We are happy to present you with our 5th Sovereignty bulletin, sent to members and supporters of our Sovereignty Movement. You are invited to read, get updated and join:
Dear friends,
The subject of sovereignty is again in the headlines and the news, both because of the question of whether it can be promoted by the new coalition as well as its being a significant topic in the statements voiced by the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman.
Of course, we are grateful for the very fact that the issue is being discussed, since until less than a decade ago, no one spoke about it or dealt with, but as a result of energetic and persistent activities in the field, has become the leading and central issue of Israeli political discourse.
Along with gratitude that the discussion is happening, we again bring up this important and well-known topic: The application of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria is a necessity driven by ethics, justice and truth. Israeli Sovereignty is what will lead to security, prosperity and stability and must be promoted regardless of any sort of political deal. One does not make deals on one’s homeland and we do not take dictates from anyone. We will act with all of our power both to promote sovereignty and blocking the insane idea of establishing an alien polity in the heart of our Land. The Land of Israel belongs exclusively to the People of Israel, according to the words of the head of Gush Etzion Council, our friend Shlomo Ne’eman, who stated:
“We will fight any attempt to create modern ghettoes for our remote communities with the same intensity that we fight for the realization of the dream of sovereignty. The entire settlement enterprise will be sovereign, so all of the communities were built according to Israeli law without restriction – in height, width and length. We will not accept any concession of territory or any concession of our rights to sovereignty in the territory. I say this without any hesitation – the state’s sovereignty over the territory of the homeland is a Jewish and Zionist value just as much as the integrity of the Land and the liberty to settle in it. In plain language – we will not concede even one child of our family for the benefit of another family’s child!”.
We salute the heroes
This coming Shabbat the world will mark the day of victory over the Nazis. In honor of this Shabbat, we are highlighting the sacrifices and dedication of the hundreds of thousands of fighters who crushed the head of the snake.
Among the many fighters, to whom the entire world owes a debt of gratitude and appreciation for being liberated from the horror of the Third Reich, were no less than one and a half million (!) Jewish soldiers and fighters, including commanders, pilots, troop leaders and winners of medals and decorations for bravery.
In recent weeks we have been very involved in preserving and maintaining the older generation, the generation of the founders. We must remember that this generation also includes those who fought heroically and fiercely to liberate the world. The Jewish People was indeed the main victim of the Nazi death machine, but its sons were also full participants in the defeat of the dictator. We shall preserve, appreciate, study and value the story of the heroism of those Jews who fought in the Red Army, the American Army, the armies of Europe and partisan groups. The People of Israel and the entire world thanks you!
Sovereignty for me is…
This time with former Justice Minister, Member of Knesset Ayelet Shaked (Yamina):
Sovereignty for me is the fulfillment of the Zionist dream of the Jewish people
The parliamentary pioneer for sovereignty
This week we marked three years since the passing of the most prominent pioneer in demanding Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria as the true solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict – Rav Benny Elon, zt”l.
Rav Benny Elon was a leader whose character, vision and other unique characteristics had an importance impact on the national camp in recent decades. He left his mark on a variety of key Zionist aspects of the State of Israel; by practical revitalization of the Jewish settlement in eastern Jerusalem, in consolidating the national camp into a unified political power, in promoting the policy of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria as an alternative to the policy of “two states for two peoples” and by establishing an international network of NGOs that unites pro-Israel members of parliament throughout the world.
Rav Benny Elon was a rare and unique leader who was not deterred from promoting the sovereignty policy even when subject to harsh criticism, even from within the national camp, by short-sighted people who did not understand what Rav Benny understood before they did. We are very pleased that his ideas and demands for sovereignty over Judea and Samaria have become the consensus and mainstream among the national camp today, and have even been adopted by the White House in the U.S.
(reporter: Uri Bank, advisor to Rav Benny Elon, zt”l)
In the photo: Minister Rav Benny Elon presents his sovereignty plan to his friend, Congressman Mike Pence, who today serves as vice president of the U.S. Photo: Uri Bank
A political moment
Take a moment to look at the Knesset plenary. What happened when Minister of Transportation Bezalel Smotrich reminded the Arab members of Knesset from where they came and especially, where they did not come from…
Justice, politics and democracy
The recent days devoted to forming the coalition highlight the battle between the authorities, between the legislative and the judicial. Read the article by Prof. Elisha Haas, former head of Professors for National Resilience, on how the judicial system has become a dominant and aggressive force in Israeli politics. How and why the court took over political authorities beyond its jurisdiction and why this conduct endangers the future of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jews.
