Why is this month, out of all others, designated as bitter?

I have heard an explanation similar to why we have ‘an apple’ in English– it used to be referred to, like other months, as “Yerach Shvan” (the moon of Shvan), but when the “Yerach” was dropped, the chet from ‘yerach’ migrated to the month name, making “Yer Cheshvan”, and the yud became a mem– “Mar Cheshvan”.

I don’t like this explanation, though, because it doesn’t explain why this only happened to Cheshvan, or why we keep the prefix for this month alone.

Yeravam ben Nevat, one of the terrible kings of Israel (see Bad Kings), created an imaginary holiday in the eighth month– the month of Cheshvan, probably to keep his people from feeling bad that they couldn’t go to Beit Hamikdash for the real festivals on Succot, Pesach, and Shavuot (what with the bitter rivalry and war between the two kingdoms and all).

My personal opinion is that we have the pointedly holiday-free “Bitter month of Cheshvan” to tell everyone that No, Yeravam was wrong, if you want a holiday you can wait for Pesach, or start earlier and have Succot, but you cannot make your own.

After all, Tamuz is as empty of holidays as Cheshvan, and arguably more bitter, since it has a fast day smack in the middle– and Elul is also devoid of celebrations, and arguably bitter because it’s the month of Slichot, when we’re feeling guilty about everything– but we don’t have “Mar-Tamuz” or “Mar-Elul”, only “Mar-Cheshvan”, because Cheshvan is the month when we might forget, based on historical precedent, that we can’t make up fake holidays.

So have a Chodesh Tov; have a happy but bitter month of Cheshvan, and don’t celebrate any holidays.

Midrash Rabbah explains: The Torah says: “I was the tool of G-d’s artistry.” An architect who builds a palace does not do so on his own; he has scrolls and notebooks which he consults regarding how to place the rooms, where to set the doors. So it was with G-d: He looked into the Torah and created the world.

Just as Hashem used the Torah to create the world, we use the Torah to sustain it!

“ולמשל ביום ובלילה ולהבדיל בין האור ובין החשך וירא אלקים כי טוב.”

–בראשית, פרק א’, פסוק י’ח

“And to rule by day and by night and to differentiate between the light and the darkness; and God saw that it was good.”

What confused me was the contrast of this pasuk with pasuk 4 in the same perek:

“וירא אלקים את האור כי טוב ויבדל אלקים בין האור ובין החשך.”

“And God saw the light, that it was good; and God differentiated between the light and the darkness.”

How could the sun, moon, and stars be differentiating between light and darkness on Day Four when light and darkness had already been separated on Day One? Furthermore, how could the sun, moon, and stars– sources of light– be separating light and darkness? Where does darkness come into the picture?

All these questions were the work of a moment; an instant later I had an epiphany, answering my questions and shedding light, if you will excuse the pun, on many related and seemingly unrelated matters.

On the first day, God had separated light from darkness– absolute light and absolute darkness. But on the fourth day– the day before he created living creatures– he made the heavenly bodies, to temper the absolutes. The sun (the “great light-source”) reigns by day, while the moon (the “small light-source”) reigns by night. How is it that separating sun and moon separates light and darkness? The sun gives a great light, by which we can easily see and conduct our daily activities. Moonlight, on the other hand is dim (being only, as we now know, a reflection of the sunlight), and barely enables us, at times, to make out silhouettes and shadows.

But if it weren’t for the dim light of the moon and stars (and excluding the possibility of secondary lighting, such as candles, electricity, bioluminescence, etc.), we would be left in utter, absolute darkness– a darkness so dark that the term “dark” becomes meaningless; we might as well have our eyes closed. In fact, without the moon and stars, it would be so dark that we would not know that it was dark at all.

Just as it has been said that we need bad in the world to appreciate the good, we need light in order to see the darkness.

As we embark on a new year — a new cycle of the Torah– it is worthwhile to remember that no matter how miserable a situation, our very awareness of misery is proof of the presence of “light”; it is only when we do not even know of our own suffering that life is truly bleak.

What is most distinct about these two “Great Luminaries” is that the sun generates its own light, while the moon is only a reflection of light of the sun.

