Soul Mazal

Real Life With Real Torah and Real Gerim

2013-05-24T13:55:00.000+03:00

Parashas Beha’Aloscha

Intellect [Sechel]: A Ger In This World

Rabbi David Katz

In this week’s Parsha, one can open the doors of perception as in every Parsha, once the Ger component is plugged into the mainframe. Whether one seeks to learn about the SEVEN branched menorah and how it is the primary vessel that manifests open light, out of the Temple, for the World. This serves as a defined metaphor of Noahide Law amongst God’s countless commandments [as the basis of Hanuka and its implications to Noahide Torah that resonates with Messiah], along with potent flavors within the Parsha such as Gerim in relation to The Second Passover [when Jews are impure], Jethro and his eyes for the Nation [i.e. The Ger who sees Mazal], and ultimately, as the basis of this article: Miriam, her Tzaaras [“leprosy”], and its relationship with “Miriam the [third] Redeemer, i.e. Redemption and its Ger [Sechel – Tzaaras] attributes.

With all of the Ger inspired revelations in the Parsha, that seemingly lift the Parsha into a multi dimension high-rise of Torah based reality, it is still the story of Miriam that best expresses the Pshat [simple meaning] such that its content contains all levels of Pa’’R’’De’’S [four levels of understanding that take into account the non-verse elements as to arrive at a clear intent of the verse(s) and onwards into the Parsha] and we gain insight to Redemption’s story through Miriam’s [the third redeemer; feminine aspect] plight. Miriam represents the Spiritual World/reality out of this World, which when one considers all of the other elements in the Parsha fully realized [along with the whole Torah as such], they will resonate from beyond this World as well. This is simply called the World of the Ger, as it is said, “Sechel [Torah intellect] is a Ger out of this World, and is/has been removed from the camp; such is the fate of the Tzaaras ridden Messiah, who is named and identified [ironically, per force then, by none] as such. [As it is said, “Messiah waits alone (“with the lepers) at the gates of Rome]

The saga that we encounter Miriam in is one of family dispute, such that it’s true intent is to delve into the deepest most reality where life is simply understood by terms of a reality we all know, i.e. the reality that we know, the reality of the Ger. The nature of Man is to bury this reality, the World of truth, and to pretend that it does not exist. For this our Torah is a beacon from this mysterious place that we all fancy to keep quiet, and it is therefore branded with the nomenclature of the “Ger” – a true alien in this World, for this World is known as the World of lies [and cover-ups] of inconvenient truths and antithetical true Torah concepts. Miriam, Aaron, and Moses deal with these very issues amongst themselves, and this will have ramifications for all future study of Torah. What we have received in writing is a terse account of a family squabble that ends with loshon hara [evil speech] and Miriam banished from the camp due to her affliction.

To get into the specific account of what their individual claims are/were, is something of a kabbalistic mystery, and such that with the integrity of the Torah [and its magical romance] at stake, is best left for the Messiah and his generation to deal with. Just as life went on for those three, the Torah holds no reservation of moving on for the sake of moving on, and not to dwell on speculation and personal reservations about matters that either we may never know, or are simply not prepared to hear/handle.

However, the truth of the matter is, the Talmud stresses that through Miriam’s lengthy quarantine, we clearly see how upset Hashem was with Miriam, and this was in regard to the being fruitful and multiply commandment, of which she spoke out of character with Moses her brother, seeing as she bore guilt in her soul, causing her to speak loshon hara. The exegesis of these principles in both the revealed and concealed matters of Torah are some the richest learning devices amidst the entire Torah [for Torah logic is rooted and deduced from Miriam and her punishment], and rather than to increase accusations against some of the Holiest People the World ever saw, despite their humanity [Moses, Aaron, and Miriam all received the sacred kiss of death, and their bodies knew not of worms and the way of the grave], the hidden light was actually sewn as to better know the Messiah and the era of the Redemption [in relation to the Ger on the highest level].

The Maharal of Prague, and his explanation of the Talmud Sanhedrin explains the deeper connection to Miriam’s Tzaaras on a positive note in relation to the Ger, and by reflecting upon Miriam’s inner voice from with the Torah’s verses, he offers a realistic account of the Messiah, who modestly embodies Miriam’s mission of soul, metabolizing the feminine quality of it into a masculine redeemer [of which the Maharal explains per force must be a masculine job, for neither Miriam nor Esther succeeded in their roles as Redeemer]. The properties that the Maharal works exclusively with in depicting the Messianic qualities, are that of the Tzaaras along with its deeper meaning and in relation to the Ger, his intellect, and how they all tie together into a common fabric that garments the Messiah, who like Miriam, sits outside the camp [to which the Midrash bemoans, “Messiah sits among the lepers of Rome.”]

The Talmud Sanhedrin states [98b] that Messiah suffers from Tzaaras/Metzora – “skin maladies” to which the Commentators have entertained the depths of this enigma since its inception. The Maharal perhaps was the most elected sent to explain the depths of this passage, as he explains it in terms of Miriam [the] Redeemer.

Just as Miriam [was a redeemer] was sent from the camp due to a condition [as a product of intellect] so too is the Messiah banished outside of the camp due to his intellectual malady. The Maharal couples this with the concept, that the intellect [sechel] is a Ger in this World, i.e. alien, and swims against the non-intellectual [non – sechel; counter-Torah] capacity of normative society. Under these terms we can identify the nature of Messiah, The Ger, Torah, Redemption, etc., portraying Olam HaZeh [this world] pitted against its transition into the Days of the Messiah, and onwards into the World to Come.

Society “thinks” one way [even quite literally, a “way”/”direction”] while God’s agents [Messiah, Gerim, Baalei Sechel, Torah scholars, etc.] swim against grain going upstream, in a proverbial shofar blast that we can see, much like the thunder that was seen at Sinai [all counter-logical]. This produces in the end is a society that partakes in small matters of life, and are indigenous to this World. The Ger on the other hand, along with the Messiah, etc., are like Miriam – placed outside of the camp, as if stricken in their very being. All of these concepts are the positive blend of repair that reflects the same efforts and condition of Miriam, who acted from the same principles, but in a harsher blend of [real] life. Miriam highlights from her personal life a truth that is often not told or looked over, a staple concept in Torah becoming realistically revealed before our eyes.

The Ger, intellect, and certainly, the Messiah, all work harmoniously to synchronize their message from beyond the boundary, and into a “World to Come” transition from this World. To this extent, Miriam portrays the Messiah equipped with his mind while being the Ger that he is [as King David on this point said, “I am a Ger”], for the Messianic World is spiritual, and thus in constant conflict with the mundane physical existence that we all dwell in. The task of the Torah and the manner of Creation by the Creator has been to impregnate our World with all of these variant Gerim, so as to promote Messianic growth into an otherwise stagnant society. Thus in our Parsha [even if only in the most negative [literally and figuratively], Miriam is the Ger figure that delivers at the end of the Parsha, opening a realization tunnel that spans the length of the Parsha of the Ger potential that lays latent amidst the entire Torah. It should be on record that as King David said, “I am a Ger” – King David is said to be of the offspring of Miriam specifically.

Parashas Beha’Aloscha delivers another fantastic view of the rich quality of Ger affiliation that is latent in each and every Parsha, once again showing the equality of the Ger-Jew relationship when understanding the Torah on a Pilpul level. To suggest that the Torah is only Jewish, on any terms, is to deny the usage and properties of Ger vessels to understand the Torah that exists in a World most accurately lived by none other than the Gerim. He knows his World, and it is his sacred point of view that brings a resounding Shalom to the Torah.

Miriam and her brothers encompass the essence of real life, and therefore real Torah. In today’s World, the populace has chosen to bury and ignore Truth to matters, and in a truly idolatrous universe, all hope would indeed be lost. To this extent we can thank God for keeping his minyan of Holiness, i.e. the Ger and, the Gerim – who on every level shape and form, personify the concept of Ger. The Ger is something alien to this World, for it/they serve(s) a much higher purpose of operation than the average bear and for this the Torah came into our existence. A true Ger [Torah – Sechel – other worldly descending into our world] is the Torah, a story of Gerim, redeemed by Gerim, etc. and we are commanded to know the Torah on every level to always know which aspect of Ger we are in fact in the presence of. To this extent God has stated the basic premise, “I love the Ger, so you should too.” It just happens God wasn’t kidding, and Messiah will be like Miriam; to know the End will prove to have known and loved the Ger, for at the very least, your understanding of Torah depends on it.

Parasha Class: 11 P.M. Motzie Shabbat -all classes Tzfat Time

[and every Wed 11 P.M. - Ger series]

Click The NEW link to sign up, keep, or enter virtual classroom:

https://www.ivocalize.net/#room/YeshivatShemV'Ever

Take note - that the LINK IS NEW and must be re-entered into browser to access your account.

Amen Yehe Shmei Rabbah!

2013-05-23T10:59:00.000+03:00

Click Here For Download Link - Ger # 8: Gerim and The Many Mitzvot!

Don't Forget Parasha Shavua Class On Sat Night Israel 11 P.M.

Shem, Abraham, Amen - Yehi Shemei Rabbah
How many mitzvot?
Pshat and Pshuto...and Pardes
Deeper Look at 10 Commandments
Abraham and Noah
One Mazal

The Last Cup of Coffee

2013-05-20T16:45:00.005+03:00

The Great Pacification of the Armilos Kibbutz called the Zionist dream [of exploitation of its template based on a true Moshiach ben Yosef;Kol Hator], a watered down Israel, that still holds sacred the Coca Cola t-shirts branded with Hebrew script, is coming into high gear.

Naftali Bennet-ism is coming soon, a neo-Shariah Law composed in a Prime Minister's office, to convince us all that we are brothers, partners even, in High - Tech start up groups, as we binge the dividends of over-priced [American goods] pampers.

Erev Rav are making their final move: a Judaism we can all buy into, equality, with quiet elitism shrouded beneath elitism whispering in between the coffee stands that used to be Haredi institutions of learning; now reduced to a political juggernaut, regime de la Shas.

Sadly, this is the fight Haredim should be fighting, but they are more concerned with fighting the Land of God rather than God's enemy: false religion, and instituting false religion on those w/o religion, i..e potential Garei Toshavim.

Is it still even time to say Ad Matei? If anyone forgot that it is 5773, and the Zohar imagery that comes with it, well, there is on question - which part ISN'T true and becoming more and more revealed? It's just uncanny how Hashem attacks with Mazal [revelation] that fiends on people's own baseless bias' - for to step out into an objective Universe happens upon God's domain, and today [with internet] it's right next door.

Jpost.com:

Religious Services Minister Naftali Bennett, alongside Deputy Minister Eli Ben- Dahan, unveiled a series of reforms on Sunday, calling the proposals “revolutionary.”

The objective was to improve the professionalism of religious services and make them more accessible to the general public, Bennett said, speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem.

“This is an opportunity to sanctify God’s name and to draw people closer [to Judaism],” said Bennett, emphasizing that religious services were required by the entire population “and not just one community.”

The Bayit Yehudi chairman attributed the main push for reform to Ben-Dahan, who runs the ministry.

Although various groups expressed support for some of the planned reforms, there was also widespread criticism from both secular and religious quarters, including political parties on the Right and Left.

Notable among Bennett’s comments was his assertion that “there is no competition in Judaism, although there can be and should be [competition] for serving the Israeli public.”

Non-Orthodox movements have in recent years been increasingly lobbying for state recognition and funding, and Finance Minister Yair Lapid has said on at least three occasions that he intends to bring all Jewish streams onto an equal footing in terms of funding and state recognition, while also vowing to institute civil marriage.

Ben-Dahan has said Bayit Yehudi will veto any legislation in this regard.

Meretz MK Michal Roisin told The Jerusalem Post the reforms being advanced by Bayit Yehudi amounted to “service with a smile” but with no substantial change in addressing the needs of the public.

She pointed in particular to the demands for civil marriage and divorce registration as basic requirements “of any normative state.”

“What we have here is the exchange of a black yarmulke for a knitted yarmulke, and service with a smile,” Roisin said. “But the coercive nature of the service within an Orthodox framework remains, and this is what is divisive and what distances people from religion.”

At the same time, haredi MK Meir Porush of United Torah Judaism criticized the proposals, saying they endangered traditional Judaism.

“In matters relating to the foundations of the Jewish people, we must not make changes under the guise of simplifying bureaucracy,” said Porush.

“Today we’re talking about technical issues, tomorrow, God forbid, there will be a break with Jewish tradition.”

During the press conference, Bennett and Ben-Dahan announced three main reforms that they will seek to advance in the field of religious services, relating to local religious councils.

These bodies are a primary provider for services such as marriage registration, burial arrangements and many other life-cycle events, and have frequently been criticized as unprofessional, unapproachable and inattentive to the needs and sensitivities of the general public.

The first of the planned reforms is to abolish separate marriage registration districts, so as to allow anyone from any locale to register anywhere in the country, thereby creating competition between councils for the NIS 600 registration fee, in the hope that this will lead to improved services.

Many religious groups, such as the Tzohar rabbinical association, have voiced concerns in recent years that an unwelcoming and bureaucratic atmosphere prevails in many marriage registration offices at local religious councils, which causes many couples to chose to marry abroad in civil ceremonies.

The worry for such groups is that the downturn in ceremonial Jewish marriage will create an irrevocable split in the Jewish population in Israel, since the principal tool used to prove Jewish identity is providing the Jewish marriage certificate of a person’s parents.

Tzohar welcomed the proposal on marriage registration, pointing out that it has campaigned for several years to open up the registration jurisdictions to competition.

In a particularly bitter fight with the Religious Services Ministry back in 2011, Tzohar shut down its free marriage service in protest of what it called discriminatory restrictions placed upon it by the ministry.

This incident led to legislative efforts to abolish separate marriage registration districts, including a bill submitted by Yisrael Beytenu’s MK Faina Kirschenbaum, which passed a preliminary reading in the Knesset and was stalled following the dissolution of the Knesset ahead of January’s election.

Bennett and Ben-Dahan vowed to “disconnect politics from the provision of religious services,” by creating a professional appointments process for the position of chairman for local religious councils.

Currently, council chairmen are selected by representatives of the religious services minister, the local municipal authority and the rabbinate.

By creating a professional appointments process for the position, said Bennett, “the opportunity for cronyism and the distribution of jobs will be uprooted” from local religious councils.

This proposal came in for severe criticism from the national-religious Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah lobbying group, which argued that the proposed appointment process would be anti-democratic and would deny local municipalities the ability to determine an appropriate executive for the region’s religious council.

Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah said the idea was “an unacceptable form of centralization [which] strengthens the monopoly of religious services in Israel,” adding that it contravened proposals made by at least two public committees on the issue.

The organization argued that public tenders for professional positions, such as those that would be made for the chairmanship of religious councils, are frequently skewed to favor candidates with particular qualifications – and that such tenders would ultimately put the religious services minister in control of the process.

“Just like a mayor, the chairman of a local religious council needs to be elected by the public and not appointed by a minister, and this proposal strengthens the religious services minister in making these appointments instead of strengthening communities and the wider public,” Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah said.

Hiddush, a religious freedom lobbying group, also weighed in, welcoming recognition of the problems in the provision of religious services but arguing that the reforms dealt with marginal issues and would “perpetuate Orthodox control over religious life.”

