Friday, November 25, 2022

Jacob and Antisemitism

 

Govert Flinck, Isaac Blessing Jacob, 1638, Oil on Canvas




Joseph Official, the 13th-century author of the polemical work Sefer HaMekaneh, met a Capuchin friar on the road to Paris. The friar said to him: Jacob your father was a thief, and no greater extractor of usury was there; for one plate of lentils which was worth half a coin, he acquired the birthright which was worth a thousand coins.


One would expect the friar, who is a devout Christian, to be respectful of Jacob, who is a biblical hero. However, the opposite is true. Christian criticism of “Jewish” characters in the Tanakh was not uncommon in the Middle Ages; Rabbi Isaac Arama in Spain reports similar criticisms two hundred years later. And throughout history, antisemites have always found a way to reconcile their reverence for the Bible with their loathing of the Jews. Susannah Heschel, in her book "Aryan Jesus,” writes about the furtive efforts of pro-Nazi theologians to erase the Jewish elements from Christianity. They organized what was called "The Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Church Life," with the quixotic task of adapting a Nazified theology to a religion started by Jews. Walter Grundmann actually wanted to remove the "Old Testament" from the Bible, seeing it as anti-Christian. Jesus, he claimed, because he was a Galilean, was not actually a Jew; and because of this, Jesus does battle with the Old Testament Pharisees, whose views are the opposite of his own. Other institute professors theorized that contemporary Jews are imposters, and not the same as the Jews of the "Old Testament." And even today, both the white supremacist Christian Identity movement and the radical Black Hebrew Israelites, (whose message has been popularized by Kyrie Irving), claim that the Jews are not the people of the Bible. This brazen act of identity theft allows them to simultaneously love the Bible and hate the Jews.


Yet the question remains; How is it that Jacob is so unethical? At two critical moments, he acts treacherously toward his brother. When Esau is returning from a day of hunting and is extremely hungry, Jacob takes advantage of the situation; he refuses Esau food until he agrees to exchange his birthright for a bowl of lentils. Later, when Isaac plans on bestowing the familial blessing on Esau, Jacob, at the instigation of his mother, deceives his blind father and steals his brother's blessings.


Esau exclaims after the theft of the blessings: “(my brother) is rightly named Jacob (‘Yaakov’), for he has deceived me (‘vaya’akveni’) these two times: he took away my birthright, and now he has taken away my blessing.” In this bitter jibe, Esau says that Jacob’s very name predicts that he will be a shyster. And it is difficult for the reader to dismiss Esau’s words. How can it be that our hero, our patriarch, acts in such an immoral fashion?


In response to this and other similar questions, two interpretative responses emerge. In rabbinic literature, many passages tend to whitewash the flaws of biblical characters. Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Chajes points out that this is part of a general tendency to exaggerate the good traits of the pious and the negative traits of the wicked. When the contrast in the Biblical picture is heightened, the lessons derived are far more black and white; we are left with a simpler picture of good guys and bad guys. In these sorts of interpretations, Jacob's ethical failings are rationalized and defended.


Rashi's comment to the verse where Jacob lies to his father Isaac and says "I am Esau, your firstborn son" is an excellent example of this type of interpretation. Rashi explains that Jacob actually didn't lie; he had a different type of punctuation in mind, and intended it to mean "I am he that brings food to you, and (aside from that,) Esau is your first-born."


Similar explanations defend Jacob's actions at the sale of the birthright. Ibn Ezra explains that Esau is more than willing to give up the right of the firstborn; he's a hunter who is in constant danger and is unsure how long he'll even live. (Ibn Ezra adds that Isaac was not a wealthy man, so there would be little of value left in the estate anyway.) Esau has no interest in a meager inheritance that might arrive in the remote future.


At the same time, another type of interpretation emerges in Rabbinic and Medieval literature. They follow what they see as the straightforward understanding of the text, and don't romanticize the actions of Biblical heroes. For example, Rabbi Joseph Bechor Shor emphasizes the heartlessness of Jacob's negotiating stance. In his reading of the text, Esau is truly near death, having spent days in the field hunting. At this moment of vulnerability, Jacob said to Esau: if I don't feed you, you will die, and I'll inherit all the rights of the firstborn; so in order that I don't lose out by saving your life, you must promise to sign over the rights of the firstborn to me.


