Korah: Democracy or Divine Aristocracy for Israel?

Winston Churchill said, that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time...” implying that they were even worse (speech in the House of Commons, 1947, quoting an unknown source).

I’m not sure that the God of Israel agrees, we’ll see.

But, that does seem to be the conventional wisdom of the modern era. Democracy rules. There have been some failed attempts at other forms of governing, but it’s never turned out good for most of the people under that type of authoritarian regime.

Yet we find today, in the CoronaVirus pandemic era, China has been pushing its model of governance, with one party rule, as more responsive to the crisis. They are claiming to meet the true needs of the people (public health), over what governments in the democratic west, are capable of providing their citizens.

With the threat of a possible second wave of infections growing, with the lockdowns, forced business closures, contact tracing, drone and robotic patrolling, facial recognition technology used, immunity certificates, and other invasive methods taken or being discussed by democratic governments, to control the outbreaks, we find elements of China’s model spreading like the virus itself, from east to west, eating away at citizen’s privacy and civil rights.

Citizens in western democratic countries, might awaken soon, to find themselves in many ways, living in countries, with surveillance and restrictions, much closer to China’s regime, than the democracy with its lawless protesters and rioters, they lived in, before the pandemic.

That said, in the Book of Exodus, we find The God of Israel, just before the revelation at Mount Sinai, commanding Moses, to tell the people of Israel, “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests [teachers of spirituality and morality-leaders to bring the world to God] and a holy [separated and elevated] nation [because of their special mission]...” (Exodus 19:6).

In this week’s Torah reading, Parshat Korah, we find a rebellion brewing against Moses and Aaron’s leadership, instigated by Korah, their cousin. Korah comes to Moses and Aaron with a mob of 250 community leaders and puts forth the pro-democracy argument, that they’ve taken too much power for themselves, “Why do you think you’re so much better than everyone else? We’re all part of the God’s holy people, and he’s with all of us. What makes you think you’re the only ones who should be in charge?” (Numbers 16:3).

What’s really bothering Korah?

Commentators discuss that. Both the Ibn Ezra and the Ramban, agree it took place about a year after leaving Egypt.

The Ibn Ezra argues that the rebellion took place, right after the inauguration of the Mishkan (Tabernacle), when Aaron and his sons were designated a Divinely created Aristocracy, to replace the firstborn, as the ones to perform the sacrificial service. Korah, a firstborn (Exodus 6:21), was embittered by this, and the 250 leaders with him, were also firstborn. Korah easily stirred them up.

Nachmanides, the Ramban, says that the rebellion took place right after the failed spying affair, described in Parshat Shlach. People resented the decree to stay in the desert [isolation?] and die off for another thirty nine years, and that only then, the next generation (of under twenty year olds) would enter the Holy Land. Again, easy pickings for Korah’s “democratic” rhetoric.

A series of proofs that Moses and Aaron were indeed the divinely chosen leaders now ensues.

Moses claiming everything he said and did was God’s will, declares that to prove it, the earth should open and swallow Korah and others with him, and it does. Then a fire from God breaks out and consumes the 250 community leaders. But that only postpones the rebellion.

The next day, the mob still inspired by Korah’s democratic vision, protests to Moses and Aaron saying, “You have killed the people of God.” God tells Moses to get away from them and He’ll destroy the rebels. But Moses and Aaron instead, pray for mercy. Then, Moses tells Aaron to run and get the incense pans for atonement, as a plague [like the CoronaVirus] breaks out. By the time Aaron stands between the living and the dead, and the plague is quelled, 14,700 democratic activists have died (Numbers 16:28-17:15).

Note the huge spike in infections, with the protests in America.

God now orders Moses to tell the remaining 12 tribal leaders, to take bare almond staffs and place them in the Tent of Meeting, along with the staff of Aaron. The next day when Moses goes into the Tent, and removes them to show the leaders, their staffs are still just sticks, but Aaron’s has blossomed, sprouted buds, and grown ripe almonds. God then tells Moses to put Aaron’s staff back into the Tent and keep it as eternal proof of Aaron’s legitimate priestly line.

The people are frightened and complain to Moses, “We are lost. Everyone who comes close to the Mishkan will die. Will we ever stop perishing? [when will these draconian regulations and the pandemic end?]” (Numbers 17:16-28).

