Pesach Chametz

 

Ahhh… Pesach is coming. Time to get rid of the Chametz!

One of the meanings of Chametz is that it is the spiritual impurities that we allow to fester within us. Allegorically, the Torah tells us that we cannot free ourselves from the level of Mitzrayim – Egypt; the lowest spiritual to which a Jew can possibly sink and still be alive, unless we get rid of our internal Chametz.

Chametz is leaven or yeast. And, our spiritual Chametz is all of the "yeast" that rises within us as we hold dear to all of the imagined affronts to our precious Egos.

Every grudge; every thought of "getting even;" every sullen dislike; every single conviction that it is "THEIR" fault, never mine – is a speck of Chametz that prevents us from purity and… prevents us from leaving Egypt.

Time to give it up!

We learn that four fifths of the Jews died in Mitzrayim. They never made it out of Egypt. They could not let go of their "Chametz" in whatever form it took.

There is a new industry in the world called "Life Coaching." I recently learned from a friend who is familiar with this concept that a Life Coach's objective, at least in the corporate world, is to work with an individual to overcome flaws that are standing in the way of using his full potential in business. It is an attempt to alter personality traits that make a person less able to achieve; traits that make a person less productive. A person first has to recognize these flaws and then learn how to change them so that coworkers and customers will no longer be put off by these personality quirks.

Apparently, Life Coaching has had some good success in the corporate world. Apparently, continued employment and financial success are great motivators…

We should all be blessed to examine our own ingrained personality traits; our Chametz, that we are better off without and be able to remove them, purifying ourselves and redeeming ourselves from the slavery of Mitzrayim.

A Kasher Sameach!

Let It Snow?

Today is March 23rd.  It snowed last night.  It was raining yesterday so the rain gradually turned to snow and laid down a heavy layer of slushy ice all over everything...

"You want a prediction about the weather, you're asking the wrong Phil. I'll give you a winter prediction: It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life…"

- Groundhog Day

 

OH C'MON!  WHAT IS THIS?  MINNESOTA? !!!!

 

Why yes it is...  Oh.  Okay.  Sorry then.   We can deal with a little snow in MARCH - THE BEGINNING OF SPRING!  CAN'T WE... !! ??

Oops.  Sorry.  Yes, of course we can...

 

So, I get up to go to the synagogue for morning prayers, which are at 6:30 AM, as I do every morning, and there is a heavy layer of ice slush all over my wife's car.  

Oy... Sigh...

So, I turn the car on to warm it up and search for the scraper which hasn't been used for a month or so; finally find it and start scraping the windshield...  I get most of the driver's side done and I'm just down to freeing the windshield wiper from the ice when, because I left them on last night when I turned the car off; they both turn on; break free of the ice, and both wipers break off!  

It's 6:30 AM and I am in somewhat of a stupor and the wipers are on the lowest intermittent level so it looks like they just spontaneously went on and then off again.

So, I continue to scrape the windshield while dumbly staring at the broken wiper blades just lying there...

Then the bladeless wipers pop on and off again.

I turn them off in the car.

I pick up a wiper blade and, in the still dark morning, try and see if it reattaches to the wiper arm...  Hmmm... It seems to be broken... I stare at the ice covered attachment thingy, holding the blade in one hand and the wiper arm in the other, pressing them together as if they will magically reattach to each other… After a minute of this, I put down the wiper blade and I begin scraping the windshield once more… when finally, it penetrates my little pea brain that I cannot drive this car in the dark while it's snowing without windshield wipers...

Huh, I think...?

 

Okay.  I turn off the car and go over to my work van; turn it on; and begin the same process all over again...

However, now I am awake and relaxed, being so grateful that I have another vehicle that I can drive that is so easily accessible and planning on how I am going to buy new wiper blades for my wife's car after synagogue...

 

Hey.  It's Minnesota.  I live here.  Life is beautiful all the time... :)

Purim 2011

On March 17^th, 2011, the United Nations Security Council approved a "No-Fly Zone" over Libya, authorizing "All Necessary Measures" to protect civilians.

On Saturday evening, March 19^th, 2011, international forces began to bomb Libya.

March 17^th, 2011 was Adar 11, 5771 on the Jewish calendar – the Fast of Esther.

Saturday Evening, March 19^th, 2011 was Adar 14, 5771 on the Jewish calendar – Purim.

 

According to the Megillas Esther; the Story of Purim, the Fast of Esther was the day that the Jews of Persia did teshuvah; repentance. They beseeched G-d on that day to overturn the decree of the Wicked Haman to eradicate the Jews of Persia.

And, on Purim, instead of the Jews, Haman and his wicked sons were eradicated.

 

Teshuvah.

The Purim story is all about teshuvah; repentance.

Hashem sends His messages into This World that we need to turn towards Him.

 

Events happen.

But, when they happen in Adar; when they happen on Purim - I ask "why?"

"Why now?"

 

I began a modern timeline of Purim as a result of this question when the United States declared war on Saddam Hussein on Purim in 2003.

I asked myself why were things in Iraq happening on Purim?

Of course, even before my timeline, numerous historical occurrences, both tragic and miraculous have occurred on Purim, or in Adar, throughout the Ages.

A few of the more profound occurrences that are directly related to our own time are:

In 1774, the troops of Karim Khan, a Persian who wanted to destroy the Jews of Basra, were defeated in a great slaughter of his troops, on Purim, by the local Arabs near Basra.

In 1946, Julius Streicher, a Nazi war criminal, made reference to Purim before he was hung.

In 1953, Stalin had a stroke on Purim and subsequently died.

 

My timeline begins in 1991, when Saddam Hussein surrendered to President George Bush on Purim, after a great slaughter of his troops, at Basra.

In 1994, Boruch Goldstein murdered 29 Arabs in cold blood, at Mearas ha Machpelah; the Cave of the Partriachs, on Purim.

In 2003, President George Bush declared war on Saddam Hussein, on Purim.

In 2004, the 1^st Iraqi Constitution was supposed to be signed on Purim. The Grand Ayatollah Sistani, the leader of the Shia Muslims in Iraq, for no apparent reason, pushed off the signing to occur on Shushan Purim, in the walled city of Baghdad.

And, in 2011, international forces, with the blessings of the entire Arab world, began to bomb Libya –on Purim.

 

In my original Purim timeline, I correspond the year 1991 with the first year of the reign of King Achashverosh, which actually occurs three years before Megillas Esther begins the Story of Purim.

1994 corresponds to the beginning of the Megillah, where the Jews ate at the banquet of Achasheverosh (and were thereby condemned by G-d).

2003 corresponds to the year that the Megillah describes how Haman and his ten sons were hung, which would have been the 12^th year of the reign of Achashverosh.

2004 corresponds to the decrees by Mordechai and Esther, establishing the legal holidays of Purim and Shushan Purim, which occurred a year later in the Megillah after Haman and those who wished to destroy the Jews were defeated.

 

And, as an addendum - according to chazal, our Great Rabbis, the Second Temple was rebuilt two years after the end of Megillas Esther.

This would have corresponded to 2006, the year that Saddam Hussein was hung.

 

Purim is the story of G-d's Hidden Hand in our world, in This World where we learn that Everything is under the Hand of Hashem.

 

I look at the events of today, and of yesterday, that happen on Purim - and I come to understand that it is the same story today and yesterday.

 

The Story is not only about the Miracles of Purim and the amazing "coincidences," which are not coincidences at all, that are associated with these dates of Purim but, it is about the whole point of the Megillah, which is that the Jewish Nation do teshuvah.

Haman is Amalek.

Amalek wants to murder the Jews.

And, the ONLY way to stop Amalek is to turn to G-d and do what He commands us to do.

We are taught that in every generation, Amalek wants to wipe out the Jews. In every generation, there is a Haman, a descendant of Amalek, who wants to utterly annihilate the Jews.

And, the Cure against this Haman; this Amalek, is for the Jewish Nation, with one heart, to turn to Hashem and do teshuvah…

 

Today's Purim is no different than the miracles of any other year.

This year, on Purim, international forces began to bomb Libya, attacking today's Haman, Muammar Gaddafi, the evil dictator of Libya.

The amazing thing about this is, that from a Jewish point of view, Gaddafi does not seem to be the most likely candidate for today's Haman. Yes, he has made lunatic statements such as that Israel is responsible for all of the unrest in Africa, but most of the world seems to believe that Israel is responsible for most of the world's ills.

Gaddafi certainly doesn't appear to approach the same level of Evil as does Amadinejad of Iran or Nasrallah of Hezbollah or even (the dead) Osama bin Laden.

The Hidden Hand of G-d has apparently chosen the crazy, psychopathic Muammar Gaddafi as today's Haman.

This year, as the international forces were bombing Libya, we were either celebrating Purim, the holiday of our deliverance or – remembering to eradicate the Name and Remembrance of Amalek. This year, Parshas Zachor, the Shabbos where we are commanded to Remember to eradicate the Evil Amalekites, was on Saturday, March 19^th, the day immediately before Purim.

 

On one hand, it appears to me that G-d has chosen Gaddafi as this year's Amalek. On the other hand, G-d has terrible ways of telling us who, exactly, Amalek is.

 

Dennis Prager, a Conservative talk radio show host, wrote a column for Townhall.com, called "The Other Tsunami."

