Jewish people in the future, including in the End of Days right before the Redemption, if we won't follow what the Torah tells us to do.

Yes, we have had a big vacancy in our standards of Jewish pride in the last 22 years.  However, the good news is that there is a new generation of young Jews in Israel who, though they may have never met Rabbis Meir & Binyamin Kahane, are more followers of them than many if not most Jews today.  It is the heros and heroines of especially the Jewish youth of today, who are examples of what true Jewish leaders are like, and not the rabbis and Jewish "leaders" who attempt to silence them.  For when it comes to a Chillul Hashem, there is no such thing as justified silence, just as when the brothers Shimon and Levi avenged the rape of their sister Dinah by executing the town of Shechem for not denouncing their town leader Shechem's rape of Dinah.  And as Rabbi Kahane writes on this, even though Jacob criticized them for this, it wasn't their avengence and killing of the town itself that bothered Jacob, aside from his initial fear of the surrounding area wanting to attack his family, but rather it was their anger behind it that was the same anger used  in their mistreatment of Joseph when they threw him in a pit.

On a final note, there were two other periods of separation.  There was the separation of Jacob from his parents following a 14 year study in Yeshiva.  And as our rabbis tell us - Mida Knegged Mida - measure for measure for Jacob's 22 year separation from the time that he left for Haran until his return to Israel, his son Joseph was separated from him for 22 years.  Now, the question can be asked, if Jacob traveled to Haran upon being told by his parents to go there to escape from his brother Esau who now hated him for receiving the birthright blessings instead of Esau, as recounted in Parshat Toldot that we will be reading tomorrow, then why was he punished for this?  At least for the first 14 years that he was in Haran, he didn't have much of a choice, since he worked seven years for each of Uncle Laban's two daughters whom he married.  It was only after this immediate obligation that you could say that he had the chance to return to honor his aged parents, but waited another eight years.  If that is the case, then why was he punished for the entire 22 year period (the 14 year period learning Torah beforehand wasn't included in this, since he had no physical reason  aside from his escape from Esau for being away aside from learning Torah)?

No doubt that Jacob was a great righteous person, even as the Torah attests to it that he came Shalem "complete" to Shechem when he finally returned to Israel, being complete in his Torah learning, and not influenced by his evil uncle Laban.  However, since he unnecessarily remained in Haran despite not having any more obligations, even though he came there in obedience of his parents to get married, since he attached additional unnecessary years, his intentions were so to speak considered suspect, for in fact, if he would have trusted sufficiently in Hashem, he could have done the same trick to begin with that he wound up doing to Laban anyways at the end when he finally took off with the whole large family without informing Laban, and as soon as he married Leah and Rachel after seven years, following Laban's trick on him having him marry Leah before Rachel, he could have called for the runaway as soon as he married Rachel instead of working another seven years which resulted from Laban's trickery.  However, not only did Jacob remain another seven years in his obligation that he could have technically not follow now that he married both wives, but he remained for additional time that he had no excusable reason for.  Hence, as far as Hashem was concerned, since this resulted in ignoring his aged parents as per the Mitzva (commandment) of Kibbud Av V'Em (honoring one's parents), he was treated the same way by his most beloved son Joseph having disappeared from him for 22 years.

May it be our Heavenly Father's will that now that we have suffered 22 years of Kahane separation, He will send us, His children, the ultimate spiritual leader who will fight both our physical and spiritual wars immediately - our righteous Moshiach.


2 Kislev 5773