(link to the article)
Parashat Shavua: The Connection Between Historic Events and Agriculture in the Land of Israel -Rav Baruch Efrati
In this week’s Torah portion, we encounter the three pilgrimage festivals: Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot. Why were we commanded to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem on these three occasions? Ostensibly, the answer is clear. On Pesach we departed from Egypt, on Shavuot, we received the Torah, and Sukkot evokes the clouds of glory that accompanied the Israelites and protected them as they journeyed in the wilderness.
However, if we examine the sources closely, we will reveal a different reason for the three festivals. Pesach is the festival of the reaping of the barley and that is why we bring the omer offering from barley. On Shavuot, we reap the wheat and that is why we bring the offering of the two loaves [shetei halechem] from wheat. On Sukkot, we harvest the grain from the field before winter.
So, is the reason for the three festivals the departure from Egypt or is it the cycle of agricultural life in the Land of Israel? The answer relates to a different question regarding the connection between Pesacḥ and Shavuot, the connection of the counting of the omer.
In the simple sense, the counting leads us from the exodus from Egypt on Pesach to the ultimate objective of that Exodus: the revelation at Sinai and the giving of the Torah. This is the connection between the national experience and the spiritual experience.
Rav Kook suggests an additional answer. Faith is based on emotion and on intellect. Emotion is manifest on Pesach, when we departed from Egypt, and for that we are thankful and rejoice emotionally. This is why the offering is from barley, which is food for animals, for which the experiential side is dominant. By contrast, on Shavuot, the encounter with G-d is on the intellectual plane, and the offering is an expression of that intellectual encounter, an offering of wheat. (The Tree of Knowledge was wheat, according to the opinion of one of the Sages).
Rav Kook asserts that the encounter of the believer with the Holy One blessed be He is based both on the emotion and the intellect of faith.
Therefore, regarding the reason for the celebration of the three pilgrimage festivals, whether it is because of the exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Torah, or due to the agricultural cycle in the Land of Israel, the answer is, it is the connection between them. Just as there is a connection between the emotion and the intellect, between the national experience and the religious experience, between Pesach and Shavuot, so too there is a connection between the historical events of the exodus from Egypt and agriculture in the Land of Israel, the events of the present and of life itself. The Holy One blessed be He protected us with clouds of glory, took us out of Egypt, and gave us the Torah, so we could perform agricultural work in the Land of Israel, study the Torah and keep the mitzvot.
With their blood, they revived Har Hevron
This week, 40 years ago, on Friday night, 17 Iyar 5740, Erev Lag BaOmer, May 3, 1980, a large group of residents from Kiryat Arba and students of the “Nir” Hesder Yeshiva, went to visit the group of women at Beit Hadassah in Hevron as they did every Friday night. The group walked slowly, singing and dancing. A few meters before Beit Hadassah, a squad of Fatah terrorists ambushed them. The terrorists opened heavy fire on those dancing and tossed hand grenades at them. Five of those dancing were killed in the attack. Another young man, Hanan Krauthammer, was critically wounded and died two days later. Another 20 were wounded.
Among the six murdered were three students of the Nir Yeshiva in Kiryat Arba: Hanan Krauthammer, Gershon Klein and Yaakov Tzimmerman, hy”d. They were all members of the same class in the Yeshiva.
A short time after the murder, some of their friends met at the home of Ephraim Hivash in Kiryat Arba, to discuss a way to memorialize their friends. The decision was made to establish a new community in their memory.
In 1982 (5742), two years after the attack at Beit Hadassah, friends of the murdered students, who had been discharged from the army that year, established the Beit Hagai settlement group as they had dreamed. The name was an acrostic for the names of the fallen Hanan [het], Gershon [gimmel], and Yaakov [yod].
On July 19, 1984 (19 Tammuz ,5744), the members of the pioneering group finally settled in Beit Hagai. The Rosh Yeshiva of the yeshiva in Kiryat Arba, Rav Lior, ruled that the mitzva of settling the land is so significant that it is permitted to hold the festive ceremony to celebrate the population of the new settlement even during the period of mourning before Tisha B’Av.
The dream of contributing to settlement and society was realized in 1990, when they established a youth village as a religious educational-therapeutic framework for youth from throughout Israel.
Sovereignty is cool
Sovereignty Youth continues its initiatives to instill the idea and importance of sovereignty among the youth and adults throughout the Land. Recently, the members of Sovereignty Youth have been sending cards to various youth groups, each care on a different subject related to sovereignty in short, summary form, on security, history and heritage in simple language. Take a look at some examples in this group of cards:
Shabbat Shalom!
With the blessing of “Let us go up and possess it”
Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar
The Sovereignty movement founded by Women in Green
Join us! https://nirshamti.co.il/en/sovereignty/
To donate: http://womeningreen.org/how-to-help/
www.ribonut.co.il
050-5500834 [email protected]