Goliath Behind the Shield of David

From COMMENTARY Magazine, Dec. 2011, by Arthur Herman

How Israel's Defense Industry Can Help Save America

Kibbutz Sasa sits one mile from Israel’s Lebanese border. Founded in 1949, it is the site of the tomb of the second-century rabbi Levi ben Sisi. It hosts groves of fruit trees and a dairy farm and has 210 members. Kibbutz Sasa is also the home of the main factory of Plasan, a company that started out making hard plastic containers like garbage cans in 1985. For four years now, American soldiers have driven more safely in Iraq and Afghanistan, thanks to Kibbutz Sasa and Plasan’s CEO, Dani Ziv.

It was Ziv who, in the 1980s, urged the company to take up the manufacture of protective ballistic vests for soldiers and police. In 1989, Plasan won its first contract to make body armor for the Israel Defense Forces, and then for IDF vehicles. When war came to Afghanistan and then Iraq, orders went through the roof, especially from the United States. Plasan’s profits soared some 1,500 percent, from $23 million in 2003 to $330 million in 2007. Today they stand at over $500 million, with 90 percent of the company’s orders coming from Europe and the United States.

Plasan specializes in a very dense plastic composite product that affords ballistic protection without significantly adding to the weight of the vehicle. “Their work is exceptional,” says a senior Israeli defense industry executive about Plasan. “To convince the U.S. military that you are a reliable outfit is no mean feat. They did it all alone, without any help from a former ambassador or defense ministry director general.”

Plasan-armored mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles (MRAPs) have been serving in Afghanistan since August 2009, and contractor Oshkosh Company has another 8,800 on order. In 2009 Plasan even opened a factory in Bennington, Vermont, to do the work for its American contract. But while the 350 or so workers there are American, the technology is decidedly Israeli.

That applies to an even smaller company in Netanya, Israel, called Camero. Its engineers have come up with a way to use ultra-wideband wireless transmissions to see through walls—literally—and detect armed men and explosives on the other side. The Xaver 400 is barely the size of a laptop computer, but it’s dramatically shifting the odds in urban fighting in favor of the technology user, whether he’s an IDF soldier or a United States Marine. Indeed, in December 2010, one of Camero’s top clients became the Department of Defense.

What’s happening at Plasan and Camero is part of a silent revolution sweeping the defense establishments of the United States and Israel. After decades of being the Pentagon’s dependent in terms of military technology, Israel’s defense industry is now gaining a competitive advantage over its overregulated, bloated and lethargic American rival. Indeed, the United States is becoming one of its best customers. Goliath is finding shelter under the shield of David.

This situation is fraught with irony. It’s not only that America is now fighting the kind of wars Israel has been fighting for decades—small-scale, low-intensity, against an elusive terrorist enemy—and needs the skills and equipment Israel has to offer, including remote-detection devices such as unmanned drones, an area in which Israel has been on average 10 years ahead of the curve. Nor is it simply the fact that as U.S.-Israeli relations have cooled during the Obama years, Israelis are realizing that a strong and independent high-tech defense sector may be more crucial to Israel’s future than relying on U.S. help.

The Israeli way of doing defense business is changing the shape of the military-industrial complex. Smaller, nimbler, and entrepreneurial, Israel’s defense industry offers a salutary contrast to the Pentagon’s way of doing things. With the spending and budget crisis in the United States already putting immense pressure on the Pentagon, with all-but-certain declines in the percentage of the U.S. economy that will be devoted to defense in the coming decade, a second “revolution in military affairs” is going to be necessary. We are going to have to get more for less—much less. Israel points the way.

A good example coming from the more expensive end of the military-technology spectrum involving high-tech missiles is Rafael Advanced Systems. They’re the Israeli makers of the Iron Dome missile defense system, built to protect Israeli towns from mortars, rockets, and 155-millimeter artillery shells. Each Iron Dome unit fires four to eight missiles and is equipped with a Battle Management computer system designed by another Israeli company, MPrest Systems. It’s an all-weather mobile system with a range of 70 kilometers (about 43.5 miles)

For the Pentagon, developing and deploying a major new system like this can take more than a decade. By contrast, the Israel Defense Ministry gave Rafael the contract for Iron Dome in 2007, and by March 2009 the system was fully ready for testing. The first true shoot-down test had to wait until July that year. More tests followed in 2010, and by March 2011 Iron Dome was declared operational and has been deployed in towns near the Gaza strip to protect against Hamas’s attacks.

To intercept bigger ballistic missile, Israeli Aerospace Industry (IAI) developed the Arrow antimissile system in cooperation with the United States as part of Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative. The agreement to build Arrow came in 1989. The first missile, the Arrow 1, got its first test launch in August 1990. Less than four years later came its first test interception.

Although Arrow began as an American-Israeli joint initiative, the irony is that Israel’s interest in developing Arrow sprang from the failure of American-made Patriot antimissile batteries to intercept Scud missile attacks during the First Gulf War. Arrow relies on a coterie of Israeli companies to provide the interception system’s components. Elta, a division of Israel’s biggest private arms firm, Elbit Systems, provides the Green Pine early-warning radar. Tadiran (another Elbit division) makes the Communication, Control, and Command center. IAI devised the Hazelnut launch controls. Altogether, they have constructed one of the world’s most sophisticated defense systems. In 1995 the Arrow 1 was replaced with an even faster, more lethal version, Arrow 2, which, according to its developer, Dov Raviv, has a 90 percent probability of knocking out a ballistic missile—and can tell a warhead from a decoy.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency considers itself fortunate when it gets any successful missile shoot-downs from its land-based system. The first successful test interception from the American version of Star Wars came in August 2005—more than 10 years after the Israelis had done the same thing. Now Israel is looking to sell Iron Dome in the United States. And Rafael’s American marketing partner? Raytheon, the same company that developed the Patriot.