It deals with the brutal murders at Itamar in Israel that happened last week, in the midst of Adar:

It is very difficult to hate babies.

It takes a special person.

As morally wrong as it is to murder innocent adults, mankind seems to have a built-in revulsion against killing babies. If a baby does not evoke any tenderness, if a baby is regarded as worthy of being deliberately hurt or murdered, we know that we have encountered a degree of evil that few humans -- even among murderers -- can relate to.

That is why what Palestinian terrorists did to a Jewish family on the West Bank this past weekend deserves far more attention than it received.

Normally, Palestinian atrocities get little attention -- certainly far less attention than Israeli apartment-building on the West Bank receives. But this particular atrocity got even less attention than usual because the world was focused on the terrible tsunami that hit Japan.

On Friday night, Palestinian terrorists slipped into a Jewish settlement, entered a home and stabbed the father, the mother and three of their children to death: an 11-year-old, a 4-year-old, and a three-month-old baby.

In order to understand what those actions mean, a seemingly separate incident needs to be recalled: the prolonged sexual attack by up to 200 Egyptian men on Lara Logan, chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News, in Tahrir Square, Cairo a few weeks ago. It was reported that after stripping her naked and then molesting and beating her, the men kept shouting, "Jew, Jew!"

The two incidents tell the same tale. In much of the Arab Muslim and some of the non-Arab Muslim world today (such as Iran), "Jew" is not a person. "Jew" is not even merely the enemy. In fact, there is no parallel on Earth to what "Jew" means to a hundred million, perhaps hundreds of millions of Muslims.

Think of any conflict in the world -- Pakistan-India, China-Tibet, North Korea-South Korea, Tamil-Sinhalese. There are some deep hatreds there, and atrocities have been committed on one or both sides of those conflicts. But in none of those conflicts nor anywhere else is there something equivalent to what "Jew" means to millions of Muslims.

There really is only one historical parallel, and it, too, involved the word "Jew." The Nazis also succeeded in fully dehumanizing the word "Jew." Thus, for Nazism, it was as important (if not more so) to murder Jewish babies and children -- often through as cruel a means as possible (being burned alive, buried alive or thrown up in the air and impaled on bayonets) -- as it was to murder Jewish adults.

The human being does not have to learn to hate. It seems to come pretty naturally. Nor does the human being have to learn to murder, steal or rape. These, too, seem to be in the natural human repertoire of evils.

But the human being does have to learn to hate children and babies, and to regard the torture and murder of them as morally desirable acts. It takes years of work to undo normal protective human attitudes toward children.

That is precisely what the Nazis did and what significant parts of the Muslim world have done to the word "Jew." To them, the Jew is not just sub-human; the Jew -- and his or her children -- is sub-animal.

Palestinian and other Muslim spokesmen and their supporters on the left argue that this unique hatred is the fruit of Israeli policies, not decades of Nazi-like Jew-hatred saturating Islamic education, television, radio and the mosque. But for this to be true, unique hatred would have to be matched by unique evil on the Israelis' part.

Yet, among the injustices of the world, what the Israelis have done to the Palestinians would not even register on a moral Richter scale. The creation of Israel engendered about 750,000 Palestinian refugees (and an equal number of Jewish refugees from Arab countries) and the death of perhaps 10 thousand Palestinian Arabs. And all of that came about solely because Arab armies invaded Israel in order to destroy it at birth. Yet, when Pakistan was yanked from India and established as a Muslim state at the very same time Israel was established, that act engendered 12.5 million Muslim refugees and about a million dead Muslims (and similar numbers of Hindu refugees and deaths). Why then doesn't "Hindu" equal "Jew" in the Muslim lexicon of hate?

Here are some answers in brief:

First, many groups have been hated, but none have been hated as deeply as the Jews.

Second, Jew-hatred is often exterminationist, which is why Jew-hatred has little in common with ethnic bigotry, religious intolerance or even racism. Rarely, if ever, do any of them seek the extermination of the disliked or hated group.

Third, exterminationist Jew-haters are particularly dangerous people. Non-Jews who do not recognize Jew-hatred as the moral cancer it is are fools. Nazism was born in Jew-hatred and led to the death of more than 40 million non-Jews. Islamic terror started against Israeli Jews but has spread around the world. More fellow Muslims have now been murdered by Islamic terror than Jews have.

That is why the tsunami the world ignored this weekend -- the Palestinian-Arab-Muslim flood of Jew-hatred -- is the one that will prove far more dangerous to it than the Japanese one it understandably focused on.

 

It is as if G-d is grabbing the Jewish Nation by the lapels and shaking us, demanding that we recognize Amalek.

This is Amalek. This is who wants to eradicate Israel - those who murder babies. And, we are Commanded by G-d to Remember to eradicate Amalek – forever.

The time of Purim tells us that there are no coincidences.

 

These unspeakable horrors that occur specifically to the Jewish people during the month of Adar are not new.

Eight boys were slaughtered by Amalek at the Yeshiva Mercaz Harav in Jerusalem on Rosh Chodesh Adar in 2008.

 

Hashem never stops asking us to do teshuvah.

And, Hashem never stops telling us to Remember to Eradicate Amalek.

And, He never stops telling us exactly who Amalek is.

 

This presents us with a huge dilemma.

On one hand, chazal, tell us that we cannot and do not know who is Amalek, as Sancheriv, the Assyrian king, relocated; mixed up, all of the nations when he was conquering the world.

On the other hand, G-d deliberately shows us Amalek by making these events coincide with Purim and Adar.

 

Hashem shows us who are Amalekites by having the generals of Saddam Hussein surrender to the Coalition Forces under the Aegis of President George Herbert Walker Bush, at Basra, the site of a great massacre of the enemies of the Jews, on Purim in 1991.

 

However, in 1994, Hashem shows us the dangers of deciding who is Amalek "just because…"

If 1994 corresponds to my timeline of Megillas Esther, then 1994 was the year that the Jews of Shushan ate at the banquet of Achashverosh and thus, Hashem allowed Haman to promulgate his evil decree to eradicate all the Jews of Persia.

 

Megillas Esther begins in the third year of King Achashverosh's reign, when he decides to throw a great big party celebrating the failure of G-d to redeem the Jews from the bondage of exile and of G-d's failure to rebuild His Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

At this banquet, Achashverosh serves food and wine using the Holy Vessels stolen from the First Temple.

In the Talmud, in Tractate Megillah (12a), it says:

The students asked Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai: "Why did the Jews of that generation deserve annihilation?"

He told them, "What do you think?"

They said, "Because they enjoyed partaking in the great party of Achashverosh [an event that took place roughly nine years before Haman issued his edict].

He objected, "In that case, the Jews of Shushan, the capital, [the Jews who attended this party] would deserve such a punishment, but why would all the Jews in the world who did not participate be included in the edict of destruction?"

They said, "You're right, so you tell us."

He said, "They bowed to the idol of Nebuchadnezzar [an event that took place roughly seventy years earlier]."

They objected, "If so why indeed were they not wiped out? Does God show favoritism?"

He said, "They didn't mean it in their hearts and only did it out of respect to the king, so the edict against them was also not issued by God with finality and therefore could be revoked."

According to our Rabbis, the Jews of Persia were condemned to be killed by Haman's evil decree because they sinned against G-d by worshipping idols and by taking pleasure in the blasphemous party of King Achashverosh.

 

In my timeline, this date corresponds to February 25^th, 1994, when Baruch Goldstein murdered 29 Arabs worshipping at the Mearas ha Machpelah; the Cave of the Patriarchs, in Chevron, in the Land of Israel. The date was the 14^th of Adar, 5754, Purim.

The most hideous mass murder ever committed by a Jew in the name of his religion was perpetrated on the Purim that matches the year that Hashem decreed that the Jews of Persia should be annihilated for their unforgivable sins.

 

Purim is also a story of redemption. G-d allowed the evil enemy of the Jews, Haman, to persuade King Achashverosh that the Jews should be annihilated.

Mordechai and Esther inspired the entire Jewish nation to do teshuva – to sincerely repent for their sins. And they did! All of Israel repented; Haman, the Enemy of the Jews was destroyed; Mordechai became Achashverosh's Prime Minister in place of Haman… And "the Jews had light and gladness, joy and honor."

And, the Second Temple was rebuilt.

In the timeline of my Purim Torah – today, the equivalent of the Second Temple being rebuilt should have occurred by now.

 

The main miracle of Purim is the story of the Jewish Nation doing Teshuvah.

Today, in spite of G-d's Hidden Hand in the Messages that He is constantly sending us every year in Adar and on Purim, it does not appear that the Jewish Nation has done teshuvah.

 

Dennis Prager also often repeats another quote – that those who are kind to the cruel will be cruel to the kind.

This quote usually refers to treating those that commit hideous crimes with compassion.

 

Hashem allowed the Jews to defend themselves and annihilate their enemies at the End of the Purim Story, after the entire Jewish nation had done teshuva.

He did not allow them to strike at their enemies whilst they were at the banquet sinning against G-d.

 

We should pray that we will all turn towards G-d in teshuvah and remember to eradicate Amalek, in all of his disguises…

 

 

A Purim Recap for 2011

 

Purim Torah, A Recap for 2011:

On the Jewish holiday of Purim, we read in the Book of Esther, the Megillah, that the ten wicked sons of Haman were hanged.

