B”H
Memo
Re: Rabbi Akiva/ Moshe Rabeinu
dynamic discussed in May 31, 2001 Memo
Date: Friday. June 8, 2001
When Hashem tested Abraham, He
asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, who was
Hashem’s gift to Abraham. He was enlisting
whether Abraham was willing to give up the very thing
Abraham loved the most to show his faith in and love
for Hashem.
Rabbi Akiva entered the world of
Jewish studies at 40 years of age. He wanted to honor
his wife for her sacrifice for him by becoming a
leading scholar of his time. He enlisted and receives
the applause of the Jewish Rabbinical leadership and
thereby attains such stature.
Thus, Hashem proffered to Akiva
the very same test he gave to Abraham. Here was Rabbi
Akiva who attained by G-d’s blessing the honor
worthy of his wife’s love and confidence, but if
he, Rabbi Akiva, focused his efforts not on the
Romans but where the fault actually rested, on the
failure of the Jewish leadership, to clean a house
needing dire cleaning, Rabbi Akiva would have lost
all that he gained: the esteem of his peers and
would, as a result, undermine the honor
bestowed by G-d’s gift upon his wife. Therefore,
Rabbi Akiva was in the very same test dynamic as
Abraham.
There was no way Rabbi Akiva
achieved the lofty heights of scholarship and insight
he did reach without knowing that the Romans now
replaced the Babylonians in moving on Hashem’s
agenda toward the repeated failings of the Jewish
people. However, he was NOT going to lose what he
gained at such a great cost. Abraham, on the
other hand, knowing that Hashem represents light not
darkness, showed his unabated faith and confidence in
Hashem. Rabbi Akiva was not willing to risk what he
gained.
Without understanding this
perception and its importance to the events of today,
the rest of it, from the Ten Commandments, to Torah,
to Mishneh, to the gift of the State of Israel has no
meaning or consequence. The only event for
which G-d will not intervene is our love for Him and
the protection of His Name. Everything else
G-d can intervene and intercede. The foundation of
our covenant with Hashem and of Judaism is for us to
love G-d and protect His Name. If this is not done
then everything else fails and collapses on a flawed
foundation. The proof of this is seen by the state of
State of Israel. Would Hashem intervene for Israel
to see the leadership successful in moving it toward
a secular state, a nation among nations, which moves
the Jewish people to the same dynamic state as the
ten tribes Hashem destroyed via the hands of the
Assyrians? Of course not. Hashem can’t and
does not endorse a Land of Israel where the Jews
there are blind to G-d’s existence, where Hashem
is not central to their lives, where Jews detest Jews
wearing the Yarmulke. Hashem could never support a
future for Israel with a leadership willing to defame
His Name to the world by saying that the national
airline will fly on the Shabbat, and that stores will
open for business on the Shabbat. Thereby, the
Jewish leadership has failed to understand the
dynamic Hashem wanted them to study and know from
2000 years of study and reflection. When the Orthodox
Rabbis sit on their hands and put tape over their
mouths when Barak pleads with Arafat to take back
Jerusalem, then this alone is proof enough that the
Rabbinical leadership has failed the Jewish people,
not only via teaching them correctly, not only in
terms of not passing love for Hashem and Torah, but
in focusing their anger now on the Arabs, when the
Jewish people, if they learned anything, should
recognize that the problem rests with their own
repeat failing via Jerusalem.
When the Jewish people won the
1967 war and received back Jerusalem, the Jewish
leadership to wit every Rabbi in Israel and the world
could have cemented a platform to relay thanks to
Hashem for His gift, to make every Jew in Israel and
throughout the world realize that the miracle was due
to Hashem’s promise; enabling them to platform a
deep love for Hashem and Torah. However, this type of
commitment was only seen from the Arabs in teaching
their children by daily indoctrination to hate Jews
and commit themselves in thought and deed to removing
the Jews from the Land of Israel. The Rabbis and
Jewish leadership stood around with their hands in
their pockets allowing this poison to be ingested by
the Palestinian children, while they, the Rabbis,
simultaneously stood there passive to 2000 years of
study and learning by failing to teach the Jews in
Israel and the rest of the world love for Hashem.
Hashem unconditionally loves the
Jewish people, His wards. He knows the fault is
primarily with the Jewish leadership that includes
those who assume the responsibility of the rabbinate.
If Hashem made it known for history how angry He was
at the failing of the Jewish leadership, reflected
above in part per Rabbi Akiva, can anyone reading
this, contest how angry He must be at seeing the
current state of Judaism in Israel and elsewhere.
Those who delude themselves in thinking that if a
remnant remains committed to Hashem, this is all that
it takes to please Hashem, should not be stiff necked
to see that Hashem is strongly suggesting otherwise
by the state of affairs in Israel and the unity
derived in the Arab world from Oslo.
What I have been trying to
circumvent is the Jews sitting on the curb wailing
and crying for their mistakes after the fact, rather
than for once, just once, facing the truth before
tragedy rears its head. All those years of study and
pleading and prayers all for waste in just fifty plus
years since the end of WWII. It is pathetic and the
Jewish people see their prosperity, one that equates
with the time of the First Temple, as somehow
suggesting that they must not be doing anything
seriously wrong: another example of failing to reach
the Jewish people as to the truth of history for this
important time. The ten tribes that Hashem destroyed
prior to the destruction of the First Temple, reached
the goals sought for Israel today by its leadership.
How can we do the very same thing we apologized for
and entreated G-d’s forgiveness through
generations? We defame ourselves, we defame our
families, and without question we defame our G-d by
acting as we do. Can the people of Israel so
willingly stand blind to what is so evident? It
is so very sad that there are no voices for
truth and Hashem in the Jewish world; all those who
will be shouting “foul,” waiting first for
tragedy to rear its head, before they offer their
Monday morning criticism are now standing silent and
thus complicit in the malfeasance to our forefathers
and to our G-d. When these people shout
“foul,” they like Chaim in Shas Story will
not fool the heavenly tribunal, who will judge them
accordingly.
End Memorandum