Similarly, multiple commentaries, from the Midrashim onward, point out how Jacob is punished, measure for measure, by the deceptions of others. He wants to marry Rachel, but his father-in-law Laban switches sisters on him, much like Jacob did with his father. Later, Jacob’s own sons will deceive him, (also, while using a goat,) when they fake Joseph's death. One Midrash, (Bereishit Rabba 67:4,) goes so far as to say that the frightening decree of Haman in Megilat Esther is punishment for the pain that Jacob caused Esau. The Tanakh itself emphasizes Jacob’s culpability.


Today, there remains a debate about which style of interpretation to adopt. All too often, people tend to choose black-and-white interpretations; Jacob is either a hero or a villain. In reality, Jacob's early deceptions arise from a complicated mix of jealousy, idealism, and ambition, mixed together with loyalty to his mother. Esau is not a worthy successor to Abraham's spiritual legacy, and Jacob and his mother Rebecca both know it. That crisis leads to these desperate deceptions.


Jacob ultimately is a wrestler, whose character continues to develop as he struggles with his circumstances and choices. Wherever he turns, his moral failures haunt him. The blessing he steals turn out to be worthless, and he lives a life of exile and difficulty. Ultimately, Jacob reconciles with Esau. And at the end of his life, Jacob blesses all of his children, including them together in one legacy. Jacob isn't a saint in his youth, but his road to reconciliation and transformation is inspirational. It is in his struggles that Jacob becomes the patriarch that we admire.


Contemporary Jewish readers can read Jacob's story carefully and critically, and give their own interpretation of the text. But when Joseph Official responds to the Capuchin friar, he doesn't have that luxury. In this case, Joseph Official, (and the Rashbam), say that Jacob actually paid full price to Esau; the lentils are merely part of a meal served to celebrate the transaction.


This is not a unique explanation; in other passages, the Rashbam often offers unusual apologetic explanations as well. He is well aware of Christian polemics using the Tanakh, and at one point explains that his interpretation “effectively silences the heretics (i.e., Christians)…” Anti-Jewish polemics is almost certainly why the Rashbam makes the remarkable claim that the brothers did not sell Joseph, but rather the Midianites stole him out of the pit while the brothers, unaware, were eating lunch. Clearly, Jews were being denigrated as people who would sell their own brother into slavery, and the Rashbam was looking for a way to respond.


I read these apologetic interpretations with a mixture of amazement and sadness. They are exceptionally brilliant re-readings of the text, worthy of the rabbis who composed them. At the same time, it is heartbreaking to realize that the Rashbam, who is ordinarily meticulous in offering the simple reading of the text, had to deviate from his own standards in Biblical interpretation. He felt it was more important to confront the Christian polemicists who mocked the Jews.


Simply put, the antisemitism of others affected how the Rashbam wrote his commentary. And that is exceptionally sad.


This brings me full circle to today's antisemitism. On social media, celebrities push the ugliest antisemitic conspiracies, bringing them mainstream. And it is more than just words. There is a very short distance from Black Hebrew Israelite rhetoric to the attacks on Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn.


Today’s proliferation of antisemitism is profoundly troubling; but what worries me even more is what antisemitism does to Jews. Spiteful attacks on Jews, Judaism, and the Jewish homeland change the way we think; and like the Rashbam, nasty rhetoric rings in our ears. In his time, the Rashbam turned to protect Jacob, and did too good a job; but today's young Jews will, more often than not, run from Jacob and hide their Jewish identity.


Rabbi Angela Buchdahl of Central Synagogue began her Rosh Hashanah sermon this year with the following anecdote:


One of my most engaged students at Central started law school this fall and was happy that campus Hillel invited her to Shabbat dinner her first week. But soon a text chat began circulating among Jewish students:


“I’m not sure I want to go,” one said. “I might get canceled.” Another wrote, “I think I’ll go, but there’s no way I’m putting my name on any sign-in list, or appearing in any photos.”

 

My student decided to go to the dinner…When it came time for a group picture, however, several left the room.


One student concluded, “I’m never going back to that again.” In his view, it seemed any association with something Jewish was inherently problematic. My student stayed for the picture. But she wondered out loud with me if she would later pay a price for it.

