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The Iranian Strategy is to Divide and Weaken Israeli Society
The first and most basic thing from the Hamas viewpoint, and all of its strategic ideas, based on Iranian plans, is to weaken Israel from within. This is the insight of Eren Lahav, a major researcher of the security movement, and expert on terror, world Jihad and Iranian proxy organizations.
In reply to a question, he says, "For many years already, the Iranians have tried to split the Israeli society, and we see this all the more relevant in the course of this present war.
"Hamas is aware of the potential division of the Israeli society, and strums upon the most sensitive harp strings with everything connected to the release of the hostages and the price which Israeli will pay in blood. We must understand that the Hamas people, and certainly its top men, are 'graduates' of Israeli prisons, masters of Hebrew, written and spoken. Sinwar, incidentally, is an excellent example of an intelligent person, like Nasrallah, who understands us, as he is fed by the local media.
Between the walls of the Yeshivas Mir in Jerusalem, actually, on the site of the ancient beis medrash of the Chassidic dynasty of Pinsk-Karlin, situated in the Beis Yisroel neighborhood, there reverberates an amazing story exemplifying the power of purified prayer. This is the story of Yaakov Tzvi Arye Shwimmer, a London-born nineteen-year-old yeshiva bochur who demonstrated how a moment of steadfast stand on chareidi principles turned into an exemplary demonstration of chessed and prayer.
On one of the days of Selichos, when this young man's heart surged with elevated emotions anticipating the upcoming Yomim Noraim, he boarded an El Al flight headed for London. His ticket in hand, his heart was filled with a prayer that the trip home would be safe and uneventful, but when he located his designated seat, it was flanked by two women passengers. One of them offered to change her seat but his tender Chassidic heart writhed in discomfort.
Eyes downcast, he scoured the already seated passengers, holding on to a small Tehillim for dear life. Appealing to a steward for help, all he received was a cold, laconic brush off. "The plane is at full capacity. There is nothing I can do for you."
The shocking descriptions of the returnees from the Gaza captivity of what they suffered at the hands of the barbaric Hamas kidnappers are somewhat reminiscent of the eyewitness testimony of Shlomo Filber in Netanyahu's trial. Filber was a trusted confidant of Netanyahu who signed an agreement to become a witness against Netanyahu. The Israeli prosecutor office tried all legal illegal efforts to get Filber to cooperate.
In an appeal which he filed in court against the key people of the prosecution, he describes a series of cruel and brutal treatment which he underwent in the cellars of interrogation to coerce him to agree to bear testimony as State witness against Netanyahu and to incriminate him.
Filber's attorneys write in the petition which he served that "in the framework of the defendant's arrest and interrogation, and especially in the stages preceding his signing his agreement to being a State witness in this case, the prosecutors (including the past legal government advisor, Avichai Mandelblitt; past State attorney Shai Nitzan; the deputy State attorney Liat Ben-Ari and the prosecutor in case 4000, Yehudit Tirosh), they subjected the defendant to the seven levels of Gehennom through severe tortures carried out the night before he signed his agreement of becoming State witness.
HaRav Zerach Braverman: a gaon for whom boundaries were nonexistent. He made no distinction between his family and the recipients of chesed who entered his home. There was no border between Torah, avoda, and gemilus chassodim. No differentiation was made between his own talmidim and others, his yeshiva and others, his city of Yerushalaim and the lowland settlements. He devoted himself equally to them all, with unlimited time and energy.
Part 1
This was originally published in 1993.
The carriage was pulled by a team of weak and weary horses. Its wheels had been battered by the rocky road. It had absorbed the shock of many bumps and potholes, and had been beaten by the tall weeds that grew wildly by the roadside. The twelve men who were crammed into this vehicle made for an unusual sight on the rocky landscape. These typical Yerushalmi figures, sporting beards and black clothing which made them seem incongruous in the setting, were roughly jolted back and forth with every lurch of the carriage.
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Part II
Keeping Watch
The task with which each individual is charged is to survey and to supervise the Gan Eden that he carries within himself, in order to ensure that the seductive serpent does not steal its way in. -- R' Meir Chodosh zt'l
Each man stands at the threshold of a palace, of a Gan Eden that he carries within himself. He builds it out of his own intellect, understanding and emotions. Within its confines, he can realize the innate greatness that his Creator implanted within him, rising above his own ego and desires, subjugating his will and growing to the heights he was intended to reach.