Our Sages note that any change in the words or letters of the Torah or, in this case, the Megillah of Esther, that is different from what is "normal," always indicates some kind of hidden meaning.

On the Megillah scroll itself, one letter is written smaller than all of the others in three of the ten son's names: the Hebrew letter "ת" (sav) in the name one son, Parshandasa; the Hebrew letter "ש" (shin) in the name of another son, Parmashasa; and the Hebrew letter "ז" (zayin) in the name of the son, Vayzasa. In addition, the first letter, "ו" (vav) of the name of Vayzasa is written larger than all of the other letters.

Every Hebrew letter also has a numerical equivalent.

The numerical equivalent of sav-shin-zayin is 707, seven hundred and seven.

The numerical equivalent of the large vav is 6.

The combination of these letters is the designation for the Jewish year 5707 (the large "6" would indicate the sixth millennium of the Jewish calendar).

The Jewish year 5707 began on Rosh Hoshana, September 25, 1946.

In that secular year of 1946, the Nuremburg trials took place.

At the end of those trials, 11 Nazi war criminals were convicted to be sentenced to death by hanging.

However, Hermann Goering committed suicide.

Therefore, on October 16, 1946 only ten of the worst Nazi war criminals were hanged.

October 16th, 1946 was the 21st of Tishrei, 5707, Hoshana Rabbah.

Hoshana Rabbah is a Day of Judgement. According to the Torah, Hoshana Rabbah is the day, each year, when all the nations of the world are judged by the Creator of the World. Just as the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hoshana is the Day of Judgement, each year, when all of the Jewish People are judged by the Creator of the World.

That day, Hoshana Rabbah, 5707; October 16th, 1946, is the day which was alluded to in the writing of the names of the ten wicked sons of the evil Haman, who tried to wipe out the Jews, in a story that is 2,500 years old. On that day, in these "modern" times, ten wicked Nazis, followers of the evil Hitler, may his name be obliterated, were hanged once more.

The last Nazi to be hanged was Julius Streicher, the editor of Der Sturmer, a Nazi racist newspaper, which was specifically aimed at creating hatred for Jews and everything Jewish.

When he was hanged, with the rope literally around his neck, one of the last things that he shouted out was: " Dies ist mein Purimfest 1946." - "This is my Purim celebration 1946."

--------------

There is an axiom in the Arab Muslim world and in the world of wacko conspiracy theorists – "It's all about the Jews."

The Jews control everything; manipulate everything; even, as Holocaust deniers such as President Ahmanutjob of Iran have said, starved themselves to make the "fake movies" that were taken when the Allied troops liberated the concentration camps of Nazi Germany.

Several years ago, a newspaper column written by a United States Senator, Fritz Hollings, said that President Bush invaded Iraq "to secure Israel."

"It's all about the Jews."

The first of the horror videos created for mass consumption by Islamic death cultists, was the murder of Jewish American journalist, Daniel Pearl, in Pakistan. The second showed the slaughter of Nick Berg, an American Jew, in a Muslim cultic murder in Iraq.

"It's all about the Jews."

Saudi Crown Prince Abdallah ibn Abd Al-'Aziz once stated at a gathering of Saudi dignitaries, including top Muslim clerics and preachers that "It became clear to us now that Zionism is behind terrorist actions in the kingdom. I can say that I am 95% sure of that."

"It's all about the Jews."

President Ahmanutjob of Iran blamed Israel and the Jews for the fact that the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published cartoons about Muhammad and touched off their Cartoon Jihad.

"It's all about the Jews."

The list is endless and there is literally a new story every day how everything that happens in the world is because of the Jews.

Today, in 2011, the Arab world is being overthrown with unrest and revolt. And, of course, from Yemen to Syria, the despots of the Arabs are claiming that these spontaneous revolutions shaking the entire Middle East are all a plot by Israel…

The problem is – it's true. It is all about the Jews.

However, the fools of the world believe in a Jewish conspiracy where the Jews control everything and therefore events flow from the Jewish people.

Those who study Torah of the Jews know that G-d is in control and all events originate with G-d.

He has promised in His Torah that what happens in this world of "Olam Hazeh," this material world, is because of His relationship with the Children of Israel. From Hashem's perspective, it is all about the Jews.

And as much as the Jewish people plead "I know we're the chosen people, but, once in a while, couldn't you choose someone else?" (Tevye, "Fiddler on the Roof"), it is always going to be all about the Jews.

Both Jew and gentile are confused by this seemingly bizarre paradox every day.

But it is irrevocable and omnipresent, as can be demonstrated by the most confusing Jewish holiday of them all, Purim.

Purim is an odd holiday. It is not a major festival such as Rosh Hashanah and Passover and, it happened a long time after Passover and the other major holidays were established by the Torah. But, nonetheless, it is a time of wonders and miracles where the presence of G-d remains totally hidden. G-d demonstrates His power by creating a puzzle which confuses both Jew and gentile alike….

The story of Purim, the Megillah of Esther, occurred around 2,500 years ago.

The story begins with King Achashverosh, the king of Persia, married to Vashti, his queen.

He throws a big party. Everybody, including all of the Jews, get to come.

After some drunken carousing and revelry, the king orders his queen to come before him and his guests, naked, wearing nothing besides her royal crown. She refuses to come and, as all good Persian despots do, he has her executed (an action that is recognizable today in the Arab and Persian Middle East).

Queen-less, the king calls out and sequesters all of the eligible women in the land.

Esther, a Jew, gets herded in with the rest of them. No one knows she is Jewish and her uncle Mordechai tells her to keep her identity secret. And, of course, from among all the women taken to the palace, the king falls in love with her and Esther becomes Queen.

The Plot thickens: King Achashverosh's top minister is a man named Haman.

Haman becomes pathologically obsessed with Mordechai, the Jew, whom Haman believes is royally dissing him.

So, Haman gets King Achashverosh to agree to issue a secret decree to annihilate all of the Jews of Persia on the 13th day of the Hebrew month of Adar. (This horror of killing one Jew - or killing all the Jews - what's the difference, still prevails in the Arab Muslim world.) He decides on the best date for genocide by leaving it up to chance, by throwing lots which are called "purim."

Haman believes that everything that happens on Earth is a random occurrence.

He believes that everything happens by chance.

But, by casting lots; by creating Purim, Haman, who believes in the transcendent power of Chance, suddenly becomes the model of the fact that Nothing happens by chance.

Because, from the moment that Haman shakes the dice, everything begins to change. Everything becomes "topsy – turvy."

Things begin to go very bad for Haman.

Haman gets called to King Achashverosh and is asked how to honor someone whom the King wishes to honor. Expecting that these honors will be for himself, he lays out a fine set of accolades and laurels only to find he, himself, is forced to bestow these honors on his arch-enemy Mordechai.

Then, Haman is overjoyed to be invited along with the King to a feast given by Queen Esther, believing that he is once more being honored above all others, only to discover at the feast that the Queen is Jewish!

Oops!

Big, big Oops for Haman!

Suddenly, Haman finds himself accused by the Queen of plotting to murder her along with her people.

Oops! Ouch!

Haman begs for mercy and throws himself onto the queen's bed only to be caught by the king in this rather precarious position.

Oops! Double Ouch!

Haman is accused of attempted rape. Oh my goodness gracious!

How could things have possibly gotten this turned upside down, wonders Haman?

But, wait, there's more!

Haman erected a giant gallows to hang Mordechai, whom he was just itching to kill. Unfortunately for Haman, King Achashverosh sentences Haman to die on this same gallows. (The origin of gallows humor – oops.)

And, as for Queen Esther, Mordechai, and the Jews, whom Haman wanted to annihilate; to wipe off the face earth? Well, rather than being annihilated, they are given the king's permission to annihilate their enemies. And Mordechai is given Haman's place as Prime Minister.

"The Jews had light and gladness, and joy and honor." (Megillah, The Book of Esther, VIII, 16)

Throughout the entire Book of Esther, the name of G-d is never mentioned.

The Hebrew word that best describes Purim is venahafoch hu, meaning "flipped over story."

The things that look bad in the Purim story; that seemed to be happening by chance were, in fact, intricately planned by G-d for the Good. The lesson is that Nothing happens by accident. Nothing happens by chance.

G-d conceals His presence in the world, but we see G-d's actions in real life history.

G-d is the Hidden Master who puts everything into place.

Because everything is not what it seems.

It would appear, that in G-d's plans - it is all about the Jews.

Because, for better or for worse, the Purim story seems to be still happening today.

In the year 1991, Saddam Hussein, the evil dictator of Iraq, was utterly defeated in war by a United States led coalition, led by President George Bush.

Saddam Hussein periodically promised to wipe out Israel, both before and after the first Gulf War.

Iraq was the only country that invaded Israel in 1948 that never signed an armistice agreement in 1949. Iraq is the only other Middle Eastern country that did not border on Israel, which kept on attacking Israel with its armies along with Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt, the countries that did border on Israel.

During the first Gulf War, Saddam Hussein attacked Israel with 39 scud missiles for no other purpose than to murder Israelis; he wanted to annihilate the Jews.

Israel is the only nation in the modern history of the world to give absolutely no response after being viciously attacked by another nation.

The first Gulf War was the only occurrence in Israel's history where Israel did not retaliate against an enemy that attacked them; an enemy who had sworn to annihilate Israel.

