Jewish Indy

Parashat Ekev (Deuteronomy 7:12�11:25) - �Double Challenge�

BH

Adapted from the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory
Lubavitch of Indiana
July 30, 2010 19 Av, 5770

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Shabbat Shalom!

“Double Challenge”

The true test of a Jew’s Divine service is seen precisely when we encounter trials and difficulties. The trial serves to reveal our hidden abilities, and our service of G-d is strengthened by the experience.

The 40 years of wandering through the desert was a trial for the entire Jewish people, a preparation for their service in the Land of Israel. In general, there are two types of tests a person may face: the trial of wealth, and the trial of poverty. The Jews’ trial in the desert consisted of both elements, and this was reflected in the phenomenon of the manna.

In this week’s Torah portion of Ekev (Deuteronomy 7:12–11:25), we read about the manna - a G-dly food, “bread from the heavens.” In the desert, the Jewish people did not have to worry about where their next meal would be coming from; the manna fell predictably from the sky each day. It was entirely digestible, and had whatever taste a person wished. In addition, the manna was accompanied by gemstones and pearls. Thus the manna was symbolic of the epitome of wealth.

At the same time, however, the manna also embodied an element of poverty. Eating manna, the only sustenance the Jews were offered, was not satisfying like regular food. Moreover, the Jews received only enough manna for that particular day; there was never any extra. It is human nature that when a person’s house is stocked with food, he becomes sated after eating very little; when there is nothing in his cupboard, he is never fully satisfied.

Thus we see that the manna was extremely contradictory. On one hand, it was the richest sustenance a person could ask for; on the other, it was poor and non-filling.

PARSHAT EIKEV 5770: DEVEKUT

BS"D

By Rav Zvi Leshem
July 30, 2010 19 Av, 5770

Among the many mitzvot found in our parsha is that of Devekut, cleaving to HaShem. If you will surely keep that mitzva that I command you to love HaShem and to walk in His ways and to cleave to Him.[1] Rashi emphasizes the aspect of Tora study and in following HaShem's character traits of mercy, compassion etc. Regarding the possibility of cleaving to G-d he contrasts our verse with the statement that HaShem is a consuming fire[2], the closest we can come is by connecting with Tora scholars. In a somewhat enigmatic statement the Ibn Ezra informs us that devekut comes at the end (after loving HaShem and following in His ways) and is a "great secret", and Sforno teaches us that when we do all of our deeds to fulfill G-d's will, we are in a state of cleaving to Him.

The Ramban, following in the footsteps of the Kuzari, defines devekut as a state in which one's thoughts are constantly upon the Creator, never straying towards other gods. Such a person becomes a dwelling place for the Shechina, the Divine Presence.[3]

BIG SIS: Amnesty by bypassing congress?

By Nancy Kennon
Family Security Matters
July 30, 2010

According to an internal U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services memo going the rounds of Capitol Hill and obtained by National Review, the agency is considering ways in which it could enact "meaningful immigration reform absent legislative action" - that is, without the consent of the American people through a vote in Congress.

"This memorandum offers administrative relief options to . . . reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization," it reads.

Also: "In the absence of Comprehensive Immigration Reform, USCIS can extend benefits and/or protections to many individuals and groups by issuing new guidance and regulations, exercising discretion with regard to parole-in-place, deferred action and the issuance of Notices to Appear (NTA), and adopting significant process improvements."...

[end]

The United States, 2010: A Rogue Government?

By Frank Salvato

Family Security Matters
July 30, 2010

With the recent ruling by US District Judge Susan Bolton, a Clinton appointee, blocking the most contentious parts of Arizona law SB1070, we learn two things: One, that the federal government cannot be forced to enforce federal law, regardless of the fact that the law has been brought to legislation by the constitutional process, and two, that today, opportunistic political ideologues who have schemed their ways to power have all but extinguished good government in the United States of America; government that should be exclusively engaged in serving the best interests of the American people.