Although on the one hand, external factors -- an array of character traits and shifting feelings, and the ever changing circumstances of life -- all exert their influence upon him, they, in and of themselves, do not play a decisive role. On the other hand though, constant vigilance must be maintained to ensure that insidious inner forces -- personal desires, pride, pettiness and narrowness -- do not infiltrate this inner sanctum, contracting its boundless heights and limitless vistas to the short, puny distances that are all that a stunted personality can contemplate.
Man must therefore constantly patrol the Gan Eden within himself, to ensure that neither the alluring aspect of the material world, nor the mirage of self aggrandizement gain a foothold, luring him to sacrifice his true greatness for the sake of their temporary pleasures and temporal prestige.
This was the picture of man which HaRav Meir Chodosh projected with both his speech and his silences, with both the greatest of his deeds and the slightest of his movements. They all bespoke deliberation, forethought and contemplation.
The control which he maintained over himself was not the result of a dry, lifeless restraint that represses feeling and spontaneity. It was rather the means by which he resolved the myriad components of different situations and their attendant claims for recognition, into a perfectly balanced response, thereby revealing him as one who had fully attained the stature and greatness for which he and his fellow men were intended.
Opinion & Comment
We are living in interesting times. Scientists are beginning again to speak openly and seriously about the existence of a Creator.
The revolution has been long in the making. But many of the pieces, which have been falling into place for decades, are coming to a head.
For the past one hundred and fifty years, science has been a force that has opposed and indeed denigrated belief in a Borei Olom. But this appears to be changing. The change may not yet be palpable to the average person. It may be a bit slow in coming. But it is there.
One need only walk into a library and look at the titles of some recent books. Some of these books were written by believers; but many were written by agnostics or atheists. Here are some recent titles: G-d and the Astronomers, G-d and the New Physics, The Creator and the Cosmos.
The message is quite clear. G-d is very much on the mind of scientists these days. The reason: Evidence favoring the existence of a Borei Olom is just simply too overwhelming to ignore.
This is not to say that we can expect a stampede of scientists into our shuls. Scientists are not simply going to walk away from their long held and cherished beliefs. They certainly will not easily admit that they have been wrong all along.
So we find that they are still attempting to create alternative theories to explain the facts. But in almost all cases, these attempts are nothing more than idle speculation and myth-making. To overcome the awesome evidence in favor of a Borei Olom, it is necessary to twist and turn, to propose theories that scientists know and admit are unproven and indeed in many cases totally unprovable.
This change that is taking place has been most clearly articulated by scientists who are involved in, or have an interest in, cosmology, astronomy, and physics. The fact of the existence of a revolution is certainly less obvious in the area of the life sciences. Biologists still believe that they will be able to solve the riddle of life without having to refer to a Creator. But if one reads between the lines, one can discern even in the area of biology that science is clearly on the defensive.
Opinion & Comment
"The foundation of chassidus and the root of G-dly service . . . " begins the Mesilas Yeshorim. The attribute of chassidus, in that context, is a structure, and, therefore, requires a foundation, whereas `service' is a growth, and requires roots.
Service of Hashem is a process of growth in man, but it must begin from the root, for if there are no roots, there can be no thriving. Whatever a man sows inside his heart, will continue to wax throughout his lifetime. Avodas Hashem grows and develops in a process only when there is a root that can nurture this growth.
Along this line of thinking we can begin to understand the concept of growth and structure with regard to child rearing and to self improvement. If we wish a child to grow into a Torah scholar, a man who adheres to the mitzvos, we must sow within him the seed of Torah. This is what Chazal meant by, "As soon as a child begins talking, his father must teach him Torah and krias shema. What is meant by `Torah'? Says Rav Hamnuna, `Torah tzivo lonu Moshe' (Succah 42) (from Zeriya Uvinyon beChinuch p. 10 by HaRav Shlomo Wolbe).
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"For man is like the tree of the field" (Devorim 20:19). Is then, man, really like a tree? Since it is written, "For from it shall you eat, yet you shall not chop it down," and it is also stated, "You shall destroy and chop it down," we are puzzled. [This comes to teach that] If a Torah scholar is upright, you shall `eat' from him and you shall not destroy, but if not, you shall destroy and uproot him (Taanis 7a).
Even if we cannot altogether fathom the words of the gemora, we can understand that the scholar referred to is a man in his prime, one who is producing fruit, in an environment of those willing to ingest. The analogy to a tree is apt. Why? Because producing fruit is an outgrowth of sowing, cultivation and growth. If he is decent, it is fitting that "You shall eat thereof and not destroy it."
Let us examine an additional source:
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