WHY TWO AGENCIES?

An international agency created by the United Nations is responsible for assisting all refugees in the world: the UNHCR, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. It was established in 1950, after the Second World War, to assist millions of refugees from all corners of the world fleeing war or persecution in their countries of origin. To date, this agency has assisted more than 108 million people. Currently, there are more than 30 million refugees in the world, with Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria, and Sudan being some of the countries with the highest numbers.

This agency’s primary mission is resettling these refugees in other countries worldwide. For example, Europe, the United States, and Canada have absorbed tens of millions of refugees from Africa, the Middle East, and South America in recent decades.

The mission of UNHCR culminates once these refugees are resettled in another country and acquire citizenship. Their refugee status ends there, as they no longer depend on UNHCR for assistance because the country that has absorbed them assumes responsibility.

There is only one exception to this simple rule of international refugees: the Palestinians.

THE GAME OF THE FIVE DIFFERENCES

Several key elements must be understood to grasp this difference.

Firstly, the Palestinians are the only refugees in the world who have an independent agency: it’s called UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.

UNRWA assists more than 5 million Palestinian refugees and has a budget of $220 per refugee, employing about 30,000 workers, meaning one social worker per 180 refugees.

How many refugees does UNHCR assist? The international refugee aid organization assists more than 30 million refugees from 134 countries worldwide.

How many workers does this organization employ?

16,000 workers. That is one social worker for every 4,213 refugees. The allocated budget is $121 per refugee, almost half of what Palestinian refugees receive.

RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT

Why do Palestinians have their independent agency? Why so many employees in UNRWA? Why are Palestinians the only refugees who enjoy these extra privileges?

Before answering this question, we must refer to another issue, perhaps the most important one.

The problem of Palestinian refugees arose in 1948 when around 700,000 Palestinians left their places of residence in Israel. The majority did so because the Arab countries, which decided to declare war on Israel when the Jewish state declared its independence, invited Palestinians living there to leave their homes temporarily until “they drove the Jews into the sea”. Now, how many “real” Palestinian refugees exist today? What is the approximate number of refugees who lived at that time, left their place of residence, and would be entitled to maintain their status? In 2018, an article in The Washington Post suggested that only 30 or 40 thousand refugees had survived from 1948.

But then, how is it that UNRWA assists 5 million Palestinian refugees?

The incredible, scandalous, and little-known reason is that the United Nations grants Palestinian refugees, and only Palestinian refugees, the right for their refugee status to be hereditary, meaning that the status of refugee passes to the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc., of those Palestinians who left their land in 1948!

Thanks to these incredible exceptions, there are more than 5 million Palestinian refugees, the majority of whom have never lived a single day there.

And as if that weren’t enough, the United Nations established another additional rule for these privileged human beings: Palestinian refugees, and only them, can maintain refugee status even when they obtain citizenship of another country and enjoy the legal and social benefits of those countries.

So UNRWA, unlike UNHCR, does not dedicate itself to resettling Palestinian refugees in other countries to free them from refugee status. UNRWA’s mission is to maintain and maximize the number of Palestinian refugees in the world “claiming the right to live in Palestine,” that is, Israel. UNRWA does not provide a solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees; it perpetuates and multiplies it

WHY?

Unfortunately, the world does not care about Palestinian refugees, and that is why we do not see any country offering at this moment to absorb the hundreds of thousands of refugees from Gaza. Not even their Egyptian Muslim brothers, who see from 50 meters away everything these refugees suffer in Rafah.

The Palestinians are “used against Israel” because they have the perfect enemy: the Jews. If Tibetan refugees conflicted with Israel, Tibetans would be the “celebrity” refugees of the world.

ARE WE ALONE?

What hurts the most is that the rest of the world knows all this very well. It knows very well that the privileges of these VIP refugees are a formula designed to promote the demographic destruction of Israel, pressing for “5 million made-up refugees” to claim to settle in Israel and thus try to prevent the viability and continuity of a Jewish state.

In my opinion, the case of Palestinian refugees is unmistakable evidence of global antisemitism represented by the United Nations.

