Put Upon Yourself A King

In the deepest part of our soul is the point where the individual consciousness fades away and the national expression begins.  That deep internal place is where we remain pure, whole. The exile severed the relationship between person and Nation and replaced it with an emptiness not yet replaced. In the emptiness that exile brought upon us exists our individual desires and drives.  The Land of Israel and the State are the first steps back towards finding a National Consciousness, but individual concerns and desires out way the National Good.  Of course this description has often times been placed on the communities in Yehuda and the Shomron.  How many times have we heard that they must be sacrificed for "National Good." That is just it though.  A Nation which is whole never sacrifices a part of it's Land.  It never reserves the right to tell another where to live.

At the end there will be no peace or even a lull.  Sacrificing our fellow brothers' and sisters' homes and lives so the other can continue to live a "comfortable Western life," is just another form of personal self interest over the true National Good.

The light fades.  It dims with every concession.  It darkens with every giving into our enemies demand.  Our enemies, both in the Middle East and in North America and Europe do not want peace, they want to remove a problem. This problem is the Jew.  It has always been the Jew and for them will always be the Jew. In the past the Jew was wandering and so he was lowly, reminding the world of morality and G-d.  Now he no longer wanders and reminds the World that the Nation of Israel lives and the G-d of Israel is a living G-d whose light flows through the World.

Redemption is upon us.  It began when the first "settlers came home over 120 years ago and it continues now.  The World wants us dead.  They want our holy places and even more important they want us to give up our holy places.  At the end we will win, for G-d has returned us to our borders.  No matter the struggle now at hand, those enemies of ours whether they pray to Mecca or prop themselves up as a God in their little White House across the Atlantic will be destroyed.

We appear without a King, yet everyday we say Shema Yisrael HaShem Elokeinu HaShem Echad. Baruch Shem Malchuto, L'Olam VaEd.  His Kingdom reigns forever.  He is our King.  And HaShem the Creator of the World who kept his promise and returned us to our Ancient Heritage will always be our King long after the Obama's and Abbas's of the world disappear.

...he went down to Ahab to Samaria

ב  וַיֵּרֶד לְקֵץ שָׁנִים אֶל-אַחְאָב, לְשֹׁמְרוֹן, וַיִּזְבַּח-לוֹ אַחְאָב צֹאן וּבָקָר לָרֹב, וְלָעָם אֲשֶׁר עִמּוֹ; וַיְסִיתֵהוּ, לַעֲלוֹת אֶל-רָמֹת גִּלְעָד.

2 And at the end of years he went down to Ahab to Samaria. And Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance, and for the people that were with him, and persuaded him to go up with him to Ramoth-gilead.

What was will be.  We know that the two kingdoms are destined to be reunited at the end of days.  More so in the beginning of our return Beit Yisrael will rule.  We learn from Rav Kook that the secular Zionists were activating the aspect of Beit Yisrael led by Achav from Beit Efraim and although their clinging to the Land was not based on Torah, they were still involved with a lofty enterprise.  Like Achav they were focused on the National structure, the vessel of our return.  Beit Yehuda was at the time of Achav led by a righteous king Yehoshephat.  Achav had the stronger army and in fact the pasukim referred to Achav as Melech even when Yehoshephat was next to him, referring to the latter by only his first name.  All homage despite his evil actions was given to Achav. There for it said that Yehoshephat descended to Achav for Achav was at a lower place spiritually.  Yet Yehoshephat still saw the need to attempt to help the King of Israel.

The first pasuk in the chapter uses the word לְקֵץ or at the end.  Now this could be taken simply like after a long time or it is like many things in the Tanach be giving us a hint to something else.  We know that the Torah and Nach uses a vav to switch the future tense to past tense.  This is the style of the grammar, but this is not by accident.  HaShem and the Anshei Knesset Gedolah are doing this to relate to the timeless nature of the events in both the Torah and Nach.  At "the End"  means both the simple meaning and the future meaning of the end of days as it is used in the Navi'em.

We find ourselves now at the cusp of the switch between the Malchut Yisrael led by Beit Efraim (the current political structure of the State of Israel) to the Malchut Yisrael led by Beit Yehuda and ultimately David.  Like Achav before who fell in war leading to the final downward trend of the Northern Kingdom, so to now, with the weight of the world upon it, the only way forward for Medinat Yisrael is to go the way of Malchut Beit Yehuda by reuniting both Kingdoms under the Creator or face a disintegration so perilous that Beit David will be forced to rise to save us all.  I pray for the former.