Rav Yosef Soloveitchik suggests that this pasuk in Bereishit provides us with the Torah’s definition of the words “Gadol” and “Katan.”

The sun is called a Gadol because it is able to generate its own light. The moon is called Katan because it does not generate its own light. We express this very idea in a prayer at every Brit Milah. “This is the Katan, he will become a Gadol” – Zeh HaKatan Gadol Yehei. When a child is raised, he reflects the light generated by those who brought him into the world and raised him. But the blessing is that the child should take this light and generate his own power of illumination.

The source in which Rashi quotes Chazal is in Massechet Chulin 60b, which expresses an idea that can be seen as very contradictory. Said Hashem (to the moon): The righteous shall be called by your name. Yaakov the Katan. Shmuel the Katan. David the Katan. According to the Rav’s explanation, Yaakov, Shmuel HaNavi, and David HaMelech, by being Katan, only ever expressed “reflected” light and not their own. And not only does this verse refer to just them, but also all of the righteous, by which we could conclude that even Moshe Rabbeinu was a Katan.

When the Gemara refers to these great leaders of Klal Israel as Katan, it really means that the righteous who carry the world on their shoulders are those who who see themselves as nothing. Those who see themselves as merely a reflection of others. Moshe, the man who was chosen to receive the Torah, told Hashem that he was not good enough. King Saul hid when he was chosen as Israel’s first king. And King David, at the height of his glory, would sing songs about his worthlessness.

What is amazing about this is that Moshe, in the end of Parshat V’Zot HaBrachah, is referred to as a Moreh Gadol, but according to Chazal, shall always been known as a Katan. Why? Because every single Gadol HaDor, from Moshe Rabbeinu to Rabban Gamliel to the Rambam and the Chofetz Chaim, became a gadol, became great, by essentially being nothing. By having such a deep humbleness. Their own light is really the light of a Katan. A reflection of those who brought them up and made them a Gadol. A reflection of their parents, of their teachers, of their students, and of all of Klal Israel, making them fitting to be our leaders.

Parshat Bereishit, the Parsha of beginnings, teaches us that those who are truly great become so by being nothing.

We will first go back to the book of Shmot, in which Moshe was a shepherd watching over the herd of Yitro, his father-in-law. When he took the sheep to graze in a place known as Chorev, “Hineh HaSneh Boer BaEsh V’Hasneh Eineneu Ukal.” “Behold, the bush was burning in fire, and the bush was not consumed.” The first time G-d spoke to Yehoshua came following the thirty-day mourning period observed upon Moshe’s death. There is a true difference underlying the two rises to power. In Moshe’s case, it seems as though he needs to chase G-d and witness paranormal signs, whereas with Yehoshua, it seems like G-d simply tells him to lead his people.

Throughout Moshe’s stint as leader of the Jewish people, he struggled to train this nation of sinners to become a G-d fearing people. When Moshe was on Har Sinai, the Children of Israel were concerned of what has happened to this “superhero”. “Ki Zeh Moshe HaIsh Asher HeElanu MaEretz Mitzraim Lo Yadanu Meh Haya Lo”- “For this, the man Moshe, who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him,” they said. These words tell us that the Children of Israel believed that Moshe brought them up from the Land of Egypt and that he had been the one to save them from all their troubles in the wilderness. Obviously, they had not yet attained a belief in G-d. Moshe struggled to teach them just that throughout the forty years in the desert. We witness just the opposite when Yehoshua comes into power. When he addresses the tribes of Reuven, Gad, and the half-tribe of Menasheh, they gladly hearken to the voice of this new leader and acknowledge that G-d has sent him. “Kol Asher Tzivitanu Naaseh V’El Kol Asher T’Shalchenu Nelech”- “Anything you say we will do and to anywhere you send us we will go.”

