Ba'Aretz #15 - Gaza

I apologize for being out of touch lately. It has been a crazy couple of weeks, the most difficult being the past one, with our country at war... in response to brutal and relentless attacks. Thank you for the good thoughts and prayers you have been sending our way. They mean so much to us… and to the people of Israel.

We, in Herzliya, are safe and well out of rocket range. That's because, unlike Gaza (and Southern Lebanon), the IDF still occupies the West Bank and keeps us safe and well out of rocket range. Unlike Gaza (and Southern Lebanon), IDF control does not allow for rockets to be smuggled into or built inside the West Bank. Nor can rockets be fired by the terrorists indiscriminately at the millions of Israelis who live in close proximity to the West Bank.

Oh, sure, the terrorists would, if they could, but they can't. The overwhelming power of the IDF prevents them from attacking us. But as the Second Lebanon War two summers ago and the non-stop barrage of rockets unleashed by Hamas from Gaza for years have aptly demonstrated, when they can, they do… and with a vengeance.

Josh, thank G-d, is safe and sound at home this Shabbat – on leave. He is stationed on the northern border, eyeball to eyeball with Hizbollah – but he was on the Gaza border recently and took the attached pictures and videos. He returns to service Sunday morning and Stephanie and I pray he goes back up north, not down south. But where he will be serving next week isn't clear just now. Please keep him in your prayers.

His pictures and videos are a powerful reminder of the ferocity of the battle and how important it is for Israel to use all its might to destroy the enemy. Yes, all of its might… even if that can be labeled as "disproportionate," as if defending oneself with all one's might is somehow unsporting. Yes, it is true: F16s are more powerful than Kassam rockets; Apache helicopters are stronger than Grad missiles. The only way – THE ONLY WAY – we Israelis survive… the only way our nation has lived to celebrate its 60th anniversary, is by being stronger than our enemies and responding to their attacks with overwhelming force. That's what keeps us alive.

Yes, the world must remember that the F16 flies in response to the Kassam, just as the Apache is a response to the Grad. No Kassam, no F16. No Grad, no Apache. No attack, no response. It really is fairly simple. No attack from Hamas. No response from Israel. That's a ceasefire I think we can all live with. Who knows… it might even lead to peace.

Peace will come when the terrorists stop terrorizing so that the Defenders of our Land can stop defending. Yes, peace will come - and quickly! - when the terrorists stop. Since they refuse to stop on their own, may G-d guide give Israel the strength to stop them. Speedily. Very soon. And forever.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Jeff Kahn

ps - I just read Roseanne Barr's diatribe against Israel and her support for former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney - one of the few true antisemites to ever achieve elected office in America. She is obviously unstable and in need of serious help.

I know that Ms. Barr left Judaism years ago, became a Mormon, and only recently decided to return to Judaism. I believe I speak for the overwhelming majority of Jews in saying "We don't want her back." I know several LDS leaders and have discovered that they, under the circumstances, don't want her back either. So, if you are neither Jew nor Mormon, but profess another powerful faith and believe you can do this woman some good, please take Roseanne Barr and help her. And, when you succeed, you can keep her. We don't want her back - now or ever. 

Ba'Aretz # 14-Andy of Tel Aviv

Although most of those reading this probably didn't see the Andy Griffith Show when it first debuted on television (it was a spin-off an episode of the Danny Thomas Show, when the whole Make Room for Daddy cast got stuck in the fictional Mayberry, North Carolina and had to cope with a small town sheriff, his inept deputy, and a host of small-town-America-in-the-fifties characters), but I think almost everyone has seen it in re-runs some time or another. Aunt Bea, Otis the Town Drunk, Goober Pyle and his gas station, Barney Fife, Floyd the Barber are among those who have become part of American folklore.

The opening theme of the show was whistled as Andy and Opie, the father-son gentle sheriff and mother-less child, fishin' poles slung over their shoulders, head down the road... tossing pebbles that skip over the water. Whenever I hear that theme whistled, I think of gentleness and simplicity, virtue and common sense, and, of course, Aunt Bea's hot apple pie.

Whenever I hear that theme, I never, ever think of skyscrapers or wide boulevards, sophisticated boutiques or elegant restaurants, beautiful beaches or avant garde galleries, ethnic diversity or a cacophony of spoken languages. I never think of traffic jams or protest rallies or political intrigue. When I hear the "Andy of Mayberry" theme, I never picture a community of four hundred synagogues. Never, ever, ever!

In just five weeks, 2009 will be upon us and next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of Tel Aviv, the first new, Jewish city built since Biblical times. In early 1909, 69 young Jews, whose names have been enshrined on a marker on Rothschild Boulevard, stood along the barren beach for a photograph and then proceeded to build what has become a thriving and important Middle East metropolis. Like New York, Tel Aviv is a city that never sleeps (although one hears slightly more Hebrew in TA than NY). Like Amsterdam and London, Paris and Rome, San Francisco and Sydney, Tel Aviv is a city one can visit over and over and experience it anew every time.

And the good folks at the Tel Aviv 100th Anniversary Commission have created a wonderful series of television commercials depicting the history of Tel Aviv. The commercials can be quite moving, as long as you hit the "mute" button, because the commercial's theme song is the whistled one from Andy from American TV so long ago. The song is a nice one, just not for Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv is just not the city I ever associate with Andy and Opie. At least not until Gomer Pyle trades USMC for the IDF.

Rabbi Jeff Kahn