If Israel does not assert sovereignty, it will lose it and Hamas Government Discovers a 4,500-Years-Old Canaanite Statue By David Israel and Terrible Singer Jokes and The Temple Mount is not really in our hands
Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement.
The Three are Rabbi Yehuda Glick, famous temple mount activist, and former Israel Mk, and then Robert Weinger, the world's greatest shofar blower and seller of Shofars, and myself after we had gone to the 12 gates of the Temple Mount in 2020 to blow the shofar to ask G-d to heal the world from the Pandemic. It was a highlight to my experience in living in Israel and I put it on my blog each day to remember.
The articles that I include each day are those that I find interesting, so I feel you will find them interesting as well. I don't always agree with all the points of each article but found them interesting or important to share with you, my readers, and friends. It is cathartic for me to share my thoughts and frustrations with you about life in general and in Israel. As a Rabbi, I try to teach and share the Torah of the G-d of Israel as a modern Orthodox Rabbi. I never intend to offend anyone but sometimes people are offended and I apologize in advance for any mistakes. The most important psychological principle I have learned is that once someone's mind is made up, they don't want to be bothered with the facts, so, like Rabbi Akiva, I drip water (Torah is compared to water) on their made-up minds and hope that some of what I have share sinks in. Love Rabbi Yehuda Lave.
The Temple Mount is not really in our hands
We act as if we are the Romans and the Arabs are the Jews - but having Arabs in control of the Temple Mount is a sign of exile. Op-ed.
Yshai Amichai
lThe Temple Mount is not really in our hands. We pray at the feet of the Arabs as they throw rocks at us.
The Arabs have structures on the Temple Mount. They have the Dome of the Rock, the Al Aqsa Mosque, and other structures. What do we have there?
The Arabs have olive groves on the Temple Mount. Their children play soccer there while their wives have picnics and the men pray. Jews are hardly even allowed entrance, and when we do get to enter, we are led as tourists, to observe the Arabs in their domain, where they exert ownership.
It is true that Jews have military and political control of the Temple Mount, but only generically as 'Israelis,' not as Jews. We share our national identity with the Arabs and serve their interests, and even then, we are seen as an army of occupation.
Our control of the Temple Mount is not even recognized by our own government. We gave control back to the Islamic Waqf, a Jordanian trust controlled and funded by the King of Jordan. This "waqf" is basically an endowment for the administration of property owned by Muslims.
Our own government does not recognize Jewish ownership of its Holiest and arguably its only truly Holy site, the only place on earth where Jews can observe many of God's Commandments. This is the Place God Chose to Rest His Name and yet we chose to hand it over to our enemies.
God Answered our prayers and Returned us to the Land of Israel and to the Temple Mount itself, to the Holy of Holies, but we act as if we are here as Western colonists or as an army of occupation.
An Army of Occupation?
When the UN voted to allow the formation of a Jewish state in Israel, it did not grant us control of Jerusalem. The UN designated Jerusalem an international city, intending to administer the holy sites of the monotheistic religions, not grant Jews or Arabs control over them.
According to the established precedent, Jews would pray at the Western Wall, Muslims on the Temple Mount, and Christians at their various churches. This was acceptable to the Jews, as we were hardly granted access to the Temple Mount in the past, and we got used to it. Our own rabbis even warned against going there, lest we inadvertently desecrate the Holiest Site to Judaism.
Yet this plan did not come to fruition. The Arabs rejected the UN Partition Plan, and Jordan violently seized control of the Old City of Jerusalem, expelling all Jews and barring our entrance. The Western Wall Plaza was turned into a garbage dump and centuries-old synagogues were blown up. No "status quo" or religious freedom existed for the Jews. We were shot at from the Old City walls.
When we returned in the Six Day War, the just response would have been to blow up the Arab mosques and bar their entrance to the Temple Mount. We were no longer committed to past agreements broken by the Arabs and dishonored by the world. We could have expelled the Arabs from Jerusalem as they had done to us. Instead, we shamed ourselves as an army of occupation, embarrassed by our own miraculous success.