And, this is the only instance in the history of the world where a stronger nation, Israel, was attacked by a weaker nation, Iraq, and the stronger nation did not defend itself or retaliate, even as the weaker nation was totally defeated.

In the year 1991, Saddam Hussein, the evil dictator of Iraq, was utterly defeated in the first Gulf War – on Purim.

His generals signed a treaty with the coalition force that defeated him, in a tent somewhere outside of the city of Basra in Iraq. According to the Jewish calendar, that day was the 14th of Adar, 5751 – Purim.

The area that encompasses part of modern day Iraq was formerly known as Babylon. Babylon was the kingdom that destroyed the First Temple; conquered Israel; and took the Jews back to their land as slaves. Persia in turn conquered Babylon.

It is that Persia where King Achashverosh ruled over the former Babylonian Jews at the time of the original Purim, 2,500 years ago.

According to the Book of Esther, from the beginning of King Achashverosh's reign to the time that that Haman's evil plans were overturned and Haman was destroyed was a period of twelve years.

Twelve years after President George Bush accepted Saddam Hussein's surrender in 1991, President George Bush announced the start of a new war against Saddam Hussein. He said "Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict, commenced at a time of our choosing."

President George Walker Bush declared war on Saddam Hussein in March of 2003, 12 years after his father, President George Herbert Walker Bush, made peace. He declared war on the 14th of Adar, 5763 - Purim.

The entire twelve years, from the time President George H.W. Bush signed a treaty on Purim with the evil dictator, Saddam Hussein, who wanted to annihilate the Jews, to the time his son, President George W. Bush, declared war on Purim with the evil dictator, Saddam Hussein, a new, "flipped over" story was created - a modern Purim story.

During those twelve years, this new Purim story said that Saddam Hussein was utterly defeated.

During those twelve years, this new Purim story said Saddam was a dangerous maniac.

During those twelve years, this new Purim story encouraged Iraqis to rebel and overthrow their dictator.

During those twelve years, this new Purim story let the defeated Saddam Hussein defeat his rebellious subjects.

During those twelve years, this new Purim story had the defeated, dangerous, peaceful, maniacal Saddam Hussein paying terrorists to try to annihilate Israel and attack the "victorious" United States.

During those twelve years, this new Purim story saw an "insignificant," "defeated" Saddam Hussein bribe the world into doing whatever he wished to do and become a major threat to world peace.

During those twelve years, this new Purim story saw Saddam Hussein grow and prosper as the evil dictator of Iraq while President George H.W. Bush was removed from office.

During those twelve years, this new Purim story saw the new President George W. Bush elected, ostensibly by "confused, elderly, Jewish voters" living in Florida.

On Purim, 2003, this new President George W. Bush proclaimed that the dictator of Iraq was not defeated. The United States declared war on the only country that ever attacked Israel where Israel did not retaliate.

Then, after twelve years of this new Purim story, Saddam Hussein and his evil sons were annihilated.

Just as after 12 years, in the Megillas Esther, the story of Purim, the Prime Minister of Persia, Haman, and his evil sons were annihilated.

There is even a strange twist in to the story that is independent of Purim, yet still relates to the Jews.

In Jewish synagogues throughout the world, a portion of the Torah is read each week. It is the same portion everywhere in the world and it is called the weekly parsha.

In December, 2003, Saddam Hussein, filthy and bedraggled, was pulled from a pit and captured. Thus ended the kingship of Saddam Hussein.

The Torah portion for that week was called Vayeishev. It told of the story of Joseph. On that week, the Torah told how Joseph was pulled from a pit and sold into slavery in Egypt. This was the beginning of his rise to power as Pharaoh's Prime Minister. Thus began the kingship of Joseph.

(And there is always more…. Saddam Hussein sometimes pretended to emulate the ancient kingdom of Babylon. He perhaps "playfully," perhaps seriously, believed that he was fulfilling the Babylonian role of King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of Nebuchadnezzar's reign:

"All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king said, 'Is this not magnificent Babylon, which I have built as a royal capital by my mighty power and for my glorious majesty?' While the words were still in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven: 'O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: The kingdom has departed from you! You shall be driven away from human society, and your dwelling shall be with the animals of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like oxen, and seven times shall pass over you, until you have learned that the Most High has sovereignty over the kingdom of mortals and gives it to whom he will.' Immediately the sentence was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven away from human society, ate grass like oxen, and his body was bathed with the dew of heaven, until his hair grew as long as eagles' feathers and his nails became like birds' claws." From the Book of Daniel: 4:28 - 4:33

And, of course, this was how Saddam was found as they pulled him from the pit.)

On the thirteenth year of the Purim story in the Book of Esther - the Megillah tells us that the Jewish holiday of Purim was established by the authority of Queen Esther and the new Prime Minister, Mordechai.

A decree of Law obligated the all Jews to remember this holiday forever.

"That is why they called these days 'Purim' from the word 'pur'. Therefore, because of all that was written in this letter, and because of what they had experienced, and what had happened to them, the Jews undertook and irrevocably obligated themselves and their descendants, and upon all who might join them, to observe these two days, without fail, in the manner prescribed, and at the proper time each year. Consequently, these days should be remembered and celebrated by every single generation, family, province, and city. And these days of Purim should never cease among the Jews, nor shall their remembrance perish from their descendants." (Megillah, the Book of Esther, IX, 26-28)

On the thirteenth year of this modern Purim story, the year 2004, the Iraqis did not sign a new, interim constitution.

They were supposed to sign on new constitution on Purim, but they put it off for one day. Grand Ayatollah Sistani, the leading Muslim Shia authority in Iraq, advised postponing the signing of this new Iraqi constitution for one day.

Iraq's new constitution; the first new decree, perhaps in Iraq's entire history, establishing justice and Laws was signed the following day. That date was the 15th of Adar, 5764, on the day the Jews call Shushan Purim.

"But the Jews in Shushan mustered on both the thirteenth and fourteenth days, and so rested on the fifteenth, and made it a day of feasting and merrymaking. That is why village Jews, who live in unwalled towns, observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and make it a day of merrymaking and feasting, and as a holiday and an occasion for sending gifts to one another." (Megillah, the Book of Esther, IX, 18)

The Jews that live in walled cities, such as Shusan, which, according to the Book of Esther, was the capitol of King Achashverosh during the time of the Megillah, celebrate Purim a day later. This day is called Shushan Purim.

Shushan was a walled city. In the Megillah, it was the capital of Persia.

Historians tell us that the capital of Persia at that time may have been a city called Ctesiphon. When the Arab dynasty of the Abbasids built Baghdad, it was on the site of an older walled city also called Baghdad, and they purposely used the ruined building materials from the nearby ancient walled city of Ctesiphon – which is Shushan, the capital of Persia in the story of Purim.

And, our Sages tell us that Baghdad is considered a "walled city" in regards to Jewish Law regarding walled cities.

The new, interim Iraqi constitution was signed in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, a walled city from the time of the Megillah, on Shusan Purim, the Purim of walled cities.

Purim is a time when the Name of G-d is hidden; when the Hand of G-d is not revealed.

Purim is a time where nothing is what it seems.

Purim is a time when, in reality, Everything is manipulated by G-d, for G-d's purposes.

It is a time when G-d reveals that He is the only one in control.

Our Sages tell us that, after the time of the Megillah, Achashverosh was no more and that a new king arose in Persia who looked favorably on the Jews.

This would have happened after the fourteenth year of the Purim story which, in this Modern Megillah, would have been the secular year 2006.

That year, Saddam Hussein, the Evil Dictator of modern Iraq, which was once a province of Persia, 2,500 years ago, was hanged on December 30th, 2006, which is the 9th of Teves, 5767 in the Jewish calendar.

This day is the day before Asara b'Teves, the 10th of Teves, a Fast day and day of mourning and repentance in the Jewish calendar.

On the tenth of Teves, Jews mourn and remember the day when the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, laid siege to Jerusalem on the 10th of Teves in the Hebrew calendar year 3336; 425 BCE.

Thirty months later, on the 9th of Tammuz, 3338 of the Jewish calendar, the city walls were breached by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar. And, on the 9th of Av, that same year, the Holy Temple of the Jews was destroyed. The Jewish people were then led away in captivity and exiled to Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom of Babylon for the next 70 years.

And, oddly enough, it is at this time, 70 years later, when the Megillah of Esther takes place – for Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom was then conquered by the Persians, who were the rulers at the time of Megillas Esther.

Saddam Hussein fancied himself a reincarnation of Nebuchadnezzar.

He believed that it was his destiny to destroy Israel and the Jews, and to rule the Middle East.

Saddam Hussein named the nuclear reactor that the Israeli's destroyed in 1981, "Tammuz," which is the month above when Nebuchadnezzar breached the walls of Jewish Jerusalem.

And, the first and only dictator in modern times to be tried, convicted and hanged, Saddam Hussein was hanged, like Haman and his ten sons; like the Nazi war criminals before him, on the day before his great role model, Nebuchadnezzar, was able to attack and therefore eventually destroy, the Jewish kingdom of Israel.

Another role model for the now defunct Saddam Hussein was Josef Stalin, the mad dictator of the Soviet Union. Hussein studied Stalin's works and history and believed that he could rule as Stalin did - with a bloody iron fist.

This dictator Josef Stalin was also a vicious anti-Semite.

