The Great World Cup - South Head Division - Debate

A few days ago a congregant wrote saying that there had been a family discussion regarding the appropriateness of praying for one's national team and wondering whether I had an opinion on that.

Well, as a Jew I decided to answer with some questions of my own, "First you tell me why everyone is getting so excited about a bunch of people fighting over an inflated piece of leather. Is this a reason for a good Jewish boy to go without sleep for an entire month? And this team sport euphoria I really don't understand - what's this tribal thing about my team winning? Does it make you feel like you are part of the winning team? Would you want to be - judging by the low-life behaviour of some famous sports teams?"

Well, I got more than I bargained for. Instead of a single response, I got, you guessed it, a team response. Each of the Kalish team members took the opportunity of lobbing a reply. And to be honest, they were good. Then off I went to my dentist, Dr David Rutner, an avid soccer fan and veteran coach for Maccabi indoor soccer. In between drilling, fitting a post and cutting through my gum, we managed to discuss, albeit briefly, the issue occupying the minds of at least half of all humanity - the World Cup.

So I thought I would share some of these discussions and responses with you, and see if anyone else would like to weigh in to the World Cup - South Head Division debating event.

On international soccer:

Peter Kalish: Team sport, particularly soccer, is a fascinating study as it has literally become a religion in many parts of the world - it was said that Pelé, the greatest footballer of all-time from Brazil, was idolised and revered more than JC. Losses in the world cup have almost brought down governments because of their interference in the team selection or coach appointments that go wrong. It is a passive manifestation of competition or war between countries and soccer has the largest following of any sport in the world.

David Rutner: In poorer countries soccer is the great equalizer. Countries not renowned for their advances in medical science or technology hit the world stage through their prowess at soccer. It's the only arena in which Third World countries can dominate First World countries. If not for soccer, how many people would even know where Brazil was?

Lance Kalish: With its global appeal, it has become one of the only feasible and non-violent methods for social groups, cities, states or countries to compete on an even-handed ground without dire or lethal consequences (although unfortunately this is not always the case!). A hundred years ago, if a nation or people wanted to exert dominance over another nation, they would enter into war. The winner would be the side with the most people still alive! Through soccer and other sporting competitions, you have a winner and a loser, no loss of life, and temporary dominance over your competitor until the next meeting - it is the civilized world's remedy to the age old human qualities of aggressiveness, egotism, and dominance. What I find most incredible is that the World Cup is a competition that brings every country into equilibrium. When the players get onto the field, it doesn't matter how rich or poor their respective countries are, how developed or undeveloped they are, how big or small their populations are- all that matters are the 11 players representing your nation and how best they can apply their skills at the same game with the same rules.

Rabbi Milecki: If I understand this correctly, soccer at this level is a proxy for the "male" need to wage war and conquer territory. There doesn't have to be any purpose in it; the thrill of conquest is what it's all about. And just like in war, you get a big kick out of your side winning, because they are "our" soldiers, etc. so also in sport. It is all about identifying with the group, which is another deep human need. But what is so positive about the World Cup is that it channels potentially negative human traits into something far more benign while at the same time bringing the whole world together, certainly a positive value in itself.

Lance Kalish: Correct, the World Cup strives to bring the nations of the world together in the most peaceful of means on the most even handed terms - even if it is on the lowest common denominator of sport. It may just one day lead to something greater.

On Identification with teams and sportsmen:

Stacey Kalish: When people support a team, whether it be a local soccer club or the national representatives, it allows them to feel a sense of identity. I support 'X' team therefore I am part of 'X' group, therefore this makes me an 'X'. I have a sense of self and more importantly, a sense of purpose. If i am a part of a collective, I become an extension of a greater body that is trying to achieve this goal. Therefore, I feel a sense of that purpose. And as we know, this is truly what people are looking for in life. If i cannot be the single greatest player in the world, then i can support that person/team, wear their colors, pledge my allegiance, pour my time, energy and emotion into them and feel like I am a part of achieving that dream and mission. I am apart of a greater cause. Something that is greater than myself.

Lance Kalsih: I can best explain the belonging feelings with a real life example I experienced when I traveled for the first time to England to watch Manchester United (whom I have supported since childhood) play in a finals in London. After the game when I got onto a train packed with drunk football supporters, I was squeezed up next to a guy who was built like a gorilla and looked like he had just stepped out of prison prior to coming to watch the game. He looked me in the eye with a cold, scary glance and I was actually nervous just standing next to him. Then I noticed a bold tattoo on his shoulder emblazoned with the Man United emblem. To break the ice I complimented him on the tattoo, which led to a short conversation about where I was from, how I had followed Man United since I was a child, and that I was heading next to Manchester to visit Old Trafford- the home of Man United for the last 90 years or so. All of a sudden this supposedly terrifying hooligan's face lit up with excitement and joy that he had met an Australian that supported his beloved team from his home city of Manchester. He was so overjoyed that he immediately gave me his contact details and cordially invited me to call on him when I get there so he could show me around Old Trafford and Manchester town. Through a quick chance meeting and confirmation of allegiances, I had had an experience that I could only describe similar to meeting a fellow Jew when you are traveling the world and think you know no one. I never actually took up the offer (he still scared the living daylights out of me) but it gave me a first hand experience about the strength of following a team and the sense of belonging.

David Rutner: Within poorer countries especially, soccer is a great inspiration. Many soccer greats, for example Pele in Brasil and Maradonna of Argentina, came from poor backgrounds. Kids whose only asset were their feet were inspired to know that there was a chance that they too could make it; at the very least, they could live through their hero who came from very similar circumstances to their own.

Rabbi Milecki: OK, so if I understand this correctly, identification with a team or sportsman enables the individual to step out of his small world and become part of something far greater than himself.

Could there perhaps be something negative in this level of identification?

Rabbi Milecki: I think that most people probably feign far more interest in their national team than they really have, just because everyone else is doing the same and they want to be part of the group. I also think that those people who really do take it very seriously, the die-hard fans and groupies, have got serious insecurity problems.

Peter Kalish: There are the pure gang-like attitudes where lost soles seek security in “belonging” to the supporters' club and this is one of the reasons behind the hooliganism that is rife in Europe, particularly England.

Lance Kalish: The die hard fans and groupies you find generally come out of countries that are lacking something - I find the worst of them are countries like England and Germany where the anglo wasp culture has to be one of the driest and dullest existences on earth - so no wonder these people are craving for a sense of belonging - in this case the football teams literally become their religion and they use this context to express all their personal feelings which includes those violent and discriminatory qualities.

What's with the great Jewish interest in the World Cup? Jews have never enjoyed war, so why do they need this proxy for war? And they are certainly not trying to achieve "completion" through the sporting conquests of others?

Peter Kalish:The skill involved in soccer is admirable and I think can only be appreciated once one has tried to play the game - the recognition of the popularity of the game and the skills required are manifested by the huge salaries paid to the players - the top players all earn around $150,000 per week.

David Rutner: I enjoy the skill and I enjoy analyzing a game, but the salaries are obscene. Although many of the soccer greats do charity work, including training and encouraging their young countrymen, much of the ridiculous salaries they are paid are squandered by unscrupulous "friends" and "relatives" to the extent that they die in poverty.

Rabbi Milecki: I think that this is a) part of Jewish assimilation into the general culture and our need for acceptance; b)perhaps more importantly I think that many Jews do really get enjoyment viewing the "skill" of the game more than just the ego trip of "my team wins" and finally c) when real life is too hard to cope with, people do seek to live their lives through others, and this includes Jews. It's why we go to the movies, it's why we watch sport. It's certainly better than taking drugs or turning to drink. It's a diversion and an escape.

I think that in moderation it cannot do much harm. But we ought to keep in mind that there really are other human, Jewish and G-dly endeavours that can give us a sense of fulfillment and mentally stimulate us. By immersing ourselves in these we can minimize the time we invest in alternate escapes.

Should we pray for the Socceroos?

Peter Kalish: I enjoy it immensely and am patriotic but not enough to include it in my davening or ever contemplate doing so - I believe that would ridicule and belittle my faith and after all, it still remains a game and nothing more and should never be regarded as anything more.

Rabbi Milecki:With regard to praying I agree with Peter. It trivializes prayer, G-d and the person praying. I don't think I am lacking in a sense of humour, but composing prayers for the socceroos by rabbis is ridiculous. What kind of G-d is going to favour your team over another team just because you prayed for it? Is there more justice or righteousness in one team over the other? And how do you come to shule to pray for your team, when the person next to you is praying for their sick child? It's obscene.

Lance Kalish: Re the prayer, I do agree with your statement there, although I can still understand why someone would want to pray for the socceroos- not because of the justice surrounding it, but because of the immense consequences that can result from winning the World Cup (once again, you have to understand the world cup and its economics to really appreciate this argument- for example, the Brazilian national pride almost entirely is built through its global dominance in soccer- without it I don't think most of the world would even know where Brazil was!). Countries like Australia do not spend hundreds of millions of dollars on elite sporting academies and individual sportsmen because they want Australians to be more recreational, its because they are investing in national pride and a branding of Australia around the world. Yes, believe it or not, the most common international “language” around the world is not mathematics or science, its sport and in particular soccer!

Which brings me to my final point about prayer- if someone can say a prayer for the queen (a complete figurehead with no real influence or power) why cant they say a prayer for their national representatives on the world's greatest stage, without trivializing prayer in general?

Rabbi Milecki: Good question! But there is a difference. We pray for the Queen not as an individual but as the embodiment of the Government. She is the Head of State, and it is in her person that the concept of the State lives. This is why it is only when her representatives - the Governor General or Governers of the States - ascent to legislation that it becomes law. The Talmud tells us that we must pray for the State - "Pray for the peace of the sovereign for without it anarchy would reign supreme".

One can and should pray for the economic welfare of the State. Prayer is a very powerful tool that humbles us before G-d when we realize that it is He and only He in Whose hands lie success or failure. But I don't think it is our business to tell G-d how to enable the state to prosper. Perhaps it will be through the victory of the national sport team, perhaps through other means. It is hard enough for us to negotiate through the variables in our own lives; let's leave running the world to G-d.

Famous Last Words:

Rabbi Milecki:The Rebbe once used soccer as a metaphor for life. The two goal posts on each side, represent the Gates to Gan Eden and the Gates to Hell. The round ball represents the world. The teams represent the collaborative effort to drive the world to where it really belongs - Gan Eden - and keep it away from where it doesn't - Hell. Now that sounds like a game of soccer that we can all identify with!

Convergence: Julia Roberts and the New Israel

On Shavuot night I participated in a panel comprising Chemi Shalev (Associate Editor Australian Jewish News & Ha'aretz writer), Jeremy Jones AM (Director AIJAC) and David Bierman (Former Director Israel Govt Tourist Office), on the subject of "The New Israel andi its Future Borders". The following is the text of my presentation:

I have been asked to speak tonight on the subject of “The New Israel and its Future Borders”. When presented with the topic, the first thing that occurred to me was that we are living in an era of Orwellian Double Speak. The New Israel and its Future Borders! The borders that are now being contemplated are those of the Old Israel, the Israel of pre-1967, or worse, the Israel of the UN partition plan. These are the borders which then Foreign Minister Abba Eban was fond of calling the “Auschwitz borders” because they left Israel with a waist of no more than 10km—making Israel easy prey for the Arab armies keen on “driving the Jews into the sea”.

But this of course is not the worse of the double-speak. The doctors of spin are in a wild race to see who can create the most outlandish terms—those that transform snails into delicacies worthy of the finest French restaurant. Or as Jackie Mason once said concerning cockroaches, “Just call them Coche Roché, put them on the menu, and then see how much you can charge!”

Instead of simply saying that Israel is unilaterally withdrawing under pressure (the nature of which will be discussed later) the more sanitized “disengagement” was used. But even disengagement has negative connotations, so it too has been replaced by the more positive sounding—you may even say scientific—term, “convergence”.

Now in this post-modern world, who on earth could be against convergence? Isn’t that what is happening all around us—Palm Pilots, iPods, still cameras, video cameras and telephones all converging into one device. Isn’t that what we all want?

You really have to give it to the Prime Minister. He really is a master of spin.

In 1989, Prime Minister Olmert visited his friend, movie producer Arnon Milchan, in Hollywood. The two sat at a Warner Brothers’ sound studio with the film’s director Gary Marshall and listened to the soundtrack for a new romantic comedy starring a 23 year-old unknown actress (Roberts) and a movie star whose fame has already began to fade (Richard Gere).

After about half-an-hour of listening to the soundtrack, an old song by Roy Orbison called “Pretty Woman’ started playing. Olmert, who was listening to the music with his eyes half-shut, suddenly turned to Milchan and Marshall and said: “Listen, I have an idea for you – why don’t you call the movie ‘Pretty Woman,’ after the song?”

“Forget it,” Marshall replied, “it’s too kitschy.” Milchan, on his part, also had his doubts. But Olmert, already an experienced politician, managed to convince the two his idea was not so bad.

The rest, as everyone knows, is history. ‘Pretty Woman,’ which debuted in 1990, earned USD 463 million across the world and marked the starting point for Roberts’ meteoric rise to stardom.

You have to admit that when it comes to spin, the Prime Minister really does have what it takes!

So it’s not surprising that Prime Minister Olmert has managed to convince much of the world, even those parts of the Jewish world that should know better, that he is doing something fantastically new and original. And hence the topic of tonight’s panel discussion is not the “Return to the Auschwitz Borders” but “The New Israel and its Future Borders”. And it’s not “unilateral withdrawal” but “convergence”.

Viva La Holliwood! Viva the power of spin!

We are told that we have to “converge” because of the demographic threat. We are told that if we don’t converge—meaning unilaterally withdraw into a smaller Israel—then by the year 2020 or thereabouts there will be an Arab majority in the area between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. And so, in order to ensure a Jewish democratic state we have no choice other than to make these “painful” concessions.

We are told this by the Prime Minister based on statistical data supplied by Israeli demographers including University of Haifa’s Arnon Soffer and Hebrew University’s Della Pergola.

But what happens if this data is wrong?

In a study prepared by the Begin and Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies, and presented to the US House of Representatives, an American and Israeli team of demographers found that the current figure of 3.8 million Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza is an obscene exaggeration based on false data supplied by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. They also found that in doing their future population projections, the Israeli demographers were relying on this faulty data. That instead of 3.84 million Palestinians there are only 2.49 million Palestinians—a difference of some 1.3 million people!