Natan Sharansky said that modern antisemitism is defined by the 3 “D”s:

1. Demonization of Israel,
2. Delegitimization of Israel, and
3. The double standard against Israel is making laws and rules for Israel that do not apply to any other country on the planet.

Rabbi Yosef Bitton

וְגֵר לֹא תִלְחָץ וְאַתֶּם יְדַעְתֶּם אֶת נֶפֶשׁ הַגֵּר כִּי גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם.
Exodus 23: 9

THE PROBLEM

It is said that when someone abuses another person it is because that individual was once abused. The trauma that an individual once experienced and suffered is now projected onto a new victim. Uruguayan Psychologist Robert Parrado explains that in his practice  “… 100% of the abusers we treated were victims of abuse when they were children” (see here)
Abuse becomes repetitive, ad nauseam. Because the new victim will “almost inevitably” become an abuser. Abused children will be adult abusers. Victims of violence, will become violent predators. And persecuted, persecutors. The cycle of “abused” and abusers is created and recreated across generations. How can society overcome this compulsive repetition? How can this cycle of abuse be repaired?

RIGHTS OF A SLAVE?

This week’s Parasha, Mishpatim, contains a large number of laws in what constitutes the first code of Jewish law after the Ten Commandments. It is worthwhile to analyze the first of these laws, that of the Hebrew slave (עבד עברי). When a man was sold as a servant,  usually in a voluntary way because of extreme poverty (indentured servant), or because they stole from someone else and did not have the means to pay his debts. The Tora mentions some of the details of the relationship between the slave-master and his servant. But surprisingly, especially for that time and context, the Tora does NOT refer at all about the obligations of the slaves toward their masters, but about something else, completely unexpected and virtually non existent in those days: the rights of the slave! For example: the maximum amount of years a slave can work; his conjugal rights, which remain in effect during slavery; his right to be treated humanly and with dignity,  and even his right to severance after slavery is over.  Remember that these laws are being presented to individuals who until a few weeks ago were “slaves” of the tyrant Pharaoh, were treated with violence and humiliation, and were deprived of any basic rights. In a few years, upon entering the Promised Land, many of these people will be able to have their own salves. They will be “slave masters”, because slavery, especially indentured-servitude, was very common in those days.
 
BREAKING THE VICIOUS CYCLE
Let’s try to imagine now the psychological impact of this “declaration of human rights” in the minds of the Hebrews. By mentioning slavery, there is an implicit acknowledgment of the trauma that the Jews endured for more than two centuries. But Divine Law now requires overcoming the dangerous tendency towards victimization and holding grievances. And it proposes a difficult, but not impossible, paradigm shift. It is as if God is saying to His chosen people: “What you have lived in the past, what you suffered, cannot condition your behavior with your own servants. You were indeed abused by the Egyptians, but that treatment was wrong. I condemn it but I also forbid it. Abuse cannot be repeated. The worst thing that could happen to you is that you would now become an abuser. Therefore, I’m teaching you that when the roles will be reversed, and you would be a “slave master” you must not repeat the behavior of your oppressors.” The Tora turns the negative experience, the abuse of the weak individual, into something entirely positive and constructive: empathy with those who are most vulnerable.

REAL KINDNESS WITH STRANGERS

In this same Parasha the Tora also conveys this powerful and revolutionary idea in a similar context . The treatment of the “GER”, that is, the legal immigrant that comes to work in your land. Except in the Jewish nation, in antiquity, these foreign workers were not protected by the local law. They were the epitome of vulnerability, and were commonly abused by their masters. The Tora, again, is revolutionary: (Exodus 23: 9): “Do not abuse the stranger, because you know what it means to be a stranger, since you were a stranger in Egypt“.
The trauma of the abused must be channeled in a different way. The Tora teaches us to “free ourselves” from the abused / abuser circle. Indicating that we are not condemned to mistreat others. And the best (or only) way to break the circle of abuse consists in behaving with extra compassion with those who are under our control. Following the Tora’s instructions, the former Jewish slaves will achieve what even today seems impossible: overcoming the psychological need to abuse others, to compensate for the trauma of being abused in Egypt. This is also a way of expressing “freedom”, psychological freedom, that redeems you from your own past and breaks the heinous cycle of abused > abuser.