As if to rub salt into an open wound (of the democrats), or maybe better put, God re-enforces the lesson of Aaron’s legitimate priesthood and divinely chosen aristocracy, and that He, God, is in charge, not the mob of democratic activists. God now talks to Aaron about him, and his descendants service in the Mishkan, and later at the Temples in Jerusalem. He then describes the gifts the people will need to bring to the Kohanim (priests), and the tithes given to the Levites. Then God tells Moses about the tithes that Levites will give the Kohanim (Numbers 18:1-32).

These gifts and tithes, are a tax, to provide a salary for the priests and Levites national service, at the Mishkan, and Temples, in lieu of not receiving any portion in the Land, like the other tribes will, when they enter Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel).

So, a “democratic” rebellion was forcefully put down, and the primacy of divine aristocracy, through the Kohanim and Levites was preserved, and Moses continued as leader. But was Korah really a democrat? Did he really worry about “all the Holy People,” or was he a demagogue out for self-interest and self-aggrandizement, parading as a democrat?

In, The Republic, (Book VIII), Plato discusses five types of regimes. These five regimes progressively decline from Plato’s Ideals. Starting from Aristocracy at the top, his ideal, which is lead by a philosopher-king, to the lowest form, Tyranny led by a demagogue-dictator.

For Plato, the ruling class in Aristocracy, is made up of the philosophers-kings, with the aid of the soldiers and others in the government administration, whose job it is to force onto the majority of the people, the order established by the philosophers. What Plato calls, the Good. They are forbidden from owning property, in order to preclude, that the policies they undertake be tainted by personal interests.

The majority of the people are allowed to own property and produce goods for themselves, but are also obliged to sustain their rulers through contributions, i.e. taxes.

According to Plato, the aristocratic mindset of a just ruler, can be achieved through an intensive educational training, designed to produce intellectuals that are selfless and upright, aware of the absolute Good, by learning the Truth, based on the Platonic Ideas. Wealth, fame, and power are just shadows of the Good, not the True Good, therefore, the philosopher, who learns metaphysical contemplation, is not tempted to abuse his power in his pursuit of material goods, and his state policies are dedicated to establishing only the Good in the state, not his personal interests.

This sounds very similar to what we’ve just read in the Torah. The Torah promotes the idea that the Kohanim (also a teaching class), Levites, king and his administration, are to guide, and if necessary even force, the Jewish people into observing the Mitzvot (Commandments) of the Torah, to achieve God’s ideals. This was the system God was setting up, through Moses and Aaron’s leadership.

Maimonides, the Rambam, writes in his Mishneh Torah, Book of Kings And Their Wars 11:4, about the future Messiah (ideal Jewish leader), “If a king will arise from the House of David, who diligently contemplates the Torah and observes its Mitzvot, as prescribed by the Written Law and Oral Law, as David his ancestor did, will compel all of Israel to walk in the ways of the Torah, rectify the breaches to its observance, and fight the wars of God, we consider him possibly the Mashiach.”

About Democracy, Plato says, it is where freedom is now the highest value (not the Good), and the lowest classes grow bigger. The poor become the winners. People are free to do what they want and live how they want. The democratic man, in Plato’s scheme, takes great interest in all the things he can buy with his money. Modern international consumer culture.

Plato believes that democratic leaders are more concerned with money and power, than how one can help the people. We certainly see that today, among politicians. Democratic man does whatever he wants, whenever he wants to do it. His life has no order or priority.

Then finally at the bottom, Plato descibes Tyranny, where no one has discipline and society exists in chaos. Democracy is taken over by the longing for freedom. People can even break the law if they so choose. This appears to be very similar to anarchy, and what we’ve been seeing in America and around the world recently, with the Black Lives Matter-led “George Floyd” protests and riots.

We’ve all seen this recently in the US, where radical leftists have promoted the idea to “Defund the Police.” They’ve created police-free “democratically led” autonomous zones, like CHAZ/CHOP in Seattle. According to Plato, power must be seized by a strong man, to maintain order (as again we’ve seen happen in CHAZ/CHOP, with gun-toting leaders) which will cause them to become tyrants.

Interestingly, the Torah reading starts off, “And Korah took...” (Numbers 16:1).

What did he take? He took himself and his “democratic activists” aside, to separate themselves from the community (shades of CHAZ/CHOP), to argue against the system, the Divine Aristocracy, and against Moses and Aaron. Korah took advantage of the chaotic moment after the spying affair, to attempt to seize power.