To be fair, Judge Bolton’s ruling does not end the issue, not by a long shot. In fact, there is a very good chance that the case surrounding Arizona law SB1070 will make it – and in an expedited manner – to the US Supreme Court. This actually bodes well for the American citizen primarily because today the US Supreme Court has a balance that actually gives an edge – even if ever so slightly – to the US Constitution and, thus, the American people. Judge Bolton’s ruling simply put those sections blocked – or deemed unlikely to withstand a challenge in the judicial system, be it from the ACLU, La Raza or the Holder/Obama Justice Department (which is tantamount to the ACLU and La Raza) – on hold until the courts resolve the issues.

But there is a larger and more important point that the events surrounding Arizona law SB1070 have exposed, that We the People have no “accountable” government to speak of. Yes, we do have our “elected officials,” those we elect to office, to execute government and administer the services it has been authorized to provide, but, truth be told, once the political class gets “inside the beltway,” or within the confines of the many State Houses, they routinely abdicate their duty to their constituents and their responsibilities to the federal and state constitutions, only to take up the causes of their political parties and the cause of their political survival: re-election.

See no evil

I am sorry I wrote this column. Because an audience that demands an explanation of why evil is evil is an audience that has already sided with evil

By Caroline Glick
Jewish World Review
July 30, 2010 / 19 Menachem-Av, 5770

It's springtime for Jew haters.

This week Oscar winning conspiracy theorist Oliver Stone joined Helen Thomas and Mel Gibson in the swelling ranks of out-of-the-closet celebrity Jew haters. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Stone said that Adolf Hitler had been given a bum rap and that through "Jewish domination of the media," the Jews have inflated the importance of the Holocaust and wrecked US foreign policy.

In the wake of criticism in Jewish circles, on Wednesday Stone's publicist issued a mealy-mouthed clarification.

Stone failed to retract or amend his statement that "There's a major lobby in the United States. They are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has f---ed up United States foreign policy for years."

He also did not retract his view that Jews use the Holocaust to control American foreign policy.

The forgotten pope who challenged Hitler

Forwarded with comment by Prof. Paul Eidelberg: This is an amazing, a profoundly moving message, especially for Jews in Israel deeply troubled by the explosion of anti-Semitism abroad and concerned by the accumulation of missiles by Hezbollah and Hamas, and of course the repeated vow of Iranian Hitler to wipe Israel off the map.

By Marvin Hier
The Washington Post
July 28, 2010

Earlier this year, eighteen Catholic scholars from the United States, Germany, and Australia, took the unprecedented step of writing a letter to Pope Benedict XVI, urging him to slow down the canonization process that would designate Pope Pius XII a saint of the Catholic Church, until more evidence could be found to defend the action against charges that he failed to do enough during the Nazi Holocaust. Pope Benedict inherited the Pius XII dossier from his predecessors but angered critics, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center, when he issued a decree in December 2009, recognizing Pius's "heroic virtues," moving him one step closer to Sainthood.

Normally, it is not the business of Jews who the Catholic Church designate a saint, but Pius XII must be an exception to the rule because it would require us to teach our children and grandchildren that while history's greatest crime was being committed and 6 million Jews, 1/3 of all of world Jewry were exterminated, a saint was sitting on the throne of St. Peter.

While the Vatican continues to push the candidacy of Pius XII, the other Pope who lived during the times of Adolf Hitler, Pius XI, is never mentioned as a candidate for Sainthood. Yet it is this Pope more than any other that many believe came closest to dramatically changing the course of WWII. Achille Ratti took the name Pius XI in 1922, when he was elected Pope, the same year Benito Mussolini marched on Rome.

But his misfortune was presiding over the church during the advent of the 'age of the dictators,' Mussolini and Hitler. In the early years, Pius XI, despite his misgivings, sought accommodation with them fearing confrontation would weaken the church. So in 1929, he signed a Concordat with fascist Italy which protected the independence of the Vatican, but lessened his ability to confront Mussolini's aggression.

The fine line between politics, subversion

By Joseph Farah
WorldNetDaily
July 30, 2010

Do you think a political party that seeks to dismantle, ignore or discard a nation's constitution should be permitted to participate in the electoral process?

It is a question that has been asked before in other countries and is still being asked today.

When communist parties, sworn to revolutionary change, competed in elections around the world in previous decades, there were often real fears that upon taking power they would do away with future elections.

The same fear has abounded in elections in nations where radical Islam is on the ascendancy.

