Rabbi Meir Kahane was so controversial that only hostile biographies can be found. When will we see his widow's biography of him?
In last Thursday's Jerusalem Post (21 February 2008), Elliot Jager, an editor at the Jerusalem Post, wrote a review of Libby Kahane's biography of her late husband, Rav Meir Kahane, may his memory be for a blessing and may G-d redeem his blood.…
Article comments
26 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
don't make me sic Spinoza on you!
Doctor Dreadful,
Spinoza is not a dog to be sicced upon people with whom you may or may not disagree. Heck, many years ago, a woman asked me to read his seminal work on miracles and their nature, and to rebut it. She had just rediscovered Catholicism and her fallen away (now ex) husband was siccing Spinoza on her! I told her that Spinoza's work expressed the Jewish point of view accurately.
Actually, all I ever did in comments #20 and #21 was explain the source of Jewish customs. When we refer to Hitler, for example, many of us say y'mákh sh'mo "may G-d erase his name from under the heavens". The same thing is true for hashém y'nakém damó, "may G-d avenge his blood". Those are just requests of the Big Guy upstairs - Who does His Will as He sees fit.
But your original question was
The answers to that question are found in the various books of prophecy in the Tana"kh. G-d, speaking through various prophets, explains His answer rather thoroughly. And Spinoza can't get around those.
So I refer you to the major and minor prophets of the Hebrew Bible - preferably a Jewish text - for your answers.
27 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Dave,
You make a number of assumptions here.
The first assumption is that the FBI is an accurate determiner of what constitutes a terrorist threat. The FBI, like all institutions of the U.S. government, is extremely political in its choices. Like any native born American, I view all institutions of government with a suspicious eye.
The second assumption is that I oppose terror per se. In a world filled with evil and governed by the Evil Inclination, terror is a weapon in the armory of war/politics, like torture, like cheating, like lying, and should be used judiciously to accomplish aims where needed. Note the term judiciously here, and note the governing condition at the beginning of the previous sentence.
I realize that I have to take sides in a world at war, which is what the world is, and I oppose the terror of my enemies.
The fact of the matter is that you are no different from me in your point of view on this subject, as much as you may protest to the contrary - you merely draw your enemies list differently from me.
The the Jewish Defense League headed by Rav Meir Kahane, z"l, hy"d, was most active from the late 1960's to the early 1970's when Rav Kahane accepted leaving for Israel in place of a jail term for weapons possessions. The organization he left behind in the States was a pathetic remnant of the one he himself ran. They tried, but could not match his touch.
By the mid 1980's, Rav Kahane had managed to scare the shit out of the thieving Israeli establishment as well as the corrupt and spineless Jewish establishment in the United States. Rav Kahane couldn't be bought off. He wasn't intimidated by goons from the Shaba"k beating him up from time to time. The "power brokers" in J-lem saw the polls that indicated that he would have won at least 15 mandates in the Knesset in coming elections and couldn't stand the idea that their own thievery (like Shimon Peres using the information that Jonathan Pollard gave him to make money) would be questioned by an honest man with real power in the Knesset. The Israeli people could see that a real leader has arisen, even though he came from America. It was just too much for the thieves in the Likud and the Labor party to bear.
So, in the mid 1980's, the Israeli government outlawed Kahane's political party as "racist".
They then went to the Americans and asked them to categorize the JDL and any affiliated organizations as terrorist organizations, and the Jew-haters in the State Department, laughing up their own sleeves at how the Israelis were shooting themselves in the foot, happily complied.
Finally, this answers why Rav Kahane was assassinated in the manner that he was. He was murdered off by an Arab, and this Arab was found not guilty by a jury. What pressures the jurors at the trial of Kahane's killer had to deal with I do not know, but a deal was cut to get rid of the Rav in such a way that nobody could point the finger of blame at the government of Israel, which wanted him dead, at the government of the United States, which also wanted him dead, or at the spineless bastards in the American Jewish establishment, who wanted him dead more than anyone else.
The assassination of his son and daughter-in-law in 2000 was also done as an assassination hit . The fingers of the United States government, and the Shaba"k are all over that "terror" attack as well.
