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New! David Ha'Ivri Audio.
Hear David Ha'Ivri's new "radio show" in Hebrew and English which will G-d willing be updated each week.
Chol Hamoed Peasach Edition"
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לחץ כאן לעברית
Pesach: The Truth Will Set You Free! / Rabbi
Binyamin Zev Kahane
Every Jewish child today knows the alternate name for Passover: The Festival of Freedom. This name has become widely accepted in recent years, especially today, when the concept of "personal freedom" has been placed on a pedestal in western culture. However, like most of the values, which have found their way into western culture, the Jewish concept of freedom couldn't be further away. In fact, it is the exact opposite of the western variety.
>>Read more
Freedom for the Jewish Political Prisoners
The government of Israel is in the process of freeing hundreds of Arab terrorists.
In the meantime, precious Jews, full of Ahavat Yisrael, languish in prison. These Jews did not act for their own sake. On the contrary - they understood the repercussions of their actions, and the suffering it would bring upon them. Yet, their only concern was the good of the nation.
>>Read more
Kol HaMacabbe trip to Israel / Marilyn Sparks
It was an interesting group that met at a hotel in Jerusalem for the first time on March 14. We came from places all across the United States. We were a mixed group of Jews and Christians, coming together for one purpose - to show our love and support for people living in the Land G-d promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob a long time ago.
Our journey began in Jerusalem, where we spent many hours and several days walking throughout the old city. We prayed at the Western Wall, walked upon the Temple Mount, saw the remains of the City of David, Hezekiah's Tunnel, and the Gihon Springs. We visited several museums, archeological excavations and holy sites. We drove into Palestinian neighborhoods and we told about Jewish families who are reclaiming the city, one house at a time.
>>Read more
Purim: The Holiday of Provoking the Goyim / Rabbi
Binyamin Zev Kahane
Many religious Jews maintain that it is forbidden for
Jews to provoke the goyim - and extrapolate this into a binding obligation under
all circumstances. Yet, in the entire Torah, we don't find that there is a problem
with provoking the goyim. It is true that the Talmud states that one should not
provoke the wicked under certain conditions. But all this refers to a specific
individual Jew who has a problem with a wicked person. In such a situation, there
is a dispute in the Talmud whether one is permitted to provoke him or not, and
under what conditions. But such a prohibition applies only to individual Jews and
their personal problems, not to the entire Jewish People as a nation, whose very
existence is a provocation in the eyes of the world.
>>Read more
Dr. Baruch Goldstein - Remembering the Man / Lenny Goldberg
This Purim is the 11th Yahrzeit of Dr. Baruch Goldstein, h"yd, a soft-spoken, pious,
humble and proud Jew who lived for his people and died for them. A top student,
he attended the Yeshiva of Flatbush, was president of his class at Yeshiva University
and, when he graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, his distinguished
performance there earned him acceptance into AOA, the national medical honor society
>>Read more
 Rabbis on Strings / Rabbi Elizur Segel
In Eastern Europe, especially in Czarist Russia, rabbis were often appointed by the king or the state to serve as representatives in regard to the country's Jews. While the official role of these appointed rabbis was to serve a specific Jewish community, their underlying role was to benefit the government.
The Jewish communities, for their part, employed either one of two approaches toward this state-designated rabbinate. One approach was to try to fill this position with men of stature, such as Rabbi Ya'acov Maze"h of Moscow. Sometimes these positions were filled by respected men who were not truly rabbis, but dignified the role. The famous author Shalom Aleichem, for example, served as the appointed rabbi in several communities.
>>Read more
 Unilateral Separation? We're in Favor! / Rabbi Yehuda Richter
Every Jew rises in the morning and makes the blessing
"that He has not made me a slave". How easy is it to "throw" this blessing from
our mouths, but how hard it is to really not be enslaved because of the natural
tendency of man to depend on other people. "If the slave says 'I love my master'
he does not go free" (Shemot 21:5). Man becomes used to and becomes satisfied with his servitude.
Whoever subscribes to this lowly philosophy is taken by the ear and pierced.
