During Asseret Yomei Teshuva, the ten days of repentence between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, there were heated public exchanges between Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and US president Barack Hussein Obama regarding PM Netanyahu’s announcement of construction of a new housing development in east Jerusalem.
A quote from “L’Dovid Hashem Ori” that we say twice a day from the beginning of Chodesh Elul through Hoshana Rabbah: : “He will hide me in His shelter” … an allusion to Succot. Jews recognize that Hashem has dominion over the world and that man can’t look to or have trust in the physical, such as stone, iron or steel structures, etc. to provide protection. The nations, conversely, look to tall, fortifed edifices for security and protection.
Gemura Mesechet Avodah Zora, daf gimmel relates that in the future, the nations would seek reward from Hashem as they related how they did and made many things to benefit the Jews, and make the claim that had Hashem forced them to accept Torah as He did the Jews, that they would have accepted Hashem’s Law as well. So Hashem offers them one Mitzvah to do — Succah. [Many thanks to R’ Ari Enkin, R’ Moshe Braun, R’ Chaim Zev Malinowitz, Sh’lita for their help in providing a clearer understanding of of the above Gemura.]
When Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu responded to a recent White House rebuke of the new Israeli construction calling the criticism “against American values,” the Obamanator fired back, through a White House spokesman:
“When it comes to American values, it’s American values that led to this country’s unwavering support of Israel,” Mr. Earnest [White House spokesman] said. “It’s American values that have led us to fund an Iron Dome system” to protect Israelis from rocket attacks by Islamist militants.
This author also saw other coverages of the public exchanges which indicated that the White House spokesman also noted that the US permitted Israel to defend herself and provided her with military aid. Ergo, the title above: “Prophesy — Semi-Fulfilled” for we have yet to see the Obamanator, the “leader” of the nations, sit in a Succah — the one mitzvah which Hashem, according to prophecy, offers the leader to prove the sincerity of the nations.
And so, the story goes that a king, or head of state of the nations will sit in the Succah and Hashem would bring an intense heat, more intense than the heavy heat of Arnoldis Chapman’s hardest fastball. The head of state can’t take the intense heat (Well, you know “If you can’t take the heat, get
out of the kitchen”) and leaves the Succah, kicking the door in as he leaves, thereby validating, as if Hashem needs any validation, for choosing B’nai Yisrael as His nation and people.
Our emunah in Hashem as our protector is what distinguishes us from every other nation and people.