Finally:
If Rav Kahane was anything like Osama bin Ladin, hundreds of Americans in Jew-hating organizations would have been killed off in a most spectacular way to make it clear that Jews were not to be messed with.
Your slander and lies drags the reputation of a scholar and hero of my people through the mud. I would say you should be ashamed of yourself, but I know better. You haven't got the shame in you.
28 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
This from Debkafiles:
As I mentioned upthread, the government has decided to re-open the faucet of Arab terror, and that in doing so, will bring its own blood upon its head. Now we are seeing the beginning of the spiraling chaos that will soon strike here. The only question is how soon?
29 - Christopher Rose
Ruvy, I don't share your bleak view of the world as "filled with evil and governed by the Evil Inclination". If that is truly how you see the world, I feel sorry for you.
Your attempt to justify the use of terror, torture, cheating and lying is presumably a product of your poisoned and poisonous view of the world, which I would hope most people would join me in rejecting utterly.
The world is not at war, nor even close to it, no matter how intense things may seem in your little corner of it. I think you need a holiday, the pressure of your chosen lifestyle is clearly getting to you...
30 - JustOneMan
This explains alot..
High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed in a study published this week.
Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy.
"As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics," Shanon told Israeli public radio on Tuesday.
Moses was probably also on drugs when he saw the "burning bush," suggested Shanon, who said he himself has dabbled with such substances.
"The Bible says people see sounds, and that is a clasic phenomenon," he said citing the example of religious ceremonies in the Amazon in which drugs are used that induce people to "see music."
He mentioned his own experience when he used ayahuasca, a powerful psychotropic plant, during a religious ceremony in Brazil's Amazon forest in 1991. "I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations," Shanon said.
He said the psychedelic effects of ayahuasca were comparable to those produced by concoctions based on bark of the acacia tree, that is frequently mentioned in the Bible
31 - Cannonshop
As a secular, non-Jew, I have to find myself agreeing with Ruvy, and by extension, the late Rav Kahane. It's a simple matter of remembering a few ugly truths in the past, and looking at ugly truths in the now.
The ugly truth is, Appeasement has Never Worked. How did Israel get recognition and a peace treaty from Egypt? By beating the everloving shit out of them and taking half the canal away. In the Middle East, as in most of the world, he who uses force most effectively can have a measure of peace free of slavery. He who can not, will not. Based on a human history of bloodshed and conflict, if your enemy has sworn your destruction, and is as devout as the islamic world, you do not treat it as a jest or negotiation tactic-he wants you dead, and if he wants you dead badly enough, your only path to safety is to kill him first.
The islamic world, for the most part, rejected the kind of Enlightenment culture that forms much of the basis for "Western thought" more than a century ago-pluralism, democracy, freedom, liberty, even individual responsibility are anathema to the nations and tribes surrounding the Israeli people in their homeland, and the leftist establishment here in the U.S. is more or less sold itself to the "New Left" Socialist movements of the 1960's- many of whom are just as anti-semitic in nature as the KKK, Nazi Party, or Stalinist Soviets. Corruption, I suspect, is inevitable when Power is involved, the Limousine Liberal is inevitably concerned more with 'social status' and 'respectability' among his enemies, than defense of his own, whether neighbours, fellow-religionists, countrymen, or culture. Where this might be a minor issue for a Protestant or Catholic christian, when it is a Jew, it is suicidal. Simply put, there are lots and lots of bigots out there, they have no problem denying the Holocaust when in polite company while planning Holocaust V.2.0 in private, or amongst their followers, and appeasing these (censored) is tantamount to collaboration in hopes of dying last.
Israel is an ally. The Appeasers have already sacrificed Allies before (S. Vietnam, Taiwan, etc. etc. etc.) this has never resulted in a good outcome. I submit to you that it can not result in a good outcome, any more than Chamberlain's "Peace of Paper" resulted in a desirable outcome.
On a lower level, it is mind-boggling to presume that a man should submit to the mob, especially when that mob so hates their own children that they raise them to become guided bombs, in hopes of reaping a cash reward provided by foreign princes who exploit their labour yet will not accept them within their borders-except as day-labourers or terrorist recruits, sent to die for the profit of earthly princelings masquerading as holy men.
