Category: Weekly Letters

They even quote the Torah and or the Tanakh to prove their views. They claim since the Jews killed their own Prophets, this discredits Judaism and the Rabbis and the Jews for having rejected Jesus and/or Muhammad, and believe the Jews wanted to kill them. Therefore Jews cannot be believed as far as who is a Prophet, since they admit that King Ahav killed the prophets of Elijah, King Yoash killed Zechariah and King Menashe killed Isaiah. I am asking this question not because I agree with the claims of Christianity and Islam. I am asking what the Jewish response to these claims, that there were Jews that sinned in Biblical times and worshipped other gods and worshipped the Golden Calf

Answer: Yes, there are sins mentioned in the Bible, and they are there precisely to teach us what not to do. “Judaism is perfect, Jews are not”, in fact, nobody is. I’m sure you are aware that there always were bad people, especially in the primitive world (e.g. see the Codex of Hammurabi…), and especially kings in the era of dictator monarchs, where there was very little accountability, if at all (except for in Israel, where we had prophets, who were sometimes targeted by kings for that very reason!). The Jews were also the only people in the ancient world who ever were honest in writing history, stressing even the shortcomings of their leaders (including Moses and David), thousands of years before democracy, and that accountability, transparency and “check and balance system” is our “fault”, for which several prophets paid for, with their lives. Also, the Jews were the only ones in the ancient world who were not (!) 100% pagans, and we always criticized the Jews who acted like everyone else at the time, and served idols. It’s unfair and even comical to criticize (instead of admiring) the only nation at the time who was not (!) totally idolatrous, for having, punishing and criticizing that minority of idolaters!

The fact that several prophets were murdered over a 3,300 year history (not in the Torah as your friends claimed, but in the Prophets), doesn’t mean that all, or most, or even 1% were killed, and surely has nothing to do with murder of people who aren’t prophets or who are false prophets… The U.S.A. has had, in just 250 years, more than 30 presidential assassination attempts, but it’s absurd to deduct from this that Americans are murderers, and should not be trusted to vote who is worthy of the presidency…

If you want to put things in an honest, objective and non-anachronistic perspective, I suggest you simply take a look at the Jews in your personal country (wherever you live), and you will find that they have much less (!) murderers and idolaters (including trinity believers) than the general population, and that is in every country of the world in every era of history! That’s a pretty good accomplishment, and speaks for itself. Even today in Israel, where Jews comprise 80% of the population, by far the vast majority (!) of the murderers are from the non-Jewish 20%! Shabbat Shalom! Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)

This week’s parsha deals with the prohibition of Kohanim to contact death.

Rav Kook explains that as opposed to other religions who mainly turn to the clergy before and during the process of death (for all agree, when man does not understand a topic, it’s “prime-time” to turn to religion or l’havdil, superstition) and there are “no atheists in the foxholes”, we don’t want our holiest people to be associated in our minds with death, but rather life.

Similarly, Rav Kook explains the kabbalistic custom that some WOMEN don’t enter the cemetery, for they are ALL LIKE Kohanim, who should be preoccupied with conceiving and raising life, tahara, and not the opposite, tum’ah! Even though “death” is seemingly “part of life”, all of Yisrael are called “ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש” (Shmot 19, 6), “a nation of Kohanim”, likened to KOHANIM, because Am Yisrael lives forever and is preoccupied with -טהרה life, and the Living Torah.

Children inevitably focus on short-term pleasures, eating as much candy as possible, without thinking of cavities or diabetes. Contrarily, mature adults already know that long-term pleasure is more important than short-term. But Judaism says, why settle for third class (short-term) pleasure or even second class (long-term) pleasure, when one can opt for longer than long= ETERNAL pleasure which is first-class. The eternal G-d, created the eternal Israel, to live the eternal Torah in the eternal land of Israel. We focus on the eternal, and don’t get hung up on death. Our enemies glorify death and the Shahid, but we fight our enemies for the sake of giving life to our eternal people and eternal Torah, yet even after death, there is “life after death”.

The mitzvot bring a taste of that eternal Living Torah to our daily lives, but every child knows that just about all mitzvot are superseded by life itself (Shulchan Aruch Or. Ch. 329). We grow up with this as obvious, but the Samaritans will not drive in an ambulance on Shabbat nor will they eat on Yom Kippur even to save their lives! They say to us cynically “we are more religious than you, and do G-d’s mitzvot even when it’s hard, even if it really ‘costs us’ our lives”. We answer that our Living Father is a מלך חפץ בחיים””, a King who desires life, who commands “וחי בהם ולא שימות בהם”, “live by them [the mitzvot] and don’t die by them” (Vayikra 18). Only the 3 cardinal sins, idolatry, murder and adultery [as the Maharal, Netzach Yisrael, ch. 5, p. 36, explains, which respectively correspond to the epitome of the 3 mitzvah categories: between man and G-d, man and man, and man and himself- his desires for making life], show us that life itself is meant for meaning. That same G-d is the One who created us with the survival instinct, the strongest of drives, to continue our life.

