by rabbi moshe parry
l.a. ca
{based on my tribute delivered in honor of the rabbi in commeration of the anniversary of his 20th yortzeit... 18 mar cheshvan/oct 25 2010}... {as seen on you tube & joo tube}...
last year i spoke here about his tremendous level of ahavat yisroel... love for his fellow jews... just to review briefly...
one day in the brooklyn of his birth... rav meir just nine years old
at the time during the middle of the holocaust stayed in from recess
while all the rest of his classmates went out to run and play... when
they all returned sometime later including the rebbe they were all
shocked to see that meir the boy had taken some chalk to the
blackboard and had drawn up a map of auschwitz depicting the rail
lines leading in and out of the death camp... he was in tears and
pronounced... "we can save so many jewish lives if they would only
bomb the train tracks!" 9 years old and already exhibiting such
outstanding love for jews!!! already displaying the two great torah
maxims or principles which would shape and characterize his
personality in torah... which he would stand for, live by, call for
and eventually die for thruout his life... "v'ahavta l'rayecha
kamocha..." and "lo tamod al dam rayecha!" ~ "love your fellow jew as
yourself..." and "do not stand idly by your brother's blood!"
(vayikra/leviticus 19:16 &18)...
fast forward many years later as rav meir... by then an mk... a duly
elected member of knesset... stood one july or august afternoon
outside the israeli parliament in yerushalayim as an elderly woman
approached him and shouted... "u politicians are all the same... u
don't give a damn about the people... i'm an old woman and can't
afford an air conditioner... but u don't care... all u care about is
your power..." or something to that effect... rav meir said to here...
" stay right here... don't move... don't leave... i'll be right
back..." she complied and a few minutes later rav meir returned
carrying a large box... he had purchased for the woman an electric fan
for her home...
THAT'S AHAVAT YISROEL... LOVE OF JEWS!!!
AND THAT WAS RAV MEIR KAHANE
OF BLESSED MEMORY... ZECHER TZADIK V'KADOSH
L'BRACHA (MAY THE MENTION OF AND THE MEMORY
OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE HOLY BE FOR A BLESSING
FOR THEM AND FOR ALL OF US)...
AND THIS IS FOR WHOM WE HAVE GATHERED HERE
TONIGHT TO HONOR AND TO REMEMBER...
however this year i wish to take a different tack with u... i want to
share with u a few thoughts about what rav meir taught us... what he
stood for and how he perceived, learned and taught torah... in doing
so i will be speaking to u in his own words... i want to demonstrate
to everyone here that what he advocated and spoke out about was not
just his own personal political opinion but was actual torah... the
true torah of the living G-d of Israel... and nothing but torah...
torah-true-judaism to the fullest expression and meaning of the
phrase... torah l'amita in loshon hakodesh (the holy tongue ~ ivrit or
hebrew)... i came to this profound realization when i learned his
sefer... sefer "ohr rayon hayehudi..." "the book of the light of the
authentic jewish idea..."
(for those of u reading this essay... it simply goes by "the jewish
idea" in the english version)...
having gone thru this sefer cover to cover four times now i can
honestly say... only rav meir truly understood and accurately
disseminated torat Hashem... the real torah... all else teach and put
out thru no fault of their own but a pale facsimile... a golut-ridden
version of torah... as i hope to elaborate upon in rav meir's own
words momentarily...
and on this note of torat Hashem... as an aside... let me pause to
thank our host tonite in absentia... rabbi tzvi block whose institute
this is and which not coincidentally is called toras Hashem... he was
and is a great follower of rav meir and he is right now in eretz
hakodesh (the holy land) and is today... tuesday for them... with the
kahane family there to commemorate the life and times and teaching of
rav meir twenty years later and make a pilgrimage to his kever
(gravesite)... so rabbi block thank u very much for hosting this event
the past two years that we have been privileged to speak here and for
doing so for many years prior to these last two...
getting back... rav meir once said that he often would send around
excerpts of chapters from "ohr rayon" as he was writing it... sending
out tracts of the work before it was published to gedolim (torah
sages) around eretz yisroel asking them... imploring them... to please
tell him where he was wrong on any given subject in jewish law which
he was elucidating... about eretz yisroel... or about the arabs and
other non-jews being allowed residence in the land and especially on
the torah prohibition as he understood the torah to state about the
extreme sin of ever giving any of our sacred land away to gentiles...
rav meir said he never once received a single response and took that
to mean that they just couldn't find a flaw in his scholarship or in
his reasoning or in his conception of any of the commandments or if u
will... the mitzvot of the torah...
these rabbis and sages could never find a single error in his
presentation and erudition... not in his discussion of each point he
argued for... nor in the matter of his declaring principles to be
attributes of G-d or claims of concepts to be actual torah laws and
the will of Hashem... not a single incident... and u would think his
detractors would want to disprove him and take him down because they
feared him so and disagreed with him so greatly and with such
regularity... so they were not merely ignoring him... rav meir kahane
was not a jew which any other jew could or would ignore... u either
loved him or reviled him... but none of us was ever neutral about him
or his spoken or written words or his methods of action... he was that
cogent, that riveting and that cutting-edge relevant... and he remains
so today twenty years hence... in death as he was in life... THE
authority on what the torah of Hashem demands of us... that we must
do... to earn our geulah shelaymah (our final redemption)...
and thus no one back then and still no one today can simply dismiss
rav meir and his teachings with a mere shrug of the shoulders or a
wave of the hand or a roll of the eyes... he made us think... he made
us debate and as a result he made us into better jews... and that is
true even of the ones who so vehemently disagreed with him like alan
dershowitz who has become something of a defender of israel these days
despite having been destroyed by rav meir in a famous debate... the
same can be said for dennis prager and his experiences mixing it up
with rav meir... i think prager held several verbal duels with rav
meir... and in all honesty the same can be said for me and my track
record of encounters with rav meir here in l.a... my having challenged
him publicly a couple of times during the final few years of his
life... before i too was completely won over and wholly convinced of
the rectitude of his views and the absolute truth of his vision...
therefore suffice it to say that we are addressing an important issue
here tonite... the vital message of rav meir kahane and his vision...