Yitro, Moses’ father-in-law, arrives at the Israelite camp with his daughter Tzipora, Moses’ wife, and their two grandsons, Gershom and Eliezer. The reunion was very emotional. Moshe told Yitro in detail everything that happened in Egypt: the story of the ten plagues, the endless negotiations with Pharaoh, the sea opening, and how God saved them from slavery. The next day, the Tora says, Moses returned to his duties as the supreme leader and the most respected person of the people. Moses acted as mediator and arbitrator, judging his people — avoiding ion this way disputes and conflicts — from morning till night. But upon seeing this, and instead of praising him, his father-in-law criticized Moshe: “What you’re doing is wrong! … this work is too heavy for you. You won’t be able to do it alone,” he said.  Yitro didn’t limit himself to criticizing Moses. He also told Moses what to do: “delegate your power and assign more judges: an arbitrator for every ten people, one for every 50, one for every 100, and one for every 1,000.”

Before analyzing Moses’ reaction to Yitro’s criticism, let’s remember some facts. 1. Moses is no longer a child. He is over 80 years old. At that age, a man like Moses has enough experience to give advice, not to receive criticism! 2. Moses is the leader of 3 million people. Yitro, on the other hand, was not even a political leader. He was a priest in Midian, a town with many fewer people under his charge. 3. Moses is the man of the hour. As Yitro himself confessed: everyone at that time had heard about Moses. And I imagine that he was more admired among non-Jews than among Jews. Why? Because the Jews knew that God had done all these miracles, but the Gentiles would surely have thought it was all Moses’ own powers. Moshe had all the reasons in the world to reject Yitro’s advice and say: “Dear father-in-law: I greatly appreciate your concern, but please don’t interfere with what doesn’t concern you!” . Moses could have said in the best style of Bil’am’s arrogance. “God speaks to me! I am His chosen one. His spokesman. I don’t need any human advice!”

However, and in an incredible display of humility, Moses listened to his father-in-law and carried out his advice. This shows us why Moses was called by the Tora “the most humble man on the face of the earth”. Because despite being so wise, famous, and connected to God, Moses had the humility to listen to others and adopt their advice. As we once explained, when a human being comes closer to God, he better understands his own finitude, limits, and smallness. As the Chinese say, “The bamboo, the higher it grows, the deeper it bends.”

Humility is a rare and valuable quality in our modern world, where people seek to assert their dominance and knowledge by precisely rejecting listening to other people’s opinions or ideas. Absurdly, we ignore good advice because we feel it would amount to admitting that we are inferior to the one guiding us. According to modern psychologists (see this article), people often ignore good recommendations because they want to feel in control and demonstrate competence. The more an individual suffers from low self-esteem, the more arrogantly he or she will react toward advice and reject help. A person with low confidence often refuses to accept good advice, even though they know those recommendations will benefit their decisions. A small ego desperately wants to avoid being perceived as needing help, even at the price of sabotaging his own interest.

The example of Moses demonstrates that true power and wisdom come from humility, which manifests, not infrequently, in the willingness to listen to others

Wars take their toll. One day we rejoice in our victories, and the next day we mourn the irreparable loss of precious Jewish souls. We wake up hearing the names of those young soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for all of us, and our hearts break. These emotional ups and downs are inevitable in any armed conflict. They are part of a package that, I trust, will ultimately yield a positive outcome, giving even more meaning to the sacrifice of these wonderful young IDF soldiers.

Wars also bring about profound changes in society. They either atomize or strengthen it. They reset its values and priorities. Israeli society is no exception, and there are many changes happening, most of which I believe are very positive. These changes will become evident in the coming years and decades when those currently fighting against an Amalekite enemy become the spokespeople and political leaders of Israel.

One change I’ve noticed is that Israeli society is becoming more respectful of religion and observant Jews. This is not a minor change. It’s part of a process of unity of our people.