Apparently, Hashem has arranged that the most known Hebrew phrase in the world (unfortunately probably even more than “Shema Yisrael”, and probably because of “Fiddler on the Roof”!), is “LeChaim”- “To Life”, for we are in fact preoccupied with life. Shabbat Shalom! Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)

This week’s parsha returns to the mysterious death of Nadav and Avihu, the sons of Aharon, about which G-d says: ‘I will be sanctified through those near Me, and before all the people I will be glorified,’ “בקרוביי אקדש ועל פני כל העם אכבד” (Vayikra 10, 3). We don’t understand and sometimes Israel pays a price for being “בני ישראל עם קרובו” (Tehil. 148, 14), the closest nation to Hashem, but that is essentially part of our role.

Rav Kook explains (Ayn Aya vii, 41, Orot, p. 157) just like the prophets often suffered for saying uncomfortable G-dly messages, similarly Am Yisrael historically had to pay the prices as “the conscience of mankind”, and the way Hashem is seen to the world. Israel is called “the nation of prophets”.

I heard Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook zt”l on several Yom HaAtzma’uts, and each time he would mention the central theme until it “sank in”: “עם זו יצרתי לי תהלתי ייספרו” “This nation [Israel] I created for Myself; they shall say My praise” (Yishaya 43, 21). G-d is not commanding us to “PREACH” about Him, but our very HISTORY testifies His creation of the world and its destiny.

On Yom HaAtzma’ut we sing (Tehil. 126, 2), first the nations proclaim that Hashem did great miracles for Israel (“אז יאמרו בגוים הגדיל ה’ לעשות עם אלה”), and only then we “dare” say that which we always knew, “הגדיל ה’ לעשות עמנו”.

Just like the greatest praises of Am Yisrael in the Torah apparently must be said by some objective and respected gentile (e.g. Bil’am), similarly today: first more and more gentile leaders publicize that which many Jews are embarrassed to say. Many don’t like Pres. Trump for various reasons (some of them objective!), but one cannot deny that he was elected head of the world super-power and his stands regarding Israel can be now considered “politically correct”. Trump is not an eloquent philosopher or analyst, but it’s unquestionably worth your while to read the following by someone who is:

There’s Something About Israel That Makes People Uncomfortable (by Allister Heath, editor of the British Sunday Daily Telegraph):

“There’s something about Israel that makes people uncomfortable, and it’s not what they say it is.

They’ll point to politics, settlements, borders, and wars. But scratch beneath the outrage, and you’ll find something deeper. A discomfort not with what Israel does, but with what Israel is.

A nation this small should not be this strong. Period.

Israel has no oil. No special natural resources. A population barely the size of a mid-sized American city. They are surrounded by enemies. Hated in the United Nations. Targeted by terror. Condemned by celebrities. Boycotted, slandered, and attacked.

And still, they thrive like there’s no tomorrow. In military. In medicine. In security. In technology. In agriculture. In intelligence. In morality. In sheer, unbreakable will. They turn desert into farmland. They make water from air. They intercept rockets in mid-air. They rescue hostages under the nose of the world’s worst regimes. They survive wars that were supposed to wipe them out, and win.

The world watches this and can’t make sense of it.

So they do what people do when they witness strength they can’t understand.

They assume it must be CHEATING. It must be American aid. It must be foreign lobbying. It must be oppression. It must be theft. It must be some dark trick that gave the Jews this kind of power. It must be blackmail.

Because heaven forbid it’s something else. Heaven forbid it’s real. Heaven forbid it’s earned. Or worse, DESTINED.

The Jewish people were supposed to disappear a long, long time ago. That’s how the story of exiled, enslaved, hated minorities is supposed to end. But the Jews didn’t disappear. They actually came home, rebuilt their land, revived their language, and brought their dead back to life — in memory, in identity, and in strength. That’s not normal. It’s not political. IT’S BIBLICAL.

There’s no cheat code that explains how a group of people return to their homeland after 2,000 years. There is no rational path from gas chambers to global influence. And there is no historical precedent for surviving the Babylonians, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Inquisition, the pogroms, and the Holocaust, and still showing up to work on Monday in Tel Aviv.

Israel doesn’t make sense.

Unless you believe in something beyond the math.