For decades Israel has been seen as the United States’ junior partner in all matters military and strategic. American defense companies were the unquestioned leaders in developing sophisticated modern weaponry, while Israelis focused on more standard items such as small arms (the classic Uzi) or weapons built to suit their unique battle conditions (the Merkava tank). The Patriot missile deployment in the First Gulf War only reinforced the perception that Israelis needed American military technology, and American military aid, in order to survive. Now it may be Israeli technology, in the shape of Iron Dome and Arrow, that ends up defending American cities instead.

The changing situation has also affected the American attitude to technology transfers between the two allies. General Uzi Eilam, former head of the Israeli weapons research-and-development agency MAFAT, remembers that when F-15s and F-16s from the United States arrived in Israel, “they came with systems in locked boxes, which we were not allowed to open.” The rule was, the closer the Israelis were to attaining the same technical breakthrough, the more willing the United States would be to share the technology. Today the Pentagon is speeding up the cooperation process, if only to prevent Israeli advances from heading them off at the pass.

It is striking how the Israeli defense sector keeps steadily leapfrogging from one challenge to the next. This is especially true for the acid test of any strong defense industry: foreign sales. Ten years ago Israel ranked 15th. In 2007 it surpassed the United Kingdom to rank fourth, behind the United States, Russia, and France. The day when it takes France’s place is not far off.

This is a remarkable achievement for a country of some six million people that is treated as a virtual pariah by much of the world. But virtual is the mot juste—for even though Turkey virtually froze relations with Israel two years ago, it’s still among Elbit’s best customers.

Read the rest of this great article here.

The Power of Jewish Blabber

Once it was discovered Moses killed an Egyptian (who persecuted a Jew), Pharoah ordered his execution. With the help of divine intervention, Moses managed to escape and fled Egypt. One source says he was 12 years old (Sifsei Chachomim, Ex. 3:18); Another says he was 18 (Sefer Hayashar, p. 211). At any rate, he was a youngster at the time. By the time Moses returned to Egypt, he was about 80 years old.

Discovery of the Egyptian's murder that forced Moses to flee came as a consequence of two Jews squealing the information to Pharoah. That is to say, because Datan and Aviram tattled on another Jew, opening their mouths when they didn't have to, this led to Moses' absence for a duration of over 60 years!

It was thanks to young Moses, a prince in Pharoah's palace, that Egypt instituted for enslaved Jews one day in the week to be a day of rest - which turned out to be the Shabbat day ("ישמח משה במתנת חלקו"). It was, thanks to Moses, that the Egyptian rapist and torturer was killed. Imagine then how much more he could have helped the Jews had he remained within their sphere for a period of over 60 years.

Yet banished he was - and all because of the blabber of two Jews. And not just any two Jews, for these two were the worst among the Jews. Nevertheless, we see the extraordinary power blabbing has, even by the worst of Jewish elements, with its effect on the highest of Jewish personalities.

If the gossip of a lowlife has such detrimental force, imagine how much more injurious could be the gossip of a finer class.

Therefore, of the immense power of a Jew's "לשון הרע" we should take note and take heed!

It is not for nothing God placed two sets of "guardrails" in front of man's tongue. You first have to breach the lips, and then the teeth, before the tongue can begin to wag. The little wag of a Jewish tongue can whip the daylights out of another Jew. So the Jew must be careful to restrain what he exhales from his open mouth. For bad-mouthing another Jew has the power to kill.

The Fallibility of Man without Recourse to Torah

Some "computer geeks" believe computers can be "taught" to make intelligent decisions as humans can, on the condition the computer gets enough data. But no two people think alike, so what does it mean "enough data"? We would have to exhaust all possible combinations of facts, for every human involved, for the computer to accurately "decide" correctly -- to everybody's satsfaction. Their premise, "on the condition the computer gets enough data", is preposterous.

If that weren't enough, even with the "smartest" computer, won't the computer need updates on a constant basis, because the world doesn't stop for the sake of computer input, does it? And if the world could stand still, can we unload all of what we have in our minds onto paper?

A few more stupid questions, to make a point.

Can a computer: "Become acquainted" with its inventor; "Understand" the urge of a barren woman to have children; Differentiate between a stable or fickle personality; Intuit man's constitution of limbs and inner organs that provide grip, vision, secrete insulin, maintain balance, or digest food? Can it register emotions of pain, love, hate, mercy, cruelty or sympathy?

Can a nest know its bird? Can an explosion understand its etiology? Can milk understand the cow?

Here's the point: As foolish as we deem the assumption of "computer-geeks" to gather all possible data into a machine, as absurd as it is to reckon a computer can understand enough about its inventor, it is infinitely more ludicrous to think man himself can fathom his Creator! After all, the cognitive gap between man and machine is infinitely more minuscule than that between the Creator of the universe and man.

The closest we can get is, we can begin to try to comprehend some things about our Creator, knowing we will never get close. All we can come up with, based on Torah, and nothing but Torah, is that God has certain attributes, and even when we say so, we know we know nothing substantial about Him. For example, Torah says God is benevolent, merciful, righteous, etc., and therefore man, who was created in "God's image", should also aspire to such attributes. How these features help define an infinite God makes no sense to us except that thereby we acknowledge our own need to behave accordingly.

Why Torah? Because this medium mediates between God and man. It is the only and ultimate authority to reckon by. It is this world's "Manual of Instructions". One set of instructions apply to the Jew, whereas another set therein applies to the Gentile.