Hiddush director Reform Rabbi Uri Regev said the only solution for the provision of religious services in a democratic state was “freedom of choice in marriage and the abolition of a coercive state-run rabbinate.”

The third reform announced by Bennett and Ben-Dahan would see the number of local religious councils reduced from 132 to 80 in order to reduce unnecessary expenditure and increase efficiency.

Ben-Dahan said that the money saved on employing clerks and supporting the bureaucracy of the extraneous councils would be used for the improvement of services.

Both the Reform and Conservative movements in Israel criticized the proposed reforms, arguing that preserving the provision of religious services within an Orthodox framework was divisive and restricted choice.

“The only revolution that can heal the crisis of religious services in Israel is the abolition of the Orthodox monopoly and allowing real choice for different Jewish communities and denominations,” director of the Israel Reform Movement Rabbi Gilad Kariv said.

“A cosmetic facelift will not solve the plight of hundreds of thousands of people ineligible for marriage, will not provide for a sane conversion process or give expression to the fact that a millions of Jews belong to non-Orthodox denominations,” Kariv said.

The New Israeli Dollar

Nasso: The Nazir The Kabbalist

2013-05-19T14:33:00.000+03:00

Click Here For Audio Download To Parashas Nasso!

Click Here For Article:

[best results are to cover both forms of material]

notice new classroom link: https://www.ivocalize.net/#room/YeshivatShemV'Ever

Gerim: Keeping The Holy With The Temple

2013-05-17T14:56:00.000+03:00

Parashas Nasso

Serving God as Righteous and Holy Gerim

Rabbi David Katz

In Parashas Nasso the Torah introduces its readers [Nasso 5:6] to a new Ger concept termed by the Talmud and Rabbinical writings, “Gezel HaGer” – the sin of trespass upon God’s Gerim. This is seen in the Torah as a very serious crime – to the extent that the proper restitution is a proper course of Torah defined repentance accompanied by confession of sin, full financial reclamation, etc. all to be in association with the Temple should the Ger become deceased. God clearly demonstrates His deep Love for the Gerim in this law, and not only does the institution of the Ger in Nasso set the tone of the entire Parsha as one with a Mazal triggered Ger-theme from beginning to end in the Parsha [as all of the topics are associated with the Ger by way of secrets and hints according to laws of Torah exegesis called, “Pardes” – simple, hint, expounding, and secret understandings in Torah], the law beckons the deep secrets of the Holy temple and Priesthood that are illuminated by God’s Gerim [i.e. the Gerim who are in nature to the Rechabites and Kenites; Holy Gerim who occupy Holy institutions amongst Israel].

The case of the Torah [as mentioned above] that sets the precedent for all such relationships with the Gerim in the mundane realm [and such that it lends its vessels by extension into the spiritual dimension of society as well] is the classically termed “Gezel HaGer” – stealing from the Ger, and as one could imagine, this obviously allows for investigating the nature of the Ger. As with any Ger [law-based] Torah, the range of Gerim can extend from the quite literal ranks of Toshavim who are “slaves”/indebted – servants, “” – to God while life’s dedication to the Temple, Gerim of the Gate, all the way northward to the Ger Tzedek, and venturing into Judaism proper as full converts. The Gezel HaGer then comes into focus in Nasso, as to provide focus and context into the nature and levels of Gerim within practical applications, such as theft.

[*Torah operates in “Mazal multi - tasking” called Pilpul (understanding the matter within the matter), thus as Chazal state that the repair of Adam/Man is rectifying theft, Gezel HaGer postures itself as a viable cog in analysis and methodology of how to perform the repair, through performance of this (Ger) opportunity under the premise of mazal and the Ger.]

The case of Gezel HaGer in its simplest form is the procedure of restitution of the Ger should he be wronged by an Israelite Jew. The standard law states that the Jew must repay the Ger in full along with other steps to assist in his repentance, and is in relation to the many cautions of the Torah that stress the guarding of the dignity and love of the Ger.

Where the law becomes a “which – type - of - Ger - are - we - talking - about - discussion” is in relation to where the victimized Ger has passed on before the culprit was able to lend restitution. It is precisely this point that the Torah commands that the possessions shall be divvied up amongst the Priests on duty and to be considered under government of Law and gifts to the Priests and must follow the standard protocol as such. The reason for the Priest entering the discussion is that this stipulation of law is only enacted once the Ger is seen to have no kin, which is a common scene amongst all Gerim. One must deduct exactly which Ger [and in relation to the nature of kin /Gerim] has a complete association and relevancy to the law under fire, as to be precise in Torah law while avoiding a Chilul Hashem, and unnecessary backlash from misappropriated statutes emanating from carelessness and lack of astute scholarship within required practice of identifying Gerim.

Although the nature of carrying out this law to the upmost degree of accuracy would most probably require a Beit Din when ascertaining the finer points of the Ger [i.e. which exact blend of Toshav, as we conclude that the ideal Ger of the statute in a Ger Tzedek], the standard operative playing field would yield the Ger Tzedek, leaving the Ger Toshav as a possibility and subject to resolving doubt. The Ger Tzedek [Righteous Ger] is the primary agent in Nasso, as his righteousness is predicated on accepting the full and entire Torah, thus making him applicable and sensitive to Torah reality and all of the concurrent situations that come from Torah, as being in deep relation to the Jewish People and their daily government. The trigger point for the Ger Tzedek is that he is considered as absolutely having no kin, as he is technically [by his own volition] devoid of stranglehold in both the Gentile and Jewish Worlds, making him a true by definition Ger Tzedek. The convert and Toshav are lacking in this degree namely because the Ger may have an easier acclamation process into the Jewish World while the gentile has kin, and are simply not Jewish, and not recognized under this law.

Now that we have properly identified the Torah portion’s Ger [Tzedek] and eliminated the obvious and perhaps non – relevant, we can begin to gain ground on just who is this Ger Tzedek and perhaps begin to understand his comrades under the heading Toshav, and what is the essence that ultimately drives the Ger.

The Ger Tzedek as we mentioned before is subject to analysis in Nasso for the primary reason that he has accepted the entire Torah [and has not converted; details as to why to follow] and thus he is a practitioner of Torah on a realistic scale and way of life. This dynamic has certainly left him as a true Ger, i.e. with no real kinsmen. The gentile World is philosophically opposed to Torah ways of life, and for this, the [“Head” of] Torah itself is called a Ger by rabbinic writings. The Ger is governed by a different law, court, and ultimately a different God – for the Ger is first defined as having renounced Idolatry.

Once idolatry has been renounced, the Ger Tzedek will fall under categorical distinction as having accepted all of the commandments [as valid and true Torah as understood by Jewish Law and tradition] along with the Seven Laws of Noach as Moses instructed at Marah and Sinai along with the appropriate Oral Torah [which is the basis of authenticity of Torah and its Law]. Among other qualities of the Ger Tzedek, is that he will be keeping some extent of the Torah upwards to its near entirety – save for eating exclusively kosher meat, as is the mandate for a Ger [Toshav – Tzedek]. By doing as such, he has sanctified the mystical significance of Moses’ breaking of the Ten Commandment Tablets, in that it is the “downfall” that is actually the ascent, as the Ger who eats “trief” [non-kosher meat] is expressing that he has accepted the entire Torah as seen by the Torah command as such to the Ger Toshav [Tzedek] and thus he is and isn’t a full Torah Jew at the same time. This is called in the mystical sense “coming from the Mouth of the Almighty as ‘I heard two from one voice’ and elicits a universal repair to the World when expressed on an ultra - macro platform.

Thus the Ger Tzedek plays and operates under Torah law, and is thus connected to the Jewish Nation, the Priests, the Land, etc. as he now knows no other reality. For the Ger Tzedek can grasp on an acceptance level any statute that comes his way as the operative measure of Torah governed society; he is clearly a member of the Jewish People as a proper Ger Tzedek. The liberties he enjoys come under such distinctions as aiding with the Red Heifer and association with matters of Temple – Purity & Offerings, Shabbat observance [w/indulging in “soul food labor”], etc.

The best way to express the Love of the Ger on this level is by observing the letter “Shin” that grace a Jewish Man’s Tefillin [of which the Talmud states that this mirrors Hashem’s Tefillin, i.e. as seen in spiritual reality terms through Jewish Mazal – a spiritual emanation trail that ultimately connects to the Creator] that mystically has Four branches [paralleling the secret of the First tablets and the letters that can be seen on both sides; the two letter Shin’s of Tefillin accentuate the white and black fire woven together] representing the Righteous Gerim.

Of final note, the reason why there exists a term of “Ger Tzedek” for this type of person under the gentile distinction as opposed to the Jewish convert [of modern conception] is that in his root and essence he may not be able to ever convert; and this is where the Ger Toshav and Ger Tzedek actually meet and become inseparable. In basic law, all sources still consider him to be a Ger Toshav on some level and yet he reveals the secrets of the Holy Temple that shall stand for eternity, for he brings light to the whole Torah and Priesthood, while echoing the Shem – Abraham union that blueprints this concept as the pattern of Creation [and ultimately making “Yichud” (one-ness) with our Parasha Nasso].

The Ger Tzedek who can’t convert, suffers from the duress of his Toshav status; simply: he can’t function beyond his call of duty. Parashas Emor brings down a lesser known law of the “Toshav-Kohen”, one who is sold to the Priest as property. It is often understood that a Ger can in fact become destitute and be sold to the Jew as a servant like any other servant of this type, although the Ger is different; this is his calling and shall not convert.

The Ger Tzedek of the Temple is such that his soul utterly rejects all that is not God. He can’t convert, for Jews are required to provide a standard of successful living in this world as a basic tenet of Jewish Survival and comes with the territory of the Jewish soul, which any convert would ultimately have to recognize from within, as a signal that he is indeed converting. On the flip side of things, he doesn’t function as a gentile either, for the basic premise of derech eretz living [living off the land; craft and ingenuity] and a world of dollars and cents/sense is simply far too mundane to be involved with. Simply put: The Ger Loves Hashem and Hashem Loves [all] Gerim. To this extent, he is not impoverished by way of being inept, rather, he simply is intoxicated for Hashem and longs for a lifestyle that is dedicated to Temple Service.

The Torah comes with an entire infrastructure for the Gerim on this level, and he is essentially the blood that circulates from within the Holy Temple that lubricates God’s Divine Machine. This is easily explained and imagined when the Torah says a Ger who learns Torah is like the High Priest; as the Priests are the Torah’s authentic and preferred “rabbis” as per their Blessings in the Torah. The commentaries explain that the natural domain for the Ger is ironically “as a Priest” [while not coming from the seed of Aaron, rather Shem], and as such he is seen to grasp and absorb the teachings of the Priest [see Malachi 2:7] to the point of a performance level.

We know that historically and in many law-based cases, the Gerim take part of the Temple services and practices. The love drawn Ger by means of his own mazal, will find himself immersed amongst the Priests, glued to Hashem and His Temple, and their scent [Vilna Gaon Shir Hashirim] will fill the halls of the Temple as the waters of intellect sweeten the bitter World beyond Israel’s boundaries. To put it in simple terms, the Ger Tzedek may very well simply be: a Ger Tzedek by every definition, and perforce his home is amongst the Priests in the Temple as opposed to being among the Judean lions. The Torah calls him [in parallel language] a Ger Toshav [implied Tzedek].

Parashas Nasso is unique in that we can find all of Israel amongst her words; as the Midrash points out in many flavors the various roots in subtle places of Torah personality amidst the Parsha. You may be a Ger, King, Prophet, Nazir, Priest, Warrior, etc. Everyone is in Nasso, and Hashem commands Moses to “Take a census of the Levites of Gershon” – a root in the Holy Tongue for marriage, while the end of the Parsha sees the Tabernacle standing erect by the hand of Moses, as the pivotal moment [of inauguration] in Creation where Hashem is fully bound to his marriage of Israel; all that came before and what will be after in the relationship were predicated on a dwelling for Hashem below in our Temple-driven/defined existence.

How much sweeter will the anticipated Third Temple’s inauguration be, a reality built by the hands of God, as told through the additional merit of the Gerim, who properly are the underlying unified theme of Parashas Nasso. The Jewish People have never - not known the Ger Tzedek, yet it’s Parashas Nasso that aims to simply bring to light what we all intuitively know in hearts - the Jew and the Ger are as inseparable as body and soul…which one is which, is then rendered a moot point, for on that level – [the Temple permeates] Hashem is one, and it is heard throughout ALL of Israel, and responded by Baruch Shem Kavod Malchuto Le’olam Va’ed. Amen.

Here is the New Link For The Classroom: https://www.ivocalize.net/#room/YeshivatShemV'Ever

Class Times:

Motzie Shabbos 11 P.M. - Parsha Shavua

Wed 11 P.M. Torah of the Ger Series

classes are 1 hr. / please arrive a bit early to guarantee a seat

The Kiddish Hashem Under The World's Nose

2013-05-16T09:25:00.000+03:00

Check this link about the real life matzav in Israel from the State's beginning.

Business Insider:

It's a shame the Geulah and the World's biggest Kiddish Hashem this side of Galus went unnoticed by the World outside of the Zionist communities. It seems we all missed the boat [for example summer camps like Young Judaea TOTALLY missed the boat in our chinuch as to WHAT Israel is/was/will be], and only the internet 100 years later starts to tell us what was going down. I must say, I'm even more proud now to be here and raise my family here.
Baruch Hashem and may Geulah wrap up soon, bringing closure to a long process that we all are a part of, for better or worse, as per each one's contribution.

"...The notion of the "Land of Israel" ("Eretz Yisrael" known in Hebrew) has been sacred to the Jewish people since Biblical times. Various empires — including those of the Persians, Romans, Umayyads, and Ottomans — conquered the area until World War I when Britain took control of the area and subsequently declared it Mandatory Palestine in 1920. Modern Jewish migration to the area (at the time Ottoman-ruled Palestine) began in 1881, and the movement to establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel formally began with the birth of the World Zionist Organization in 1887."....

Click the link above to read the story through the pictures on the site that show real life in early Israel.

30 Laws, 7 Laws, 3 Laws, 1 Law - Be Normal

2013-05-13T17:19:00.002+03:00

not normal

The Noahide Laws range from 30 to 7 and even to 3 [Chullin] - no gay marriage, honor the Torah, and no cannibalism. It is said that the correct connotation of the gay and murder issues are to not be too liberal with Torah and radical with Torah, so as to lose morality and to lose focus of a proper God fearing society.

As America goes further and further away from the 1950's into a free - for - all of tumah, the Islamic folks are doing their best too to impose radical Torah perversions of their Noahide Code onto society. I think it is safe to say that through Galus Edom the Jews aree being killed by the extermination of Gerim from indulgance, while the Galus Yishmael is attempting to show the World its personal blend of Noahidism, again, in attempt to finish of Jew-daism and eternally pervert Torah.

When will people get it right? There are 620 Commandments, the Jews were commanded in 7 at Marah, and again today, the 4th day at Sinai just before Hashem converted the people into Jews from Noahides with the 10 Commandments. The laws were binding, are binding, and serve as the impetus to do outreach in the Abraham / Noah program to bring Baatei Dinim to the World to make people Gerei Toshavim, forcing the Yovel and Moshiach to come.

