Thirty Years Gone But Never Forgotten

18 Marcheshvan 5781

Rabbi Meir David HaKohen Kahane, ztz"l, Hy"d, was a man ahead of his time.  Thirty years ago, as his last act on behalf of Klal Yisrael before being brutally murdered, he had formed a new organization called Z.E.E.R.O.  A news account of the events of his last night reported:  "The meeting was the founding conference for a group called Z.E.E.R.O. - Zionist Emergency Evacuation Rescue Organization."  

Is it not ironic that the terrorist who murdered him belonged to a group that tried to bomb the World Trade Center three years later, a feat that would eventually be accomplished in 2001?  I doubt the rabbi ever imagined that twenty years of Nefesh b'Nefesh would pass during which any Jew who wanted to could get assistance in making aliyah by choice rather than by having to run for their lives, or how very few would seize that opportunity.  

He saw clearly what is happening today* because the seeds were sprouting then.  Here are some excerpts from that final speech which was recorded in a small book called "...So You Shoot the Messenger":

"...Say the bitter truth, even though they won't like you.  They won't like you, they'll attack you, but tell the Jews the truth if you love them.  If you love Jews, tell them the things which will make them angry, but which can save their lives.  That's what you have to do!  Think carefully about what I am saying, and that is why we created this group called ZEERO, Zionist Emergency Evacuation Rescue Organization.  It's a name that provokes.  And we hope that as we spread this idea it will provoke Jewish leaders to attack so we can debate the controversy that arises.  People will say he's right, he's wrong, and so on.  Of course, this is probably the worst thing you can ever tell any Jewish leaders, any Federation leader - that he should leave here and go to Israel.  What'll he do there?

I know what the Federation (leader) is.  He can't speak Hebrew.  What'll he do there?  So what they do is what the German Jewish leaders did - they deceived the Jews.  "How many Nazis are there?"  That's what they said.  That's absurd.  The question is not how many Nazis are there, but how many potential Nazis are there.  This is the question.  How many of them think exactly like them, but for various reasons don't say it.  What happens when things become unbearable and they have nothing to lose and they do say it and they do march and they do give support and they do give power? 

The rabbis say: "Who is wise? He who sees the future."  It's no big deal to see "today."  A Jewish leader has to see tomorrow.  That was the greatness of Jabotinsky - that was what made him different from all the others.  It's no greatness to be able to look at something and say, "I see it."   The greatness is to look beyond that and say, "I see what is coming."  That was Jabotinsky's greatness.  That's what made him so special and so different and that is why he was so hated.  And that is why it is so easy to say that he's crazy - because he sees something and others don't see it - so it's easy to say, "He's crazy!"

...The greatness of a Jew is, if he studies Torah properly, he is able to see beyond now.  The greatness of a Jew is, if he studies Torah properly, he is able to see because he is given concepts and they enable him to see tomorrow.  ...If you study Torah properly, there it is!  It says so!  But you have to want to believe it and not deceive yourself.

It is coming here!   It is coming here!   Friday night I spoke in Brooklyn in shul, and I had to walk through Bensonhurst, a white neighborhood - nice people, because they're white...  Watching the people, the kids, you can smell the violence, you can see the hate, you can see the envy - frustrated, bored, looking for action.  You can see it.  Those are the potential mobs.  And, G-d forbid, we will see it.  So ZEERO is a very special project of Kach, and I mean a serious one.  And I know how hard it is to go to Israel - it is really hard.  Hard to make a living.  My son goes into the army every single year.  It's dangerous and so on.  All of it [is true].  Everything, that's all true.  That's all true.  It's hard to live in Israel, but it will be impossible to live here; and if we go to Israel, at least there we can change the country.  Of course we can change it and make it better and make it tremendous and make it safe.  Of course we can do that if we have the power of government, but here there is nothing you can do to change it, it's out of our hands.  We are a minority and we are strangers here.  We're strangers in this land, no matter how many years we've been here.

...Basically, we're an ideological movement.  Of course, we are in politics, Knesset.  But, basically the Knesset for us is merely an instrument to carry out our ideas.  It's a vehicle, so as to carry out our ideal.  And that's what ZEERO is.  ZEERO won't have the money, funds, capacity or ability to create Aliyah, but it will give the idea, and indeed, my whole life has been ideas which eventually were taken up by other people and succeeded.  And that's the whole purpose of it.

 From the Introduction, the words of his son Binyamin, ztz"l, Hy"d, also murdered, and for the same reason, ten years later.  These words were spoken in honor of his father's first yahrtzeit...

 ...This final speech was given at a ZEERO ... conference, a new organization he founded urging Americans to make "emergency Aliyah" before the Holocaust that will G-d forbid, befall them.

In many respects, this last speech epitomizes the greatness of Rabbi Kahane. He raised and fought for unpopular issues that seemed futile, ignoring the fact that people would get angry. Here was the American Jew, fat and content to be sitting in the fleshpots, while the watchman of our times sees the ground trembling beneath them. But they neither understand nor want to, and after the question and answer period, when, as usual, they approach him to ask still more questions; as he is patiently answering them, trying to connect to them and to move them - during these moments his soul is taken.

The murder occurred at 9:00 P.M. New York time. It immediately made the major headlines both in Israel and abroad. Everyone, including those who hated and banned him were stunned. They, too, knew that a true Jewish leader had fallen. But, what they knew in their hearts they could not show outwardly. In their filthy and slanderous newspaper articles and broadcasts, they continued their asinine and savage attacks, as if to abuse the corpse that had shouted the truth at them for so many years...

"For He will avenge His servants' blood. He will bring vengeance upon His foes, and reconcile His people to His land" (Deut. 32:43)

Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Binyamin were murdered because they were deemed too dangerous to be allowed to live.  And what was so dangerous about them?  What made them different?  It was THE IDEA!  THE JEWISH IDEA!!  Because you may be able to "shoot the messenger," but...

 YOU CAN'T KILL THE IDEA!!!

 * In case you missed it before, please see Wake Up America, and Smell the Anti-Semitism.