This is what drives the world crazy. Because if Israel IS REAL, if this improbable, ancient, hated nation is somehow still chosen, protected, and thriving, then MAYBE GOD ISN’T A MYTH AFTER ALL. Maybe He’s still in the story. Maybe history isn’t random. Maybe evil doesn’t get the last word. Maybe the Jews are not just a people… but a testimony.

That’s what they can’t stand.

Because once you admit that Israel’s survival isn’t just impressive, but divine, everything changes. Your moral compass has to reset. Your assumptions about history, power, and justice collapse. You realize you’re not watching the end of an empire. You’re witnessing the beginning of something eternal.

So they deny it. They smear it. And rage against it. Because it’s easier to call a miracle “cheating” than to face the possibility that G-d keeps His promises.

And He’s keeping them still.”

We read in this parsha about how part of the Tikkun of tzara’at, or punishment for Lashon Harah is that in the olden days, one had to leave his city and even family (Vayikra 13, 46). Man is defined in creation as “M’daber”, a “speaker”, for our essence is our ability to speak (Targum of Br. 2, 7), which is something we do with our fellows. One of the central tragedies of galut we commemorated on Yom HaShoah is that we are reduced to live as vulnerable individuals, and lost our national self and respect, and part of our essence as people and Am Yisrael. Galut is a 2,000 year Tikkun and punishment, where we were like the leper, away from our nation, City, and often even splitting our own families! The Jew “fought with his passport”, on which there is only YOUR picture. When on the run, you can’t even save your parents, spouse or child, how much more so, your fellow Jew from outside your family!

We always comforted mourners that they should be comforted “together with all of the mourners of Tzion and Yerushalayim: (Prisha, Y.D. 393), for the real comfort is to be with YOUR own. Unfortunately for 2,000 years that comfort did not come (until now)!

Perhaps because of the universality of anti-Semitism, as expressed in Chazal (“[It’s a] halacha that Esav hates Ya’akov”, Sifre Bamidbar 69), we unfortunately sometimes tend to make simplistic associations, and lump all this hatred together, for in fact “in every generation the [gentiles] rise up to eradicate us” (“והיא שעמדה”). Similarly, as Jewish history is somewhat cyclical, we somewhat justifiably associate our present war with Iran as just another link in that chain of “Anti-Semites”.

On the other hand, Rav Kook (Ayn Aya Brachot 7, 15) explains that just as it’s important to learn history (“זכור ימות עולם”) for it somewhat repeats itself, but the continuation is “בינו שנות דור ודור” (=examine and notice the differences between every generation).

As we’ve written previously, although they are so close on the calendar, there is no comparison between Yom HaShoa and Yom HaZikaron, and how much more so, the systematic eradication of 6,000,000 Jews in the Shoah is totally different on almost all accounts from our present war with Iran. There’s no comparison between having to occasionally carry our children to the shelter just to be safe, and the child (later Prof.) Yaffa Eliach’s baby brother being suffocated so the Nazis won’t hear his crying reveal the family’s hiding place.

We are not only stronger than we were 80 years ago, but even compared to 2 years ago, before Oct. 7th/Simchat Torah. Hamas is hiding like mice in their tunnels, Lebanon and Syria are begging us for peace treaties, and even the giant Iran is helpless against our air-force. Our status in the Mid-East, the world and the present President Trump, the most influential person in the world, is stronger than it ever has been for the past 3,000 years (with some specific exceptions right after the Six Day War), and approaching what it was in the time of David HaMelech. With Hashem’s help, “we’ve come a long way”!

According to the US News, we are the 10th strongest country in the world (militarily and economically) out of 193 in the United Nations! We hope that the present cease-fire will lead to good peace agreements, BH out of a position of strength and not weakness, and we surely have a lot to thank Hashem for on this coming Wed., Yom haAtzma’ut! Chodesh Tov and Shabbat Shalom! Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)

I was once asked to be a Sandak and hold the baby at a bris which took place precisely between Yom HaShoa and Yom HaZikaron. As the mohel was “cleaning up” the blood, I understood the depth of what we had just recited at the Pesach Seder and again there at the circumcision, “ואומר לך בדמייך חיי ואומר לך בדמייך חיי” (Yechezkel 16, 6). Yechezkel says that Hashem feels sorry for the weak and fledgling Israel, and when coming to redeem and wash us off, tells us twice that through your blood you shall live, and again, through your blood you shall live. All ask the question: what does it mean that through our blood we shall live, and why is this repeated twice?