God can infuse prophecy into a person, but magicians can also infuse or mimic what appears like "Godly powers". So how can man differentiate between the real and the fake? By referring to Torah, and only Torah. The giving of the Torah was a one-time event and no other absolute authority can ever replace it. Only by Torah standards can we decide definitively if something is "kosher" or not.

Can we then ascribe "Godly powers" to a human being? Only if that person measures up to the requirements stipulated in Torah law. One good example of this is the incident of Elijah the prophet, who asked the Jews to build an altar, which Torah prohibits. But, Torah tells us, as long as this is a one-time incident, and otherwise the prophet is God-fearing and Torah-observant, in such a one-time situation we must heed this prophet's demands.

Ascribing "prophetic powers" to someone is one thing. To go even further and say a human possesses divine properties, comparing a man to God, is outright silly. Of course, to justify this belief, they would have to shun Torah, conveniently enough, for example, by saying Torah is outdated or wrong.

But think about the absurdity of this assertion. For, by saying a man is half God or 30% God or somewhat God is like saying man is some percentage of what his mind has no idea of what he's talking about.

What results from such preposterous belief? What else if not absurdities?

Can the mind be deceived? Yes, as sure as people (but never Torah-people!) once thought the earth was flat.

The one and only source of absolute truth is Torah. Torah is virtually the only way to avoid straying into erroneous conclusions. As we learn in Torah, and in its derived literature, Talmud and Chassidus, Torah is, after all -- "the blueprint of the universe"!

What if one believes monotheistically, as do Moslems, who do not attribute Godly attributes to humans; Could they, who are prime examples of heinous hate and cruelty, have access to truth? Of course not, for the simple reason that they too have no anchor to Torah.

The Ron Paul Phenomenon

Funny how freedom-loving persons who happen to harbor anti-Semitism in their marrow can so easily become discombobulated and fight against free speech when this particular nerve of theirs is rubbed. Ron Paul knows enough to cloak his Jew-hatred under layers of economic-sense parameters, or not so adroitly by lending credence to Israel's worst enemies, but his supporters, many at least, don't bother to conceal their contempt for anything Jewish. Like a wild dog suddenly confronted by a stray cat, these supporters erupt into aggressive attack mode and cannot calm down as long as a Jewish issue or presence lingers uncontested. Freedom of speech for Jews or Jewish supporters now becomes anathema to them, and they are blind to the contradiction.

To encounter an Amalekite is quite common a circumstance for a Jew raised or living among Gentiles. It is as definite as the Jewish law - that "Esau hates Jacob", and we sense this virulence in anyone bearing the Amalekite genome.

The Amalekites, as Torah attests, were the first nation in Jewish history to make war on the Jewish nation. They did it for no good reason. After the Exodus, the Jewish people headed South towards the lower tip of the Sinai Desert, parallel to the bank of the Red Sea just East of Egypt. Then, the entire male population of the nation of Amalek, from their land situated in the Northeast of the Sinai Desert, garnered their weapons and rushed Southward to catch up to the Jews, to fight them, to annihilate them. Never did this nation have any interaction with the Jews until then. Their lustful pursuit to kill or fight the Jew has no rationale. They simply cannot help themselves. It derives from an automatic, genetic bitter hatred for the Jew. They cannot stomach the idea of a free Jewish nation. In their loathing, the Amalekites traversed more than half the desert to prey on their unsuspecting victims.

Today, millennia after Sancheriv exiled the Jewish people to far-off places and mixed up the tribes, and scattered the Gentiles as well, Amalekites too have been dispersed where only nature can take each one. As a collective body, therefore, they no longer constitute a nation, but their genes definitely still exist in individuals throughout mankind. The easiest way to discern the real Amalekite is simply to gauge his hatred. If the hate is unprovoked, vile, irrational, suddenly surfaces and the person is willing to practically self-sacrifice for the cause, he is almost certainly one with the Amalekite genome.

Hitler, no doubt, was an Amalekite, as were, of course, many of his cohorts who rose to help him enthusiastically. I suspect Pat Buchanan too. Others who most probably share this feature today are Farrakhan, Obama, Wright and Ayers.

Many Arabs too, no doubt, come from this seed, although they may instead come from the "wild" seed of Ishmael (see here). But here too the distinction is clear. Whereas Ishmael hates the Jew as does the Amalekite, the latter holds no such virulent hate for any other nation, while Ishmael's descendants hate all of mankind, even of their own.

Improvising on Oral Torah

I occasionally surf over to Reform Jewish sites to see what stuff they're putting out. They represent our modern-day "Hellenists" and we have to nudge these good people over to Torah truth ever so carefully and gracefully, lest we shove them further away. Usually my comments get censored out. (Reform "bouncers"). Here's one that made it through.

I responded to a commenter, who knew some Hebrew, who said the following:

"There are no vowels in the Torah. Thus, את השמים ואת הארץ ( heaven and earth) can also be read as, “At hashamaim ve at haaretz”, meaning: "You are heaven and you are earth."

I wrote back:

You can say the same thing about ויהי ערב ויהי בקר יום אחד, "And it was one day and one night; Day one." (Gen. 1:5); You can say, since vowels are missing, what it really says is, "There was a crow and there was cattle, one day". Because crow and evening, and cattle and morning, contain the exact same letters, respectively!

There's obviously a problem here. Vowels are a part of oral Torah! The problem is - that part of oral Torah you do accept, as when you accept ויהי ערב ויהי בקר יום אחד to mean, "And it was evening and it was day; Day one," but another part of oral Torah you unwittingly deny - by creating your own "oral Torah" - namely, "You are heaven and you are earth."