Finally, let’s take a look at the different jobs that Moshe and Yehoshua were faced to complete as leaders of the Jewish people and what their attitudes toward leadership were. Moshe had much to accomplish during his relatively short time as leader. In Chapter 24 of the book of Yehoshua we read, “B’Ever Hanahar Yashvu Avotechem MaOlam Terach Avi Avraham V’Avi Nachor Vayaavdu Elohim Acherim”- “Your forefathers dwelt beyond the river– Terach, the father of Abraham and Nachor– and they served other gods.” Moshe had a massive job in front of him when the responsibility of leading the Jewish people was thrust upon him. To take this nation of idol worshippers and make them “Kadosh” was the main mission of Moshe Rabbeinu, and he succeeded in many aspects. By the time Yehoshua became leader, the Jewish people knew the right way to behave and how to express their utmost faith in G-d. It is for this reason that Yehoshua was allowed to take a more laid-back approach to leadership and to strengthen, rather than scold, the Children of Israel. In the time of Yehoshua, Bnei Yisrael announced, “Gam Anachnu Naavod Et HaShem Ki Hu Elokenu”- “We, too, will worship the Lord, for he is our G-d.”

We see that through their opposite approaches to leadership, Moshe and Yehoshua were able to create a common feeling among the children Israel that Hashem is their G-d. As we finish reading the Torah and begin the cycle once again, the opportunity to reflect upon these two great leaders of our people provides us with the inspiration to say that no matter what challenges we may face in the coming year, “Gam Anachnu Naavod Et Hashem Ki Hu Elokenu.”

One could answer, if we hold a siyum after finishing a book of the Torah or a massechta of Gemara—a party celebrating our studies—all the more so, kal vechomer, that we have a festival when we finish reading the whole Torah.

This answer, however, is not valid, because it misses the very premise of the question. The question isn’t asking why celebrate it at all, but rather, why celebrate it then.

One could answer, Simchat Torah is celebrated when it is because it is within a week of that date that one cycle of Shabbat parsha readings ends and another begins.

This answer is even more foolish than the first, however; it, too, is blind to the meaning of the question. If we never doubled up parshiot (as we often do with parshiot such as Tazria-Metzora and Behar-Bechukotai, reading two parshiot in one week), or if we doubled them up more often, or if we divided the parshiot differently, or if we even started sometime else, we would finish the Torah readings at a completely different time of year!

Why, then, Simchat Torah, on the 22^nd (or 23^rd outside of Israel) of the seventh month? Why now, of all times?

The Torah commands us at the end of the seventh year, the year of shmita, on the holiday of Succot, when all the Jewish people are gathered at Beit Hamikdash, to read the Torah out to everyone.

This is an important commandment, and it says a lot about Judaism. We are not a religion which gives the power of religious knowledge to the clergy; rather, every citizen should know our laws. However, it is difficult for a simple farmer to set aside the time to learn to read and to sit down and read the Torah. God’s solution to this is that once every seven years, we are guaranteed the opportunity to hear the Torah for ourselves.

Nowadays, however, this is much more problematic. Although selections of the Torah were read in Jerusalem on the Succot following the shmita year, much is not the same. First of all, in the absence of Beit Hamikdash, precious few Jews make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem three times a year; precious few Jews gather to hear the Torah read. Furthermore, I am baffled by how it was ever possible to read all the Torah in one day, aloud to a throng, now as much as then.

Because it is simply not feasible to read the entire Torah to all the Jews in the world, we need some way to keep our collective awareness of Torah alive. So at the end of Succot, we celebrate the Torah; we finish reading it and we start again to symbolize the entire cycle, to read the entire Torah in spirit if not in fact.

I like to think that what we lose in completeness we make up for in frequency; although we don’t read the entire Torah in a day as did the kohanim of old, we hold this celebration every year, to keep the Torah in our hearts and in our minds even when it is not shmita.

We finish reading the Torah, hold a great celebration—and we begin again.

מב  בַּסֻּכֹּת תֵּשְׁבוּ, שִׁבְעַת יָמִים; כָּל-הָאֶזְרָח, בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל, יֵשְׁבוּ, בַּסֻּכֹּת.

מג  לְמַעַן, יֵדְעוּ דֹרֹתֵיכֶם, כִּי בַסֻּכּוֹת הוֹשַׁבְתִּי אֶת-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, בְּהוֹצִיאִי אוֹתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם:  אֲנִי, ה” אלקיכם.

“(42) You shall dwell in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall dwell in booths, (43) that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your G-d” (Vayikra 33: 42-43).