The Gerim were given 7, God setteld for 3, hoping it would turn to 7, so that Moshiach could give 30 and opening the door for the Gerim to keep as many as 620 - gematria Keter.

May Hashem soon place his crown amongst man, as hashgacha pratit will become enclothed in the power of man as mazal. As Malchut wil return, so too will Moshiach ben David, showing us how to chase after the heart of God, a heart that loves Gerim, for Hashem has commanded - Love the Gerim. But for that one must honor Torah [as David did] and stop killing and polluting Gerim and their Torah point of view for the sake of an other non violent holocaust not just against Jews through proxy, but against Hashem and all of his peoples.

Jpost.com:

A video of a Syrian rebel commander cutting the heart out of a soldier and biting into is emblematic of a civil war that has rapidly descended into sectarian hatred and revenge killings, Human Rights Watch said on Monday. The New York-based group said an amateur video posted on the Internet on Sunday shows Abu Sakkar, a founder of the rebel Farouq Brigade who is well known to journalists as an insurgent from Homs, cutting into the torso of a dead soldier. The video has caused outrage among both supporters of President Bashar Assad and opposition figures. "I swear to God we will eat your hearts and your livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog," the man says to off screen cheers of his comrades shouting "Allahu akbar (God is great)".

...one World no longer working to build the Tower of Bavel [abnormal], but the Beit Hamikdash

- Gerim and Jews together.

messianic-temple.com

Parashas Bamidbar: Soul Mazal, Gerim, and Those Rechabites

2013-05-12T22:53:00.000+03:00

Click Here For Audio Link To Parashas Bamidbar!

See you all next Motzie Shabbos at 11 P.M.

[no classes week of Shavuot]

Click Here For Article!

The Name The Ger

2013-05-10T17:01:00.000+03:00

Parashas Bamidbar

Of Levites and Rechabites: Tales of The Distinguished

Rabbi David Katz

Parashas Bamidbar [3:21] introduces a new element in the Torah, this being that of the distinguished and elite families of the Children of Israel, i.e., those that were primarily found amongst the Levites. The Midrash explains and expounds on this principle concerning [of the Levites] the Livni-ites (amongst others listed) [with emphasis on “-ites” as a term of endearment to these elect families amongst Israel] as such: “Why are they called Livni-ites? …That going back to liberation from Egypt these families merited that Hashem should call each and every one of them [a name] based on their achievements and merit in their revealed deeds. Thus the Livni-ites were a reminder of the merit contained throughout Israel in response to Pharaoh having used brick and mortar to enslave them. …and the Shimi-ites were named after those that cried out from bondage…”

One can clearly see, Hashem rewards the deeds of the Righteous with terms of endearment [Jews and Gerim, i.e. Gerim are known to have as much of an affiliation with names as Jews; Names (on a level of High Intellect) are derived from Gerim such as Adam, Noah, Shem, and Ever…culminating with perhaps the most famous of sorts – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – all having special Names that match their merits.

In great merit are these families remembered by their names, and this beckons one to recall the famous families of Gerim [such as the famous Rechabites] who were also named and recalled by God in the exact same light. In a Parsha that begins with Moses giving [or revealing] each soul his “name and number” [the name meaning and gematria acc. To commentary, as the Vilna Gaon’s system in Kol Hator would call this “mysa v’ cheshbon” – deed and number] the depth of the Parsha shines forth through hinting at the meaning that names bestow upon a person, to the point that the commentaries state on these matters [i.e. Chronicles 1.2.55 when explaining the meaning of the Rechabites] – to attempt to exhaust such matters would render the efforts infinite.

Now that a precedent has been established of names, elite, prominent, etc., we can now illuminate perhaps the biggest mystery that exists in the entire Torah – the nature of “strange names” that are littered throughout the entire text. By the time we reach Chronicles, it should become quite apparent that there were a lot of names through the Tanach that seem important, yet no adequate reason is offered in a straight forward fashion that could easily explain this phenomenon, to the extent that the entire Book of Chronicles itself seems to be an isolated island predicated on this element of enigmatic idioms offered as “names” alone!

Once the interested reader comes to learn that the Livni-ites according to the Midrash actually is not a benign blip on the radar, and is a term/name that is actually invested with heavy meaning [warning: the entire Torah is as such! – proceed with caution is advised], then the proverbial dots can begin to become connected, and a map of sorts can be printed as documentation as to the true nature of Gerim [who are the prime subject of this science, again proving the severity of names and Gerim in history and Torah], which in brail-like fashion, will lead us into the camp of the Rechabites; elect ancient Gerim, of whom the account of the essential Ger is embedded in their very being, encapsulated by none other, than their names.

The Rechabites are a treasure-trail of a mystery that will literally captivate you to travail throughout the Torah from the days of Jethro [which are only fully understood through a Ger perspective of Bereishit, i.e. from Creation to Noah and Shem and onwards to the Avot and into Joseph and Egpyt, composing the entire first book of the Torah as an introduction to Moses, Jethro, and the appropriate commandments to each (much like Rashi’s commentary to the opening of Genesis as to why the Torah began a “law book” with an account of history)], into the Land of Israel with Joshua and his legion of Kenites [those from Jethro] who would exist in name, throughout the entire Tanach incognito if you will, until the Book of Chronicles, which there, in faint detail, the Torah tersely documents this lineage, that ultimately became the Rechabites, a family of nobility, of Gerim. The interested reader would literally have had to master the Tanach cover to cover, to gain a glimpse of the repetitious pattern that guards the path of the righteous gentile in Torah history.

Once settled in Chronicles 1.2.55, one will gain insight into these Rechabites, that echo the type of message delivered back home in Bamidbar 3:21, concerning the Levites, who again, were praised by their account and preserved merit in the Exodus, which is guarded by their lofty names. The Rechabites are said to be the righteous descendants of “Chamat – father of Rechav.”

The basic story of the Rechabites is told in text and commentary as follows: “The Kenites [descendants of Jethro the Ger, i.e. not a convert] came to dwell with the famous scribes [who were also a sect of Gerim, as Gerim were largely recognized as superior scribes in the first Temple time period] known as Yabetz. The famous Rechabites to dwell there were three-fold and recognized by the merit of their names – Teratites (gave “sound” to their prayers), Shimatites (their prayers were “heard”), and Sokatites (their merits “protect” Israel). One of the Kenites was Rechav [offspring from Chamat, and those of whom the entire lineage would be named after], and he was the forefather to Yonadov, who upon hearing of the Temple’s imminent destruction took upon himself three degrees of practice of sanctity: not to drink wine, not to dwell in houses, and to not sow seed. These righteous deeds that aided in Israel’s survival, merit, and protection, deemed these Gerim as eternal Rechabites, a term of endearment from the heart of God, as it says, “God loves the Ger like none other.

[*note: this Midrash about God’s love of the Ger is in reference to ANYONE who is a Ger, whether it be a Ger Toshav who eats neveilah (unkosher meat) or King David himself – God’s Love for him is like none other, for this you are commanded to Love the Ger as well.]

Thus the Rechabite is just one example of how the name explains one’s entire being, history, merit, place in the World, etc. In clearer terms – it is his Mazal, i.e. the bound up Wisdom, like a spiritual map/DNA of what this person possesses in the very depths of his soul, such that it defines his relationship with Hashem. The Levites of Bamidbar were the first to reveal this ancient wisdom to us in the post-Egypt World, yet it is an art that goes back to Genesis and the days of the Avot, Shem, and developed by Noah himself, a man whose name is his essence! The Zohar calls itself after Noah and his Ark, which is explained the word in Hebrew for Ark [Teivah] also means “word” which is a way of saying “the word Noah,” i.e. his Name.

It is upon this point that Shem ben Noah [Shem whose name means “name”] represents the level of reincarnation to Noah [even though they were alive at the same time], or the portion of his soul that was simply the name of Noah. This would embody its wisdom, properties to redeem [as Noah was said to have redeemed merely by the powers invested within his prophetic name, of which the Torah makes a revealed point of expression upon the birth of Noah and its implications; the Torah example of depth revealed within names], which ultimately is a person’s [Jewish, Torah-defined and intertwined] Mazal.

The Levites and the Rechabites are two examples cut from the same cloth that can express the deepest secrets of Torah, those that are embedded in a name as a source of merit. [Every soul born comes to this world with merit and per force Mazal. For this each soul possesses a divine prophetic name that gives account of the entire Torah from the vantage of point of his potential righteousness that becomes his mission to reveal to the World.] For this the commentaries state that it is beyond the scope of text to document infinite wisdom of names, thus making it known that this is indeed the nature of our reality in a Mazal, God driven World.

Moses, as the essential prophet, who was given the gift from above to bestow the infinite in a finite fashion, relays for us this lofty concept [of Levites, Rechabites, etc. – High Intellect in names] in one simple verse in the Torah: Moses counted by the number of their names. And thus God’s army was fashioned, armed with their essence [within the name] along with merit and Mazal, that each member may be able to hold his head high. No one else in History revealed this more, than those of the Redemption of Egypt [which the Arizal says is mystically retold each Seder night by every Jew, retelling his Mazal, or family merit that he was redeemed by], i.e. the Levites, and especially the Rechabites, the Gerim, those who have guarded the Torah’s lost secrets as a safekeeping until the End of Days, the time when Israel will see the great merit and Mazal bestowed to them, by God himself, for such bravery as Chamat, the father of Rechav, and his offspring who sacrificed themselves for the sanctity of God’s Temple, may it be built soon and in our days. Amen.

Don't Forget NEW Summer Hours CLASS TIME: 11 P.M. Motzie Shabbos - Parsha Shavua [from 10 P.M.]

and Wed 11 P.M. Torah of Ger Series - To resume after the Holiday

Class Link To Enter Yeshiva Click Here

Fireworks Are Coming Out Of Tzfat?

2013-05-08T12:23:00.001+03:00

How far right is Israel going and for how long will neo-Kahanism last?

Bennett is having his way with the country on issues such as Haredim and involvement of the Chief Rabbi election, of which Rav Eliyahu of Tzfas Ir Hakoydesh [as is known by Tzfat-nics] is a leading candidate. The interesting point to note is Rav Eliyahu's past position on right-wing issues such as Arabs, nature of Jews in the World, etc.

Rav Eliyahu has been in Tzfat a long time, and we know of his character, yet what may be quite compelling is to see how he performs under the National spotlight, a podium that his late father graced quite well. How far right will he allow himself [and the government] to wander?

Israel could become a new flavor of Zionism [that echoes Kahane] more than we know!

Israel HaYom:

Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef made an unequivocal decision on Thursday that Shas will not cooperate with Habayit Hayehudi in the process of electing Israel's chief rabbis. Yosef rejected the deal suggested by national religious rabbi Haim Druckman, under which Habayit Hayehudi would support the "Amar law," which would allow a presiding rabbi to remain in office for an additional term (namely, it would allow current Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Shas' preferred candidate, to serve an additional term), in exchange for Shas' support of a law allowing rabbis over the age of 70 to run for the position.

The second law would benefit the national religious favorite and Habayit Hayehudi choice, Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi Yaakov Ariel. Yosef had harsh words regarding Habayit Hayehudi, telling his associates that they were responsible for "decrees of religious persecution against the haredim (ultra-Orthodox)." Yosef's associates explained that the rabbi was very angry at the religious Zionist camp and that he viewed Habayit Hayehudi as being complicit with a coalition that persecutes the Torah world.

They said further that Yosef feels Habayit Hayehudi had joined forces with the haters of the Torah. "Haredi Judaism is under attack. We mustn't cooperate with our enemies," said a senior Shas source. Sources within Habayit Hayehudi warned that Yosef's decision not to participate in the plan would cause the haredim to lose their bid for Sephardi chief rabbi, and end up with two national religious rabbis in the chief positions.

On Sunday, MK Elazar Stern (Hatnuah) is expected to bring a bill before the ministerial committee on legislation that is expected to win a large majority. The bill, if approved, would change the composition of the 150-member body that elects the chief rabbis, which is widely considered to be controlled by Shas.

The new law would change the body's composition to include more women and non-haredim, which could lead them to elect a non-haredi chief Sephardi rabbi as well.

The person who stands to gain from these squabbles is Tzohar founder Rabbi David Stav, as well as Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, who are set to become the two leading candidates in the race for the rabbinate. Stav has the support of most parties within the coalition. According to understandings within Habayit Hayehudi, if Rabbi Ariel is not able to run due to his age, Rabbi Stav will receive the support of the religious Zionists.

Follow The Chinese Brick Road

2013-05-07T10:51:00.001+03:00

Galus China -
[The Galus that won't be, as China eternally prepares for a galus that they ironically eternally will have imposed on themselves, while anticipating their immediate control of civilization - once the final pieces are in store - i.e. Jews! (what else would Galus be?)]

Is getting further under way, as a divine match is being made before our very eyes - between China and Erev Rav. Gashmius + Tumah + etc. etc = Galus China...Moshiach is closer than ever apparently.

JPost.com:

Netanyahu tours Shanghai, where 18,000 Jews sought refuge during WWII: "70 years ago we could only plead, only beg to be saved. Today we have a state of our own, an army of our own....we can defend ourselves." Netanyahu meets Shanghai mayor Just days after allegations that Israel attacked Syria, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Tuesday morning in China that unlike 70 years ago, today Israel "can defend ourselves."

Netanyahu's comments came during a tour of the historic Jewish quarters in Shanghai where some 18,000 Jews sought refuge during World War II.

Related: China offers to broker Abbas-Netanyahu meeting Chinese taxpayers footing bill for Netanyahu's hotel The fate of the Jews has changed a great deal since the time the Jewish refugees found shelter in this city, Netanyahu said. "70 years ago we could only plead, only beg to be saved," he said. "Today we have a state of our own, an army of our own. We need not beg to be saved, we can defend ourselves."

From the Jewish quarter, Netanyahu was scheduled to meet with the mayor of Shanghai.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday issued a four-point proposal for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Chinese news agency Xinhau reported that the proposal was made during a meeting between Jinping and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is currently visiting Beijing.

The four-point proposal, according to the agency, calls for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and peaceful coexistence with Israel.

But on Monday, rather than dealing with questions regarding the Syrians or the Palestinians, Netanyahu immersed himself in trying to push forward Israeli-Sino economic cooperation.

At a reception Monday evening in Shanghai with Chinese and Israeli businesspeople, Netanyahu said the “spectacular” city of Shanghai represented “the future of China and the entire world, and I believe that Israel can be part of this future.”

According to Netanyahu, “The future belongs to countries that are capable of manufacturing intellectual property” and to those that “lead in innovation and technology.”

“Israel is not as big as China,” he said. “We have 8 million residents, approximately one-third the population of Shanghai. But we manufacture more intellectual property than any other country in the world in relation to its size. If we create a partnership between Israel’s inventive capability and China’s manufacturing capability, we will have a winning combination.”

Earlier in the evening he met with Israeli businesspeople representing companies operating in Shanghai, who told him of the importance of Israeli government backing when breaking into the centralized and government-controlled Chinese market. Netanyahu said he intended to give them that backing.

...But just how viable is this road?