The main figures included in the condensed BESA report to the US House of Representatives can be found in the side bar. The full report is well over one hundred pages long, so I will include a few salient points from the study as quoted in an article by Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post in January 2005.

· “Indeed, the total fertility rate of Palestinian women has been trending downward in recent years. Palestinian women in Judea and Samaria averaged 4.1 children in 1999 and 3.4 in 2003. Palestinian women in Gaza averaged 5 children each in 1999 and 4.7 in 2003. The multi-year average of Israel’s compound growth rate from 1990-2004 is 2.5 percent.”

· “The report also shows that while the Israeli Interior Ministry announced in November 2003 that in the preceding decade some 150,000 residents of the Palestinian Authority had legally moved to Israel (including Jerusalem), these 150,000 residents remain on the Palestinian population rolls. Parenthetically, this internal migration is largely responsible for the anomalous 3.1 percent annual growth in the Israeli Arab population. Absent this internal migration, the Israeli Arab natural growth rate is 2.1% – that is, below the Israeli Jewish growth rate.”

· “The study, which has been accepted by prominent American demographers Dr. Nicholas Eberstadt and Murray Feshbach, shows that contrary to common wisdom, the Jewish majority west of the Jordan River has remained stable since 1967. In 1967 Jews made up 64.1 percent of the overall population and in 2004 they made up 59.5 percent.”

These facts are backed up by Yoram Ettinger. Ettinger is a former Israeli Consul General for the Southwest U.S. and consultant to Israeli cabinet members, Knesset members and various Israeli and US organizations on US-Israel Affairs. He is also chairman of Special Projects at the Ariel Center for Policy Research in Israel.

Ettinger rejects the demographic theory advocated by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his Kadima party, which now serves as the premise for his “Convergence Plan,” that calls for the removal of nearly 100,000 Jews from Judea and Samaria, thus creating the contiguity for a future Palestinian State. The Olmert plan is predicated first and foremost on the premise that in order to retain a Jewish majority and a democratic state, Israel must apply the “convergence plan” that would remove Jewish settlements and settlers from most of the West Bank and relocate them in Settlement Blocks adjacent to the Green Line (June 4, 1967 lines). In Olmert’s view and that of his advisors, refraining from implementing his plan would cause Israel to lose its Jewish majority.

“At this stage” Ettinger argues, “the Jewish demography is more robust than it has been in recent years. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we have today between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, a durable Jewish majority of 60%. To put it in perspective, in the year 1900 Jews accounted for only 8% between the River and the Sea, in 1947 the percentage was 33% Jewish minority, in 1949 the Jewish accounted for 45% of the population.” “This sustained growth, Ettinger maintains, “indicates an enhanced Jewish majority between the River and the Sea.” Ettinger is ready to prove that there is an increase in Jewish birthrates and a continuing Aliyah. “The evidence, since 1995, has shown a sustained annual decline in Palestinian fertility rates and birthrates” and, he asserts, “this will continue for the foreseeable future.”

What’s really interesting is that although Prime Minister Olmert has come up with a new meaning for convergence, the real meaning of convergence in demographic terms is quite different. It means that over the past hundred years all developed countries and developing countries, including the Arabs, are converging to similar birth rates.

According to Ettinger, a March 17, 2006 Gallup Poll, suggested a convergence in fertility rates between Palestinian-Arab and Israeli-Jewish women within just a few years. Currently, the fertility rates for Palestinian women average at 4.7 per women, while the average among Jewish women is 3.7. Jewish birthrates are on the rise whereas those of the Palestinians are declining. He pointed out that this pattern of decline is pervasive throughout the Arab-Muslim Middle East. “In Iran,” Ettinger pointed out, “the fertility rate for women has declined to 1.98 births per woman, down from 10 births per woman only 20-25 years ago, and, “In Egypt it is 2.9 births per women compared to 8-9 in the past.” Ettinger said that in Israel, among the immigrants from the Former Soviet Union, the fertility rate has increased from what it was in Russia (1.0) and that they are now having 2-3 children and, the orthodox Jewish community is catching up with the ultra-Orthodox.

Convergence should lead to holding onto territory, not ceding it!

(You can find Ettinger’s website and associated articles here. I urge you to look at the source materials yourselves before listening blindly to the politicians or to me!)

It has been known for some time that Oslo’s Land for Peace formula was a sham. It now turns out that the demographic time bomb is also a sham.

The amazing thing about Jewish people is that although so many of us are independent thinkers with above average IQs when it comes to matters of our security and future we place almost blind faith in the politicians and the spin doctors. The figures included here have been around for over 18 months, but nary a word of debate can be heard in the Jewish community.

Furthermore, Yossi Olpher, writing in HaAretz, gives six indications of the failure of the Gaza withdrawal:

1) it did not bring security—the Qassams and suicide bombings continue (in fact, the IDF was forced to re-enter Gaza last week for the first time since the withdrawal and a Kassam rocket fell near Amir Peretz’s home in Sderot;
2) it did not relieve Israel of legal responsibility for the Gaza Strip under international law; (last week, the huge British teachers union and one of Canada’s largest trade unions voted to boycott Israeli academics);
3) it emptied Israel’s coffers without producing a “reward”—the United States in the end did not give Israel two billion dollars “for development of the Negev and Galilee”, generally understood as funding for settler resettlement;
4) it did not bring peace any closer;
5) it encouraged Palestinians to vote for Hamas, which trumpeted the withdrawal as its victory; and
6) it left many hundreds of Gazan settlers homeless and jobless to this day.

Israel’s security borders are to be seriously eroded, the IDF predicts increased terrorism (see here), 10,000 of Israel’s best have already been expelled from their homes, many of them until this day without adequate shelter, schooling or work prospects, and yet there is a serious plan on the table for further unilateral withdrawals.

Why?

Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that there is a reason for this. Perhaps it is not the only reason, but it is certainly a very powerful one. It is the deep-seated Jewish need to be accepted by the world at large, to be seen as normal. With all the bravado of saying that we will fight and not give into terror, we are a sovereign state that makes its own decisions based on what is best for us, etc. etc. there is a deep need among the Israeli leadership of all persuasions to be accepted in Washington, and even in the European capitals. To be considered part of the civilized world, even though no part of that civilized world would even think of making the concessions that are asked of Israel. It stems, I believe, from a deep-seated insecurity based on our numerical inferiority and our historical need to “negotiate” our way out when the odds were stacked overwhelmingly against us.

Of course the situation has changed. Israel is one of the most advanced nations of the planet. Although numerically small, we produce a quality that belies our numbers. Whether in military technology and know-how, IT, irrigation, or a host of other areas Israel surpasses Western nations many times it size. There should be no reason to accept the world’s double standards towards us. We should be able to laugh off the self-righteous moral indignation of a world that tells us to turn the other cheek, when they would never do the same. The same France that makes it illegal for a Muslim to wear a burka, has the audacity to claim that Israel should remain silent when attacked with rockets. But, although Israel may loudly protest France at the UN, subconsciously it absorbs the barbs, thinking yes, we too are to blame—we deserve what we get because of our sin of “occupation”, for our “ill-treatment” of those who would sooner see us dead.

Ben Gurion may have spoken of the new Jew and the new Israel, the Jew who, unlike the “exile” Jew, walks tall. But it takes more than a country, economic and even military success to make a Jew truly walk and feel tall. It takes an inner spirit. Yes, there were “exile” Jews who trembled when they saw a Russian anti-Semitic policeman. But there were also “exile” Jews who although they may have moved off the footpath when they saw him come—he could after all have them thrown in prison on some trumped up charge—held him in deep contempt. They were the Jews who around the Shabbos table knew that they were the most blessed people in the world—and no one could take that away from them. They were the Jews who when the Nazi asked them what they were praying as they marched into the gas chamber said with cold derision, “I am thanking G-d for not making me a gentile beast like you.” They were the true Jewish soldiers who like my wife’s grandfather, armed with nothing but a knife, risked (and ultimately gave) their lives not to kill, but to circumcise Jewish children in Soviet Russia.

It is. as Noam Arnon, spokesman for the much vilified Jewish community of Chevron, once told me, “Only one who truly believes can be Prime Minister of Israel”.

As for the settlers—they are the greatest heroes of the Jewish people today. But they made a serious mistake. In their tremendous faith, they believed that not only would they settle the land, but that the Holy People of Israel would in the end follow and support them. In their great belief they just didn’t understand that for those Jews with less belief than them, the world is a fearsome, overwhelming and perhaps even enticing place—a place worth the sacrifice of that which is most holy to us.

Together with the settling of the Land, there also needed to be, and now most certainly needs to be, a settling of the Jewish heart. A large movement aimed at bringing Jews closer to G-d and closer to Torah. Only such people will have the wherewithal to withstand the pressures of that “big and scary” and at times “overwhelmingly enticing” world.

And so, returning to the topic, the “New Israel and its Future Borders” needs to be a place where there are no longer borders between religious and non-religious. Most Jews, apart from the die-hard secularists, want to believe. We need but find the spark and ignite it. And this movement is not only relevant in Israel. It is also relevant outside Israel. Judaism must precede Zionism. Being Jewish must proceed being Israeli.

Indeed the Torah was given outside Israel, the Talmud was written outside Israel, most Jewish literary creativity took place outside Israel. The Jewish nation precedes in every sense the Jewish Land. And only with such faith can the Jewish Land continue to exist. Not as a value in itself, not as a political entity, G-d forbid, but as the outcome of a love of our heritage.

As a political entity, we are vastly outnumbered. As a spiritual entity, we are the most powerful idea that the world has ever seen. If we would only know this, nothing could ever scare us, nothing could ever defeat us.

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BESA Report-Brief Synopsis

The 1997 PCBS beginning population base for de facto residents was inflated by:
* Inclusion of Non-residents: The 1997 PCBS Census base included 325,000 Palestinian Arabs living abroad, even though these individuals had lived outside the Territories for many years. This group comprised 13% of the PCBS' reported population base. This fact was fully acknowledged by the head of the PCBS when the Census Results were released in 1998. Reduction: 325,000;
* Inclusion of Jerusalem Arabs in West Bank Figures: Jerusalem Arabs who were already counted in Israel's population survey were also counted in the PCBS population estimate for the West Bank. Reduction: 210,000;
* Unexplained Increase over ICBS Records: The 1997 PCBS census included an additional 113,000 rise above the last ICBS figures for the Territories. Yet, PA Central Election Commission reports for adults voting in 2005 substantiated the ICBS population records from the mid-1990s. Reduction: 113,000;
Furthermore, the PCBS Model's projections with respect to births and immigration were not met in any year between 1997 and 2004:
* Fewer Births: According to reports current through January 2005, the PA Ministry of Health recorded fewer annual births between 1997 and 2003 than the PCBS had predicted for each of those years. These lower birth figures are consistent with PA;
* Ministry of Education figures for students entering school six years later. Reduction: 238,000
Alterations of Recorded Birth Data: In its more recent reports, the PA Ministry of Health retroactively raised the number of births it had reported prior to the release of the 1997 PCBS census. Using data at originally reported levels lowers the number of births even further. Reduction: 70,000;
* Net Immigration and Emigration Error: Instead of the large immigration originally forecast by the PCBS, the Territories experienced a steady net emigration abroad. The PCBS predicted 236,000 would move into the Territories between 1997 and 2003. Instead, 74,000 left. Reduction: 310,000;
* Migration to Israel: Many residents of the Territories moved to pre-1967 Israel and Jerusalem. No adjustments were made for unofficial immigration as there is little data on this group. However, immigrants who legally received Israeli IDs according to Israel Ministry of Interior reports from 1997 to 2003 were removed from the PCBS count. Reduction: 105,000.

The above is a brief summary of the BESA (Begin and Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies) report as presented to the House of Representatives and can be obtained here. The full report can be downloaded from here

The Jew Beyond the Natural Order

he preparation for Pesach, more frenzied than that for all other festivals combined, finds its culmination as family and guests gather around the seder-table. Tranquility and calm replace the mad rush of the previous weeks. Seder (order) has been restored... or so we think. Just as we are ready to commence this much anticipated meal, a tiny squeak is heard from the direction of the youngest of the fraternity. And with the question "Why is this night different? " attention is drawn to the strange assortment of foods and relishes on the table.

"Order, is this what you people call order? What normal people eat matza, charoset and maror or do any of the other weird and wonderful things you are gearing up to do this evening?"

There is an old Yiddish folk-saying "Bei Yidden es is nishto kein seder." There is no seder (order) amongst Jews. They no sooner embark on the seder (order), and the child asks "Why is this night different?"(1)

There would seem to be more than a grain of truth in this saying. The Talmud says, "This nation is compared to the stars and compared to the dust, when they rise, they rise to the heavens; when they sink, they sink to the dust."(2) Greater than others, less than others... yes! Equal, normal, ordinary...no!

During our glorious, yet tortuous, history we have risen to heights unequalled by any other nation or people...but we have also been trampled underfoot by all other nations and people. We are a nation which has given the world so much, yet has suffered so much in return.

If the lofty concept of morality exists, it is due to the Jews; and if the degrading concept of holocaust exists, then that too is due to the Jews.

In his mad rantings to his friend Rauschning, Hitler, yemach shmo, put it this way:

"It is true we are barbarians. That is an honored title to us. I free humanity from the degrading suffering caused by the false vision called conscience and ethics... They are Jewish inventions. The war for domination of the world is waged only between the two of us...the Germans and the Jews..."(3)

Nietzsche, the 19th century German philosopher, saw Jews as the cultural force that had overthrown the natural order of might makes right, the law of the jungle. What is known as Western civilization and morality, he claimed, are in reality perversions of natural law and a violation of the ideal human order of domination of the strong for no other reason than the fact of their strength (4).

The Jew tries to raise Man from the ugly "natural order" of the survival of the fittest to a "superorderly" morality which alone can make him Human. But Man, not yet ready to be elevated, denigrates the Jew and subjects him to a "suborderly" existence. Either way, the Jew knows no order. Superorder, suborder...yes! Order...no!

And yet, in spite of all the above, in spite of millennia of historical precedent, the Jew still persists in a stubborn struggle for acceptance, for normalization, for order.

The assimilationist Jews of Germany saw the baptismal font as a carte blanche for their integration into society. It was an acceptable price to pay for "normalization", for "order" . The assimilationist Jews of Russia saw the "Jewish Problem" as a product of a bourgeois class system. Once we break down the barriers, they said, the Jews will be like everyone else...normal.