Plato explains, the tyrannical mindset creates the worst form of man, due to his being the most unjust and thus the furthest removed from any joy of the true kind, the Good. He is consumed by desires, which cause him to do terrible things such as murder and plunder, there is complete lawlessness. The tyrant becomes a law unto himself.

There have been reports of shakedowns on local businesses, extorting money from shopkeepers in CHAZ/CHOP and the abuse of its own “citizens.” And, during the Black Lives Matter-led “George Floyd” protests and riots (although protesting supposedly for equality, democracy, and against police abuse); there have been many reports of specifically anti-Semitic epithets, graffiti, violence, and destruction being done. See my last article, “BLM and Black Nazis are Evil Like White Nazis.”

Korah too, like BLM, wants mob rule in the name of “democracy.” He was a demagogue, willing to sacrifice everyone else to achieve his power grab, as BLM and the far Left in America are doing today.

Yet, the God of Israel said, “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests [teachers of spirituality and morality-leaders to bring the world to God] and a holy [separated and elevated] nation [because of their special mission]...” (Exodus 19:6).

God wants to create a Holy Society in Israel, led by a Divine Aristocracy, with the Kohanim and Levites teaching and serving in the Temple, not a democracy. And, the Jewish king, who eschews all self-aggrandizement, writes for himself two Torah scrolls, one of which, he keeps with himself at all times to, “...read all the days of his life, so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees, and not consider himself better than his brothers, and turn away from Mitzvah observance…” (Deuteronomy 17:16-20).

The Rambam continues, about the future Messiah (ideal Jewish leader), “If he succeeds in all the above, builds the Temple in its place, and gathers the dispersed of Israel, he is definitely the Mashiach.

He will then improve the entire world, motivating all the nations to serve God together, as Zephaniah 3:9 states: ‘I will transform the peoples to a purer language that they all will call upon the name of God and serve Him with one purpose.’” In a sense to achieve Plato’s idea of the True Good, which he must have gotten from the Torah.

God wants a Divine Aristocracy for Israel, not a Democracy.

 

Ariel Natan Pasko, an independent analyst and consultant, has a Master's Degree specializing in International Relations, Political Economy & Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites and in newspapers. His latest articles can also be read on his archive: The Think Tank by Ariel Natan Pasko.

(c) 2020/5780 Pasko

BLM and Black Nazis are Evil Like White Nazis

I’m color blind, I don’t look at the color of someone’s skin, but the content of their character, through their speech and actions; let me tell you, Black Jew-hating Nazis are just as bad as White Jew-hating Nazis.

It started with Rev. Louis Farrakhan, calling Judaism a “gutter religion,” and Rev. Jeremiah Wright describing Israel as “state terrorism against the Palestinians.”

Or, did it?

No actually, starting in 1961, the Nation of Islam, under Elijah Muhammad’s leadership and with Malcolm X’s help, the NOI developed ties with the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party.

See: “The weird time Nazis made common cause with black nationalists”.

This policy continued under Farrakhan’s leadership of the Nation of Islam.

See: “AMERICAN BLACK MUSLIMS, NEO-NAZIS, FOREIGN MUSLIM EXTREMISTS JOIN FORCES”.

Farrakhan’s past statements are well known, for example, “Here the Jews don’t like Farrakhan and so they call me ‘Hitler.’ Well that’s a good name. Hitler was a very great man. He wasn’t great for me as a Black man but he was a great German...”

It seems, black and white separatists have common cause in hating Jews.

For a while, in the 1960s, the Black Panthers insisted they were not against Jews, but only against Zionism. Until 1970, when Connie Matthews, international coordinator of the Black Panther Party, declared in the BPP official organ, that Jewishness, Zionism and racism were identical, she claimed that most Jews involved in the Left were Zionists.

She accused the Jews involved in the Chicago 8 Conspiracy trial, to have been “...willing and did sacrifice Bobby Seale (a Black Panther), and his role in the conspiracy trial, to gain publicity.”

Later she declared, “The one-eyed bandit from Tel Aviv (General) Moshe Dayan must be hunted down and killed.”

In fact, threatened attacks by black radicals on synagogues and the daily attacks on Jews in the streets of New York (similar to today), is what gave rise to Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Jewish Defense League in 1968.

Lest you think they’re just isolated, radical black preachers and militants, think again. Think about how modern black pop culture is inundated with Jew-hatred.

Rap and Hip Hop singers have expressed anti-Semitic views since the beginning of the genre. Follower of Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, Professor Griff, former member of the hip hop group Public Enemy, then serving as their “Minister of Information,” said in 1989 that, “Jews are responsible for the majority of the wickedness in the world.”