As David: The Ger Who Speaks The Truth

2013-05-06T21:05:00.002+03:00

Click Here For Audio Link / Download!

Topics of the Ger:

Jubillee - Essential Redemption
How many Ger Toshav Are There?!
Gerim of Israel
Ger Tzedek In Clear Light
The Lodger, The Slave, The Tzaddik
True Charity Fights Stealing
Four Regrets of God
...and more

Click Here For Article
[for best comprehension it is advised to read article before audio]

Don't Forget Class Times! [Israel Time]

Motzie Shabbat - Parasha Shavua 11 P.M.
Wed 11 P.M. - Gerim in Torah
...Coming Soon! - Noahide Shabbat and Shem - Noah Series

Have a Great Week!

Simcha!

When Damascus Will Cease To Be A City

2013-05-05T09:08:00.001+03:00

Here we go...Again...

YNet:

Every Western intelligence agency estimated it would happen soon, and now, according to all indications, it has: Bashar Assad tried to reward Nasrallah and his men - who are fighting and dying for him – by transferring modern, surface-to-surface missiles that would alter the balance of power between the Lebanese Shiite group and Israel. The Jewish state, it was reported, intervened and thwarted, just as the prime minister, defense minister and IDF chief had promised it would. It is safe to assume that the arms convoy was about to leave the storage facility at the Syrian army base toward the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon when it was hit.

The attacked storage facility is apparently located in an isolated base used for training Hezbollah terrorists in the use of "deterrence-breaking" weapons and also serves as a transit station for Nasrallah's organization on the way to Lebanon. Syria has a number of such facilities in the Damascus area and in the coastal region, where most of the Alawite and Shiite-Lebanese population is located. Israeli aircraft flew over Lebanon in the past few days – mainly over south Lebanon, and even carried out simulated attacks. These flyovers were most likely meant to signal to Hezbollah and Syria: We are aware of your intentions and we will not sit idly by – as Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon warned. It seems, at least according to the American media, that the warning signals were ignored, forcing an attack on the arms convoy.

The attack itself, one can assume, was not carried out from within Lebanese territory, but from a long distance. Perhaps even from over the sea. It is known that Israel has lethal long-range weapons systems – such as the Popeye air-to-surface missile manufactured by Rafael – which allows for very accurate hits from a range of over 100 kilometers (62 miles), maybe even much more. Just so you know, Mr. Khamenei.

Among the strategic and modern weapons systems Israel said it would not allow to be transferred to Lebanon are the Scud D ballistic missiles - based on the original Russian Scud – which Syria developed with Iran's funding. These missiles can carry chemical warheads containing the advanced chemical warfare agent VX to a distance of up to 680 kilometers (423 miles). It is important to stress that according to the relatively credible reports from the Pentagon, the attacked weapons systems did not contain chemical warfare agents – but potentially they could have.

The accurate long-range missiles Assad is trying to transfer to Hezbollah present two problems for Israel: They endanger military facilities and civilians from the north almost all the way to Eilat; and they can be activated far from the border – for instance, from the Hezbollah-controlled area in Lebanon's northern Bekaa Valley – in a manner which would make it difficult for Israeli warplanes to reach them quickly and thwart the launching. The good news is that the "Arrow" system is capable of intercepting - if the number of missiles fired does not exceed a certain amount. Therefore, Hezbollah has an interest in receiving from Syria the largest amount possible of ballistic missiles and long-range rockets of all types –mainly Scud missiles.

According to foreign sources, the Assad regime had already succeeded – even before the civil war broke out – to transfer to Hezbollah in Lebanon a small number of Scud D missiles. Israel was aware but refrained from acting due to Washington's objection. It happened roughly two-and-a-half years ago: The American administration feared an Israeli attack would undermine stability in the Middle East, and the fighter jets, which were already in the air, returned to base. It is safe to assume that since then the Obama administration has changed its position on the issue.

The advanced Scud is not the only weapon capable of breaking the balance of deterrence. Other weapons systems are capable of limiting the IDF's ability to operate deep inside Lebanon should Hezbollah decide to launch a missile and rocket attack. These systems mostly include mobile, "stealth," and accurate anti-aircraft missile batteries and radar facilities which are difficult to locate – particularly the SA-17 surface-to-air missiles, which Russia recently supplied to Syria. The request for the SA-17 was made in the aftermath of the strike on Syria's nuclear reactor in 2007. Now Russia is transferring these missiles to deter NATO from operating as it did in Libya. Assad, for his part, is trying to reward Nasrallah and make things difficult for the Israeli Air Force. This is why an SA-17 battery was attacked last January as it was being transferred to from western Damascus to the Lebanese border.

Hezbollah is also after the anti-ship cruise missiles Russia sold Syria, particularly the "Yakhont" missile. Hezbollah already has in its possession obsolete Iranian-made land-to-sea missiles, such as the one that struck the Israeli missile boat "Hanit" during the Second Lebanon War. But the "Yakhont" is much more advanced and dangerous. It has a 300-kilometer (186 miles) range, it flies at a very high altitude and is equipped with the most advanced systems. The "Yakhont" can serve as a very accurate and devastating missile against targets along Israel's coastline if launched from the Syrian or Lebanese coast.

According to military journals in Russia, the "Yakhont" has the ability to zero in on a target very accurately with a GPS system. The missile has the unique ability of being able to cruise several meters above the water surface, making it difficult to detect and intercept. In short, no gas field is safe from this missile, and, should Hezbollah obtain the "Yakhont," it would make it risky for Navy vessels to sail off Lebanon's coast. Just so you know, Mr. Putin.

It is safe to assume that the recent attack targeted surface-to-surface missiles, mostly because Assad and his army do not need these missiles to fight the rebels and can therefore afford to transfer them to Nasrallah, so he could use them against Israel when the opportunity arises (from Nasrallah and Iran's standpoint). If such an opportunity does not arise, Hezbollah will be asked to return the missiles to the Syrian army, in the event that Assad's regime survives.

In addition, the Syrian regime fears that after it used nerve gas against its citizens the West and NATO may launch a military operation. Obama has already said that such an operation would not be conducted on the ground, meaning it would mostly likely be launched from the air, from bases in Turkey, for instance, as well as from the sea – from aircraft carriers and destroyers. One of the plans is to attack missiles that can be used to launch chemical weapons. In order to fend off such an attack the Syrian army would need all its modern surface-to-air batteries and every "Yakhont" launcher it currently has or can obtain from Russia. Therefore, it is unlikely that Assad will transfer vital weapons systems to Hezbollah in Lebanon at this time.

It is interesting that the reports of the recent attack came from Washington and not from sources in the region. During the attack on the SA-17 battery a few months ago, the US remained silent, but gave the impression that it was not against the operation and that it was justified, because Israel is entitled to defend itself. Obama reaffirmed this position during his visit in March. The US made it very clear it does not want "game-changing" advanced weapons to be transferred from Syria to terror elements – particularly Hezbollah. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel reiterated this position during his meeting with Ya'alon last month.

Now Washington is making sure to leak to all American media outlets that Israel attacked and what the target was. It is safe to assume that this tactic was employed because Assad's regime tried to "save face" and conceal the blow it had received, and also because the Obama administration, in accordance with its new agreements with Israel, it trying to show Syria and its supporters – Iran, Russia and China – that the US is serious when it says that "all options are on the table." The message: We stand by Israel when it protects itself.

Damascus Falls...Moshiach Comes

Living Amongst God's Gerim

2013-05-03T13:44:00.000+03:00

Parashas Behar [& Bechukosai]

Shulchan Hashem – Living With Gerim In The Land

Rabbi David Katz

In this week’s double Parasha of Behar and Bechukosai, Hashem closes the Heart of the Torah, as Vayikra gives way to Bamidbar, and we can now properly focus on coming into the Land, coinciding with the holiday Shavuot. Yet as the famous analogy goes, a candle gives off its greatest light just before it fires off its last sparks; in Behar that candle is the Ger and the Light is his identity that shines forever. Again, the same as was with Emor, the Ger is richest in his revolution of the Sinai revelation, with the most essential Ger Torah pouring out before God, thus making the amount of Ger Torah in concentration a rare opportunity to know him in these few Parshiot. Of the essential elements, what stands out the most, each in a unique way would be the following four issues of Gerim in the Land: The Sabbath in the Land, The Yovel [in proximity of the Ger and the command to not taunt him], Jews in the Land, and where the Land identifies the Ger.

In Vayikra 25:6 the verse educates about the Sabbath of the Land where on a 7-year cycle, the seventh year is for Hashem, and the natural fruits will be for [amongst others] the Gerim. Rashi and commentators point out that the Ger reference can also suit workers of the Land, and the term “your dweller” [your – תושב Toshav] can come to include the Nachri who is doubly identified as a traveler – dweller. This bares significant identification as to the nature of the Nachri, as previously he was identified as a Ger Toshav under the quality of having rejected idolatry while in the Land, eating non-kosher meat, and still yet not having accepted the Seven Laws of Noach. This is hand in glove to the verse later on in the Torah that bases the Jewish – Ger relationship to be based on Tzedakkah in the form of giving non – kosher meat to the Ger [Toshav] and HAVING to SELL the meat to a Nachri.

This week provides the source that if the Nachri [not quite removed from idolatry abroad to qualify as a type of Ger] is on stay in the Land, he is termed a Toshav, would be able to be given the meat [as opposed to being sold], and he may enjoy Hashem’s fruits of the Land. Not only do we now have knowledge of a “who is who” in the Ger World, but even more important, the words “Ger” and “Toshav” have skyrocketed to ultra-complex! As we will see, the Land is very dynamic [especially when a Temple is erect], and the general term for people will be either Ger or Toshav or some combination. The task of the Torah scholar [Ger or Jew] is to know these terms, identify with them, and educate them, as the essence of the Oral Torah [within the Written Torah] is best expressed in a pure form through the Torah of the Ger, as Moses commanded at Sinai before Hashem spoke, in what was the purest expression of Torah, and served as the platform of post-Sinai exegesis.

The Ger Toshav in his highest form, one where he is legally a Ger in every sense, and all Torah Law concerning him is accepted [even to the stringent opinions, i.e. in a time where the Rambam would say we accept him (outright and not in a depressed state) as he enjoys full status] can only come about if there is a Jubilee Year in operation. Aside from the fact that this is a known halachic fact, the Torah gives clear definition of this reality by a close proximity of the Jubilee law contained in key verses that highlight the integrity of the Ger.

The closeness of the two topics show just how literally they are both intertwined with each other. The current condition of the Ger Toshav [of exile] and attempts to usher in redemption are both contingent on the Jubilee, as it is this 50^th year that serves as a common denominator that can produce an all-encompassing redemption for all peoples. As fate would have it, ironically to focus on the true nature of the Ger Toshav is to bring redemption under the rug called Jubilee, as the Ger Toshav technically fits on either side of the Jubilee;

again showing just how mutually tight and eternally impacting these two really are.

The Ger is sandwiched into the Jubilee verses also contains a portion of the famous command to not taunt the Ger and your fellow man. The Talmud even states that a Jew who is a Baal Teshuva [a returnee to Judaism] is considered a Ger and to taunt him with his past is a violation of the Torah. The Ger is specifically mentioned [in clear terms, demonstrating that this is not always a Ger-Convert] in that one may not remind him [in regards of his Torah learning] of his non-kosher eating [commanded] habits. And finally on this point, the Torah compares a Jewish impoverished worker to a “Toshav” [yet another definition of Toshav] and thus forbids one to taunt him, as one would taunt the Ger [thus relating the Jew to a Ger]. One can easily see how broad and encompassing the Ger is, and how far – reaching his Torah flows, and once applied by association becomes a strong representative of the Oral Torah, even in the Written.

Hashem makes it very clear in regards to the Land of Israel, that the Land is HIS and not to anyone else, even the Jewish People. What Hashem has decreed is that of the Gerim in the World, he has selected a Nation to be stationed on His land [as all Gerim are stationed on the Lands of the World, each being pulled after their prophetically given names, as King David said, “Hashem places names in the land, not desolation.”], and their job is to work it [i.e. the Land with a Temple on it for the peoples of the World to come to], much like Adam, Noah, and Shem before them; hence Abraham had to come by means of Lech Lecha [Go for you to the Land!]. The Jewish people for this reason [and from this angle] are Jews, and Hashem allows them a portion in the Seventh Year, as a way of uniting with the Creator vis a vis the Land.

In the Ger Torah commands such as don’t taunt him and even this law of the Jews on the Land, a famous saying of King David is called upon for context, when he says, “I am a Ger.” The interesting revelation of this iconic statement from King David is that he is not being cute or overly righteous, for as we have learned, King David is simply giving us Pshat, or the simple meaning of Torah. It just so happens that King David is also showing us just how deep Torah is, and the extent one must internalize it, to benefit from its wisdom. David has mastered the art of bringing Torah to life, as he is able to express on his own terms, real Torah concepts such as Jews in the Land that belongs to Hashem, and its implications of reality.

The rest of the Ger associations of the Parsha are equally monumental and illuminate the full scope of the Ger. Amongst the relatively many verses and commentary in Behar, the Ger may be any of the following scenarios that the verses detail.

The Sifsei Chachamim commentary gives the most authentic and direct account that a Ger Toshav and Ger Tzedek can be of the same quality, in contrast of the Ger Tzedek convert, and he explains the difference, and thus how to distinguish between the two. We learn about “Toshavim” which may sound like a [better] term of endearment to the Ger, but when investigated in Behar, this illuminates the vast bow of the Ger in different places of context. As a Toshav in the generic sense, he may be a Ger Tzedek, or [God Forbid] he may be a bred slave, an asset of equity seen as a movable! The Torah permits it, Toshav is the term, and now all the more so one must know which type of Toshav the Torah is in reference of at any time. This is not to speak ill of the Ger, quite the opposite, it comes to express the need to know him, in every way possible, and to prevent out of context relationships with him, for the sake of the Land and the People. The point to be taken from him is that he is a unique person, truly made in the Image of God, as his Torah gives testimony of this; one must Love the Ger.

The Parasha gives many proofs to lingering questions, such as who is the Nachri, Ger Tzedek, Toshav, Ger, Ger Toshav [in all forms], Jew-Ger, Jew-Toshav, etc. to the extent that if the Ger wasn’t physically at Sinai [schism for the sake of repairing schism], he certainly was the center of attention at any rate, based on the Parsha that implies Sinai [along with Parashas Jethro for the same reasons]. An interesting way to summarize this story, is that the only place in the Torah that spells out the word [to trust (God)] [Bitachon] in letter after letter is found in Behar, and in the place that it speaks of dwelling securely in the Land. I think Hashem’s message is loud and clear and does need too much explanation: To dwell securely in a Land that abandons its labor every seven years because it is God’s Land and thus one must have faith in God, one must realize the Ger. The Parasha makes it difficult with all of its pilpul of the Ger [such that Jews seemed to have avoided it until today], yet the message of Sinai is, was, and will always be clear: ladies and gentlemen, we need the Ger - all Ger, even the Jewish ones, even the one’s outside the Land. For you were Gerim too, all of you, whoever you are – urges Hashem.