The capitalist Jews of Germany and the communist Jews of Russia each sought to solve this so-called "Jewish Problem" in their own way, the Germans through making the Jews "ordinary" Germans, the Russians through making the Jews "ordinary" people. Certainly they achieved something. People ostensibly stopped being anti-Jewish, Jewishness being associated with a religious system to which the Russian and German Jewish assimilationists no longer adhered. This was instead replaced with a hatred based on stock and race - antisemitism . And with this new label came a level of suffering and degradation which within a few years surpassed that of all of the previous three and a half millennia of Jewish suffering combined.

The German Jews and the Russian Jews had each forgotten that for Jews there is no "order".

But there have been highs as well as lows. After our extraordinary survival of two thousand years of dispersion, we were finally able to re-establish sovereignty on Jewish soil. In a miraculous string of victories, Israel, that mite amongst the nations, has proven herself superior to the might of over a hundred million Arabs. "When they rise, they rise to the heavens.(2)"

What a glorious opportunity for Jewish revival, for Jewish self-expression, for Jewish development!

Yet in spite of the extraordinary heights and depths of the last half-century, heights and depths which prove beyond all doubt that we are not an ordinary people, there are still those of our brethren clamouring for us to become a nation like all other nations (5), that Israel become a secular country where Jews happen to reside, rather than a Jewish country. People who, like Gershon Shocken, one-time editor of the well-known Israeli daily "Ha-aretz", say that for Israel to survive there must be a removal of the prohibition against intermarriage, there must be a complete integration of Jews and Gentiles. Only this, they claim, is consistent with the spirit of the New Israel.

They say this in the hope of "normalising" the Jews, of solving what to them is the "Jewish Problem". They take no heed of the fact that what was once anti-Jewishness and later replaced by anti-semitism, now goes under the guise of anti-Zionism in absolute defiance of any attempts at normalisation. When the Jew attempted to assimilate religiously and socially his escape was blocked by anti-Jewishness being replaced by anti-Semitism. When the Jew attempts to assimilate nationally, "to become a nation like all other nations", his escape is blocked by anti-Zionism. The pariah status of the Jew as an individual has been replaced by the pariah status of Israel as state. The Jews are simply not a normal people. Amongst Jews, there is no order!

So let us learn the lessons of history, let us forsake this quest for "normalisation, for "ordinariness", for "acceptance" amongst the nations, and let us accept instead our role as G-d's "special people(6)", as "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation(7)". Let us accept our role as a special and separate people with a special and separate Torah, while at the same time continuing to impart morals and ethics to all of mankind so that Man can eventually discover his Divinely human image. It may be a role which has at times been plagued with tragedy and frustration, but it is our role, and the only (8) possible role for a Jew. It may be an extraordinary goal, but let us not forget that we are an extraordinary people.

On this festival of Pesach, this occasion of the birth of the Jews as a nation (9), I wish all of you increased sense of Jewish identity, speciality and mission.

NOTES

1. In Torah, too, the written as well as the oral law, there Is no order. Talmud Pesachim 6b, Bava Kama 102a. Cf. LaTorah U'Lamoadim, Rabbl S. Y. Zevin, p349.

2. Talmud, Megillah, 16a

3. Sparks of Glory, Prager. M. pXIV

4. Ibid pXIII

5. Cf. Ezeklel 20,32.

6. Exodus 19:5

7 Exodus 19:5

8 "The thought which enters your mind shall never come to pass, that which you say "we will be as the nations, as the families of the world"...' By my life", says the Lord G-d, "I will rule over you with a strong hand, and an outstretched arm..."" (Ezekiel 20:32).
9. Ezekiel 16:4,5 s (Rashl, Metzudot).

Is the Kashrut Authority at a Crossroads?

After being threatened with legal action, I have removed the comments section from the blog site for the time being. In doing so I erred on the side of caution. My intention in publishing the article and inviting comments was to bring to the attention of the KA the depth of feeling in the community, not to embark on a protracted legal wrangle which would also involve the shule.

I urge people who wish to comment on this very important issue to do so through the pages of the Jewish News. I would also appreciate it if you would send me copies of your letters to the editor as well as any general comments you may have on the Kashrut situation here in Sydney. Please click here to email.

Concern regarding Kashrus and its availability is reaching a crescendo in Sydney. In this week's Australian Jewish News I have written an op-ed which appears below.

In addition, Isabelle Shapiro, Woollahra Councilor and member of South Head, has written a petition. There has already been an overwhelming response from members of the community who have seen it. If you are as concerned with the availability of a high and affordable standard of kosher products as I am, I urge you to download it from here, sign it, encourage your family and friends to sign it, and return it to Isabelle as soon as possible. Although Isabelle would prefer hard copy, if this will lead to a delay, please feel free to copy and paste it into an email to Isabelle.


I would also like to hear your thoughts on Kashrut here in Sydney and publish them. You can either post these on our blog by clicking the link at the end of this article, or you can email them to me directly by clicking here. While I understand that this is a highly emotive issue, I do ask that all correspondence be civil and non-personal - we must be as careful of what goes out of our mouths as what goes in!

AS the rabbi of one of Sydney's largest congregations it is my duty to report that there are concerns about the Kashrut Authority (KA).

This should not be taken as meaning that the KA has acted inappropriately. What it does mean is that the KA has not enunciated its policies clearly and succinctly in a manner that both ordinary laymen and rabbis can understand. It may also mean that the KA has bitten off more than it can chew.

For example, outside the KA itself, I have not met anyone who really understands why certain kosher caterers and restaurants are permitted to buy meat from Melbourne whereas others are not. When challenged with this, the KA first attempts to give an explanation which for most is just too esoteric.

We are then told that due to this lack of community understanding, the KA is now working on a plan to increase the number of butchers here in Sydney under KA supervision, the intention being to eventually force all kosher suppliers to only purchase meat under KA supervision.

Frankly I don't understand this. If meat from Melbourne is currently acceptable by the KA, then surely the KA should facilitate its availability rather than attempt to block it. There are currently three hashgaschot (supervisory authorities in Melbourne) all of which are of a Charedi standard. Both caterers and the general public want freedom of choice.

Another issue is the cost of kashrut supervision at kosher establishments. In order to maintain the highest standards of kashrut, it is imperative that certain establishments have constant supervision. This is a given according to accepted standards of halacha. The question here is who is responsible for this cost -- the KA or the kosher establishment? The KA says that it is the responsibility of the establishments whereas the establishments say that they cannot possibly absorb this cost without making the cost of their product prohibitively expensive. As no-one expects the supervision to be without cost, this presents a dilemma.

I do not believe that this dilemma can be resolved within the current structure of KA here in Sydney as it may require subsidisation by the community. The community in turn would only be prepared to subsidise kashrut if the organisation was fully open and accountable.

I have the utmost respect for Rabbi Moshe Gutnick as a talmid chochom and someone extraordinarily well-versed in commercial kashrut, and I believe that we are very lucky to have someone of his calibre at the head of the rabbinic arm of the KA.

However it does seem to me that the KA has two quite distinct roles. One is the supervision of kashrut to the highest standards as should be expected by the community. The other is facilitating an open-market approach to kashrut and making kosher products available to as many people as possible at affordable prices, which may require subsidisation, and/or the input of experienced business leaders. I am not convinced that these two roles are best served by the same person, or indeed even by people sitting on the same board. It would be wise to take a page out of the book of Kosher Australia (formerly Melbourne Kashrut), a newly constituted community body which comprises strong rabbinic and lay leadership from across the Orthodox community. Better still, perhaps amalgamation with Kosher Australia should be considered. In a small market such as Australia, there appears to be great advantages in that.

The issue of kashrut is of utmost importance. There are many people in my community, and in communities across Sydney, who are "borderline" kosher. If they perceive things as being unfair, or just too hard, it won't take a lot for them to be pushed over the edge. And the current situation is certainly not conducive to more people adopting kashrut. It must be a major part of the role of a community-based kashrut organisation to ensure that keeping kosher is as easy, simple and affordable as possible that everyone will want to do it.

Work the Dough!

It seems to never end.

Throughout the United States, school yards are bloodied with young corpses.

In another American city, a teenager trashes her newborn child in the bathroom and returns to the high school Prom. No child is going to ruin the best year of her life.

Nor are we immune in Australia. A ten year old boy pushes a six year old over a precipice – for fun and a thrill.

Children murdered. Children the murderers.

Children who in Western thought and literature are synonymous with innocence.

Children in whose faces we see the faces of angels.

How? Why?

While Judaism certainly does not subscribe to the notion that Man is irretrievably born in sin, it does posit that man is born with a propensity towards selfishness and self-absorption.

It can be reined in. It can be transformed. But only with education, with discipline and with effort.

From a Jewish perspective, the notion of angelic childhood innocence is no more than childish simplicity.

Children are certainly innocent in the sense that they are not mature enough to be held culpable for their deeds; nor wise enough to understand the full implications of their actions. They are however hardly paragons of selflessness and purity.

When a child is born it is his animal soul which is predominant. A child is exclusively interested in himself and his own needs. A baby cries when its demands are not immediately met. A toddler wants the whole world to be at its beck and call. As G-d said to Cain after he killed Abel, “At the entrance (of the womb) sin lies in wait.”

Concern for the other – for a person or thing outside of the self – needs to be taught directly and by example. It needs to be nurtured and developed. Indeed our sages explain that it is only at the age of barmitzvah when, if proper preparation has been made, the G-dly soul becomes manifest and dominant. Even so, the conquest of selfishness remains a life-long struggle; “losing oneself” to something higher the major challenge of life.

 If we abdicate our responsibilities as parents in the mistaken belief that everything will work out well without any investment on our part – at best, we run the risk of producing a self-seeking, mercenary generation for whom there is but one question, “What’s in it for me?” At worse, a proliferation of violence which numbs the senses.

It must never be assumed that goodness is the natural state – that without adult intervention, children will tend towards goodness.

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a favourite in school curriculums for generations, illustrates most graphically that this is simply not the case.

As parents it is our duty to form the characters of our children so that they grow up to become responsible adults. We must realize that our involvement and example are indispensable to the development of our children.

We are about to  celebrate Passover.

Passover is the festival of Matza – the non-rising, unleavened bread that our forefathers were commanded to eat during their Exodus from Egypt. Matza contrasts with Chametz – the rising, leavened bread which we eat the whole year round.

Pesach is also the festival of children.

And indeed both – Matza and children – are interrelated.

Matza – non-rising, “humble” bread represents righteousness.

Chametz – rising, “arrogant” bread represents evil.

Both Chametz and Matza are made of the same mixture of flour and water.

With Chametz the leavening process is allowed to proceed uninhibited.

With Matza the process is arrested by placing the dough in the oven within eighteen minutes of the flour being mixed with water.

Dough naturally progresses towards chametz. It is only human intervention and human involvement which can prevent chametz from forming.

So too, the human being: our natural propensity is towards selfishness, self-absorption, self-gratification – the root of all evil.

It is only when we “guard the matzot” – when we are vigilant and protect our children from both the outside evil and their own proclivity towards “Me above all else”, when we intervene in the otherwise inevitable downslide – that matza, “righteousness”, is formed.

But it is not possible to always stand guard over our children. And so the Torah gives us an alternative method of producing matza from dough which would otherwise become chametz.

If you continuously kneed the dough, not allow it to stand idle, work it so that it is “occupied” – then even if an entire day passes it will not become chametz.

And so too with our children.

Work them. Get them involved. Give them so many mitzvot that they are too busy to sin.

As one of the great Chassidic Masters once proclaimed:

“I do not want my students to avoid sin merely because they have controlled the urge to sin. I want them to avoid sin because they have no time for sin.”

“Don’ts” certainly have their place – and on occasion are indispensable. But they are only a small part of responsible parenting. It is the “Do’s” which are really important. It is the “Do’s” which create a positive personality.

So teach them to do mitzvot. Teach them to express care and concern for others. Teach them to pray and study. And by all means involve them in recreational activities, for as Maimonides says, “maintaining a healthy and perfect body is a manner of Divine Service”.

Listen to the Master; ensure that they are so busy doing good things that they have no time to sin.

And that’s good advice for adults too.

A Crown of Gold and Sackcloth

Moses descends the mountain, sees the golden calf, and smashes the holy Tablets, placed in his hands by G-d A-lmighty Himself.

After eighty days of negotiating, pleading and begging, the Israelites are given a second chance. A new set of tablets replace the first, shattered set.

But whatever happened to the broken pieces of the first Tablets? Were those holy pieces of stone, carved with G-d's own hand, swept away as just so much rubble?

Not at all, explains the Talmud. The shattered stones were given a place of honour in the Ark right next to the second set.

"The tablets and broken tablets lay side by side in the Ark".

Hey - I hear you ask - that seems to be going too far. Sure, the broken pieces should be treated with respect. But to put them in the Holy Ark right next to the "real", "whole" tablets? Isn't that a bit extreme?

---

Mordechai, the leader of the Jews, was famous even before the story of Purim. However this was nothing on the honour that he received after the Jewish victory. Now "his fame went forth throughout all the lands".

Wherever he went, Mordechai wore a large crown of gold. A Jew, said Mordechai, should be proud of his Jewishness. He also had no reason to be embarrassed by his success.

As befitting a person of great stature, Mordechai minted coins upon which his image was prominently displayed - Mordechai was no "shemediger" as they say in Yiddish. He certainly wasn't one to shy away from fame.

A cursory look at these coins would reveal something very strange indeed. Instead of a single image of Mordechai on one side of the coin, as is common practice, there were two, one on each side!

Going a little too far, no?

Your curiosity piqued, you may take a closer look. You would then find something of even greater interest.

On the one side - an image of Mordechai with a great crown of gold.

On the other - an image of Mordechai with sackcloth on his head. (The same sackcloth he wore when the decree of annihilation hung over the heads of the Jews.)

What was Mordechai saying with his coin?

---

Reb Yisroel Rhuzhin was a famous Chassidic Rebbe. He too was not the embarrassed type. Every day he would ride in the countryside with his private regal coach harnessed to four horses. Never mind a crown, he wore shoes of gold. Reb Yisroel believed that Jews should live in style.

One day the Chassidim snuck into his bedroom. They wanted a better look at those shoes.

Imagine their shock when they discovered stones in their shoes? Their Rebbe may be projecting an image of royalty to the outside - inside, however, he was in deep pain.

---

In another generation, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, wrote to a friend from a posh hotel, "as the custom of the Schneerson family, outer opulence: inner brokenness".

---

The above contrasts can be understood on many levels - some with deep mystical connotations. Here I would like to suggest an insight that is both simple and relevant.

