The Illicit Love Affair Between the Jews and America

15 Tamuz 5775

July 4th - An Immoral Celebration

We Torah-Jews know that "Eisav soneh et Ya'aqov." And we know that America is Eisav and that Yisrael will only rise when Eisav falls. 

We know how they refused to bomb the rail lines to the camps and how they refused to even fill the existing quotas for Jewish immigrants, much less open their borders to those fleeing the Nazis. 

We know how they sponsored the Oslo agreement and oversaw the exchange of land for no-peace and how they not only continue to insist that we create a terror-state in our midst, but are even now enabling Iran to acquire nuclear weapons to use against us. We know all of that. And yet...

Israeli heads of state attend a 4th of July celebration of America and its independence every year at the US Ambassador's residence in Jerusalem. Some of the comments made at this year's celebration held yesterday include:

PM Netanyahu addressing Ambassador Dan Shapiro: "...we are family. Let me translate. We are mishpucha. And we are partners,” ... “President Obama, the United States Congress and the people of America. I want to thank them for their continual support of the State of Israel. Across the length and breadth of the United States, Americans of all stripes stand with the Jewish state. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again tonight: Israel has no better friend than America and America has no better friend than Israel.”

President Rivlin: "Our relationship is first and foremost an emotional one. Growing up in the years after the Second World War, when the world was divided between East and West, and defined in terms of good versus evil, the ‘Stars and Stripes’ represented in our eyes, freedom and progress – the American Dream as we saw it,... For the first time in centuries, perhaps for the first time in history, we the Jewish nation, and later on the State of Israel, felt we had a true friend standing beside us."

American olim have traditionally lamented the dearth of American culture to be found in the Holy Land - sports, certain foods, etc., (well, no longer!) and nearly half of the Jewish population of the world is so enamored of the life it affords them that they ignore all her evils and continue to provide the spiritual energy that ensures her survival.

This year, we even have a reminder that the establishment of the United States of America was not good for the Jews, else it would not have fallen out on Shivah Asar b'Tamuz in 1776, the beginning of the Three Weeks of calamities for Jews throughout history. And if only we could see with spiritual eyes the terrible, unspeakable spiritual holocaust which American assimilation has wrought, we would be ashamed of all the Jewish praise and love that has been heaped upon this Edom - land of Eisav.

It is a common refrain throughout the prophets - Yisrael has been an unfaithful wife to HKB"H. And yet...

The word that came to Jeremiah (chapter 30) from the Lord, saying:

So said the Lord, the God of Israel, saying: Write for you the words that I have spoken to you, on a scroll. For, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will restore the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, says the Lord, and I will restore them to the land that I gave their forefathers and they shall possess it. 

And these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah. For so said the Lord: A sound of quaking we have heard, fear, and there is no peace. Ask now and see whether a male gives birth. Why have I seen every man [with] his hands on his loins like a woman in confinement, and every face has turned to pallor? Ho! For that day is great, with none like it, and it is a time of distress for Jacob, through which he shall be saved.

And it shall be on that day, says the Lord of Hosts, [that] I will break his yoke off your neck, and I will break your thongs, and strangers shall no longer enslave them. And they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will set up for them. And you, fear not, My servant Jacob, says the Lord, and do not be dismayed, O Israel, for behold I save you from afar and your seed from the land of their captivity, and Jacob shall again be silent and at ease, and no one will frighten them. For I am with you, says the Lord, to save you, for I will make an end of all the nations where I dispersed you, but of you I will not make an end, but I will chasten you in measure, and I will not completely destroy you. 

For so said the Lord: Your injury is painful, your wound grievous. No one deems your wound to be healed, you have no healing medicines. All your lovers have forgotten you, they do not seek you, for I have smitten you with the wound of an enemy, cruel chastisement, for the greatness of your iniquity; your sins are many. Why do you cry about your injury [that] your pain is severe? For the magnitude of your iniquity, [since] your sins are many, I have done these to you. 

Therefore, all who devour you shall be devoured, and all your adversaries, yea all of them, shall go into captivity, and those who plunder you shall be plunder, and all who prey upon you I will give for prey. For I will bring healing to you, and of your wounds I will heal you, says the Lord, for they called you an outcast, that is Zion whom no one seeks out.

So said the Lord: Behold I am returning the captivity of the tents of Jacob, and his dwellings I will pity, and the city shall be built on its mound and the palace on its proper site shall be established. And thanksgiving and the voice of those making merry shall proceed from them, and I will multiply them, and they shall not be diminished, and I will increase them, and they shall not become few in number. 

And their children shall be as of old, and their congregation shall be established before Me, and I will visit [evil] upon all their oppressors. And their prince shall be from them, and their ruler shall emerge from their midst, and I will bring him near, and he shall approach Me, for who is it who pledged his heart to approach Me? says the Lord. And you shall be My people, and I will be your God. 

Behold a storm from the Lord has gone forth [with] fury, yea a settling storm; on the head[s] of the wicked it shall rest.The kindling of the Lord's anger shall not return until He has executed it, and until He has fulfilled the plans of His heart. 

At the end of the days you shall consider it. At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.