That's not to say Torah cannot be explored in unique ways, but it must be done under certain guidelines, otherwise you "short-circuit" perfect code and make preposterous sense. This happens when we leave it to our own machinations, instead of relying on our sages.

You cannot twist text where it suits you and leave the rest intact. There are 13 particular ways to expound Torah, as our sages specify. (We read these specifications in our daily morning prayer.) In fact, even our sages carefully trod where no one trodded before. You see this often in Talmud where one sage says something by quoting another sage, in the name of yet another sage.

The very first premise to expounding, however, must be a complete respect for the original as being perfect, otherwise, like I said, you build castles in the air. With that premise in tow, we can cautiously look for our own secrets in Torah. But how wise would it be to look for these secrets if, like yours, they negate Jewish sensibilities (confining an infinite Hashem into finite physical entities)?

Such inventiveness actually denies oral tradition rather than adds to it.

During the Mount Sinai experience and in the aftermath years in the desert, God gifted the Jewish people with TWO Torahs - a written one and an oral one, later transcribed to constitute the Talmud.

If one TOTALLY denies the Talmud, as did the Saduccees in early Jewish history, that's bad enough. But to PARTIALLY accept Talmud is even worse! How can this be?

When Elijah the Prophet rebuked the Jews (during the "competition" he held with false prophets at an ad hoc altar), he declared, "How much longer will you straddle the fence? If you want to worship Hashem, then do so; And if you want to worship the foreign god, then do that!" (Kings 1, 18:39)

Note his precise words. Eliyahu was telling the Jewish people that even idol worship is better than straddling the fence! But why are fence straddlers worse than idolaters? Why does Elijah unleash such contempt for straddlers more so than for idol worshippers?

"Fence straddlers" dip into oral Torah, when and as it suits them, and into their own whimsical terrain, when and as it suits them. Such people seek convenience or self-aggrandizement more than they seek truth. For them spirituality plays second fiddle to self-satisfaction. They delude themselves into thinking they are "Torah Jews" because, after all, much of what they do is congruous with Judaism, and as for what they do otherwise, their love of self easily rationalizes away these "imperfections". Logic cannot budge such people. Much like a sick person who doesn't recognize he's ill.

Worse still is another effect straddlers have. They may influence others who lack insight or knowledge. For straddlers cannot be easily identified for what they are as easily as total deniers can be. A Jew knows enough to realize idol worship clashes with Judaism, but he may not detect the attitude of one who compromises his Judaism, as does his straddler friend. It is for this very reason gentile missionaries often prey on targets among this group of weak Jews by portraying a Jewish facade. A good lie always starts with a bit of truth to it! Rashi (13:27)

Jewish Liberalism's Achilles Heel

I wrote this letter to a Jew who heaped abuse on the Chareidi sector for nurturing the likes of that Jew who committed a chilul Hashem for spitting in a young girl's face.

Dear ___ ,

I returned to reread your tirade against the charedi sector. Why is it, I asked myself, secular Jews, more than their religious peers, tend to adopt "liberal", or leftist, positions, especially vis-a-vis Israel. For example, taking for granted Israel's current awkward jurisdiction over "West Bank" issues, which they unquestionably support. Or, for example, disregarding the plight of Jonathan Pollard because it is a "sensitive" issue for Jews to get involved with. Or, as in this case, one idiot's behavior, used to mudsling at the religious element, as leftists in Israel all too often are just too happy to oblige to.

The answer, I believe, lies in your accredited sources of information.

In American media, for example, the "Palestinians" (a name conjured up in 1967) always get more than a fair share of "concern" for their welfare, let alone their vile hatred for anything Jewish. In Israel, the religious element is ceaselessly vilified in the media. (Only 2 years ago could a "religious channel" finally materialize.)

Religious Jews are, first and foremost, brought up with Torah and its commentaries as a backdrop to the ensuing theater of life. Secular Jews, in contrast, rely on the prevalent media.

This, I believe, is the Achilles heel of secularists; For one simple reason, and that is, because media sources can be bought out and used to promote propaganda!

For example, if a weed in your back lawn could cure cancer, the medical establishment, closely aligned and kept in check by "big-pharma", will never allow any respectable medical journal to publish this finding for it would severely cut into their profit from pushing patentable drugs. Were a journal to publish such an article, its revenue for ads would suddenly dry up because big-pharma's ads are what feeds and sustains this medium.

You tell us right from your article's beginning what your creditable source of information is: the New York Times - the very publication that couldn't see fit to highlight the atrocities done to Jews in WWII; The very one that whitewashes Hamas terrorists as "fighters"; etc. You get my point.

Similarly, when it comes to Torah thoughts, your first sources would probably be your college texts, or books originally written in English, rather than the traditional Jewish literature handed down over the millennia quoting nothing but our sages.

Anyhow - may we all merit God's mercy and finally become a united people, drawing infinite blessings. If you read up to here, thanks for listening.

A Shabbat Niggun

Classical guitar music for the Jewish soul. By Nadav Bachar.

Being Beholden to G-d

So small a phrase as "Thank God" has awful resistance for some to bring to expression. Probably they fear the listener will recoil with horror at the thought the person speaking believes in "fairy tales". Meaning to say, the speaker wants to feel accepted.

But there are many who do express their gratitude by invoking the short phrase, "Thank God". And because they are so grateful, they want others to be grateful as well, so they have no qualms to assert their belief in God. Rather than wanting to be merely accepted, these speakers want to be influencers too. Rather than being timid, they want to be strong-willed. Rather than shy away from revealing their belief, they want to communicate it and, if need be, if they're questioned, they will easily explain their belief in a way where the listener should understand and he or she also become a grateful recipient of goodness, an occasion that even just breathing offers.

