Jerusalem vs Damascus

During the war of 1973, that began on Yom Kippur, where Syria and Egypt sought to destroy the Jewish nation, the Rebbe spoke out and urged the Israeli administration to conquer Syria's capital city, Damascus. Why then did the Rebbe not, by the same token, urge it to conquer Cairo?

Because apparently Damascus must fall before Jerusalem can rise to full stature. That's the gist of what the Rebbe spoke to a liason of the Israeli government, that can be viewed on video here.

We spoke about the miracle now unfolding in Syria, first here and then here.

Because Damascus serves as the counterbalance for Jerusalem's rise to all its full glory, and Cairo's significance in this respect is nil, it stands to reason why the Rebbe insisted only on the defeat of Damascus. May that city fall soon, as Israel watches from the sidelines, and may all of Israel's enemies also be drawn into the conflict and be vanquished, once and for all, so that the Era of Redemption radiate for all to see and appreciate - during this Chanuka!

Jewish Soil Can Suffer Nausea

Why did The Holy Land lay barren before Israel's farmers made it blossom with produce; Certainly Gentiles knew how to farm land? Early history proved this geographical hub to be of optimal strategic value; Why then could they not settle the land as they did everywhere else?

The Torah foretold, 3,300 years ago, that one day in the future, Jews will be exiled from the Land of Israel. In a prophecy spoken by Moses, he said, "When you have been established in the land for a long time ... you will then ... perish from the land ... God will then scatter you among the nations ...". (Deut. 4:25-27)

Now it happens that this land has a unique attribute other lands do not have: It can suffer "nausea". The Holy Land, just as a healthy body that ingested poison, reacts by vomiting out the offensive intrusion; It would "vomit out" the Jewish people were their quota of sins intolerably high. The land then shuts down and no longer can cultivate crop. Otherwise, as long as Jews mostly "... safeguard My decrees and laws ... the land ... will not vomit you out." (Lev. 20:22)

Here's confirmation from a reliable source what the Land of Israel looked about 150 years ago. It's a quote from Mark Twain, who visited Israel in 1867. ("Innocents Abroad", Vol. II, Harper and Brothers, 1922, NY)

“We traversed some miles of the desolate country, whose soil is rich enough but is given wholly to weeds, as silent, mournful expanse. A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action. We reached Tavor safely. [Tavor is in the Northern Galilee, the most fertile part of the land.] We never saw a human being on the whole route. We pressed on towards the goal…, renowned Jerusalem. The further we went, the hotter the sun got, the more rocky and bare, repulsive and dreary the landscape became. There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country. No landscape exists that is more tiresome to the eye than that which bound the approaches to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is mournful, dreary and lifeless. I would not desire to live there.”

As long as Jews are not settlers of this land, or, as long as the occupiers of it are foreign nations, "I will make the land so desolate that even your enemies who live there will be astonished!". (Lev. 26:32) This is a land that can discriminate against Gentile inhabitants!

If you think about it, it makes eminent sense. For as long as Gentiles cannot comfortably stay in the land, they will move on, sooner or later. No one will want to make their stay there permanent. And therefore there will be no archaeological proof of this permanence either. The Jews lived on that land over 1,00 years and yearned to return to it nearly two millennia, while no nation meanwhile could endure there - or lay claim to Jerusalem. As long as its food markets provided meager pickings, this land proved hostile to every nation but the Jewish one.

Thank God, we've all been ushered into the pre-Messianic era, and 60 years ago we got back our land. This too Moses told us in prophecy: "God, your Lord, will bring you to the land that your ancestors occupied, and you too will occupy it". (Deut. 30:5)

And chassidut teaches - the more Israeli society today turns to God, the more productive we can expect the agriculture to recover from its nausea!

The Pivotal Role of Jerusalem

The fate of the Jewish people forever challenges them because, as recited during the Passover seder, "... for in every generation after generation some nation always seeks to destroy them [either physically or spiritually]".

In the Haftarah of the 1st day of Succot, Zechariah (chpt 14) the prophet reveals an unusual point of information; The final war against the Jews, the one that will precede the revelation of Moshiach, centers around the city of Jerusalem. ("Jerusalem" appears 10 times in this chapter).

Over 1,900 years ago Jerusalem was destroyed. Only in recent history has she been revived. Never had this city been the capital of any country except for Israel. The so-called "Palestinians", Arabs who live in Israel and claim no other land as their own although they came from surrounding countries, choose, of all cities, Jerusalem as their "capital"? They not only want to hijack their host country, they want to redefine its capital as non-Jewish. This may well be the prophecy beginning to materialize.

Jerusalem will become the world's fulcrum about which two sides will emerge. One camp will come out in support of the Jewish claim; The other will support the enemies of the Jews. Not only will the world focus on little Israel, but all eyes will laser in on events happening in the city of Jerusalem. It will appear as though defenders of Jerusalem will go down in a tsunami of disaster - when, in fact, that very day the world will realize the Master of the Universe, the G-d of the Jews, rules alone and rules supreme.