32 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Hear! Hear! Cannonshop.
33 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Lest anyone reading this article and the comments attached thereto think that I am alone or represent a tiny minority of Israelis in my views, note the words of MK Efayim Eitam in the Knesset this morning.
From Arutz Sheva.
Let it be clearly understood. While the vast majority of us would like to live in peace with Arabs (yes, that majority includes me), the vast majority of the people of this country will only tolerate so much. This is something that the Arabs who would massacre us do not understand, and it will be the death of them as a result.
34 - Les Slater
Ruvy,
“I do what you ask already, Les.”
You don’t. You do see and you do write, but that has never been the central thrust of your political arguments. That’s why I remind you of what you do know; and it’s not just for your benefit. You do have credibility and it is good to point out that you do understand what the fundamental issues really are. You are very honest, and courageous about this and don’t ever deny your understanding, but you proceed as if the fundamentals have nothing to do with anything; they’re just not connected, just floating in air.
You then go on to paint a bleak picture of how you see things unfolding and conclude, “That is what we are facing in the near future, Les.”
I may agree or not agree with your analysis, it’s certainly logical. The problem is that your conclusions are passive and static. You’re reduced to a color commentator, as if reporting on a sports event. The color you provide is superficial; you often, if not usually, wander from the fundamentals. You say you’re not a fatalist and that you have tried, and did not succeed in altering anything, or at least very little. All of us have a lot more power than we are lead to believe. Most are beaten down and feel powerless. I believe you’re smart enough, courageous, and above all honest, too honest to just give up.
Les
35 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Les,
I very rapidly learned that the average guy, unless he knows people, can accomplish little around here. Realists article "Power Outage to the People" applies here far more than in America, where there is a reasonably healthy local system of government, even if the state and national systems are corrupted entirely.
Here, getting anything done requires either baksheesh or bullets, or the threat of one combined with the other. Without the grease, you can't grease the wheels. I must remind you, this is the MIDDLE EAST where the bribe is an art form. If you can't convince people that you are serious, they don't even bother asking mi ábba shelkhá? - literally who is your father? - "who is backing you up in the bureaucracy?"
The only thing that will stop the disaster I see coming is a revolution that will kick out Olmert, Peres, Livni and the rest of the ass-kissing shitheads, and put in someone who is not afraid of shooting off nukes and destroying the High Aswan Dam. That is the only thing that the Arabs will understand - the threat of imminent genocide. Barring that, we have the officious assholes ruining the country, we have the officious assholes from America and Europe overseeing the ruination of the country, and we have folks like me, floating in debt, struggling to make a living, and not necessarily armed.
It doesn't matter what we say (whatever our opinions may be) until a war breaks up this pattern, and "frees the electrons from their orbits" if you get my meaning. So, in reality, expecting such a war is the outlook of an optimist, not a pessimist.
36 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
I did forget though, Les. Thank you for the kind words, praise and encouragement....
37 - Dr Dreadful
#26: Oy, Ruvy, no need to bite my head off. The Jewish sense of humor is one of the most sublime in the world - what happened to your share?
What I was getting at was Spinoza's idea that everything in the universe is part of God - goodness, misfortunes, everything. So asking God to avenge you is effectively asking him to avenge himself, which is absurd.
I don't think Spinoza was trying to 'get around' the Prophets - he was working up his own ethics as much as possible. And his attitude towards misfortune is somewhat unrealistic in terms of human emotions.
Assuming the existence of such a deity, it's a question of whether the Jewish custom provides a mechanism for you to 'let go', having petitioned God for a redress of your grievances. As you say, he would address your petition as he saw fit. I'm just not entirely sure whether this ritual repetition of your desire for God to rip your enemy's metaphysical head off is very healthy...