"How are you" is a commonplace greeting in America. "Thank God" should become at least as common, if not more so!

A Diary Entry - 1st Day of Chanuka

A clipping from today's major leftist NY newspaper (Click on image to enlarge):

How Many Religions Are There in the World? Jew & Gentile: Two Modes of Proper Conduct

Jews must convey to their Gentile peers the requisite for fulfilling the "7 Noahide Laws". We find this statute in Maimonides' paramount compendium of Jewish law, "The Strong Hand" (division "Judges", section "Kings", chapter 8, rule 10).

Regarding a Gentile with no faith in God, who feels free to behave as he wishes, especially in a free country, from the moment he arises in the morning, he has no plans for devout activities. For such a person, the 7 Noahide Laws may come as a rude awakening, for suddenly he's saddled with a new set of responsibilities he never would have imagined.

A religious Gentile may find it less traumatic to learn of the yoke he must bear to the Almighty, but he too will certainly be taken aback by this religious commitment he needs undertake, "a set of 7" he never knew about.

As for the Jew who must impart this information to his Gentile peer, this responsibility is extremely distasteful. A Jew never had it in his tradition to proselytize; It's not in his blood to talk religion with a Gentile.

The Jew who lacks faith in God would scorn this task as being ridiculous. So degrading a chore as this - to convince others of fairy-tale machinations - he wouldn't even wish for his enemy.

As for the religious Jew, after a millenial-long tradition of being under Gentile rule, always in fear of being downtrodden and on the defensive, when only recently the phenomenon of racial equality becoming socially palatable, he is not accustomed nor does he relish this now-feasible calling. He must go out among Gentiles and proclaim to them their charge of the 7 Noahide Laws. He'd rather be shackled and told to stay home than actively mimic the Gentile proselytizers he so despises, knowing they want to sell him on pennies so he give up his gold. For him to have to spread this set of laws to Gentile peers will make him feel like some sleazy insurance or used-car salesman.

So - we end up with Jews who shrink back from their responsibility to enlighten, and Gentiles who may well rebuff any new religious liabilities they will learn about.

The metaphor for this situation is the horse and buggy, with a passenger. The horse gallops along, and no matter if the passenger is smart or stupid, king or pauper, the horse, as far as it is concerned, could care less.

Similarly, that a person with obligations may reject or dismiss them - will not change the fact of the matter. The world gallops along its temporal course from one day to the next. One of these days, divine reckoning shall ask each of us if we fulfilled our duty on earth, and, by then, we will not be able to feign ignorance nor cast judgement aside. We'll be held accountable for our deeds.

We were created in God's image, which means we have the ability to think and reason, unlike other species.

So, to understand why disseminating, on the one hand, and accepting, on the other, the 7 Noahide laws is imperative, let's think and reason:

Suppose you host a guest in your home. Wouldn't you expect him to show appropriate manners? Would it not annoy you if he sits on your dinner table, carelessly breaks a crystal, or spits on the carpet? Would it not also offend you if such crass behavior were to occur mindless of your presence?

This anecdote symbolizes our lifetime on earth. We are the world's guests, given this incredible opportunity to live a life, by God our host. Do we disrespect the master of this domain and behave ungratefully?

You might ask, "But what constitutes 'appropriate behavior'? How is one to distinguish between what's really right from wrong?"

Think and reason again. The creator of any complicated gadget always leaves a set of instructions how to correctly operate his creation.

The same is true of the created universe. We creatures too have been given a manual of instructions. It happens to be the most widely read book in the world and the most popular in human history, until this very day! In the whole world, hardly a home exists without one, or at least without the ability to get one immediately!

Thought and reason should also lead you to understand and conclude that this fact is no mere happenstance. It's God's way to make sure we all have access to Him and His expectations of us. God also wants you to fill in the dots of so many more happenings around the world, especially events concerning His representative people, who have always been believers of His monotheistic presence, for that too will reveal important points in the mosaic of truth God wants people of thought and reason to realize and appreciate.

The very existence of the Jewish people is a phenomenon that transcends nature. It is the equivalent of a sheep that survives among 70 hungry wolves. The Torah is the glue that keeps the Jewish people true to their faith and miraculously assures their collective, if not individual, survival.

The book God gave the Jewish people is called Torah. The word means "a book of instruction". That name is deliberate.

The Torah, as it was gifted to the Jewish people 3,323 years ago, in its original Hebrew language, provides all the answers. Torah is your source for truth! As long as you allow others - other than observant Jews - to teach you what Torah says, or, as long as you find reason to follow those who shun the opinion of such Jews, you will never know the truth!

Not one letter has ever been added or removed from Torah since its inception, in 1312 B.C.. It suffered no revisions or modifications, and never will, because divine perfection gets it right the first time and remains eternally perfect. No translation of it can do justice to the original language. Unlike every other language, which is artificial, Hebrew is God's language.

Only observant rabbis profoundly intimate with Torah and Talmud (oral Torah tradition) can provide answers to questions of appropriate behavior.

The Torah prescribes two modes of appropriate behavior in this domain of God; One prescription is for the Jew; The other, for the Gentile. The Jew has 613 commandments (plus ramifications thereof) he must follow. The Gentile has 7 (with its own ramifications); These are the so-called Seven Noahide Laws.

So, what constitutes proper conduct in God Almighty's abode? What behavior befits the King's palace? There are two, depending on who you are. One protocol applies for Jewish people, and one for Gentile people. Each group has its own role in the world. The Jew is the Torah's beacon. The Gentile is the world's colonizer. Each has his own related set of commandments. Anything else falls short of these requirements and lacks divine sanction!

