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Beth Jacob of Irvine Newsletter

demands that Israel must meet as a condition for Palestinian attendance, as if peace is only of benefit to the Jews. And we, in fact, acted as if we were the party suing for peace, in the hopes that the Palestinians would allow us to live in some part of their Land.

PRIME MINISTER Ehud Olmert’s demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state was a salutary attempt to reverse this trend, and to place Palestinian acceptance of Israel’s existence where it belongs - at the beginning, not the end, of the process. For, as Bernard Lewis has observed, as long as the dispute is about Israel’s creation in 1948, not the borders of 1967, no possibility of compromise exists.

But no sooner was the demand raised than it was abandoned, after being summarily rejected by the Palestinians.

Our obsession with world opinion bespeaks a nation that has lost the belief in the justness of its cause, and signals that we can always be pushed a bit further. True, a country

that does not manufacture its own F-16s and is by no means self-sufficient must be mindful of international opinion. But no country that believes in its right to exist allows one of its cities to be terrorized by rocket fire that it has the power to end, especially when doing so only sets the stage for ever more citizens coming within missile range. By our relative inaction, we have caused the world to view rocket attacks on Israeli cities as normal.

WE HAVE just completed celebrating the Maccabees’ victory - that of the weak over the strong, the few over the many. That victory was only possible because the Maccabees saw themselves as the righteous ones battling evildoers, the pure struggling against the impure, those learning God’s Torah combating those who willfully defiled His image.

History shows, writes Daniel Pipes, that, in the long run, victory usually goes to the side not with the stronger military or more vibrant economy, but to that with the greater belief in its own cause. Once, the Jews were the greatest proof of that proposition.

Knowing Our Limits (continued from page 9)

I first want to thank you for inviting me to teach Torah and lead the congregation as you search for a suitable permanent rabbi. I wish you much bracha and success with this crucial search.

By now, most of you have heard or read a brief bio about my family and me, but some of you are left wondering exactly what is the California Torah Connection (CTC) and what interplay, if any, there would be between my recently launched organization and my role at Beth Jacob.

CTC offers Jews throughout southern California an opportunity to dedicate a weekly slice of time to learning Torah with a partner. Participants are paired not with a rabbi, as convention might have it, but with a lay person from the LA community who is well-versed in Torah study.

Now, you might wonder, "If I love Israel, do acts of kindness, give charity, and even show up to shul and pray with fervor, would my Torah learning serve as anything more than cream on the pie?" Volumes could be and have been written in answer, but stated concisely: YES!  

We learn in Pirkei Avot that the world stands on three pillars: Torah learning, worship (prayer) and kindness. Many view Torah learning as a childhood pastime (remember yawning away in Hebrew school?), but the

time to learn on a mature level is now, in adulthood.

“Ki ner mitzvah v'Torah ohr.”. King Solomon compares mitzvot to a ner (candle), and Torah to ohr (light). Should we perform the mitzvot without Torah study? What good is a candle without light? The Torah illuminates our Jewish, mitzvah-filled lives.

Torah is our raison d'etre, our nation's adhesive, the reason we were redeemed from Egypt. The Midrash teaches: histakel b'oraita ubara alma – The Almighty looked into the Torah and created the world. The Torah is the blueprint of the world, not a mere chronicle of its events. If one wants to understand the world, the address is none other than its blueprint.

Performing mitzvot is emulating G-d's ways, but we are obligated do to more than that. We must love G-d. In order to love someone or Someone, we need to understand the thought process of the one we are loving. Learning Torah is how we understand the thought process of the Almighty.

There's much more to write, but in the words of the blessing we recite every morning before Torah study, I would conclude: v'ha'arev na – Let it be sweet. There is nothing so sweet as Torah. I offer you, my friends at Beth Jacob, the prosperous, palatable opportunity of a telephone Torah learning partner. Come and partake!

 

 

From the desk of Rabbi Ari Lindner