I tend to agree with Bertrand Russell's assessment:
"When it is your lot to have to endure something that is (or seems to you) worse than the ordinary lot of mankind, Spinoza's principle of thinking about the whole, or at any rate about larger matters than your own grief, is a useful one. There are even times when it is comforting to reflect that human life, with all that it contains of evil and suffering, is an infinitesimal part of the life of the universe. Such reflections may not suffice to constitute a religion, but in a painful world they are a help towards sanity and an antidote to the paralysis of utter despair."
38 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
One of the very few stories that generate hope in me that I see here is one of a young girl arrested for pushing an Arab three months ago According to this story in Arutz Sheva, she is still in prison because she refuses even to give her name or recognize the authority of the State. She has served several days in solitary confinement for refusing to conform with prison regulations. Her situation has inspired
This has not been the first time that the Sariel kids have been in such a conflict with the judicial system here.
Moshe Dann, writing about her about thee years ago noted that,
In the Arutz Sheva article linked to above he is quoted as having written about her sister,
In short, some are unwilling anymore to recognize the authority of the State, a state that has become so thoroughly corrupt and bereft of its ideals, it is not worth recognition.
This is sign for hope indeed that Redemption is on the way.
39 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
DD,
My sense of humor got lost somewhere between the unpaid bills and the dealings with people who prove how unreliable this society by their own unreliability - even my sense of humor is running out on me....
The idea of chutzpah - properly spelled Hutzpá - is also basic to the Jewish character. So asking G-d to avenge the blood of a person is asking Him to punish the evil in the universe He has allowed to exist - even though, as you correctly point out, it too is part and parcel of His Creation. Remember, both Abraham and Moses were willing to argue with G-d and hold Him to a sense of justice.
Mere mortals standing up to the timeless Creator of the Universe? What Hutzpá!! G-d must have been very proud when that happened....
40 - Irene Wagner
Assuming allegations of pushing Arabs or tipping olive buckets are false (and even in the hypothetical case that they weren't) it does seem those young women were treated awfully unfairly and even cruelly, Ruvy. I'm glad someone took up for them. That is a bright spot.
***Now, about taking up for people, and a question about the Ten Commandments. If one breaks the commandment forbidding bearing false witness against one's neighbor (and certainly one's neighbor doesn't ONLY mean Jews does it?) would it be God-honoring to make some sort of restitution to the person slandered, after one is informed that one has based one's character assasination on information that has been proven to lack substance or is even demonstrably false?
Exposing the errors of people holding, or seeeking to hold, public office is a right and for some people, even a duty, but it's important to be able to back up accusations against anyone we speak ill of with videos, in-context quotes, or other matters of public record for which the authorship of the one being accused is certifiable.
PS I know of someone who's good name has been dragged through the mud like that. He might not be able to solve Israel's problems entirely, but--even if he fails to win the office he seeks--his ability and drive to expose the neocons, bankers and assorted others operating in the US who are a major part of Israel's problem--that would go at least some distance in ameliorating the situation of your homeland should Messiah tarry.
Do you know how you feel when you hear insults to the memory of someone who was and is important to you, someone like Rabbi Meir Kahane? That's the way I feel when someone continues the meme that Ron Paul is a white supremacist, a Jew-hater, and in general, a bigot.
41 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Actually, Irene, the Torah, of which the commandment not to bear false witness is part, applies only to the Children of Israel.
But the Noahide Code, the Seven Laws of Noah, a subset of the Ten Commandments, applies to all of mankind, and adherence to them are the basis of civilized behavior. Part of the Noahide Code requires the setting up of courts to enforce the other six laws, and bearing false witness perverts any system of courts or justice.
And now we come to the instant case you raise, that of Congressman Ron Paul. The evidence that people use to accuse Ron Paul of bigotry sits on the internet, and unfortunately, appears in many cases, to be of his own hand. I may or may not be willing to believe Eric Dondero; I know first hand just how much a close associate can lie about someone. But if Dr. Paul has authored the piece himself, I have no choice.
I never heard of the good man before this presidential election season, and had not Paulbots come swarming out to plug his candidacy, the evidence from the internet might have been of little or no importance at all. But the evidence of his views remains, nonetheless, ready to bite his butt every time he raises his voice.