rav meir saw these things befalling our people of late these past two
decades... but he saw them twenty and thirty years out... and he tried
to warn us about them... to no avail so far... but we mustn't give
up... we must not lose hope... jews will wake up... jews will rise up
and meet the calling rav meir has set for us... here in chutz l'aretz
and especially so in our homeland israel... i personally have... i was
as many of my peers twenty some odd years ago... even though i was
already then a ba'al tshuvah of ten or so years however i was still
moored in the jewish liberalism of my youth... so if i could come
around so can the rest of world jewry... especially this next
generation growing up around us... u can hear rav meir's fiery voice
even now... it has not been silenced... it has not gone cold... it has
not grown stale... and some of u are here with us tonite for the first
time and u will go back to your friends and family and tell them what
u heard and learned here tonite... so we are gaining steam... we are
making progress... with Hashem's help WE will win... we will prevail
here... not the jewish traitors in our midst... traitors to our
people... our history... our land and our heritage...
and so we are here to discuss rav meir's message of truth via the
torah he taught us... but u know his son, rav binyamin Hy"d (may
Hashem avenge his blood)... whose tenth yortzeit this year... will be
right after chanukah on the 5th of tevet which this time around falls
out on dec 12th... in 2000 it was dec 31st...
binyamin wrote about the abuse an oppression he underwent at the hands
of the israeli ruling-authorities... they had banned his father's
party kach and later on as well binyamin's party kahane chai branding
them both as racist and terrorist organizations... he wrote that on a
weekly basis and sometimes on a daily one the police would raid either
his home in kfar tapuach or his torah center... the yeshiva of the
authentic jewish idea in yerushalayim...
they would confiscate his computer... ransack his files... by the way
every jew on the planet should get his book... binyamin's great
work... "the haggadah of the jewish idea..." and read it and reread
it... and not just on pesach (passover)... but all year long... it is
phenomenal... anyone wishing to get a glimpse into and glean an
overview of the philosophy of the kahanes can do so with this book...
thru this book... it is must reading for all of us if we are to
survive as a people and as a nation...
but binyamin said it was a wonder this book of his ever got published
and ever saw the light of day given how many times they raided him...
but he stated what these raids indicated to him... that they were
worried... very concerned about him and the torah he was spreading all
over the land.of israel... he said that no other yeshiva in israel
received this kind of attention... so they must be doing something
right! the israeli goon-squad was not afraid of any other institution
over the torah they were teaching... only the kahane yeshiva... so
they must have deemed that only their torah was a threat to the
powers-that-be who wished to remain so... and wouldn't be any longer
if binyamin's torah reached enough of the israeli electorate...
and so "the jewish idea" was deemed a threat to the establishment and
these raids demonstrated just how much they really feared that the
torah of the authentic jewish idea might spread like wildfire... (and
it surely has)... and he said this is the sign that our ideas are
correct and going to carry the day... soon... very soon now...
and on that note let me begin my specific points of reference to rav
meir's ideas and concepts.. by acknowledging the presence of a couple
of tonite's guests... ira and lou braverman... ira's brother... lou's
father... david braverman alav hashalom has just passed away... he
died a day or two after this past yom kippur... the funeral... the
lavaya... was erev succot mamash...
david was a close personal friend and confidant of rav meir... a
great leader in his own right in the kach and kahane chai movements
and cause... as a result he illustrates perfectly my first point of
rav meir's teachings of what was crucial to him and mattered most to
him to impart to us... for david was a jew living in golut... in
exile... but because of rav meir's influence THE EXILE WAS NO LONGER
LIVING WITHIN HIM!!! he had broken its bonds and transcended the
limitations of the nearly 2000 year-old image of the pathetic,
downtrodden and broken down and beaten down hapless, hopeless and
helpless jew of the exile... the image of the jew crushed and buried
underneath the heel of the reigning gentile... and more times than not
throughout our history in the diaspora... we were ground down under
the heel and the thumb of a very jew-hating and anti-semitic reigning
gentile world of elitist slime... be they the yishmael-garden variety
that was to be found by our sephardic and edat mizrach brethren within
the arab/muslim islamic world of the greater middle east and north
africa or the roman esavite-type of rot that we ashkenazim were made
to endure for two millennia throughout catholic and even protestant
christian europe...
so as a close associate and comrade-in-arms of rav meir... david did
not bend nor break to the whims of gentile or even assimilated jewish
overlords calling the shots here in the u.s.... he did not fit the
bill... he did not play the role of the traditional meek and
defenseless golut jew... no... david braverman was a proud jew... an
heroic jew... a gibbor chayal... he exemplified the torah jews of
old... he was a kohen... a priest... the same as rav meir... and
therefore both of their roots go back to the chashmanoiim... the
macabees... to matisyahu and his five sons... led by yehuda
hamacabee... who led a band of scholar-priest/warriors in open
defiance and rebellion of the entirely filthy world-conquering greek
empire... throwing off their evil yoke which led to the chanukah
miracle and the reclaiming and rededicating of the second temple...
our beit hamikdash in yerushalayim on the temple mount... on har
habayit... the holiest and most sacred spot on earth bar none... the
site where adam harishon (the first man) was created... where noach
came to sacrifice after the mabul ~ the great flood... and among other
historic events the place of the akedah (the binding) of yitzchak the
only and precious son of avraham avinu which we read about this past
shabat in shul... in synagogue... at the end of parshat vayeira...
(bereshit/genesis 22)...
david and rav meir represented to us these courageous jews of old whom
our tradition tells us liberated our land from enemy hands at great
personal sacrifice... with great mesirat nefesh... laying down their
lives for Hashem... for G-d and country and for the sake of their
jewish brothers and sisters... and thus they ripped our holy temple
and city from the hands of our internal and external enemies... from
gentiles and sadly and unfortunately from many jewish-hellenistic
enemies as well...
and david strode thru life... walked this earth following his rebbe
rav meir... both of them following in the footsteps of their great and
holy ancestors... in the path of this historical legacy of bravery and
jewish pride... as servants of G-d and as a result no longer slaves to
slaves... as all of humanity are slaves of G-d and our freedom and
liberation from egypt... from mitzrayim... was and is supposed to mean
for all time to come that we are never ever again to be subjected to
the humiliation and the depravity of being beholden to any other
people or nation... that we are only to bow our knee to G-d and to G-d
alone...and never ever again allow ourselves at the hand of the
nations to be reduced to abject slavery... to the servitude of their
chains of bondage as we experienced in mitzrayim... and reb david
braverman lived that life... the life of the true jew... the proud
jew... the free jew... the upright jew... the jew of old... he and rav
meir were throwbacks to the likes of king david... david hamelech...
