Israel and The Sin of Expulsion
The Implications and Consequences of Expulsion for the Jewish People
Somehow, not being rabbinic or a Talmud Chacham, it has always seemed difficult to put a true and deep meaning of Hashem’s creation to words and so a similar theme is struck with the end and the beginning of Torah.
In Hashem’s expression of creation; “Breish’t, Bora, Kelokim.” (“In the beginning, Hashem created the heavens and the earth”, (Sefer Breish’t, Perek 1, posuk 1) Torah surely wasn’t referring to that parody of Major League Baseball; you know the one, ‘In the big inning.’
We learn that on Hoshana Rabbah, Hashem’s decrees upon all individuals, upon the Jewish people, and indeed on everyone in the entire world are finalized, as Rabbi Artscroll puts it, ‘delivered’ (Succot Machzor, page 645). Many Kehillot stay up all of Hoshana Rabbah night praying, saying Tehillim, learning in hopes that the finalized, ‘delivered’ decree upon us individually and upon Am Yehudi collectively, be for Tov in all things in the coming year.
At such an auspicious time, may all of us have our brother Jonathan Pollard — Yehonatan Ben Malka prominently in our hearts, thoughts, prayers and in mind in our actions — that Hashem see to his release and return to his brethren in this year — soon than later.
This Jerusalem Post feature piece by Yehuda Avner is outstanding in that it makes a statement reaching far beyond the story’s placement in 1936, reaching today and today’s issues, tyrants and blood libels — both internally as well as externally amongst our enemies, in essence, The Little Booth, the Jewish people which cleaves to Hashem and survives the tyrants of every generation:
Succot, 1936. The newly appointed German consul-general to Jerusalem, Herr Walter Doehl, stood at his office window hung with an extravagantly tasseled swastika banner, and gazed with curiosity at the sight of clusters of bearded Jews, all draped in prayer shawls and resplendent in the styles and furs of late-medieval Poland, entering and exiting a ramshackle foliage-thatched booth on the other side of the Street of the Prophets where his legation was situated, each clutching what seemed to him to be a lemon and a palm frond.
Mortar Shell Hits Sha’ar Hanegev
Second Kassam Falls Near Ashkelon
Gaza Arab Terrorists Fire Kassam at Ashkelon Area
IAF Strikes Gaza Smuggling Tunnels [Retaliation for Kassam Attacks]
Gaza Arab Terrorists Fire Mortar Shell at Negev
Palestinians Fire [Several] Kassams into South [Hitting Eshkol Region on Shabbat]
First Time Since Cast Lead: Air Force Bombs Terrorists’ Car [Intercepted Carrying Rockets], by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu (Israel National News)
Having emerged from Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur and, hopefully we have all been inscribed and sealed for a happy, healthy, successful and meaningful year and years ahead, we find ourselves in the midst of Succot.
During Succot, the B’nai Yisrael, as an Am Segula (a nation apart and unique from the other nations), as Hashem’s special, chosen people, visit, bond, and celebrate our special and unique relationship with HaKodosh Borchu.
Prominent in our thoughts during Succot are the Haftorahs which the prophecy of the War of Gog and Magog, Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima (the Redemption) and the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash are pronounced. Or, as the expression goes among baseball fans each springtime — right down to the fans of the most hapless MLB team; “Hope springs eternal.”
Kassam Fired From Gaza Lands in West Negev
Two [Arab] Infiltrators From Gaza Arrested
Palestinians Open Fire at IDF Patrol Near Central Gaza
Sinai Terror Attack Failed Due to Faulty Bomb [2 Months Ago]
Palestinian [Terrorist] Arrested for Throwing Firecracker at IDF Base Near Hebron
Rock Attack [by Arab Terrorists] Near Bethlehem
Arab who Attacked South Hevron Hills IDF Outpost Arrested
Rock and Firebomb Attack [by Arab Terrorists on Jewish Vehicles] Near Kalkilya
Gaza Arab Terrorists Open Fire on IDF Patrol [Outside Kibbutz Miflasim]
Provocation in Nahal Oz: Gaza Terrorists Fire at Israelis, by Maayana Miskin (Israel National News)
IDF Troops Shoot, Kill Israeli Arab When He Breaks Through Checkpoint [Near City of Beitar Illit]
Related reports:
Soldiers Kill Terrorist West of Efrat, by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu (Israel National News)
The Mussaf portion of any prayers; Yom Tov, Rosh Chodesh, Shabbos represent the essence, the main point of that day.
On Yom Kippur, the essence of the service, the ikar is the avodah of the Kohen Godol. So much so is this the case that the Mussaf service centers around the order of the Kohen Godol’s service in the Kodosh Kodoshim (the Holy of Holies in the Beit HaMikdash). The service includes all of the preparations which the Kohen Godol makes prior to the service, the clothing he must wear at each step of the avodah, the number of times that the Kohen must bathe himself prior to each change of clothing and before each step of his service, the drawing of lots determining which goat is for Hashem and which for The Mountain of Azazel (the goat designated by lot to bear the burden of death to rectify B’nai Yisrael’s sins) and more. And by virtue of our being Hashem’s “most favored nation”, The Kohen Godol is to the Jews a paradigm of Hashem’s blueprint of what the Jews are to represent to the other nations of Mankind.