That's the problem with the internet. There is no forgiving, and no forgetting, and those of us with long memories know just where to look to dig out the trash on anybody. In all fairness, this can be applied to me as well as anybody else, and one who goes through my own comments here can see that.
So the question that really applies in Dr. Paul's case is: does he still have the views now that he seemed to espouse earlier? The important point here is that he is still alive to answer that question: Rav Meir Kahane, z"l, hy"d, is not. Dr. Paul was not assassinated; nor was his son or daughter-in-law.
Given that, and given that his presidential candidacy is dead, he may be a bit more accessible to you. You can ask him these questions yourself and satisfy yourself of his honesty and good name.
Now, since you mention the messiah, I just wish to add that the only way I know of to get a clean electronic slate, so that wee can all start afresh over again, is to set off a powerful electro-magnetic pulse that will make this computer and all other electronics worthless, and thus erase the comments of Dr. Ron Paul, and others from under the heavens.
So expect to see such a pulse, or something with similar effects, during the Redemption at some time or another.
42 - JustOneMan
Ruvy...maybe you havent heard "the good news" but the Messiah was here already..in fact he was a Jew named Jesus...
JOM
43 - Irene Wagner
JOM you add whole vistas of depth to the little ditty "Please be as patient as can be, God's still working on me. I know the paint is still a little wet, God's not done with me yet."
The holy servant in Isaiah 53 had that kind of patience with people. My patience is still a work in progress.
44 - Irene Wagner
Ruvy....if If IF...that's the operative word in your sentence: "But if Dr. Paul has authored the piece himself, I have no choice...I never heard of the good man before this presidential election season, and had not Paulbots come swarming out to plug his candidacy..."
Only Christians are commanded to love their enemies, but Jews have no such law. Ron Paul is NOT your enemy, Ruvy. To avoid bearing false witness against someone who could, if not as President, then from his recently successfully defended position as Congressman, magnify a thousand-fold your own passionate efforts towards exposing and defeating a rat's nest of corruption--it behooves you to be CONVINCED that the all important "IF" is actually a "since."
By all means, Ruvy, use the internet to do your research. Google "Bill White" and "Eric Dondero" (whom Ron Paul fired a number of years back.) Read, not just the material that backs up your view that ALL American politicians are corrupt, but read EVERYTHING--or at least a true cross-section--of what you find about them there. Be sure not to miss Bill White's post to the VNN site under the name "ANSWP Commander" (American National Socialist Worker’s Party) date-stamped one week before Kirchick's "Angry White Man" in which he brags about being tapped as one of Kirchick's sources for the article--and his reason for wanting to help destroy him: too many Jews supporting him.
Watch and listen to the defense of Ron Paul by Nelson Linder, Austin's NAACP leader, who has known Ron Paul personally for twenty years.
Yeah, I'm a "Paulbot." I'll post things about Max Boot, and Obama's waffling on the war, and McCain's foreign policy advisers being neocons---but I can back it all up by their faces and words on VIDEO or links to writings they're PROUD to have authored. There's something more than Ron Paul's good name that is at stake here, though.
Ruvy, the status of Ron Paul's presidential candicacy is beside the point. It's a matter of character--YOURS. It's ESPECIALLY important for people who openly affiliate themselves with a Holy God to demonstrate a commitment to the truth, a sober recognition of the power of words to serve evil purposes or good.
45 - Dr Dreadful
Irene, one thing you're NOT is a Paulbot.
You have strong and considered reasons for your support of the good doctor, which you have communicated to us with great clarity and persuasiveness.
The Paulbots are the ones who show up on any Paul-related thread to mindlessly parrot the talking points they've been fed by other Paulbots.
A dead giveaway is that if you criticize Dr Paul in any way, a Paulbot will react as if you'd insulted his mother.
46 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Irene,
I would never believe the accusations of someone else that a person is bigoted. I thought I made that plain in my comments above.
I would only take the work of the man himself.
The New Republic went after Paul, and its articles were hatchet jobs. But the links were not necessarily hatchet jobs and that's the point. Someone at BC originally posted this stuff, and that is how I knew about it. I honestly forgot who posted the article at BC. I have supplied two links below.