In the Party Congress of October, 1952, he made it clear that he planned to "cleanse the party" of all those that he felt were disloyal. In November, high Kremlin officials and all of the doctors who served Stalin were arrested and forced to confess to a plethora of bizarre crimes. The majority of these doctors and officials were Jewish and it became clear that a massive anti-Jewish reign of terror was planned. Stalin even believed that Beria, the murderous thug who was the head his secret police, was Jewish, and Stalin planned to have him killed also.

However, four months later, on March 1st, 1953, Stalin suffered a stroke and died as a result, before he could institute his nefarious plans.

March 1st, 1953 was Adar 14, 5713, the Jewish holiday of Purim.

May the Blessings of Purim fall on all Free people and may these events foretell a speedy Redemption for all Jews, Now, and in Our Time.

A Freilichen Purim to all!

(Which simply means – Happy Purim! )

 

Anger

In this new writing venture of mine, I have also been publishing these thoughts on the Forums that I frequent. Therefore, people will comment and the discussions may continue on other tangents.

One forum poster posted a whole diatribe, ranting against the idea of religion and G-d and ending every sentence with a putdown such as "you smug ignoramus;" or "I have little patience with self infatuated twerps like you," (just to mention those that I feel comfortable publishing without being profane).

My response, like all of my writing, is not necessarily original to me. It is partially derived from Torah.org, where I know that I can Google a Torah idea and it will come up with a wonderful drasha.

 

 

At the end of Bereishis (Genesis), Yaakov; Israel, blesses his sons.  When he gets to Shimon and Levi, he says: 
Shimon and Levi are brothers -- instruments of violence are their weapons. My soul should not come into their secret meetings; my glory should not be united into their assembly, for in their anger they killed a man ... (Bereishis 49:5) 
 
Rashi, one of our great Commentators on the Torah, says that this means: " 'In their anger they killed a man'  - This refers to Chamor and the people of Shechem ..."  
 
Now, Shimon and Levi are two of the 12 Tribes of Israel.  They are considered "Great Men," as are all of the Children of Israel.  Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses, Our Teacher) and Aaron, his brother, are of the Tribe of Levi. 
Yet, on his deathbed, Yaakov curses their anger. He does not, G-d forbid, curse Shimon and Levi.  He curses their anger.   
There's nothing like a little anger to make one lose one's perspective.  And, in the case of Shimon and Levi, do what Yaakov decided not to do and take physical revenge for the violation of their sister, Dinah.

(When Israel settled in Shechem, Chamor, the son of the local Chieftan, raped Dinah, Yaakov's daughter. After pretending to accept the idea of Chamor marrying Dinah, Shimon and Levi killed all of the male inhabitants of Shechem.)   
 
There is a special prayer that anyone can say at the end of the Shemonah Esrei (the Silent Amidah or Prayer; The Eighteen Blessings): 
"It should be Your will, G-d, G-d of our Forefathers, that no person should be jealous of me, and that I should not be jealous of others; that I should not be angry today, nor anger You ..." 
 
The Torah tells us that Anger is one of the most negative traits a person can possibly have.
It is a blessing for someone to be good-natured and patient.  
We learn: 
"Someone who tears his clothing in anger, or breaks something in anger, or throws his money in anger, will be in Your eyes like one who worshipped idols, because that is the trade of the yetzer hara [evil urge] ..."(Talmud; Tractate Shabbos 105b) 
 
And, the question one could ask is: what does idol worship have have to do with anger? 
 
A person who is angry places himself at the Center of the Universe. 
A person who is angry rejects Hashgacha Protis - Divine Providence.   
Hashgacha Protis, is the idea that G-d is behind EVERYTHING. 
When there is an incident that drives us to anger, G-d is sending us a message. 
A person who denies this believes that he has been personally affronted by... whatever it is - even inanimate objects!

 

Think of this. We live in an upside down world where anger makes ordinary and, often good, decent, extraordinary people become enraged because they believe that either some random occurrence or deliberate provocation on the part of another person has violated their sense of Who They Are!

 

"Don't You Know Who I Am!!" is the cry of a person who puts him or herself at the Center of the Universe.

It is the cry of a person who, at least for a moment, refuses to believe that G-d runs the World; that G-d is constantly sending messages on how we are supposed to act; supposed to feel; and supposed to behave.

  
How often might someone tell an angry person to be calm; to relax; to not get so angry. 
And, that angry person says: "Don't tell me not to get angry!  I deserve to be angry!  Did you see what that *&%/#!_________(dog; car; person; flower; aardvark; cloud formation; color pattern...) DID TO ME?  I HAVE A RIGHT TO BE ANGRY!" 
("I have a Right to scream until my throat is sore; tense my muscles until they hurt; get a stomach ache; hit things and hurt myself; kick things and break my possessions.") 
 
Most ordinary individuals today, be they religious or not, would find the idea of genuine idol worship absurd. 
Yet, giving in to anger puts us, at best, on the same level as those who worship stones and mud and, at worse, on the same level as an animal; as the local raccoon. 
 
The Talmud also tells us that "anger leads to sin" (Berachos 29b); and that loshon hara (evil speech) is often spoken only out of anger. 
"Anger can lead to a loss of wisdom." (Pesachim 66b) 
"One who constantly gets angry and doesn't control his temper is like one who is not alive." (Pesachim 113b) 
 
Yaakov "blessed" Shimon and Levi by recalling their anger so many years after the incident of Shechem. 
Yaakov's words weren't simply a blessing, and a warning, to Shimon and Levi, but for all of us. 
 
Life is Beautiful All the Time.

Gut Voch

So, I had a beautiful daughter married to a beautiful young man. Where's the tzuris in that? Of course "Life is Beautiful All the Time."

My daughter started dating a few years ago. Now, Shidduchim are in the Hands of Hashem, but it is sometimes difficult to remember when it seems that "I;" personally "me," is the problem in my daughter finding her basheirt.

I am what is called a ger tzaddik – a righteous convert to Judaism. And, in the eyes of some of my fellow, very Orthodox, Jews from birth (frum from birth), this is a disability. Why marry one's son to the daughter of a convert when there are so many other FFB girls available?

There was one time when I had made plane reservations for my daughter to meet a boy from another city and, the family cancelled it after discovering that I was a ger. That was a bit of a low point and, I talked to my Rabbi – HaRav Moishe Tuvia Lieff. He made an interesting point.

 

Rabbi Akiva is one of, if not THE, Greatest Jewish Sages that ever lived. He had humble beginnings – he knew no Torah until he was 40 years old and, his father was a convert.

Rabbi Lieff pointed out to me that why should I feel badly that someone who would have rejected Rabbi Akiva as a son-in-law because his lineage was flawed also rejected my daughter because of her lineage? The question he asked is why would I ever want my daughter to consider marrying such a person?

In addition, any other time that a person might deliberately take the question of my daughter's lineage into consideration and thereby reject her, and me – that person would have been violating a stringent commandment that is mentioned in the Torah over and over and over again - the Commandment to love the Righteous Convert.

 

After that, whereas I was still anxious over the tzuris that my daughter had to go through (just the whole dating process itself – which is almost like a serious job evaluation for each party, repeated over and over and over again until one or the another decides not to hire…), I no longer felt personally affronted.

And, G-d did indeed find a basheirt for both my daughter and my new son. He put in front of my face proof of the idea of Zivug and Basheirt.

And, it is Good.

Shidduchim

Last week was the wedding of my only daughter and my new son.

It was a beautiful thing.

In the Talmud (Sotah 2a; Sanhedrin 22a), Rabbi Yochanan says, "V'koshe I'zovgon k'kriyas yam suf." The simple meaning of this phrase is that making Marriages is as difficult as the Miracle that Hashem performed when He Parted the Waters to finally free the Jews from the Land of Egypt and the clutches of Pharaoh.

In reality, the definition of "Nature" is Miracles that constantly repeat themselves day after day. When something totally extraordinary happens – once - we call it a Miracle. When it happens daily, we call it "Nature."

If a Heavenly Voice thundered out from Nowhere – "Such and Such is Destined to Marry So and So," the story would be all over the Internet in a day along with the Youtube video! Everyone would be discussing "how this was done;" whether it was real or not; etcetera. However, if "Heavenly Voices" started Proclaiming Marriages all the time, all over the world, people would soon become occupied with passing anti-Noise ordinances and suing G-d for interference in "Private affairs of the Heart."

The Torah teaches us that G-d, does indeed, find each and every one of us his or her Soul Mate.

In the case of my daughter, I witnessed this extraordinary process…

 

In the Torah, the Jewish people begin with Avraham Avinu – Abraham, Our Father.

The Story of the Jews begins with Abraham and Sarah and their marriage. It continues with the marriage of Isaac and Rebecca; then Jacob with Rachel and Leah; and then finally on to the 12 tribes – the Children of Israel.

From the very beginning, the Jewish story is focused on marriage and "Learning." "Learning" is learning what G-d asks us to do. And, G-d asks us to "Learn Torah."

"Lerning Torah is der bester zach!" - Learning Torah is the best thing to do.

 

In the beginning - Abraham and Sarah were married and, after years of aspiration, had children. In the beginning - G-d asked Abraham and Sarah to learn His Laws and to obey His Commandments.

The highest aspirations of Judaism focus on the marriages and learning of the Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs.

 

Get married. Have children. And learn Torah.