and samuel the prophet... shmuel hanavi... and samson... shimshon
hagibbor and gideon... and as well like devorah hanviah... the great
jewish woman... the prophetess and judge who led her people thru very
very trying times of persecution...
so in this way i wish to salute the life and spiritual accomplishments
of david braverman zecher tzadik l'vracha... and by way of this pay
tribute to rav meir for having raised up a david braverman... having
raised up david to his heights of true jewish virtue and valor...
and so let us now explore further some more of the great teachings of
our master and teacher rav meir kahane and try to internalize his view
of torah-true judaism... rav meir taught us that there are two
divergent strains of torah being propagated and promoted within the
religiously-loyal torah world... a golut torah of the exile which is
but a pale substitute for and a mere glimmer of the greatness and
glory of the real torah... the infinite, limitless and unneutered
actual torah which G-d gave us at mt sinai... at har sinai... a torah
that is unbowed, unfettered and one that adamantly refuses to be
watered down... a torah that does not teach nor wreak from the stench
of the fear of the gentile and the constant impulse and need to make
the goyim love us... but only a torah that elevates us to the fear and
love of G-d alone...
let me describe to u what i mean... the torah as taught for the great
balance of the last 500-1000 years has largely devolved and relegated
judaism into a kitchen religion due to the fact that the
full-expansion and broad scope of torah judaism was denied us and held
away from us by our miserable conditions in the diaspora... and as an
outcome of this... not many avenues or aspects of judaism were left
open and available to us to be able to keep in play the full range and
thorough sweep of the true vision of G-d's torah... and so it became
all about shabat and kashrut... prayer and ritual... and we had to be
content with just this small portion of our torah's actual grandeur,
world-historic message and vital relevance for all walks of life and
in all areas of endeavor in this world... and so not nearly enough of
torah was allowed out of the box to which it was confined by our
"jailers" in the exile who purposefully kept it there under lock and
key...
and therefore not having a land of our own... a country and national
life to call our own... nor a government or an army... we were limited
in our practice of torah mitzvot and thereby unable to bring its true
value front and center in world affairs and hold it aloft and display
its full flowering of expression for the whole world to see... and
torah education and dissemination of judaism has suffered immensely
and has never been able to fully recover since... until we find
ourselves today in the situation where this true view of torah judaism
of which rav meir taught is still nowhere to be seen... nowhere to
behold... and it has become almost totally forgotten by most if not
all of our people... even among our rabbis and leaders... thus rav
meir informed us... is our regrettable matzav ~ situation yet to this
very day unbeknownst to most of us even amongst the torah-faithful
portion of world jewry...
now don't get me wrong... i'm all for keeping shabat and keeping
kosher... and i advocate our learning and practicing every tenet and
detail of these two mitzvot... but i also insist upon as rav meir
did... that we do the same for all of the other 611 of the taryag
mitzvot... we should be learning and implementing them as well...
these are also jewish laws teaching jewish values and inculcating
within us hopefully true torah concepts of life on earth as envisioned
for us by our Master and Creator... which He has willed for us to
realize... these too are commandments of G-d... mitzvot of the
torah... things like the laws of jewish kings and courts and temple
service... and the laws of war and peace as well.... informing us when
to go to war and when not... and over what... and then there are also
laws we need to know which concern the holiness and sacredness of the
land of israel... and the inviolable covenant we forged with G-d over
it and for it... the laws of sanctifying G-d's name... laws of
following or emulating G-d's ways and attributes... and therefore also
the mitzvah to uproot, burn out and wipe out every last vestige of
evil from our midst... from our land... and eventually from off the
face of the whole entire earth... in other words the eradication of
chillul Hashem... the desecration of G-d's name... to erase and to
eliminate every last trace of disgrace to the hegemony of the kingdom
of Hashem upon earth...
and then of course there is also the paramount virtue and mitzvah of
our caring for one another and being responsible for each other...
"k'lal yisroel aravim zeh b'zeh..." and as well the obligation for
every jew to be the guarantor of his/her fellow jew and know that we
are held accountable by G-d for each other... for what we do or do not
do for each other and as well for having failed to live up to our
complete torah calling in every facet and in every tenet...
all of the above are crucial jewish values which must be taught and
taken to heart in their every nuanced detail and not just learned out
and taught over theoretically and left at that... no... this is not
good enough... this is insufficient... not even if done with the deep
penetrating analysis and sharply honed scholarship of a maharal or a
vilna gaon... two of the greatest torah minds of the last 500 years if
not of all-time... (who themselves were always trying to bring to
l'maesa ~ to bring to actuality those depths and secrets of torah emet
{truth}that they were so gifted and fortunate enough to uncover and to
mine from the sacred soil of torat Hashem)... because real torah
learning must always lead to action... to mitzvah performance and
implementation... sadly the golut held them back from realizing their
goals and dreams for k’lal yisroel’s (the jewish people’s) complete
restoration to nationhood and repatriation to our ancient homeland…
torah learning is the highest ideal within authentic judaism...
"talmud torah k'neged kulam..." ~ "the study of torah outweighs all of
them (all of the other commandments)..." but not the monastic
ivory-tower version of the medieval christian church and islamic
clerics... torah study must be brought to fruition by the mitzvot
being carried out into forceful and life-transforming action... all of
them... not just the few paltry amount left to us after our forceful
expulsion from our homeland by the cursed romans circa 70ce... which
prevented us from fulfilling torah on its highest levels and at its
fullest capacity ever since...
as our chazal (our sages) teach us... "gadol talmud torah hamayvie
l'day maseh..." ~ "great is the study of torah because (or when) it
brings or leads (the one who studies) to action or deeds..." and "lo
hatalmud ikar elah hamaseh..." ~ "the study (of torah) is not the main
thing... rather the doing (of mitzvot) is..." and therefore in sum...
as we say three times daily in the ending prayer of "alenu..."