THE DELICATE BALANCE

Israelis, and even secular Jews in the diaspora, seem to be more open to embracing Jewish tradition. This increased respect for the Torah doesn’t happen in a vacuum. I feel that the old anti-religious prejudice is dissipating more and more. The war has shown that the more observant Jews, the Hasidim, the Haredim, have a complete dedication to Israeli society, and in many areas, their contribution is essential: civil assistance of all kinds, financial aid, medical help, and more, including the thousands of cases of Haredi soldiers recently joining the army. The most fundamental change in this aspect is cultural. In the past, some Haredi sectors used to criticize the army and soldiers for not being religious enough. This, it seems to me, is disappearing. In times of crisis, eyes open. And no one can ignore that the army is protecting our lives and our religious observance in Eretz Israel. Suddenly, the front lines became sanctified. Even in the most orthodox sectors, there is a sentiment that the soldiers, even the less religious ones, are considered Kedoshim (holy) because they give their lives for Kiddush Hashem, the sanctification of God’s name, by protecting Am Israel.

This change is not widely discussed and may not be immediately noticeable because it’s not abrupt, but it’s there and growing. This change is also causing a significant part of Israeli society that used to demonize religious Jews in the past to change its view. Gradually, both religious and secular Israelis are moving closer to each other. They are gravitating toward the center. Suddenly, the focus is no longer on what separates us but on the most basic thing that unites us: survival in the land of Israel.

EXISTENTIAL EMUNA

Speaking of survival, the war has produced a new kind of Emuna, Jewish faith, a connection with God. In an interview a few days ago, former IDF commander Rafi Eitan commented profoundly on Channel 14 (www.now14.co.il) regarding a video that moved me to tears. In this video, a soldier surprises his family by returning home. The young mother sees him, obviously becomes emotional, and hugs him. Her son had been fighting in Gaza, and she hadn’t seen him for over 100 days. While hugging him, the mother prays aloud. She thanks Bore Olam (the Creator) for her son’s safety, reciting the Mizmor LeToda, the psalm of gratitude to God, by heart. The panelists on Channel 14 note that neither the mother nor the son appear to be religious. Eitan says, We are witnessing a new type of national connection with God: Emuna Kiyumit (אמונה קיומית), which I would translate as existential Emuna.

What did Rafi Eitan mean? He referred to the connection with God that becomes apparent, emerges, or intensifies when one experiences a traumatic existential event, a matter of life or death, such as illness or war. When one realizes the fragility of life, an approach to God begins, and an incomparable intimate relationship develops.

I think of the hundreds of thousands of mothers of Jewish soldiers in Gaza who spend the long nights of the war, literally without sleep. They constantly fear that someone will knock on the door in the middle of the night to deliver the worst news of their lives. These Jewish mothers, even the less observant ones, spend the nights with God. They overcome panic by praying and reciting Tehilim. And since they know Hebrew, they understand what King David wrote, strengthening their connection with God, praying, and filling themselves with hope, visualizing the reunion with their beloved children. They speak to God from the depths of their suffering. And they repeat in their hearts a thousand times the words of gratitude they promise to dedicate to the Creator when that sacred embrace finally arrives.

TELL ME HOW YOU SHOW YOURSELF, AND I’LL TELL YOU WHO YOU ARE

The religious uniform has taken a backseat in this war. There is a new phenomenon in Israel: even those who do not wear a kippah or do not dress modestly are also observant. They also practice their Emuna. I see this often on Channel 14 (which I still recommend watching). Most of the panelists do not wear kippahs, but they express a love for Judaism, the Torah, HaShem, and an admiration for the dedication of more observant Jews, which is wonderful. As one of my teachers used to say, what matters is not appearing more religious than you are, but being more religious than you appear.

The terrible war in Israel and irrational antisemitism elsewhere in the world is helping us understand that what makes our enemies hate us is also what unites us and what has made us Jewish for 3500 years.

Watch this video where you can see the mother reuniting with her son (min. 0.33) and then being interviewed. Her words are very spiritual, intelligent, and emotional. ירבו כמותם בישראל (May there be more like them in Israel).

Video Link

When I entered the synagogue on the morning of October 7th, I slowly learned what had happened in Israel on that fateful day of Simchat Tora. While the guys from security were explaining to me with tears in their eyes what was happening, I asked them a crucial question: “Where did the attack come from?” And they told me: From Gaza. I asked them: “Have you heard if there is any other open front? Is Israel also being attacked from the north or Judea and Samaria?” They told me “no”.

