Pesach 5774 -- Entering Another Realm; End the Farce

Entering a New Realm

Mitzrayim, the Zohar tells us, is a compound of meitzar (a confined space) and yam (an expanse of water). Yam is the gematria of 50, representing something beyond the natural order, which is always expressed in terms of multiples of sevens. Water expands indefinitely, unless it is confined by something outside itself. Chazal call the sea "water that has no end," and for that reason it represents the ein sof, the infinite.

Mitzrayim had no connection to the infinite. Even the way that it received its water required no recognition of dependence on any being outside of the natural order. The Torah explicitly contrasts the manner in which the Egyptians irrigated their fields directly from the Nile to that of Eretz Yisroel where the water comes only from the Heavens, as a consequence of which those dwelling in the Land must constantly direct their prayers for rain to Hashem. |

Pharoah, who represented all of Mitzrayim, proclaimed himself his own creator – ani y'ori af ani asisini, I am the river, even have I created it – meaning that his existence is necessary and not contingent on anything beyond himself. He thereby turned himself into a deity, totally independent of any other being.

With Yetzias Mitzrayim, the going out from Egypt, the Jewish people left one realm of existence for an entirely different realm: They went from a realm that denied anything beyond the natural order and entered a realm of existence in which nature is only a mask. The divide between these two realms is absolute.

There was no continuity between Mitzrayim and the bnei Yisrael – nothing like the continuity between parents and children, who can coexist. Rather Egypt had to be utterly destroyed in the course of the Exodus – ve'yinazlu es Mitzrayim. To receive the Torah, the bnei Yisrael had to be completely removed from the confines of the natural order, represented by Mitzrayim.

THE SEDER TABLE is a once in the year opportunity to convey to our children our most fundamental beliefs – the essence of what we want to pass on to them. At bris bein habesarim, Hashem elevated Avraham Avinu to a realm above the stars, as a prelude to informing him of the nation that would come from him – a nation that would experience slavery and redemption. At the Seder table, we focus on the nissim ve'niflaos, the miracles and wonders, with which Hashem took us out from Mitzrayim, to convey the magnitude of the transition from the realm of nature to the realm above nature.

But this message must not be confined to the Seder table. The miracles of yetzios Mitzrayim were a one time event. But the realm above nature is the ultimate reality. That reality can be experienced even in a time of hester panim, but to do so we have to sensitize ourselves to it. We have to live in that realm and make its existence concrete for our children as well.

We do so whenever we resist the temptation to become completely sucked in by the world of kochiv'otzem yadi, when we leave room for Hashem in our pursuit of a livelihood or any other goal of important to us. Above all, we do so when we immerse ourselves in learning His Torah and thereby attach ourselves to Him.

MATZAH MUST BE BAKED within 18 minutes of the flour and water being mixed. The hurry with which matzos must be made, writes Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner, represents the soul yearning to break free from the bounds of space and time. Eating the matzos, we remember both our birth as a nation, when Hashem lifted us above the constraits of time and space, and that the secret of our eternity lies in our attachment to the infinite.

The rest of the year we express that attachment with our zrizus (zeal) to do mitzvos. Chazal draw the equation between matzos and mitzvos with their well-known play on the identical orthography of the two words: "Ushmarten es hamatzos" – From here we learn that one should not delay (ein machmitzin) [in the performance] of mitzvos. From Chazal's comparison of a lack of zrizus to chametz, Rabbi Hutner concludes, we learn that a mitzvah done without zrizus lacks that fundamental quality of the soul seeking to break free from the constraints of time.

Matzah, Rabbi Moshe Shapiro points out, also connotes conflict or disagreement, as in the verse leriv umatzah (Yeshayahu 58:4). A Jew is perpetually in conflict with a view of the world limited to olam k'minhago noheig.

Rabbi Noach Weinberg and Rabbi Yaakov Rosenberg, two of the founders of the modern ba'al teshuva movement, were good friends in Yeshiva Ner Israel. Though they developed sharply differing views of kiruv, they agreed on this point that a Jew is in constant rebellion against the common perception of reality. Rabbi Rosenberg once told a pony-tailed young man, who confessed that his pony-tail was not an aesthetic statement but a symbol of his rebellion, "I too am in rebellion. I'm in rebellion against a world without Torah, against a world without knowledge of G-d." Then he offered the young man his hand and told him, "Come let us rebel together."

Reb Noach once sat down next to a young man in the Old City, who turned out to be the head of the Young Communists in England. Something about the young man's appearance must have conveyed his revolutionary bent because Reb Noach told him, "I'm making a revolution and I'm looking for people to change the world with me." That young man went on to become a leading mechanech in England.

May we all be zocheh to experience the transition from the realm of nature to the realm above nature through the telling of the nissim v'niflaos of yetzios Mitzrayim this Seder night, and to be rebels against a world without awareness of G-d all year long.

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End the Farce

Yaakov's sons spent days arguing with Esav about burying their father in Ma'arat HaMachpelah, until Chush ben Dan arrived on the scene and cut off Esav's head. Chush ben Dan, Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz explained, was deaf, and so he no connection to the debate taking place.

