Parsha Va’etchanan — Consolation After Expulsion, After the Cruelty, Disdain of Israel’s Leaders?

In the beginning of Parsha, Moshe Rabbeinu recalls for the B’nai Yisrael how he entreated Hashem for permission to cross the Jordan River but that his request was denied. Instead, he was consoled by viewing the Land from Mount Pisgah. (L’lmod Ul’Lamed – Parsha Va’etchanan, page 161)

And after the destruction of the First and Second Beit HaMikdash, the starving, the famine, the presecutions, there was comfort and consolation that one day, the B’nai Yisrael would be redeemed and returned to our former state; a people in it’s land with it’s Beit HaMikdash for all time.

Back in Philadelphia, in the old country, a Holacaust story was told of how Nazis confronted a group of Chassidim. And the Nazis rousted and harrassed the Chassidim, telling them “dance Chassidim, dance and sing!” And the Chassidim were silent. Again, the Nazis accosted the Chassidim, “Chassidim, dance and sing!” Then, the Nazis aimed their rifles, “Chassidim, dance and sing, or we will kill you!”

At first, slowly, muted, nervously, a niggun with words was heard faintly. The niggun and the words grew in volume as the Chassidim began to dance. “Mir Villen zei Ibber Leiben, Ibber Leiben, Ibber Leiben, Mir Villen zei Ibber Leiben…” “We will outlive you!”

And yes, we have outlived every nation, every vile personality which put upon B’nai Yisrael and so, we are comforted.

But again this year? Shabbos Nachamu? As with the last couple of years, one wonders how long it took B’nai Yisrael to console ourselves after each of the destructions, the persecutions throughout our history. The wounds of the expulsion, of last year’s insuing Lebanon conflict, of the continuing Kassam blitz of Sderot, Ashkelon and the southern border towns are too fresh, too raw, too festering.

Many of us fought 2 years ago against the regime’s expulsion with all of our being that our brethren be not harmed, that their lives not be uprooted, destroyed, placed in limo or pain; that they not be hounded and persecuted by the evil ones who brainwash and pit Jew against Jew. Many of us fought and continue to fight against these vile individuals who, having stolen every piece of property and asset that our brothers had, continue to slander our fellow Jews, calling them “spoiled brats” while covering up the fact that our brothers have received scarcely a fraction of their rightful, legally-mandated compensation; restitution for all that was stolen from them at legalized gun-point. And we fight against the regime’s slander of the term “settler” — the noblest title for Jews who are linked, connected and inseparable from The Land of Israel.

We sought, and fought, with our hearts, tefillohs, strength and even our pocketbooks that our brothers would and should have as we have — that he is like me — V’ahavta L’rei’cha Komocha. We literally put our lives on hold to aid our brethren against the evil regime of our time — hard-hearted Israeli “leaders” and “authorities” who hate, despise and show total disdain for Torah and Ahavat Yisrael and who pursue their own self-enrichment, self-interest and agenda at our expense. The Olmerts, Peres’, Ramons, Sheetrits, Bibis, etc. show utter disdain, neglect and disregard for the electorate they claim leadership of and enforcement of laws against.

And two years later, we continue to care for our beloved Gush Katif brethren while remembering what our brethren in the North endured because of a regime who sees Jews as expendable, whose motto is the very worst; mercy for the cruel and cruelty to the merciful.

We have fought; physically, with our tefillos, with our kindness and have cried rivers over the catastrophe of expulsion. We feel deeply, from our hearts for our brethren from Haifa, from Tsfat, Kiryat Shemonah as well as from Afula and Jenin who suffered last summer the long-range Iranian and Syrian-made rockets launched by Hezbollah as well as for our brethren who suffer continuous Kassam bombardments even now, today. How can we be consoled while our Gush Katif brethren are still unsettled two years later and while the Fatah and Hamas are in possession of our land. How are we comforted while hundreds of thousands of our Jewish brethren in both the North, despite Olmert’s bogus victory claims, and in the South continue to live unprotected under threat of the Kassams and Katyusha bombardment, while Olmert contents himself with the IDF bombing more empty fields rather than bombing where the terrorists and weapons really are.

A year later, the leaders of the evil regime have yet to bring about the freedom of 3 Jewish soldiers for whom Israel went to war, nor have secured the release of the earlier MIAs — Ron Arad, Zachary Baumel, etc. as the IDF is a shell of it’s former courageousness and resourcefulness in battle. We find that an evil Ehud Olmert can’t get over his dream, his lust to complete the job that Sharon started — to build on the expulsion from Gush Katif and the 4 Shomron towns, even if dressed under a different name or spin other than unilateral consolidation, convergence or realignment.

Having said all of the above, we are further faced with divisiveness during the very time, the very season that our unity is a necessity.

But perhaps there is Nachamu, even now.

We haven’t heard much about Arik Sharon over the past 1 1/2 years, although he must have felt really empowered, immortal 2 years ago at this time. He thought that he won, that he had vanquished an enemy; Torah and religion. But the Yad Hashem had other ideas. And Sharon is not the lone subsequent casualty of divine retribution. Time will reveal the others.

There is a Likud primary in less than three weeks to vote for Party leader, an individual with a great shot to be the next prime minister — a great shot to right the ship, to bring Torah, Jewish values to bear on life in Israel.

And every believing Jew belongs taking part in the battle for right, for Jewish morality, for Eretz Yisrael to his fullest and beyond, to the extent that he can. Every believing Jew must be his own leader within the body of B’nai Yisrael, but without the contentiousness of a million generals. We must knife through the apathy, the indifference, the “business as usual” and the fear of the regime.

We and Hashem will win out in the end. “Nachamu, Nachamu Ami yomar Elokeichem” — “Comfort, comfort my people — says your G’d.”

B’Ezrat Hashem, may it be that this Tisha B’av just past be the last Tzom for B’nai Yisrael.

May we, the B’nai Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard and the 3 captive Chayalim and the other MIAs be liberated and returned to us and that we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!