Previously, I had heard an interview with retired Israeli general Isaac Brick. His terrifying prediction about a possible multi-front war against Israel suddenly crossed my mind. I thought about this worst-case scenario and was terrified of what could happen in the coming days. As time went by, I realized that that terrible massacre of October 7th could have been much worse. And when I think about what happened in light of what could have happened, I believe we witnessed “a miracle”, somehow similar to Hanukka.

ANTIOCHUS’ IMPATIENCE

In the year 200 BCE, the Jewish people were on the brink of extinction. The Greek Empire had triumphed militarily and effectively spread its religion and culture throughout its territory, including the land of Israel. They did so not by force but through persuasion. The Greek strategy worked perfectly by opening the doors of their civilization to all. The wave of assimilation also affected the Jews. Those outside of Israel had already adopted Hellenism and were practicing a religion that was increasingly more Greek and less Jewish. In Israel, Jews living in the cities also willingly submitted to the imposing Greek culture and became Hellenized. There were a few loyal Jews in the fields and rural areas who resisted assimilation. But, according to historians, it was only a matter of time, one or two more generations, for these Jews to “normalize” assimilation and lose their Jewish identity by inertia, even without realizing it.

But then something happened that no one had planned for. In the year 170 BCE, ANTIOCHUS LOST HIS PATIENCE WITH THE JEWS FAITHFUL TO THE TORA. He abandoned his advisors’ plan (to leave the Jews alone so they could continue assimilating on their own) and imposed a ban on Jewish practice, sentencing all those who followed Tora to death. It was a terrible time of persecution, death, hopelessness, terror, and darkness. But in the end, with the help of Bore Olam and the extraordinary courage and ingenuity of Jewish soldiers, we fought and won. And today, over 2,000 years later, we celebrate this triumph.

The million-dollar question is: why didn’t Antiochus wait if he knew that assimilation would have occurred naturally in one or two generations?

No one knows precisely why. But everyone admits that Antiochus’s impatience caused an opposite effect. Antiochus unintentionally woke us up. He forced us to organize ourselves. He forced us to fight. And what’s more, he managed to bring many assimilated Jews back to embrace the Judaism they had left behind.

RABBI MELAMED’S HYPOTHESIS

A rabbi living in Israel, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, wrote an idea that deeply moved me a few years ago in his book Penine Halakha. He said the following: The assimilation of Jews into Hellenic culture was inevitable. The disappearance of Judaism through natural means was only a matter of time. But Antiochus wanted to accelerate this process. And it backfired on him: his decrees had the opposite effect. He reversed assimilation and, ironically, “saved us from self-destruction.” Antiochus’s impatience, Rabbi Melamed said, was the result of divine intervention. God hardened his heart, as He did in Egypt with Pharaoh, and thus, the Greek monarch – against all logic and advice – made a decision that, in the short term, was devastating for our people but, in the long run, saved us from something infinitely worse.

GREECE AND GAZA

Last October 7th, we Jews suffered a devastating terrorist attack of “Shoah” proportions. The number of Jews who died and the way they died has no other qualification. The Hamas murderers were worse than the Nazis, as seen by the sadism of filming themselves and the way they “enjoyed” torture, mutilation, and the shedding of Jewish blood.

But there is a part of the story of this attack that, for now, is less appreciated. No one ignores that Hamas is one of the executing arms of Iran, the new Amaleq. Iran is an octopus whose head is in Tehran, but its tentacles expand throughout the Middle East to achieve its primary objective: to destroy Israel.

According to retired Israeli general Isaac Brick (See here ), Iran has been preparing for 20 years a master plan to destroy Israel. Iran’s plan is a surprise simultaneous massive attack from five different fronts: from Lebanon in the north, through Hezbollah, which has more than 200,000 rockets in its possession. A bit further east, in Syria, with its pro-Iranian militias, which are stationed, awaiting the order to attack the Jewish State. Between Israel and Jordan is the third front: about two and a half million Arabs who live in Judea and Samaria, very close to the Jewish settlements with half a million Israelis. These Arabs are armed and mostly radicalized. The fourth front, from the south of Israel, is Hamas, which only has to cross the border, and we already know what it is capable of doing. The fifth front, and according to Brick, the most devastating, would be that of the Arabs who already live inside Israel, in Yafo, Haifa, Lod, Jerusalem, etc. , about two million Arabs, with about 400,000 weapons, and many of them (most?) radicalized who would voluntarily join a massive attack on Israel.

