A Shabbat in Queens After 21 Years: By Shmuel Sackett

I moved to Kew Gardens Hills (Queens, NY) when only two pizza shops were there. Gift World was near Melbourne Ave, Brach's was a small butcher shop, YCQ was under construction and a grand total of five shuls existed in the entire neighborhood!
1874 you guess? Not quite - it was 1974.

Even back then, when Richard Nixon was president of the USA, KGH was "the place to be". We used to hang-out at Shimon's until very late Motzei Shabbat and play basketball in Flushing Meadows Park. I still remember how KGH became the first community to get an Eruv. Rabbi Schonfeld was a little worried about misuse of the Eruv, since people were simply not used to having one. He spoke, at length, about making sure it helped the sanctity of Shabbat and not the reverse. Baruch Hashem things worked out and today, KGH is a gigantic Jewish community that is full of Chessed, Ahavat Hashem and Torah learning.

Shortly after leaving KGH, I made aliyah to Netanya, then Neve Aliza (Ginot Shomron) and finally to Ra'anana, where I live today with my family. And then, after 21 years I made it back to the "old neighborhood" for Shabbat.

While walking on Main St was fun and reminiscing about how things have changed was amusing, that was not why I came. My purpose on this Shabbat was focused on one thing: To explain to the Jewish community of KGH what lies at the root of Israel's problems and how to - once and for all - solve them!

As you know, this wonderful town is full of love for Atrzeinu Ha'Kedosha. Over the years, many good Jews of KGH have given of themselves to help Israel. Many have moved there, more have studied there and even more have donated large sums of money towards various important causes in our one-and-only Promised Land. Many young men from KGH have even served in the IDF! In short, the KGH community is famous for its love and dedication towards Israel.

The problem is that today - that love and dedication - produces pain, frustration and many times even depression, when thinking about our homeland. We read about non-stop rocket attacks on Sderot and Ashkelon. We watch the TV and witness beautiful IDF soldiers - following orders by the Israeli government - ripping fellow Jews out of their homes. A few hours later that same TV station shows Jewish bulldozers destroying Jewish homes, smashing Jewish businesses and digging up Jewish graves - heaven help us! We talk to our friends who live in Israel and hear about stonings and drive-by shootings. We vacation in Israel and experience passing metal detectors as we enter coffee shops and shopping malls. We hear radio reports about kidnapped soldiers and pray that they are still alive.

The biggest problem of all is that nobody ever speaks of solutions. All speakers who come from Israel focus on the problems I just listed, or mention even more! They ask for assistance in helping them cope, getting them through the day or building some kind of hospital for the wounded. Every once in a while a temporary "band-aid" is proposed but never a cure for the sickness. The disease continues and since KGH loves Israel, your pain continues as well.

I came to spend Shabbat in KGH because you needed to finally hear a positive message - one of hope and optimism! You were thirsty for solutions and I tried my best to describe it to you. In a word, that solution is leadership and in the three shuls in which I spoke, I explained how the religious Zionists need to build strong leadership for the State of Israel that is based exclusively on Torah concepts and values, Emunah in the Jewish people and Bitachon in the One above.

I described how my group, Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership), is building that exact leadership and how it plans on succeeding. The religious Zionist camp has done great things in Israel. We have built communities, mikvahs, shuls and Torah centers. We are the champions in Chessed and first in all IDF combat units - but absolutely dead last when it comes to leading the nation. I spent an entire Shabbat explaining how this must change and, thank G-d, my message was received with great excitement and enthusiasm.

Yes, it is a bold goal but one that must succeed. It would be much easier to talk about building a new Yeshiva in Jerusalem, helping victims of terror or caring for the sick. Of course, all of these things are very important, but we cannot afford ourselves the "luxury" of overlooking the #1 most important goal; Taking away the reins of leadership from those who cannot explain the reason to live in Israel to their own children! The days of Shimon Peres and Co. - who focus on "The New Middle East" and dream of Israel as a "Hebrew speaking Singapore" - directing Israel cannot continue. Only those deeply connected to our Father in heaven, who pray daily for His people's return to Zion and yearn for the rebuilding of the Bet Ha'Mikdash are worthy to lead.

This is what I spoke about on my first Shabbat in KGH after 21 years, and if you didn't hear me, please visit my organization's website which explains our program in great detail. It's simply called www.JewishIsrael.org because that is the goal: Leading Israel based on Jewish values and making Israel proud to be Jewish! I urge you to help me turn the state of the Jews into the Jewish State.

Ultimately, every one reading this article will live in our wonderful land and that will be a great day. In the meantime, take your slice from Benjy's, your ice-cream cone from Max and Minna's and your humus from Ha'Pisga and get involved in bringing authentic, strong and Jewish leadership to Eretz Yisrael! Learn more at: www.JewishIsrael.org and help change Israel's leadership forever!

The Show is Still Going On

by Moshe Feiglin - Future Prime Minister of Israel

The “Orange” [anti-Expulsion] media was thrilled at the scoop of the week: The sincere remorse of a woman soldier who had evicted Jews from Gush Katif. Her guilty conscience, sleepless nights and request for forgiveness were splashed all over the nationalist newspapers and airwaves.