No matter what successes we enjoy in life - and we all experience successes in one or more areas of our lives - it ill behoves us to take them for granted. We need to maintain a sense of balance - a sense of the transience of our current situation. An understanding that what is may not always be. That what is should be viewed as a precious gift for which appreciation must be constantly expressed.

This applies to one's health, one's relationships, one's financial situation, and even to one's spiritual level.

When we don't take things for granted, we automatically become more refined, appreciative human beings. We also become more spiritual. We begin to see the wonder, the magic and the beauty - indeed the Divine - in our relationships, in our successes and in the world around us. What for others is common, everyday and unexciting - is to us nothing short of miraculous.

When we don't take things for granted, we don't fall into the trap of being careless with those things that are most precious to us. We realise that maintaining them takes almost as much effort as gaining them in the first instance.

If the above is true generally, it is certainly true in the spiritual arena. Attaining a spiritual level - a level of refinement, goodness, of care and concern for G-d and one's fellow human being - is not something that just happens. You are not born good or bad, refined or course. You have to work on self-improvement. And even should you achieve a level of spiritual enlightenment - without constant effort, you may just as easily lose it. This indeed is one of the central themes of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi's magnum opus, Tanya. Rabbi Schneur Zalman explains that whereas a person must have a positive self-concept, viewing himself in a good and positive light, he must at the same time see himself as on the edge of a spiritual precipice. He must understand that without due effort on his part he could quite easily fall.

Thinking well of oneself is an indispensable ingredient of success without which a person would be plagued with depression. Taking for granted one's goodness leads to complacency and inaction.

Developing a sense of our innate goodness, one the one hand, and of our delicate state of balance on the other, is essential for our spiritual growth.

And so:

* A golden crown on one side, but sackcloth on the other.

* Complete tablets in one half of the Ark, broken tablets in the other.

* Golden shoes on the outside, stones within.

* Outer pomp, inner brokenness.

King Solomon possessed a ring upon which he engraved the words: "This too will pass".

When things were at their height, he looked at those words. They reminded him to neither take his successes for granted, nor allow his successes to go to his head.

The words on the king's ring, served another, perhaps even more important purpose - one which is highly relevant to many of us.

When at a certain period of his life, King Solomon was deprived of his kingship and all hope seemed lost, he again looked at his ring and was reminded: "This too will pass".

There may be sackcloth in the present, but the hope of a golden crown in the future lives on.

The tablets may now be broken, but they will soon be repaired.

The stones will again give way to golden shoes, the brokenness to wholesomeness, the sinfulness to righteousness.

"This too will pass".

The Fiery Coin

It was just after the Exodus that Moshe commanded the Israelites in the name of G-d to give the half shekel contribution, "the rich shall not give more, nor shall the poor give less, to atone for their souls".

The Midrash records that as Moshe was puzzled by this command, G-d pulled out a fiery half-shekel coin from under His Throne of Glory and announced, "This they shall give".

But what is so hard to understand about a command to give a coin towards the Temple? And if there is some difficulty, how is it resolved by a "fiery coin from under the Throne of Glory"?

In explanation of this Midrash, the Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that what bothered Moses was how could money, the archetype of materialism, atone for a sin as serious as the worshiping of the golden calf.

By showing him a fiery coin, G-d was saying, "Moshe, you are right. It is only money, and money on its own cannot achieve atonement. However when it is a fiery half-shekel, a half-shekel given with soul and enthusiasm, then even money can reach right under the Divine Throne of Glory."

But note: G-d didn't show Moshe merely fire, He showed him a coin of fire.

It is true than one requires fire, but one only also requires the coin. And a very specific coin at that. Not a shekel, not a quarter of a shekel, but a half a shekel. The rich were not permitted to give more, nor were the poor permitted to give less.

Why?

Herein lies one of the great truths of Judaism.

There are many people who think that Judaism is all about feelings, that emotions speak louder than actions, that religion is all in the heart, "I'm a Jew in my heart", goes the common refrain.

We often hear the Jew say:

I acknowledge that in order to make my life meaningful there needs to be a point of contact between me and G-d. There are times when my heart spontaneously overflows with a love of G-d, a love of being Jewish, and a love of all creation. But what makes it real is the fact that it is unrestrained, that it is spontaneous. I cannot identify with these so very specific religious practices. Eat precisely this amount of matzah, make sure your tallit is the right size, light Shabbat candles at exactly the right time. It's in your heart, man!

What this Jew fails to understand is that when you do things merely because you feel like doing them, and when and where your emotions dictate, what you are actually saying is that you want G-d when and where you want Him, but you don't want Him to define YOUR when and YOUR where, your time and your space. What you are saying is I want G-d to be there for ME, to fill my spiritual needs, but I don't want Him to invade my time and my space, and certainly not my body.

Says G-d, "I want your heart, I want your enthusiasm, I want your warmth. Your feelings are so very important to me - performing a mitzvah without feeling is like having a soul without a body.

"But I also want your body. And I want your feelings to be translated into real time and real space. I want you to mould your world around me. I want you to define what's good for your body on my terms - eat kosher - and hence create a consecrated body. I want you to define your time along my lines - keep Shabbos precisely when I say so - and hence create consecrated time. I want you to have a tallit of the right dimensions - and hence create consecrated space."

Says G-d: "I want the fire, but I want the half-shekel, too."

On Being Jewish and Democratic

Those in shule last Friday night heard Major General Uzi Dayan, a nephew of the famous Moshe Dayan, and a formidable military man in his own right, speak on the Security Fence.

Actually, he was supposed to speak on the Security Fence. Instead, the General chose to speak on what he called the bigger strategic issue. Terrorism, he explained, was not an existential threat to Israel. There would be casualties but it could be dealt with. The real threat was the demographic time-bomb. By 2020 there would be an Arab majority between the Mediteranian and the Jordon River. To counter this, Israel had only one choice - to shrink to a size that assured a Jewish majority within its borders.

The reason why Israel should withdraw from the territories, explained Dayan, had absolutely nothing to do with the Arabs or reducing the threat of terror. Abbas could not be counted upon to control the terror in the long term and it was not in his interest to do so. The only hope Israel had of dealing with the threat of terror was an exceedingly strong IDF.

Israel must unilaterally withdraw from the territories for one reason only - so that it's Jewish Democratic integrity could be maintained. Dayan then went on to explain that it was he who convinced Sharon of the need for unilateral withdrawal in 2002.

The above is a brief but, I believe, accurate summary of what Major General Dayan said.

The rest is commentary...

For three decades we heard from the left the mantra of "Land for Peace". After Oslo, after the withdrawal from Lebanon and after Barak's attempt to give away the Temple Mount led to the murderous intifada, the bankruptcy of this slogan became patently obvious to all. You would have expected the architects of withdrawal to move shamefacedly and quietly into a corner. And we would have had to forgive them for making a sincere but fatal mistake.

But no. They have miraculously managed to reappear with greater force than before, but with a slightly altered slogan. "Land for Democracy".

Of course, there is nothing new or surprising in this. Prime Minister Sharon has convincingly demonstrated that the only way to deal with Arab terror was by crushing it, not by negotiation or giving land, and he has been eminently successful. Indeed so successful that other countries now seek out Israel's expertise in this area. Similarly, the mantra of "the need to maintain a Jewish Democratic State" has been endlessly repeated for the last couple of years.

Still I wonder how many people fully grasp what is being said: The withdrawal from Gaza has nothing to do with security and everything to do with maintaining a Democratic Jewish State.

To put it bluntly: the withdrawal from Gaza is for ideological reasons. It is taken as a given that the Palestinian Arabs should all be given the vote - something that they have nowhere else in the Middle East (with the exception of Iraq...). And because giving them the vote will overturn the Jewish majority in Israel, we must shrink Israel. (Question: What happens when the Arab majority in the Gallillee democratically votes to secede and join the new Palestinian State?)

No one deems the moral question of giving the vote to our sworn enemies even worth pondering. Rather than how can we give murderers and terrorists the vote, the question asked is how can we not give them the vote. Doesn't it occur to the government to put first things first? First let them educate their children for peace, first let them put an end to the media, educational institutions and text-books nurturing hatred, anti-Semitism and murder. After that we can deal with democracy and borders. Wasn't there de-Nazification after WWII before Germany was given democracy?

Why is it that Jews do what gentiles would never dream of doing? What are we trying to prove and to whom? Does anyone really believe that someone is going to applaud us?

So then we hear the argument that we are not doing it for them. We are doing it for ourselves. It's about our need to maintain the moral high ground.

The moral high ground? Jews telling Jews that there are certain places that they may not live is moral and ethical? If a non-Jewish government would say that Jews cannot live in certain suburbs of Sydney there would be an outcry. But it's OK for Jews to force Jews out of parts of Israel?!?!

And even if you believe in democracy above everything, is what is being put forward here democracy? It is part of the democratic tradition in all normal countries that individuals are protected against unfairness from government. That if people are attacked, robbed and murdered, they are not told by government to move to another area and give their homes, lands and businesses away to their oppressors - but are rather protected by their government. Indeed it is the very first responsibility of any government to protect even individual citizens. That is the democratic tradition!

What is being put forward here is not democracy at all, but a perversion of democracy. It's a case of Jews doing what we have historically done all too often. Making nice for the gentiles at the expense of our own.

And to think that it is those who wish to maintain possession of the territories for religious or nationalistic reasons who are called the ideologues!

Let no one say that religion is dead. It's just got a different name - Secular Democracy (or a perverted version of it) - and those who pursue it, do so with a passion and irrationality that would put many traditionally religious people to shame.

We believe and trust that "the Guardian of Israel neither sleeps nor slumbers." But as so often in the past, we have given Him a really tough job - protecting us against ourselves. Let's pray that He does a good job of it!

Aristotle and Maimonides

When the Jewish People were offered the Torah on Mount Sinai, they responded, “We will do and we will understand.”

But what is more important, unquestioning doing or meaningful understanding?

The two parashiot that refer to the giving of the Torah are Yitro and Mishpatim. Yet there is a difference between them. Whereas Yitro primarily discusses the Great Sound and Light Show that occurred on Mt Sinai, and the Revelation of G-d as He spoke the Ten Commandments, Mishpatim mainly deals with the intricacies of Jewish civil law. Indeed, Mishpatim is the foundation of the major Talmudic tractates Bava Kama, Bave Metzia, Bava Batra and Sanhedrin upon which the entire body of Jewish jurisprudence is based. Now although everything that is stated in these tractates is Divinely inspired, and we are mandated to follow them as if they were given directly by G-d, it was human beings who, based on the Torah’s rules and principles, created this awesome body of work.

The reason why the Jewish sages of old were able to develop the relatively small parasha of Mishpatim into an entire legal framework is because it was based on sound logical principles. This is different to the commandments of Kashrut, or Shatnez and Impurity, which we accept as Divine decrees, but which we don’t truly understand. (In Torah terminology, laws that lend themselves to human understanding are called mishpatim; those that don’t are called chukim.)

So put it in another way: Yitro deals with G-d’s gift of the Torah, whereas Mishpatim deals with the Jewish People’s understanding and development of it (or at least of those parts of Torah that are humanly accessible.)

Interestingly, parashat Mishpatim is the eighteenth parasha of the Torah, whereas parashat Yitro is the seventeenth.

Is there perhaps some significance in this?

The Lubavitcher Rebbe points out that eighteen – chai – refers to life, whereas seventeen is the gematria of tov – good.

The ultimate good is G-d, as is understood from the English word for G-d.

Life, on the other hand, refers to something that you can grasp, something that you can understand, something that you can really enjoy - to the extent that it becomes part and parcel of you. It is interesting that the Hebrew word for taste is the same as the Hebrew word for reason – Taam. If you understand something it has taste. It is, as we say in Yiddish, gishmak! And it is certainly alive.

However at the beginning of Mishpatim there is a Vav, meaning AND. The AND connects the two parshiot of Yitro and Mishpatim. Rashi points out the deep significance of this. Don’t think that your understanding can be independent of G-d. Rather just as you acknowledge the Divine Source of those laws that you don’t understand, you must similarly acknowledge the Divine Source of those laws that you do understand. It is just that in some cases G-d has allowed His Wisdom to be understandable by us, and in some not. It all however comes from the same source – G-d.

This is an important principle not only in understanding the source of Jewish Civil Law, but in understanding both the greatness and limitations of human understanding.

The Hebrew word for Wisdom is Chochmo. And the Kabbalists point out that this word contains within it two words: Koach Mah, literally “The Power of What”. To be truly wise, one has to have the power to see beyond Wisdom, to stand in amazement and wonder as you are overwhelmed by the “What”. And to understand that Wisdom itself is sourced in that which is above it.

Even mathematicians now acknowledge that there are certain things that they just have to accept, as they can never be proven. In Chassidic Philosophy we find it stated that the hanachot rishonot - the axioms - of any scientific discipline are beyond logic and can never be proven. This is an indication that intellect and logic has a source beyond itself.

Early in the twentieth century there were philosophers – Bertrand Russell among them - who were very uncomfortable with this. They just did not want to accept that there were things beyond human comprehension in as an exact a discipline as mathematics. However the German mathematician Kurt Godel proved it once and for all. (You can read about all about this in Simon Singh’s amazing best-seller, Fermat’s Last Theorem).

Both Aristotle and Maimonides were great philosophers and both believed in G-d. But as Rabbi Sholom Ber of Lubavitch points out there was a big difference between them. He explains it by way of a metaphor. Belief in G-d is a non-dimensional point. Logic is the circle drawn around that point. Maimonides commenced with the point and drew the circle around it. The centre was clear and the circle even and beautiful. Aristotle commenced with the circle and tried to reach the point. The circle was uneven, and he never truly reached the centre.

Accepting that there is something beyond our logic, being able to stand in amazement at the awesome WHAT, not only humbles us and centres us in Truth, it enables us to think clearly and logically as well. When, however, we commence with logic that is devoid of belief in the hope that we will work it out for ourselves, even should we be as wise as Aristotle, both our logic and our faith will be flawed.

Let us return to our original question. What is more important; the unquestioning doing or the meaningful understanding?

Both of course. This is why the angels placed two crowns on the head of every Jew at Sinai – one for Naaseh – we will do and one for Nishma – we will understand.

However that wise generation of Jews understood that the Naaseh must always come before the Nishma. For it is in the Naaseh that the Nishma is ultimately rooted.

Fire and Water!

Fire and Water: the two staples of human life and development.