Then it hit me that these are precisely the 2 types of “blood” (damayich is also in the plural!) in that process of redemption of Yechezkel, separated every year by one week of differentiation: that of Yom HaShoah, and that of Yom HaZikaron (commemorating those who fell in the wars of Israel). Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook often said that we can never understand the Holocaust, but retroactively, the period was clearly a gett (bill of divorce) of the parting of Am Yisrael from the exile. Most (!) of the large ancient Jewish communities in the world from a century and millennium ago, in Europe, Asia and Africa respectively, within one decade (1940-1950/ת”ש-תש”י) suddenly collapsed. The qualitative and quantitative centers of the Jewish world, have now and forever returned from the Ashkenazi and Sefaradi countries, back to their original, holy and eternal homeland of Israel. Soviet Russia was soon to follow. Inevitably, all significant transitions, especially national and historic ones for most of world Jewry, entail upheavals and challenges. בדמייך חיי.

It is brought in the name of Rav Kook (R.M.Tz. Neria, Chayei HaReiya, p. 190) upon being asked by a Jew from Europe in the early 1930’s/תר”צ, who was deliberating his future: on the one hand anti-Semitism had already raised its head there, but he also feared the problems the Jews were suffering in Eretz Yisrael from the Arab marauders. Rav Kook answered that when we come across such difficulties, we must remember to clearly differentiate, for there is no comparison between birth pangs (of redemption in Israel) and death pains (of the end of exile). Both are painful, but one is the beginning of life, and no one would trade it for the other, the end of life! He similarly pointed out (Ma’amarei HaReiya, p. 278), that if one doesn’t know which direction is east or west, he can mistakenly confuse the darkness left at the sunrise of redemption (personified by Yom HaZikaron) for the sunset of exile (embodied by Yom HaShoah). In the Land of Israel today, we are on our way up, not on our way down, but that doesn’t mean it will always be easy. Yes, we celebrate Yom HaAtzma’ut, but we first identify that it comes via the altruism of Yom HaZikaron.

Eretz Yisrael, like Torah, Olam haBah and really anything worthwhile, is acquired through challenges, yissurim (Brachot 5a). Children are our greatest pleasure, but also the source of our greatest heartache.

Let us thank Hashem, appreciate and differentiate that on Yom HaShoah we remember the blood of 6 years we had to hide like mice, and in the words of the Israeli ambassador to the UN: the greatest hope of the Warsaw uprising was to die honorably, as opposed to Yom HaZikaron, where thanks to Hashem and our valiant altruistic soldiers, albeit the blood it cost us, pretty quickly Sinwar and Nasralla, Hamas, and Hizballa were the ones hiding like mice. Yes, there is still darkness, but BH the hostages were freed, Iran is “on the run”, and most important, it’s part of the sunrise, not the sunset. In short, BH we’ve come a long way. בדמייך חיי, that davka through our blood, we eternally live and survive.

On Yom HaZikaron let’s also learn from OUR tragic mistakes which led to the Hamas massacre and kidnappings, which are also part of the birth pangs of Mashiach, learning how to and HOW NOT to, run a Jewish State. This includes the necessity of solidarity and mutual self-sacrifice, and not to take security for granted. Let’s also take the day to stop and learn from and emulate the altruistic soldiers and volunteers who courageously fight with unity like lions, in a generation where many feared that we had “lost” that determination and idealism. The bumper stickers still pasted all around Israel, with each chayal who fell’s picture and idealistic “quote”, are the best way to admire and learn who they were and who we should be, to appreciate those who fell, and the value of the State, Land and People for which they did so. Like Judaism and similarly Israel, if something is worth dying for, how much more so that it’s worth LIVING FOR/IN and appreciating. Besorot Tovot Yeshu’ot v’Nechamot! Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)

This week’s Parshat Shmini directs us regarding the details of Kashrut that “we are what we eat” (see Vayikra 11, 43, and Yoma 39b and Shulchan Aruch Y.D. 81, that we shouldn’t give non-kosher even to infants, for it harms their spirituality), but even generally how our bodily acts influence our spiritual soul. People used to ask how eating pig harms my spirituality, for one is physical and the other spiritual?! But the modern world has only recently discovered what Judaism always knew: the body and soul nourish each other.

Today we all know children on diets to stay away from certain physical foods which negatively influence their personality or behavior, e.g. certain artificial colorings increase impulsivity and restlessness, especially among ADHD. Conversely, modern medicine knows we can psychosomatically mentally “think” ourselves into being physically sick, which will even show up on our physical blood-tests. Psychosomatic illnesses are the “missing link” that proves physical actions (mitzvot) aren’t just symbolic. If the mind can make the body sick through stress, the body can “heal” the soul through structured, purposeful physical actions. We are essentially using the body’s hardware to “reprogram” the soul’s software.

As secular Israeli satirist Ephraim Kishon once wrote (in his classic article: “The Kippa Srugah”): “I would prefer to be able to ignore the fact, and really don’t understand why, but the kosher kitchen simply (and statistically) produces better youth.” The Torah teaches that not only eating kosher, but also matzah at the proper time, donning tefillin, shaking lulav, and the intricate details of Family Purity all actually contribute to our spirituality.