summoning us to be "l'saken olam b'malchut sha-dai..." ~ "to rectify
the world under the sole soveriegnty of the Al-mighty..."
the word in there is "l'saken olam" or "l'taken olam" - "to fix, to
repair or to rectify the world..." (take your pick)... or as it is
known in the vernacular... "tikkun olam..." now "tikkun olam" is a
much bandied about term in our day and age... but it is not just about
protecting the environment... nor just about ending hunger and
suffering and disease around the globe... though both of these are
real goals of the torah of G-d... but our primary objective and
mission in this world AS JEWS is to see to it that all of humanity
learn to recognize the light of the one and only true G-d on earth...
the sole creator of mankind and everything in our world... because we
know that this is what will solve all of our problems of injustice and
disharmony... of man's historic inhumanity toward his fellow man...
this and only this will do the job... everything else under the sun...
every "ism" and philosophy imaginable has already been tried to little
or no avail... they have all been employed at one time or another and
absolutely none of them have worked... for mankind is still
slaughtering each other on a daily... if not on an almost hourly...
basis... with no end to this misery and insanity in sight... and so we
know that the answer... the only answer... is that all religions and
variant ways of life must cease and only judaism must remain...
not that all gentiles must become jews... mind u... this in fact will
not be allowed and will become expressly prohibited once the messiah
-- the moshiach comes... no more converts to judaism will be
accepted... however the point here is that all of mankind must come to
know that the G-d of israel exists and only He... the goyim (not a
derogative term it simply means "nations")... the goyim must be made
to realize and to phathom who He truly is and clearly comprehend what
He is not... and must recognize the torah as the only vehicle and
source... and the only way... for them to connect to Him via the seven
universal laws of mankind as communicated to them by virtue of these
laws having been commanded to noach after the mabul... after the
flood... and they must grasp that these commandments emanate out to
them from this same torah of G-d... and once this is achieved then
will come to pass that which we also state at the very end of
"alenu..." "v'hayah Hashem l'melech al col haretz, bayom hahu yiheyeh
Hashem echad u'shmo echad..." that then it will be that "G-d will be
king (or will rule) over all of the earth... and on that day (finally)
Hashem will be one and His name will be one..."
meaning to say... that not only will G-d be one as indeed He always in
truth has been one and the only one... but finally He will be
recognized by every living human being on the planet that He is it...
the one and only... and they will then all know and recognize His
rightful name and description (and G-d and His name will no longer be
called by or associated with... jesus or allah or buddah or anything
else save for "israel" or "the G-d of abraham, isaac and jacob")...
and then and only then will we all have true peace... and all of our
mortal agony, cruel suffering and inhuman misery at the hand of our
fellow man... be at long, long last at an end... forever...
but the first thing rav meir instructs us about on how to reach this
elevated level of human consciousness that we yearn for so much and in
order to achieve that which we so desperately seek... a cessation of
all of our pain and all of our aforementioned angst... and for an end
to all warfare forever as well... and that key element is for mankind
but especially so for every jew alive... to understand and perceive
properly exactly what G-d is communicating to us by His words found
within His torah... and as we mentioned before about a two-pronged
torah perception among the observant world and what great harm this
has brought to us all and what immense damage it has perpetrated
against the cause of torah spreading and claiming the hearts and minds
of the masses of humanity thruout the world...
but there is as well the misperception of torah from the irreligious
or non-observant jewish world... and therefore the very first glaring
and major emergency which we have to confront head on is for these
jews everywhere to heed the warning of rav meir and become aware of
the threat to our people's survival that their approach to torah
entails... and the crucial initial need for us in this regard is to
convey to them the dire necessity of their grasping and acknowledging
the point that this error in judgment on their part about the
undeniable truth of torah must indeed cease and do so at once...
we must stop following only the parts of torah we agree with... stop
turning the real torah of G-d into our own private little fiefdom...
our own personal "torah" and brand of judaism... one that must first
always prove itself to us and meet with our approval before we will
concur and deign to accept it and keep it... which must first always
rise to the worthiness of what WE deem in our minds to be acceptable
mores, customs, attitudes and modes of behavior and proper awareness
and consciousness... and then and only then will we countenance
"torah" and agree to put it into practice... this must stop... for
what this generation acknowledges as moral and ethical may just be in
reality... in G-d's eyes... just the opposite... the height of
absurdity... and ergo the most unethical and immoral of thoughts,
attitudes and deeds...
and allow me please to let u all in on a little secret... it is...
especially in the area of jews condoning abortion, homosexuality and
all other forms of religion... which are tantamount to and translate
out into our acceptance of the three cardinal sins against G-d as
somehow being ok... the very ones we are bidden to lay down our lives
for before we will transgress any of them willingly or even by
coercion... murder, immorality and idolatry... the three central
pillars comprising the foundation of the justice system of
monotheism... and the value system which underlies our profession of
our belief in one G-d... the very same code of conduct which has
always served to identify the jew in this world as the exclusive
servant of G-d par excellence... and that which rests at the very
heart of and the core of and the very essence of the ten commandments
which introduced Hashem and His will to all the nations on earth at
the revelation of the torah on mt sinai some 3300+ years ago...
and thus in both these cases of the golut-ridden torah as opposed to
the actual torah of redemption which we really received at har sinai
after the exodus... and the non-torah which the vast majority of world
jewry thinks is real torah and honors and keeps it as such and views
it as a legitimate form of torah mi sinai... what it all breaks down
to is this... it is not what WE think which determines true torah but
what G-d says... it matters not what area of torah we learn but it
vitally matters HOW and WHY we learn the torah... to what end and what
purpose and in which context... in which spirit... we pursue the
truth of G-d's word... and so rav meir teaches us the right ruach (the
right spirit) and correct vision of torah which we must have and
maintain... and rav meir repeatedly stressed how vital this way of
looking at judaism is... and how urgently this viewpoint and attitude
toward the torah of G-d must be adopted by us and become our sole
guiding light if we are to succeed in saving our people and our
homeland...
all else... all torah learned and mitzvot practiced not in this
elevated state of awareness is as he wrote and i quote...(from "the
jewish idea" vol 1 pages 534-35)... "to our sorrow... the mitzvot have
become ritual... their performance is cut off from the Divine ideas
and attributes which are their theme... the practical mitzvot... both
major and minor... which must certainly be kept fastidiously in fear
and awe of G-d... actually serve only to symbolize G-d's ideas and
attributes and to crystallize them... (but) without these... the
mitzvot become empty vessels... providing no spiritual elevation..."