In that interview he gave on the Hidabberut channel on July 10th, 2023, that is: 3 MONTHS BEFORE OCTOBER 7th, Brick explains at length and agonizingly that this could be an apocalyptic scenario for Israel. The Jewish State is not militarily prepared to face some 3,000 rockets a day (sic.) coming from the north, attacking the entire Israeli territory, something that Israel has never experienced in the past. Israel is not prepared to face a massive invasion of hundreds of thousands of Arabs armed to the teeth and with the bloodlust that Hamas demonstrated. A surprise attack of this nature could mean a genocide, a second Shoah, in the land of Israel itself.

In this video, Brick explains Iran’s plan in detail (unfortunately, it is only in Hebrew and has no subtitles)

Was Brick right? Was he too alarmist?

The events of October 7th – the surprise attack by Hamas that was NOT detected or repelled by the Israeli army for about ten hours – proved Brick right. Israel WAS not prepared even for a single-front surprise attack! (The reason for this lack of preparation is a topic that would go beyond the limits of this article).

Now, Why did Hamas attack Israel alone, and why did its murderous leaders not wait for Iran to coordinate its attack with Hezbollah, the Iranian militias, and the Arabs of Israel?

THE ANGER OF IRAN

I want to make it clear that this lack of coordination between Hamas and Iran, this daring of Hamas to do things “solo”, perhaps hoping that its allies would join in later, made Iran very angry, and for that reason, explains professor Mordechai Kedar, Hezbollah and the pro-Iranian militias are attacking Israel “softly”, limiting themselves to a demonstration of solidarity with Hamas, but without getting fully involved in the war. Iran, says Kedar, is furious with Hamas, because Hamas “ruined its master plan”: the multi-front surprise attack that Israel’s enemies have been planning for so many years!

The million-dollar question is why Hamas didn’t wait in order to attack, knowing that they were ruining Iran’s plan.

Nobody knows precisely why.

There are many opinions. Some say that Hamas assassins could not resist the temptation to attack a concert attended by 4,000 – 5,000 young Israelis who were sitting ducks. Others say that Hamas saw that Israel was divided, that many Israelis had threatened to abandon the army in a time of war, etc.

But, in reality, none of these reasons can account for why Hamas chose to act independently rather than waiting for Iran’s initiative.

PHARAOH, ANTIOCHUS, AND SINWAR

If we look at this question from Rabbi Melamed’s perspective, HAMAS’ IMPATIENCE was providential and miraculous. The great tragedy that occurred on October 7th could have been infinitely worse. It’s hard to see it this way now, in the present. But remember that when the Maccabees fought against the Greeks in 165 BCE, they did not know they were writing a story with a happy ending. They saw thousands of their Jewish brothers murdered and tortured by the enemy just for being Jews, as in the case of Hanah and her seven children. Jews thought that the future that awaited them was dark, sad, and irreversibly lost. It took decades to understand that this suffering had led to triumph and celebration.

Going back to October 7th, having been attacked from a single front, the Israeli army—after a week or two of preparation and training, which it would not have had in the case of a simultaneous multi-front attack—was able to reorganize. The Jews of Israel woke up, recovered, became more robust, and united again. Maybe more than ever. The army of Israel, the Maccabees of the 21st century, is now ready to confront and defeat, with God’s help, our enemies on other fronts as well.

Hamas’s lone attack, in a way, prevented an apocalyptic scenario indescribably worse for the State of Israel and the Jewish people.

THIS POTENTIAL SHOAH, God forbid, WAS AVOIDED BY THE MIRACULOUS IMPATIENCE OF HAMAS.

We may need a few years to understand this better.

May God protect Medinat Israel.

May the Creator grant our heroic soldiers final victory.

May God grant our political leaders the wisdom, temperance, and courage to make the best possible decisions.