Rav Kook’s stresses that our national return to Israel is also a return to the original “Torat Eretz Yisrael”, calling for “a healthy body in a healthy soul” (Orot HaTeshuva 5, 1). The G-d of history has decided that mankind is already mature and complex enough to broaden this concept even outside the Land of Israel and the Jewish People. Rav Sh. R. Hirsch, who was an anti-Zionist, believed and often wrote about the fusion and interaction of body and soul, for it’s an IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME.

Like gentiles who are not obligated in all of the aforementioned examples, yet today understand the holistic harmony of body and soul, so too the Chafetz Chaim holds that Jews outside Israel CAN eat kosher and practice many of the mitzvot, yet are only tuned-in to 5% of their spiritual benefit (L’Netivot Yisrael, p.202, regarding this QUALITATIVE difference when done in the Holy Land, see Devarim 5, 28; 6, 1; Sifre Ekev 43 ,Ramban Vayikra 18, 25).

For 2,000 years in exile, Judaism was seen as a religion which stresses the soul at the expense of the body. We opted for the yeshiva-boy who just sits and learns, rather than the Religious-Zionist prototype we find throughout the Tanach. True, halachically, the Chatam Sofer (Sukka 36) stresses that this ideology of Torah vaAvoda belongs only in Eretz Yisrael where every constructive act of livelihood is not just to make money but even more important, is a spiritual and national Torah Mitzvah of settling the Land (Bamidbar 33, 53). Yet already many observant Jews who live in Teaneck (as opposed to Lakewood), who still live in the diaspora, but are already tuned into this Religious-Zionist mindset.

How much more so will they be elevated when they will come to Israel, where it’s not just the MINDSET, but they actually will officially be doing HOLY ACTIONS called MITZVOT. The laws of Kashrut serve this holistic ideal regarding food even abroad, but in Israel, where there are actually 58 agricultural mitzvot and even holiness in each and every raisin (Bach, Or.Ch. 208, that’s why we say in Al HaMichya, “והעלנו לתוכה… ונאכל מפריה”), it is actualized, not just declared theoretically.

True there is a general directive even in galut to be healthy and be, like Ya’akov’s ladder, firmly planted on the ground while one’s head is in heaven (Breishit 28, 12), but there’s no Torah mitzvah regarding sports in America. On the other hand, when directing that energy and fitness to serve in the Israeli army, work or settle the Holy Land and our national economy, or represent the Jewish State in the Olympics or FIBA World Cup to bring honor to G-d’s Nation, it not only theoretically but also halachically realizes the ideology of holism- harmonizing body and soul. Shabbat Shalom, Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)

The master of parables, the Dubna Maggid tells: There was once a world-renowned artist who was commissioned to paint a landscape for a great king. The artist spent years perfecting his craft, using his incredible talent to paint a scene of a lush forest, a rushing river, and a distant mountain range.

The painting was so breathtakingly realistic—the shading of the leaves, the reflection on the water, the texture of the rocks—that it transcended art. When it was finally unveiled in the royal gallery, the viewers were stunned. However, a strange thing happened:

Instead of praising the artist for his skill, the people began to walk right past him. They pointed at the painting and said, “Look at that beautiful forest! Look at how clear that water is!” Because the painting was TOO PERFECT, the people forgot it was a painting at all. They MISTOOK IT FOR A WINDOW. They believed they were looking at reality, and thus, they saw no need to credit the artist.

The artist, seeing that his genius was being overlooked because of its very perfection, walked up to the canvas. In front of the gasping crowd, he took a knife and SLASHED THE CANVAS right down the middle.

Only when the “sky” tore and the “mountains” parted did the people realize: “This wasn’t nature. This was the work of a master creator.”

The Moral: Why the Sea Split

The Dubno Maggid explains that this is how G-d runs the world.

• The Painting: The “Natural World” is G-d’s masterpiece. It is so consistent, so beautiful, and so perfectly functional that humans often mistake it for a self-sustaining system. We see the sun rise and the tides turn, and we call it “Nature,” forgetting the Artist behind it.

• The Tear: On the seventh day of Passover, the Jewish people were trapped at the sea. To remind the world (and the Jewish people) that “Nature” is merely a canvas, G-d “slashed” the sea.

• The Lesson: When the water—which naturally flows—stood up like a wall, the “canvas” of nature was torn. In that moment, everyone realized that the water only flows because the Artist wills it to flow.

As the Midrash says, even a handmaid at the sea saw a level of prophecy greater than the prophet Ezekiel. By “tearing” the world, G-d forced everyone to look past the scenery and see the Creator.