"The ear which heard on Mount Sinai, because to ME (G-d) the people of Israel
is enslaved. He (the slave) went out and found another master for himself" (Rashi).
The end of such a person will be to "serve him forever". All his days he subjugates
himself to different masters without ability to ever be freed. King Solomon
speaks [negatively] of "a slave who rules" (Proverbs 30:23). The Ralbag explains:
A slave is not fit to rule, just as it isn't fitting for one with dishonest and
false wisdom to rule. What IS fitting is to reject the false wisdom and arrive at true wisdom.
>>Read more
 Separating Vision and Nostalgia / David Ha'ivri
In order to succeed in the struggle for Eretz Yisrael and achieve our goals we need to organize things. What is the objective-and what are the means to achieve it? What is the vision and what is nostalgia? At the 14th memorial for Rabbi Kahane we took a poll of the participants. It turned out that close to 2/3 of the hundreds of Jews who were there to honor his memory never merited to actually meet him in person. It is a great honor to the Rabbi and his memory that young Jews are learning his Torah and recognizing the correctness of his path.
>>Read more
 Changing the Rules of the Game / Yisroel Meir Cohen
The "Defensive shield" organization is gathering the signatures of as many reserve soldiers as possible who plan not to participate in the expulsion of Jews from Eretz Yisrael. The language of the petition is as follows:
"We the undersigned are Jewish citizens of the state of Israel who serve as reserve soldiers in the IDF. I proudly fulfill my military service with recognition of the duty and honor to take part in the defense of the Jewish people and our land and to wage war against our enemies.
"I relate to the words of the rabbis and public figures who view the "disengagement plan" of destruction and expulsion as a national tragedy and violation of Jewish law in which is forbidden to participate. We are declaring that we will NOT lend a hand in the execution of this plan."
>>Read more
 The Weeping Stones / Nachshon Walls
Work on the Shul-on-the-Hill in West Tapuach continues. At the moment it is still a small thing, roughly 6 meters by 3 meters,
but I have begun laying the floor to expand it, to double its width, to what I hope will be a still small but respectable 6 meters by 6 meters.
It is still emotionally painful for me because I have to sort through the debris the IDF left after the destruction and
to pick out what pieces of wood and other building material are still suitable and salvageable for use in the new shul. Doing this grim sorting
finally got to me the other day. Maybe it was just being alone high on a hot mountain in the middle of the day when others were away, or maybe
it was slight dehydration--or maybe just the spectacular views of Mount Grizim, Shilo, Yitzhar, and Shechem in the distance.
>>Read more
 The Movement for Jewish Morality / Baruch Ben-Yosef
What happened to Arik Sharon? Why doesn't the PM who purged Arab terrorism in Gaza 30 years ago declare all out war on the Arabs in Gaza today?
To these and other questions we will receive a myriad of answers all of which may have a semblance of truth. However, the deep underlying explanation
for Sharon's behavior can be found in a building just a few hundred yards from his office in Jerusalem.
>>Read more
Stop Doing, Start Talking / Lenny Goldberg
Despite his mammoth effort to garner public support and lead the Israeli nation, Rabbi Kahane never enjoyed real support from the settler movement.
When the Israeli leadership (Knesset and Supreme Court) made a mockery of their "democracy," and banned the rabbi from participating in the 1988 elections,
it was because they feared the groundswell of support the rabbi had been receiving on the heels of the 1987 "intifada." Yet this support came strictly from the
"grass roots" of the Israeli population, and not from the settlers or the "religious nationalist camp."
>>Read more
 Tapuach? Are You Crazy? / Sara Nava Katz
The responses we got before we left and even those after our arrival in Israel were invariably the same:
"You're making aliyah straight to Tapuach?!"
"What made you pick that community?"
"It's 'hot' there, isn't it?"
"Which side of the fence is that on?"
"What if they decide to tear it down?"
These and other comments were regularly accompanied by nervous laughter and puzzled expressions.
But not always. There were others from whom I sensed a quiet admiration for what my husband and I were about to undertake. Even if it was tinged with a 'better them than me' sentiment.
>>Read more
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