So, how many religions exist in the world? Who knows; There ought to be none! Torah endorses only two modes of proper conduct, one for Jew and one for Gentile, no more, no less. You can't beat this elegant simplicity, nor the inherent synergy.

As for the payoff - righteous Gentiles in this world earn their future ticket into the world of truth.

The "Downed" Drone

For those who feel confident this horrible Obama-thing will blow over and everything will turn out roses again after 2012, are due for a rude awakening. They do not realize how rotten the core of our present American administration and its supportive infrastructure has become. They do not see how the media manipulates the political scenarios, nor how the Republicans, as sure as the Democrats, are also with their hands in the pot. They do not realize that even the likes of so-called conservative Newt Gingrich is also on their payroll. They do not realize how so many individuals depend on or leach off of the financial support of the administration; This goes for common folk as well as for multi-millionaire politicians. The longevity of this corruption will not hold the weight and will have to buckle, but not before the regime in power wins a 2nd term and then will proceed to purposely break the system and its adherence to the principles upon which it was founded, namely The Constitution.

So corrupt is the regime, it has no iota of moral fabric. To engineer their takeover and transformation of this capitalistic society into a socialist, totalitarian one, they have conspired to run guns into the hands of Mexican gangs so that the guns can find their way back onto U.S. soil, doing damage they hope, thus giving the administration good reason to "clamp down" on gun ownership, thereby executing the next phase of their takeover and do-over, because without guns people are completely at the "law"-enforcement's mercy.

The drone that fell into the hands of the enemy is another glaring example of such conspiracy in the works. Nobody "downed" that drone; That drone was purposefully put into the hands of the Iranians. The administration has its moles planted in the U.S. airforce, who purposefully handed over this drone into enemy hands, knowing full well that China, Russia or Iran will thereby be offered the American regime's secret support, to eventually overwhelm American military superiority and thereby bring about a new, universal world order of socialist structure. The same regime that emasculated NASA, the same that undermines America's desire to create a democratic Iraq, the same that now has TSA agents in place to halt the outflow of the dollar they plan to devalue, will, after it wins a second term, bring America to its knees - forthwith, faster than you can a raise a protest against.

We are quickly approaching the Ultimate and Final Era of Redemption. This article brought you the Previous Rebbe's prophecy - that Democracy will turn out to be the last "ism" to be destroyed prior to the Messianic era, and now we are about to see just how fragile and corrupt an ideal this man-made structure can become, and will self-destruct, just as Socialism proved to be worthless and was destroyed. Looks like this prophecy is coming on fast and furiously - all for the good of the Jewish people (despite those still hoping to hang on to this flimsy, corruptable ideal they put all their faith in).

(See here too, The Rise & Fall of Israel & America, Respectively)

(And here too, re: Current Events in Bright Perspective)

Hagar the Matriarch

Ever hear an Arab talk about his "history"? Inevitably he mentions Abraham, the patriarch of the Jews, whom they'd like to possess for themselves, which is why they hate Jews so badly.

But did you ever hear them make mention of their matriarch? That would be like offering some semblance of worth to a woman, which is so non-Arabic, so non-Muslim; After all, they would argue, or at least think, how can you attribute value to a mere object of lust, any more than you could attribute greatness to a goat! In fact, the goat doesn't have to wear the burkha.

Most probably the "elders" of the Arabs/Muslims, who know about the true story of Abraham, at least those few who credit Torah for being the truth, and, realizing that Hagar was but a maidservant of the first Jewish matriarch, Sarah, whose only son she made sure would inherit Abraham's legacy, while Ishmael, Hagar's son, she chased away from her premises, making sure he'd never inherit anything pertaining to Abraham, could hardly take pride in their driven-away matriarch.

Do I come to mock another "religion"? Yes of course, because it is no religion in the first place. Belief in the One G-d is indeed righteous. If that is all that they would believe in - they would be a holy people. But they take that premise, and add to it the rubbish written by a pedophiliac, thief, murderer and hater, and, in the name of G-d, commit atrocities and delight in the atrocities of the likes of Hitler, so - taken together - it is NOT a religion at all, but rather a sick culture.

Ever hear of an Arab/Muslim who murdered in cold blood and did NOT invoke the name of G-d at the time of his inhumane crime? This is the sickness of a deep-rooted culture that begins from infancy. Offer them any leeway, any show of respect, and you end up undermining yourself.

A Natural Deodorant

Deodorant companies won't tell you this, but the best and natural deodorant is - baking soda! Apply a little of its powder in the axillae and for the rest of the day odor is eliminated. Not only is the substance natural, it works much better than artificial deodorant, and it's practically free.

Baking soda has no smell, does not stain clothing, retains its power for hours long, even on the hottest of days, is cheap, and, most important, does not contain dangerous ingredients such as aluminum, which practically all artificial deodorants contain.

Young people are often most likely to purchase the artificial deodorants, out of sheer ignorance, and most often they know nothing about the risks these can have on their own health, or on those who have to smell the spray when it is sprayed on. What they don't know is that clean sweat has no smell. Armpits and their sweat serve a bodily purpose. Artificial deodorants not only have dangerous substances that can be absorbed from the pores into the body, they also impede the natural, and therefore necessary, elimination of waste products from the armpits.

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Other uses of this wonderful product:

Skin tears between the toes. Most creams don't work resolutely because shoes are full of bacteria and fungii. A good strategy is to put some powder into the shoes at night, and seal each shoe within a plastic bag. In the morning shake out the powder or vacuum it out. The rest of the day your shoes will be bacteria- and fungal-free.

Closet odor. Place a small dish with powder into the closet. The sodium bicorbonate will absorb the bad odors.

Removes stains from clothes. Just add 3 spoons of the stuff into the washing machine.