Now is the time to start dwelling securely into what Hashem is engineering in front of our eyes, leading us all to his Land, to His Zion, to His Temple, to His Holy of Holies, in what will be the final transaction of possessions between the two Gerim, two Kings even, David and Aravnah, who picked up where Shem and Abraham left off, until the Moshiach will come and redeem the Gerim, may it be soon in our days. Amen.

Click Here To Access / Register For The Yeshiva

Don't Forget Audio Shiurim - Parasha Motzie Shabbat 10 P.M.

Wed 11 P.M. Torat Gerim / Noahide

The Google Glass Prophecy

2013-05-03T01:41:00.000+03:00

Welcome to Google Glass.
Moshiach Where Are You.

From The Mouth of Moses To Our Noahide Ears

2013-05-02T14:51:00.001+03:00

Click Here For Audio Download Ger #6 - "The Ger Toshav Today From Chesed"

Don't Forget Class Times:

Motzie Shabbat 10 P.M. - Parsha Shavua
Wed 11 P.M. - Ger Series in Torah

Click Here To Access / Register For The Yeshiva

Enjoy!

Straight Marriages, Honoring the Torah, and NO CANNIBALISM - Noah's Laws

2013-05-01T22:46:00.003+03:00

The Talmud Chullin says that when as long as the Nations are not keeping either 7 Laws of Noach or even the 30 Laws given with the Moshiach, the World is kept into existance by 3 Laws built in that maintain a World of Nature, of which Rav Hutner calls, "Derech Eretz."

These 3 Laws are:

Straight Marriages
No Cannibalism
Honor Torah

It is said that each ruling society is tasked with perfecting these 3 pillars into a viable society one that can grow into a 7 Law system that even allows for the 30 Messianic Laws that will aide in perfecting the World of the Ger Toshav.
A ruling country like America then is built around these 3; for example, gun allowance keeps man from devouring man [see Pirkei Avos]. America's moral fabric made being gey tabboo until recently, etc etc. Thus the more elaborate [and Divine] the code becomes from the interpretation of three, it will yield Divine Bounty into a viable regime.

The Torah also says Hashem doesn't make land desolate, rather Names are the Land - and for that America's past has yielded a history that may play against its 3 Law format, one we see crumbling every day. Does America attract those who consume flesh [a breach in not only the 3 Laws but 1 of the 7 Laws as well - eating flesh of the living]?

America is crusading for gay rights, they are abandoning Torah, and as for cannibalism - it would not be a good sign if the Land itself has a history of such behavior. The Caananites got thrown out of Israel for being repulsive to Hashem, thus going against the Law of God means extermination.

It seems America is on thin ice if we are to grade as per these 3 Laws and America's standing with them.

YahooNews:

Scientists revealed Wednesday that they have found the first solid archaeological evidence that some of the earliest American colonists at Jamestown, Va., survived harsh conditions by turning to cannibalism. For years, there have been tales of people in the first permanent English settlement in America eating dogs, cats, rats, mice, snakes and shoe leather to stave off starvation. There were also written accounts of settlers eating their own dead, but archaeologists had been skeptical of those stories.

But now, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and archaeologists from Jamestown are announcing the discovery of the bones of a 14-year-old girl that show clear signs that she was cannibalized. Evidence indicates clumsy chops to the body and head of the girl, who appears to have already been dead at the time. Smithsonian forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley said the human remains date back to a deadly winter known as the "starving time" in Jamestown from 1609 to 1610. Hundreds died during the period. Scientists have said the settlers likely arrived during the worst drought in 800 years, bringing severe food shortages for the 6,000 people who lived at Jamestown between 1607 and 1625.

The historical record is chilling. Early Jamestown colony leader George Percy wrote of a "world of miseries," that included digging up corpses from their graves to eat when there was nothing else. "Nothing was spared to maintain life," he wrote.

In one case, a man killed, "salted," and began eating his pregnant wife. Both Percy and Capt. John Smith, the colony's most famous leader, documented the account in their writings. The man was later executed. "One amongst the rest did kill his wife, powdered her, and had eaten part of her before it was known, for which he was executed, as he well deserved," Smith wrote. "Now whether she was better roasted, boiled or carbonado'd (barbecued), I know not, but of such a dish as powdered wife I never heard of." Archaeologists at Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia were somewhat skeptical of the stories of cannibalism in the past because there was no solid proof, until now. "Historians have questioned, well did it happen or not happen?" Owsley said. "And this is very convincing evidence that it did."

Owsley has been working with William Kelso, the chief archaeologist at Jamestown, since their first burial discovery in 1996.

The remains of the 14-year-old girl, discovered in the summer of 2012, mark the fourth set of human remains uncovered at Jamestown outside of graves. Researchers named her "Jane" to give her an identity for a book explaining her story. Her remains were found in a cellar at the site that had been filled with trash, including bones of horses and other animals consumed in desperation, according to archaeologists. The discovery detracts from the happier mythology of John Smith and Pocahontas that many associate with Jamestown. The vice president of research at nearby Colonial Williamsburg, which oversees excavations of the original Jamestown site, said visitors will have a fuller view of a terrible time in early American history. "I think we are better served by understanding history warts and all because I think it gives us a better understanding of who we are as a people," James Horn said. "It gives us a better sense of the sacrifices that people made, ordinary people like Jane, to survive in the new world."

Owsley, who has also done forensic analysis for police investigations, analyzed the girl's remains and how the body had been dismembered, including chops to the front and back of the head. The girl was likely already dead at the time. There was a cultural stigma against killing someone for food. But it was clear to Owsley immediately that there were signs of cannibalism.

"It is the evidence found on those bones that put it within the context of this time period," he said. "This does represent a clear case of dismemberment of the body and removing of tissues for consumption." It was the work of someone not skilled at butchering, Owsley said. There was a sense of desperation. The bones show a bizarre attempt to open the skull. Animal brains and facial tissue would be considered accepted and desirable meat in the 17th century, Owsley said.

The human remains will be placed on display at Jamestown to explain the horrid conditions early settlers faced. At the Smithsonian, curators will display a digital reconstruction of the girl's face in an exhibit about life at Jamestown.

Owsley said archaeology is helping to fill in details from a time when few records were kept — details that won't likely be found in history books. Kelso, whose archaeology team discovered the bones, said the girl's bones will be displayed to help tell a story, not to be a spectacle.

"We found her in a trash dump, unceremoniously trashed and cannibalized, and now her story can be told," Kelso said. "People will be able to empathize with the time and history and think to themselves, as I do: What would I do to stay alive?"

The Smithsonian and Jamestown archaeologists are publishing their findings in a new book but decided against waiting to announce the discovery through a peer-reviewed journal. "In a lot of ways, I say Jane is us," Kelso said. "She brings the past to the present."

On Krypton the "S" stands for Hope - Let's hope for hope!
Where is [our Superman like] Moshiach - and these 3-7-30 Laws for the World to progress into a World of the Ger Toshav!

The New Manna: A Zimbabwe Dollar - In God We Trust

2013-05-01T11:53:00.000+03:00

Evil and Amalek don't play the game of life with logic and of course not with Torah wisdom; it's a game of odds and basic math patterns, based on sub-par algorithms. The article presented says doomsdayers [i.e. blogs about moshiach, etc.] are fear mongers who exploit the facts as he presents in his case. The hand that he tips actually says that the nature of evil is a gambler and a risk taker as long as the odds are good enough; lets call it socio-blackjack, with a cheesy Vegas dealer name Bazza at your service.

Their view is that Zimbabwe was simply under-managed, and with American brass it can be steered, righted, and brought back to prosperity; throw in a few wars for the cause [not WWIII standard as a doomsdayer would suggest] and soon we'll be back to decadence, which is a right that every American has [as per their indoctrination] while the nations abroad are sold [or told?] to endorse, worship, and push the agenda of America enjoying its eternal birthright [Esau anyone?].

There are two possible key issues here: either they lose, and welcome Moshiach, or they try to win, and, well, yes, Geulah will be extended - but the fiasco and charade that they put on display for public will be quite pathetic, as probably every prophecy in Tanach will now have an easy platform to inform the people of God's intentions. What do we say to this - have fun? Buckle up? oy vey.

By the way, I'm going on record as agreeing with him, as I think God wants this elongated as possible to allow for teshuvah, save lives, etc. as outlined by the Vilna Gaon - who says its like being decreed a big rock to crush you; only God has mercy and agrees to throw the rock on you, but only as sand pebbles - many of them - like American dollars will be.

The Geulah process has already begun in certain sectors, and this will allow people to get on board and gain merit, again, thanks to an elongated process. And at the end of the day, I think Hashem just wants in his heart that one day he should pay an Avreich in Kollel a Billion dollar monthly check, just in principle the World must see that day, for fate must contain a sense of irony.

Forbes.com:

From all the doom and gloom about U.S. and European economics you would have thought the end of the financial world was nigh. In fact a lot of people are saying that right now. Want some good news? It is not going to happen. That is not to say I haven’t written a lot of gloomy economic stuff myself. Yet, to be honest, I’m over that now. The economic accident happened in 2007/2008. The developed world’s economy didn’t die. It is now recovering. It is only a start but we have entered a new era nonetheless.

The idea is, U.S. and Europe are on a binge of deficit spending and this has created a titanic overhead of sovereign debt that can’t be supported or repaid.

This is correct. But do not panic.

The conclusion of the doomsters is that consequently the economic world will implode and the globe will spin off its axis into outer darkness. Well, the bit about spinning out of the orbit of the sun is an exaggeration, but not by much.

The doomsters see a collapse of so called fiat money, i.e. money as we know it and an economic and social breakdown will follow. Gold and bullets are to be the only currency.

According to this line of prediction, we should all be rearing chickens in anticipation and ready to grow bean shoots in our closets for food. While you are at it, get some plans to create a stealth smokehouse. Forget zombies; the marauders of the future financial collapse are going to be real people.

Woe on us, prepare!

This prepper-view is nonsense. The view that fiat money is going to disappear is mad and silly. Fiat money is going nowhere, except down in value.

Special Offer: After a big drop, Apple’s valuation and dividend yield look tempting. Time to buy? Click here for a free-trial and immediate access to Forbes Dividend Investor advisory service.

Whatever the political and economic rights and wrongs of the matter, what happens next is as close to the doomsters fall of the Roman Empire part 2, as a roller coaster ride is to a plane crash.

Why?

It is infuriatingly simple. Let us say the U.S. government got to a state that it owed 120% of GDP in debt. The U.S. is not there yet but it will likely get there soon enough.

What happens next? The U.S. simply engineers a 7% rate of inflation, all other things being equal and in two Presidential cycles U.S. debt to GDP is roughly halved to the old sweet spot of 60% to GDP. Of course modelling that with all the possible variables is way more complicated than that, but you get the idea.

Halving the value of money does the trick of sorting out this whole sorry mess. Now that might sound horrendous but it is not.

So okay you are a doomster and you think the end is nigh and that gold is money. Well, gold has gone up roughly 10% a year compounded since the end of Bretton Woods in 1971. This implies an average compound rate of inflation of 10%; if you believe that gold is real, inviolate, hard money, which as a doomster you most definitely do.

The world didn’t end over those 40 years as money was devalued forty fold. The fiat system didn’t implode, in fact everyone got a lot richer, even though in the meantime 2.5 cents of gold became worth a dollar or put in gold standard terms, 2.5 cents in 1971 has been inflated to $1 today.

If the dollar got devalued in real terms at 10% a year, as we have enjoyed in gold terms on average for 42 straight years, a 120% debt to GDP would hit 60% in around 6 years. This is why it is not a good idea to panic and get doomy.

The key is to be positioned for the denouement of current economic rescue attempts. The solution is the dilution of debt, through the devaluation of money. The governments of the west will not run out of money. That’s impossible. What will happen to rebalance the debts of the U.S. and Europe is what we need to focus on.

In a nutshell, bonds are going to get monetised. Sovereign debt will be turned into cash. Operation twist has put a large proportion of that mountain of debt at the short end of maturities. The economy of the U.S. is going to get very liquid indeed. That is the one thought to hold.

If you believe the developed world is going to get into a tail spin, it won’t be that fiat money will disappear. Instead there will be much more of it about.

The question therefore is how to play the outcome of cash flooding everything.

You can do worse than look back to the seventies to see what happened and use that period as a model of what to do. The answer isn’t to prepare for Armageddon. It is to invest in inflation linked assets producing index linked yield.

So perhaps buying bits of mountain desert to rent out to terrified ‘preppers’ is the way to go, because not only will the property value and rent rise with real inflation, you’ll also be paid in gold.

Forsight in Klippah?

And Avraham Sent His Children East

2013-04-30T12:04:00.002+03:00

Galus China coming under way [the concept of a galus being eternally prepared, such that it never actually happens, thus they galus themselves by their preparation] with the Erev Rav securing the depths of Tumah. Are the Erev Rav who are fueled by the Amalekite Erev Katan ready to erect their false Zion?

Middle East Forum:

Since their establishment in January 1992, Israeli-Indian relations have improved dramatically. Israel has emerged as a major Indian trading partner in the Middle East with bilateral trade rising from a meager US$100 million to over $6.6 billion.[1] Cooperation in the military-security arena has similarly grown,[2] and there are widespread popular exchanges between the people of the two countries. The Israeli ambassador is the most sought after diplomat in New Delhi after his U.S. counterpart, and Indo-Israeli ties seem extraordinarily robust. Yet failure to acknowledge the limitations of this relationship would be costly.

Delinking the Peace Process

On January 21, 2008, India launched a closely-guarded Israeli-built radar spy satellite to begin gathering valuable intelligence data. According to Israeli reports, the satellite would "dramatically increase Israel's intelligence-gathering capabilities regarding ... [Iran's] nuclear program, since the satellite can transmit images in all weather conditions, a capability that Israel's existing satellites lacked." India's Israel policy falls into three broad phases. Beginning in the early 1920s, the nationalist leadership adopted a pro-Arab position, which largely continued until January 1992. Its recognition of the Jewish state in September 1950 did not materially alter this stand. The adoption of a pro-Arab stand was seen as critical for its interests in the Middle East and was pursued through a pro-Palestinian foreign policy. While it did not identify with the Arab extremism of that period, recognition without relations was the hallmark of Indian policy until January 1992.

The end of the Cold War and the transformation of the global order brought an end to this zero-sum approach as New Delhi concluded that, in order to make a difference in this new era, it was both possible and necessary to maintain normal relations with the Israelis and the Palestinians, who seemed to be moving toward a historic reconciliation. Shortly after the decision to normalize relations with Israel was announced on January 29, 1992, the two countries opened diplomatic missions and paved the way for increased political, economic, cultural, and security cooperation.

After the Congress party returned to power in 2004, bilateral relations moved to a third and more complex phase. In a radical departure from its pre-1992 position, New Delhi began to delink bilateral relations from the vagaries of the peace process. While disagreements with Israel over the peace process had earlier prevented full normalization of relations, New Delhi quietly began to pursue the peace process as if there were no bilateral relations with Israel and to pursue bilateral relations as if there were no differences with Israel over the peace process. This move was not only inevitable but has also been critical for the consolidation of the bilateral relations.

