The Tree of Life

11 Marcheshvan 5784

"My people were silenced for lack of knowledge;...seeing that you have forgotten the Torah of your God,...."    (Hoshea 4:6)

People know repentance is required of us, but too many don't understand for what.  Here are the usual causes given:  (1) sinat chinam; (2) speaking lashon hara; (3) women not covering their hair; (4) women not dressing modestly; (5) men not guarding their eyes; (6) men not guarding their brit; (7) disunity.

Important things to be sure, but it's too simplistic. And while it deals with personal sins, it doesn't address the sins of the nation.  Because the world is built on a justice system of midah k'neged midah, if we want to know what sin is the cause of certain suffering, we have to connect it back to its source.

What happened in the South of Israel along the Gaza border?  Men, women, children, from infants to elderly, were slaughtered and their property destroyed and burned.  

The enemy came from an area of Eretz Yisrael which the Israeli government gave to them as a gift.  Not only that, but even as this enemy has harassed the Jews in Israel with round after round of rocket fire causing terror, damage and injury for years, the Israeli government has continued to supply Gaza with all its needs.

Abbas says the Palestinians are the ancient Canaanites:

Abbas Rips Into Trump: Palestinians Are Original Canaanites, Were in Jerusalem Before the Jews (Jan 20128); Abbas says Palestinians ‘are the descendants of Canaanites’ (Feb 2018) - PA President Mahmoud Abbas tells the UN Security Council “we are the descendants of the Canaanites that lived in the land 5,000 years ago and continued to live there to this day.”  He has made this claim on other occasions as well, most recently in May 2023.  

What was Israel commanded by God to do with the Canaanites when we entered and conquered Eretz Yisrael?

Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their temples, destroy their molten idols, and demolish their high places. You shall clear out the Land and settle in it, for I have given you the Land to occupy it.

You shall give the Land as an inheritance to your families by lot; to the large, you shall give a larger inheritance and to the small you shall give a smaller inheritance; wherever the lot falls shall be his; according to the tribes of your fathers, you shall inherit.

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the Land from before you, then those whom you leave over will be as spikes in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they will harass you in the land in which you settle. And it will be that what I had intended to do to them, I will do to you.  (Bamidbar 33:51 - 56)

Ok, what were we told to do to them?  Jericho, the first city conquered in Eretz Yisrael...

...they conquered the city.   They destroyed everything that was in the city - man and woman, youth and elder, ox and sheep and ass - by the edge of the sword.  ...They burned down the city in fire, and everything that was in it; only the silver and the gold, and the vessels of copper and iron were given to the treasury of the House of Hashem.   (Yehoshua 6:20-24)

Regarding Amalek...

Now, go, and you shall smite Amalek, and you shall utterly destroy all that is his, and you shall not have pity on him: and you shall slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.' "  (Shmuel Aleph 15:3)

Surely, what HKB"H had intended us to do to them was done to us (although they always go too far). 

But, wait a minute!  Those Jews slaughtered on Simchat Torah can't be held accountable for the situation we are in today with regard to the Palestinian Arabs.  They were in no position to carry out these Biblical laws.

I will digress a bit.  You know how the world keeps telling us we deserve what happens to us?  In a way it's true.  We don't "deserve" it, but we do it to ourselves, we bring it upon ourselves.  If we don't follow the Creator's instructions, bad things happen as a result that could have been avoided had we but listened and obeyed.  

For sure, the residents of the "Gaza envelope" could not stop the expulsion of their fellows from Gush Katif, though I wonder how many actively fought it.  However, the thing is, they had the power and the ability to not make friends with the Gazans, to not look after their welfare, to not invite them into their communities and not give them jobs or trust them.  The following is very sadly typical of what we are hearing about the communities which were destroyed and some of the people who were taken captive.  Their relations with our enemies were like a badge of honor for them.  There are multiple examples.  This is just one.

 CO-EXISTENCE WITH PALESTINIAN NEIGHBORS

The Torah tells us that if we don't wipe out our enemies, "it will be that what I had intended to do to them, I will do to you."  Another way to put it is Hashem told us to do it to them because He knew that if we didn't, this is what they would do it to us and they would not be as humane about it.

We can't be more moral than God!  What we really need to repent for is not obeying the Torah.  With this in mind, now pay special attention to what the Fifth Blessing of the Amidah Prayer - Repentance says:  

"Bring us back, our Father, to Your Torah, and bring us near, our King, to Your service, and influence us to return in perfect repentance before You.  Blessed are You, Hashem, Who desires repentance. "

If it's not something we can practically do under our current circumstances, then we at least have to be ready and willing to comply with it should the opportunity ever arise, which it actually will when Mashiach comes.  If you aren't ready for this aspect of it then you aren't ready for Mashiach.

What was going on with this "peace" crowd down South was really treachery against Hashem.  Not only were they desecrating the Shabbat and the holiday, but they were actively aiding and abetting the enemies of God on a daily basis.  The tragedy is that there were probably those who disagreed with it, but were made vulnerable because they lived among them.

Sometimes, I think we are very hypocritical with our prayers.  Either we don't know what we are saying to Hashem or we don't really mean what we are saying to Hashem, because if you think I am being too harsh, let me remind you of what we pray three times a day in the Nineteenth Blessing of the Amidah Prayer - Against Heretics:

And for the malshinim let there be no hope; and may all wickedness perish in an instant; and may all Your enemies be cut down speedily.  May You speedily uproot, smash, cast down, and humble the wanton sinners - speedily in our days.  Blessed are You, Hashem, Who breaks enemies and humbles wanton sinners.

This was not written against Eisav or Yishmael, but against Jews.  The wanton, willful sinners are bringing their own destruction down upon their own heads and dragging the rest of us down with them, too.  No one who is actively rebelling against Hashem and His Torah is innocent.  

"The Torah is a tree of life for those who grasp it."  

But, we must conform to it.  It does not conform to us.  

I literally shudder to think what might be coming to the Shomron because of the same sin, aiding and abetting our enemies - only with spiritual murderers (Christians) instead of the physical murderers (Muslims), God forbid!!!!  

We have been warning them for over twenty years about the influence of that idolatry inside the yishuvim.  Again, we are not in a position to remove it completely from our Land right now, but the time will come.  Meanwhile, the Christian avodah zarah performed in our midst removes all of our Divine protection!!!!!  

Now is the time for complete teshuvah!!!!!!!!!  Run the Christians out before it is too late!!!!!!!!!!!

Laying the Groundwork For Another Massacre?

And we are still only at the beginning of the end.  Chazak!!  Chazak!!

***

UPDATE #2:  ‘We must stop the war’: family members of Israeli victims of Hamas speak out

UPDATE #1: Where we've got the secular peaceniks cooperating with the Yishmaelite enemy, we've also got the dati-leumi settlers cooperating with the Eisavian enemy, both of them placing Jewish lives in their hands.  Hashem yerachem!!

Here is who/what is "guarding" the Jews of Yehudah v'Shomron...

(Watch) Doing Security Night Watch For The Community of ______.