A Critical Message For Am Yisrael: How Are We to Fight an Enemy Who "Loves" Us?

 21 Tammuz 5783

We are at war with two ancient enemies at the same time, but because most of the attention is taken by Yishmael in the form of physical attacks by Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizballah, et al., little notice is given to the spiritual attacks being inflicted by Eisav via the Christian evangelistic onslaught.  Until now, that is.

A few courageous Jews have risen up like the righteous Pinchas before them to do battle with the perpetrators carrying out a three-thousand-year-old plot originally hatched by the wicked Bilaam.  And in similar manner to our ancestors, a great outcry has been heard against them:  "This not the Jewish way, they are desecrating G-D's Name."

Yishmael comes with outward hatred - both in word and in deed.  But, Eisav is more clever.  He disguises his hatred with expressions of love and friendship.  And Am Yisrael is still falling for the same ploy.  The Talmud in Sanhedrin 106a describes the conspiracy wherein the women of Midyan were sent to entice the men of Klal Yisrael to immorality and idolatry - an act of hatred disguised as "love".   

Tanchuma, Balak 18, also provides additional detail: 

"A Moabite girl lures an Israelite into her store. Following that, the girl says to the Israelite, 'You are like one of the family. Sit! Choose what you like!' and a jug of Ammonite wine is sitting by her. The wine of the nations had not yet been prohibited, later on, our sages forbade their wine to prevent intermarriage, wine being a factor in generating intimacy. The girl comes out in jewelry and perfume, and entices him, saying, 'Why do we love you but you hate us? Take this vessel for free! Surely we are all descendants of one man, Terach, father of Abraham.' " 

This is the same tactic being used today by the so-called Christian Zionists.  And it is all for the purpose of mixing with us and blurring the boundaries that G-D established, in order to ultimately assimilate us [as "The One New Man"] and thereby destroy us.  As the wisest man who ever lived once said, "There is nothing new under the sun."

So, what are we supposed to do about the missionary campaign being carried out against us?  What did Moshe Rabbeinu say to Am Yisrael  in the matter of the Midyanites?

Bamidbar 25.16:  "Harass the Midianites and smite them; for they harassed you through their conspiracy that they conspired against you...."

The Stone Edition Chumash Commentary:

Harass ... and smite them.  Two commandments are contained in this passage.  The first is to consider the Midianites as enemies, and to express this by harassing them and causing them distress.  The constancy of this commandment is implied by the infinitive form of the word צרור, to harass.  Thus, it implies an ongoing state of mind, rather than instructions to do something tangible at once (Rashi).

The time will come when we have real Jewish leadership and the nation will be called upon to smite the enemy, but until then we are fully capable of fulfilling the first of the two commandments to harass them - to demonstrate, as so many courageous and righteous Jews recently did, that we are in opposition to each other; that we are in a state of enmity and spiritual warfare.  And all the complainers among the nation who stood alongside the enemy and cursed and condemned their brothers who acted in the spirit of Pinchas, will find themselves among the tens or hundreds of thousands who will suffer the Divine punishment that comes from friendship with the enemy.

Well done to all my brothers and sisters who took part in the recent demonstrations in Jerusalem against the Christian enemy.  You succeeded in harassing them and causing them distress beyond all expectations.  Their astonishment and chagrin has spread globally.  It is all they are talking about.  In this opening battle, "two have put ten thousand to flight."  Yasher koach!!  May our army grow in strength and the will to succeed with full faith in the support of the Almighty and the justness of our cause.
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