and if this thought applies even to those who are observant jews and
who at least ostensibly strive to keep ALL of the mitzvot in all of
their varied details... what then must be said for those jews who not
only do just the ones they like or only certain parts or portions of
the individual mitzvot which they feel comfortable with or deem
reasonable... but who at the very same time also ascribe foreign or
alien philosophies or concepts to their performance of them... how
much more so are the "mitzvot" they perform or the "torah" they learn
and teach just "empty vessels providing (absolutely and categorically)
no spiritual elevation"...?
and as rav meir instructed us... neither does it matter... not one
iota... not in the slightest... whether any of these jews from either
of these two erring camps are well-meaning and sincere in the manner
in which they undertake to keep their torah mitzvot... if they do not
measure up to Hashem's standards and levels of mandated observance and
cognition of their true intent then they are just not mitzvot...
furthermore if they do not reach the threshold of nor meet the
objective criteria for the real torah of G-d... which rav meir proves
throughout "the jewish idea" is the only true light and only authentic
version of torah... then they are just spinning their wheels and not
really accomplishing anything concrete or tangible in the world...
nothing whatsoever...
and on this note... next we must consider what rav meir taught us
about the following torah-true concept... that israel... the jewish
people... we... are not to be just another religion in the world...
no... but a religio-nation... hear the distinction... we are not just
concerned with rituals and ceremonies... services in shul and
observances at home... we are not just keeping torah privately by and
for ourselves... in which case we would not need a land of israel in
which to dwell and keep our covenantal torah from G-d... no... if that
were the case we could each go our separate ways and just make sure
wherever we find ourselves... be it in switzerland or over in
hawaii... that we observe the mitzvot properly and adequately and then
we would be fine jews and servants of G-d, torah and judaism just like
any other religious peoples of any other faith are fine christians or
moslems for example no matter where they are just as long as they are
keeping their creed's tenets correctly...
but not us... no sir... rather we jews are to be an am... a people...
a nation who keeps the torah religion called judaism... but together
as one in our land... and this religion of torah judaism contains more
than just a certain unique set of rituals different from all other
religious codes of conduct... ours includes laws about how to run a
national government, an economy, a court system and a military... thus
this is not the way we must see our torah faith... as just a personal
or private affair of each individual jew... instead we must view it as
an entity that entails a community-wide involvement in unison... each
of us doing our part for the good of the whole... because we were not
given a torah of mitzvot for individual jews we were given an entire
body of laws for the people of israel... for am yisroel... to keep...
and no man, woman or child... no kohen, levi or yisroel... no king,
judge, soldier, prophet, farmer, shepherd or merchant, etc can do it
all by him/herself... none of us can keep all 613 mitzvot... only our
nation in tandem and in harmony can... and so rav meir teaches us that
therefore we must all come together as G-d intended for us... and of
course davka... in eretz yisroel... in the land of israel... in order
for all of us to share in the monumental task and duty and obligation
and the lofty honor and privilege of serving the Master of the
universe in His palace... in eretz hakodesh... in the holy land of
israel...
this leads directly into our next major idea of crucial importance
within torah-true judaism which rav meir established for us... we are
the elect and chosen of G-d and as i just said... this too was a major
conviction of rav meir and a central teaching of his to us... and of
this i am certain... the elitist slime... the royal families of europe
and the pagans over at the vatican and the blue-blooded aristocracy
here in america have no trouble at all holding themselves special and
self-appointing themselves as the most important personages on the
planet... which in reality is all a fraud and utter hokum and a total
pack of lies... but we who really ARE the genuine article... the real
mccoys... the actual am hanivchar... the chosen people... chosen by
G-d Himself to become a "mamlechet kohanim v'goy kadosh..." ~ "a
kingdom of priests (or ministers) and a holy nation..." b'emet... in
truth... for real... by G-d!!! (shmot/exodus 19:6)...
and so we should stop being embarrassed by our special role and
distinguished calling and by our complete spiritual ascendancy and
elevation above the rest of mankind who all rejected the torah in
avraham's time and again in moshe rebenu's era... and instead we
should start appreciating who we are and what we are all... as G-d's
treasured nation... really here to do and quit worrying that we will
be less loved or even hated by the world if we hold ourselves superior
and lay claim to our higher calling, station and status...
they will hate us anyway rav meir taught us because they hate G-d
Himself... the elite slime all loathe the G-d that rejected them and
elected and chose us over them... and they will always hate us until
the end of time and keep hating us because they wish to see us
annihilated and our torah along with us so that they can once again
feel good about themselves without jews and torah's higher morality
and loftier level of Divinely human consciousness always staring them
dead in the face and making them feel inferior... because they ARE
inferior as a result of their ancestors' desire and decision to throw
off Hashem's yoke from their necks and backs and essentially endeavor
to kick G-d out of His own world...
and so we must cultivate our pride in our legitimate superior holiness
and exalted level of spirituality... and at the same time rav meir
warned us... we must learn how not to become arrogant about this...
but rather learn to use our choseness (if that’s a word) to serve and
love G-d and serve and love each other and our torah heritage,
history, people and land...
and as rav meir also instructed us... we must grasp the true purpose
of judaism... and of eretz yisroel... that we are and were to be given
our own land and a place apart from the world where we could serve G-d
exclusively and build up a civilization and a culture to show the
entire world what mankind was really created to accomplish here in
this life... here in this world... and this is the true meaning of our
being as yeshayah hanavi/isaiah the prophet said… an "ohr l'goyim..."