If we analyze Israeli reality 3 years after the Expulsion (Ariel Sharon’s euphemistically named “Disengagement”), though, we will discover that while the soldier's story is a great journalistic item, most of the soldiers who took part in the Expulsion have not suffered the same remorse that this soldier reported. According to a poll taken among the expelling soldiers, it turns out that the absolute majority of the expellers sleep just fine at night. No guilt feelings disturb their slumber. The nightmares promised them by the broken-hearted Orange expellees have inexplicably stayed at bay. It may not be pleasant for us to accept, but this soldier's story is out of the ordinary.

Is this because the IDF soldiers do not have emotions? Do they have hearts of stone? True, the brainwashing - or in Orwellian terms, the 'mental preparation' - to which they were exposed accomplished its goal. During the expulsion, their hearts really did turn to stone. But from my personal experience I can testify that the eyes of the soldiers who came to expel us were not bad.

Three years have passed. Why is this guilt-ridden soldier still a lone blip on the screen? Why doesn't remorse engulf the tens of thousands of soldiers who participated in the Expulsion?

In a radio interview, the soldier explained that what is engraved in her memory is the scene of a young boy who refused to leave his home in Kfar Darom. Ultimately, his parents dragged him outside. Another realization that changed her outlook is the fact that the people who she expelled from their homes really had nowhere to go. The fact that three years later, most of them still do not have a proper home to replace the home from which they were expelled made her understand that the Expulsion was real.

What can we learn from this soldier's story? Throughout the entire Expulsion saga, this soldier was convinced that she was nothing more than an actress in a play with a pre-determined end. The play had good guys and bad guys. What she was sure of from the start was that at the end of the play, all the actors would join hands and take a bow. Of course, no real harm was supposed to be done and we would all be able to watch the sequel the following evening.

The little boy who refused to leave his home broke the spell. He refused to be an actor in the play. The tears and speeches of his parents didn't budge her. As far as she was concerned, they were just playing their part. But the little boy - not yet confused by state supremacy theories - convinced the soldier that for him, there was no play, simply because he refused to leave.

Three years later, this soldier realizes that the Orange actors were genuinely harmed. They really do not have houses or fields or jobs. It really wasn't a play. Now she realizes that if it's not a play, she wasn't just an actress. She was a real live soldier driving real live people out of their homes.

Those Orange leaders who chose to protest instead of to fight wrote the script for all the actors in the play. It's no wonder that the expellers sleep well at night. Did you ever see an actor in the role of the bad guy who feels that he must apologize?

Moshe Feiglin Protests at Chinese Embassy

Last Wednesday, about 50 people protested outside the Chinese embassy in Tel Aviv against Israel's participation in the Olympics. The following is Moshe Feiglin's speech at the protest:

Most of Israel's population is concentrated within a radius of 15 kilometers from the point at which we stand. Israel is so small, and many people wonder how or why we should take on the immense nation of China. Who are we to raise the flag of opposition against this Olympics of oppression? Who are we to protest when the U.S., France and England are all participating in this event?

In truth, though, we are not small at all. We are the nation that was redeemed from Egypt over three thousand years ago. We are the nation that brought the concept of liberty to the world. We are the nation whose Bible is the basis of all human civilization. We are the nation that the entire world sees as a moral example – whether we recognize that fact or not. And whether we like it or not, the State of Israel is the representative of the Jewish nation. When the Israeli delegation marches under the flag of the blood-stained Chinese regime, it lends moral legitimacy to the horrors being perpetrated there.

Whoever claims that the Olympics are merely a sporting event and that there is no reason to mix sports with politics, should remember the Berlin Olympics. There, the entire world marched under the flag of the Nazi regime, lending it much-needed legitimacy. Those Olympics were the harbinger of the Second World War and the Holocaust.

The Jew and the moral message that his very existence projects is the ultimate foe of any totalitarian regime. Every totalitarian that strives to conquer the world must, by definition, see the Jew as his absolute enemy and seek to destroy him. A Jew who supports this type of regime ultimately threatens his own existence.

A Virtual Tour of the Temple Mount

(The Coming Temple)

by Moshe Feiglin, Future Prime Minister of Israel

On the 19th of every Hebrew month I have the privilege to guide a group of Jews on the Temple Mount. At 7:30 in the morning, I wait at the main entrance to the Western Wall for the people who will join me. The people who come are not average tourists. Before they arrive, they purify themselves in a ritual bath, put on non-leather shoes and make sure that they know where it is permissible by Jewish law to walk on the Temple Mount.

This week is part of the period of mourning for our destroyed, holy Temple. As such, I invite you to join me here for a virtual tour. I hope that someday you will join me in Jerusalem for the real thing.

