Yet, sometimes in order to move forward, one needs to take a few steps back. Turn it and turn it again, for all the answers are found within.

     Buried within our beloved Torah is a strange and special mitswah, the mitswah of marrying one's divorced wife. One might argue that the mitswah is simply there for technical reasons, to teach us that even if one has divorced his wife, he is permitted to remarry her as long as she hasn't married anyone in the mean time. Yet, it seems to me that there might be a profound message hidden deep within this law.

     Sometimes reconciliation, based on renewed appreciation, can only come from a perspective of distance. Sometimes, unity can only be forged after a separation. This, in fact, might also be the message of Adam HaRishon (the first man), whom our tradition teaches contained, in fact, both male and female aspects until HaShem "split them" and then reunited them in marriage. >>Read more

They've Done It Again! / Rabbi Dov Abraham Ben-Shorr
     Leave it to the Yesha Council. Only they could take the collective strength, initiative and power of the entire settler movement and diffuse it, gently destroying. Not unlike their statements of promise, it becomes little more than hot air dissipating into the atmosphere.
     I am not a big fan of "conspiracy theories." When I read about these world-wide collaborations, I immediately become suspicious of their conclusions. Albeit oftentimes the facts and insights they bring into the mechanisms of a particular event seem most perceptive and accurate, I am stricken with a healthy dose of skepticism every time they try and link these individual acts to some larger, world-wide conspiracy of evil. I have often found that, on the whole, evil is far more benign and petty, and far too self-centered to consolidate into far-reaching coordination of world events.
     Yet, clearly with the Yesha Council, something is amiss, particularly in the current struggle with the government over "Disengagement." If they aren't directly working for the government of Israel, if they aren't on its payroll, then they ought to be. >>Read more

Paradigm Shift - Part I / Rabbi Dov Abraham Ben-Shorr
      I stand aghast, amazed. I rub my eyes in wonder. Maybe it's me. Maybe I've lost my mind. Throughout my life, I've accepted the fact that most people would rather not think about what's going on around them. The daily grind, combined with a dose of cynical, "what can I do" has reduced most citizenry to complacent apathy. Yet, I would assume that at some point, the threshold of the absurd would reach such a level, that it would demand a response.
      Yet, we've gone beyond what has become the normal absurdity of civil affairs, and yet, most, even those most directly effected, have taken their cognitive dissonance and manage to stay firmly rooted in the most contradictory of beliefs. And most people think that walking and chewing gum is a difficult feat. >>Read more

The Bully and the Nerd- A Tale of Two Camps / Rabbi Dov Abraham Ben-Shorr
The State of Israel is facing one of its most critical crises since its inception, and the Nation of Israel is facing one of its most dangerous challenges to its identity as a nation its connection as a nation to HaShem and their covenant with him. As the two sides of this "debate" position themselves, we witness a very interesting dynamic.
Let me see if I got this straight:

One side has disenfranchised the entire heroic settler community, besmirched them in the media (with plenty of cooperation from that "unbiased" pillar of free speech itself), silenced them, marginalized them, and delegitimized them.

While the other side has conducted several very nice, calm, civilized demonstrations out of view from most of the country, out back behind the Knesset, regularly issuing apologies for any traffic jams or other inconveniences they might have caused.

>>Read more

The Emperor Has No Clothes / Dov Abraham Ben-Shorr

     I once knew a couple whose married life wasn't working out. Usually when there are marital problems, both parties share some blame, and I'm sure this was no exception. However, at the time that I met them, the wife, was doing everything in her power to sabotage the marriage. She was abusive and continually betrayed her husband, being unfaithful as much in spirit as in body, and yet she refused to completely leave him, instead accusing him of the infidelity that she perpetuated. For some reason she wanted him to end the marriage. Yet he was, "hopefully blind." Continually turning a blind eye to her abuses, he walked gingerly; afraid of doing or saying anything that might "alienate her." He controlled his anger and frustrations, continually trying to woo his wife back to him. His efforts were an utter failure. It seemed the more he chased after her, the more she abused his trust and fidelity. It took a long time, before he realized that they hadn't been married for a long time. By the time he had enough, the situation had deteriorated so far beyond normalcy, that no reconciliation was possible. It need not be said that the divorce was, to say the least, an ugly affair.
     The national religious camp is currently in the same boat as this poor man was. As hard as they try, they just can't seem to find legitimacy in the eyes of their bedfellows in the State of Israel. Afraid of appearing extremists, afraid of "alienating the public" they constantly hedge their initiatives, diluting their message, and giving permission to the opposition to take them to task and betray them yet again. In their (well intentioned) pursuit of conciliation, the leaders of the national religious camp are actually making any reconciliation all the more remote. >>Read more