This is why we read the Shira (Song of the Sea) and the Haftarah of David on the 7th day of Pesach. Both are songs of recognition. After the “tearing of the canvas,” the people finally had the clarity to sing, “This is my G-d, and I will glorify Him.” [cited by my friend and relative R. Paysach Krohn, may this bring merit to his speedy refuah shleima among the rest of the wounded and sick of Israel].

Similarly, we’ve gotten so used to Hashem’s salvation via the IDF in our present war with Iran, we can mistakenly take it all for granted! Let’s learn from Moshe and David HaMelech, that the war’s of Israel are also run by G-d, as Rav Kook points out: “בעל מלחמות… מצמיח ישועות” or in the words of Chazal, “מלחמות נמי אתחלתא דגאולה היא”, “wars are also the beginning of redemption” (Megilla 17b, incidentally, the only time the term “atchalta d’ge’ula” is found in the Talmud, is regarding the wars of Israel which not only shouldn’t get us down, but are actually part of the process, as seen in Yechezkel 38-39, and Zecharia 14!). Chag Same’ach, appreciating Hashem’s miracles בימים ההם ובזמן הזה ! Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)

We often are missing nice divrei Torah for those fun songs at the end of the Seder, so here it goes: The famed R. Yonatan Eibshitz asked: If the cat ate the goat in Chad Gadya, so the dog who ate the cat did the right thing, and the stick who beat the dog is wrong, and the fire who burned the stick is among the “good guys”, etc. etc. The problem is that accordingly, Hashem comes out among the “bad guys”, and that cannot be! He answered: Apparently the goat started up with the cat, and our lack of knowledge “who started” led us to the opposite and tragic misunderstanding of the whole story!

An especially nice and intelligent Jew, after seeing the Academy Award winning anti-Israel movie “No Other Land”, portraying the IDF as continuously tearing down the homes of innocent Palestinians, wrote me “I’m embarrassed to be a Jew!”. On the other hand, upon verifying the facts, it turns out that under the Oslo Accords (which the Palestinian leadership agreed to), Israel has full control over that Masafer Yatta area- known as Area C, and it was those Arabs and their illegal building who were the ones breaking the law, as opposed to the IDF who was simply upholding it.

This unfortunate situation for which those Arabs themselves are clearly the ones responsible, leaves us no choice but to implement the law as every other country would do, and protect ourselves, even if it doesn’t film well. What is the alternative? To let them do whatever they want and let ourselves be run over by that immoral and law-breaking ideology?

He then asked me: “But why would people build in an area and spend so much money, where they know their homes will be legally torn down?” It’s a great question for a rational situation, but when it turns out that the anti-Israel European Union supplies most of that building money, it makes more sense.

He then asked me a similar question on a larger scale: why do the Gazans, Palestinians in general, Hizballah and the Hutis constantly start wars and use terror against Israel which is much stronger, where they bezH “lose” time after time? The answer is clearly connected to their religious concept of Shahid (holy martyrs) and Jihad (Holy War), where even if they are killed and lose, they see it as a ticket to Heaven, so they believe they always gain! I’ve found that this mindset is so different from a western way of thinking, and that’s why many American politicians, and even Jews there, simply can’t understand that the Arabs are the aggressors, for it really doesn’t make sense, why they keep starting up?

On the other hand, the IDF is comprised of normative, democratic and nice educated Jewish people like our children, who are altruistic enough to volunteer leaving their families for months on end, but instead of thanks, some (even Jews, like Yuval Avraham that movie’s producer) are not even willing to present our side of the story (he knew very well that the easiest way to win awards in Berlin and Hollywood is “Israel-bashing”, especially by an Israeli!). To start showing any scenario from just one lens, and without seeing the law, or the beginning of the story and the decades of irrational war and daily Arab attacks on innocent Jews, is inevitably going to misinform and be very very biased. Accordingly, the Arab producers at the Academy Awards couldn’t even mention (!) our innocent kidnapped hostages, and some got angry at Yuval Avraham who did, which testifies to their selective “humanism”.

A more objective movie which I myself cannot stomach to watch but is apparently important for the internationally confused (especially Jews!) to personally see, is the real-time Hamas self-videos which can be found online, where they gleefully present and even brag about their sadistic murder and mutilation of 1200 innocent Israeli citizens on one (!) day! Some of the seemingly unfortunate “No Other Land” scenes were fabricated (see proof on YouTube, but they couldn’t even fabricate similar accusations against the IDF doing such “atrocities” that Arabs have been doing to us for over 50 years), but the Simchat Torah (Oct. 7th) ones are unfortunately real and not fabricated. If you wish to see the whole picture, the latter is surely more real and objective, and it is our boys in the IDF who have been giving their lives day and night for 2 and a half years, who are precisely the “Good Guys”, and definitely not the “Bad Guys”.