Shining teeth. Just add some of this powder onto your toothpaste. (Especially if you smoke!)

Got ants? Spread some powder around there.

Other uses include cleaning grime from pots, smell from thermos bottles and stains on carpets.

Direct Conduit for Hashem

Translation of the above note:

Because a Rebbe's answer is, after all, "The word of Hashem was spoken to me, Whose word is on my tongue."

In many Chabad ceremonies, a family often distributes to guests "gifts" (תשורה) for their reading pleasure. Such booklets contain historical anecdotes of personal encounters with the Rebbe, or those of relatives, or letters to or from the Rebbe, which the family unveils to share with their guests.

This image I cropped from such a gift handout, and share with you. I hope you appreciate the significance these few hand-written words of the Rebbe imply. They could just as well have been written by Moses, the leader of his generation. As we see in Deut 18:15, "A prophet from among you, like myself, Hashem will raise for you [every generation], to whom you should listen."

I can well appreciate during these concealed times the enormity of this last trial for many fellow-Chabadniks, how much more so for Chassidim of other affiliation, and especially more difficult to grasp for those outside the realm of Chassidut, for this concept of נשיא הדור, the Prince of the Generation, has now become strained, just as strained, if not more so, as the day Moses was expected to come down from Mount Sinai the first time -- when some felt he tarried. But a trial it is. Only this one is the final trial. Yet he who holds fast, and is willing to explain why, will convince enough Jews to accept the implication, a few more of which will trigger the "critical mass" for acceptance, needed for his re-revelation.

(As for why the Rebbe slightly modified the above quote, from Shmuel 2, 23:2, in this case replacing the word דבר for רוח, we do find it when the Rebbe wants to specify and explain a specific word, as here, that רוח means דבור. Regarding this concept, see also Tanya p. 278 (top).)

Amnesty from Hell - Psalm 23

The Previous Rebbe reveals for us what King David thought when he authored Psalm 23 (translated below, from הקריאה והקדושה, pp.781-2). It behooves every Jew to understand this short Psalm, for whom it was written in the first place. As a preface, I repeat what the Tzemach Tzedek said, that Moshiach will rejoice with the simple Jews, those who set aside their "brains" lest it interfere with their faith in the tzaddik's words. The "wise ones" will then have good reason to be jealous.

A friend once told me this about happiness - in Hebrew, שמחה: It consists of two inner letters and two outer letters that read מח שה, meaning "the mind of a sheep". True happiness is achieved by following the tzaddik's words as a sheep follows trustingly its shepherd. Much of the following relates to words of a tzaddik and the benefits of relying on and trusting Hashem, allowing oneself to be shepherded in His ways.

Our sages tell us, when a Psalm opens with the words "מזמור לדוד", this refers to a song King David created while yearning for divine insight. During such spiritual uplift, he would speak some divine truth, a profound holy lesson, for the sake of the Jewish people.

On the other hand, if it opens with "לדוד מזמור", this implies an occasion when unexpectedly he was infused with divine insight and then felt compelled to sing out a prophecy.

In Psalm 23, which we explain below, the divine poet renders a deep and holy lesson - that no real achievement is acquired in the world unless it is offered by Hashem, which is why Jews must always remain bound to Hashem, both in good times and, Hashem forbid, in bad times.

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"מזמור לדוד ד' רעי לא אחסר"

"A song of David. When God is my shepherd, I lack nothing."

When individuals or nations help themselves, or when they're helped by other individuals or nations, this help is imperfect and lacks lasting happiness. Only when Hashem offers help or leads ("pastures") an individual or nation, is the help flawless. We naturally conclude, therefore, we must let ourselves be guided by Hashem, following in only His ways, if we yearn for success and complete joy in life.

"בנאות דשא ירביצני על מי מנחות ינהלני"

"He makes only me lie down on grassy pastures. He leads only me along calm waters."

True economic success, for an individual or nation, comes only from Hashem. Only He can provide tranquility and political freedom. Self-made economic success and political independence are neither complete nor enduring; These cannot bring full satisfaction for various reasons; It cannot last long and it is flawed to begin with.

"נפשי ישובב ינחני במעגלי צדק למען שמו"

"He refreshes my soul; He leads me in rightful paths - for the sake of His name."

Divinely-offered success provides more than physical or material happiness; It also provides internal, spiritual joy. That's because those faithful to Hashem are lead by Him in the right paths. Their success isn't based on falsity, theft, robbery or murder. They have a clean conscience. Their soul too is refreshed from this success, as is the body. This contrasts with achievement attained by those who abandoned Hashem. Then there is no tranquility because their conscience plagues them constantly and punishment for having made these material gains frightens them because of the transgressions and sins involved. Their physical success and emotional happiness are thus flawed.

Only success that Hashem provides refreshes both the soul and the body. Why? Because He does it "for the sake of His name", so people should know that when Hashem provides success - it is true success, free of heartaches or misgivings.

"גם כי אלך בגיא צלמות לא אירא רע כי אתה עמדי שבטך ומשענתך המה ינחמני"

"Even when I walk in the valley of death-shadows, I fear no bad because You are with me; Your rod and cane are a comfort for me."

The divine poet here addresses two issues: Man's death, which can lead to Hell, and exile, which "valley of death-shadows" refers to, either for the individual or for a nation.

Regarding death and Hell, our sages tell us, that when the spiritual overseers of the nations [every nation has its overseer] complain why is it the sinful Jewish nation gets no Hell whereas other sinful nations do, they are shown the heavenly decree - that every sinful nation must go to Hell together with the god they worshipped! The same is true for every individual! If someone worshipped Hashem, then, even though he wasn't fully righteous, he cannot go to Hell for his smaller sins because his God, Hashem, cannot go with him! "I fear no bad because You are with me!" He who worships Hashem, therefore, has no fear of Hell because Hashem is with him! This means, in fact, his sins are regarded as minor, and get wiped away by punishments [in this world], but not by Hell.