~ "a light unto the nations..." not a light with nobel laureates in
medicine, science and literature but with jews who are thoroughly holy
inside and out... imbued with kedusha... being kodesh... being holy
as Hashem is holy... and thereby being m'kadesh shem shamayim... doing
and living al pi kiddush Hashem... sanctifying G-d's name on
earth...we are taught that this refined and great level of
example-setting will then indeed sweep the world... and we will see by
our actions that we will make Hashem rule the earth... willingly on
the part of the majority of mankind... only the elite slime heretics
and heathens will refuse to comply because they wish to be gods
themselves and so they will never relent... they will never repent...
and they will be removed from here as rav meir taught us in the coming
war of "gog u'maygog..." ~ "armaggedon..." as in the colloquial
parlance...
we do not need to conquer the earth for G-d at the point of a sword as
the heathen christians... the inquisitiors and crusaders of europe...
thought to do in the middle ages... nor do we seek to impose our will
upon the entire planet via jihadist fundamentalist islamic terrorism
as the inhuman and inhumane diabolical moslem world seeks to do as
their insane progenitor taught them way back when in their “holy” book
of utter falsehoods and rubbish... true judaism has no need for
slaughter or brainwashing and mind control or fear-mongering to get
our message across... to convey the will of G-d... for clearly most of
humanity already thirsts and yearns for what torah truly has to
offer... as a man parched and lost in the desert aches for a cool,
clear pool of water...
the concepts, philosophies and forms of christian love of and islamic
submission to G-d are foreign and alien to torah-true judaism... and
in the name of this love and that submission both of these severely
misguided religions and cultures (to say the very least!) have spilled
enough jewish AND gentile blood to float a flotilla of ocean
liners...
rav meir taught us that our way... the true jewish way... is to
demonstrate the absolute certainty of the existence of G-d and His
omnipotence and omniscience by our being prepared to keep our
commandments to the point of death... mesirat nefesh... self-sacrifice
and kiddush Hashem (this time "kiddush Hashem" is utilized in the
context of and in translation as... "martyrdom")... if necessary...
and only if absolutely necessary... but this is the way... our way...
the torah way... to conquer the minds and hearts of all of humanity...
and only in this way...
but these mitzvot of ours require us to stand alone if need be and
defy and go up against the entire world if necessary... and this rav
meir taught us is the deep secret of our path to complete and final
redemption... our roadmap to the geulah shelaymah... he taught us as
well that to attain this madrega… this lofty level of true mesirat
nefesh... the willingness to be moser nefesh… to be self-sacrificing…
if called upon to do so individually or as a whole nation… the way to
achieve this is to learn and internalize the concrete aspects of what
it means to truly have faith in G-d... to REALLY believe in Him and do
so completely and exhibit this faith and belief where and when it
counts the most by putting our total trust in Him and in Him alone...
to have true emunah v'bitachon... even in the face of imminent and
maximum danger… and he informed us… it is no easy task this... it is
a path fraught with trials and tribulations... fearful and awesome
challenges... but this is… rav meir instructed us... the only way for
us to bring moshiach in a manner where there will be a minimum of
jewish tragedy and casualty...
again… when we demonstrate accurately that we are servants only of G-d
then we liberate ourselves completely from being the slaves of the
nations and when we do this in defiance of the elite slime's will...
when we show them and the rest of the world they presently rule over
that we care more and are more concerned only for the will of Hashem
and could not care less about what they deem as proper and appropriate
for us to believe and to do and to hold philosophically as true...
when we do this rav meir said... then we demonstrate our awesome faith
and trust in G-d and this brings down Divine favor, grace and
salvation and inspires all the rest of mankind... every decent human
being on earth… to do the same... to stand with us against the tyranny
and despotism of the slime... and against their kefira... their denial
of the existence of and reverence for G-d!!!
and yes rav meir taught us this will mandate our need to fight wars...
avraham had an army... moshe had one... as did yehoshua/joshua...
shaul (saul) hamelech... and of course david hamelech... king david...
and these are the top of the heap... the cream of the crop... without
exception the absolutely holiest jews and human beings ever to walk
the face of the earth... and if they had to fight then so do we who
are their lessers... by far their lessers...
and furthermore as rav meir instructed us... avraham avinu who was
the paragon of the virtue of chesed... of doing acts of loving
kindness toward all of mankind... when faced with the news that his
nephew lot had been captured and seized in battle and that he was
being paraded around in a cage because he looked so much like avraham
and that nimrod was proclaiming that the G-d of avraham was dead or
impotent now because they had captured avraham himself... the man they
had once thrown into the kivshan haaish… into the burning furnace and
who had miraculously lived inside it for four days and had emerged
unscathed... that avraham had now become a prisoner of war... of their
gods... of moloch, shamash and ba'al...
this depth of depravity and awful chillul Hashem... avraham avinu...
THE pillar and master of brotherhood and kindness in his generation…
(in any generation)… determined he just could not abide... he was not
prepared to accept… and so he went to war... to war to eradicate the
desecration of G-d's name he saw in this evil event... to either
reverse it with a victory for G-d or to die a martyr's death in the
attempt to do so... which in itself is... IS... a form of kiddush
Hashem which wipes out evil desecrations of Heaven...
the same as is told over in the death by means of kiddush Hashem of
rebbe akiva... rebbe akiva was the one we will recall who encouraged
and emboldened a whole generation of rabbis and students to rise up
and defy tyranny and slavery and throw off the cruel and heavy yoke of
subservience to roman oppression and despotism... and when bar kochba
failed and became a failed moshiach and every single last one of rebbe
akiva’s 24,000 carefully-crafted and preciously-valued students had
perished in that conflagration... what did rebbe akiva do...? he went
right back to work teaching the torah of G-d to raise up another
generation of scholars and inspire another regiment of rebels to
finish the mission of gaining freedom for jews to live in peace in
their land guided solely and exclusively by their sacred Divine code
of law... and in doing so he defied the order of the romans to cease
and desist from teaching over the torah of Hashem that had so infused
this now defunct past generation of jews with the holy zeal and fierce
passion and the requisite courage to rise up in righteous indignation
and open revolt… which very nearly toppled the roman empire between
135-165 of the common era... oh so close... so agonizingly close...
and so rebbe akiva disobyed and taught torah openly in defiance of
this evil decree and sinister edict... and he paid for this with his
life as the barbarous roman butchers raked his flesh with hot iron
combs while he said the kriat shema... the shema yisroel… the supreme
testimony of our faith and trust in Hashem… and thus returned his
soul to His maker in exquisite purity and sanctity... while the
disgustingly satanic cannibals sold his flesh... weighing it out on
scales down in the marketplaces of rome...