Rabbi Yosef Bitton

THE ORIGIN OF THE CIVIL NEW YEAR

The 2024 New Year will begin tonight at 12:00 a.m. on January 1st. According to Christian tradition, New Year’s Day celebrates the circumcision of Yeshu (Jesus). Yeshu was obviously Jewish, and his family circumcised him according to the rules of the Tora on the eighth day after his birth, counting from December 25. Ironically, the practice of circumcision was annulled early in the early years of Christianity.

Because?

In his book “The History of Christianity”, Paul Johnson explains that many Romans were attracted to monotheism and Jewish ethics. But there were elements of Judaism that scared them and kept them away from conversion. Examples: They were not willing to stop earning money on Saturdays. They were also not willing to sacrifice pork (a very popular food in Europe). And the idea of being circumcised terrified them. Especially for this last reason, not many Romans converted to Judaism (it should be noted that Jews, although we accept converts, never actively seek them). Johnson says that the early Christian apostles actively sought to convert the Romans to their new variant of Judaism and realized that if they adapted it and made it easier, thousands of Romans would convert to a “light version” of Judaism. And this is how the church reformed Jewish law, allowing the consumption of meat from any animal, reinterpreting the prohibition of working on Saturdays, and replacing the feared circumcision with the comfortable baptism. It was ironically in Yerushalayim, at the Christian council of Jerusalem in the year 50, that circumcision was definitively annulled. Until then, the first Christians were not very different from sects of dissident Jews, such as the Tsadokim or the Mityavnim, for example. But after the annulment of the Berit Milah, circumcision, which represents the first act of loyalty towards God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants, Christianity definitively separated itself from Judaism.

THE CELEBRATION OF THE NEW YEAR

Rabbi Terumat Hadeshen (1390-1460) and Ramah (1530-1572), both from Western Europe, referred to the Christian New Year’s Day as a Christian religious holiday, which they called: “the eighth day of Christmas” ( Apparently this is also how Christians in the Middle Ages defined it (see Darjé Moshe, Yoré De’á 148: 12) and considered it aboda zará, an idolatrous practice. At that time it was evident that the Jews did not participate in the “celebration” of the new year, because it had an entirely religious meaning, like Christmas, and mainly because the new year implicitly celebrates the abolition of the covenant of circumcision, which was obligatory for Yeshu the Jew but not for his followers.

For Jews living in Christian lands, the new year was not a civil celebration, as it is today. It was a not very happy day, in which religious speeches from New Year’s masses called for an increase in persecution against the Jews.

THE POPE AND THE JEWS

To illustrate this point, we will examine what happened during the papacy of Gregory XIII (1502-1585), who instituted the new calendar, known as the “Gregorian calendar,” and popularized the celebration of the new year in Catholic countries. Each new year, Gregory enacted new laws against the Jews, symbolizing the abolition of circumcision, the fundamental covenant of Judaism, and its replacement. It is not surprising, then, that for Pope Gregory – remembered for having prohibited Jews from practicing medicine and treating Christian patients – the conversion of the Jews, that is, forcing them to abandon their original covenant, has been an issue. central during that day.

On January 1, 1577, Pope Gregory These proselytizing speeches were given by apostate Jews who had converted to Christianity.

On New Year’s Day 1578, Gregory forced the Jews to pay a special tax to finance a “House of Conversion,” conceived with the intention of converting them to Christianity.

On January 1, 1581, Gregory ordered his troops to confiscate all Jewish books in the possession of the Roman Jewish community.

And this is just one example.

Our historical memory of the New Year is not precisely associated with the “celebration” mode, but rather with oppressive measures, intolerance and persecutions.

THE ORIGIN OF THE JEWISH NEW YEAR

We Jews celebrate our new year on the first day of the month of Tishri. Why? On that day, God created Adam, the first man. The creation of the material world (the universe, our planet, life, etc.) is celebrated weekly on Shabbat. And once a year, on the 1st of Tishri, we Jews celebrate the creation of humanity. For this same reason, the Jewish New Year is also known as Yom haDin, the day of judgment. According to our Sages, on that day, humanity is judged, individually and collectively. During the day of Rosh HaShanah, the Shofar is blown, the Jewish way of announcing that God is the King and the Supreme Authority whom we must obey without reform. Their laws. And committing ourselves to observe his commandments from the moment we are born through the practice of circumcision.