Without water, nothing can live; with water, the possibilities are endless. This is why so much effort and money is being invested into discovering whether there is or was water on Mars.

And fire: at the very onset of civilization, what distinguished Man from all other creatures was his mastery of fire. Fire is energy in its rawest state. And to control fire, was to be control the world.

In Kabbalistic thought, Fire and Water represent G-d's first tools of Creation. The Talmud in tractate Chagiga explains that the Hebew word "Shamayim" (=heavens) is made up of two words: Esh (=fire) and Mayim (=water). According to Kabbalah, Water represents Divine Kindness (Chessed) whereas Fire represents Divine Judgement (Gevurah). Indeed the two most common names of G-d represent His acting in a manner of Chessed (Hashem) and Gevurah (Elokim).

Yet while fire and water are indispensable for Creation and the success of human life, they can, as we have recently seen in the Tsunami and the Australian bush-fires, be responsible for Destruction on an enormous scale.

Indeed this is the manner in which G-d had created the world - the greater the potential for good, the greater the potential for evil. "This (referring to good) parallel to this (referring to evil), G-d did make."

Another example of this is the drive for sexual gratification. On the one hand, it is the most infinite, creative and beautiful power which the human body possesses. Infinite and creative - because it gives us the power to live on forever through progeny which are unique to us. And beautiful because it enables us to bond with the deepest intimacy with another human being.

But that same power which contains so much good, can also be the cause of much evil and suffering.

The Rabbis put it very well. They explain that the Hebrew word for Man is Ish whereas the Hebrew word for Woman is Isha. Both these words contain the Hebrew word for fire - Esh. However the Hebrew word for man also includes a Yud, whereas the Hebrew word for woman also includes a Heh. When combined Yud and Heh make up G-d's name. And so the Rabbis explain: If a Man and Woman merit - the Divine Presence (represented by the letters Yud and Heh) rests between them. If they don't merit - a fire consumes them.

The very power that can make their lives Divine can destroy them.

In our own time we are in the midst of one of the greatest technological revolutions of mankind - the internet. On the one hand it creates global links between human beings, grants unprecedented access to information and gives unimaginable power to the individual. On the other, if abused it can be the cause of great physical and spiritual destruction, may Hashem protect us.

And when it comes to human beings, our rabbis quite clearly state: "the greater a person is, the greater his evil inclination is". After all, it's only fair that a person with the potential for greatness, should have an equal potential for it's opposite. Otherwise, there would be a lack of balance, an absence of free choice, in the world.

Although all human beings are special, we Jews possess a unique Divine Spark - Chelek Elokah Mimaal Mammash - literally a portion of G-d. It is because of this that G-d calls us in the Torah "A Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation". With this spark we can achieve what no one else can achieve. And indeed we have. But we need to choose wisely, for as our Rabbis say concerning the Jewish People: "They are compared to the stars and they are compared to the dirt of the ground. When they rise, they rise higher than the stars, but when they fall, they fall lower than the ground."

Let's not kid ourselves. As human beings and especially as Jews, each of us has enormous, infinite and unique potential. We do however have a choice: to use it or abuse it. And although most people would not choose to actively abuse their potential to do evil, many simply waste it.

And what could be more abusive than a person with the potential to become a spiritual giant choosing to become a midget?

Tsunami: An Act of G-d?

I received this week a letter from a survivor of the Tsunami who was deeply shaken by his experience. He asked me what can best be described as a number of theological questions. Although I am currently on vacation, the questions are so significant , and are so widely relevant, that I have decided to respond right away. Below you will find both the original question and my reply, although to protect his privacy I have changed his name to Netanel.

Please remember what I wrote last week: understanding all the theological responses in the world doesn't excuse us from doing what we need to do both as individuals and as governments. To give support and to lend a hand. Governments also need to do all that is humanly possible to ensure that this kind of disaster doesn't happen again.

Should you wish to respond to this article, please scroll down to the end and click on the word Comment.


Dear Rabbi,

Just thought I would let you know that 6 hours before the tsunami struck I was at Patong beach and left at midnight to go to my hotel on the eastern side of Phuket island so by sheer luck I survived. Why was I not killed? Why was I staying on the east of the island away from the disaster as opposed to the west where there was so much carnage? Why did this happen? What do we as jews do with such an event in terms of our beliefs? Did others deserve death and not me?

Perhaps what happened to me was a miracle so there are some positives to come out of this tragedy. I don't know . I simply write to you to say I am alive but very shaken.

My love to the family,

Netanel

Dear Netanel,

Wow, thank G-d that you were one of the "lucky" ones who managed to escape the devastation.

But was it really luck?

Why indeed did you decide to stay on the east of the island? Was it really your decision based on perhaps the quality and availability of accommodation or nearby tourist spots? Or did it merely seem like your decision?

According to Judaism, "Everything is in the hand of Heaven apart from Fear of Heaven". This means that every decision that we make that doesn't have a moral or religious dimension is not really ours at all. Human beings are certainly autonomous - but only in the moral and religious sphere. All other decisions are made by G-d and are merely implanted into our minds. Where we decide to live, the kind of career we pursue, or even where we vacation - these are all decided by G-d. As the prophet says, "From G-d, the footsteps of man are directed."

Therefore there was no luck at all involved in your decision to stay on the other side of the island. It was G-d's plan.

You ask whether others deserved death more than you. Your question is based on a false paradigm. It implies that people who die deserve to die as some form of punishment. This is clearly not the case. It is decided at the time of birth, and confirmed each Rosh HaShana, how long a person will live in order to fulfill his life's purpose. It is possible through one's actions to lengthen or shorten this time, but this requires either extraordinary good behaviour or extraordinary bad behaviour on the part of the individual. For the most part, people live as long as it was determined that they are going to live. It may appear to be unjust to us puny human beings who judge everything on the scale of our lifetimes here on earth - but on G-d's scale where our life on earth is only a small part of our spiritual existence, and where even human history on earth is not viewed from the perspective of one generation, justice takes on an entirely different meaning. There are souls for whom just a few short years is enough to achieve their life's purpose, perhaps because they were here before and are only tying up loose ends, while there are others who require entire lifetimes.

Belief that life and death are from G-d does not excuse us from reacting with deep emotion. From our part, we must mourn the great loss of life, and even cry out to G-d in great dismay at His actions, just as Moses did when faced with the sufferings of the Jews in Egypt. This is what G-d wants us to do. He doesn't want us to merely accept His decrees, because although from His perspective it may be understood, from ours it is extraordinarily painful, and we must give vent to that pain. Indeed we are told that if a person doesn't cry when hearing of a death, he is considered cruel and callous.

Nevertheless, G-d's response was that it was due to Moses' limited vision that he didn't understand - this in spite of the fact that he was the greatest of all prophets. How much more so when it comes to us. This is similar to a young child who cries when he perceives that his parents are unfair to him. Even after all of all his parents' explanations as to why their actions are really for his own benefit he is not consoled. Both the parent's actions and the child's reaction are understood; they are not contradictory but are operating on different planes of knowledge and experience.

Therefore just as no good luck was involved in your decision to stay on the opposite side of the island, no bad luck was involved in the decision of those who were on the west side. It was all Divinely ordained.

The same applies to thousands of villagers who perished around the Indian Ocean rim. Although it may be difficult for us to understand, each one of those people were where they were because that is where they were meant to be. Whether it was the person swept out to sea, or the person who survived by clinging onto a log.

There was no general disaster, although it may appear that way, but rather as we say on Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur in Unesaneh Tokef: G-d is like a shepherd who counts his sheep individually. Each person is observed and led by G-d in a unique way - according to that person's individual destiny.

Earlier this week I read in the Sydney Morning Herald that a rabbi agreed with a Christian cleric that G-d had nothing to do with Tsunami. He was further reported as saying that to think differently causes unnecessary theological problems. Apart from being in conflict with Jewish thought - even Maimonides who says that Divine Providence does not apply (and this too needs elaboration) to individual animals, agrees that it applies to individual humans - I find this notion appalling. It implies that G-d has no control over what happens in His world. Rather than let G-d off the hook, this view leads us to conclude that on the individual level there is no judge and no justice. If you chance to be in the way of the Tsunami, your number is up and not even G-d can help you. There is no significance in your death, and no significance in the lives of those who were saved. In fact there is no significance in anything. Now that is a serious theological problem.

It is as a clever man once said: for one who believes in G-d, evil may be a problem; for one who doesn't everything is a problem. We need to remember that every person, and every family that faces what appears to be a premature death is facing it's own individual Tsunami. Are we to say that these deaths too are just random occurrences? It just happened that his heart gave way. It just happened that she contracted cancer. It's just statistics that a certain proportion of the population will contract these diseases - too bad it had to be him or her. There is no real meaning behind either their lives or their deaths.

G-d forbid!

I don't have to believe that the Tsunami was punishment for me to believe that it came from G-d. I also don't have to understand the Divine reason behind the Tsunami to believe that it came from G-d. As another wise man once said - I wouldn't want to believe in a G-d Who is so shallow that every Tom, Dick and Harry can understand Him.

I really don't know what G-d had in mind when He unleashed this Flood. What I do know is that, on balance, there is far more order in the world than disorder; that in spite of the inevitable hickups and backsliding, the world is steadily becoming a better place.

We human beings tend to take good and order for granted, and are shocked by what appears to us to be evil and disorder. In a godless world we should be accepting of evil and disorder and be amazed when confronted with good and order. This seemingly irrational response is itself testimony to the deep and innate belief in a Divine Being which all human beings have.

Or to quote Einstein: I cannot believe in a G-d who plays dice.

Unfortunately, it is only when confronted with apparent evil and disorder that we stop taking the good and order for granted, and realize how appreciative we ought to be. And because there is so much order, we ought to understand that even when we are struck by what appears to us to be disorder - that is all that it is - it's appearance to us.

In your individual case, I would suggest that you take note of the fact that G-d made a decision uniquely pertinent to you. He chose you to live because Your life here on earth has great significance to Him. And if He chose you to live, it is because He has expectations of you which you are yet to fulfill. Don't squander the great gift of life that has been given you. Study G-d's Holy Torah, His Guide for Life, and learn what still remains to be done.

May Hashem protect you always,

With best wishes for a G00d Shabbos,

Rabbi Benzion Milecki

Let's Hear from You!

Please use this forum to add your suggestions for articles, shiurim or sermons. I would really like to hear from you. To do so, click the Comments link below.

Tsunami: The Jewish Response

As Jews we seek guidance from the Torah in trying to make sense of the events around us. So as we struggle to come to terms with the greatest natural disaster in modern history - perhaps even since the Flood - it behooves us to look into the weekly parasha for spiritual direction.

And indeed we do not have to look far. In Chapter 9, Verse 10 we read that Pharaoh’s daughter called him Moshe, “for I drew him from the water”.

The Midrash notes that Moses was given many names by a whole variety of people. To name the two apparently most important: His father called him Chaver, while his mother called him Yekutiel, Yet the name which stuck, and the one by which G-d chose to call him was the name given to him by Pharaoh’s daughter, Moshe. Why?

Says the Midrash: From here we learn the reward of those who do kindness to others. Pharaoh’s daughter felt deeply for the anonymous child she saw floating in the Nile and she went beyond herself to save him. Her hand wasn’t long enough, so she stretched it beyond its limits, further than its natural capacity, in order to save Moses (see Rashi). In recognition of her heroic effort, it was the name that Pharaoh’s daughter gave that remained with the greatest prophet, leader and teacher that the world has ever seen.

We puny mortals cannot comprehend why G-d does what he does. When confronted with suffering, even Moses can’t understand and cries out to G-d, “Why have You acted evilly against this people!”

However there is something far more important than our understanding and comprehension – our actions! From Pharaoh’s daughter we learn that the correct response to tragedy is not to understand it, but to feel it to the extent that we do something about it.

To further confirm this, the Siporno notes that the literal translation of Moses’ name is not the passive, “He was drawn”, but the active “I drew him”. He explains: a person is not known by what happens to him, but by the events that he puts in train. Moses learnt from his saviour and when he saw suffering he too felt the pain and chose to do something about it.

Thank G-d, there are Jews in the very thick of the rescue efforts (continue reading for Rabbi Wilhelm’s extraordinarily moving article.) We may not be able to do what our brothers and sisters are doing in Thailand and other places, but it behooves us to do what we can: to feel the pain and financially assist; to thank G-d for the rescue of those who were saved; and finally to stand in awe and humility of He Who totally transcends us.

I know that there are many organizations that are fundraising at this time. However if you wish to be part of the extraordinary work being carried out by Chabad of Thailand, please forward your cheque to the synagogue office. Be sure to mark the envelope Tsunami Relief c/o South Head Synagogue, 662 Old South Head Road, Rose Bay, 2029 but make the cheque out to South Head Synagogue. You can also donate directly online by going to this page.

Faith in the Path of the Tsunami

By Rabbi Nechemia Wilhelm, reporting from Phuket, Thailand

Ten minutes after the disaster hit the news, my phone started ringing. It's been ringing ever since, 24 hours a day. Husbands looking for wives. Mothers looking for daughters. Friends looking for their traveling companions.

As one of the Chabad emissaries living in Southeast Asia, I was dispatched that very night to the hardest hit areas. My mission: to aid with the search and rescue efforts, particularly in regards to the thousands of missing Israelis and other Jewish travelers. Yakov Dvir, from the Israeli Consul in Thailand, as well as Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, put in the urgent request to Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor, the director of Chabad activities in Thailand, that Chabad step in to help. All of us -- the six Chabad rabbis and our families and the twelve rabbinical students living in Thailand -- immediately moved into 24-hour mode, fielding calls, compiling lists, and offering aid and comfort to the survivors.

When I arrived in Phuket the bloated bodies still lined the streets. I had hundreds of names on my lists, with new ones being added every hour. For three days now I have been making my rounds of the morgues, hospitals and makeshift shelters, trying to match faces and fates to the names in my lists.

For the dazed survivors I arrange food, clothing, medical care and transportation back home. For the dead, I have the unfortunate task of helping the ZAKA (Disaster Victims Identification) volunteers who've flown in from Israel make the identification, arrange for a proper Jewish burial, and get the news to loved ones keeping vigil by the phone. But in a place where unfortunately so many will be thrown together in mass graves, there is some sense of relief and closure knowing that the victim has been found and will receive a Jewish burial. From the moment a Jewish body is identified, it is not left alone for a minute. This is the last respect and love we can give to our brothers and sisters.