but they eventually got there's and we out lived them and survived
them... we outlasted them... and we are still here today and they are
long gone... they have disappeared... poof... like smoke and ashes
blown away in the wind... and now nothing remains of them… nothing is
left of them save for the residue and charcoal of dead embers of
cinders of spent coal... and they have been tossed long, long ago into
the dustbin of history... for all our enemies are merely mortal... and
only we are eternal like our G-d...
and we see this clearly in our own time how Hashem has made us
immortal and has resurrected us from the ovens of auschwitz... for we
of this generation know of the greatest miracle to transpire in our
lifetime for the jewish people and the greatest one in the last 2500
years of our history as rav meir loved to relate... the greatest
moment in our history since the glorious chanukah miracle and jewish
war against the arrogant greeks... we speak of course of the 6-day war
back in june of 1967... when the L-rd G-d of israel shook the whole
earth... when everyone on the entire planet thought we would all be
dead a universal view held by all among our own people included
worldwide... massacred in yet another holocaust... and instead we
liberated forever much of our original holy biblical land (yesha) and
our holy city (yerushalayim)... and the makom hamikdash (our temple
mount on har habayit)... and as rav meir never tired of telling us...
we witnessed then miracles and wonders of G-d's glory and might so
great that it sparked the ba'al tshuvah movement which is the reason
so many of us are here tonite inside a synagogue and a yeshiva
speaking words of torah and practicing the ancient torah-true
judaism...
and as the news of our Divinely-aided victory and survival spread the
globe... someone was inspired bless his/her soul over in italy to go
over to the arch of titus erected at the fall of judea so very long
ago... when the romans thought they had finally vanquished us for
all-time... and he/she took a pen and inscribed on the wall of that
monument which is a disgrace to G-d and should be burnt to the
ground... the famous words in hebrew... "am yisroel chai!!!" ~ "the
nation or people of israel yet lives!!!"
pronouncing to the whole entire world of jew-haters and
anti-semities... that we have won... our G-d has beaten them... we
have survived despite what they all tried to do to us for over 3500
years beginning with avraham... and what is more... they will never
destroy us!!! as we read each and every year at the seder in the
pesach (the passover) haggadah… “elah sh’b’chol dor v’dor omdim alenu
l’chalotenu v’HaKodesh Boruch Hu matzelaynu mi yadam…” ~ “however in
every generation they rise up to destroy us (our enemies)… but each
and every time G-d rescues us from their hands…” but we must be humble
and add here as well... "od avinu chai!!!" ~ "our Father in Heaven yet
lives as well!!!" and this is the real reason and the only reason that
we still live!!!
and this is why rav meir urged us so greatly and so often with such
alacrity and mesirat nefesh... giving his life for this cause... to
wake jews up to their true selves... to their true calling on earth...
in life... he pushed and he pushed as he strove to lead us all by
becoming prime minister of israel... so that he could begin to
reestablish torah law... the Divine code of law as the law of our
land... for our own good... for our own welfare... for our own
salvation… knowing full-well that a jewish people and a state of
israel that refuses to implement torah in the holy land would be beset
G-d forbid with upheavals, calamity and tragedy... and that it would
be so... that it must be so as a result of our failure to live up to
our mission to sanctify and honor the great might and power of G-d by
demonstrating in front of the entire world our humility and acceptance
of His authority and malchut... His kingship over us…
and above all else… rav meir implored us... every single solitary one
of us… not to give into the goyim who demand of us that we give up
portions of Hashem's sacred soil... that this was and is an enormous
chillul Hashem... which lowers the esteem of G-d in the eyes of all
mankind... and thus he cried out in pain and agony and in great horror
and anger as he mourned over our suicidal headlong plunge into the
abyss... into the oblivion which this foolish mindset was taking all
of us… the whole house of israel… over our stubborn and willful
delusion and insistence that this was the right course to take... to
compromise and "make peace" ("land for peace") when right from the
start he knew it was an empty mirage... a pipe-dream... a false god...
an idol placed by us in the very holy of holies... and he constantly
warned us that this was a dreadful and a serious mistake... that the
only "peace" this would bring us all… G-d forbid… was the "peace of
the grave.." and how right he was... and how correct he still is!!! as
the ubiquitous slogan all over eretz yisroel screams out at us
everywhere we go...
“KAHANE TZADAK!!!” ~ "KAHANE TZADAK!!!"
(“KAHANE WAS RIGHT!!!” ~ "KAHANE WAS RIGHT!!!")
rav meir taught us that in truth our only path to salvation was via
strong and bold acts of courage... he was without a doubt moshiach ben
yosef as rav shlomo carlebach of blessed memory acknowledged
publically on the night of rav meir's murder... on that black and
pitch dark... very black... monday nov 4, 1990... and although
therefore we only must await the arrival of moshiach ben david… he
will only arrive when either G-d has extreme mercy and pity on all of
us wallowing in needless suffering and tragedy because we refuse
because we are afraid to take the steps necessary for Hashem to redeem
us in light and happiness and with joy and total victory...
the geulah that can only occur if we stand up to the nations in open
defiance over Hashem's torah and mitzvot and in our generation this
means the mitzvah of living in and conquering all of the land of
israel which Hashem commands us to occupy, settle, dwell in, annex,
possess and own forever and all by ourselves with our actually going
out and excluding and dispossessing all the goyim from having any
foothold within our G-d-given and Divinely-held homeland... only if we
are willing to do this will we avoid heartache and bloodshed... pain
and tragedy...
and this can only be done rav meir cajoled us by our first losing our
golut-mentality… and to his mind… nothing said weakness and cowardice
and a golut-mentality quite like the maxim taught unfortunately to
jews all over the world and even inside the land of Israel itself by
our so-called jewish leaders, teachers and rabbis… and still being
taught by them to this very day much to our eternal shame and chagrin
as if it were the 11th commandment... the very sick of mind and
diseased of soul... twisted and demented concept of... "thou shalt not
provoke the goyim..."
oh how rav meir railed vociferously against this affront to Hashem and
His torah... saying that “u can take the jew out of the golut... but u
just cannot take the golut out of the jew...” and he wept over this
sad and unfortunate, disastrous truth about our people to his dying
day... to his very last breath... and he would bitterly cry out...