Rabbi Yosef Bitton

SEE THIS

EGYPT

One of the best-known themes in the story of the Exodus from Egypt is that of the ten plagues with which the Creator struck Egypt. They were devastating plagues, to the point that some Egyptologists, such as David Rohl, suggest that the invasion of the Hyksos, who took over Egypt for more than 150 years, was a direct consequence of this devastation that left the mighty Egyptians weakened, both militarily as well as economically.

But how could Egypt allow that to happen? How can we explain that Pharaoh systematically refused to free the Jewish slaves and thus caused his own destruction? As we all know, Moses, in the name of the God of the Hebrews, says over and over again to Pharaoh: “If you do not let the Israelites leave, you will suffer the consequences. But if you free my people. There will be no more plagues. The ‘ceasefire’ is 100% in your hands.”

Pharaoh’s refusal to free the Israelites seems inexplicable. First of all, he shows that he doesn’t care about his civilians or those citizens he supposedly should protect. There is a dramatic scene that illustrates this situation. The text is in Shemot (Exodus 10:7-8). When Pharaoh’s servants reproach their boss: “How long will you continue to bring about our downfall (“lanu” refers to the Egyptian citizens). Let these people—the Jews—out before we realize that Egypt is completely destroyed.”

I repeat: Pharaoh only had to do one thing to prevent the destruction of Egypt: free the Israelites. If he let him go, the plagues would come to an end.

The million-dollar question is why Pharaoh acted in that irrational way, causing the destruction and ruin of Egypt.

The pharaohs only cared about their honor, reputation and especially staying in power. And this entire power apparatus would collapse if it showed weakness. Pharaoh only relented in the last plague when the issue affected him personally: when he lost his firstborn and felt that his own life was in danger.

From the biblical point of view, Pharaoh’s stubbornness was the product of divine intervention. Maimonides explains that there was a combination of both factors: the Pharaoh’s initial stubbornness, the result of his arrogance, had put him at a dead end; he had crossed the red line of his own will, and once there, the Creator, no longer allowed him to turn back.

God had told Moshe explicitly that he was going to harden Pharaoh’s heart to give Egypt its well-deserved punishment for having done so much harm to our people, and it would demonstrate who the true God is.

GAZA

The international press reports that more than 20,000 people have already died in Gaza. The cities are destroyed. The humanitarian situation is catastrophic: hunger, diseases, and devastation. The entire world demands a ceasefire. And the Israeli army is ready to suspend its offensive. Yes, really! All the Pharaoh of Gaza has to do is surrender and free the Israelis. Let them come out of his captivity. As Anthony Blinken said this week (see below), the solution to this conflict is 100% in Hamas’s hands. So why doesn’t the leader of the Palestinians free the Israelis held captive by him? Why does he continue to bring about the destruction of his cities and the ruin of the citizens he is supposed to protect?

The leaders of Gaza seem to act with the same arrogance as the Egyptian monarch and act towards his people with the same disregard for their lives that the Pharaoh had.

This insistence on preferring the destruction of Gaza and the loss of lives to “turn back and free the captive Israelis” has put them at a dead end. They have crossed the red line, and once there, the Mighty Hand (יד חזקה ) of HaShem’s army gives them a well-deserved punishment for the terrible massacre they have caused to our people.

Some political commentators are also surprised by the self-destructive irrationality of the Houthis in Yemen: why did they begin these maritime aggressions by provoking the United States and a coalition of European countries? Will the same happen with the pharaohs of Hezbollah, who, despite having so much to lose by provoking Israel – as has been demonstrated up to this point – do not stop their attacks? Could the Pharaohs of Yemen, Lebanon, and Tehran follow the same path as those of Gaza? Or could the invisible Mighty Hand of Heaven be hardening the hearts of the new Pharaohs to bring an epic victory to the State of Israel and reshape the Middle East, as Netanyahu anticipated?

As we watch these events unfolding day by day, I confess that to me, this confrontation between Israel and its bad neighbors looks more and more like “a biblical story.” 

May God protect Medinat Israel.

May the Creator grant our heroic soldiers final victory.

May God grant our political leaders the wisdom, temperance, and courage to make the best possible decisions.

Rabbi Yosef Bitton