Arresting the Torah

Rav Dov Lior

There is news today that the police have arrested Rav Dov Lior of Kiryat Arba.  By arresting one of the giants of Torah in our generation, the police are assuming they can constrain and restrict the Torah.  They cannot.  The opinions of Rav Lior are not his alone, but can be found throughout the Talmud and it's commentaries, most notably the Rambam.

Yet, this has always been the plan of those connected to the Erev Rav: to diminish the strength of the Torah in the Land of Israel.  It is the Torah and most importantly the Torah of Rav Kook that has the power to remove the impurities of our Land.  The Erev Rav knows this and so while they pay lip service to "Jewish Values" they do not tolerate the Torah of Truth, the Torah of the redemption to hold a presence in Israel.

The detention of Rav Lior is part of a wider strategy to play the National camp against itself, while allowing  a slow death and encirclement of the communities in Yehudah and the Shomron (more on that in the coming days).  For every move to the right the Prime Minister makes he has back tracked on other very important issues and so the battle for leadership continues and until then those Rabbis that dare speak the truth found within the unblemished supernal Torah are dragged through mud.

May the Children of Israel yearn for true teshuva on both a national and individual level. For "It is impossible to become attached to the foundation of Israel's Nationalism unless one's soul has become purified already..." (Orot HaTeshuva 13:1)


By purifying both our personal and national middot we can more clearly see the line between right and wrong; G-dliness and and the lack there of; unity and division.  When we eradicate the infection of Western thought within our minds and hearts, we will be able to disconnect the nation from the influences of the Erev Rav and walk in the straight path blazed by leaders like Rav Dov Lior.

"...let me go;"

 תְּנָה אֶת-נָשַׁי וְאֶת-יְלָדַי, אֲשֶׁר עָבַדְתִּי אֹתְךָ בָּהֵן--וְאֵלֵכָה:  כִּי אַתָּה יָדַעְתָּ, אֶת-עֲבֹדָתִי אֲשֶׁר עֲבַדְתִּיךָ.

30:26 Give me my wives and my children that I have served you for them, and let me go; for you know my service that I have served you.'

There are times when we must draw a line in the sand and cut our losses and walk away. America has given Israel a lot, but it is never out of direct love of the Jewish people or the State of Israel, rather it is mainly a type of giving which benefits its own interests. When Yaakov finished his time with Laban he had grown, both spiritually and in stature. He had two wives and their hand maidens and many children, yet he was trapped for he felt compelled to stay with Lavan, until he decided it was time to go.

Am Yisrael is afraid to walk away from America. We are nervous at the prospect of being on our own, of truly being independent, yet this need has never been more critical. We are facing a serious security situation as well as a political onslaught. America has benefited from our partnership and yet we, other than money that we are forced to spend on American weaponry have begun to suffer a great deal from this relationship.

We are reminded by America and their government how great of friends they are, yet they have crossed a line now and have decided to place a reset button on our relationship.

Pollard as the Paradigm

America tells the world that it is a freedom loving country. A nation of principles, yet it keeps Jonathan Pollard in jail. Now, when asked to simply allow Jonathan to spend time with his dying father, they have refused.

This has ceased to be a healthy relationship if it ever was. It is now time for Israel to walk away. America is falling and we have no need to be dragged down with it. We must say thank you and then walk away from America the way our father did with his uncle Lavan, after all years from now (or perhaps shorter the Beit Lavan (White House) and the Nation it leads will be long gone and we will continue on our way to live int he Land of our Fathers and to build it and extend it West and East; North and South as promised in the Torah Yaakov and his descendents.

"...and He came to Hevron"

Moshe commanded 12 spies to enter into the Land of Israel.  What should have been a fairly easy scouting mission turned into the biggest sin in Am Yisrael's history. The Nation had been promised by the Creator of the world, that they would dwell in their eternal inheritance as was sworn to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov their forefathers. Yet, 10 out of the 12 spies reported negatively on the ability for the Nation of Israel to conquer the land.  As a punishment Am Yisrael would have to wander in the desert until a new generation would be ready, cleansed of the impurities of foreign lands to conquer what was rightfully theirs.

Only Yehoshua and Calev did not falter.  Yehoshua needed an additional letter (added to his name by Moshe) in order to hold strong against the Spies' faltering emunah (certain faith).  But what of Calev? 

כב  וַיַּעֲלוּ בַנֶּגֶב, וַיָּבֹא עַד-חֶבְרוֹן,
22 And they went up in the South and He came to Hevron

The verse indicates a change from plural to singular and it is Rashi that points out that this was indeed Calev who gathered strength from the Avot and Imahot buried in the Maarat HaMachpelah.  It was this connection that Calev drew upon to withstand the loss of Emunah from the other 10 spies.

Ben Gurion: Hebron is Jerusalem's Sister

In 1970 Ben Gurion wrote a letter in reflection of the return of Israel to Judea and Samaria. Here is a piece of the letter:

Before Jacob died in Egypt, after going down there to see his son Joseph, he made his sons promise to bury him with his fathers "in Hebron in the cave, in Ephron the Hittite's field, where were buried Abraham and his wife Sarah, Isaac and his wife Rebecca and where I buried Leah" (Genesis 49:29, 31). And that is what Joseph and his brothers did. It is thus clear that only the three Patriarchs and the three Matriarchs of the Jewish People were buried in the Cave of Machpela.

However, the importance of Hebron is not merely its role in the lives of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of our nation. After Saul, the first King of Israel fell upon his sword in the war with the Philistines, so that he might not be taken captive, and David replaced him as King, David inquired of the Eternal: "Shall I go up to one of the cities of Judah?" And the Eternal answered: Go up!" And David said: "Unto where shall I go up?" And G-d answered" "To Hebron." And David went up there...and the men of Judah came and anointed David there as King of Judah" (Samuel II,2.4). Finally, after the death of Abner, commander of Saul's army, "and all the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and proclaimed: "Behold we are of the bone and flesh; and so it was yesterday and the day before, while Saul was King over us, it was you who were the leader of Israel; and the Almighty has said "You shall shepherd my people Israel and you shall be prince of Israel." And all the elders of Israel came to the king in Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them in Hebron over Israel" (Samuel II, 5:1-3). Thus arose in Hebron the greatest royal dynasty that Israel ever had. Read the whole letter...

We are living in a generation where the world is quick to forget its roots. It dismisses that which lies within everything, the divine root of Creation, the director of History, the one and true G-d. The sin of the spies is a continuous sin. It is the sin of forgetting where we came from and from that stems the loss of knowing where we are going and how to hold onto to who we are. The world wants to forget, to move into a new era. The world wants an era where rules are just there to make life a little easier and society just a bit better, but Am Yisrael is meant to be a reminder to the world, and Hevron is the source of that reminder.  Hevron and the Maarat Hamachpelah are the way back to our source, to our path.  If Jerusalem is our future, the center and heart of our Kingdom, then Hevron is our Nation's memory, the place of our fathers and mothers.  With it we can return and bring the world back to its true essence, the One G-d of Israel.