Can we do תפילות prayers for:
Rabbi Berel Wein and Torah.org?
So that through them The האור Light, רפואה The Healing and The ואהבה Love of ישועת יהוה Yeshuath YHWH may come back to הארץ The Land of Israel?
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Parshas Shlach
Our Attitude Matters
The attitude of Jews towards the
Land of Israel has always been a litmus type of test of Jewish
commitment and even faith throughout the ages. As we see in this week’s
parsha, from the beginning of our national existence there have always
been Jews – leading Jews, well-intentioned Jews, even outwardly pious
Jews – who have preferred living somewhere else in the world to living
in the Land of Israel.
Even when Hitler came to power, European Jews in many cases refused
to consider the option of immigration to the Land of Israel. It is not
my place to judge others for their behavior in a very dreadful time,
especially since I am blessed with the perfect hindsight that they
tragically lacked, but it is a strange fact that throughout Jewish
history the naysayers regarding the Land of Israel in Jewish society
have always abounded.
Jews in the generation of Moses claimed their preference for the
land of Egypt over the Land of Israel. An entire generation of special
and gifted Jews was destroyed in the desert of Sinai because of their
unwillingness to consider living in the Land of Israel as a viable
option for them and their descendants. The challenge of living in the
Land of Israel was apparently too great a problem for them to overcome -
physically, psychologically and spiritually.
To me this attitude remains one of the supreme mysteries of all of
Jewish history. But mystery or not, it certainly is a fact that has
governed Jewish life over the ages.
When Moses’ own relative refused the offer to go to the Land of
Israel, Rashi explains that the two reasons for his behavior had to do
with family and making a living. These are very strong reasons that
exist today that prevent many Jews from considering immigrating to the
Land of Israel. Again, I neither judge nor begrudge anyone in this or
any other life changing matter.
However, I feel that the issue of the Land of Israel, independent of
any other causes and motives, strikes at a very deep place within our
personal and national soul. The fact that the most ultra-assimilated and
the most outwardly ultra-pious within the Jewish people are included in
our generation’s most vociferous of the anti- Land of Israel groups,
shows that the problem is both deep and sensitive.
The extremes in Jewish society cannot deal with the Land of Israel
as a reality and earnestly hope that the issue will somehow disappear
completely. There are millions of Jews who prefer living in exile to
living in the Land of Israel. The Jewish people, as a whole has not
absorbed the lessons of the exile, its alienation, assimilation and its
ultimate corruption of Torah values.
Today, many Jews who physically live in the Land of Israel still
psychologically and spiritually live in the exile, in a fantasy of the
long-destroyed shtetel of Eastern Europe. As foretold to us by our
prophets, the ultimate fate of the Jewish people will be determined for
us by our attitude to the Land of Israel. Living in the Land of Israel
or at least visiting it regularly is currently the centerpiece of Jewish
life, its faith and its future.
Shabat shalom,
Rabbi Berel Wein |
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Rabbi Berel Wein- Jewish historian, author and international lecturer
offers a complete selection of CDs, audio tapes, video tapes, DVDs, and
books on Jewish history at www.rabbiwein.com |
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Please Say Yes to Abba Yahweh and His Laws special in
this time when Abba Yahweh is 'testing' us:
Hab 1:12 Art thou not mikedem (‘everlasting’ also said of
Moshiach, indicating Moshiach’s eternal divine nature: Dan
7:14 And there was given Him
(Moshiach) dominion, and honor, and sovereignty, that all people, Goyim,
tongues, should pey-lammed-chet. [1](worship
as deity) (see Dan 3:12, serve, reverence as deity Him (Moshiach). His dominion
is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His (Messianic)
Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.]see Michoh 5:1[2]; Yahweh Elohai (my
Elohim) Kedoshi (my Holy One)? We shall not die. Yahweh, Thou hast appointed them
(these Chaldean) for mishpat (ordinance); O Tzur, Thou hast ordained them (these
Chaldean) for reproof.
(Please
read the whole book of HaNavi Habakuk?)
Please take it serious what Abba Yahweh is telling us in:
Deu 18:15 Yahweh Eloheicha (your Elohim) will raise up unto thee a Navi
(prophet) from among thee, of thy achim (bretheren), kamoni (like me Exo
32:30 The next day Moshe said to the
people, "You have committed a terrible sin. Now I will go up to Yahweh;
maybe I will be able to atone for your sin."); unto him ye must listen;
Deu 18:16 According to all that thou
desired of Yahweh Eloheicha (your Elohimin) Chorev in the Yom HaKahal (day of
the congregation), saying, Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh Elohav
(your Elohim), neither let me see this eish hagedolah (‘great fire’) any more,
that I die not.
Deu 18:17 And Yahweh said unto me, They
have well-spoken that which they have spoken.
Deu 18:18 I will raise them up a Navi
(prophet) from among their achim (brethren), like unto thee, and will put My
words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him
[Yn 10:18].
Deu 18:19 And it shall come to pass,
that whosoever will not listen unto My words which he shall speak Bishmi (in My
Name), I will require it of him.
Joh 8:28 Therefore, Rebbe, Melech
HaMoshiach said to them, When you perform the hagbah (lifting up) of
the Ben HaAdam, you will have da'as (knowledge) that Ani Hu [YESHAYAH
41:4; SHEMOT 3:14-16], and from myself I do nothing, but as HaAv (the Father)
of me taught me, these things I speak.
[1]
Dictionary of the Talmud. M. Jastrow p. 1178 פלח
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