Yesterday we found Mattan. We searched for him for two days. The 11-month-old boy was torn from his mother's arms as they played on the beach. Both she and her husband survived the tsunami, but Mattan was nowhere to be seen. On Tuesday morning, Steve and Sylvia Nesima found their son. He was in the makeshift morgue along with the hundreds of other children who had no chance against the monstrous waves. Mattan was flown to Bangkok where the Chabad emissaries took turns sitting with him, around the clock, until they put his small body on the El Al plane to Israel, the Holy Land, the only appropriate place where such purity and innocence can be buried.

Our three Chabad houses in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Ko Samui have been transformed into crisis centers for counseling, clothing, communication, food, money, transportation and shelter. We have opened our phone lines for free calls to assuage the fear of parents who will not rest until they hear their son or daughter's voice on the other end. Our free email service has enabled hundreds to contact worried loved ones and assure them of their safety.

The survivors come to us shaken, hungry and overwhelmed. They need to go home and be with their family. Until that is possible, it is our responsibility to provide them with that love, comfort and safety while they are still here. For some that means a warm meal, others need money and arrangements for necessary travel documents, some a hug or shoulder to cry on, and others a place to sleep.

The Thai government has been incredibly helpful and organized. Now that people have been able to travel here to help, we have been joined by dozens of volunteers who've flown in from Israel. We're all working together, round the clock. No one has yet digested the magnitude of what has happened. Right now, there's too much to do to even pause for moment to contemplate it.

The unity amongst all the workers is incredible. I was moved to tears when I saw the Israeli media and news reporters join us to help locate and identify the injured and dead. They were no longer looking at the situation through the camera, but through their tear-filled eyes, as they worked alongside the rabbis, government officials and volunteers.

On a larger scale, this disaster has joined every race, creed and religion together. There are no divisions in suffering. There are no barriers. Rich, poor, young, old, male, female, were all the same in the eyes of the waves. And now, once again are all the same when it comes to offering aid, support and love.

What keeps us going are the miracles that are sprinkled throughout the horror. Today a 20-day-old baby was found alive, floating upon a mattress in the water. A one-year-old who was torn from his mother’s arms was miraculously recovered by his nanny, seconds before he was submerged in water. A Jewish family of six were scheduled to fly to Ko Phi Phi, the hardest hit of the islands; we feared the worst for then, until we learned that they had missed their flight and were sitting on the runway bemoaning their ruined vacation when the news broke.

Today, when I visited the hospital, an Israeli woman called me over and started crying when she told me her story. She had been traveling by boat with another 41 Israelis. They had just docked at Ko Phi Phi when the waves began to hit. The group ran as fast as they could, but could not outrun the rushing water. They were immediately swept in its path along with debris, trees and cars. This woman was sure her life was over and without time to think, suddenly found herself screaming to others to join her in saying the "Shema" out loud. With all the last ounce of strength in her body she cried out the words of the most foundational prayer of the Jewish people, our acknowledgement of our Creator and His oneness. And as she finished the verse, she suddenly felt a log come up from under her feet, keeping her head above water so that she could breathe. Then, as she floated along, she looked up at the heavens and saw a rope come down from the sky. The rope had been thrown from her boat, where other survivors had gathered. They pulled her aboard and managed to save 40 of the group. Unfortunately, there are two who are still unaccounted for.

It is these miracles that give me hope and remind me of my purpose and my mission. There are no words to describe the horror that has happened, and certainly no understandable explanations or reasons for its occurrence. But we must believe that though we can’t make sense of it, this, like everything we experience, it is part of a larger picture that we currently don’t see. More importantly, we must use this opportunity to focus on our ability to overcome, to help others, and to rebuild. Every living, breathing person who survived this not only has to live his or her life, but must live for those who were not able to survive.

And we must remember that just as instantaneously as utter destruction struck, so too in a split second we can be redeemed, we can start anew, we can have complete peace, love and goodness.

I've seen more the pain and suffering in the last few days than I've seen in all my 32 years. But I have also been privileged to witness compassion and faith of a magnitude that I never imagined existed. I have watched as people from different cultures, faiths, countries and mentalities join together to help another. For the G-dly soul, hidden deep within, often shines forth precisely when externally there is nothing to depend on. When physicality is destroyed, the only thing left is spirituality, and that is now what is apparent throughout this annihilated area.

So, for now, I continue to help rescue and identify the victims, working along with representatives from throughout the world here to do the same. We still are hoping to find more survivors, to provide the injured with all their needs, and make possible for those who were not so fortunate to be brought to their families for a proper burial.

Thanks to everyone’s unbelievable dedication and work, we have made much headway. From an initial list of 2,000 missing Jews, only 17 remain unaccounted for. May G-d bless us to continue to be successful in our work, and may this disaster be the last we know of pain and suffering and the beginning of the true ushering in of goodness and redemption.

We Make Mentschen!

A few weeks ago I spent two days in Melbourne where a function was held in honour of Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner's eightieth birthday. Rabbi Groner is the head of the Chabad in Melbourne.

Amongst the anecdotes that were told, I found the following particularly poignant.

In 1994 the Yeshivah institutions in Melbourne were facing bankruptcy and the Commonwealth Bank was threatening to foreclose on the mortgage. As a result, a number of communal identities and well-known business people went to see the then head of the Commonwealth Bank, David Murray. They were going to tell him how important the Yeshivah was for the Jewish Community. Many of them knew Murray personally and were convinced that they would get a sympathetic hearing.

Arriving at the meeting, they were taken aback. Murray had brought along with him a fellow called John Edwards or, as he was commonly known, John "the Hatchet" Edwards. Edwards was the man responsible for bad accounts. Things looked even grimmer when it became clear that it was Edwards, not Murray, who was going to chair the meeting.

Right at the outset he made it known that he was an atheist with absolutely no sympathy for any religion. On the contrary, he thought that religion was the bane of society. From his perspective, it would be better if everyone went to public schools and ceased sponging on the community. He concluded that as far as he was concerned the Yeshivah was no more than a client, and a particularly bad client at that. If the Yeshivah couldn't pay what it owed, he was going to wind it up just like we would any business in default.

All the businessmen sitting around the table were flabbergasted. In their minds, the case was lost. He didn't even give them an opening.

After a minute, Rabbi Groner gets up - he is a very big man - and says: "Hello, your name is John, my name is Isaac. How do you do?"

Then Rabbi Groner grabs Edwards around the shoulders and bellows: "Look here Johnny, I don't think you understand what we do here. We make mentschen. Do you know what a mentsch is? A mentsch is a person who has respect for all other human beings. A mentsch is a person who cares about others. A mentsch is a person who is a good civic citizen. Australia needs mentschen - and we produce them."

By the end of the meeting, everything had turned around - and a compromise deal was struck.
Rabbi Groner was not kidding when he spoke about an institution that produced mentschen. Yeshivah Melbourne was my school and Rabbi Groner was my Rabbi. He is also the Rabbi of many of today's religious and communal leaders throughout Australia. As Rabbi Groner said last week, there are some people who complain that Lubavitch takes over. "Lubavitch," he explained, "doesn't take over at all. It teaches its students that community service is the most important value in life, and it's therefore no surprise that so many of our graduates have put communal life way ahead of their personal and professional lives."

To give you an understanding of the kind of place that Yeshivah Melbourne was and the kind of person that Rabbi Groner is, here is another short story that was related that night.
Manny Althaus recalled how Rabbi Groner once came into his class to test the students. Manny, always the cheeky kid who forty years on is not much different, answered the questions in a rather chutzpahdik manner.

Rabbi Groner - quick as a flash - gave him slap. (I'm not advocating it - that's just what happened in those days - you could slap a naughty kid and not end up in jail!)

Came recess, and Manny finds himself being summoned into the Rabbi's office. He goes, tail between his feet, expecting to get yet another hiding. As he walks through the door, Rabbi Groner puts his arm around him and says, "Althaus, in class I had to give you a patch. But I want you to know that I love you. And he gives him a huge kiss." (In those days you could do that too without getting arrested!)

The reason I tell you these stories is because it is relevant to us. You see, the school I went to was not a school at all. It was a family and it had an absolutely astounding impact on the lives of its students - an impact that went far beyond education in the normal sense.

If we did something unacceptable outside school hours - we were hauled over the coals. We were bringing the family into disrepute.

Today, it's not like that. If the school dares discipline a child for something the child did outside school hours, the school is likely to find itself in court.

Now that's fine as long as parents take absolute responsibility for their children outside school hours. But do they?

Why is it then that children of fourteen and fifteen years old are strolling the streets at 12.00am and 1.00 am and even later on a Saturday night?

Why is it that so many children are drinking, drugging - and out of control?

Did anyone see the article in the Sydney Morning Herald a few weeks ago - that the main culprits of underage drinking are the children's own families who supply them with the drink or the money to buy it? And the article continued that many of these kids are likely to grow up with serious alcohol problems?

You know two years ago on Simchas Torah we had a problem - kids were drinking in our home. Some of them stole alcohol from our home and then they went off to the park and drank more.

I copped a lot of flak for that, but I took it on the chin and decided to do something about it. This year I decided to take action at the risk of becoming very unpopular. No liquor was left on the tables on Simchas Torah and only adults poured the drinks. I had strings of kids trailing me - literally begging for drinks. I had kids pulling PhotoID cards out of their wallets and saying see I am eighteen - when the card showed that they were sixteen or less!

I took it on the chin and was ready to be unpopular - tough love, I think they call it - and I certainly hope that parents will follow suit.

I was recently told that on a recent Saturday night a number of kids were hanging out outside the reserve on Lancaster Road, several of whom were holding baseball bats - at 11.00pm. So one of the parents, who is on the Board of the School gets out of his car - and says, "hmm, I didn't know that the school had a baseball team!"

But jokes aside - where were the parents?

This is not a matter of religion. This is a matter of bringing up your kids as responsible adults. Of creating mentchen.

Why are parents so afraid of their children? If you need to punish, then punish. You can follow Rabbi Groner's example and kiss them immediately after. They may not tell it to you at the time, but they will know that you love of them and that you care about them, even more than if you cower to all their needs.

It is a parent's responsibility to know where their children are - not where their children say they are but where they are - and what they are doing.

A lot of parents feel helpless. How can they be different to the many other parents who let their kids do as they please? I can only suggest that parents who really care about their kids form groups, and instead of trying to tackle this very serious problem on their own, tackle it together. Anything less is pure irresponsibility.

Finally, many parents think their kids are no different than they were when they were young. But I really wonder. What is available to kids today is a lot more dangerous than what was available to kids in our time.

When I was in New York recently, I noticed an advertisement on several subway cars. It read: "Just because you did drugs and survived, don't be so sure that your kids will too."
We are about to celebrate Chanukah - which on a deeper level is the Festival of Jewish Education (Chanukah derives from the Hebrew words Chinuch=Education). Education means a whole lot more than imparting facts. It means, as explained above, creating mentschen. I wish all of you, and me too, lots of success in parenting. It's the one area where we can really make a difference.

Messiahs, Moons and Women

• Rabbi Benzion Milecki

The following is a talk which I gave in New York in Sivan 5754 to the International Convention of the Lubavitch Womens Organization.

One day, as the founder of Chabad, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, was leaving his room, he heard his wife say to her friends, Meiner Zogt (literally, "mine [referring to her husband] says").

Said Rabbi Schneur Zalman, "If by virtue of one Mitzvah - the Mitzvah of marriage - I have become hers, by how many more Mitzvot have I become G-d's?" Meditating on this, he fell into a swoon of Divine ecstasy.

When he awoke he quoted the Song of Songs [1], "Go out and see, O daughters of Zion", explaining the verse as follows: "If a person wishes to 'go out' of himself (move to a higher plain) and 'see' G-dliness, he must be inspired by 'the daughters of Zion' (here referring to the Jewish woman). This parallels the level of Malchut (the feminine aspect of G-dliness) which stimulates Zo (the masculine aspect of G-dliness)".

And the Rebbe concluded, "The time of the future will see the fulfilment of the verse [2], 'A woman of valour is the crown of - and hence higher than - her husband'."

This concept is elaborated upon in other sources as well. In Hemshech Ranat [3], Rabbi Sholom Ber of Lubavitch explains that whereas nowadays the principal Divine Emanations come from the masculine aspect of G-dliness, in the time of the future they will come from the feminine aspect. In support of this he quotes the Zohar [4] where it says lav ihi meshamsha gabay - she will no longer be secondary to him.

Hence, according to the teachings of Chassidut, and of Kabbalah generally, it is clear that the messianic era will see women on a higher level than men.

Actually, Rabbi Sholom Ber goes further still. He contends that even nowadays the feminine aspect is greater. It is for this reason, he explains, that the ability to give birth and create new life, a power deriving from the very essence of G-d Himself, is more manifest in women than in men. Still, the superiority of women is not yet acknowledged. In the time of the future, however, it will be revealed for all.

Thus, the connection between women and the messianic era can be said to exist on several plains:

1) Just as Moshiach is associated with Malchut ("Royalty"), the seventh Divine sphere, so too are women associated with Malchut.

2) The principal Divine Emanation in the Messianic era will be from the feminine aspect of G-dliness.

3) The process of Redemption is compared to child-birth, and hence women, in whose possession lies the Divine ability to give birth and create life, have a pivotal role at this most important time.

I would now like to suggest that there is another, perhaps even deeper, connection between Moshiach and women.

The Rebbe stated in Cheshvan 5752 [5] that Moshiach already exists and is manifest. According to the Rebbe, the only thing remaining now is to receive ("lekabel") Moshiach.

It is the Rebbe's emphasis on receiving which I now wish to draw attention to, elaborating on the special connection that exists between women and receiving Moshiach.

As is well known, Rabbi Schneur Zalman attributed much of the seminal thought in his Sefer HaTanya to his famous ancestor, Rabbi Yehuda Loew (more commonly known as the Maharal of Prague). It is from the Maharal's writings that I wish to draw inspiration today.

The Maharal asks: "Why were women given the Torah first, as it says [7], "So you shall say to Beit (the House of) Jacob" - Beit referring to the women?"

He goes on to explain that the answer can be found in the phrase itself. Beit apart from meaning "House" also means "receptacle". Women, explains the Maharal, have a greater ability to receive than men!

In another of his writings [8], the Maharal explains that both women and Moshiach are intrinsically connected to receiving. In support of this, he quotes the Talmud [9] where it says that the promise of the Messianic Era is greater for men than it is for women.

In explanation of this puzzling statement, the Maharal discourses on the essential differences between the male and female natures.

