The Hurricane of Peace

Many are pointing to the irony of the name of the hurricane that stands to threaten over 65 million people this weekend--Irene is derived from the name the Greeks gave to their goddess of peace. The End Times Forecaster points out that the threat of Irene follows pressure by the U.S. on Israel to agree for the first time that a Palestinian state should follow '67 borders earlier this month. Just as the U.S. is guiding Israel down a path of destruction in the guise of 'peace', so it faces an ironically-named whirlwind of destruction, right through its major metropolitan areas.

Moreover, while the world is conspiring to vote in favor of a unilateral Palestinian state on Israeli land on September 20th, Israel's historical ally, the United States, has stood silent. And as Israel continues to be barraged by rocket fire after a triple terrorist attack in the South last week, the U.S. and other Western countries sufficed to call for restraint in the region, rather than differentiate between perpetrator and victim.

The last major hurricane to inflict historical damage on the U.S. was Katrina, which took place almost exactly six years ago, in late August 2005. One week before Katrina hit, Israel evacuated nearly 10,000 people from their homes on the West coast of Israel to clear space for what would become a terror launching pad for Hamas, a move which was made in a large part as a result of U.S. pressure on Israel. A week after Katrina, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Levin blamed Katrina on U.S. pressure on Israel to concede to Palestinian demands.

Edom can do teshuva, but so long as it guides the apple of Hashem's eye down a road of destruction, it shares the same fate--yet without the promise of eternal, unconditional protection.

Edom: the last exile

Flight of the Prisoners, depicting the Babylonian exile (James Tissot)

 The following is taken from weekly e-mail from George Friedman, head of STRATFOR, a global intelligence company. In summarizing his new book, The Next Decade, he has some extremely interesting insights about the challenges facing the US empire and the similarities between ancient Rome and the contemporary US.

The first is the idea that the United States is an unintended empire of vast power, deeply interlocked with the affairs of most of the world. It is not a question of whether Americans want this empire; it is impossible to let go. The question is what to do with it. Like a child you did not expect and may not have welcomed, it is still your responsibility.

The second concept is what I call the Machiavellian Presidency. I consider three presidents exemplary: Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Reagan. Each possessed a deep moral core. Each fully understood the uses of power, lying and violating the Constitution and human rights to achieve the respective moral necessities of the abolition of slavery, the destruction of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, and the destruction of the Soviet Union. When we recall that Roosevelt allied with Stalin to defeat Hitler, we capture the Machiavellian President.

The United States has stumbled into empire. It now faces the crisis of Rome that the empire will annihilate the republic. I argue that of all the institutions of our Constitution, it is the president who can preserve the republic while managing the empire. I also argue that the greatest threat to the republic is living in denial about what the United States has become. The issue, then, is how to manage the unintended and unwanted in the next decade.

Many interpretations which link Jewish prophecies to contemporary geopolitics rest on a connection between ancient Rome, called Edom in the Bible and rabbinic thought, and contemporary Western civilization. The Jewish people experienced four exiles: Egypt, Bablyon, Persia (Iran), and Edom--the last and longest one, which characterizes the present state of Jewish exile: material abundance, subordination to Western values, assimilation, a seeming sense of freedom and success that totters between spiritual depravity and messianic potential. As far as the forces of Egypt, Persia and Bablyon, we await to see the complete annihilation of their influence over us. However, when it comes to Edom, which is represented by Jacob's brother Esau, we anticipate the day when Edom will do teshuva (return). Edom's negative aspects are redeemable, and with the proper orientation, Edom is the last step and therefore a springboard to geulah (redemption).

On this note, it is interesting that this week has been full of news of anti-Semitic outbursts: Assange, Galliano, Sheen...The 'Jewish conspiracy' threorists are alive and well. On the one hand, these malicious outbursts are abominable and worthy of punishment, and Dior should be commended for immediately firing their top designer. On the other hand, the deeper truth is that Edom and all of its success has everything to do with the Jewish people. The world was created for Israel, and we have a role to serve. Before God reveals himself to the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai, He tells Moses that the Jewish people were chosen to be a nation of Kohanim, or priests. Just as the role of a priest a the Temple was to bring God down to the people, and to raise the people to be closer to God, so the role of the Jewish people is to bring God into the world and to bring the world to God.

And every being will know that you brought it into being, and every creation will understand that you are the one created it, and all that has breath in his nostrils will say, God of Israel is King, and his kingdom rules over everything.

The Dialectic of Rome and Jerusalem

Sack of Jerusalem, from the Arch of Titus in Rome

If someone tells you that both Caesarea (the Roman colonial capital of Judea) and Jerusalem are in ruins or that both are inhabited, do not believe him. But if he says that Caesarea is in ruins and Jerusalem is inhabited or that Caesarea is inhabited and Jerusalem is in ruins, believe him, as it says, 'I shall be filled with her that is laid waste' - If one is full, the other is in ruins, if one is in ruins, the other is full (Megillah 6a)

Rav Nachman said: Initially, when they brought wine libations from Judah , their wine never became sour. but now it is the wine of the Edomites that does not become sour, as it says: 'I shall be filled with her that is laid waste' If one is full, the other is in ruins, if one is in ruins, the other is full (Pesachim 42b)

Rashi: 'I shall be filled with her that is laid waste' this verse (Ezekiel 26:2) begins with 'Tzor said to Jerusalem...I will become full from her destruction' and Tzor is from Edom.

According to Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Greenbaum, on the pshat level, the Tzor from the verse in Ezekiel that capitalizes on Jerusalem's destruction refers to the Lebanese city of Tyre, the center of maritime trade in the Mediterranean (note the passage of Iranian warships this week through the present-day centers of Mediterranean trade).

However, according to Rabbi Eliezer, "every place in the Bible where tzor is spelled chaser (i.e. without the vav, i.e. tzr instead of tzr), it refers to Edom." (Tanchuma Va-Era ch. 13) Without the vav, Tzar means oppressor, or Rome, which became present-day Western civilization, while the root tzor with a vav means to create, as in the center of trade. 

On the pshat level, "Aha! I shall be filled with her that is laid waste" refers to the destruction of Tyre in the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. However, according to the rabbinic interpretation of the verse in Pesachim and Megillah, the verse refers to Rome's glee at the destruction of Jerusalem and the downfall of Israel. Hashem does not forget; because Rome used Israel's destruction for its own advantage, history will proceed according to the dialectic tension between Rome and Jerusalem.

"אמלאה החרבה"  (יחזקאל כו, ב) אם מלאה זו חרבה זו ואם מלאה זו חרבה זו  (פסחים מ"ב ע"ב)

רש"י: אמלאה החרבה - רישא דקרא יען אמרה צור לירושלים האח וגו' אתמלא מן חורבנה של ירושלים וצור מאדום היא:

אם יאמר לך אדם חרבו שתיהן אל תאמן ישבו שתיהן אל תאמן חרבה קסרי וישבה ירושלים חרבה ירושלים וישבה קסרי תאמן שנאמר (יחזקאל כו, ב) אמלאה החרבה אם מליאה זו חרבה זו אם מליאה זו חרבה זו (מגילה ו ע"א)

בן אדם יען אשר אמרה צר על ירושלים: האח! נשברה דלתות העמים, נסבה אלי אמלאה החרבה (יחזקאל כו, ב)

והמבין יבין She who is wise will understand