On Pesach, we are very lucky. Eliyahu HaNavi himself visits our seder table every year. On Sukkot, we are extremely lucky. Every night of the seven nights of Sukkot, a very special and holy guest joins our table. In fact, as we sit and enjoy our Yom Tov meals, we are privileged to have in our company seven of the undisputedly greatest leaders of Klal Israel of all time.

On one level, the act of inviting these guests into our Sukkah is reminiscent of the supreme importance of having guests, especially those less fortunate then us, to share the joy and simcha of the Yom Tovim with us. The Rambam tells us that any kind of physical enjoyment which is not shared with the poor or less fortunate is viewed by Hashem as “alien” and only enjoyment of our physical beings. When it is shared, our celebration is raised to the heights of Avodat Hashem, Service of Hashem.

Three of these seven guests are our Avot, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. We also welcome Moshe Rabbeinu, our great teacher, and his brother Aaron HaKohen, along with Yosef the Righteous, son of Yaakov, and the “sweet singer of Israel,” King David. Each of the seven endured difficulties and overcame the struggles of exile with the constant protection and watch of Hashem, and this idea will help introduce us to a much deeper understanding of our Ushpizin Kedoshim.

Avraham was commanded, “Go forth from your homeland, from your birthplace, and from the house of your father, to the land that I will show you” (Bereishit 12:1).

Yitzchak left Caanan for Gerar; “And there was a famine in the land, in addition to the one that occurred in the days of Avraham, and he went to Avimelech, King of the Philistines in Gerar” (Bereishit 26:1).

Yosef was sold as a slave to Egypt. Moshe and Aaron wandered the desert for 40 years and never got to set foot in Israel, and David was forced to flee from his enemies and from the wrath of Saul into the Desert of Judea.

In all these situations, our ancestors taught us how to retain complete emunah and bitachon in Hashem, despite their challenges and troubles, and despite the great adversity that, at times, threatened their very existence. How interesting that these are the guests we invite into our Sukkah, a portable home reminding us of our journey in EXILE. Even more interesting is the fact that we invite these guests into a Sukkah which should really be seen as a shelter of Hashem’s protection.

When we leave our home to live in a Sukkah, we don’t do that just because for 40 years Bnei Israel lived in the same sort of structured portable house. By swapping our permanent house for a temporary one, we are in fact affirming that we are under the supervision of Hashem, professional mashgiach.

The Vilna Gaon explains that the Jewish people forged a unique relationship with Hashem that made them subject to divine protection. However, it almost disintegrated at the foot of Sinai with the sin of the golden calf. Sukkot marks the day that the Divine Presence of Hashem returned to rest upon the Jewish nation, and was confirmed with the instruction to build the Mishkan. The celebration of Sukkot is a ‘zman simchateinu’ because the Ananei HaKavod, Clouds of Glory, that protected the Jewish people in the desert, returned to them once more.

The Talmud tells us that it is no coincidence that the time of year that we celebrate our trust in God is the fall. The timing of Sukkot seems almost arbitrary. After all, our stay in the desert took place over forty years, rather than a particular week in the year. The timing of Sukkot, no less than the physical structure of the sukkah, is an integral statement of our identity. We are not leaving our homes for relief from the heat of summer; we are leaving our homes to experience our vulnerability.

Every time we walk into a Sukkah, every time we eat in a Sukkah, every time we sing about, celebrate, or enjoy the Sukkah, we are affirming Hashem’s protection over us. The same protection that guided our seven holy Ushpizin when they, too, suffered exile from Israel.

On January 16th, 1996, then-President of Israel Ezer Weizmann gave a speech to the joint house of the German parliament, in Hebrew. He said:

“I am a wandering Jew who follows in the footsteps of my forebears. And just as I escort them there and now and then, so do my forebears accompany me and stand with me here today.”

We are indeed very very lucky to have seven very special, very meaningful forebears join us every Sukkot. And we stand beside them under the shelter of Hashem, and between us lie thousands of years of history and millions of Jews who merited to enjoy the presence of the same guests, and the same protection. How else could the wandering Jew exist for so long, and survive through so many tragedies, if not under the Sukkah?