The Maharal explains that men have a nature of Hitgavrut - from the root gever, the Hebrew word for "man" - constantly desiring to fight, to overpower, to conquer new ground. Women, on the other hand, have a nature of Menucha which implies the ability to derive deep pleasure from what has already been accumulated.

An everyday example of this: How many times do women ask their husbands to spend more time with them and the family? And what does the husband respond: he can't, he is busy making a living so that the family can survive. And yet, even well after the family is established and is no longer in need of the husband working so hard, he still gives the same excuse. Why? Because it is the nature of man to gain pleasure from the act of achieving rather than from what has been achieved. This is as our Rabbis, so perceptive of human nature, explain [10], "one who has one hundred, desires two hundred; one who has two hundred desires four hundred."

This distinction between the male and female nature is actually alluded to in Rashi's commentary to the Torah [11]. Rashi quotes the Talmud [12] where it is written: "An old man in the home is a burden in the home; an old woman in the home is a treasure in the home." An old man, because he can no longer achieve and conquer, is frustrated and makes a nuisance of himself. An old woman, however, because she doesn't feel the need to achieve and conquer, because she can receive, because she can enjoy and nurture what is already there, can live her best years in her old age.

And so the Maharal explains that in this world, which is a world of achievement, a world of action hayom la'asotam [13] - a time to conquer the world for G-d - it is the masculine element which is dominant. However, in the world of the future, where the main thing is to receive reward machar lekabel secharam [14], it is the female element which will be dominant.

It should not however be assumed that the receiving associated with women and the messianic era is merely a passive phenomenon. This is clearly not the case.

In kabbalistic terms, women are compared to Shabbat - bride and queen - whereas men are compared to the days of the week. And although no one would argue with the Talmudic dictum [15] that "only one who toils before Shabbat, eats on Shabbat", and hence that Shabbat receives from the days of the week, it is clear that the ultimate aim is Shabbat and not the days of the week! And what is Shabbat if not a day, when free of the need to conquer the physical, one can reveal and nurture one's true inner essence.

And so too is the difference between the masculine and feminine, the this-worldly and the future-worldly aspects. Whereas the masculine is involved in conquering the outer, it is the feminine, once this has been achieved, which nurtures and develops the inner.

Hence when the Rebbe said [16] that now is the time Lekabel Penei Moshiach - to receive Moshiach - because as he has said, the work of conquering the world for G-d (Avodat Habirurim) is at an end, and we are now at the beginning of the period of receiving - Lekabel Secharam - it is only logical that both the merit and responsibility of women are at unprecedented heights.

Furthermore, as this new era dawns, it is even incumbent upon men to reveal the feminine aspect which they too contain within themselves.

The call of the moment, to arouse the feminine aspect within ourselves, emphasises the need to be receivers.

Here it is worth noting that just prior to his illness the Rebbe [17] placed renewed emphasis on the age-old custom of sanctifying the new moon, asking that it be observed - as stated in the Code of Jewish Law [18] - with great joy and dancing.

It is not difficult to draw connections between the moon and women. Both are cyclical in nature, and it is the festival of the moon, Rosh Chodesh, which was given to women.

At the same time the moon is connected with the House of David from which Moshiach derives. This is ellaborated upon by Rabbi Tsaddok HaCohen, who notes [19] that the very first time that we find a Rosh Chodesh festive meal mentioned in the Bible is in association with King David.

However, the connection between the moon, the House of David and women is greater still. They are all receivers and hence dependent on others. The moon constantly requires the sun without which it cannot shine; a woman cannot reveal her essential essence without a man; and the House of David cannot exist without the input of others. This is stated by our rabbis who explain that David's very existence was dependent on the years donated to him by Adam [20], or according to the Zohar [21], by our forefathers, Abraham, Jacob and Joseph.

When speaking of Moshiach, the Rebbe [22], too, emphasised that he was dependent on us: "I have done everything I can, now you do everything you can, in order to make the coming of Moshiach a this-worldly reality."

It is because women and Moshiach share this sense of dependency with the moon, explains Rabbi Tsaddok, that women have a greater ability to feel the pain of exile - a time when Israel is deprived of the source of her dependence - than men. Whereas men are deluded by a false sense of self-sufficiency which prevents them from seeing how dependent they really are on Redemption, women don't share this delusion.

Nevertheless, even as she suffers the pain of Exile, a woman remembers another aspect of her connection with the moon. The moon, even when enveloped in darkness from our perspective, basks in sunlight on the side not visible to us. So too, even at times of great spiritual pain and anguish, the essential unity that exists between G-d and his chosen Moshiach continues to flourish and grow [23].

In fact, even the most negative phenomena are themselves ultimately part of the process of Redemption.

This sheds light on a rather surprising incident in the Talmud [24]. When Rabbi Akiva and the Rabbis encountered the Temple ruins, Rabbi Akiva laughed whereas the other Rabbis cried. Confronted for an explanation of his unusual behaviour, Rabbi Akiva explained that upon seeing the fulfilment of the prophecy of destruction he became convinced that the prophecy of restoration would also be fulfilled.

Nevertheless, the Maharal [25] asks, "Why did he laugh?" Because it will be good?!?! Right now things aren't good at all!

The Maharal goes on to explain that the destruction is in actuality part of the process of Redemption. In fact he goes so far as to say that the building of the Third Temple is predicated on the destruction of the first two. Hence the very act of concealment is itself directed by G-d and is part of the process of Revelation.

In the course of this discussion, I have quoted extensively from the works of the Maharal. So let me now conclude with one final insight.

In his Netzach Yisrael [26], the Maharal addresses those whose faith has been so shaken by the terrible sufferings of Exile that they cannot now believe in Redemption.

In one of his most beautiful and moving passages, the Maharal paints a picture of the suffering which our people have endured. So much has passed upon us, he writes, that if all the skies were parchment, all the oceans were ink and all the trees were quills, they would still not suffice to describe the enormity of the tragedy. He then explains that our long history has been fraught with the most impossible and fantastic occurrences, calamities which have been so terrible in both scope and depth, that had they been merely written in books, people would have denied that such things were possible. We know that they are true only because we ourselves have experienced them.

And yet, concludes the Maharal, the very nature of our suffering points to our ultimate salvation. Just as our suffering, as impossible as it is to believe, did in fact occur, so too will our Redemption, as impossible as it sounds, come to pass. Because for the Jewish people, G-d's chosen people, there is no natural order. Everything which happens to them, the bad as the good, occurs in a manner unimagined in the natural order of things. Or in the words of the Midrash [27] (which according to the Maharal uses "double" to express the infinite) "they have sinned doubly, they have suffered doubly, they will be comforted doubly."

That we have sinned doubly requires no elaboration - divisions have occurred which by virtue of the education granted us should have been unimaginable. That we have suffered doubly - the Rebbe's two strokes occurring on exactly the same date, the 27th of Adar - is something which even sceptics cannot dismiss. Yet these very events, far from causing us to lose hope, point to the double, even infinite comfort, nechama, which the ultimate Comforter, Moshiach, will bestow upon us.

At this time, more than any other, it is for women to lead the way. Quoting from the writings of the Holy Ari [28], the Rebbe has told us that our generation is a reincarnation of the generation of the Exodus. Whereas the men of that generation were constantly involved in power struggles and rebellion (Datan, Aviram, Korach, the spies, to name a few) the women remained constantly loyal. Rather than grabbing for power, they were prepared to be followers of Jewry's greatest prophet, Moses.

Today, too, we are not in need of leaders. We have had within our midst a leader of such great stature who, as even one as sceptical as Chaim Bermant was forced to concede in a recent article, was one of the greatest Jewish leaders of any generation; whose activities were of such broad scope that, according to Bermant, the second half of the twentieth century will become known as the Schneerson Era.

What we need now are receivers. What we need now are followers. Those prepared to put their own agendas aside and with devotion and self- sacrifice dedicate their lives to the Rebbe's mission. Just as in Moses' time it was the women who led the way with their loyalty and devotion to their leader, so too today.

In the merit of our righteous women may we soon merit the fulfilment of Jeremiah's prophecy, "For the Lord has created something new on earth; a woman will court a man", with the imminent revelation of our righteous Messiah, the ultimate Comforter, speedily in our days.

1 3:11

2 Proverbs 12:4

3 Maamar L'chol Tichleh

4 Raya Mehemna Shemot 158a

5 Bsorat HaGeula Ch. 47

6 Tiferet Yisrael 28; See also Chidushei Agadot Bava Batra 58 and Netzach Yisrael 1.

7 Exodus 19:3

8 Drush al HaTorah

9 Brahcot 17a

10 Kohelet Rabba 1:34

11 End B'chukotai

12 Arachin 19b

13 Eiruvin 22a

14 Eiruvin 22a

15 Avoda Zara 3a

16 B'sorat HaGeula 38

17 B'sorat HaGeula 44

18 Orach Chaim Ch. 426; para. 2

19 Resisei Layla 8

20 Yalkut Shimoni 41

21 Vayishlach 168a

22 B'sorat HaGeula 20

23 Resisei Layla 25

24 End Makkot

25 Netzach Yisrael 26

26 Chapter 49

27 Midrash Eicha 1:57

28 Shaar HaGilgulim Hakdama 20

The Jewish Attitude to Christianity

As the Christian world gears up for one of their most important holidays, it is worthwhile contemplating the Jewish attitude towards Christianity.

With a background of the Crusades, Spanish Inquisition, Chmielnicki genocide and numerous other pogroms and edicts of expulsion, let alone the Holocaust, it is not hard to understand why Jews would have a very ambivalent attitude towards Christianity.

And yet, while Maimonides acknowledges this in his magnum opus, Mishneh Torah, where he writes:

"All the prophets spoke of Mashiach as the redeemer of Israel and their savior, who would gather their dispersed ones and strengthen their [observance of the] Commandments. In contrast, [Yeshu] caused the Jews to be slain by the sword, their remnants to be scattered and humiliated, the Torah to be altered, and the majority of the world to serve a god other than the L-rd."

He continues:

"Nevertheless, the intent of the Creator of the world is not within the power of man to comprehend, for [to paraphrase Isaiah 55:8] His ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts, our thoughts. [Ultimately,] all the deeds of [Yeshu] and that Ishmaelite [Mohammed] who rose after him will only serve to pave the way for the coming of Mashiach and for the improvement of the entire world, [motivating the nations] to serve G-d together, as it is written [Zephaniah 3:9], 'I will make the peoples pure of speech so that they will all call upon the Name of G-d and serve Him with one purpose.'

"How will this come about? The entire world has already become filled with talk of [the supposed] Messiah, as well as of the Torah and the Commandments. These matters have been spread among the furthermost islands and among many spiritually insensitive nations, who discuss these matters as well as the Commandments of the Torah. Some of them say: 'These commandments were true, but are not in force in the present age; they are not applicable for all time.' Others say: 'Implied in the commandments are hidden concepts that cannot be understood simply; the Messiah has already come and revealed them.'

"When the true Messianic king will arise and prove successful, his [position becoming] exalted and uplifted, they will all return and realize that their ancestors endowed them with a false heritage; their prophets and ancestors caused them to err."

What Maimonides is saying is that while Yeshu distorted the concept of Moshiach, and Christianity caused indescribable suffering to the Jewish People – Christianity (and Islam) should still be viewed as positive phenomena. While not true religions in the absolute sense – he even goes so far as to call them a "false heritage" – they are a most definite improvement on what came before them. They have caused the Jewish concepts, albeit in an adulterated form, to be "spread among the furthermost islands and among many spiritually insensitive nations". As a result, Moshiach, Torah (Bible), etc., are now part of the common language and "will pave the way for the coming of Mashiach and for the improvement of the entire world, [motivating the nations] to serve G-d together". As to the fact that these Jewish notions have been falsified and adulterated – once the basic concepts have been absorbed, it will be a small matter for Moshiach to correct the errors that have distorted them.

The Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Chassidic movement, instructed his followers to disembark from a wagon if they noticed the wagon-driver pass by a church and not cross himself. In Christian Europe, if a wagon-driver did not show respect for his own religion, how could he be trusted to do the right thing for Jews? He also told them that it was better to do business with a non-Jew who believed than with a Jew who did not believe. A person who believed in a Higher Being – although his religion may not be true in the fullest sense – was far more likely to be act with integrity than a person who did not believe.

So while Christianity has brought us much suffering, it has also raised the world to a higher moral level and is playing an important role in perfecting the world in preparation for Moshiach’s arrival.

We also need to be very cognizant and appreciative of the very welcome moral and political support that Israel receives from our Christian friends who believe that the Bible is the Word of G-d, and that Israel belongs to G-d’s Chosen People.

All this goes to show that nothing in this world is all good or all bad. G-d, Who is infinitely wiser than any of us, often chooses to accomplish His goals through means that appear more than a little strange to us mere mortals.

The Dreidel: A Short Discourse on World History

The dreidel has evolved from the humble clay or wood version that we many of us hand-crafted as children, to the "hi-tech" multi-media version, replete with lights and musical accompaniment, that can be now be found on shop shelves and in many homes. Move aside plasma screens, the dreidel is the way to go.

But as in Judaism in general, embracing the future never comes at the expense of forsaking the past. Even today's ultra-modern dreidels still sport those old Jewish letters: Nun, Gimmel, Hay, Shin.

What's the significance of these letters, and why do they specifically appear on the dreidel?

Many answers have been given for this, but today I will focus on an explanation which while deeply mystical, is poignantly relevant.

You see, the dreidel tells the story of both the history of the world and its ultimate purpose.

The famous Rabbi Lowe of Prague (Maharal), and following in his footsteps, the well-known Chassidic author of Bnei Yissoschor, explain that the human being is essentially comprised of three elements: Body, Soul and Intellect. In Hebrew these are called Guf, Nefesh and Sechel.

They further explain that the history of the world's empires can be roughly divided as follows: Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. Each one of these empires attacked the Jewish People and State in a uniquely different way - and each time we prevailed.

• The Babylonian Empire attacked the Jewish body (Guf), murdering and massacring, as they destroyed the First Temple and took the Jews as captives to Babylon.
  
  
• The Persian Empire, known for its promiscuity and licentiousness - the story of Purim tells of Achashverosh's enormous harem - attacked the Jewish People in soul (Nefesh).
  
  
• The Greek Empire, which produced some of the world's greatest philosophers, attempted to demonstrate (falsely) the incompatibility of Torah with Science and Intellect (Sechel).
  