However, New Delhi continues to maintain some of its core pre-1992 positions vis-à-vis the Palestinians. Most importantly, it continues to support the pursuit of Palestinian political rights that will result in the formation of a sovereign and independent state coexisting with Israel. Ever since its decision to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the "sole and legitimate" representative of the Palestinians, political ties and interactions have improved and strengthened between the two parties with the PLO mission in New Delhi granted embassy status in early 1980. At that time, the Israeli representation was still confined to a consulate in Mumbai, which was often described as India's diplomatic Siberia. In November 1988, India was among the first countries to recognize the "state of Palestine," proclaimed by the PLO in Algiers, and began receiving PLO chairman Yasser Arafat and his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, as heads of state. In the wake of the Oslo agreement, in 1993, India opened a separate mission in the Gaza Strip. As has been the practice in the West, the Gaza mission reported directly to the Foreign Office in New Delhi and not to the Indian embassy in Tel Aviv. When the situation in Gaza became more difficult, the mission was moved to Ramallah in the West Bank in 2004.

New Delhi's staunch support for the Palestinian political position was vividly illustrated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who spoke to the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) on September 24, 2011, a day after Abbas applied for Palestinian U.N. membership. Singh described the continuing non-resolution of the Palestinian question as "a source of great instability and violence" in the Middle East, reiterating New Delhi's "steadfast" support for "the Palestinian people's struggle for a sovereign, independent, viable and united state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, living within secured and recognizable borders side by side and at peace with Israel."[3] A year later, on November 29, 2012, India was among the countries that sponsored the UNGA resolution granting nonmember observer state status to the Palestinians.

On all the major issues concerning the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, such as settlements, borders, refugees, or the security fence, normalization has not resulted in a dilution or shift in New Delhi's positions, sometimes stated explicitly but more often conveyed through its voting pattern in the U.N. Indeed, with only two exceptions—the 1991 U.N. vote repealing the 1975 "Zionism equals racism" resolution and the Durban conference of 2001—there has been no marked difference in India's voting pattern on the peace process since 1992.

The Jerusalem Question

The most striking aspect of New Delhi's recent position toward the Middle East has been the unprecedented focus on Jerusalem. Its support for an independent Palestinian state in the past had been expressed without any explicit reference to Jerusalem. In January 2005, upon his election as Palestinian Authority president, Abbas sent a letter to India's junior foreign minister Ahamed that made explicit reference to East Jerusalem. Conveying his gratitude for New Delhi's congratulatory message, Abbas expressed hope that "with the help of India and other friends," the people of Palestine would be able to "practice and restore their inalienable national rights and establish their independent state with holy East Jerusalem of 4/6/1967 borders as its capital."[4] This did not influence New Delhi's position. For example, in a statement following Hamas's electoral victory in January 2006 and welcoming "the holding of free and fair elections," the Ministry of External Affairs observed that the elections "have strengthened the democratic process in Palestine." It hoped that the new government "representing the will of the Palestinian people" would continue to pursue the peace negotiations, "leading to the establishment of a viable, united, and sovereign State of Palestine living in peaceful coexistence with the State of Israel."[5] There was no reference to Jerusalem.

According to WikiLeaks cables, the issue cropped up in August 2008 when Rajiv Sikri, secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs and the third senior-most diplomat in the ministry, visited Israel as part of the routine bilateral exchanges between the two foreign offices. According to one Israeli diplomat serving in New Delhi at that time, Sikri appeared "more often to be the representative of the Palestinians, rather than India." The cable further added:

The Israelis went all out for this visit, supplementing the formal Foreign Office talks (led by Deputy Director-General for Asia and Pacific Amos Nadai) with a call on Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom. [Israeli deputy chief of mission Yoed] Magen reported that Indian ambassador to Tel Aviv, Arun K. Singh, seemed shocked by Sikri's unreformed positions on issues like disengagement, adding that the Indian delegation appeared completely unmoved by changes sparked by Arafat's death, the Gaza withdrawal, and strengthened India-Israel ties. "It was like nothing had changed," the Israeli DCM concluded.

According to the Israeli diplomat, "Because Sikri insisted that the draft joint statement should be datelined Tel Aviv (vice Jerusalem), the Israelis refused to issue any document."[6]

The insistence on a Tel Aviv dateline was a reversal of the Indian position since 1992. This issue first cropped up during the visit of Arjun Singh, a senior minister in P.V. Narasimha Rao's government, to Israel in June 1994. The occasion was the signing of the first bilateral agreement that envisioned periodic consultations. While the Israeli government wanted the capitals to be identified as the alternate venues, India was not prepared to explicitly recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. At the same time, identifying Tel Aviv was equally problematic and would have caused tension and unpleasantness. An innovative compromise was reached by agreeing that meetings would be held alternatively in India and Israel.

But the issue of East Jerusalem has remained problematic since the first public reference to the city in July 2009 by Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee. He reiterated the position during a visit to India by Mahmoud Abbas, referring to a "state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital."[7] Since then, references to East Jerusalem have become a regular feature in many of New Delhi's statements and declarations on the Middle East.

Convergence but No Agreement on Iran

On the face of it, both countries are in sharp disagreement over the threat posed by Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Since normalization in 1992, Iran has figured prominently in Israel's interactions with India. In March 1993, Indian foreign secretary (permanent under-secretary) J.N. Dixit visited Israel for the preparatory work relating to the forthcoming visit of Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres. The Israeli media was eager to learn more about New Delhi's possible nuclear cooperation with Tehran.[8] Nearly two decades later, Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna faced similar questions on Iran and its nuclear program.[9] During the visit of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to India in September 2003, the Israelis added another concern—technology leaks. Fearing that sensitive military technology supplied to India could be re-exported or leaked to Tehran,[10] the Israelis sought and obtained guarantees against such possibilities. In the words of one Israeli official accompanying Sharon, "We got answers to the questions raised, and we are satisfied with the answers."[11]

In recent years, Tehran and its nonconventional weapons ambitions have emerged as the principle security concern for Israel and have dominated its foreign and security policies. New Delhi, by contrast, appears indifferent toward these developments. Interestingly, if its Defense Ministry rarely discusses Tehran's nonconventional program, the general tendency of the Indian intelligentsia is to view this program as a corollary of the perceived threat posed by Israel to the Islamic Republic. That New Delhi's sensitive strategic assets on its western coast are within striking distance of Iranian missiles is rarely discussed in public.

Even on a direct bilateral level, New Delhi has maintained a studied silence over many anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic remarks by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In October 2005, responding to one of his statements that Israel should be "wiped off the map," an official Indian spokesperson merely reminded reporters that India had recognized Israel "decades ago" and had diplomatic relations with it.[12] While Israelis see Iran as the epicenter of international terrorism, Indians view the Islamic Republic as a partner in fighting terrorism, especially in Afghanistan. India and Israel, thus, are not on the same page over Iran. But there remains a series of subtexts that reflect a more complicated picture.

First and foremost, Tehran has not made Israel an issue in its bilateral relations with New Delhi. Meaningful improvements in Indo-Iranian ties happened around the same time as normalization and consolidation of Indo-Israeli relations. Except for an initial protest at the time of the 1992 decision, Tehran has remained indifferent to New Delhi's burgeoning relations with the Jewish state. While Pakistan and, at times, Egypt have made noises over the military dimension of Indo-Israel relations, Iran has remained seemingly indifferent and passive, apparently content with the growth and intensity of its own relations with India.

Second, in the wake of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to Tehran in April 2001, there were agreements and expectations over increased military cooperation between the two states. Over time and under pressure from Washington, New Delhi appears to have backtracked on some of its earlier initiatives. As one analysis put it: "Following the 2005 nuclear deal between New Delhi and Washington, Israeli concerns over the relationship between India and Iran began to dissipate. U.S. pressure on India to end all military relations with Iran appeared to have been a condition for the nuclear deal."[13]

Also, under U.S. pressure, New Delhi has substantially reduced its export of oil products to Tehran. Despite its large hydrocarbon reserves, due to sanctions and atrophy of the domestic oil industry, Tehran relies heavily on imports to meet its growing demand for oil products. India has been one of its principal suppliers. Oil products have constituted a sizable portion of India's total exports to Iran, and between 2005 and 2009, they accounted for over a third of New Delhi's total exports to Tehran, reaching a peak in 2008-09 when India exported over a billion dollars worth of oil products to Iran; this dropped to just over $180 million during 2009-10 and has been declining since then.[14] On the more serious issue of Tehran's nuclear ambitions, New Delhi has sided with Washington. Despite some initial foot-dragging and uncertainties, since September 2005, it has firmly expressed disapproval of the Iranian pursuit of a nuclear program. In actions by both the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the U.N. Security Council, New Delhi joined the majority in opposing Tehran's nuclear ambitions. India's September 2005 vote at the IAEA was severely criticized within the country, especially by the communist parties, as surrender to U.S. hegemony.[15] India's carefully constructed neutrality evidently does not extend to the Iranian nuclear question.

The delicate balance with which New Delhi has been handling its relations with Iran and Israel came into sharp focus in 2003. In January of that year, Iranian president Mohammed Khatami was the chief guest at India's Republic Day celebrations, the highest honor bestowed on a visiting head of state. During Khatami's visit, both countries signed the Delhi declaration, which set the tone for cooperation in various fields, including energy. A few months later, in September, New Delhi rolled out a red carpet welcome for Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. Both countries issued a Delhi statement, whereby they pledged to cooperate toward achieving peace in their respective regions. On both occasions, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the host and this evenhandedness remains the public face of a complex Indian balancing act.

On the substantive level, there are more Indo-Israeli convergences on Iran than meet the eye. New Delhi's connections with Tehran are due to its energy security concerns, which must not be misconstrued as support for or endorsement of Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Like Israel and many Arab countries, India is wary of a nuclear Iran. As Prime Minister Singh put it in an elliptical fashion, New Delhi's decisions at the IAEA over Tehran were influenced by "our security concerns arising from proliferation activities in our extended neighborhood."[16]

Delinking the Indian Foreign Office

There have been a number of high-level visits between India and Israel during the past two decades. Notable among these have been the visit of President Ezer Weizmann in December 1995-January 1996 and Prime Minister Sharon in September 2003, but no reciprocal visits from India have taken place. Nor have there been visits by the defense ministers of the two states, and reciprocal visits have primarily happened at the level of foreign ministers. Silvan Shalom was in India in February 2004, and Shimon Peres has been a frequent flyer, visiting India four times (May 1993, August 2000, January 2001 and January 2002). Two of these visits took place when he was minister for regional cooperation under Ehud Barak. From India, Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh visited Israel in July 2000 and S. M. Krishna in January 2012, as did Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister L. K. Advani in June 2000. There have also been visits by numerous other ministers, officials, and other functionaries.

The picture remains uneven. While there have been periodic foreign ministry level contacts, ministerial visits, especially from India, have been few and far between with principal functionaries refraining from visiting Israel. On several occasions, planned visits by defense ministers have not materialized because of the rapidly-changing political landscape in the Middle East. Even those Indian leaders who visited Israel in the past could not do so as ministers. Official contacts at the senior level have been kept to the barest minimum.

It was the Congress Party, under Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao that normalized relations; yet, the present Manmohan Singh-led Indian government has been rather coy toward Israel. Though a number of junior ministers have visited Israel, senior leaders have carefully skipped the country. They have, however, been willing to travel to Israel's Arab and Iranian neighbors.

Since 1992, for example, there were three state visits between India and Syria: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and President Pratibha Patil visited Damascus in 2003 and 2010 respectively while Bashar al-Assad visited New Delhi in June 2008. Similarly, since 1991, there have been six state visits between New Delhi and Tehran, including a brief stopover by President Ahmadinejad in April 2008.

This political pattern of limited direct contacts at the highest echelons with Israel was maintained by senior officials of the government. Since 2004, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has had three national security advisers: J. N. Dixit, M. K. Narayanan and Shivshankar Menon. While Dixit announced the normalization of relations in January 1992, Menon served as India's ambassador to Israel in the mid-1990s. Yet none of them visited Israel. This partly explains the considerable media attention to Foreign Minister Krishna's arrival in January 2012, which was in fact promoted within India as a regional visit that included the Palestinian Authority-controlled West Bank, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates.

High level political contacts are important for their visibility, direction, and significance. Ironically, these appear neither important nor a precondition for Indo-Israeli relations. Two factors have contributed to this autopilot like mode of the bilateral relationship. To begin with, the decentralized nature of the Indian federal structure has immensely benefitted Israel. The introduction of economic liberalization in the 1990s gave the provincial states of the Indian Union greater autonomy to pursue their individual economic agendas. Enjoying new openness and opportunities provided by economic liberalization, state governments began engaging with foreign countries to promote their economic rather than political interests.

For both Congress and opposition-ruled states, Israel has become a favorite destination. Unlike the Union government in New Delhi, the states have been unconcerned with the vagaries of the Arab-Israeli peace process since, as specified in the Indian constitution, foreign policy is beyond the jurisdiction of the states. They pursue their economic agenda, especially agriculture, water management, power generation, and farming without any overt political motives, designs, or controversies. Their agendas are focused on their states' welfare and have thus largely remained noncontroversial. Without attracting undue attention or negative publicity, various state chief ministers and their officials have visited the Jewish state and sought economic cooperation and investments. Even the communist parties, which have been critical of India's policy toward Israel, have not hesitated to seek economic opportunities through cooperation with Israel for states under their rule.[17]

These interactions at the state level have brought three tangible benefits to the bilateral relationship:

They have significantly broadened its horizons and brought tangible benefits to millions of Indians who are not even remotely concerned with foreign policy. Not many countries, including prominent Western countries, have achieved the reach that Israel has managed in two decades. They provide a strong economic content to the bilateral relations, which is at the national level skewed in favor of the military-security component and make state ties stable, viable, and mutually beneficial. Interactions with state governments offer Israel a critical alternate channel, especially when the attitude of the Union government is dominated by the international political climate, and of late, coalition compulsions. In contrast, India's Foreign Ministry has to balance bilateral cooperation with concerns and conflicting pressures from other countries of the Middle East. Support for the Palestinians still enjoys a considerable constituency in the country. Hence, the ministry's ability to take initiatives is significantly hampered, bogged down as it often is over issues such as Jerusalem, settlements, statehood, or recurring cycles of violence. It is even possible to suggest that when it comes to Israel, the Ministry of External Affairs is not the principal player on the Indian side. The task of pursuing relations has been taken over by less political and more specialized ministries of the Indian government. Most prominent among them are the ministries of defense, agriculture and, of late, infrastructure. Professional and pragmatic in their approach, they are indifferent toward the vagaries of the peace process but are concerned with tangible benefits and are in the forefront of promoting bilateral relations with Israel. The absence of top-level ministerial visits, for example, has not prevented the chiefs of Indian and Israeli security establishments from periodically visiting and interacting with one another. The same holds true for the ministry of agriculture and its current head Sharad Pawar.[18] Thus, while the Foreign Office makes politically correct noises, other departments of the government have been adopting professional and nonpolitical approaches toward Israel.

The marginal role of the Foreign Office will not change until New Delhi becomes a stakeholder in the Middle East peace process. While supporting a two-state solution, negotiated by the concerned parties, India is not an active player. It was present at the Annapolis conference in November 2007 and has been providing aid and assistance to the Palestinian Authority. But it has yet to assume any meaningful role, especially one that reflects its growing economic power and influence, in promoting the peace process. For instance, economic investment in resource-starved Jordan would considerably reduce some of the ongoing tensions in the Hashemite kingdom and, in the process, reinforce the Jordanian-Israeli peace. Until such initiatives are undertaken, the Foreign Office will continue to have marginal influence in Indo-Israeli relations.

