Parashat & Current Events

Reb Yisrael and his sons erected their succah adjacent to the kitchen door of their palatial home in one of the Five Towns of Long Island, NY, as they had done for years in the past. But this year was different. Reb Yisrael had just learned from his rabbi that one of the reasons for residing temporarily in a succah is in case one’s destiny was decided on Rosh HaShana to be expulsion into galut, the departure from the comforts of home into the succah could be considered to be that galut.

On Sunday we were witness to an immense chillul HaShem when representatives of the four Arab Knesset parties arrived at the president’s residence to discuss who they would support for Prime Minister.

The spokesman, Dr. Achmed Tibi stood before President Rivlin as a proud Arab and stated, “We are not guests in this country, we are the ba’alei batim – owners of the land”.

And the President did not respond!

A young man, son and grandson of a very special family, was just commissioned as a lieutenant after graduating our naval officers school and will serve on a submarine. He was honored in the community with a kiddush on Shabbat. He studied several years at the Bnei David Yeshiva in the settlement of Eli and decided that the time had come for him to actualize his love for Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael which he had acquired from his family and the yeshiva.

One need not make a big splash in order to effect change. Subtle movements can often bring about great changes for happy times or for chaotic results, just as the flutter of a butterfly’s wings at a certain time and a certain place can create devastation in the opposite hemisphere.

The Israeli public and, certainly, our political leaders who are more privy to what is happening, are angry and frustrated at the double standard applied by the “enlightened” peoples of the world against the Jewish State.

Many Western European institutions and personalities are leading the movement to isolate Israel by boycotts, divestments and sanctions. The revulsion is intensified by the fact that they assert their moral indignation only against the Jewish State.

Where are the demonstrations on behalf of the Tibetans, Syrians, Kurds, Armenians, and Ukrainians?
Where are the boycotts against the Chinese, the Russians, the Cubans or the Turks?

HaShem informed Rachel Emainu (our mother) that there will be two cycles of Jews who would eventually return home: 1- “They will return from the land of the enemy,” 2- “Your sons will return to their borders”.

What is the difference between the returnees in HaShem’s message to Rachel?

The difference is awesome, immense and contained in just one word in verse 17:  בנים – sons.

In verse 16 which speaks of the returnees from the “lands of their enemies”, the word “sons” does not appear. Whereas, in verse 17 the returnees to their borders not from enemy lands are referred to as “sons”.

The distinction is critical; one is running away, the other is running towards.  The runner towards home is a son.