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11 Iyar 5778 - April 26, 2018 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Do Not Provoke Them!

by HaRav Gershon Twersky

Provocation against Iran has created a new cycle of hatred. Torah leaders taught us that so long as we are in exile, provocation [of the nations] is not a successful approach. We readily see that seventy years of provocation [by the State of Israel] have not brought us any surcease. We find ourselves once gain threatened heavily with survival. The status of the country is dependent upon the political goodwill of the U.S., but can this always be relied upon? Is it a guarantee? We are duty bound to remember where previous provocations led us. May Hashem preserve us that past harsh history not be repeated!

HaRav Michoel Ber Weissmandl
rebweissmandl

In his work, "Mishkenos Horo'im," HaRav Michoel Weissmandel attributes the wrath of Hitler y"m to the incitement of the Zionist heads when they declared a boycott on Germany in America.

He writes: "I recall exactly that Gross said to the Admor of Nitra that in a recent conversation on the subject he said that Visliczeiny, a confidante of Hitler, suggested negotiations to save Jews, but world Jewry was not interested in such negotiations. And he again cursed world Jewry as he had done many times with Gross and Hauchberg, saying, `Where is their wisdom and perception, where, instead of dealings, you organize a boycott in America, and instead of having pity on your blood which lies in our hands, you pushed America into war?'

"According to his words, Visliczeiny testified that while a German consul still sat in America, a protocol was publicized of a gathering of Zionist heads in New York to hear the message of Mr. Stephen Wise, one of the heads of Reform and the Histadrut in America, who spoke acerbically against the evil one of Deutschland and predicted his downfall. When Hitler read this quote, joined by excerpts from an American publication, he threw himself to the ground in a maniacal frenzy and pounded with his hands and feet, gnashing his teeth upon his doormat in a crazed and rabid scream: `Now I will destroy them! Now I will annihilate them!'"

Throughout history it has been proven that provocation against countries of the world by active Jewish self-defense has only resulted in the opposite of the desired effect. In the "Hane'eman" publication of Teves 5720, a testimonial was quoted from the Chazon Ish about the pogroms in Russia. He attributed those horrendous events to the Jewish self-defense divisions which were active at the time, as was related: "I went to the Chazon Ish a few years ago to ask about joining the Haganah organization and he said: `You know that I usually refrain from answering such [political] questions.' But I pressed him and said: `Rabbenu knows that we have no one to whom to turn.' After about fifteen minutes, he was still adamant about not answering but I refused to budge. Finally I said that I would act as the people of Yericho had done which had been contrary to the judgment of the leaders of the time, but the latter had not protested.

The Chazon Ish
chazonish

"When Rabbenu saw that I would interpret his silence as tacit agreement, he said: `In Russia we have seen that wherever defense groups had been organized, many of our brethren fell victim while in those places where no such groups had been made, there were fewer fatalities.' "

This story, and similar ones are corroborated by Dr. Mordechai Breuer in the "Maayan" publication of Tammuz 5738. "It is common knowledge to what extent the Chazon Ish was extreme in cases of saving Jewish lives, and I personally was present when I visited him together with several friends who asked him about volunteering in the ranks of the Haganah. His answer was that in acts of active defense there is the fear of a greater number of fatalities of Jewish lives so that it is better not to join at all."

 

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