Are Muslims Moving beyond the Palestinian Question?

New Delhi's prolonged absence of relations with Israel has often been attributed to official concerns over possible backlash from its substantial Muslim minority population. Under the British, it had the largest Muslim population in the world and currently has the third largest Muslim community in the world (Indonesia and Pakistan being the other two). With over 120 million followers, no government in India could be indifferent to how Muslims view and perceive the Middle East, especially Israel. In the past, Indian leaders expressed their concerns to Israeli counterparts in private; but of late, there has been some open discussion of the views of the Muslim population and its perceived opposition to Israel.

India's pro-Palestinian position is due partly to the domestic Muslim factor. The junior foreign minister Ahamed, for example, has been more vocal in criticizing Israel than other members of the government. Ahamed represents the Indian Union Muslim League, a small regional party within the ruling UPA coalition in the state of Kerala. Partly because of the league's support base and partly due to his own convictions, his interactions have been confined to Arab and Islamic countries of the Middle East—in other words, every place except Israel. Since joining the government in 2004, he has visited the Palestinian territories three times but has consciously avoided meeting Israeli officials.[19] There is no information in the public domain to indicate that he has interacted with Israel in his official capacity as minister of state for external affairs. By not meeting Israeli officials and through his anti-Israeli statements, Ahamed has sought to pacify hardliners within his party.

At the same time, and contrary to conventional perception, one could note a perceptible shift in the attitude of the Indian Muslim community toward Israel. Middle East violence often generates strongly negative reactions from the Muslim community. Sometimes this leads to public protests organized by Muslim groups, as during Sharon's visit. But the community is not blindly and rabidly anti-Israeli. Younger Muslims are eager to understand and learn from Israel and to engage with their Israeli counterparts. One tangible shift is the steady increase in the number of Muslim students who wish to study in Israel and even apply for scholarships offered by the Israeli government.[20] Not that they have turned into Zionists, but unlike their parents and grandparents, younger Muslims appear willing to pursue a dialogue with the Jewish state despite the differences. This is a far cry from the Three Nos enunciated by the Arab League in Khartoum in September 1967: No recognition, no negotiation, and no peace with Israel.

Friendship, Not Alliance

Military cooperation has assumed greater salience in bilateral Indian-Israel relations. Most notable is that Israel has become India's second largest arms exporter after Russia. Considering that Israel does not export platforms such as tanks, aircraft, and ships, this is no mean achievement.[21] Growing military cooperation extends beyond arms sales to technology upgrades, joint research, and intelligence cooperation. Despite its possible implications for use against Iran, on January 21, 2008, India launched a 300-kilogram Israeli satellite into orbit. According to Israeli media reports, the satellite "will dramatically increase Israel's intelligence-gathering capabilities regarding the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, since the satellite can transmit images in all weather conditions, a capability that Israel's existing satellites lacked."[22] As manifested by the sale of the Phalcon advanced airborne early warning system (AWACS), this budding military cooperation between the two countries enjoys the understanding and support of Washington.[23]

At the same time, military ties are not without their share of problems, and unless attended to early, they could give way to a major crisis. Some of the defense deals are tainted with allegations of corruption and the payment of bribes. Though these are primarily Indian problems, Israel cannot be absolved of all responsibility—some of the prominent names among the Israeli defense industries are already blacklisted from competing for defense contracts in India. Though similar charges have been leveled against other countries, Israel is more vulnerable because of India's historic baggage and prolonged non-relations.

Second, excessive focus on military cooperation could lead to a "securitization" of the bilateral relations and bring along uncertainties due to political pressures or changes. Israel-Turkey relations, for instance, were heavily characterized by cooperation in the military arena. But the arrival of the Justice and Development Party and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan not only changed the political climate but has reduced the military component as well. New Delhi should be wary of similar developments. Third, Israel is also facing stiff competition from other countries, most notably France. Since it does not export platforms, it has to coordinate and synchronize its technological expertise with others emerging as major players in India's defense market.

More importantly, both countries have carefully avoided depicting their relations as an alliance, something Washington failed to do in its relations with India. Partly because of the difficulties with which relations were established in 1992, and partly due to their reading of the bilateral convergence and differences, both countries describe themselves as friends of one another. This mature handling of its ties with Israel is also manifested in the manner in which New Delhi has sought closer ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran since the early 1990s. Its problems with Tehran have more to do with India's burgeoning ties with the United States than its friendship with Israel.

Conclusion

The normalization of relations has not transformed India into an ally of Israel. Nor has it caused it to abandon its erstwhile positions vis-à-vis the Palestinians. But by gradually delinking the unending saga of the peace process from bilateral relations, New Delhi is moving toward a more mature understanding and closer friendship with Israel. Recognition by both countries of the limitations and potentials of the relations has enabled them to avoid pitfalls of grandiose visions. Israel is no longer India's suitor; nor is it an ally. But both are emerging as a mature, dependable, and accommodating couple.

Islam's Kiss of Death In The Making

The Fire of the Ger - Lag B' Omer Special In Tzfat

2013-04-28T10:18:00.002+03:00

Click Here For Download/Link To Parashas Emor - Rabbi David Katz

Click Here For Article!

[it is recommended to cover both forms of material for best comprehension]

Beis Hamikdash Shlishi - Ezekial
Zar - Members of Israel
Priests and High Priests
Truth Conversion
Parasha in Zohar and Haftorah Highlights
Shem, Tamar until David and Solomon
The Light of Messiah
and more

Don't Forget Class Times:

Motzie Shabbat 10 P.M. - Parasha Shavua
Wed 11 P.M. - Ger / Noahides in Torah

*3rd Class Coming Soon! [now accepting donations of energy boosts to give class!]
- I plan on launching a 3rd new class series once the summer kicks in and I can feasibly commit to it and my schedule eases up, hence the comment above. Stay Tuned in all seriousness, as I am shooting for Prime Time Sunday Night U.S. The class will cover Noahide Shabbat based on Oral Torah sources and Tradition, along with a return to the popular Torah of Shem series.

Click Here To Access/Register For The Yeshiva

Gerim and The House of Prayer At Sinai

2013-04-26T14:13:00.001+03:00

Parashas Emor

Sechel Is a Ger In This World

Rabbi David Katz

Parashas Emor is literally ground breaking in the realm of exciting and even Messianic Torah that highlights the richest flavor of the World of Gerim. Inside we find many enlightening topics such as the heavily prophesied Third Temple, nature of conversion, giving gifts to the Ger, and much much more. To choose one topic over another would literally be highway robbery as each of these topics rightly deserve ample airtime; with that said the scope of this article will break protocol and classic form, in attempt to illuminate in a terse style the essence of each fascinating topic relating to the World of Gerim. The goal in mind is that this should satisfactorily outline each revelation, and provide a proper foundation that can be expounded upon in the audio accompaniment that is issued with each written article employing the subject of Gerim / Noahides in Torah.

The first highlight in the Parsha that really resonates with essential Ger Torah is the law that the Torah enforces concerning the daughter of the priest who endures illicit behavior. The Torah recognizes her behavior as falling under extreme punishment and as such she is to be burned alive at the stake. What would certainly seem as extreme in nature the Torah has divine logic in carrying out punishment in such matters; interestingly enough in all of the inherent intensity of this command is buried in the heart of the Ger.

The Torah’s first and quintessential Priest was one who can be seen as a father of sorts of the Gerim, and this is none other than Shem the son of Noah, also known as Malki Tzedek, he who was a priest to God above. Shem had five sons, including a firstborn son and there is not to leave out his daughter Tamar, who would embody the concept of the “Daughter of the Priest.”

Shem’s son would go on to bring out this illustrious lineage [of priestly and kingly nature] through such nobleman as Ever [of whom he would engage his Yeshiva with] and even onwards towards Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sons [i.e. Judah for example, one of the Twelve Tribes].

Running parallel to this framework was Tamar his daughter who married two [and was promised a third] sons of Judah, who both died in perversion of wasting their seed so as to avoid placing pregnancy upon Tamar and her deep beauty. Before Judah’s third son could be given privilege of Tamar through Levirate Marriage, Tamar took matters into her own hands and seduced Judah, the Tribe’s patron, through perceived harlotry. Judah succumbed to Tamar’s plot, she conceived, Judah was unaware of their actions from lack of intent, and suddenly his daughter in law was being found of harlotry – punishable by burning at the cross, for her father was Shem.

The story does have a happy ending however, as Judah repented due to Tamar’s scheme at seeking repair to the fruit of her womb, and they bore together twins who would resurrect the souls of their dead brothers who came before them. “Zerech and Peretz” would go on to find the Messianic Kingdom, and Shem’s mission [as a priest that produced the incentive of Tamar] was a success of imparting the Priesthood into the new creation of Israel. Tamar was able to achieve all that she set out to do, and she is ironically identified by her association with Emor’s intense statute of the illicit daughter of the priest who is burned from corruption. However that’s where the stories differ; Tamar was perfectly righteous and in accordance with her father who happened to father Gerim, as opposed to Emor’s daughter of the priest who in under a wicked influence.

The next three topics revolving around the Ger are in relation to the Holy Temple, found on the site that was originally designated as the Place of God by Shem who was a Priest to God Above, Zion. The three specific Ger categories are: the Zar [stranger; slightly different in connotation from Ger, as in Avodah ZAR-ah], the Temple Offerings by the non-Jew, and the Temple of Messiah – Ezekial’s Temple that is destined to come to Earth built and from the Hands of Heaven.

In Israel there are three main distinctions that classify the Israelite Nation: Priest, Levite, and Israelite. The Hebrew letter shin that carries three “heads” portrayed by the letter “vav” – three times joined by a point depicted by the letter “yud” demonstrates a viable map of Israel under these terms. However unique to the letter Shin as the mysterious four-headed shin that symbolizes the Gerim who join with Israel. In Temple terms anyone who is not a Priest, ironically is called “zar” – strange or foreign.

The novelty of this item is that under these terms even a Levite [and all the more so every non-priest] is called a stranger/foreigner in regards to the Temple. Often in Torah law, text will come to permit a zar to perform priestly tasks when the occasion calls for such intervention. Our Parsha, Emor is one of the locations where a Zar is called to duty in the performance of particular offerings. Yet Emor even goes a step further in relation to various other verses, and that there are even times when the non-Jew [associated with idolater] is allowed to offer to Hashem in the Temple, to which the commentaries realize, “then even all the more so a Ger!” Thus future potential Gerim and the Gerim themselves have a function in the Temple, and embody the makeup of the powerful illumination that graces a Man’s head tefilin, the counterpart to the regular Shin [that stands for God’s Name] , the mystical four-headed Shin that alludes to future status’ of Gerim amongst Israel.

The Temple of which is spoken here has been any of the previous forms of worship of Hashem, while there is yet another unknown level of revelation – God’s Third and final temple.

The Parsha speaks about the holiday season from Passover to Shavuot symbolized by the waiving ceremony of barley [the Omer] in the Temple, followed by a Meal Offering that ushers in Shavuot proper. However the Talmud takes issue with this concept in the midst of the current exile [of which we are devoid of the Temple and God’s Presence], and explains the ceremony under the rabbinic code of which there is no Temple. This begs the obvious question amongst the Rabbis as to what is the nature of the law change when the Holy Temple will be built by the sons of Shem on Zion. The Talmud explained by Rashi offers a brilliant answer, one that stands eternal until the moment we receive revelation of the End.

Rashi says the Third Temple, Ezekiel’s Temple is prophesied to descend from the Hands of Heaven at the time Passover’s first night of Yom Tov exits into Chol Moed [intermediary days of service]. This Temple is built by God Above, and descends completely built and functional, miraculously, and is sacred beyond destruction. Once this condition comes to be, it is called a House of Prayer, one of which the Gerim will be present in standing as One with Israel as prophesied by Isaiah, in the sanctification of God having created the World under the account of Shabbos lore. This Third Temple [that is built in the image below by the hands of Messiah and Shem as the Righteous Priest] represents the repair of schism between Gerim and Jews and is the unity expressed in the World before God forever.

The final revelation of the Ger in the Parsha worth noting is that of the blasphemer who is born of a Jewish Mother and an Egyptian father and the nature of his status in Israel in regards to the nature of his sin in relation to Noahide Laws of divine rebellion.

The Torah gives account a youth born of a Jewish mother and an Egyptian father, [the one that Moses killed] who went out speaking ill of the Divine. After the Torah delves into the matter briefly, Hashem declares the boy worthy of death penalty for blaspheme, a din that carries weight for the entire World. The Talmud Sanhedrin takes up this matter [amidst the Noahide Laws] and renders that for all intents and purposes the Ger and Jew share the same severity for blaspheme, and the death penalty in evoked. The law in uniquely rendered by the Torah verse that seems to suggest both the Ger and Jewish points of view should be taken into account, and the Ramban explains exactly why.

Rashi goes on record as saying that this youth “converted” which seems superfluous being that his mother is Jewish while only his father is foreign, thus no need to convert. The Ramban then takes liberty in showing the nature of conversion in the negative – as per Sinai.

At Sinai all Jews underwent proper conversion, as Sinai was the biggest mass conversion in the history of the World, designed by God since the days of Abraham and Shem had conspired to achieve the Sinai Revelation upon their fateful meeting at Zion. Thus the youth converted as everyone else, but the revelation is that he chose to go after his mother and forsook his father, clinging to his mother and is a standard Jew by law and without any lesser quality of a Sinai experience.

The point to notice here is that Rashi says he converted, and therefore every usage of conversion is derived from “Ger”, leaving us to analyze if this was a Ger convert or Ger Gentile. Since we are shown that he actually converted in face of the idea that perhaps he was a Ger [which is aligned with the fact the law rendered from this applies particularly to the Gerim], we are now in position to see the difference between types of Ger process.

The Ger undergoes a shortened process than that of the convert, with the ramifications being that of the status is now either Jewish or non-Jewish. From this youth and the commentary it is illuminated that a convert is someone who literally binds his soul/nefesh withIN the Jewish People, whereas the Ger is bound with Israel, either as a one off [Ger Tzedek Vadai] or as a gradual entrance to Israel [Ger Tzedek] as opposed to the convert [Ger Gamur].

The Torah shows the Ger how he is able to tangle his soul in realistic terms with greater or lesser intensity in a realistic fashion that decides the fate of the person for the remainder of his years and eternal spiritual implications. Neither can go back to idolatry as it once was, yet one is an entirely new creation [and Jewish] as opposed to renewed [and a Ger]. The subject and frequency in the Torah of each mention of Ger outlines the new spiritual path for both, aided by the ways of the Ancient, i.e. Pre Sinai, and the tradition from Adam to Noah that was perfected and implemented into “Israel” [Abraham] by Shem [and Ever academies of learning].