Rav Chaninah bar Papa (and some say Rav Simlai) told the following drash:

In the World to Come, the Kadosh Baruch Hu will bring a Torah scroll and set it in his lap and say: “Let everyone who busied himself with Torah come and take his reward.” Immediately, all the nations of the world will assemble and come before Hashem in confusion. Hashem will say to them: “Do not enter before me in confusion; rather, each nation should enter one by one, together with their scribes.”

Rome will enter first, and Hashem will say to them: “With what have you busied yourselves in this world?” They will answer Him: “Master of the Universe, we established many marketplaces, and built many bathhouses. And we accumulated much gold and silver. And we only did all of this so that Israel could busy themselves with Torah.”

Hashem will say to them: “Fools! Everything you made was done for yourselves. You made marketplaces so you could place houses of ill repute there, and bathhouses to make yourselves beautiful. And the gold and silver is mine [as it says in Chagai 2:8, "Mine is the silver and Mine is the gold said the Lord of Hosts"]. Are there none of you who speak the words of Torah?” And they departed from Him in rejection.

The Kingdom of Persia will enter after Rome, and Hashem will say to them: “With what have you busied yourselves?” They will say to Him: “We built many bridges. We conquered many cities. We fought many wars. And we only did this so Israel could busy themselves with Torah.”

Hashem will say to them: “Everything you made was done for yourselves. You made bridges so that you could collect tolls, and cities so that you could impose forced labour. And I am responsible for war, as it says, “Hashem is a Man of War” (Shemot 15:3). Are there none of you who speak words of Torah?” And they departed from Him in rejection.

The same thing will occur with every single nation. And the nations will say to Hashem: “Master of the Universe, did we ever accept Torah and not fulfill it? We were never given the chance to partake in Torah!” Hashem will answer them: “Those seven commandments (the Noahite Laws) that you did accept, did you ever fulfill them?”

They will say to Him: “Master of the Universe, Israel, who accepted the Torah, did they fulfill it?” Hashem will answer them: “I testify for Israel that they fulfilled Torah!” They will say to Him: “Master of the Universe, can a father testify for his son, for Israel is Your firstborn?” Hashem will say to them: “Let heaven and earth come and testify for Israel that they fulfilled the entire Torah.” They will say to Him: “Heaven and earth are not impartial witnesses, as it says, If I had not established my eternal covenant, I would not have fashioned heaven and earth.”

Hashem will say to them: “Let those among YOU come and testify for Israel that they fulfilled the entire Torah! Let Nimrod come and testify for Abraham that he was never suspected of idolatry. Let Laban the Aramean come and testify for Jacob that he was never suspected of stealing. Let the wife of Potiphar come and testify for Joseph that he was never suspected of sin. Let Darius come and testify for Daniel that he never neglected prayer. Let Nebuchadnezzar come and testify for Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah that they never bowed to the idol. Let Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, Zophar the Naamathite, and Elihu ben Barachel the Buzite testify for Israel that they fulfilled the entire Torah.”

They said to Him: “Give it to us anew, that we made do it.” Hashem will say to them: “Complete fools! He who has prepared on the eve of Shabbos will eat on Shabbos, but he who did not prepare, how will he eat? Nevertheless, I have a simple precept for you, which is called the sukkah. Go and do it.”

Straightaway each and every one made a sukkah on the roof of his house, and Hashem made the sun blaze upon them in the summer. It became so hot that every nation kicked in their sukkot. And the Kadosh Baruch Hu will sit and laugh.

Must See Videos: Netanyahu Gives Rousing Speech, Rips UN for Ahmadinejad ‘Disgrace’, Goldstone Report

http://matzav.com/netanyahu-gives-rousing-speech-rips-un-for-ahmadinejad-disgrace-goldstone-report

Thursday September 24, 2009 5:25 PM

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu today spoke before the United Nations General Assembly, calling to task the nations of the world on the international body’s responsibility and criticizing them for not standing up to it. “The UN was founded after the carnage of World War II,” Netanyahu said, adding the organization was “charged with preventing the reoccurrence of such horrendous events.” “Nothing has impeded” the work of the UN, he said, “more than the systematic assault on the truth.”

“Yesterday the president of Iran stood at this podium spewing anti-Semitic rants… Just a few days earlier he claimed the Holocaust is a lie.