 

In Judaism, getting married means to find your soul mate. In Hebrew, this is called your basheirt, which literally means your "destiny."

It is the one whom G-d appointed to be your "zivug." Zivug literally means "mate," but it means mate in terms of a pair that are mated; that go together as One.

G-d has created a zivug for each and every person on Earth. And, according to the Torah, the unmarried man or woman is not fully complete.

Having children is G-d's Blessing to the Jewish People.

It is both a Commandment and a Blessing. We are commanded to be fruitful and multiply and have children who can be raised up to do G-d's Work on this Earth; to be Lights among the Nations.

And, the way we bring up our children is to steep them in learning Torah. G-d Commands us to learn His Torah that we might do His Will in all things.

These are the highest aspirations of the Jewish people. Get married. Have children. And, learn Torah.

These are the Jewish people.

 

. . . Rather, to my land and to my kindred shall you go and take a wife for my son, Yitzchak. (Bereishis 24:4; Genesis 24:4)

 

This marriage process is called Shidduchim. A shidduch is a match; a marriage negotiation; it is the process of finding the other person's zivug.

In the Talmud; Pesachim 88b, it says that the world was Created for the sake of propagation. Isaiah 45:18, says "He did not Create it to be a Void; instead, He Formed it to be inhabited."

G-d's Plan for the world was that people should beget children.

This explains that the main reason for a man and woman to marry each other is not only for companionship and pleasure - but to have children.

 

Of course, in This World that G-d has Created, there are many, many distractions that keep us from fulfilling G-d's Holy Purposes of Marriage; of finding one's basheirt. Not the least being the many differences between Men and Woman and their individual needs and desires.

 

Hence, we engage in the process of shidduchim.

This is simply… no, check that. It is never simple… This is the process of making a pre-arranged date between two people where the shadchan, the matchmaker, has the best interests of each of the individuals at heart.

However, as we learn in the Torah, the true Shadchan, the true Matchmaker, is always Hashem; G-d, Himself. The shadchanim that bring young couples together are merely instruments in G-d's Plan for these two individuals.

More to follow… Life is Beautiful All the Time.

It’s Adar. Be Happy!

MisheNichnas Adar marbim b'simcha…. "When Adar arrives we increase our joy."

I have been remiss in failing to share Life is Beautiful All the Time with those of us who may, from time to time, not see it that way.

In beginning this new writing venture, I shall quote my Rabbi, Yechezkel Greenberg, in an article he wrote regarding Purim Katan last month, as it also fits this subject.

"There is a verse in Mishlei 15:15 that says: V'tove Lev Mishteh Tamid," meaning that one who is good hearted and content is always festive… Everything that happens to us, is really for the good, even if it doesn't appear that way! The objective that we strive for, though, as explained in the Gemara (Berachos 60b), Is to reach a level of awareness that all that happens is really for the best, even if we don't immediately understand why. This is the "Lev Tov" referred to in Mishlei, and since he understands that all is good, he can constantly be in a festive mood….

"The Mitzvah to be glad in one's heart applies to both Adar I and Adar II. Both Adars are also a time for the destruction of Amalek. The Zohar says this refers to the eradication of the evil inclination, the perfection of one's heart until only the good inclination remains, which is what the "Lev Tov" (in the singular) verse in the Mishlei refers to. When one reaches that stage, he recognizes how all that happens is really good and he can truly rejoice over Hashem's salvation."

This is the whole essence of Life is Beautiful all the Time. Which, as those who know me know – is something I say a lot.

People ask me "How are you," as people are wont to do and, I reply "Baruch Hashem (Thank G-d), Life is beautiful all the time."

Now, after 10 or 15 years, this can become a tad annoying to those people whom you see every day, especially when things might not be going so well. But, I figure if I can just keep it up, every 100^th time or so, I will actually believe what I am saying and remember the truths I     quote above regarding a "Lev Tov."

I began this blog long, long ago (in Internet Time) at Purim when I wrote my explanation of the significance of Purim and the conquest of Iraq. I have revised this story several times since then, always at Purim and, G-d willing, I shall do so again this year.

Today's post is simpler – It's Adar. Be happy.

 

 

 

    

An End to Israel’s Invisibility

The New York Times October 13, 2010 An End to Israel's Invisibility By MICHAEL B. OREN NEARLY 63 years after the United Nations recognized the right of the Jewish people to independence in their homeland — and more than 62 years since Israel's creation — the Palestinians are still denying the Jewish nature of the state. "Israel can name itself whatever it wants," said the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, while, according to the newspaper Haaretz, his chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said that the Palestinian Authority will never recognize Israel as the Jewish state. Back in 1948, opposition to the legitimacy of a Jewish state ignited a war. Today it threatens peace. Mr. Abbas and Mr. Erekat were responding to the call by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, enabling his government to consider extending the moratorium on West Bank construction. "Such a step by the Palestinian Authority would be a confidence-building measure," Mr. Netanyahu explained, noting that Israel was not demanding recognition as a prerequisite for direct talks. It would "open a new horizon of hope as well as trust among broad parts of the Israeli public." Why should it matter whether the Palestinians or any other people recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people? Indeed, Israel never sought similar acknowledgment in its peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. Some analysts have suggested that Mr. Netanyahu is merely making a tactical demand that will block any chance for the peace they claim he does not really want. Affirmation of Israel's Jewishness, however, is the very foundation of peace, its DNA. Just as Israel recognizes the existence of a Palestinian people with an inalienable right to self-determination in its homeland, so, too, must the Palestinians accede to the Jewish people's 3,000-year connection to our homeland and our right to sovereignty there. This mutual acceptance is essential if both peoples are to live side by side in two states in genuine and lasting peace. So why won't the Palestinians reciprocate? After all, the Jewish right to statehood is a tenet of international law. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 called for the creation of "a national home for the Jewish people" in the land then known as Palestine and, in 1922, the League of Nations cited the "historical connection of the Jewish people" to that country as "the grounds for reconstituting their national home." In 1947, the United Nations authorized the establishment of "an independent Jewish state," and recently, while addressing the General Assembly, President Obama proclaimed Israel as "the historic homeland of the Jewish people." Why, then, can't the Palestinians simply say "Israel is the Jewish state"? The reason, perhaps, is that so much of Palestinian identity as a people has coalesced around denying that same status to Jews. "I will not allow it to be written of me that I have ... confirmed the existence of the so-called Temple beneath the Mount," Yasir Arafat told President Bill Clinton in 2000. For Palestinians, recognizing Israel as a Jewish state also means accepting that the millions of them residing in Arab countries would be resettled within a future Palestinian state and not within Israel, which their numbers would transform into a Palestinian state in all but name. Reconciling with the Jewish state means that the two-state solution is not a two-stage solution leading, as many Palestinians hope, to Israel's dissolution. Which is precisely why Israelis seek the basic reassurance that the Palestinian Authority is ready to accept our state — to accept us. Israelis need to know that further concessions would not render us more vulnerable to terrorism and susceptible to unending demands. Though recognition of Israel as the Jewish state would not shield us from further assaults or pressure, it would prove that the Palestinians are serious about peace. The core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been the refusal to recognize Jews as a people, indigenous to the region and endowed with the right to self-government. Criticism of Israeli policies often serves to obscure this fact, and peace continues to elude us. By urging the Palestinians to recognize us as their permanent and legitimate neighbors, Prime Minister Netanyahu is pointing the way out of the current impasse: he is identifying the only path to co-existence. Michael B. Oren is Israel's ambassador to the United States.

"Just as Israel recognizes the existence of a Palestinian people with an inalienable right to self-determination in its homeland..."

It is disturbing that Mr. Oren can so succinctly state one half of a problem that Israel has in dealing with the Arabs and yet blithely assert the other half of the problem as a "fait accompli."
I would posit the possibility that the Arabs will never recognize Israel as a Jewish State precisely because Israel has established these same Arabs as a "Palestinian people."

The "Palestinian people" is a fiction - an invention of "realpolitik."
This "people" was, as Mr. Oren so aptly points out, invented for the direct purpose, "as many Palestinians hope, to [cause] Israel's dissolution."
This is the only reason the "Palestinian people" exist.
This is self evident as can be seen by the wavering attitude that both Israel and much of the rest of the world have adopted towards Gaza now that they are called "Hamas" (Which, ironically, means "Violence" in Hebrew). There is a subtle shift in sympathies to the Fatach Arab division in Judea and Samaria as now being the legitimate representatives of the "Palestinian people."

Mr. Oren paints a sick double negative where a fictional "State of Palestine" (focused on Death and denial) exists and the very real, and very much alive, State of Israel, does not.

Is Jew Hatred on the Rise?

Someone asked:

I am a Christian. I am alarmed by the anti-Semitism we are seeing worldwide. I do wonder:

1. Is Jew-hatred on the rise?
2. Is Jew-hatred the same as it has always been, but is now bolder?
3. Or, am I simply more aware of it because I have better access to the truth, as provided by this and other websites?

 

It is my humble opinion, that all are correct, but mainly it is number three – awareness.

 

There was a brief period of time when Israel was looked upon as a beleaguered nation and Jews in the USA and elsewhere had a sense of belonging to something bigger than just their own individual countries and concerns.

Then, in 1967, Israel definitively defeated its enemies.

History was astounded.

Jews were not "supposed" to win. The wars in 1948 and 1956 were "anomalies." Luck. The UN. The Cold War. Stupid Arabs. Any excuse other than the fact that the Jews won.