As if We Are the Romans
We act as if we are the Romans and the Arabs are the Jews. Towards the end of the Second Temple period, Roman legions occupied Jerusalem, daring to station troops on the Temple Mount.
With each new outrage committed by the Romans, desecrating the sanctity of the Temple or of the Temple Mount, Jews became ever more enraged, willing to riot and rebel against Rome. We revolted multiple times, willing to die en masse for the Temple Mount.
The Temple Mount was as sensitive a site then as it is now, but for more obvious reasons. It contained the Holy of Holies to Israel, the seat of God's Throne on earth, and the House of His Glory. Its sanctification is a national obligation for Israel, in accordance with the strict requirements of the Torah and the severe consequences of failure.
Yet more than the service of God and the sanctification of His Holy Sanctuary, the Temple Mount, or the Temple itself, with its Altar and courtyards, serve a role in defining Israel as a nation. Without it, Israel is like a body without a soul.
Israel has never remained a nation long in its Land without a Tabernacle or Temple. Their destruction has been the mark of our exile and banishment from God. To have the Arabs tread upon the Temple Mount, while Jews wail below at the Wailing Wall, is a sign of our continued exile.
And yet, in the irony of things, the Arabs pretend to be the Jews of the past, defending the sanctity of the Temple Mount, outraged by the police presence there. With each Jewish mention of a return to the Temple Mount, the Arabs riot violently and decry the desecration of their mosque, as if it were the Jewish Temple.
The Arabs are willing to die for their mosque on the Temple Mount, like the Jews of the past who were willing to die for their Temple, and they are willing to revolt en masse against Israel and start a religious war over it. On the other hand, Jews are afraid to offend the Arabs and incite their anger, backing down to their outrageous demands.
The Temple Mount is most Holy to Israel. The Arabs placing their mosque there to block us from serving God does not make it holy to them. That is why the Arabs pray on the Temple Mount with their backsides to the Dome of the Rock and their heads to Mecca, desecrating the Holy of Holies of Israel in a most shameful way.
The Arabs desecrate God and His Holy Name, which remains attached to the Temple Mount. Their presence on the Temple Mount is a desecration.
Yshai Amichaiis a father of six and an author with a legal education, whose books advocate upholding the Torah as a national Constitution. He may be contacted at: yshaia@gmail.com
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TERRIBLE SINGER JOKES OF THE WEEK
Don't marry a singer. I married one and it was just "me, me, me" all the time.
What do you call it when a singer gets a chance? An opera-tunity!
What's a singer's favorite sandwich? So-la-mi.
Mordechai Ben David was dining out one night when a young newlywed chasidish young man came up to his table.
"Reb Mordechai," said the yungerman, "my name is Shloimy Rosenberg. Would you please do me a favor?"
"What kind of favor?" Mordche asked.
Well, I'm here with my kallah and I want to make a good impression on her. I certainly would appreciate it if you would drop by my table and say 'Hi, Shloimy!'"
"OK, Shloimy, I'll try," said the singer, smiling.
A little later he dropped by their table, and said, "Hi, Shloimy!"
Shloimy looked up at him and snapped, "Don't bother me now, Murdche. Can't you see I'm busy?"
Why are pirates such good singers? They hit the high c's...
Why are cats such great singers? They're very mew-sical!
What do you call a sad singer in a bath tub? A soap opera...
Just before Rosh Hashanah, a team of terrorists invades the shul and takes the rabbi, the cantor and the shul president hostage. Hours later, the governor stands tough; he won't give them a million dollars, nor a getaway car nor a jumbo jet. The terrorists gather the three hostages in a corner and inform them that things look bad and they're going to have to shoot them. Nevertheless, to show that they're not really a bad bunch, they'll grant each hostage one wish.
"Please," says the rabbi, "for the last two months I've been working on my Rosh Hashanah sermon. What a waste to die now without having carried it before an audience. I'll go happily if you let me recite my sermon. It's two and a half hours long, tops." The terrorists promise to grant the wish.