 

Buchdahl mentions that a 2021 Brandeis Center survey of Jewish students in two fraternities found that 50% of students hide their Jewish identity while on campus. As she puts it: Half our kids are hiding.


This is the greatest tragedy of antisemitism: what it does to the Jewish soul. As young people decide to become crypto-Jews, hiding in plain sight, we must grapple with this thought: now it is our birthright that is being stolen.


We cannot let that happen.

Friday, November 11, 2022

Should We Love God More Than Man?

 

 

 

Arent De Gelder, Abraham Entertaining the Three Angels (Genesis 18:8-9), 1680’s

 

 

Should We Love God More Than Man?

 

By Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz

 



 

Does Abraham love God more than he loves his fellow human beings? He immediately jumps to follow God’s command to offer his son as a sacrifice; he does not question and does not bargain. God comes first; Abraham faithfully accepts God’s call, despite the great cost to himself and his family. This passage in the Bible, called the Akeidah, (the binding of Isaac), has a deep and abiding influence on Jewish thought.

Abraham's response at the Akeidah is the polar opposite of how he responds to the punishment of Sodom. God tells Abraham he plans on destroying Sodom due to their great sins; Abraham objects, instantly and instinctively. He debates and negotiates, at one point rebuking God by saying: “Will the judge of the entire earth not do justice?” In this passage, Abraham clearly puts man before God.

The disparity between Abraham's response at Sodom and at the Akeidah is puzzling. There are technical ways of resolving this question by noting distinctions, such as differentiating between when God approaches for a dialogue or with a command, or between making a personal sacrifice and pleading for the lives of others. But I find those resolutions unsatisfying. At its core, this contradiction forces us to choose one passage as paradigmatic, as the ultimate lesson of Abraham’s faith; and which one is chosen will depend a great deal on how one understands the lesson of the Akeidah.

Successive generations of commentaries have offered their own interpretations of the Akeidah. Already in the Book of the Maccabees, the Akeidah is seen as the inspiration to martyrdom (and rebellion); and this perspective of the Akeidah becomes very influential. Rabbi Meir in the Sifrei explains that the commandment to love God with one’s entire soul, which is found in the first paragraph of the Shema, means that a Jew is obligated to love God as much as “Isaac, who tied himself down on the altar (as a sacrifice to God).” 

Indeed, martyrdom becomes so much a part of Jewish life, that several texts note how the martyrdom of later generations exceeds the Akeidah. The Talmud (Gittin 57b) tells the story of Hannah, a women whose seven sons were martyred by the Romans; before her seventh son is executed for his faith, Hannah tells him “go and say to your father Abraham, you bound up one [son to the] altar, but my mother has bound seven sons to altars.” In a 13th century poem, Rabbi Ephraim of Bonn writes:

Recall to our credit the many Akeidahs,

The saints, men and women, slain for Thy sake.

In medieval Europe, many Jews saw the Akeidah as a reflection of their own unwavering faith. It was a heroic act, one that inspired the spiritual heroism of Abraham’s descendants.

Some authors are deeply attracted to this perspective as well, seeing it as more authentic than the sensible, dull, and tepid religiosity of contemporary times. Isaiah Leibowitz argues that Judaism is uninterested in the ethical, and only recognizes mitzvot, divine commands. This he sees as a uniquely Jewish perspective, of the singular desire to fulfill the will of God. He notes that “Christianity's highest symbol is the crucifixion and the sacrifice which God brings for man, whereas the highest symbol of faith in Judaism is the Akeidah, where all man’s values are canceled and cast aside for the love and reverence for God….” The lesson of the Akeidah, he argues, is about putting God before man.

For this point of view, the Akeidah stands as a corrective to the earlier passage about Sodom; in the Akeidah, Abraham changes direction, and instead of questioning God, learns to obediently follow His command.

Most modern commentaries offer a very different perspective. They are troubled by the Akeidah, and wonder how God could have issued an unethical command. Samuel David Luzzatto explains that the Akeidah is essentially a publicity stunt, a way of demonstrating the fullness of Abraham’s religious fervor. Unlike the surrounding pagan religions, Abraham’s ethical commitments prevent him from performing child sacrifice. An observer might mistake Abraham’s ethical refinement for a lack of faith; for this reason God stages the Akeidah, to publicly demonstrate Abraham’s faith, and to demonstrate that an ethical religion can still have profound religious passion. The purpose of the Akeidah is to undermine child sacrifice, and show that one can be passionately attached to God and meticulously ethical at the same time.