Of Course They Should Refuse Orders / Rabbi Dov Abraham Ben-Shorr
It boggles the mind. Not once but several times the representatives of the Yesha council declare that they are emphatically against soldiers refusing orders to evacuate the settlements. "The army and the state," they declare, "are too important to undermine."

They don't get it.

The army and the state are merely vehicles, extensions of the will of the people. These institutions mean nothing in themselves, and if they were to act in opposition to that will they lose all authority and validity. A state that fails to protect its people loses its "monopoly" of enforcement.

>>Read more

JUSTICE AND RIGHTOUSNESS: Robert Bork on Israel's Supreme Court
Robert Bork on Israel's Supreme Court
20 Tammuz 5764
(IsraelNN.com) Robert Bork is a distinguished jurist who was nominated to the Supreme Court by United States President Ronald Reagan in 1987. He has also served as Solicitor General and has been a distinguished professor at Yale University. He is now a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and he has written a book on judicial activism called, Coercing Virtue: The Worldwide Rule of Judges. He recently appeared on The 700 Club to talk with Pat Robertson about the issue.
Robert Bork: Israel must have the most activist, and from my point of view, the worst court in the Western world. They have developed an intrusive, pervasive constitutional law without really having a Constitution. Now that's hard to do, but they've managed it and they have managed to get themselves in a position where they, in effect, control the membership of their own court. They've done a variety of things -- there's so many, I list a lot of them in the book, but there's too many to list here. >>Read more

The Loss of Jewish Identity in Israel

from the Jerusalem Post
By Sarah Honig
Headgear is fraught with symbolism, and even an uncovered pate has meaning. Hats are more than fashion statements. They can identify our sex, occupation, rank, favorite sports team, political allegiance, nationality, or religious affiliation. It wasn't for nothing that Shas (Orodox polital party) suggested last week that wearing a kippa should be obligatory on memorial days for fallen soldiers and Holocaust martyrs. The 10 MKs (members of the Knesset) who naughtily sponsored the provocative bill knew they hadn't a prayer of actually passing it. They were out to make a statement, because that's what the kippa is.

And because that's what all manner of headdress are, I so respect Basmat Tzabari. I have never met her and I know nothing about the 22-year-old except that she is an Eilat hotel waitress who vehemently refused to don Santa Claus's fur-trimmed hat as her bosses demanded she do on Christmas Eve. Her attitude cost Basmat her job, but she has no regrets. She knows it's all about symbols. In her age-group and in our milieu, Basmat is rare. Her convictions probably even earned her the stinging derision of her peers. In all likelihood they don't see what the fuss is about.

Dozens of my daughter's peers showed up in school on December 24 sporting the very sort of hat which lost Basmat her job. It was the trendy thing to do. One boy came attired in Santa's entire red suit and handed out candies. The school administration had no problem with any of this. >>Read more

Who Shall Lead / Dov Abraham Ben-Shorr
Leaders are often both a reflection and a projection of those that they lead. A nation's direction, goals and values become manifest in its leaders, which is why so much of our tradition focuses on who is fit to lead the Jewish people.
As the Torah begins describing the transformation of the family of Abraham, Yitshaq and Ya`aqob into a nation, the Jewish nation, the concept of leadership begins to become more distinguished in the text. And with masterful artistry, the sages of the Gemara apply these concepts to the nation's historical realities, such as the drama of Hanukah, and then take both concepts and bind them intimately with the concept of Shabbat, and its taste of future redemption.
The true miracle of Hanukah is not that one small jar of oil, enough for only one day's lighting of the menorah in the Holy Temple, lasted instead eight days. That, as a miracle, is "small change" for G-d, to use the vernacular. Rather the true miracle was that the Hasmoneans lit the lamp, even though the situation was hopeless. >>Read more