Thus we see Parashas Emor truly is the threshold before Sinai, as Parashas Behar will actually begin with the greetings from Sinai. The Mission of the Torah is clearly expressed in Emor through the lens of the Ger, one that depicts precedence within the Temple, permanent presence of all Gerim, and how the ultimate expression of Israel will appear before God, one that includes Jews and non-Jews, working in harmony under One common Torah in the World [which the Parsha calls “Mishpat Echad” - one law (where common)].

How ironic it is, that Sinai can be defined as the build-up of Gerim that composes reality, while today there should be greater focus on the portion of Torah that emphasizes “for you too were Gerim in a Land not of your own” [in face of the protection and Love of Gerim commands throughout the Torah]; how easily we have seemed to have forgotten, and sadly, it comes at the expense of Sinai. Yet Sinai forever shall stand as the Kindness Hashem endures for His creation(s), and what better kindness has Hashem been involved with [and invested in] since Sinai, than his preservation and love for the Gerim –who as the fourth head of the Shin, take a stand in aiding Hashem in delivering redemption.

Some might take the [redemptive] gifts of Emor for granted much like Sinai, [like the corners of the field that are preserved for the Gerim], but rest assured, the Ger sees Parashas Emor as not only his birthright, but as a destiny, and date with reality. In times where all other pulses have run dry, the Ger rages on like a return to Glory Jordan River, only this time, they will bring Moses in, even if by his payot [side curls] symbolic of Hashem’s abundant Kindness that clings to the Ger in Parashas Emor.

Don't Forget Audio Shiur - Parasha Motzie Shabbat 10 P.M.

Wed 11 P.M. Torat Gerim / Noahide

Enter / Register Here For Yeshivat Shem V' Ever

Shem - A High Occupation of G''er

2013-04-25T10:12:00.000+03:00

Click Here [download link] For Shem Up Close - Ger Series # 5

Shem - Malki Tzedek
Tree of Life and Shem
Sarah and Shem
Yeshiva of Shem and Ever
Genesis and Torah of Shem and Ever
Judah, David, Solomon - and Shem?
...and much much more

Class Time: Wed 11 P.M. - Torah of Ger / Noahide
Sat 10 P.M. - Parasha Shavua [based on article]

Click Here For Class Link: Enter/Registration

The God of China Speaks!

2013-04-21T13:08:00.000+03:00

China has conjured images of Niezche, proclaiming God is dead [i.e. religion is vain and false]. Will God lay the proverbial axe and declare China is dead? [while allowing Jews to continue to eat Chinese food?]

YahooNews:

China is struggling to get its estimated 100 million religious believers to banish superstitious beliefs about things like sickness and death, the country's top religious affairs official told a state-run newspaper. Wang Zuoan, head of the State Administration of Religious Affairs, said there had been an explosion of religious belief in China along with the nation's economic boom, which he attributed to a desire for reassurance in an increasingly complex world.

While religion could be a force for good in officially atheist China, it was important to ensure people were not mislead, he told the Study Times, a newspaper published by the Central Party School which trains rising officials. "For a ruling party which follows Marxism, we need to help people establish a correct world view and to scientifically deal with birth, ageing, sickness and death, as well as fortune and misfortune, via popularizing scientific knowledge," he said, in rare public comments on the government's religious policy. "But we must realize that this is a long process and we need to be patient and work hard to achieve it," Wang added in the latest issue of the Study Times, which reached subscribers on Sunday. "Religion has been around for a very long time, and if we rush to try to push for results and want to immediately 'liberate' people from the influence of religion, then it will have the opposite effect and push people in the opposite direction."

About half of China's religious followers are Christians or Muslims, with the other half Buddhists or Daoists, he said, admitting the real total number of believers was probably much higher than the official estimate of 100 million.

Wang did not address specific issues, such as what happens after the exiled spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism the Dalai Lama dies, testy relations with the Vatican or controls on Muslims in the restive Xinjiang region in the west. Rights groups say that despite a constitutional guarantee of freedom of belief, the government exercises tight control, especially over Tibetans, Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang and Christians, many of whom worship in underground churches.

"LURE FOR UNREST" Beijing also takes a hard line on what it calls "evil cults", like banned spiritual group Falun Gong, who it accuses of spreading dangerous superstition.

Still, while religion was savagely repressed during the chaos of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, the government has taken a much more relaxed approach since embarking on landmark economic reforms some three decades ago. The ruling Communist Party, which values stability above all else, has even tried to co-opt religion in recent years as a force for social harmony in a country where few believe in communism any more.

China had avoided the religious extremism which happened in some places with the collapse of the Soviet Union or the religious problems seen with immigrants in Europe and the United States, Wang added, something to be proud of. Still, China could not rest on its laurels.

"Religion basically upholds peace, reconciliation and harmony ... and can play its role in society," Wang said. "But due to various complex factors, religion can become a lure for unrest and antagonism. Looking at the state of religion in the world today, we must be very clear on this point."

Live Long and Prosper

Kohanim & Torah: Expansion of Sechel

2013-04-21T02:15:00.000+03:00

Click Here For Download!

Click Here For Article of Acharei - Kedoshim

[* Both forms of media are recommended for full comprehension!]

Don't Forget Class Times:

Sat 10 P.M. - Parsha Shavua
Wed 11 P.M. - Torah of the Ger / Noahide

Click Here For Class Link:

Back To School - Enrolling With Shem and Ever!

2013-04-19T13:55:00.000+03:00

Parashas Acharei – Kedoshim

Like A Holy High Priest Amongst Us

Rabbi David Katz

In this week’s Parsha [Parshiot] there is an absolute wealth and abundance of what may be perhaps the richest Noahide/Ger Torah in existence. The concepts range from observance of Yom Kippur, the relationship between the Ger and meat consumption [A Ger is defined by a meat standard that is given to him as the basis of the bridge of charity between the Jew and the Ger. This quite literally opens the door to an entire culture of how the Ger would operate in his kitchen in processing food, as one of Torah’s main topics is understanding meat and its properties; meat is the subject of “Yoreh Deah” – the classic rabbinic ordination program. The fact that the Ger is joined in the prohibition of blood, which begs for his proper education is mind boggling as to the potential for wisdom into the domain of the Ger.], “a Ger who learns Torah is compared to the High priest, “Love your fellow man”, love the convert [who was a Ger, and is now a Ger Gamur (a finished Ger)], don’t taunt the Ger, etc. One can clearly see the implications at this juncture in the Torah, and the years to come will be exciting once we reach these sacred Parshiot in Torat – Kohanim; however for the duration of this current article, we will delve into the Ger who is compared to the High priest when engaged in learning Torah, and how this has direct implications into his daily life on a [intellectually] moral level, as he strives for holiness in his priestly service.

The Talmud Bava Kama [38] cites a famous discussion of the Ger derived from the verses in Vayikra 18: 4-5 in that a Ger [Nachri; someone coming out of idolatry who still straddles the fence in many regards, if not intentionally, then as a subject of duress due to lack of specific knowledge] who is occupied with Torah is compared to the High Priest, as the term “Adam” [Man”] is referenced in Hashem’s adjuring “Adam” to keep his ways, i.e. through Torah and its learning. Under the heading of “Adam,” the Talmud explains that any range of people, spanning from the Nachri to the High Priest share in the nomenclature “Adam” and are all appropriately fit to learn and consume Torah. What we shall find, is that it is the Torah that leads the Ger into the domain of this “Adam;” as the Ger becomes enveloped with the affiliate Wisdom, he will leave the non-kosher world of yesteryear behind, as he walks into new paths of righteousness with endless possibilities, while shedding corporeality of a limited perception [of even the Noahide Laws that while uncommitted, served as a shackle and chain towards death.

The Commentator the Rosh comments on the famous Ger Toshav passage [Avodah Zara 64b] that a Ger Toshav of the slightest sense [he who is a Nachri abroad; only in Israel is he deemed a Ger Toshav (ger TOSHAV) by merit of denouncing idolatry and maintaining consumption of unkosher main] is effectively only halfway out of his non-Torah ways, and as such he will find himself buried in a death penalty on his journey, by simply just not knowing enough.

The Rosh goes on to explain that the further he commits himself to Noahide laws, Torah study, and Jewish familiarity in a Holy setting [where the Jew has a mitzvah to engage in holy and Torah matters] death is removed, and he merits to be a truly Righteous gentile of the Pious of the Nations, and if he so wishes he may decide to be a Ger Toshav [GER toshav]. He effectively has a golden ticket to become whatever he may so please, as the gates of righteousness open to receive him to the extent he wishes to enter, either, heart, body, or soul. The Ger simply has the power to remove death from the World, coupled with the Jewish cooperation and axiom, “charity saves you from death.” The Ger is then empowered with a mastery of Hashem’s Torah and ability to walk erect in righteousness, fearing not of death due to ignorance, having made it his duty to know Hashem and His ways. The Nachri who chooses not the path of Torah will find himself with many accusations that he will fail to rise up against.

For this the Talmud urges [even] the Nachri to learn and be [even] occupied with Torah. Such service of God will bring a sense of enlightenment upon the Ger and an attraction of the Jew, due to realized revealed common affairs in Torah. This new dynamic will pull the Nachri along on his path, and the Talmud praises him for his additional commandments [either proper acceptance Seven laws of Noah, or northward to any set number of Torah precepts that he may wish to take on for himself, enjoying full liberty of his being compared to a High Priest occupied with service of God] with the comparison to the High Priest. The Talmud [according to commentary – Maharsha] points out that the Ger when learning about commandments actually will embody the makeup worthy of the performance; for example learning about Offerings [which he may absolutely take part in, and should be noted is well beyond the scope of the normative “7 – law- limit-stay-in-parashas-noah-mentality”] will inspire the Ger to actually emulate the High Priest in his nature.

Along with learning Torah on this level, the Torah will affect the Ger in all areas of life, but perhaps none more important than his mind and ability to perceive [Hashem and his divine logic countering limitations within man]. The Torah makes a tremendous hint in this area by placing the Torah command upon all of Mankind next to laws of immorality, which the Talmud Sanhedrin makes mention that the Ger [World] will/has adopted these prohibitions in a way paralleling the Jewish command.

It is interesting to experience the two radically different paths each nation takes to achieve the same degree of holiness. The for all intents and purposes is straightforwardly commanded as such [to be holy, and not to profane through illicit affairs], and his opportunity for mind expansion in the study and restraint from immorality is evident in the specific Talmud on these issues, as a source for inspired learning, such that it even serves as a major basis of construct in the World to Come.

The Ger on the other hand, takes a different path to achieve the same goal, such that one could suggest it is the exact inverse of the Jewish tradition. Where the Jew is simply given a complete referendum and then is obliged to use his mind to experience the Light of holiness, the Ger must use his mind [from the holy light he has ingested from the study of Torah] in order to come to the straightforward command. The two unique experiences enjoyed by both Nations present the always schism for the sake of repairing schism, and yields distinct and unique identity to two legions of God. In this light both are holy, both are learned under Torah, and both see their fruits in this World and the Next. The stumbling block that is to be avoided due to logic of man in face of God and High Intellect, is to be aware of positive and negative principles in learning, i.e. male and female distinctions of the Torah mind; faculties of Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge. One must keep in mind the tone of God’s voice, being able to ascertain if this is command or good counsel.

The Jewish indoctrination to Holiness through prohibition of immorality [Arayos] comes as straight forward command while the path of the Ger [in this area] is largely derived from good counsel. This connection between the Learning Torah precept being juxtaposed with Arayos illuminates a wealth of revelation as to the nature of each, in and of themselves, joined or in isolation. The clearest example that expresses this entire idea is the true nature of the six forbidden relationships of the Ger. It would seem that there should be more, and with applied Torah focused for the sake of achieving “Man” one will uncover not only the Jewish equivalent [albeit by another approach than the straightforward], but the search and journey will yield exponential revelation that is relevant in every area of Torah, worthy for both Jew and Ger.

This is just one dynamic pitted against the infinite. One can ponder how much Torah can bubble up and surface from within the Ger when he commits to Torah in his unique way, and when in close proximity with the Jewish Nation for the sake of benefit and development that strengthens them both eternally. [* both camps suffer stunted growth through the exclusion of its counterpart; history is case in point, while this example is made possible via being conscious of both paths simultaneously and mutually]

The loophole in Noahide Arayos is the exclusion of the Father – Daughter union in the degrees of separation. This is a Kabbalistic necessity [based on “Wisdom nests in Malchus” – “father dwells with daughter” in the imagery in kabbalah; this model follows the true wisdom corresponding to the next world where evil is non-existent, and carries a different connotation, similar to the secret of Abraham and his sister/wife] and subject of discussion Talmud Sanhedrin. The Noahide simply is a reflection of Kabbalistic truth and recipient of Hashem’s deepest [and hardest to comprehend] kindness, as evidenced by this odd exclusion, as perceived by logic of man.

However when one examines the full scope of discussion, beyond one’s wildest dreams in terms of capacity to understand by breath of Torah knowledge, the equation eventually equates, and only by stretching beyond the realm of possibility. For the natural separation from this type of Arayos “correcting” God’s loophole, one must realize that there are commands beyond God’s Seven Laws, much like “pilpul” [God’s spice to Torah, Torah of Shem] where one experiences understanding the matter within the matter. The Journeyed Ger will find beyond Seven Laws, an oral tradition accompanying the law, three laws of nature from wisdom, thirty messianic laws, ten statutes of creation, etc.

Like a treasure hunt, the Ger must conceive of his entire universe in order for his black and white world to enjoy shades of grey. For the unbalanced and risky nature of his good counsel [that poses as shoddy command; again, divine logic in face of mortal logic] one must open his entire being to the light of God and take in his universe, as this is his inheritance! [Beyond his wildest dreams!] To such an extent he will find a highly complex and mechanically sound World that can only operate and exist by the hand of God. The Ger’s displeasure with God is in his disobedience to pursue God. The Ger who truly seeks to walk the universe on a path of righteousness will merit to witness the Divine, ironically similar to permitting that which should be obviously prohibited; only now it is beyond one’s dreams and is a bestowal of the most holy – truly in alignment with the subjected material in rectified element.

Thus the entire World is commanded in the study of Torah. The Jewish people were once Gerim, who were charged with spreading Torah for the benefit of Mankind, to help them reach their goals of enjoying the rights of Man. For the Jew to maintain course, he must adhere to the Torah, for he was once a Ger as well! The Ger is placed by God in every situation and domain, all for His glorious End of Days, when the revelation of God will fill the universe, and the Ger – Jewish Brotherhood will thrive into eternity. The Torah shows no predisposition as to who has the right to experience this light, as it clearly states that the Nachri should learn Torah – AND LIVE! His life is destined to look and feel as the High priest enjoying full status of “Man” as he was created in the image of God.

Let the Nachri serve as the eternal remembrance to those that ever lived - they lived on account of the Word of God, as he daily speaks to Man. The job of Man then is to unify “MANkind” so that we may enjoy His light together and forever such that no one is left behind. For that, Torah must fill the universe, and it will, for it says, “in those days the Land will be filled with the knowledge of God. Thank God, Thank God for His Torah, and thank God for His Torah that brings to light Mankind, Amen.

Don't Miss Out Motzie Shabbos 10 P.M. - Parsha In-Depth!

Wed 11 P.M. - Torah Ger / Noahide Series

Click Here To Access / Enter Yeshiva Classroom!