"Please," says the cantor, "after 50 years I've finally gotten the Hinneni prayer just right. What a waste to die and not sing it to an audience. It's only about 45 minutes long, then I'll go happily." The terrorists promise to grant the cantor his wish, too, and they turn to the shul president.
"Please," says the president with tears in his eyes. "Shoot me first!"
My dad always told me I should sing tenor. Ten or twelve miles away
(For My Detroiters!) What do you call a musician who drinks soda and sing at the same time? A pop singer.
What fish sings A tune-a
If Israel does not assert sovereignty, it will lose it
The Palestinians are playing a long game, with a bright and clear goal: the elimination of Israel.
By DOUGLAS ALTABEFIf Israel does not assert sovereignty, it will lose it - opinion (photo credit: JAMAL AWAD/FLASH90)
While Israel has never been militarily, technologically or economically stronger, it is suffering from a crisis of conviction.
Our ancestors were Jews in the Diaspora who excelled and achieved great things in their host countries, yet they sought in vain the approval of their non-benign gentile neighbors. Just like them, Israel's current leaders are chasing the not-to-be-had support and affinity of leading Western countries.
In the name of that unrequited love search, they have been willing to send highly dangerous signals to our Palestinian enemies that Israel is willing to relent, to look the other way and to accommodate Palestinian aspirations and inclinations. Our leaders will cloak all of this in the guise of a quest for accommodation and reasonableness. The goal is to show the Palestinians that Israel is prepared to respect Palestinian sensibilities by neither provoking nor providing the grounds for insult and resentment.
All of this sounds appropriate and wise, except that it is all completely misplaced and dangerously counterproductive.
In one of the great historical misreads of the goals and intentions of the opposing side, Israel's leaders have made the great mistake of Western geopolitics, which is to assume that the other guys basically want the same thing as they themselves do. We all want peace, prosperity, good relations with neighbors, and ideally economic cross-pollination among us. Right?
'Long live the Intifada': Palestinians and pro-Palestinian supporters protest against Israeli attacks on Gaza amid days of conflict between the two sides, in Brooklyn, New York, US, May 15, 2021. (credit: RASHID UMAR ABBASI / REUTERS)
Well, what if the other folks simply want to keep going the way things are, with one big caveat: you, Israel, are not part of the picture. "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" is not a ditty; it is a political manifesto of secessionism and elimination. Period, end of story.
We constantly misread the goals and aspirations of the Palestinians. We ignore their surveys which consistently show little interest in making peace with us. We ignore their curricula in schools and their popular media, which are replete with Jew hatred and a desire to see us all banished from our country. We delude ourselves into thinking that this is all an act, a posture designed to secure, what? A better peace treaty, more Palestinian controlled areas in Judea and Samaria?
Of course not. The Palestinians are playing a long game, with a bright and clear goal: the elimination of Israel.
That is the picture and that is the goal. All the policies, the jihad, the payments to the families of terrorists, the rallying cries to defend al-Aqsa, all of it must be seen in the context of working toward that fixed, never changing, never obfuscated goal.
Because that is their playbook. When we denigrate ourselves by saying that Jews on the Temple Mount, or Jews carrying flags in Jerusalem, or Jews singing the "Hatikvah" at a university ceremony are being provocative, we are giving aid and comfort to the Palestinian cause. We are showing them that their efforts are working, that our resolve is weakening and that, with just a few more pushes, demands, riots and appeals for universal condemnation of Israel, the goal will get that much closer and more achievable.
ONE OF Israel's greatest self-inflicted wounds has been on display recently with the craven behavior toward Palestinian mayhem on the Temple Mount. When the Israeli reaction to cynical, manipulative and preplanned Palestinian riots is to prevent Jews from ascending the Temple Mount at all, then you know we are in trouble.
Palestinians know that the Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. They know that their ability to deprive us of that crucial connection represents not only an enormous religious victory in its own right, but also augurs well for the eventual Israeli willingness to let go of less important connections and associations. Denying a Jewish presence, severing a Jewish connection to the Temple Mount thus becomes the proof text for the eventual Palestinian victory. As the old song says, "If we can make it there, we'll make it anywhere."