Our present war with Iran is another reminder to the world who are the Bad-Guys who want to Nuke the Good-Guys, but here too, surprisingly many Americans are against the war (I imagine not siding with Iran, simply naive…)

Ironically “No Other Land”, would be a much more fitting title for a movie about Israel, as opposed to the other 22 Arab lands, but the first thing one must verify is which side are the victims and which side, the “Bad Guys”, for it makes a 180-degree difference. See Chad Gadya. Chag Same’ach v’Kasher! Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)

Q. You wrote last week about the “Kvetchers” in Israel in our war with Iran. But with all due respect, how can we not complain when running to shelters, and shrapnel or missiles are falling, and our fellow Jews wounded and frightened?

A. Crying out and praying to G-d is always good, especially when many of His people are inconvenienced or frightened. But we dealt here with how NOT to be scared, not just as a strategic beneficial mindset, but also because it’s really TRUE!

As we wrote, undoubtedly there were pessimists and Kvetches as G-d delivered us from Egypt, but they were proven totally wrong. Moreover, in the Haggada’s machloket (Brachot 1, 5), the halachic conclusion is like Ben Zoma, that we must mention G-d’s taking us out of Egypt every night (not just in the day), but NOT in Y’mot HaMashiach (Rambam Kr.Sh. 1, 3; Mishna Brura 67, 3-4), for we can ALREADY see that the final redemption PALES and OVERSHADOWS the Exodus from Mitzra’im.

Without getting into the discussion of who and when can we make that modification in our daily, weekly and yearly calendar, that Yom HaAtzma’ut, Yom Yerushalayim and future celebrations will REPLACE Yitzia’t Mitzra’im, objectively TODAY’S REDEMPTION is ALREADY much greater on 6 accounts (doubling the list of R. Uri Cherki):

1. It’s been 2,000 years of hell, not just 210.

2-3. The salvation follows an unprecedented systemic and sadistic murder of 6,000,000 Jews, not just slavery (qualitative) of about 2,000,000 (quantitative).

4. Today’s redemption is from 102 different countries in 6 vastly dispersed continents, not just from Egypt.

5. This century’s redemption is through natural and not super-natural means, showing that G-d totally controls and solves even the most complicated complex problems over long periods of time, unlike the quick ‘zapping’ in Egypt (which BTW was followed by many difficulties and kvetchings during 40 years in the desert…). In one of his classic letters Rav Kook writes to Rav Charlap (Igrot HaReiya 753), “Woe, we should not leave NATURE in her lowly status, without connecting her with the holy bond of eternal light… The fact that the redemption of Israel is approaching “bit by bit” (gradually and naturally, as we were taught, Yerushalmi Brachot 1, 1) is NOT WEAKNESS, but rather Gevura shebaGevurot (the ultimate in greatness of G-d). Not b’dieved but for us, it’s l’chatchila!

6. This redemption is final, and there won’t be another exile (just Google: Another Exile Ari Shvat), while boy, have there been a lot of exiles since Egypt!

In addition, we should stop arguing about whether the glass is half-full or half-empty and be grateful that we HAVE A GLASS at all. Moreover, the glass is always 100% full: half with water, and half with air, because everything has value, even the aspects that seem “empty” or invisible, like peace or especially educational lessons.

“The optimist sees the glass as half-full. The pessimist sees the glass as half-empty. The engineer sees a glass that is twice as large as it needs to be.” Let’s start viewing our situations from a new, G-dly and historical perspective.

Statistically, the missiles are getting scarcer, an average of 10-15 a day. From the beginning of the Lion’s Roar operation, 400 missiles have been fired towards Israel, and the IDF has successfully intercepted over 92%. Nevertheless, security has constantly stressed that our world-leading advanced defense system is not air-tight, so civilians MUST go to shelters. MOST of those killed or wounded were those who didn’t follow the security directives, because of psychological, “religious” or sociological excuses. The Rambam, writing as world-leading rabbi, philosopher and doctor COMBINED, writes (Guide for the Perplexed 3, 12) that most of the problems and pain in the world we bring upon ourselves (I’ve heard some expressly say, “we’re not “makpid” on shelters”).

As I return home once again from my shelter (together with millions of other Israelis), in wake of the aforementioned ideas, I strongly suggest reading last week’s post once-again, to be that much more thankful to Hashem and His Jewish State and IDF. If shelters and army are the price we must pay to rid ourselves from those who wish to nuke us, let’s not kvetch but objectively rejoice upon where we are in Jewish history.

