By Avi Aaron. At the recent Democratic National Convention the Democrats removed any mention of God from their platform as well as Jerusalem’s existence as the capital of Israel. Watching the debacle unfold, the very first Rashi in Genesis came to mind. Rashi, the famed biblical commentator, asks a very perplexing question. “G-d need not have begun the Torah but with the first commandment with which the nation of Israel was commanded. What is the reason it begins with the book of Genesis?”
Simply put, why the need for the elaborate in depth story of Creation at the very beginning of the Torah? If the purpose of the Torah was its commandments, then commence with the commandments.
Now, listen to Rashi’s answer and listen well.
“It began thus because it wished to convey the message of the verse “The power of His acts He told His people, in order to give them the estate of nations.” So that if the nations of the world will say to Israel – “You are bandits for you have conquered the lands of the seven nations who inhabited the Land of Canaan (Israel)”, Israel will say to them, “The whole earth belongs to the Holy One, Blessed is He. He created it and He gave it to the one found proper in His eyes. By His wish He gave it to them, and by His wish He took it from them and gave it to us.”
The Torah begins with the story of creation to tell us very forcefully that the time will come when many will rise up and challenge the Jewish claim to the Holy Land of Israel. This provocation may come from a league of nations called the United Nations, a band of dictators named the Arab League or from a few Jews at a PAC called J-Street. As a matter of fact the entire earth may come to challenge the Jewish claim to this beautiful land. However, as the Torah sets forth, we may then declare that Almighty G-d who created the world and all that is in it has chosen to give the land of Israel to His people, the nation of Israel. No matter the challenge and no matter what name they choose to call the land, it shall always be the holy land of Israel created for the holy nation of Israel.
Today we get to see the timeless wisdom of the Torah. Only a divinely written document would be able to make that prediction. And only an eternal document can provide us with the answer.
It is by no means a mistake that the Democrats have chosen to remove these two particular “items” from their platform: “God and Jerusalem.” For it was God who commanded that Jerusalem be the capital of the Land He has given to His people. Therefore, in order to abolish Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, one must first “eliminate” God so to speak.
The irony amazes me. It is not God and Paris, God and Istanbul nor God and Bangkok, its God and Jerusalem. Because everyone knows that it always was God and Jerusalem and for all of eternity it will always be God and Jerusalem!
There is no sane reason that Obama should win reelection, considering that the events surrounding this election are so eerily similar to 1979/1980 and Carter/ Reagan. In 1980, right after the Democrat election, Carter was up in the polls, yet Reagan went on to win 44 states.
Yet, I have this creepy feeling that Obama will win reelection? Why? Because we all have this creepy feeling that something major is going to happen in the world soon, something that will turn the entire world against G-d and Jerusalem, and which will eventually usher in the days of Moshiach.
The entire world will need to be turned against G-d and Jerusalem. Obama is the perfect candidate for that.
Sanity says that Romeny will win in a landslilde. But the prophecies predict international insanity, and Obama looks like the perfect candidate for that.
Richard Nixon wrote in, “Seize the Moment,” that peace in the Middle East is in the vital interest of the United States. It undermines the Carter Doctrine (any invasion into a Persian Gulf country is an act of war against the US) and destabilizes the region. Nixon wrote that US support of Israel, contrary to conventional wisdom, was against US strategic interests—but only exists because the American people have a historic affinity to the land and its people. It was not part of US Cold War strategy, Nixon wrote.
Almost every Congress in the last 20 or 30 years, until recently, has passed resolutions calling for the President to recognize Jerusalem as capital of Israel, but no President from either party has done so. This is nothing new.
As to the comments of #1 Yid, is it possible that Obama wants to seize the moment to perhaps try for peace in his second term? And if he has bad intentions, what makes this man, besides the fact that he is a Democrat (kind of like calling someone a Communist in the 1950s or a liberal in the 1990s) so different than so many terribly horrible and evil rashaim in history that you think the world is now coming to an end? And can you not consider that some people actually think he is a good president? Just because you cannot understand it, it is not the end of the world. After all, he did save our car companies, (think of American power, 600 hp Camaros and Vets–and who would make our tanks if they went under), got rid of Khadafi (Reagan could not even do that), got health care passed (Eisenhower and Nixon tried), and killed bin Laden (Bush Jr. failed to do so). So what is so supernatural about him being re-elected?
It is either immaturity or pathetic naivete that drives people to cast politcal policies in terms of religious fath. They are entirely separate.