Why can't we see this? Why must we be so willfully obtuse about the reality of what we are confronting and dealing with?
Here is a current example of how misguided our policies are. In a vain effort to placate the Palestinians through non-provocation, the police refused to countenance a flag march through the Old City during the intermediate days of Passover. In response, Hamas tweeted that having defeated the flag march, it was looking for new and additional symbols of its growing control of what happens in Jerusalem.
Did Hamas "defeat" the flag march? On one level, of course not. They didn't lobby, or threaten repercussions were it to happen. But on a deeper and truer level, of course they succeeded in defeating it. How? By sustaining violence, rioting, lawlessness and the massive semblance of civic madness, the Palestinians/Hamas succeeded in intimidating Israeli authorities and triggering the Pavlovian disapproval of Western and Arab leaders.
The result was a deprivation and a punishment for Jews, not any kind of remonstration with the Palestinians. Having decided that the appropriate policy was to open the floodgate for massive Palestinian pilgrimage to al-Aqsa, our authorities were not about to reverse course.
Here is a suggestion. Next year, I would have our government say, with plenty of notice, that given the violence of the previous year, no visitation will be allowed this year to al-Aqsa. Period. And there will be rioting, undoubtedly. But the rioting will be on the Palestinians' home turf and not ours.
Only conduct like this can start to change the mindset of eventual Palestinian victory to inevitable Palestinian defeat, meaning the denial of eliminationist victory. Israel's leaders must not let what they would like to see happen substitute for what they must know is going to happen. We cannot delude ourselves.
Our very sovereignty is at stake. If we are unwilling to assert it, to project and to protect it, we are sending a clear signal that it, our sovereignty, is in play.
And then, no amount of economic nor even military prowess will protect us.
The writer is chairman of the board of Im Tirtzu and director of the Israel Independence Fund. He can be reached at dougaltabef@gmail.com
Hamas Government Discovers 4,500-Years-Old Canaanite Statue
photo Credit: Courtesy of the Hamas government's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
A statue of the goddess Anat was discovered in the Gaza Strip, April 25, 2022.
The Hamas government's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in the Gaza Strip on Monday announced the discovery of a Canaanite statue by a local Arab who was cultivating his land in the Sheikh Hamouda area of Khan Yunis, Al Quds and other Arab outlets reported.
The Ministry's Director-General of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage, Jamal Abu Rida, explained that the Canaanite statue, dating back to 2500 BCE, depicts the Canaanite goddess Anat, the goddess of war, hunting, and fertility of the ancient Middle East, from Mesopotamia to Canaan and ancient Egypt. Anat is described as a beautiful, courageous and resourceful virgin girl. She is the Canaanite equivalent of the Egyptian Isis, and probably greatly influenced the shaping of the image of the Greek goddess Athena.
Abu Rida reported that the statue is 22 cm (8.6 in) tall, made of limestone, with an integrated head without a body. Attached to the head is the crown in the shape of a serpent, a symbol of strength and invincibility.
Rida stated that the discovery of the archaeological artifact "proves the historical eligibility of the Palestinian people in their land, their heritage, and the sublimity of their civilization thousands of years ago."
He didn't explain why.
The Sheikh Hamouda hill is an archaeological site located 2 km from the town of Qarara in Khan Yunis Governorate, where, according to Rida, the ancient commercial land route was used by "successive civilizations in Palestine."
Those of us who read books other than the Quran would tell you that the name "Palestina" was given by the Roman emperor Adrian to the province of Judea after the Bar Kochva rebellion of 132-135, in an effort to erase the country's Jewish history. Adrian also changed the name of Jerusalem to "Aelia Capitolina" and replaced our burnt Temple with a temple honoring Jupiter.
No Arabs were involved in the commission of that war crime – they were mostly still walking in a circle around this huge meteoric, black stone in the middle of the Arabian desert.
