From lenny@... Tue Feb 04 22:51:58 2003 Return-Path: X-Sender: lenny@... X-Apparently-To: Darka_shel_Torah@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_2_3_4); 5 Feb 2003 06:51:58 -0000 Received: (qmail 20213 invoked from network); 5 Feb 2003 06:51:58 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.218) by m15.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 5 Feb 2003 06:51:58 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mxout1.netvision.net.il) (194.90.9.20) by mta3.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 5 Feb 2003 06:51:57 -0000 Received: from lenny_nm.netmedia.net.il ([62.0.70.124]) by mxout1.netvision.net.il (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.2 HotFix 1.08 (built Dec 6 2002)) with ESMTPA id <0H9T00KYDPN2N2@...> for Darka_shel_Torah@yahoogroups.com; Wed, 05 Feb 2003 08:51:56 +0200 (IST) Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2003 08:43:20 +0200 Subject: News & Commentary X-Sender: lenny_nm@... To: lenny@... Cc: jsid@... Message-id: <5.1.0.14.0.20030205083431.009f17d0@...> MIME-version: 1.0 X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable From: Lenny Goldberg X-Yahoo-Group-Post: member; u=10571125 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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A Passover Haggadah with commentary by
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Clear, straightforward commenta= ry, with ramifications for today
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