Who knows, perhaps chalila their own wounded may lessen the derision in Bnei Brak towards human efforts on behalf of Jewish security to undergo some important rethinking, which will also be a significant Teshuva and return to the original Torah (Rambam) approach, obligating shelters and armies. In truth, more important than if the glass is half-full or half-empty; is that we should all learn there is a FAUCET nearby that we should notice and use! Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)

As we approach Pesach, imagine if during the Ten Plagues, someone complained they can’t sleep because the Egyptians are crying too loudly, or about the pain of asking neighbors for wealth and Oy, having to pack for a long journey of Matzah! I would guess the complainer is a little child who doesn’t fathom the greatness of freedom from slavery which will be celebrated forever.

I remember overhearing a stewardess grumble that the flights to Israel are particularly trying because Jews tend to be real Kvetches. Some may even remember the SNL sketch about “The Weiners” (Whiners), who you couldn’t miss were distinctively Jewish! That’s the 40 years in the desert!

We see in this week’s Haftarah, “This nation [Israel] I created for Myself; they shall recite My praise” (Yishaya 43, 21). I think the pshat is that in the ge’ula, EVEN the Jewish Kvetches will have no choice but to recognize and praise G-d. He’s addressing 2,000 years of neurotic Jews, “And now, listen, Jacob My servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. So said the Lord your Maker, and He Who formed you from the womb shall aid you. FEAR NOT, My servant Jacob, and Yeshurun whom I have chosen. As I will pour water on the thirsty and running water on dry land (sound familiar from the 40 desert years, 44).”

Despite all the anti-Semitism until this very day, which apparently gives us a “right” to be nervous and kvetch, G-d again allays our fears, “Fear not and be not dismayed; did I not tell you way back… and you are My witnesses; is there a god besides Me?!” (ibid). We have seen over the last century that MOST of the prophecies of redemption have already been fulfilled, so we Jews better get used to not kvetching. Mention at this year’s Seder: the Netziv stresses that G-d told the kvetching Moshe, “DON’T TELL ME HOW TO RUN MY REDEMPTION!, and adds that this message is for modern anti-Zionists, as well! (Shmot 4, 13 and Shivat Tzion, p. 17).

“But the State of Israel and the IDF are not 100% religious!” they kvetch (ignoring that neither were our fathers in Egypt, and most Jews and people in the western world aren’t either…), but G-d teaches us patience, ” This one shall say, “I am the Lord’s,” and this one shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and this one shall write [with] his hand, “To the Lord,” and adopt the name Israel” (ibid).

Keeping proportions is particularly important for Jews in general, and especially in Israel today. One can understand the complaints about 3 AM sirens to shlep down 3 flights to the shelter with a child on each arm and a third on your shoulders on an average of once a night, but don’t forget that just 2 weeks ago it used to be several times a night (and thank G-d we have shelters!). Feel PAIN but NOT DESPAIR when remnants of exploded Iranian missiles meet up with Israeli Iron Dome shells and rain debris breaking windshields and an occasional home, but would we rather not have worked decades to discover the Iron Dome, Arrow and David’s Sling and have to deal with the missiles themselves?!

For decades the worst scenario imagined in Israel was a full-scale war with Iran, our largest, most sophisticated enemy with the most oil, Russian aid and nuclear plans. Well, that day is here, and we must profusely thank G-d and the IDF for pre-empting them with unprecedented intelligence, and professionalism to take out their entire leadership, anti-aircraft missiles and blow up their boats, planes and launchers without contest. We must thank Hashem for an American leadership, aid and military support, and for their generous replenishing of our shells (which was one of the biggest kvetches in the war against Hamas, that BH we eliminated our enemies at will, but were running low on ammo)! Others kvetch that we have to kill so many enemies, but that surely isn’t up to us.

Let’s be honest and objective, just 2 generations from the Holocaust. We have no right to complain about our sons being called up for the 5th time to go and conquer Lebanon as far as we want (how many armies know that victory is BH guaranteed?!), and we must still thank G-d and the IDF for those victories and consistent motivation. But we DO have a right to kvetch that many Jews (in Israel and abroad) belittle and don’t appreciate the years of research, and hundreds of days and nights of soldiers’ service, and don’t share the burden in the army. I think we can justifiably demand that they at least educate their children to participate in the next war, so that eventually we may ALL not have to run to shelters!

Our complaining shouldn’t hide the glory of the G-d-sent victory, which COULD NOT HAVE BEEN ANY EASIER (except were more Jews willing to share the burden). Let’s not forgot that we’re winning. Some people feel uncomfortable thanking G-d, and begrudgingly the IDF and the State of Israel whom He uses as His shlichim, for it may legitimize drafting yeshiva boys. Well maybe it does, but that doesn’t mean not to give credit, praise and thanks where it is due! Shabbat Shalom, Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)