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Space Shuttle Crash
Following the space shuttle crash, the Israeli press was so
chocked full of condolences from Bush to Sharon and vice-versa, one would
have thought that the tragedy was almost worth it, for it brought Israel
and America closer - =93a covenanat of blood has been formed between the
two countries=94 is an expression often used.
With Israeli and US flags lowered to half-mast, we heard leaders from
both sides saying, =93times such as these strengthen the Israeli and
American peoples' common fate, identity and values, and shared vision=94.
PM Sharon added =93it is at moments such as these, that the hearts of the
American and Israeli peoples beat as one. Let us pray together and
support each other."
We=92re sorry to break up the party, folks, but as Rabbi Kahane warned for
years our ties to America and our trust in them (instead of God) is
the source of all our woes, and the greatest obstacle to bringing
the redemption swiftly and painlessly. The fact that Ilan Ramon was
aboard the space shuttle was nothing more than the American way to
symbolize =93internationalism=94 (and not =93Zionism=94) on this
prestigious world stage. On the next trip (if there is one), they will no
doubt have a Palestinian astronaut to transmit a message of similar
spirit.
The tragedy is that he was a was a great pilot who could have helped the
Jewish state in her next war. More than a tragedy, it was a waste.
America did not need him for his flying experience, but as their symbol
of =93world cooperation=94 and =93internationalism=94. But the Jewish natio=
n
did need him, maybe to bomb Iraq once more time - that is, if
America would let us=85
Indeed, the bonds between America and Israel have tightened as the two
countries are =93really coming together=94 . What does this mean? Does it
mean that America will release Jonathan Pollard? Of course not. It means
that Bush and Sharon see eye to eye on the establishment of a Palestinian
state; it means that when America attacks Iraq, Israel acquiesces to the
American demand to stay out of it, even if Israel is getting gassed. This
is what =93cooperation=94 with America translates into in actual
terms.
Positive Pride and Negative Pride
Astronaut Ilan Ramon made it clear at every opportunity, that
he went to outer space not simply as a citizen of the State of Israel,
but as a Jew. He used his notoriety aboard the space shuttle as a
stage to instill pride among world Jewry.
While pride or egoism is a very negative character trait for the
individual, it is positive and essential for the
collective. One who has national pride, takes pride in
being a Jew, and tries to instill that in others, as Ilan Ramon
did causes Kiddush Hashem.
We learn from the space shuttle explosion another type of negative pride.
The growth of science and technology has created arrogance and a
feeling of man being godlike and omnipotent. Man=92s ability to reach outer
space and probe the stars, to create genes and explore the secret of
life, his seemingly limitless progress all this has given him the
feeling that he controls his own future and that he will ultimately
conquer the universe. The result has been his refusal to recognize the
existence of a Master of the Universe or Creator. Man=92s astonishing
progress has sown in him seeds of rebellion which have moved him to
mentally depose of God and install his alien self in God=92s place. Man,
who has reached outer space (chalal), has also achieved
profanation (chillul).
Never in history has the world known so much heresy as it does now.
Throughout all the generations, man was a believer. The concept of
a Higher Being, of a Divinity, of a power greater than he, was firmly
embedded in his consciousness. Atheism, the absence of god, was simply
unthinkable and whether the belief in a greater power was monotheistic or
polytheistic; whether it was most primitive and cruel and ludicrous or
the most sophisticated - man believed.
Today, however, as part of an evolving process that began just a little
more than a century and a half ago, we find, for the first time in
history, many millions of people who do not believe in a higher force.
This is the byproduct of an explosion of Rationalism and Science that has
ostensibly made man the master of his fate. The revolutionary, hi-tech
explosion , enabling man to control and predict natural phenomenon give
him a sense of power and belief that in his intellectual and mental
ability lay the key to unlimited progress and his own fate. As Rabbi Meir
Kahane wrote in 1989: =93The world has come full circle. As an Adam who
defied his Creator and threw off the yoke of Heaven by eating from the
Tree of Knowledge, good and evil, and whose heart yearned for the Tree of
Life in ambition to become eternal, Divine so too does his son ,
Man, today. Man comes full circle. The putting forth of the hand in an
attempt to reach immortality, to be as God. To be God!=94
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The Haggadah of the Jewish Idea
A Passover Haggadah with commentary by
Binyamin Zev Kahane - new
in english !!
Clear, straightforward commenta=
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No Passover seder should be without it!
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