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The Return to the Sources in the Background of the War
The warning siren split the silence of the night. Even before the last echo died down between the houses, echoes of distant blasts could be heard as the rockets were deflected by the defense system. People hurried to the shelters as hearts skipped many a beat, as they did each time.
This was the repeated scene these past weeks in Israel. Nonstop sirens wailing, tense nights, skies colored again and again with the lights of rocket interceptions. The immense battle against Iran, the threat of which had been hovering on the horizon for many years, had been transformed into a palpable, tangible reality worming its way into homes and hearts.
In many settlements throughout the country, people had already become accustomed to the routine of fear. Children discerned the beginning of the warning signals even before the adults, while parents, even while attempting to broadcast calm, were unable to conceal the anxiety in their eyes.
But, precisely in the very midst of this ongoing tension, a quiet phenomenon is taking place, a deep one which is not being reported in the media headlines but is definitely being felt everywhere. Many hearts are beginning to open...
In the course of the discussion which took place at the High Court titled, "Contempt of the court," one of the attorneys representing the petitioners inadvertently revealed the real reason behind the petition. While the judges were conferring among themselves, the microphone of the lawyer representing one of the petitioners remained open for a few seconds, during which he was heard gloating in glee to his colleagues, "We are going to destroy the entire Torah world to pieces."
Not a word about "sharing the burden," nothing about the lack of manpower in the army, nor even any mention of the melding power of the army melting pot, but pure and forthrightly: "to rip apart the Torah world." This is really the one and only goal.
Not a single Jew fell off his chair. Not a single chareidi Jew lifted an eyebrow in surprise. The speaker did not 'discover America.' We know full well that this is the sole objective and none other....
This was originally published in 1995.
Part 1
Introduction and Overview
By Autumn 1942, the executioner's ax had already descended upon most of the Jews in Eastern Europe, the heartland—or Bludzentrum—of European Jewry. The Germans' thirst for Jewish blood was largely slaked. Their fighting spirit was also diminishing as the tide began to turn against them with their defeat at El Alamein in October and the beginning of the Russian counterattack at Stalingrad on the nineteenth of November.
By this time, the decimation of European Jewry was known all over the world.
In Eretz Yisroel, on the twenty third of November, the Jewish Agency for Israel issued a statement (after deliberately having withheld the news for several weeks,) which sent shock waves through the yishuv and brought the European destruction to the forefront of public discussion. On the seventeenth of December, the United Nations issued a condemnation of Germany for murdering the Jews, which was published simultaneously in London, Washington and New York. Some of the Nazi leaders began to fear for their futures, notably Himmler, who stood at the head of the entire apparatus of execution.
There were early negotiations with the Nazi Dieter Wisliceny, which led to the suspension of the transports of Slovakian Jews to the death camps in Poland. "Behind Wisliceny, who led the negotiations with the workers in Bratislava, stood Himmler himself. From November 1942 until August 1943, he negotiated halting the European devastation. Through agents, Himmler proposed meeting the head of the Joint, Joseph Schwartz, in Spain in order to negotiate the cessation of the killings." (H.Ager, The Remnant That Remained)
"A year later, in October 1944, Himmler ordered the that the total destruction of the Jews be suspended. His order was carried out, remaining in force until the end of the War." (S.Bet Tzvi, Post Ugandan Zionism During The Crisis Of The Holocaust)
These articles will survey the history of these negotiations, concerning what was known as The Europe Plan, from its conception in Rav Weissmandl's mind until it's final dismissal by Himmler, as a direct consequence of the refusal of the highest echelons of the Zionist leadership to test the seriousness of the Nazis' intentions.
Rain and Kinneret Watch by Dei'ah
Vedibur Staff
Our weekly report of the rain and the level of the Kineret
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Outstanding Articles From Our Archives
IN-DEPTH FEATURES
Only the Young and Healthy Were Invited
By S. Fried
A new study exposes more chapters of the selection policy in Zionist immigration to Israel. The endless debate of whether "professional considerations," ideological grounds or mere arrogance motivated the selection conducted by the establishment has not reached a consensus. One investigation after another -- but the wound has not healed until this very day.
The debate about the early stages of Zionist immigration turns about the issue of the motive of the Zionist enterprise. Was the movement to establish a state driven by a desire to somehow benefit the Jewish people -- or were the Jewish people merely seen as a means to establish a state? The practice of selective immigration suggests the latter.
"We create severe problems in the country because there is no investigation of the background of the immigrants. All of us clearly understand that during wartime, we need immigrants whom we are able to absorb into Eretz Yisroel, into the army or the work force. We are not able to open old age homes and homes for the crippled. What did they do? They took the weak and elderly and flew them to the country in airplanes, because it is hard for them to travel on ships . . . What will we do with these people without taking care of them? Is this absorption, bringing them to the shores of the land and abandoning them to their fate?"
Minister of Treasury of the new government of Israel in about 1950, Eliezer Kaplan, was worried about the young country's inability to absorb problematic immigrants and provide for their special needs. In a government discussion, he brought up the possibility of selection for prospective immigrants and allowing in only those who could contribute to the country and not those who would need immediate care.
Opinion & Comment
Enjoying Tefillah
by HaRav Yehoshua Shklar
Why do we find so many people who are unmindful about the way they daven to Hashem, even though everyone agrees that tefillah is of the utmost importance? Maran the mashgiach, HaRav Yechezkel Levenstein zt'l, (Likutei Yechezkel, pg. 77), answers this puzzling question:
"We do not hold tefillah in high regard because we neither realize nor understand the essence of tefillah."
The Mashgiach offers two helpful pieces of advice for us so we can realize and understand this concept:
1) We must thoroughly believe that without tefillah we cannot, simply cannot, have any yiras Shomayim. "When one thinks deeply about what we have previously explained [in that article], that tefillah increases yiras Shomayim, our indifference towards it disappears. We understand that yiras Shomayim is of supreme significance and therefore anything intensifying it cannot possibly be disregarded."
2) "Taste and see that Hashem is good" (Tehillim 34:9). "When a person has experienced the `taste' of tefillah, his tefillah will be acceptable [before Hashem]." A man acquires this "taste" after strengthening within himself the fundamental concepts of emunah and simcha. "Obviously he must first understand and listen carefully to what he says during tefillah. Without this fundamental knowledge, and concentrating on what he is saying, he is not engaging in tefillah at all."
The real pleasure experienced in tefillah is the feeling of standing before HaKodosh Boruch Hu and speaking directly to Him. "With only a bit of reflection and attention a person can implant within his heart the consciousness that he is actually conversing with Hashem . . . is imploring Him for his needs . . . and Hashem is listening mindfully to him" (Mesillas Yeshorim, ch. 19).
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