This approach can be taken a step further, in a manner suggested by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and others. God commands Abraham, “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” because the very point of the Akeidah is to show that faith should never supersede ethics. The Akeidah is actually an example of what should not be done, the Torah's way of making clear that God rejects the unethical. 

Seen this way, the Akeidah confirms Abraham’s actions at Sodom; in the end, the ethical takes religious priority at the Akeidah as well.

Abraham in Sodom vs. Abraham at the Akeidah is not just the central riddle of the Parsha, it is also the central theological issue in Judaism. Does God come before man, or does man come before God?

At first glance, the perspective that puts God before man seems more credible. After all, religion is about God; compared to Him, man seems inconsequential. John Henry Newman, an influential 19th century Catholic theologian wrote: "The Catholic Church holds it better for the sun and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions on it to die of starvation in extremest agony, as far as temporal affliction goes, than that one soul, I will not say, should be lost, but should commit one single venial sin, should tell one wilful untruth, or should steal one poor farthing without excuse." This may sound extreme; but if God is all that matters, then everything must be done to fulfill His will. Our interest in man is unimportant.

The challenge is to find religious arguments for putting man before God. Does humanism, which Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein defines concisely as “a worldview which values humans highly,” have any place in Judaism?

The answer is yes, for the very reason that God created man. From a mystical perspective, as Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto explains, the purpose of creation was for God to extend his love and kindness towards man. If so, God cares deeply about man; we should as well. Man, who is created in the image of God, deserves our love and esteem.

Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik offers another idea that is critical to religious humanism. He explains that a foundation of Jewish ethics is that man is obligated to imitate God; and just as God is a creator, we too are meant to be creators. God left the world imperfect and incomplete, to allow man to complete creation, and be His partner in improving the world. Putting man before God is actually God’s desire; to care for humanity is to continue God’s work.

This idea is best illustrated by a passage at the beginning of the Torah reading. Abraham is speaking with God, but then abruptly turns away to welcome guests. The Talmud (Shabbat 127a) explains that this teaches us that “welcoming guests is more important than receiving the Divine Presence.”

Yet this idea is strange; even if there are guests arriving, why would Abraham disrespect God? Why can’t the guests wait a minute? The answer lies in recognizing the purpose of man’s partnership with God. Abraham is fulfilling God’s will by turning his attention to the guests; much like two partners, God is happy to be left aside, so that Abraham can take care of their newest “customers.” Man can come before God, because God Himself placed man at the center of His creation.

Many contemporary authors advocate religious humanism as a counterweight to religious fanaticism; they hope to end religious violence by reminding us of how ethics and kindness are the foundations of religion. But actually, religious humanism is critical for spiritual passion; at a time when it is difficult to perceive the divine presence, religious humanism becomes all the more important. Even in a profoundly secular world, we can truly experience the transcendent at special moments of human connection. 

There is a Chassidic story, which was made famous by Y.L. Peretz, about a sainted Chassidic Rebbe. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks retells the story this way:

Every Friday morning before dawn, the Rebbe of Nemirov would disappear. He could be found in none of the town’s synagogues or houses of study….

Once a Lithuanian scholar came to Nemirov. Puzzled by the Rebbe’s disappearance he asked his followers, ‘Where is he?’ ‘Where is the Rebbe?’ they replied. ‘Where else but in heaven? The people of the town need peace, sustenance, health. The Rebbe is a holy man and therefore he is surely in heaven, pleading our cause.’

The Lithuanian, amused by their credulity, determined to find out for himself. One Thursday night he hid himself in the Rebbe’s house. The next morning before dawn he heard the Rebbe weep and sigh. Then he saw him go to the cupboard, take out a parcel of clothes and begin to put them on. They were the clothes, not of a holy man, but of a peasant. The Rebbe then reached into a drawer, pulled out an ax, and went out into the still dark night. Stealthily, the Lithuanian followed him as he walked through the town and beyond, into the forest. There he began chopping down a tree, hewing it into logs, and splitting it into firewood. These he gathered into a bundle and walked back into the town.