The brothers were essentially sucked into an insane debate, as their father's body lay there unburied. But the longer the argument with Esav stretched the greater the air of normalcy that attached to the discussions. Only Chush cut through the nonsense. He saw one thing and one thing only: the disgrace of his grandfather lying unburied. And he acted immediately.

The Palestinian-Israel "peace negotiations" have long since been conclusively revealed as a farce. The frantic, last-ditch discussions taking place as I write have nothing to do with peace negotiations and everything to do with saving the face of the Obama administration.

Mahmoud Abbas is only too happy to agree from time to time to further talks, as long his consent has to be purchased each time with expensive gifts from Israel. At present, the discussions involve the fourth bunch of prisoners Israel previously agreed to release when it still could be (barely) argued that the Palestinians were interested in serious serious negotiations were in the offing. In addition, the Palestinians are demanding some Israeli Arabs, including the really big fish Marwan Barghouti, who were not included in the terms of the original prisoner release.

To sweeten the offer for Israel, the United States has offered to release Jonathan Pollard in time for Pesach. By dangling Pollard in front of Israel, Kerry has effectively admitted that his continued imprisonment – 29 years and counting, far longer than any spy similarly charged in American history – has nothing to do with justice or American security. He is being held as a bargaining chip. The use of Pollard in this fashion is a profound insult to American Jewry. To his credit, Pollard has indicated he has no desire to be released as part of such a shameful deal.

EVERY NEW ROUND OF NEGOTIATIONS is preceded by pressure on Israel to ante up some prize that Abbas can hold up as evidence of his success in squeezing Israel. Nothing is ever demanded from the Palestinians, other than that they show up for a few photo-ops and endure a few more visits from Secretary of State John Kerry before finding some pretext for pulling out of negotiations

The message of the one-sided concessions at the beginning of each round of talks is: Peace is for Israel's benefit so Israel must pay for talks; the Palestinians have nothing to gain. That is not a message that can serve as the foundation for an enduring peace, or any peace for that matter. Until the Palestinians truly feel that peace is in their interests there will be no peace. And there should be no peace process either.

The concessions demanded of Israel have nothing to do with confidence building or with any plausible peace process. If there really were such a process, those concessions would set it back. When Israelis watch vicious murderers of Israeli civilians greeted as returning heroes by Abbas and the Palestinian population and their deeds held up by the Palestinian media for emulation, their skepticism about the existence of a "peace partner" is only strengthened -- and for good reason.

The last year of efforts by Secretary of State Kerry and his boss have not been totally worthless. Ironically, they have succeeded in fully unmasking Abbas. He is incapable (out of fear) or unwilling to negotiate seriously with Israel. Prior to visiting President Obama recently in Washington, Abbas orchestrated demonstrations throughout Judea and Samaria demanding that he refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. He returned home proclaiming himself a hero for having blown off the president. He told President Obama that Secretary of State Kerry's proposals were "immature" since they did not call for a full Israeli withdrawal from eastern Jerusalem, including the Old City, where more than 250,000 Jews live.

That position and the continued insistence of full implementation of the right of return, among other Palestinian positions, only confirm the judgment of Jackson Diehl, deputy opinion page editor of theWashington Post, that Secretary of State Kerry's promise last November of an agreement by April was and remains "delusional."

Now is time for a modern Chush ben Dan to stand up and proclaim an end to the farce of a peace process that has only one purpose: to wrest unreciprocated gifts from Israel. Israel has to stop paying vigorish to induce the Palestinians to pose for pictures.

s� pe���� d-space"> yetzios Mitzrayim were a one time event. But the realm above nature is the ultimate reality. That reality can be experienced even in a time of hester panim, but to do so we have to sensitize ourselves to it. We have to live in that realm and make its existence concrete for our children as well.

We do so whenever we resist the temptation to become completely sucked in by the world of kochiv'otzem yadi, when we leave room for Hashem in our pursuit of a livelihood or any other goal of important to us. Above all, we do so when we immerse ourselves in learning His Torah and thereby attach ourselves to Him.

MATZAH MUST BE MADE within 18 minutes of the flour and water being mixed. That hurry with which matzos must be made, writes Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner, represents the soul yearning to break free from the bounds of space and time. Eating the matzos, we remember both our birth as a nation, when Hashem lifted us above the constraits of time and space, and that the secret of our eternity lies in our attachment to the infinite.

The rest of the year we express that attachment with our zrizus (zeal) to do mitzvos. Chazal draw the equation between matzos and mitzvos with their well-known play on the identical orthography of the two words: "Ushmarten es hamatzos" – From here we learn that one should not delay (ein machmitzin) [in the performance] of mitzvos. From Chazal's comparison of a lack of zrizus to chametz, Rabbi Hutner concludes, we learn that a mitzvah done without zrizus lacks that fundamental quality of the soul seeking to break free from the constraints of time.