Here then is another benefit for allowing oneself to be led by Hashem - it removes the option of Hell in the world-to-come.

The Jewish nation, in general, is therefore actually safe from Hell because as a collective they generally worship Hashem; Which is why they can say, and do say, regarding Hell, "I fear no bad because You are with me!"

After the Jewish people sinned, since they could not be sent to Hell, they had to be sentenced to exile. Despite exile, as a collective, they are not in danger of downfall [extinction], as happened to many other exiled nations who lost their land and their independence.

Jews in exile are sustained in life by "Your rod and cane"; By the divine rod that whips, and the divine Torah, which is their cane that prevents Jews from falling. Jews never achieve complete tranquility in exile as do other nations who also lost their independence.

By the divine rod, Jews get whipped in all their lands of exile; They know they are victimized because of the divine Torah they possess, a Torah from which they do not want to be torn away from despite all the dirt heaped upon them. The rod and the Torah are therefore Hashem's goodness and consolation for the Jewish people. Were it not for the whipping rod that casts the sinning countries in a despicable light, and were it not for Torah that demonstrates that the Jewish nation is more beautiful and, spiritually, heavens higher than the sinning, whipping countries, the Jews would long ago have had their downfall through assimilation. Our consolation and entire hope on final redemption rest strictly on Hashem's "rod and cane" that He has us contending with.

This is then another benefit for letting be led by Hashem: That we as a collective cannot go to Hell and that we cannot go extinct during exile!

The fact that we must contend with the rod and the cane during exile, which prevents us from going under, is a sign He wants to redeem us, to return us to the Holy Land, and provide us with luscious pastures, along quiet waters - which means economic plenty and political independence and tranquility!

"תערך לפני שלחן נגד צררי דשנת בשמן ראשי כוסי רויה"

"You prepare for me a table against my enemies. You anoint my head with fragrant oil; My cup satiates me."

The Godly poet relates another advantage in letting oneself be led by Hashem, even in exile - the valley of death-shadows. Even in exile Hashem gives to those who earn it a prepared table, wealth and honor, in order to anger all enemies of the Jews. For not abandoning faith in Hashem, the Jewish people, even in exile, and despite enemies who heap dirt upon them, get a great name, in the sense of "שמן תורק שמך על כן עלמות אהבוך" ("For your flowing oil [whose fragrance one smells from afar] you are renowned, therefore maidens love you.") [Song of Songs 1:3]. Even the anti-Semitic nations have to acknowledge Jewish greatness and talent, and they want Jews should intermingle with them. For this reason, the cup of many Jews is a full one that satiates them. Nations and their officials need access to Jewish resourcefulness, so they appoint Jews to high office, which satiates the appointees either economically or with honor. All this comes as a result of maintaining belief in Hashem; All this for not giving up their Jewishness.

And this is truly a great wonder - that youngsters from the Jewish "Gypsy" [nomadic, unconventional] nation manage to rub shoulders with royalty, to become finance ministers, authors, lawyers and governors - a phenomenon that could never happen to person from a real Gypsy nation!

"אך טוב וחסד ירדפוני כל ימי חיי ושבתי בבית ד' לארך ימים"

"Just goodness and favor will follow me all days of my life, and I will yet even sit in God's house for long years."

According to circumstances where Jews sinned and thus warranted exile, since then all Jewish days are full with goodness and favor that Hashem gives them. Without true miracles, the Jewish nation could never have possibly survived amid 2,000 years of hate and persecution. And finally Jews will, speedily in our days, live to see the ultimate redemption and remain the most free and luckiest people, in their holy, divine land, forever.

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So, King David gave us, in this small chapter 23, a complete thesis about the happy opportunity Jews have, to be led by Hashem alone, by following the ways of Torah. Briefly expressed, he enumerates all the benefits we derive therefrom, in good times or bad, God forbid, when we transgress somewhat.

God-given success is whole, flawless, as it was during the short era under the reigns of King David and King Solomon, when Jews enjoyed true economic "grassy pastures" and complete political "tranquil waters", because then the Land of Israel was the richest and most respected nation in the world. God-given success is a delight for both soul and body, for it comes as a reward for following in Hashem's path; It is free of painful thoughts or fear of punishment that come bound with unkosher success.

Also after death, the God-fearing person is happier than everyone because he cannot go to Hell, just as the Jewish people collectively are free from Hell.

Even suffering through exile, for which their sins are to blame, Jews are guaranteed from becoming extinct and, moreover, they have comfort knowing they will one day be redeeemed, based on an undoubtful sign, that even in exile a Jew can enjoy wealth and honor, simply by remaining a God-faithful Jew, vis-vis anti-Semites who, upon seeing this, burn inside with fire.

And surely Jews would incur a much lighter exile were they to be better Jews, correctly observing the Torah, instead of being satisfied for not being completely Gentile-like, as many Jews do in the more-or-less assimilated circles.

The exile turned out to be a long chain of miracles, due to the goodness and favor Hashem showered upon us, for which we will merit a complete redemption from which our happy future will never again be taken away from us.

All this we learn from 6 short verses, in 57 words! The most profound, truthful, complete and shortest explanation why it is the best of fortunes to be a Jew walking in Hashem's ways by observing Torah and Mitzvot.

Unfortunately, many Jews lost both worlds only because they knew not the contents or meaning of this very chapter of Psalms, small as it is!