"Those Who Bless
You Will Be Blessed.."
In The Light of the Jewish
Idea of Rabbi Kahane
by Nachum Shifren
Rabbi Kahane HY"D once asked a question: "What is
the meaning of the Torah passage, 'all people of the Earth will be blessed
through you?'" How could it be that because of one Jewish man, peoples'
lives would be a blessing? And does this infer that without him, the world
would not be blessed?
The profundity of Rabbi Kahane's question reaches
into the deepest of life's mysteries When one looks today a the modern state
of Israel, you would be hard-pressed to see evidence of a people
acknowledging this blessing.
"What can we do, Bush runs the world"
"But what will the Gentile think?"
"Why can't we be just like all the other nations
in the world?"
This is the fare of a people blessed by the Master
of the Universe!
So, from where do we understand the real nature of
the world and the way it is run? How does a Jew, after reading "all the news
that's fit for print" find out what the real news is?
It seems that despite the tremendous darkness in
the world, there is a light shining through all who would obscure it. It is
called our holy Torah. We are able to look into it and scan the innermost
recesses of our souls. This is precisely the reason for the Torah. It is to
keep us alive, to prevent us from being led astray, to guarantee that our
children will remain Jewish and the Covenant of Abraham to G-d will be
eternal.
Furthermore, there is something very incongruous
about the entire world being blessed through the seed of Abraham. Why then
all the enmity and vicious anti-Semitism directed at the smallest of all
minorities? And why the avowed destruction of the Holy Temple, a true place
of peace?
These are the secrets of life that are revealed,
if we would only open our books and learn them. It is from Abraham that we
learn what is really important in life. The life of a sojourner, on the go,
was his lot. Yet despite his nomadic ways, he was able to accumulate riches,
servants, and even acquire "souls" (Rashi tells us that both Abraham and
Sara were able to spread g-dliness and bring many converts to a righteous
way of life).
Yet despite all the accolades placed on him, he
was most modest and self-effacing in comparing himself to ashes and dust.
Perhaps this Shabbat we can take another look
inward, really think about Abraham and his mark on civilization and the
survival of the world, and realize how lucky we really are.
This week will mark the Yahrzeit of Rabbi Meir
Kahane. Suffice it to say what the Leftist press never will admit: He was
100% right about everything he prophesized. In so many ways, the State of
Israel is paying the price, measure for measure, for having had him and his
son killed, banished, and brought low. Once again, at this time each year,
we remember, with tears flowing, bereft of feeling, how he entered each of
our lives, and gave new meaning to what it means to be a Jew. May the G-d of
Abraham give consolation and continued blessings to Libby, the rabbi's wife,
and the righteous orphans that both the rabbi and Binyamin left behind. May
He also, with an outstretched arm, smite those cowardly monsters and their
minions in the perfidious Israeli government in an awesome act of revenge,
thereby sanctifying His holy name.