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Tonight I watched a powerful video of Rabbi Noah Weinberg and 60 of Aish Hatorah's educators go to Poland and see the reality of what happened there. http://www.kiruv.com/FromTheAshes/ This is a must see video and one can not walk away from this video unchanged. This video is a wake up call to what a patient G-d is willing to do to his precious children, Jew and non Jew alike, when we lose sight of our purpose for being in this world. G-d is very patient. He waits generations before he strikes. But, yes he does strike at times when there is no other choice because the world is simply too corrupt and incapable of return. Rabbi Weinberg's message was that even though we (all the organizations that are involved with reuniting Jews with their heritage) are making in ways, we are still losing the battle. Perhaps Rabbi Weinberg is being metaken (correcting) the fault of the Biblical Noah who did not yell and scream to his generation WAKE UP. The Deluge is coming!
Then thanks to links from Batya Medad in her blog http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ I saw video clips of Danny Danon Likud Chairman and the World Likud alliance with World Evangelical C-tians. see wezion.org. These C-tians apparently wish to be more active in promoting World Likud's platform and become working active partners and not just spectators from afar. I listened to Joel Bell speak very eloquently about C-tians support for World Likud that will enable them to play a part in a shared vision of a Strong Israel and an Israel that has a Covenant with G-d as is specified in the Torah. Danny Danon was equally eloquent calling on C-tians Evangelical Groups to be supportive of World Likud and support World Likud's platform which has a shared vision.
I listened recently as well to John Hagee's speech to AIPAC and was mesmerized by his overt Torah references. Thank you Sara Lehman for that link. Benny Elon of National Union has strong connections with Evangelical Christians.
So the C-tians are taking a Biblical stand and with money are influencing Israeli politics. I will not at this point discuss whether their support for a Complete Israel is pure or comes with an agenda.
Is this connection to Christians a good or bad thing? In my opinion it is only good if the Nation of Israel are the true Kohanim and recognize together with the rest of the world, that the essence of Israel is to be Metaken Olam Bimalchut Shakai, to correct the world in the Kingdom of Heaven and to be a Mamlechet Kohanim VeGoy Kadosh. How is this accomplished. Only through proclaiming the Sovereignty of G-d and then through the observance of Mitzvoth which we learn and teach and keep and whose source is our H-ly Torah. Yet when the majority of Orthodox Jews, the Torah Leaders refuse to overtly talk about any Biblical references that might have any connections with world events and ignore any focus on those commandments read in Sefer Devarim, the commandments that are necessary in the Land of Israel, the commandments taught by Moshe Rabbeinu in the last 36 days of his life, knowing that he will not lead the Nation into the Land of Israel and only the performance and the observance of these Mitzvot will bring the Roadmap to peace and security and prosperity, I agree with Rav Noah Weinberg that we are indeed losing our battle. How can one teach Torah to the millions of lost Jews and with the threat of weapons of mass destruction in every corner and the threats of Natural Disasters coming from both Heaven and Earth and remain apathetic to the Commandments that are spelled out in Sefer Devarim (Deuteronomy) and reiterated many times and act that there is nothing that actually correlates our failures in observing these Mitzvoth and the dangers facing our generation from every direction. If we go with happenstance then G-d will as well. The Blessings and Curses are clearly pointing to observances of specific Mitzvoth and on the top of the list is Shemittah.
I put an alert on Google to any posts about Shemittah. What came up was an article in the TIMES. It is clear that all the loopholes the Takanos of the Rabbanim of the Mitzva D'araita of Shemittah did not escape the writer of the article. The title of the article is Shemittah and Sham.
The purpose of this blog is to brainstorm how to rediscover the Mitzvah of Shemittah without the Rabbinic loopholes. The dream is to experience Shemittah in the spirit of Shabbos, Shabbat where the Halachoth reflect that the entire Land belongs to G-d and it is truly a year of partying and eating and sharing what one has. There is the utopian vision of no poor person among my brothers and of equality and of sanctity and h-lyness since there is the recognition and knowledge that all truly comes and belongs to G-d. Shemittah as practiced in our times practically means buying Arab produce or doing without. Even putting a plastic divider doesn't quite bring in the proper spirit and neither does not having any vegetables to eat that is grown in Israel proper. What about foregoing loans? That is totally not addressed out of the halachic loophole of Pruzbul.
Coming up with Halacha that reflects the utopian vision of all the above has not been addressed since the time of the 1st Temple. And even in the time of the first Temple there were 70 Shemittoth that were not observed properly Keneged, represented by, the 70 years between the destruction of the 1st temple and the building of the 2nd Temple. Each Shemittah is a 7 year cycle. Simple multiplication of 7 times 70 brings one to 490 years. The duration of the 1st Temple was only 850 years. That means that even in the time of the first Temple Shemittah was not kept properly for 490 years. And if these were the last 490 consecutive years of the 850 years that the 1st Temple stood, that would bring us back to even before the rule of King David to the times of the Judges.
Rediscovering the Halachot of Shemittah is truly revolutionary. Very scary let me add. Yet the threats that hover our generation having witnessed and having extensive documentation, first hand of the Holocaust, is way scarier.
It's time to get down to business and as Rav Noah Weinberg states, let us learn from our enemies the monsters, the Nazi's what the meaning of dedication and determination and professionalism and efficiency and let us learn from our enemies the Hamas and the PA, the meaning of self sacrifice (G-d does not desire the sacrifice of the Molech) but perhaps the monetary sacrifices where Ani CHashuv Kemais (a poor person is considered as dead) can replace human sacrifice, we will once again rediscover only with G-d's help and our yearning, what the Torah really meant by the Mitzvoth of Shemittah.
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