Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Be Afraid of Your Brother


By Shmuel Sackett

As you know, the Torah does not add any unnecessary words. Simply put, if something is in the Torah, it is there for a reason! Therefore, in this week’s Parsha, when Yaakov begs to Hashem; “Save me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav…” there is a deep lesson to be learned. After all, Yaakov had only one brother – so why does the Torah bother telling us his name? Every 3rd grader knows the name of Yaakov’s brother! The verse should have said either; “Save me from the hand of my brother”or “Save me from the hand of Esav” but not both!

This question can easily be answered by simply following the news from Israel each day. The terror attacks plaguing the country are not done by highly trained, skilled terrorists. Those guys would be called “Esav” and they are simple to defeat, if we had leadership that truly wanted victory. The Esavs of the world are Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Al Queda and ISIS. We know who they are and we know how to defeat them. As a matter of fact, the “gemmatria” of Esav is 376. In Hebrew, ISIS is called “Da’ash” and is written “Daled, Aleph, Ayin, Aleph, Shin” which equals that same number 376. Therefore it is very clear that ISIS is ESAV and so are all their buddies. These enemies are fierce and deadly but the day Israel decides to defeat them they can – and will – be wiped off the face of the earth. Yes, Hashem needs to protect us from Esav, which is why Yaakov prayed for that, but that was not the enemy he truly feared.

Yaakov’s real threat was from his brother. Yes, that person was called “Esav” but it was like Clark Kent and Superman – same guy, but different identities. Clark Kent was the “mild, mannered reporter” while Superman was this incredible hero who did everything imaginable. Esav was like that, only completely opposite. As “Esav” he was an evil Superman who killed, hunted and was a red-blooded terror machine but as Yaakov’s “brother” he was a mild mannered guy, the sweet son of Yitzchak and Rivka only with a knife hidden behind his back ready to plunge it into Yaakov when the opportunity arose. The Nesivos Shalom writes that the far more dangerous attribute of Esav was when he acted as a “brother” and not as an “Esav”.

All of this comes to light as we read the news from Israel. As stated above, the daily stabbings are not from Esav. Think about it; when is the last time you heard that Hamas or Hezbollah shot a rocket? They don’t need to because they are accomplishing far more by being a “brother” than by being an “Esav”!! Last week’s attack which killed 2 men as they were going to daven Mincha in Tel Aviv was done by a 35 year old Arab, married with 5 kids who had all the necessary permits to work in a Tel Aviv cafĂ©. That beast was not an Esav… he was a brother. He worked hard, laughed with his co-workers and was a pleasure to be around. Nobody would have hired him had he been an “Esav” so he put on his happy face and became a “brother”. Everyone knew him and he walked the streets of Tel Aviv freely… like a good brother. This is exactly what Yaakov was begging of Hashem – save me from Esav (ISIS and company) but also save me from these brothers.

The time has come to stop being politically correct and say the truth – say what my dear Rabbi said over and over again:They Must Go!!! Rabbi Meir Kahane was shunned, ridiculed and banned but it never fazed him. He spoke about it, wrote about it and debated anyone who had the guts to get on a public stage with him. How many more Jews would be alive today had we listened to this great Tzaddik? All the tears this past week for the holy Ezra Schwartz would never have been shed had we stood strong and paid attention to what he was teaching us. Trust me that Rabbi Kahane was not warning us about Esav. No matter what you do there will always be an Esav. 20 years ago it was Sadaam Hussein, 15 years ago it was Al Queda, 10 years ago it was Hezbollah, 5 years ago it was Hamas and now it is ISIS. Even though we can defeat these enemies, they will come back as a new Esav but that is not our problem. Our challenge is not Esav… it’s our brother. It is the Arab who lives in Israel and is educated inside our country. It is the Arab who speaks Hebrew better than 99% of the people reading this article (sorry, but it’s true) and the Arab who works in Jerusalem hotels and Tel Aviv cafes.

We have a wonderful, humane solution to this problem called “Paid Emigration” where every Arab family gets financial assistance to leave Israel. The home he built will be bought by the government (if it was built legally and with all necessary permits) and he and his family will be helped every step of the way to pursue their dreams outside of “the dreaded occupation”. Since statistics show that 72% of them want to leave Israel anyway, this plan is their free ticket to the fulfillment of their goal. When you think about it, we really should them help them because – after all – aren’t they our brothers???

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