There was no escaping the overwhelming Israeli victory in 1967.

And... That was unforgivable. There has been a zeitgeist for over 2,000 years that Jews were weak and malleable while, at the same time, Jews were an "evil," despised race of people. This was The Cultural Paradigm of the Western and Arab Worlds

If Jews are now, in reality, strong and powerful, then 2,000 years worth of History was wrong.

This apparent dichotomy has made the World's... "heads explode."

 

And, at the same time all this was happening, many Jews began to give up identifying with the religion of Judaism and began identifying with a new religion of Liberalism and Leftism.

Their "Mother the Earth" replaced G-d, their Father.

Just as the Haskalah (Reform movement in Judaism) did three centuries ago, many Jews in the world have now begun to wholeheartedly support those that have always hated them the worst and are trying to become One with the Arabs and the Leftists.

And, just as it happened in Germany and Europe when Jews began to try and assimilate into those cultures, this has further enraged the Jew hating Left; the Arabs; and the Islamists...

 

So, in other words - no, this is nothing new. There was a brief period, after the Holocaust, when it was considered impolite and impolitic to discuss obliterating Israel and the Jews in the Western World.

With the above, and the rise of the Islamists, that brief hiatus has been over for quite some time.

 

Counting Coup

(Throughout history, warriors have proven their bravery in battle by placing themselves at a disadvantage when fighting their enemy.

They would fight in battle unarmed or engage in single combat with their enemy's mightiest warrior.

This type of action to win prestige in battle became known as "counting coup" when it was practiced by the Plains Indians of North America.

Indian warriors proved their bravery by going unarmed into battle and touching an enemy warrior with a coup stick. If they escaped unharmed, they would record their bravery by notching their coup stick. The risk of injury or death was always required to count coup.)

 

The Muslim and Arab world has been undergoing a Great Arab and Muslim Sectarian Civil War for the last one hundred years.

This War was made manifest with the final Jihad of the Tribe of Saud as they burst forth from the moribund Ottoman Empire and successfully destroyed or dominated all of the other tribes and cities of the Arabian Peninsula, conquering Mecca and Medina, and thereby establishing their heretic Islamist cult of Wahhabism as the new official religion of Sunni Islam.

This began a world war as each Arab tribe; each nascent Islamic State; each Muslim religious sect; and each secular dictator and warlord, strove to dominate their rivals in increasingly violent military actions; revolutions; terrorist attacks; assassinations; and brutal repressions throughout the Arab and Muslim world.

Still, the world has barely noticed, that over the last one hundred years, hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Arabs have died at the hands of other Muslims and Arabs.

These death cult Islamists and Arabists have not been killing Westerners or Christians or Hindus or even Jews - they have been slaughtering each other in an increasingly horrific competition of inhuman massacres that grow with each passing year.

Israel, America, India, and "the West," are all only notches on the coup sticks of these Death Cultists. It is the group that can cause the most damage to some non-Muslim entity that gets points in this Dominance Game of Death.

The recent Flotilla controversy regarding Israel is simply the official notice that the Islamist government of Turkey has established itself as a Player in this Game of World Dominance.

Turkey has counted coup on Israel. And, not incidentally, Turkey has counted coup on one of its rivals, "secular" Arabist Egypt, which is Israel's partner in the blockade of Gaza.

Turkey has received major dominance points amongst the Islamists and death cultists by actually attacking Israel and having the Useful Idiots of the world, from the UN to the governments of Europe, curse Israel for defending itself against this Turkish attack.

Turkey's coup stick is well notched and be-feathered today.

It was such a major victory for Turkey that Saudi Arabia was forced to reveal their plans regarding how they are going to allow Israel to fly through their airspace "when" Israel attacks Iran. In doing so, Saudi Arabia has counted coup on both the Turkish and Iranian ambitions for Islamist dominance and… has once more counted coup on Israel, the most Prestigious Enemy, by implying that they are "bending" this hated Enemy to the Saudi Arabian Will.

The terror attacks all over the world - the mass murders of Muslims in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq; the brutal repressions of Muslims in Iran, Syria, Turkey, Egypt and all of North Africa; and the exportation of terrorist thugs by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and Indonesia will never stop until the world recognizes these attacks for what they are – a deadly and merciless game where each faction is striving to crush all of its opponents and establish a new Totalitarian Caliphate to rule the world.

 

Tears came to my eyes - not
when the kid first came on the scene, but when it switched to the obviously secular Israelis who were there also...

In the original Texas Rangers television show, the opening sequence starts out with one Texas Ranger and the theme song. He starts walking and another ranger joins him, then another, then another until there is a whole crowd, walking proud and tall -

"They're Ranger's sworn to duty

Their work is never through

They fight and fight for justice

To enforce the law for you."

I am a 13th generation American. Even when I was a stupid long haired doped out hippie freak, I still loved this country.

Our President has now twice cursed the Jews. If he goes for the hat trick, I am seriously, not rhetorically, considering making aliyah - moving to Israel.

I fear for America.

The difference between "them" and "us" is broadcast on this video.

The young man and the other Israelis are simply standing up voicing their, often inarticulate, sometimes fumbling, not very eloquent, Love of Israel.

Those who oppose them are vociferously and often articulately voicing their Hate.

Israel and those that support Israel voice their Love of Israel in defending Israel.

The world and their Flotilla of Hate are voicing their Hatreds in attacking Israel.

The Word is Spreading
Go Thou, You and do Likewise!

Islam is Not Evil

I keep on repeating a theme of mine every time I discuss Islam and Israel and the "War on Terror," and I realized that it is time to try and state my case and request feedback.

However, unfortunately, having tried to write this out over the last several years, I find that my arguments make more sense to me "in response" to someone else's assertions than just boldly stating what I have learned from my years of research.

Therefore, I am using some statements or questions that were asked in order to try and get my points across.

I would dearly love those who see the seriousness of the Islamist threat, to study more on the history of Islam and understand the changes in the philosophy today that make it appear that Islam has ONLY, ALWAYS, been about violent, murderous jihad, are simply new interpretations of Islam which have been invented to serve the self-aggrandizing ambitions of their inventors and proponents.

This belief, that the current Jihaddi death cult interpretation of Islam is the only Islam possible and which has always existed, is incorrect.

A statement was made:

…virtually all clerics never deviate one iota from the Islamic narrative and the putative text and tenants of Islam, and in that regard they are representative of not only just Iran, but indeed the entirety of the international Islamic ummah.

This is untrue.

The Islamic Arab world is undergoing a great Sectarian Civil War right now and has been doing so for over 100 years.

Modern Islamic "scholars;" imams; sheikhs; clerics; emirs; mujtahids; qadis; muftis; hakims; and all the other miscellany of decision makers in the mythical unity of dar al-Islam, agree on NOTHING!

They have been murdering each other and fighting to become the dominant force in Islam in order to re-establish their mythical Salafist Caliphate for over 100 years!

The "war against the West;" Israel; the United States and the rest of the world - dar al-harb, is a pimple on the butt of their fratricidal internecine war against each other. And, if the rest of the world doesn't wake up and face this fact that Islamists and Arabists are hell bent on destroying each other, this war will indeed kill off several more billion people on this planet and leave large portions of the Earth scorched and uninhabitable.

Another statement:

For instance, what is good in their world is what is good for Islam and what is bad is whatever is bad for Islam. Thus, if killing you is good for Islam, you can kiss your ass good-bye. Indeed, the good Muslims are the ones that die martyrs fighting in the cause of Allah, and the bad Muslims are secular Muslims or Muslim In Name Only Muslims, which in the Dar al Islam are far and few between.

This belief is buying, lock, stock and barrel, the drivel that Islamist Jihaddi nutbar death cultist mufsidun sell as: "Islam - As It Was and Ever Shall Be."

The current Death Cult credo is an interpretation of Islam that has no basis in the 1,400 year history of Islam.

It is the same as claiming that the Death Cultists who destroyed Europe and wiped out nearly 100 million European Christians during the "Christian Reformation" preached the one and only "Christianity - As It Was and Ever Shall Be."

Or the Death Cultist Jews who ended up having the entire Nation of Israel obliterated by the Romans preached the one and only "Judaism - As It Was and Ever Shall Be."

People have got to stop drinking this Islamist Koolaid.

Because- if those who are willing to fight this Islamist and Arabist Evil continue to insist that today's Cultist Crap that all of these different sects propound is the ONLY Islam - And thereby include the 90% of Arabs and Muslims who could care less; or are illiterates who believe anything they taught; or those who are just trying to remain invisible so that some crazy death cultist doesn't cut their head off; or who can only feed, clothe and educate their children by sending them off to some Islamist madrassa; or the whole host of other issues that keep 90% of humanity from doing anything about anything, Ever! - then you will indeed continue to strengthen the Crazies by insisting that ALL Muslims are Evil and Crazy.

That is both stupid and untrue.

And, lastly, the "laundry list" question:

Do they disagree on the holy obligation placed upon all Muslims to fight jihad for the establishment of Islam throughout the world via the imposition of Sharia? Do all devout Muslims disagree that Muslims who leave Islam must be killed? How about the death penalty for blasphemy or for those Muslims and non-Muslims that intentionally or unintentionally defame the prophet, Muhammad?