“Last month I went to a villa in a suburb of Berlin called Wannsee,” Netanyahu recalled a visit to the pastoral villa, where over just a few hours on January 20 1942 the Nazis devised the Final Solution – the decision to exterminate the Jews from Europe.

Netanyahu then dramatically showed a facsimile copy of Final Solution documents drafted in Wannsee.

“Is this protocol a lie?” he asked. “Is the German government lying?”

“The day before I was in Wannsee,” Netanyahu continued, “I was given in Berlin the original construction plans for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

“These plans I now hold in my hand,” he said, as he was showing the worn-out blueprints to the assembly. “They contain a signature by Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s deputy.

“Are these plans of the camp where one million Jews were murdered a lie, too?” he asked.

Netanyahu then turned to attacking Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying, “Yesterday, the man who called the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium. For those who refused to come, and those who left in protest – I commend you, you stood up for moral clarity.

“But for those who stayed – I say on behalf of the Jewish people, my people, and decent people everywhere – have you no shame? No decency? What a disgrace, what a mockery of the charter of the UN.”

Netanyahu then told the assembly, “Perhaps some of you think that this man and his regime threaten only the Jews – well, if you think that – you’re wrong, dead wrong.

“In the past 30 years, this fanaticism spread across the globe with a murderous violence that knows no bounds,” he said, noting that Islamic terrorism hurt Muslims, Christians, and Hindus, as well as Jews.

“Wherever they can,” the prime minister said of Islamic fanatics, “they enforce a backward system of government.” He called the struggle between the modern world and extremist Islamism a struggle between “the 21st Century and the 9th Century.”

But, he noted, “Ultimately, the past cannot triumph over the future. And our future promises magnificent bounties of hope.”

Naming some of the technological achievements of the last hundred years, Netanyahu finished, “We will find an alternative to fossil fuel, and yes, we will clean up the planet. But if the most primitive fanaticism can acquire the most deadly weapons, the march of history can be reversed,” for a lengthy period of time, he warned.

“This is why the greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fanaticism and weapons of mass destruction.”

“Is the UN up to that?” Netanyahu asked. “Will the international community stand up to the despotism of a government against its own people?” he asked, referring to the recent elections in Iran. “The jury is still out on the UN. Recent signs are not encouraging.”

The prime minister then went on to criticize the recently published UN-commissioned report claiming both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip in January.

“Not one UN resolution was passed condemning Hamas rocket attacks on Israel,” Netanyahu said; “we heard nothing, absolutely nothing from the UN Human Rights Council.”

Netanyahu went on to describe the disengagement from the Gaza Strip, telling the UN General Assembly that “Israel unilaterally withdrew from every inch of Gaza, uprooting over 8,000 Israelis from their homes… because many in Israel believed that this would get peace.”

But Israel didn’t get peace, Netanyahu said; “Instead we got an Iranian-backed terror base 50 miles from Tel Aviv, and life in the Israeli towns and cities near Gaza became nothing less than a nightmare. Hamas attacks increased ten-fold after we withdrew, and again, the UN was silent, absolutely silent.”

The prime minister told the assembly that “After 8 years of unremitting assault, Israel was forced to respond,” and said the only other example in history was the German bombing of British cities in WWII, to which the allies responded by leveling German cities, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties.

“I’m not passing judgment,” Netanyahu stressed; “I’m stating a fact that is the product of decisions of just and great leaders fighting an evil enemy,” he said.

“Faced with an enemy committing double war crimes – firing at civilians while hiding behind civilians – Israel sought to carry out surgical attacks on terrorists, not an easy task when fighting squads in a densely populated area,” he said.

“Israel tried to minimize civilian casualties…We dropped countless flyers over Gazans’ homes, sent text messages to Palestinian residents, made cellular phone calls urging them to vacate, to leave,” the prime minister said, stating that “Never has a country gone to such length to remove the enemy’s civilian population away from harm’s way.”

Netanyahu went on to slam the Goldstone report, saying that “The UN Human Rights Council decided to condemn Israel; we were morally hanged, given an unfair trial to boot… What a perversion of truth and justice.”