At 7:30 we enter the side entrance that leads to the Mugrabim Gate. Well, we don't really enter. Other groups of tourists from around the world or groups of Israelis who look like tourists sail right past the security. But for us - the Jews who look like Jews - there is a special procedure. We must undergo a body check. On the surface, it seems like the police are searching for weapons, as is the norm in all public places since the Oslo 'Peace' Accords descended upon us. But actually, they are searching for something much more dangerous. They are searching for prayer books. One time, a particularly industrious policeman caught me with a Grace after Meals card that I always carry in my wallet. I began to laugh and almost got myself arrested.

After it is clear that we are free of any dangerous prayer materials, we undergo a briefing. The group is sternly informed that it is forbidden to pray on the Temple Mount - the site of the Jewish holy Temple. "Whoever prays," the policeman warns, "will be arrested, and will not be allowed on the Temple Mount next time." After that degrading ceremony, we ascend to the holiest place in the world. The yearning for this place and for the Temple that will be built upon it has preserved our identity for close to 2,000 years.

We gingerly step onto the wooden bridge that will bring us to the Mugrabim Gate, above the Western Wall. Before we enter the gate, I ask my group to look down below, to the Herodian street that was uncovered in the archeological digs in and around the Temple Mount. This is the street on which Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon walked. On the day of the destruction of the Temple, 1,938 years ago, Roman soldiers toppled the huge stones of the Western Wall onto the street below. This pile of rocks was unearthed and wisely left by the archeologists as it had been found. It provides us with a snapshot of the day that the Temple was destroyed.

With awe in our hearts we enter the Temple Mount. The awe is almost immediately sidelined by what feels like an emotional sledgehammer to the head. Arab children are playing soccer. Other Arabs sit in the shade and chew on a sandwich. The Temple Mount looks like a Moslem park. Our holy Temple of the past peeks out at us from everywhere, but you have to be able to see past the sorry picture of the present. Exquisitely crafted marble pillars from the Second Temple period are scattered about the Mount. Remnants of the gold plating that covered the pillars can still be detected in the cracks.

A Moslem guard joins our group. He keeps his eyes on our lips. If he sees someone whispering a prayer, he immediately informs the Jewish policeman, who will call extra forces to arrest the “criminal”.

And now, we stand at the entrance to the Hulda Gates. It is from here that the Jews who came from near and far for the Jewish holidays would enter the Temple Mount. It was here that, after days of walking to Jerusalem, they would finally see the Temple in all its glory. We can imagine how, when they would come face to face with the house of G-d, they would bow down with intense devotion. We stand silently as we face the Dome of the Rock that covers the Foundation Stone, the site of the Holy of Holies. We tightly seal our lips. Remember, it is forbidden for Jews to pray here.

We continue. Off to the side we see what looks like a pile of junk. We approach the pile. This is not junk, but huge, ancient wooden planks. When a fire broke out at the Dome of the Rock a number of years ago, large amounts of these planks were removed from there. A Jewish man managed to buy some of those planks from an Arab junk dealer. He sent them for botanical examination and for Carbon-14 dating. The tests showed that the planks are made of cedar and cypress trees - the very same trees cited in the Book of Kings - the trees that Hiram the king of Tzor sent to King Solomon to build the 1st Temple. The lab dated the trees to the 1st Temple period. When a 2,000 year-old boat was discovered in the Sea of Galilee, a museum was built in Ginosar to house the vessel that may have carried the Jew who founded Christianity. But remnants of the 1st Temple? Just throw them into the junk pile. That is how Israel relates to its Jewish identity.

We continue to walk. The Arabs have been digging through the center of the mountain for years and have already cleared an immense area that now houses the largest mosque in the Middle East. They do their best to destroy any remnant of the Jewish Temple. The Israeli government allows them to dig and destroy as they please. Piles of debris - chock full of ancient, priceless artifacts - are regularly trucked off to Jerusalem garbage dumps. Jews who pick through the piles of debris have found amazing artifacts from both Temples. The gray tone of the debris piqued the interest of Temple loyalists. Laboratory tests confirmed what they suspected. The dominant factor in the debris is ash. 1,938 years ago, a huge fire burned here.

We reach the entrance of the sanctuary. This is where the priests raised their hands to bless Israel. We stand in silence. Strong emotions of awesome sanctity and horrifying degradation storm through our hearts. And here we end our virtual tour. I have presented you with just a taste of what we experience on the Temple Mount. Whoever wishes to learn more is welcome to join me on the 19th of every month.

The famous, prophetic poet, Uri Tzvi Greenberg, wrote: "He who rules the Temple Mount rules the Land of Israel." The Temple Mount is the beating heart of the Land of Israel. Our national heart is no longer circulating the blood to our organs. On the periphery - in Sderot and Ashkelon - gangrene has set in and begun to spread. When Jews give the keys to the Mount to a foreign nation, they forgo the justice of their claim to any other part of the Land. The most important weapon that a nation can have - belief in the justice of its cause - has been denied us, and we steadily retreat. If we deny the Mount, we cannot claim that our cause is just. Not in Jerusalem and not in Tel Aviv.

If we want to return to ourselves - to our moral health, our culture, our security and our destiny - if we want to bring peace to our Land and to the world, we must remember the destroyed house of G-d and tenaciously return to the Temple Mount.