Matzah, Rabbi Moshe Shapiro points out, also connotes conflict or disagreement, as in the verse leriv umatzah (Yeshayahu 58:4). A Jew is perpetually in conflict with a view of the world limited to olam k'minhago noheig.

Rabbi Noach Weinberg and Rabbi Yaakov Rosenberg, two of the founders of the modern ba'al teshuva movement, were good friends in Yeshiva Ner Israel. Though they developed sharply differing views of kiruv, they agreed on this point that a Jew is in constant rebellion against the common perception of reality. Rabbi Rosenberg once told a pony-tailed young man, who confessed that his pony-tail was not an aesthetic statement but a symbol of his rebellion, "I too am in rebellion. I'm in rebellion against a world without Torah, against a world without knowledge of G-d." Then he offered the young man his hand and told him, "Come let us rebel together."

Reb Noach once sat down next to a young man in the Old City, who turned out to be the head of the Young Communists in England. Something about the young man's appearance must have conveyed his revolutionary bent because Reb Noach told him, "I'm making a revolution and I'm looking for people to change the world with me." That young man went on to become a leading mechanech in England.

May we all be zocheh to experience the transition from the realm of nature to the realm above nature through the telling of the nissim v'niflaos of yetzios Mitzrayim this Seder night, and to be rebels against a world without awareness of G-d all year long.

________________________________________________________________________

End the Farce

Yaakov's sons spent days arguing with Esav about burying their father in Ma'arat HaMachpelah, until Chush ben Dan arrived on the scene and cut off Esav's head. Chush ben Dan, Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz explained, was deaf, and so he no connection to the debate taking place.

The brothers were essentially sucked into an insane debate, as their father's body lay there unburied. But the longer the argument with Esav stretched the greater the air of normalcy that attached to the discussions. Only Chush cut through the nonsense. He saw one thing and one thing only: the disgrace of his grandfather lying unburied. And he acted immediately.

The Palestinian-Israel "peace negotiations" have long since been conclusively revealed as a farce. The ongoing discussions taking place as I write have nothing to do with peace negotiations and everything to do with saving the face of the Obama administration.

Mahmoud Abbas is only too happy to agree from time to time to further talks, as long his consent has to be purchased each time with expensive gifts from Israel. At present the discussions involve Israel releasing the fourth bunch of prisoners it previously agreed to release (when it still could be argued that serious negotiations were in the offing) and some Israeli Arabs, including the really big fish Marwan Barghouti, who were not included in the original prisoner exchange.

To sweeten the offer for Israel, the United States has offered to release Jonathan Pollard in time for Pesach. By dangling Pollard in front of Israel, Kerry has effectively admitted that his continued imprisonment – 29 years and counting, far longer than any spy similarly charged in American history – has nothing to do with justice or American security. He is being held as a bargaining chip. Already at Wye Plantation in 1998, President Clinton dangled Pollard in this fashion before Netanyahu. The use of Pollard in this fashion is a profound insult to American Jewry. To his credit, Pollard has indicated he has no desire to be released as part of such a shameful deal.

EVERY NEW ROUND OF NEGOTIATIONS is preceded by pressure on Israel to ante up some new prize that Abbas can hold up as evidence of his success in squeezing Israel. Nothing is ever demanded from the Palestinians, other than that they show up for a few photo-ops and endure a few more visits from Secretary of State John Kerry before finding some pretext for pulling out of negotiations

The message of the one-sided concessions at the beginning of each round of talks is: Peace is for Israel's benefit so Israel must pay for talks; the Palestinians have nothing to gain. That is not a message that can serve as the foundation for an enduring peace, or any peace for that matter. Until the Palestinians truly feel that peace is in their interests there will be no peace. And there should be no peace process either.

The concessions demanded of Israel have nothing to do with confidence building or with any plausible peace process. If there really were such a process, those concessions would set it back. When Israelis watch vicious murderers of Israeli civilians greeted as returning heroes by Abbas and the Palestinian population and their deeds help up by the Palestinian media for emulation, their skepticism about the existence of a "peace partner" is only strengthened -- and for good reason.

The last year of efforts by Secretary of State Kerry and his boss have not been totally worthless. Ironically, they have succeeded in fully unmasking Abbas. He is incapable (out of fear) or unwilling to negotiate seriously with Israel. Prior to visiting President Obama recently in Washington, Abbas orchestrated demonstrations throughout Judea and Samaria demanding that he refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. He returned home proclaiming himself a hero for having blown off the president. He told President Obama that Secretary of State Kerry's proposals were "immature" since they did not call for a full Israeli withdrawal from eastern Jerusalem, including the Old City, where more than 250,000 Jews live.

That position and the continued insistence of full implementation of the right of return, among other Palestinian positions, only confirm the judgment of Jackson Diehl, deputy opinion page editor of theWashington Post, that Secretary of State Kerry's promise last November of an agreement by April was and remains "delusional."

Now is time for a modern Chush ben Dan to stand up and proclaim an end to the farce of a peace process that has only one purpose: to wrest unreciprocated gifts from Israel. Israel has to stop paying vigorish to induce the Palestinians to pose for pictures.