Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Something to ponder here...

***By the grace of G-d***

"A Chabad House in Gush Katif one of the many buildings destroyed in Gaza area after 8500 innocent Jews men, women and children were forcefully evicted because of the American sponsored "disengagement"
/ "New Orleans Flooded, 850,000 people "evicted" from their homes because of "G-d sponsored" hurricane Katrina"

Something to ponder here....

TEN MAJOR EVENTS
(Relating to Israel's Covenant Land) )
1. October 30,
1991: The Perfect Storm—As President George H. W. Bush
is opening the Madrid (Spain) Conference to consider
“land for peace” in Israel’s Middle East role, the
“perfect storm” develops in the North Atlantic,
creating the largest waves ever recorded in that
region. The storm travels 1000 miles from “east to
west” instead of the normal “west to east” pattern and
crashes into the New England Coast. Thirty-five foot
waves crash into the Kennebunkport home of President
Bush.

2. August 23, 1992: Hurricane Andrew—When the Madrid
Conference moves to Washington DC and the peace talks
resume, Hurricane Andrew, the worst natural disaster
ever to hit America, comes ashore and produces an
estimated $30 billion in damage and leaving 180,000
homeless in Florida.

3. January 16, 1994: Northridge Earthquake—President
Bill Clinton meets with Syria's President Hafez
el-Assad in Geneva. They talk about a peace agreement
with Israel that includes giving up the Golan Heights.
Within 24 hours, a powerful 6.9 earthquake rocks
Southern California, This quake, centered in
Northridge, becomes the second most destructive
natural disaster to hit the United States, behind
Hurricane Andrew,

4. January 21, 1998: Lewinsky Scandal—Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President
Clinton at the White House and is coldly received.
Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
refuse to have lunch with him. Shortly afterwards on
that day, the Monica Lewinsky scandal breaks into the
mass media and begins to occupy a major portion of
Clinton's time.

5. September 28, 1998: Hurricane George—As Secretary
of State Albright works on the final details of an
agreement in which Israel would give up 13 percent of
Yesha (Judah and Samaria), Hurricane George slams into
the United States Gulf Coast with 110 mph winds and
gusts up to 175 mph. The hurricane hits the coast and
stalled. On September 28, Clinton meets with Yasser
Arafat and Netanyahu at the White House to finalize
this land deal. Later, Arafat addresses the United
Nations about declaring an independent Palestinian
state by May 1999, as Hurricane George pounds the Gulf
Coast, causing $1 billion in damage. At the exact time
that Arafat departs the country, the storm begins to
dissipate.

6. October 15-22, 1998: Texas Flooded—On October 15,
1998, Arafat and Netanyahu meet at the Wye River
Plantation in Maryland. The talks are scheduled to
last five days with the focus on Israel giving up 13
percent of Yesha. The talks are extended and conclude
on October 23. On October 17, awesome rains and
tornadoes hit southern Texas. The San Antonio area is
deluged with rain. The rain and flooding in Texas
continue until October 22 and then subside. The floods
ravage 25 percent of Texas and leave over one billion
dollars in damage. On October 21, Clinton declares
this section of Texas a major disaster area.

7. November 30, 1998: Market Capitalization
Evaporates—Arafat comes to Washington again to meet
with President Clinton to raise money for a
Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital. A
total of 42 other nations were represented in
Washington. All the nations agreed to give Arafat $3
billion in aid. Clinton promised $400 million, and the
European nations $1.7 billion. On the same day, the
Dow Jones average drops 216 points, and on December 1,
the European Market had its third worst day in
history. Hundreds of billions of market capitalization
were wiped out in the U.S. and Europe.

8. December 12, 1998: Clinton is Impeached—As Clinton
lands in the Palestinian-controlled section of Israel
to discuss the “land for peace” process, the House of
Representatives votes four articles of impeachment
against him.

9. May 3, 1999: The Powerful Super Tornado—On the day
that Yasser Arafat is scheduled to declare a
Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital, the
most powerful tornado storm system ever to hit the
United States sweeps across Oklahoma and Kansas. The
winds are clocked at 316 mph the fastest wind speed
ever recorded. The declaration is postponed to
December 1999 at the request of President Clinton,
whose letter to Arafat encourages him in his
"aspirations for his own land." He also writes that
the Palestinians have a right to "determine their own
future on their own land" and that they deserve to
"live free, today, tomorrow and forever."