While there might be some disagreements between different sects, like those between the Sunni and the Shi'a, that has to do with the inheritance of the Caliphate, with respect to the obligation for all Muslims to fight jihad for the establishment of Islam throughout the world, I'm afraid there is no differences whatsoever, as all the Islamic Schools of Jurisprudence, that govern over all the various sects of Islam, not only teach it but advocate it as well.

Additionally, like I said, with respect to the texts of Islam, the holy Koran, the Hadith, and The Sira (biography of Muhammad), altogether known as the Sunnah of Islam, which means the examples and traditions of Muhammad, all Muslims never deviate lest they be charged with blasphemy and suffer execution, as the holy Koran contains the uncreated words of Allah as delivered by Muhammad, Allah's final messenger, whose words supersede and replace all those prophets before him and whose words can't ever be changed, because Muhammad was the final prophet.

Thus, since the words contained in the holy Koran are believed to be divine, that is emanating directly from God and because Muhammad was Allah's final prophet, the words contained in the holy Koran are immutable, that is they can never be changed, and applicable for all time.

Furthermore, in stark contrast to the way the Christian bible is interpreted by most Christians, the holy Koran is only interpreted in its most literal sense, as all devout Muslims are inculcated to believe that it contains the uncreated words of Allah as delivered by Muhammad. Further, all Muslims are inculcated to emulate Muhammad, the uswa hasana – the excellent example for emulation, since he is revered as the most perfect Muslim that ever lived.

 

I included this rather lengthy quote because it sounds so plausible - it's what everyone knows about Islam, right?

I mean, from one point of view, why would any Muslim want to disagree with the above, right?

However, the answer to all of these particular questions is NO, not all Muslims agree on the above.

Most of the world, including Muslims and Arabs, has bought into the four or five endlessly repeated quotes from the Koran having to do with Death and Violence. Everyone just loves the Verse of the Sword from the Koran:

"Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush."

Oops - but the Jihaddi death cultists and the anti-Muslim crowd always seem to forget to include the next sentence:

"But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful."

The point being that Islam has interpreted its own sacred texts for over 1,000 years as having more to do with peace, prosperity, and striving for goodness than in murdering the "non-believer."

And, today's Islamist Death Cultists classify the "non-believers" primarily as other Muslims who don't believe in their particular Islamist cult.

The Death Cult of Shia Wilayat al Fiqh in Iran believes that Muslims and non-Muslims who do not believe in their dream of a global totalitarian state are deserving of Death.

Most Iranians do not.

The Sunni Wahhabist Death Cult of Saudi Arabia and all of its attendant children such as the Muslim Brotherhood; and Hamas; and Al Qaeda; and the Taliban; and other offshoots too numerous (and confusing) to mention, all believe that Muslims and non-Muslims who do not believe in their dream of a global totalitarian state are deserving of Death.

The corrupt ruling House of Saud; the rulers of Egypt; the average secular Arab in Gaza; the Pashtun tribesman in Afghanistan or Pakistan, do not.

All of these disparate elements and more are murdering - primarily each other - to "win the hearts and minds" of the masses of ordinary Arabs and Muslims in a War of Dominance.

Modern day Islamic "Jihad" is a blasphemy in Islam that Islamist and Arabist death cultists have foisted on the entire world where the entire planet now believes in their madness.

And, if we continue to believe in these blaspheming Mufsidun, then the world is in for more and more serious hurt.

President Obama as a Blessing

    My friend, who davens (prays) next to me in shul, was listening to a Preacher on the radio as he drove to the synagogue Sunday morning for shacharis (morning prayers).

    He told me that the Preacher was talking about signs and wonders that G-d is showing us, specifically some of the things that I have mentioned in my seldom written blog. Specifically, that after 9/11, on September 17th, 2001, the day before Rosh Hoshana, the Jewish New Year, the Dow Jones went down 684.8 points, which was the largest single day decline, up until that point, in the history of the stock market. Then, seven years later, in 2008, due to the "financial crisis," the Dow Jones plummeted 777.7 points, again the largest point drop in history. Ten days later, on Yom Kippur, the Dow Jones declined 678.9, the third largest point drop in history.

The point of his sermon was that G-d sends us warnings that are connected to the religion of Judaism because G-d wants us to understand that these are spiritual events and to "wake up" and turn to Him.

This Preacher then went on to say - now G-d has sent us President Obama…

In our Torah, we learn that G-d chooses Kings and controls the hearts of Kings. Our rabbis tell us that the President of the United States, the most powerful country in the history of the world, qualifies as a "Melech," a King in this respect.

In 2000, I asked myself the question – "Why would G-d choose George W. Bush to be President?" Because, that it certainly looked like President Bush was "Chosen" in that election, more so than almost any other Presidential election in the history of this country.

Then, of course, on 9/11 and in the following seven years, my question was answered. G-d apparently chose President Bush because He cares about both the United States and Israel.

Now, I have been asking myself – "Then Why in the Heck would G-d choose President Obama?" I mean, c'mon – really! He looks to be a disaster for both the United States and Israel.

Last week's parshas (the weekly readings in the Torah) were Tzaria and Metzora. These two parshas have to do with a kind of spiritual leprosy. The simple explanation is that if we do something bad, particularly the sin of gossiping or speaking badly about other people, then G-d will cause a physical discoloration to appear for which we then have to purify ourselves and rid ourselves of our "evil ways" in order to be cured.

The interesting thing about Tzaraas, this physical discoloration, is that it actually considered a "blessing" from G-d to catch it. It was G-d's way of notifying the Jews that they were doing something wrong and that they needed to stop doing this bad thing. If a person was beyond redemption, then they wouldn't need to get Tzaraas. However, if a person caught this spiritual disease, then he had a chance to make things right – to repent, redeem himself and be cured.

No – I am not comparing President Obama to the physical signs of leprosy. However, in light of last week's parsha, and the radio Preacher's emphasis on signs and wonders that are connected to Judaism and his remarks that President Obama was one of these "warning signs" that we need to repent and turn back towards G-d, it occurs to me that my question of "Why Obama," is answered.

President Obama is a Blessing from G-d. It is a wonderful idea.

For those that love his politics and all of the ways the President is trying to "Change" America, for them, he truly is a blessing.

For those of us who are leery of his politics and are horrified by the "Changes" he is bringing to America, he is also a blessing. He is the wakeup call from G-d that we need to stop this endless evil talk and instead, repent and do good. Obama is the catalyst for those that oppose his politics and beliefs to overcome their own petty needs and turn America back to a Goodly Path. President Obama wants to be "tough" with Israel – then America needs to be friends with Israel. President Obama wants to be "friends" with Iran – then America needs to be tough with Iran. President Obama wants to spend trillions we don't have – then, for the absolute First Time in American History, America needs to save the trillions that we don't have.

President Obama should be a wakeup call to all Americans that we need to be serious; respectful; prudent; responsible; and, as radio talk show host Dennis Prager would say – embody those American values found on every American coin :

E Plurbus Unum

Liberty

And, In G-d We Trust.

Barack Hussein Obama Is Toast

This is the Season of our Deliverance From Egypt. We celebrate Pesach; the Passover, with recounting the trials and tribulations of the Jews over the generations and our great Deliverance from those that wish to destroy us.

"For not just one alone has risen against us to destroy us, but in every generation they rise against us to destroy us; and the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hand!" - Passover Haggadah

Barack Hussein Obama was a member of Jeremiah Wright's anti-American, Jew-hating church for over twenty years and he publicly acclaimed that Jeremiah Wright was his "spiritual mentor." He then denied that, in those twenty years, he ever heard any of the racist, anti-Semitic hate speech which Wright preached during his sermons.

Barack Hussein Obama has then proceeded to lecture the American people about race; religion; and how the United States of America needs to become like "the rest of the world…"

And finally, Barack Hussein Obama had his administration, both publicly and privately, in person and by delegation, excoriate and curse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because Israel is somewhere in an endless bureaucratic process of trying to build homes for Jews in Jerusalem. He continues to publicly curse Israel to this day for building homes for Jews in Jerusalem.

"I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
- Genesis 12:3
"May peoples serve you, And nations bow down to you; Be master of your brothers, And may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you, And blessed be those who bless you."
- Genesis 27:29
"He crouches, he lies down as a lion, And as a lion, who dares rouse him? Blessed is everyone who blesses you, And cursed is everyone who curses you."
- Numbers 24:9

 
The State of Israel is a secular, mostly irreligious, country.
This creates a complex problem for Jews.  
G-d informs Jews that we are to live and prosper in the Land of Israel.
However, He also informs us that if we do not obey His Commandments, He will drive us out of The Land and we will NOT prosper in His Land of Israel.
A State of Israel that does not recognize G-d's sovereignty over the Land of Israel is a conundrum.
G-d does not necessarily bless the State of Israel if its Jews are not following His Commandments.
 
However, building homes for Jews in Jerusalem, G-d's Holy City, in the Land of Israel falls, indisputably, within the realm of what the government of the State of Israel ought to be doing.
 
And, the Torah, along with History, declares that when a Leader, Jew or non-Jew, publicly excoriates and curses the Jews for doing what G-d wants them to do, then that Leader will himself be cursed.
 
In my humble opinion, the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has put himself in the rather precarious position of publicly denouncing G-d and cursing G-d's Commandments.

    This would seem to indicate that Barack Hussein Obama is Toast.