The prime minister urged the international community to reject the report, and warned that if the claims of Israeli war crimes are accepted, “The UN would revert to its darkest age – when Zionism was equated with racism,” referring to a UN resolution adopted by the general assembly in 1975.

The prime minister said that “If the report is not rejected, the UN will go into a process of vitiating itself from relevance,” adding that by accepting the report “the world will be sending a message to terrorists that terrorism pays – you will win immunity if you launch your attacks from densely populated areas.”

As Netanyahu continued to speak about Operation Cast Lead, the Palestinian delegate to the UN left the hall.

“What a travesty!” Netanyahu said of the Goldstone report. “The biased and unjust report provided a clear-cut test to all governments – will you stand with Israel or with the terrorists? We must know the answer to that question now – not later. If Israel is asked to take more risks for peace we must know today that you will stand with us tomorrow,” said Netanyahu. “We can take further risks for peace only if we have confidence that we can defend ourselves.”

The prime minister stressed that “All of Israel wants peace,” noting that Israel made peace with Egypt and Jordan, and vowing that “If the Palestinians truly want peace, we will make peace. But we want a defensible peace, permanent peace.”

“We ask the Palestinians to say yes to a Jewish state, as simple, as clear, as elementary as that. We are not foreign conquerors in the land of Israel. We are not strangers to this land – this is our homeland, but as deeply connected as we are to this place, we recognize that the Palestinians also live here and they want a home; we want to live side by side in peace, prosperity, and dignity.”

Netanyahu explained that Israel must also have security, and therefore insisted that the Palestinian state not be a militarized state.

“The Palestinian state must be affectively demilitarized because we don’t want another Gaza, or south Lebanon, another Iranian-backed terror base near Jerusalem. We want peace and I believe that with goodwill and hard work such a peace can be achieved, but it requires from all of us to roll back the forces of terror backed by Iran that seek to eliminate Israel and overthrow world order,” he said.

Netanyahu concluded his speech with a quote from the book of Joshua: “Let us be strong and of good courage let us confront the peril… let us forge an enduring peace for generations to come.”

{JPost Report/Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel}

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Part Four:

“האזינו השמים ואדברה ותשמע הארץ אמרי פי”

“Give ear, the skies, and I will speak, and listen, the land, to the words of my mouth.”

Thus begins Haazinu, the song depicting what will happen to Am Yisrael when they turn from Hashem. The song tells of them leaving Hashem for avoda zara, and being punished by famine, plague, beasts, and war.

Surely, a reader might assume, this is all rhetoric, Moshe’s way of warning the people not to turn from Hashem. How else could he say such things? How would we know when this prophecy were being fulfilled? Clearly it’s not a prophecy at all!

No! Heaven forbid! Haazinu is every word the truth!

“שמעו שמים והאזיני ארץ כי ה’ דבר”

“Listen, skies, and give ear, land, for Hashem speaks,”

Begins the book of Yishaiahu (pasuk 2– pasuk 1, as is the practice with many prophets, merely lists the period during which he prophecied). Sound familiar? Here again is that distinctive choice of words– the less common “lehaazin,” to give ear, coupled with “lishma,” to listen, being applied to the land and the skies. Although the order of what is giving ear and what is listening has been reversed, both times the skies and the land are asked to listen to the words of Hashem.

This parallel structure does not end here; this perek continues by listing the sins of Am Yisrael and their punishments therefor. They have turned from Hashem and sure enough their land is desolate and their cities burned, the very earth turned against them. Moreover, both Haazinu and perek 1 of Yishaiahu even compare Am Yisrael to Sdom and Amora!

In Haazinu, the skies and the land are called as witnesses to the fate of Am Yisrael; in Yishaiahu, the witnesses are recalled to bear witness to the fact that all of Haazinu has come to pass. In Haazinu, it is mentioned that the one reason why Hashem wouldn’t completely destroy Am Yisrael is because the nations may think that it was solely because of their own strength.

God spoke, He fulfilled His word, and He affirmed this fulfillment through the words of His prophet. Haazinu/Yishaiahu is just one example. Just as later in Yishaiahu (44:26) God is referred to as “מקים דבר עבדו ועצת מלאכיו ישלים,” “He who fulfills the word of His servant and will complete the prediction of his messengers,” God’s prophecies always come to fruition.