 In one of the back streets, he stopped outside a run-down cottage and knocked on the door. An old woman, poor and ill, opened the door. ‘Who are you?’ she asked. ‘I am Vassily,' the Rebbe replied. ‘I have wood to sell, very cheap, next to nothing.’ ‘I have no money’, replied the woman. ‘I will give it to you on credit,' he said. ‘How will I be able to pay you?’ she said. ‘I trust you – and do you not trust God? He will find a way of seeing that I am repaid.’ ‘But who will light the fire? I am too ill.’ ‘I will light the fire’, the Rebbe replied, and he did so, reciting under his breath the morning prayers. Then he returned home.

 The Lithuanian scholar, seeing this, stayed on in the town and became one of the Rebbe’s disciples. After that day, when he heard the people of the town tell visitors that the Rebbe ascended to heaven, he no longer laughed, but instead added: ‘And maybe even higher.’

 We must be inspired by Abraham's profound faith at the Akeidah; it reaches directly into heaven. However, even more inspiring is Abraham’s love for his fellow man. His enduring example teaches us how to ascend spiritually, and go even higher.

 

 

 

Thursday, November 03, 2022

Abraham the Zionist


Israel has become a taboo topic in some synagogues. Before Rosh Hashanah, Daniel Gordis wrote an article entitled “If I Had a Sermon,” about the struggles many rabbis had including Israel in their High Holiday sermons:

 

If you were a rabbi of a congregation in the US, you’d be stressing now. Because there is a ton to do, and because if your sermons are not written, you know that you need to get cracking..…To add to the complexity, you’d have, among other decisions to make, a difficult decision about Israel. Should I speak about Israel? Can it be done without creating divisiveness? Many rabbis think not. In fact, Israel’s a topic that many rabbis say they avoid speaking about from the pulpit.

 

Rabbis are afraid to talk about Israel from the pulpit! While this is not true of Orthodox congregations like my own, it is a worrying trend for anyone who cares about the American Jewish community.

 

Gordis outlines a model sermon, one which he argues would allow a rabbi to talk about Israel without triggering an angry debate. Love is complicated, he explains; and loving a country is no less so. One can love, and love passionately, something of which they are critical. Israel does not have to be perfect to be beloved; profound disagreements with her political leadership don’t have to occasion a total divorce. The Bible simultaneously honors and criticizes its own heroes. We should be willing to do the same with Israel.

 

This is an important lesson; it is impossible to see clearly if one paints reality in stark black and white polarities. If all of our Israel education is mythical, young Jews will be unprepared for the messy, complex reality that the modern State of Israel is; learning that Israel is flawed will provoke a crisis of faith. At the same time, detractors often mistake the forest for the trees, fixated on endless, bitter criticisms that lack objectivity. How is it that the same young American Jews who attend rallies against Israel have next to nothing to say about the conduct of the American military in Afghanistan? The self-righteous sloganeering surrounding Israel is often the product of oedipal obsessions.

 

An endemic lack of nuance certainly leads to angry debates; but that isn't the primary reason why Israel is such a contentious issue for American Jews. Instead, we have missed a major change in our community.

 

Today's arguments over Israel begin with commitments held and withheld. American Jews, specifically young Jews, are substantially less attached to Israel than their elders. The 2020 Pew Research Center survey of Jewish identity in the United States found that... among Jews ages 50 and older, … just 10% say that caring about Israel is not important to them. By contrast, among Jewish adults under 30, …one-quarter (27%) say it’s not important to what being Jewish means to them. This is where Jewish criticism of Israel begins; people who don’t care about Israel will be far more likely to criticize her.


This change in attitude is part of a larger apathy. For example, the survey found that “Three-in-ten Jewish adults under the age of 30 (31%) say it would be “not at all” important for their future grandchildren to be Jewish, which is significantly higher than the share who say this in any other age group.” The drop in young Jews’ identification with Israel goes hand in hand with a decline in commitment to Judaism in general.


At the same time, there is another element involved in this loss of identification. A small group of younger, progressive Jews, assert that although they are Jewish, they are no longer “Zionists,” or even, are “anti-Zionists.” Some of these contemporary anti-Zionists take inspiration from anti-religious anti-Zionists of the past, such as Communists and Bundists. But others claim to make a religious case for anti-Zionism.