  
• Finally, the Roman Empire, utilized all the above four methods (HaKol) - attacks on the Jewish body, attacks on the Jewish soul and attacks on the Jewish intellect - in an attempt to discredit and delegitimize the Torah and Judaism. (The modern world - which is dominated by Western Philosophy - is considered a direct continuation of the Roman Empire.)
  

These then are what the letters of the dreidel represent:

• Gimmel stands for the Jewish body - Guf (Babylon);
  
  
• Nun stands for the Jewish soul - Nefesh (Persia);
  
  
• Shin stands for the Jewish intellect - Sechel (Greece);

• Hay stands for all the above - HaKol (Rome).
  

Furthermore, in Hebrew each letter is associated with a numerical value, known as Gematria.

The Gematria of Gimmel, Nun, Sin, Hay is 358.

This is the same Gematria as Nachash - the serpent that seduced Adam and Eve - at the beginning of time. It is also the same Gematria as Moshiach - the Redeemer of the Jewish People at the end of time!

And so the dreidel represents the history of the world from its inception until the end of time. History began with the attempt by the Nachash - the serpent - to seduce Adam and Eve. The serpent then continued its seduction throughout history - in the guise of the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans. At the end, however, that serpent (Nachash) will be vanquished by Moshiach.

It's important to note that Nachash and Moshiach are the SAME Gematria - the significance of this is that the victory of Moshiach is not one which precludes the use of the body, soul and intellect. On the contrary, each of these has it's place in the service of G-d. We need to serve G-d with a healthy body. Our emotions, including our sex drive, can be used for the greatest acts of holiness. And of course, intellect - especially the advances of science, technology and communication - empower us as individuals and enable the masses to reach spiritual knowledge that was until now unattainable.

As Moshiach approaches, the tools of the Nachash - body, soul and intellect - each of which superficially seem to be in opposition to holiness - must be transformed into a tool to better serve G-d.

Chanukah means "renewal". And Chanukah is a time to find new ways to use all the powers that make us human to achieve our ultimate fulfillment as human beings and bring us closer to G-d and the Redemption of Moshiach.

What a powerful lesson from the humble little dreidel!

Admit Your Mistake and Cut Your Losses

It had all the markings of Greek tragedy. The degrading spectacle of a highly successful lawyer, politician and NSW Supreme Court judge stripped bare in front of the entire country.

By the time the cross-examination was completed, it became obvious that His Honour was in very deep hot water. He was able to converse with a neighbour and hospital staff, yet he couldn't remember going to his office... until a security check of the building revealed that he had entered. When he finally recalled entering his office, he couldn't remember taking anything with him... until a security camera showed a picture of him holding a bag. There really seemed to be a very strong possibility of the judge being not only indicted for drink-driving, but far more seriously, for conspiring to obstruct the course of justice.

What moral lessons can we as Jews learn from this unfortunate chain of events?

1. Had the honourable gentleman learnt a basic Jewish tenet, he would have saved himself a lot of indignity: Far worse than sin, is the lack of acknowledgement of sin. To sin is human, and unfortunately for most of us, to be expected. Not acknowledging sin, and not repenting sin - that is the real crime.
   
   Indeed we learn the vital importance of acknowledging sin from our ancestor - Judah. (Jews are called Jews because most of us derive from the tribe of Judah). When confronted with damning evidence of a major indiscretion on his part - he immediately confessed his sin, although he could have probably got away with it.
   
   Indeed this is one of the reasons that he is called Judah. Judah is derived from the word meaning "acknowledgement". As a reward for his confession and honesty, Judah was rewarded with being the Patriarch of the Jewish Monarchy. All Jewish kings, including Moshiach, trace their ancestry to Judah.
   
   
2. And isn't it strange that a person who, in his capacity of judge, must have heard every unlikely story in the book, should have himself resorted to giving a highly unlikely and hardly believable account of what occurred? But this too has been predicted by our sages who explain that when a person is a party to a matter, his eyes are blinded, and he is no longer able to see things clearly and objectively. This is why not even Moses and Aron, our nations greatest prophets, are permitted to give testimony regarding each other.
   
   
3. And a final lesson: When Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, saying "I am Joseph", his brothers went into a state of total shock. One can just imagine what went through their minds. Suddenly all those years of deceit came crashing down. In a moment they were confronted with a Truth that they had attempted to hide even from themselves.
   
   The Talmud says that whenever Rabbi Elazar read this story he burst out crying. He said, "If this is the rebuke of a human being, can you even imagine what it will be like on our Day of Judgement, when we stand before G-d"?
   
   All the years of self-delusion, of pretense, of making paltry excuses will be exposed.
   
   If this is hard to comprehend, just imagine how His Honour must have felt when they played the videotape showing him entering the Supreme Court holding a bag...
   

Let's not kid ourselves. Most of us are in the position of the Supreme Court judge in at least some aspects of our lives. There aren't too many of us who won't be embarrassed on our Day of Judgement. After all, Rabbi Elazar was a great and holy man, and he still cried!

To save ourselves the further embarrassment of being accused of hypocrisy, we would be well advised to avoid judging others in those situations where our opinions would be better kept to ourselves.

Doctors and their Limitations

It was reported last week that St George Hospital, after a successful application to the Supreme Court, had turned off the life-support of a man who they believed to be in an irreversible coma. The application by the hospital and doctors had been strongly opposed by the patient's family who believed that he should be given every possible chance of recovery. After the machines were disconnected, the patient survived for sixteen minutes before passing away.

Were the doctors right or wrong?

Before embarking on a discussion of this matter, it is important to have an understanding of the authority of doctors. After all, as the Talmud asks, isn't it G-d who makes a person sick? Or as the Zohar says - a sick person is in G-d's prison. This being the case, perhaps the doctor should not interfere.

The Talmud responds to this question by quoting a verse of the Torah: v'rapoh yerapeh - "he shall most certainly heal" - upon which the Talmud comments, "From this verse is derived the doctor's authority to heal".

What is clear from the above is that it is not a given that the doctor can heal. He must be given specific authority. And that authority is to heal - and to heal alone. Nowhere is the doctor given authority to prescribe death!

Democracy is without question the fairest form of government known to mankind. It's not only about the power to elect officials. It is about accountability - about all people being equal before the law. The judge, as we have seen this week, can be judged.

But democracy, in spite of its fairness, does have its drawbacks. It often gives rise to the patently false assumption that anyone can express a sensible opinion about anything - even things which are well beyond their field of expertise or knowledge.

Only recently we heard that Stephen Hawking - a truly great physicist - called the invasion of Iraq a war crime. Now, while I deeply respect Stephen Hawking, and am an avid reader of his books on science, I didn't know that he was a member of the judiciary with special expertise on war crimes. He may have an opinion on war crimes, but it is no more than that, and should be treated with no more interest than anyone else's. And then there was Madonna, who demanded that the troops be brought home. I mean, why would you argue with a famous pop star who has dabbled in "kabbalah"...?

It really is high time that we recognized the boundaries of our expertise and were humble enough not to step too far outside them.

Returning to our discussion: Matters of healing are within the purvey of medical science. Matters of life and death are outside that boundary - they exist in the realm of ethics and religion.

The mode of treatment is one for the expert doctor to decide. Whether to continue treatment is for the expert rabbi to decide.

So what is the religious position here?

While every case is different, and should be addressed individually, the following should give us some broad insight.

The Talmud says that there is no difference between a child of a day old, and an old man of 100. Killing either one of them is an act of murder. Or as former Chief Rabbi Jakobowitz once explained: Life is infinity touching the finite - something which is totally beyond our comprehension - and hence every moment of life is of infinite importance.

In one of his responsa, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein writes that if a person is on life-support and the doctors are not sure whether he is still alive or merely responding to the machine, they may not disconnect him from that machine as this would be akin to killing him. However, should the oxygen run out, they may wait for about a quarter of an hour to see if there is a spontaneous response before reconnecting him.

The important consideration however is not whether in this particular case the doctors did or didn't do the right thing. What's really important is a clear understanding of the boundaries of medical knowledge, and indeed of all knowledge.

As the true Kabbalists have explained: The Gateway to Knowledge is Humility.

Homosexuality: The Person and the Act

Society is faced with a growing acceptance of homosexual behaviour. Judging by the coverage in the media - especially in the weeks prior to Sydneyís Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras - it is definitely "in" to either be gay, or to actively condone and support those pursuing homosexuality as an "alternate" lifestyle. At the very least, a smile or a wave in their direction has become mandatory in polite society. We need only look at the number of "straight" people lining the streets as the parade goes by.

It is difficult to write critically of an issue concerning which "political correctness" - the idol of new-age gurus - demands silence. More so, on a subject so deluged with emotion. Who are we to tell others how to live their lives, and more significantly, who to choose as partners and who to love?

Homosexuality is an issue which touches the lives, and hence the attitudes, of many in our community.

I shall therefore preface my remarks with a point which I believe to be fundamental to the Jewish approach to life. It is attitude which was inculcated in me by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and which I have endeavoured to impart to my congregants and students.

To create and maintain a society that is both tolerant and moral, a difference must be made between people and behaviour.

The fact that the majority of people seem incapable of making this distinction is the bane of civilisation.

It leads to unnecessary hatred - when the assumption is made that because someone acts immorally he deserves to be hated.

Or to moral mediocrity and a breakdown of values - when the assumption is made that because someone I love is acting immorally, the action could not be immoral after all.

The ability to love a person while strongly disapproving of his or her behaviour is a sign of moral maturity - a maturity which unfortunately very few possess.

And because so many people cannot themselves make the distinction between actions and people - they assume the worse of others as well. There is a widespread, if not always articulated, belief that if someone strongly disapproves of anotherís conduct, he must hate that person. That assumption is most assuredly false - at least in the case of those in touch with the spiritual dimensions of Judaism.

It cannot be said often enough that it is a sign of moral weakness to condone bad behaviour in a desperate attempt not to lose someone you love. Too often we are blackmailed out of core values by such statements as, "if you really loved me you would accept me as I am".

Let us be very clear on this: You can accept someoneís right to choose, while being totally unaccepting of what they have chosen.

It is possible to love a person, while being pained to the core by his or her behaviour. Too many parents, and their friends, attempt to change the bearings on their moral compasses because those they love or know have acted immorally. They begin to think of themselves as not being ìwith itî, as if morals are like clothes, to be discarded in favour of the latest fashions. A value system which is victim to the fickleness of human nature is no value system at all. It is fashion which must be controlled by morality, not vice versa.

On the opposite extreme, hating a person because of their immoral beliefs or misbehaviour shows a lack of respect for the Image of G-d present in all of us.

According to Jewish Law even if a person was sentenced to death - an extraordinarily rare event in Ancient Israel ñ he must be treated with both love and respect. Indeed, not doing so is considered an affront to G-d A-lmighty Himself. The judges who condemned him to death must fast, he must be put to death in as painless a manner possible, and he dare not be degraded in any way.

The reason for this, as explained both in the Torah and the Talmud, is because every person, even someone who has sinned in an appalling manner, is created in the image of G-d. As such the imperative, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself" applies to him even at the moment of his fall.

Having made this introduction, I should now like to express the Torahís unequivocal opprobrium of homosexuality.

Homosexuality is not only forbidden according to Jewish law - it has the dubious distinction of being one of the only things which the Torah refers to as Toeva - an abomination - a word which is used to connote the idea of disgust. And this the Torah tells us in the name of G-d Himself (see Leviticus 18:22 - the section of the Torah read on Yom Kippur).

Furthermore - together with other sins of sexual immorality, such as adultery and incest - it is a sin for which the Torah demands that one give up oneís life rather than transgress. This, in spite of the ruling, that in almost every other case the Torah values life above the performance of a mitzvah or the transgression of a sin.

And finally, homosexuality is a sin which applies equally to Jews and non-Jews.

I do not wish to enter into the nature/nurture debate, nor do I believe that it is relevant. (An exhaustive discussion of the subject can be found in a brilliant article by Dennis Prager.) For those who believe in One G-d, it is clear that our Maker was as aware of human frailties thousands of years ago as we are at the dawn of the twenty-first century. He certainly hasnít been awaiting correction for thousands of years by an "enlightened" science! It is equally clear that as G-d has unequivocally forbidden homosexuality , it is possible, albeit with extraordinary effort and courage, to conquer and indeed transform oneís nature. G-d, to quote the prophet, neither deceives nor lies. Nor is He so cruel as to give a person a challenge which he cannot possibly surmount.

There can be no doubt that those with either a natural leaning towards homosexuality, or habituated to it, have been given a particularly arduous challenge ñ one whose difficulty most of us cannot even begin to imagine.

As such they are deserving of our support and love. We need to remember that Abraham argued to the point of exhaustion on behalf of the people of Sodom - a city whose primary transgression was homosexuality.

Before passing judgement on those with homosexual tendencies we must ask ourselves how we would fare if faced with a similar challenge. Would we, and do we, rise to the occasion when confronted by a moral challenge of the difficulty experienced by someone with a homosexual urge? How far do we ìstretchî ourselves in areas where G-d challenges us; areas much easier, and impacting on our lives far less, than those faced by the person with a bent towards homosexuality? This is a question which each of us must respond to before criticising others. In a particularly sobering insight, the Baal Shem Tov, father of the Chassidic movement, teaches us that we are judged on the basis of our judgement of others. Knowing our own frailties, a little caution is advised before rushing to judge others.

On the one hand, the man or woman who commits a homosexual act is loved by G-d, no less than we are. If there is a blemish - it is on the outer shell of his being while the essence remains intact.

On the other hand, this does not detract from our rock-solid belief that homosexuality is wrong, and indeed an abomination - the flawed opinion of new-age pyschiatrists, notwithstanding.

G-d did not make a person into a homosexual the way he made others heterosexual. G-d did not create four categories of people: man and woman, homosexual and lesbian. G-d created men and women with a variety of challenges in life. For some the challenge is overcoming the homosexual urge.

Therefore, while we cannot in any way support a movement which encourages and condones homosexual practice, we can reach out to those with a homosexual urge with love and compassion. We are not reaching out to the outer shell of their homosexuality, but to the inner core of their Jewish essence - the part of them inextricably tied to G-d. That part of them which is so pure and holy that no transgression in the world can eradicate.

As individuals, we must involve them in the community and encourage them to do mitzvot - while praying that they eventually develop the insight to understand the error of their actions, and the strength to overcome them.

And while praying for them, we may wish to spare a thought for ourselves.

For which of us can be sure that he or she will overcome that unique personal challenge given each of us by G-d?