Parsha Pearls: Parshas Devarim

 

Why do you show yourselves?
What Should We Pray During a War?
Mass Immigration
Stopping the Spread of Heresy
The Power of the Holy Tongue

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But the Hamodia newspaper (June 26, 2013) has taken a different tactic in “answering the heretic.” They answer the fool according to his folly, saying, “We are just as good economic supporters of the state as anyone else.” It may be that most Orthodox men in the state do not work, but that is because they are supported by their counterparts in the Orthodox community of America, says the Hamodia. Their wealthy relatives send them money and thus invest in the Israeli economy.

American Orthodox families send their sons and daughters to study in Israeli institutions, putting thousands into tuition that goes to pay the salaries of the Orthodox there, plus money for airfare and other expenses while there. They pour $17,000 into the Israeli economy for each boy and $24,000 for each girl. American families travel often to the state to visit their children or to tour. They buy apartments there, contributing over $120 million in state taxes.

Of all food products exported by the Israelis to North America, 75% are purchased by the Orthodox, totaling $205 million.

This Hamodia article avoids the question of why we don’t join the army (after all, even those who work and contribute to the economy have to serve). More importantly, the article raises serious questions about why American Jews are helping the state exist, thrive and flaunt its success in front of Yishmael and Esav, when they should be looking for safe ways to end the state. Instead of sending our children there, we should be using our money to help the yeshivos and seminaries move to safer places.

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There are some Jews who understand that Zionism is wrong, yet feel that now there is no option but to support the Zionist army in their fight against the Arab enemy. They are forgetting that the Zionists are actually causing all this aggression by stubbornly holding onto their state. As another example of this, in 1967 most people were under the impression that the Zionists went to war only in self-defense. But the Satmar Rov said at that time, “I heard that the religious Zionists announced that this war was necessary and obligatory according to Torah [in order to save the Jewish people from danger]. But it is obvious and known to all who see truth that all these troubles, including the danger of the war, came upon us only as a result of the existence of that Zionist state…it is the Zionist government that aroused the anger of the Arabs by provoking them in various ways, and if not for the stubbornness of its wicked leaders the danger of the war would never have been. And even now, if they were to give up their state and their government, there is no doubt that they would take Hashem’s anger away from the Jewish people. Had they done this, the entire calamity – the danger of the war and the loss of Jewish lives – would not have come upon them. And for every minute that they hold on to their power they are offending the Creator, blessed be He, with violation of the oaths and rebellion against the nations, which the holy Torah has forbidden and for which we have been warned of a severe punishment… And even naturally speaking, if they were to give up their government and Zionist state, there is no doubt that the United Nations would be able to find some way to prevent war, bloodshed and loss of Jewish lives.” (Al Hageulah V’al Hatemurah, Chapter 44)

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The Satmar Rebbe once compared the Zionists to the biryonim at the time of the Second Temple: “At the time of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai, there were also biryonim, but the difference was that then, all the holy Tannaim were on Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai’s side; the biryonim were a fringe group. Today, however, most rabbis unfortunately support the biryonim.” (Rabbi Yishai Buchinger, p. 23)

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Full Reading:

https://torahjews.org/2023/11/26/parsha-pearls-parshas-devarim

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Midrash Tanchumah – Satmar Rov -