10. Week of October 11: Hurricane, Earthquake and Dow
Collapse—As Jewish settlers in 15 West Bank (Israel)
settlements are evicted from the covenant land in
Israel, the Dow-Jones financial averages lose 5.7
percent in the worst week since October 1989. On
October 15 the Dow lost 266 points, and a hurricane
slams into North Carolina. On the next morning,
October 16, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocks the
southwest in the fifth most powerful earthquake in
20th Century. The earthquake was centered in the
California desert and did little damage but was felt
in three states.

Not to mention, the U.S. was trying to broker a deal between Israel and the Palensteinian authority, that would cause Israel to lose control of some sections of Jerusalem, shortly there after, the American Catholic Church Scandal happened. With this, Current situation in New Orleans and energy problems, just as the US was showing support for the Gaza strip pull out. Isn't it weird that this hurricane is forcing every one in New Orleans to evacuate shortly after the Jews were forced to evacuate the Gaza strip?
(The above article was found posted on a non-denominational forum you are welcome to verify the historical acuracyof the corelation of the events mentioned.)
With respect and blessing.
Ariel Sokolovsky
http://www.torah.5u.com/aboutme.html

PS. For another way to look at it see the article by Rabbi Simon Jacobson here: http://moshiachtv.blogspot.com/2005/09/katrina-and-gaza-what-we-know-and-what.html (While I personally don't totaly agree with a number of points in it I think one should look at the issue from both points of view the article above seems to describe the events in terms of Devine providence behind them while Rabbi Jacobson's article reminds us to be less judgemental and more introspective...
PPS. See also the article here in question and answer section: http://chabad.info/files/hageula/en/56_Ki_Tetze.pdf
http://www.Moshiach.TV
http://www.GeulaInvestmentTrust.com
http://www.ChabadTravel.com

Long Live our Master our Teacher and our Rebbe King Moshiach Forever and Ever!

Giving Over Gaza Endangers Lives

חדשות חב"ד


Giving Over Gaza Endangers Lives

Yesterday, the IDF abandoned the Gaza Strip and formally handed over authority in the area to the Palestinians.  Immediately, swarms of Palestinians filled the area, looting, destroying and burning the synagogues and whatever was left standing.  "Talks about autonomy are the first step to giving over parts of Eretz Yisroel - not only small sections but major territory such as Yehudah, Shomron, Azza, Chevron and Yerushalayim... This is actual danger to life!"  Thus the Rebbe warned Moshe Katzav, who now serves as the President of the government of expulsion and retreat.
More in full article.


The most painful aspect of the destruction of Gush Katif was that it was done with the assistance, support and choice of Jews, including so-called "Charedi" parties. This reminds us of the continuation of the Rebbe's words to Katzav:

"It's not proper that a Jew who believes in Hashem and His Torah should Chas V'Shalom be a partner to such things and sign on such things. Therefore, it's better that the government should fall apart and there should be no Jewish government, because these things are being discussed only because of pressure from the nations of the world (as they themselves say), and if this is the case it's better to set up a government of non-Jews in Israel and they will decide from the outset what to do about Israel, at least it won't be Jews signing on such things!"




אז....



Katrina And Gaza What We Know and What We Don’t

By the grace of G-d
Shalom everyone!
While I don't totaly agree (see for example: http://moshiachtv.blogspot.com/2005/09/something-to-ponder-here.html ) with the article bellow I decided to post it here to stimulate a discussion about the issues involved.
With respect and blessing.
Ariel Sokolovsky
http://www.Torah.5u.com/aboutme.html

http://www.Moshiach.tv

Katrina And Gaza
What We Know and What We Don’t
By Simon Jacobson

And the living shall take to heart.
Dear Rabbi Jacobson,

I have heard some people suggesting that there is link between the recent Israeli evacuation from Gaza with the catastrophic devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast. Citing Biblical statements they are claiming that throughout history nations of the world have been punished for hurting the Jewish people. Since the United States pressured Israel to disengage from Gaza, which is against the will of G-d according to this theory, this country was punished, tit for tat, with the worst natural disaster in the USA that forced the evacuation of millions of people from Southern United States, and continues to be plagued by inept rescue efforts, rendering this mighty nation as helpless as a third world country.

Some are even comparing the recent order to forcibly evacuate the 10,000 remaining residents in New Orleans with the forcible evacuation of approximately the same number of Jewish residents in Gaza. Here’s a link where these issues are discussed. http://p069.ezboard.com/fmessiahtruthfrm1.showMessage?topicID=1656.topic

Mind you, not all are arguing that this correlation needs to publicized or discussed. Rather they see it as unspeakable concern among the faithful.

I would like to have your opinion on this matter.