One link at the New Republic article was obviously scanned onto a file from a mimeograph machine. Is it actually Congressman Ron Paul? If I were him, I'd cry forgery. But the content does not necessarily cry forgery.
The second link mentions Israel by name. But there is nothing that indicates that this is from Ron Paul.
This is the link to the New Republic article.
As I said, the article itself, and all the New Republic articles going after Ron Paul were hatchet jobs designed to kill his support. But were the links real?
It's enough to throw serious question on him, even if it isn't condemnatory on its face. This, in spite of the fact that generally, I agree with much of his conspiracy claims. One cannot argue that the sources are taken out of context. The entire article or letter is present in both instances. The issue is entirely, are these the works of Congressman Ron Paul?
Liberal Jews would get all upset over this. I do not get so upset. If these links are real, then it means that Ron Paul says all the right things, but he is no friend of my people. If they are not, it doesn't.
So, it is not as if I do not understand your point of view. You honestly admire the man and resent when others keep dragging out the same old shit with these allegations. But if these links do indeed come from Congressman Ron Paul, there is reason for me to question his ultimate attitude towards my people.
47 - Dr Dreadful
Ruvy, been reading about the shootings over there this evening. Not sure how close you are to the school that was attacked, but just wanted to check and make sure you and yours are OK.
I know your kids are of about seminary age, so I did wonder...
48 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Thank you for the concern, DD.
In fact, I heard about the shooting attack on the radio, copied notes in Hebrew and there is now an article in pending on it (with a request for expedited treatment).
My kids are of age to have been shot at such a school, but the terrorists did not attack where either of my kids were, thank G-d. One is home with us in Ma'alé Levoná (which is a distance from Jerusalem), and the other is staying with a friend in Armon haNetziv, which is where we used to live in Jerusalem.
49 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Irene,
There is one other thing I should add to my comments about Dr. Ron Paul. Until I saw the links I posted above in comment #46, I was inclined to look at him through your sympathetic lenses. I didn't think he had a snowball's chance in hell of getting elected president, and even in the unlikely event that he was elected, the boys at the CFR would shovel their own anti-Israel agenda down his throat. But, I wasn't hostile to the man.
At this point, if Congressman Paul still retains the views he seemed to express in the links I posted, the only Jews in any danger from him live in his congressional district.
50 - Adam
As an American Jew I disagree. I think overall Kahane has done tremendous harm to American Jewry overall and his worst impact was to American Jewry. The publicaton he wrote for the Jewish Press always was slandering Jewish men and Rabbi Kahane was silent about this. My own mother took out a lot of her anger out on me in my view because of the propoganda of this newspaper as well as others. A few people connected may have benefited from him but I certainlly did not as my mother was took angry about Jewish men to allow me to learn any self defense and that is the case with many American boys is their own mothers want them to be helpless. His paper the Jewish Press has a lot to do with this in addition to causing a severe single crisis which is making Orthodoxy Judaism in America irrelevant for this reason as well.
51 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Adam,
In the final analysis, if Judaism is becoming irrelevant in America (and from what I saw, it was and still is), this was not due to anything Kahane wrote or said. It was and is due to Jews running away from who they are.
You don't need your mother's permission to take self-defense courses of any kind - unless you are a small child.
As for the "singles" crisis plaguing American Jewry, could this be more from American Jews being interested in themselves alone - and winding up that way - alone?
52 - Ruvy
One of the tragedies of living in Israel today is that in order to get at truth, you need to hear voices from the grave. Today's The "power holders" in Jerusalem are showing what gutless bastards they are.
53 - Ruvy
I ran into this by trolling at Arutz Sheva to see what the news of the day was. One article spoke of a group, the Jewish Internet Defense Force crippling a large Jew-hating group on Facebook. When I went to their site, I found this video on the book this article deals with. Watch the video. You may learn something.
Good news all around, I'd say.
Now that Barack Obama has the Democratic nomination in hand, it is time for Jews in America to admit to the painful truth that Rav Meir Kahane, hy"d, z"l, WAS RIGHT, and that the Jewish establishment was wrong - and that they are still wrong.