And today in Germany the federal office in charge of protecting the nation's constitution is keeping leaders of the so-called "Left Party" under surveillance – a decision affirmed this week by the courts.

The court found that the far-left party included people with "unconstitutional intentions." Germany's domestic intelligence service issued a report saying "there are still many indicators for left-wing extremism in the party. Those are in particular the unclear stance toward left-wing extremist violence and the open acceptance of extremist alliances among its own members."

The extremist alliances referred to are the "Communist Platform" and the "Marxist Forum" within the Left Party.

All of this raises an interesting question in my mind: Is it time for Americans to consider such alliances and allegiances within the Democratic Party?

Obama official led Soros 'fund' supporting world government

Sought more U.N. helmets on U.S. soldiers, membership in International Criminal Court

By Aaron Klein
WorldNetDaily

July 29, 2010

President Obama's assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, Eric P. Schwartz, previously served as the director of a George Soros-funded organization that promoted global governance.

Schwartz also coordinated meetings on behalf of Obama's transition team with a group that advocates placing more blue United Nations helmets on U.S. troops and coercing the U.S. to join the U.N.'s International Criminal Court, which could prosecute American citizens and soldiers for "war crimes" and other offenses.

A 2009 report by Cliff Kincaid, president of America's Survival Inc, warned joining the International Criminal Court "could spark a revolt in the U.S. Armed Forces."

In a separate posting, Kincaid wrote, "Schwartz and his associates are clearly laying the groundwork for the Obama Administration's acceptance of and membership in the International Criminal Court."

Prior to his appointment to the State Department last year, Schwartz served as executive director of the U.S. Connect Fund, a Soros-funded and affiliated organization. The group promotes global governance and states on its website its mission is to influence "policy through integrative collaborative grant making on human rights, non-proliferation, climate change and development, and effective foreign assistance."

Delusion instead of solution

Western preoccupation with engaging Iran must make way for tougher approach

By Yoram Ettinger
YNET News
July 29, 2010

Western policy-makers grow increasingly-reconciled to co-existence with a nuclear Iran. They assume that, notwithstanding the radical rhetoric, the Iranian leadership is pragmatic, cognizant of its limitations, unwilling to expose its people to devastating Western retaliation and considering nuclear capabilities as a tool of deterrence – and not as an offensive weapon – against the US, NATO and Israel.

However, a nuclear Iran would constitute a clear and present danger to global security and peace, which must not be tolerated. In order to avert such peril, it is incumbent to disengage from illusions and engage with realism.

Unlike Western leaders, the Iranian revolutionary leadership is driven by ideological and religious conviction, bolstered by ancient imperialist ethos:

Jihad is the permanent state of relations between Moslems and non-Moslems, while peace and ceasefire accords are tenuous.

The Shihada commits every Shiite to kill and be killed, in order to advance Shiite Moslem strategy.

The strategic goal of Shiite Islam – which replaced illegitimate Judaism and Christianity – is to convert humanity to Islam.

Israel's ruling class

By Caroline Glick
Caroline Glick
July 28, 2010

In a much discussed article in the current issue of the American Spectator titled "America's Ruling Class," Prof. Angelo Codevilla describes the divide between those who run the US - the politicians, bureaucrats and policy establishment - and the rest of the country.

He laments, "Never has there been so little diversity within America's upper crust."

In his view, the American ruling class "was formed by an educational system that exposed them to the same ideas and gave them remarkably uniform guidance, as well as tastes and habits. These amount to a social canon of judgments about good and evil, complete with secular sacred history, sins (against minorities and the environment), and saints. Using the right words and avoiding the wrong ones when referring to such matters -- speaking the 'in' language -- serves as a badge of identity."

The main unifying characteristic of the American "ruling class" as Codevilla describes it is inexhaustible contempt for the majority of their countrymen who are not part of their clique. In his words, "our ruling class does not like the rest of America. Most of all does it dislikes that so many Americans think America is substantially different from the rest of the world and like it that way."

Codevilla's article focuses on US domestic policy. He accuses the ruling class of purposely spending the US into insolvency. He claims that their goal is to aggregate power. The more Americans depend on governmental largesse for their livelihoods, the greater the power of the government to dictate norms of social and political behavior and the greater the governing class's hold on power.