 

In the late 19th century, as Zionism was becoming a mass movement, two religious groups stood in opposition to it: Reform and Haredi Jews.

 

In actuality, Haredi Jews are not true anti-Zionists; they too desire a return to Zion, but want to wait for the arrival of the Messiah. They see Zionism as a lack of faith, a heretical desire to replace the Messianic redemption with a man-made enterprise. This concern was exacerbated by the fact many of the early Zionist leadership were secular, whose religious lifestyles the Haredim held in disdain.

 

Despite this, most Haredim today are not anti-Zionists; representatives of Agudath Israel were signatories to Israel’s Declaration of Independence. And even Haredi anti-Zionists worry about the safety of the people of Israel; only a small fringe group, the Neturei Karta, march in pro-Palestinian rallies.

 

For 19th century Reform Jews, Zionism was a painful challenge. Jews in Western countries were engaged in a struggle for equal rights; and they had to battle against the antisemitic canard that Jews couldn’t be trusted to be loyal citizens because they longed for a state of their own. In the 1885 Pittsburgh Platform, the Reform Movement declared: We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine… nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish state.” Zionism was considered a betrayal of patriotism; Jews, petitioning for rights that were long denied to them, did not want to appear as anything but loyal citizens. (A few decades later the Reform movement did adopt Zionism, and some of the most influential Zionists, such Abba Hillel Silver, were Reform rabbis.)

 

Today’s anti-Zionists take inspiration in an ideology shaped by long forgotten challenges, and offer an alternative Judaism devoid of any national identity. But this is bound to fail; a Judaism without Zionism is impossible.

 

Abraham becomes a Jew and a Zionist at the same time. The first command he receives is “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” Abraham's religious journey begins with a pilgrimage to Israel! Israel is an ever-present theme in the text; when Abraham and Sarah abandon Israel in search of food, it is seen by some, such as the Ramban, as a “major sin.” Their entire lives focus on the dream of building a nation in the land. When Sarah dies, the Bible depicts the intense effort Abraham makes to bury her in Israel; as Ibn Ezra notes, the purchase of a burial plot for her marks the beginning of the future Jewish State.

 

Genesis makes it clear that Zionism is central to Abraham's new religious mission.

 

Generations of Jews would follow in Abraham's footsteps. Instead of hairsplitting arguments about "the spiritual essence of Judaism," they turned their hearts towards Zion. Israel was a part of their prayers, part of their Tanakh, part of their studies and stories. At the Seder, they sang l’shanah habaah b’yerushalayim”, “next year in Jerusalem," with all of their hearts.

 

They simply couldn't imagine a Judaism without Zionism.

 

Jews who knew little else still heard the call of lech lecha, and from the furthest reaches of exile would find their way home, just as Abraham and Sarah did so many generations before.

 

And they never let go of the dream of Israel, even in the worst of times.

 

Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, in his autobiography, tells the remarkable story of how he survived the Holocaust as small child; for much of the time, his older brother Naftali Lau Lavie heroically protected him. Rabbi Lau relates an episode that occurred at the end of the war in Buchenwald. Naftali was being taken away from Buchenwald, and he didn’t expect to survive. He ran over to his younger brother Yisrael Meir, who was then just seven, and had received virtually no Jewish education because of the war. Rabbi Lau describes their conversation:

 

(My brother) came to me and said, 'They're taking me away. I see no way out of this Gehinnom (hell). This is the end of the world.' …'You're going to be left alone now,' .. 'But you still have friends. Maybe a miracle will happen and you'll survive. I just wanted to tell you: There's a place called Eretz Yisrael. Repeat after me: Eretz Yisrael.'

 

I repeated the words, which meant nothing to me. Naftali said: 'Eretz Yisrael is the home of the Jews,' …. 'You're not going anyplace else. Only to Eretz Yisrael. We have an uncle there. Say that you're Rabbi Lau's son, and tell them to find your uncle. Goodbye (my brother). Remember: Eretz Yisrael.'

 

Remember Eretz Yisrael. Remember Eretz Yisrael.

 

For two thousand years, that is exactly what Jews did. We were determined to get back home.

 

Just like Abraham the Zionist.