Thank you,

Dear,

While it’s true that Torah way of thinking see the entire universe as one integral whole and that our actions in one place of the world affects events in another, great care must be taken before drawing any direct parallels between events, especially catastrophes that have taken the lives of many innocent people.

None of us know G-d’s mysterious ways and it is therefore quite presumptuous, if not outright arrogant, to definitively state that any particular catastrophe is a result of any given act, either on or off location.

If we were to take such license, just where do you stop? What about the six million who perished in the Holocaust – is that too a direct result or punishment of some human action?

What would prevent us from “finger pointing” every time a disaster happened, looking to lay blame on sinning scapegoats?

Whether it be a “natural” disaster or one perpetrated by men, the Torah advocates that we cry out to G-d when innocent people die. The entire basis of prayer essentially is stating that we pray for healing the sick and the dying, and do not attempt to “justify” their suffering by attributing it to their or someone else’s sins. If we were to correlate every illness to a direct punishment, we then should not have the right to pray for anyone and try to change the course Divinely destined upon the ill.

You may then ask question: Isn’t every event in the world controlled by Divine Providence, even a leaf blowing in the wind, definitely a major hurricane that killed and misplaced so many people? And isn’t it true that the concept of Divine reward and punishment is a form of cause and effect (totally unlike the superficial and circumstantial nature of human reward and punishment)? Just as a hand gets burned when placed in fire, so too do our actions bring upon us various consequences.

And what about the words of Maimonides: “When a calamity strikes the public we must see it as a result of our evil actions. We must cry out, examine our lives and correct our ways. To say that the calamity is merely a natural phenomenon and a chance occurrence is insensitive and cruel (Laws of Fasting 1:2-3)?

Doesn’t it then make sense to conclude that a tragedy like Hurricane Katrina is an effect of our own actions? Why then can’t we say that the Gulf coast disaster was caused by Israel’s disengagement from Gaza?

The answer, my friend, lies in the very words of Maimonides. Maimonides does not say that a calamity should elicit a “witch hunt” to find the wicked culprits that brought the tragedy upon us. He says the exact opposite: Every individual that witnessed, experienced or heard about a calamity must not ignore it, but see it as a personal wake up call for introspection, to “examine our lives and correct our ways.”

So, yes, Hurricane Katrina should not be seen merely as “a natural phenomenon and a chance occurrence;” that would be “insensitive and cruel.” It should serve as a wake up call – to wake ourselves up, not for us to wake up others and clamor for a scapegoat to blame. That would defeat the entire purpose: Instead of focusing on our personal behavior we deflect the entire experience as someone’s else’s problem and caused by another’s sins. That’s the easy way out: Hey, it’s not my problem; it was caused by the Israelis and the American government.

Maimonides is telling us, no! It is your problem. When a calamity strikes, you have to look into your own heart, examine your own behavior and repair your ways. Is there a more sensitive thing we can do for the suffering? The greatest honor we can bestow on those that have tragically died or been misplaced is to become better people because of them…

In conclusion: The Gulf Coast disaster should cause us to privately and discreetly look at our own lives and improve our ways. But it should not become a mud slinging contest looking for whom to blame. T

here are things we know and there are things we don’t know. There are events that the Torah specifically tells us happened because of human sins, like the great flood in the times of Noah, or great fire that destroyed the city of Sodom. The Torah has the authority to tell us that. But in all other situations, where we do not have a Divine authority informing us otherwise, we simply do not have enough information or insight to determine the exact cause for any given catastrophe.

And that lack of knowledge should not be seen as a liability. Our sages teach that we are not given a challenge that we cannot face. What we know – and what we don’t know – is exactly what we need to fulfill our mission in life. The fact that we do not know the correlation of different events in life means that we don’t need to know that information to achieve our calling.

Hurricane Katrina, perhaps the greatest natural disaster in modern American history, should definitely make us think. I for one cannot say that events in the Gulf Coast are not related to events in the Gaza coast or for that matter anywhere else in the world. But we surely cannot say that it is connected.

What we do need to know is that we must always feel responsible and see that our actions affect the world around us. “A person must see himself and the world as equally balanced on two ends of the scale; by doing one good deed, he tips the scale and brings for himself and the entire world redemption and salvation” (Maimonides, Laws of Repentance, 3:4). A person is responsible to say that the entire world was created for me; when you save a life you save the universe” (Mishne Sanhedrin 37a).

When a calamity strikes, especially one that affects large numbers of people, we need to know that we must look into our selves and become better people.

Beyond that is G-d’s domain.


Long Live our Master our Teacher and our Rebbe King Moshiach Forever and Ever!
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