loudly and often... about how bad enough this was for the jews of the
diaspora to maintain this attitude and for that matter for us to
continue to waste away our years here in the exile... but he said what
an absolute outrage and an obscenity it was for us to dare to bring
this erroneous mood and sickness back with us from the exile to our
ancient homeland... into the very palace and throne room of the
King... the King of kings... Hashem... the King of glory!!!
but we do not have the time for this here and now... oh how i wished
to walk u thru the teachings of rav meir on this... on how just the
opposite was true in egypt that to get out we had to do just that...
to provoke them... "in their faces" as the slang expression goes... to
stand up to them and reject their gods… rav meir teaches how each step
of the brit milah and korban pesach... the passover sacrifice and the
circumcision were the prerequisites for our exodus from slavery and
bondage in mitzrayim... the fee if u will which we were required to
pay for Hashem to be willing to free us from our shackles and take us
out from there… and he teaches in “the jewish idea” how every facet of
these two mitzvot enraged the egyptians because essentially we were
slaughtering and cooking and consuming one of their supreme gods...
and we haven't the time either to explain how well over 4/5ths of the
jewish people refused to leave to serve Hashem and to perform these
commands and so they were wiped out during the ninth plague by G-d in
punishment... and that even this fifth... this 1/5th of our ancestors
who complied with the great and fearful test and commandment despite
their fear and dread of their slave masters and overlords... but he
describes how quickly they lost their resolve and courage and their
stamina when they were confronted by their same tormentors at the
splitting of the sea of reeds... at yam suf...so much so that though
Hashem miraculously rescued them all… every single one of them at the
sea and completely and utterly destroyed the egyptian army… drowning
every last one of them in the sea… he still concluded already then
and there… at this very early stage of our journey into freedom… that
most of them were not going to make it… were not going to be able to
summon the fortitude to scale the heights of courage and bravery
necessary to face the canaanim... the canaanites... and so they would
have to perish in the midbar... in the wilderness or desert... i will
leave this for another time perhaps... hopefully… but let me just
conclude my tribute to rav meir and his life-giving torah teachings
and instructions with the following...
rav meir taught us... that the key to our redemption is to provoke the
goyim... to stand up to them for G-d… in sole trust of G-d and in
total compliance with His will as mandated within and thru the torah…
and in doing so… to show absolutely no fear of them in the process...
that the whole purpose of our being in the world as jews and the exact
meaning and idea behind our redemption was and is to prove to the
world the existence of G-d and more than just this... to show them all
G-d's great glory, truly awesome might and the majesty of His
invincible power... and thus glorify and sanctify His name throughout
the world... to make Hashem revered, respected, esteemed, honored and
praised... and His name... exalted, lauded and magnified above all
other powers and glories to be found here on earth... and to
demonstrate to one and all forever more that G-d rules and reigns here
and no one or no thing else... period!!! ..
that He alone is our Creator and Master over all the earth… but this
rav meir admonished us continually could and can only be done and
accomplished when we do not crawl before the nations of the world and
lie supine before the throne of their finite and temporary earthly
might... a jew must only bend his knees to the supremacy of G-d...
never to the whims of man... we must not beg them for our supper...
for peace and their recognition of our right to exist... for them to
accept us and befriend us and indeed learn to love us… above all else
he remonstrated… NOTHING could possibly be a bigger chillul Hashem
than any and all of this...
jews... no fear... no fear... no surrender… no backing down… no giving
in… we must not show any weakness or ever indicate that we are ready
to dilute any of our principles or to concede any of our convictions
or positions of strength in the certainty of the truth of our cause…
of our mission… or in any of our claims of legitimacy to our land and
to who we really are and to whom and of whom we serve by firmly
standing by our torah calling and lifestyle…
jews… rav meir begged us all… develop your spiritual strength of
character to have no fear of the goyim... only of Hashem... no fear of
any government... no fear of any army... and we must stop trying so
cravenly, fawningly and desperately to win the favor of kings of mere
flesh and blood... who are all of them… here today and gone tomorrow…
to cease trying to get the goyim to love us... and to no end... this
is anathema to the nth degree in the eyes of Hashem... for it
demonstrates that we really do not feel and have faith and trust in
the absolutely invincible power of G-d...
as rav meir so often stated... and here i paraphrase...
"i would rather an israel reviled and despised by all the nations on
earth... but one that is strong and vibrant... victorious and
mighty... than an israel destroyed and annihilated which earns us
posthumously the crocodile-tears of a thoroughly hypocritical world of
jew-haters and anti-semites who now express love and admiration for us
as they mourn for us and eulogize us and create memorials, testaments,
monuments and museums to our memory..."
THIS was our great teacher and torah guide... our great fallen hero
and leader of am yisroel... this is what he stood for… this is what he
lived and died for… and this is what he left behind for us to find
and learn from him… this has been just a small sampling of who he
really was and what he forged into our souls... a slight taste of his
greatness and mastery, command and erudition of the torah which
animated, charged and fired his soul... i have only been able to skim
the surface with u all here tonite...
believe u me... there is a lot, lot more torah truth and depth where
this all came from... much, much more... i know… for i have seen much
of it thank G-d over these past twenty plus years since i began my
research into his writings and life in my earnest pursuit and search
for truth... this was the late great rav meir kahane... harav hagadol
v’hakadosh rav meir david ben yechezkel shraga hakohen... Hashem
yanakam damav..." ~ "may G-d avenge his blood..." of blessed memory...
we miss him so very much... as we yet need him so very much still...
and alas for this... after all these many words i have shared with u
all tonite... for this last thought of how much he is sorely missed
and how greatly his loss is palpably felt and truly mourned... for
this agony there are no words to properly convey and accurately
describe to u the full-measure and depth of his loss and the immense
tragedy that has befallen us due to his so premature and untimely
death... about how his life was ripped away from us in midstream and
literally in mid-sentence... and for this there are no words to
express adequately our heartbreak and grief... we sit here shattered
and numb… and we cannot find the words to console ourselves…
only to say once more in closing... "am yisorel chai!!!" ~ "od avinu
chai!!!" forever and ever... and taka in truth... "od kahane chai!!"
~ “kahane yet lives!!!" ~ he lives on thru his words and deeds and as
well thru each and every one of us… his students and followers… amen
selah... kain tehi retzoncha Hashem… (may this be Your will o’ L-rd)…
thank u and good night... mp…
