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| Khameni: "Israel must be annihilated" |
It happened so suddenly. That is what Rav Yoshe Ber Soloveitchik
points out in his interpretation of one of the Kinos Tisha B’Av that we said this
morning. (Commentary to Kina 6 in the Kinos Mesores HaRav).
He was talking about the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash.
Sometimes a tragedy is expected
intuitively and when it happens the shock is somewhat buffered by the
expectation of it. But in the case of the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash no
one really expected it to happen. People were going about their business as
usual. The Kohanim in the Beis HaMikdash were doing their daily Avodah –
offering sacrifices to God.
Even the prophet Jeremiah (Yirmiyahu) to whom God revealed
that the Beis HaMikdash would be destroyed was shocked by it when it happened
so suddenly. Yirmiyahu was told by God
to leave Jerusalem to go buy a field from his uncle (32:6-17). When he left he
expected to return to a city intact with the Bies HaMikdash still running full
steam. That is what he saw when he left. When he returned, the Beis Hamikdash
was gone.
This is what the word Shovas – ceased - in that Kina means
to tell us. Shovas Suru Mani. Our joy ceased. That the word Shovas means a
sudden ceasing is indicated by how it is used in another context. U’VaYom
HaShiviyi Shovas VaYenofash - On the
seventh day He ceased from work and rested (Shemos 31;17). Chazal tell us that
God worked up until the very last second of the sixth day creating the world. An in
that very same second (the latter half of it) he came to a sudden full stop. From there we see that the word Shovas means
suddenly ceasing. The Beis HaMikdash suddenly ceased to exist. When tragedy
happens suddenly the impact and shock is far greater. It is emotionally and psychologically
much greater. That is how it was for our ancestors in the Temple era.
I am reminded of the Holocaust. No one there expected what
eventually happened. There was disbelief even as people who witnessed the horrors
came back to their families to report it. Can’t be! Life went on until they
were all rounded up and eventually sent to the gas chambers. Those few who had the prescience to see what was
coming, and got out of Europe lived to see the end of Nazi Germany.They lived
to see their children and grandchildren live and prosper.
Most Jews in Germany during the 30s just didn’t believe
their beloved Germany would do this to them. Jews were after all loyal and productive
citizens, many of whom fought gallantly for Germany in the first world war. No way could a little antisemitic
rhetoric by a German leader be anything more than that. Rhetoric.
Well we all know what happened. Another Churban happened. A Churban better known as the
Holocaust. The shock must have been immense to those whose lives one day was as
normal as could be – and the next day they were rounded up and sent to Ghettos eventually
to be killed.
Is history repeating itself? Are we not seeing the signals
being sent from Iran? The antisemitic rhetoric coming out of Iran’s Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khameni, in Iran is no less frightening that the anti-Semitic rhetoric
coming out of Nazi Germany’s supreme leader in the 30s. Hitler killed 6 million Jews. There are 6
million Jews in Israel.
People who are living the good life here in America seem to
just be writing Khameni’s rhetoric off as – rhetoric. Just as American Jews in
the 30s felt about the Hitler‘s rhetoric. Even German Jews living in Germany
felt that way.
Will we not learn anything from history? If the leader of a powerful
nation says he wants to wipe Israel off the map, should we not believe him?
Should we not believe that given the means and the opportunity, Iran will do exactly
that? And isn’t this nuclear deal increasing Iran’s
ability to do it? Do we really think that giving Iran what it wants will bring them
into the family of peaceful nations… that Iran will stop seeing the US as the Great
Satan and Israel as the Little Satan?
I don’t think you have to be a rocket scientist to be figure
out that Iran will carry out it’s threat when they think they are capable of
doing so. A capability they may have in very short order once they are able to
buy and develop the most sophisticated weaponry available on earth. This deal guarantees them that. What do you
suppose they will use those weapons for?
I am not saying it is 1939 all over again. Conditions today are entirely
different than they were then. Jews are not being rounded up and placed in
Ghettos by anti-Semitic governments. We have a strong Israel now. And a US
government that has guaranteed that it has Israel’s back. Governments of the
world are combating antisemitism instead of fomenting it. So, no – it isn’t 1939 all over again. Not even
close. But that doesn’t mean we ignore the clear threat of an Iran that in the
not too distant future will be well equipped to destroy Israel. If not
directly, then by proxy (Hezbollah and Hamas).
I don’t know that we can change the inevitable. This deal,
bad as it is, will probably go through. But we should at least recognize just
how bad it is. It is a deal that should have never been made. Not until Iran
was more desperate than it is now. A
deal that was made with an Iran knowing that all options were NOT really on
the table. They knew that this President would never go to war. That made it
too easy for Iran to get exactly what they wanted – giving up little in
exchange.
We should be aware of the dangers of a hostile country in Israel’s
neighborhood - a country bent on its destruction now getting the money and the means to do
it. We cannot afford to be complacent. I
don’t want to see Jerusalem destroyed yet again! God forbid. And it could happen suddenly.