In 1990, Public Enemy issued the single “Welcome to the Terrordome,” which contains the lyrics: “Crucifixion ain't no fiction / So-called chosen frozen / Apologies made to whoever pleases / Still they got me like Jesus,” belittling the chosenness concept in Judaism and reinforcing the Christian accusation of deicide by the Jews.

Even during these tense and riotous times in America recently, following George Floyd’s seemingly unjust murder by a policeman, with many liberal Jews marching along, some are still stoking the flames. As with Ice Cube’s recent behavior, “Ice Cube Tweets Out Star of David With Apparent Occult Reference”.

When called out on his anti-Semitism he said, “What if I was just pro-Black? This is the truth brother. I didn’t lie on anyone. I didn’t say I was anti anybody.”

Yet he has a long history of Jew-hatred, see: “Ice Cube Responds to Accusations of Anti-Semitism: ‘I’ve Been Telling My Truth’” and “Ice Cube’s Long, Disturbing History of Anti-Semitism”

And, whether on purpose or through “osmosis,” Judeopathy continues to infect much of black pop culture today, “Nicki Minaj Criticized for Using Nazi Symbolism”

Its not just radical black preachers and pop culture, but even more mainstream black activists and politicians have spouted anti-Jewish and anti-Israel rhetoric. Both Jesse Jackson and former US Ambassador to the UN, Andrew Young supported the PLO’s cause (independence through the murder of Jews). Don’t forget, Jackson’s “Hymietown” remark in 1984.

As late as 2006, Andrew Young in an interview with the Los Angeles Sentinel, when asked about Wal-Mart hurting independent businesses, replied, “You see ‘those are the people’ who have been overcharging us, and they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they’ve ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews...”

During the Crown Heights riots of 1991, when blacks attacked Jews, Yankel Rosenbaum was stabbed to death, and other Jews in the neighborhood were beaten up. Jewish stores were looted, and cars and homes (identified by their Mezuzah), were damaged.

On the third day of the riots, Rev. Al Sharpton and activist Sonny Carson led a march. The marchers proceeded through Crown Heights carrying anti-Semitic signs and burned an Israeli flag.

Sharpton and about 400 blacks marched through Crown Heights chanting “No Justice, No Peace!”, “Death to the Jews!”, and “Whose streets? Our streets!”

Now you know from where the recent Black Lives Matter-led rioters got their slogans…

And what did the recent rioters do? Attack Jews, synagogues, and Jewish property of course.

See both: “LA Councilman Condemns Rioters Who Targeted Dozens of Jewish Businesses” and “The Los Angeles Pogrom That No Jewish Organization Will Talk About”. Anti-Semitic attacks occurred in other places throughout the US also.

America’s Kristallnacht has happened already, do liberal Jews recognize it?

But this isn’t new for Black Lives Matter, they’ve expressed anti-Israel and anti-Semitic views since their beginning. In their 2016 Platform, they called Israel an “apartheid state,” and claimed it commits “genocide” against the Palestinians. See: “In platform, Black Lives Matter accuses Israel of ‘genocide,’ backs BDS”.

And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, Black Lives Matter and other black radicals are in bed with PalestiNazi Hamas, see: “Hamas and Black Lives Matter: A marriage made in hell” and “Has Black Lives Matter alienated pro-Israel voices?”

Black Lives Matter has gone international, during a recent protest in Paris, some of the protesters chanted “dirty Jews” and “Jewish whores,” and carried signs that read, “Israel: the laboratory for police violence” and “Enough of Israel’s massacres! Justice and freedom for Palestine.” See: “France: Black Lives Matter demonstration marred by anti-Semitism”

What does Jew-hatred and Israel have to do with a call for racial equality and protesting the murder of George Floyd?

It seems to me that Black Nazis take every opportunity to spit their venom at Jews and Israel.

But not all blacks are anti-Semitic. ADL surveys conducted between 2007 and 2013 found that the vast majority of African-Americans when questioned, rejected anti-Semitism. For example, in their 2009 study, the ADL reported that 28% of blacks surveyed displayed antisemitic views, while a 72% majority did not. But, they consistently found that negative attitudes towards Jews were stronger among African-Americans than among the general population of America at large.

More recent polls such as “African Americans Have Mixed Opinions and Often No Opinions on Israel”, conducted in 2019 by LifeWay Research, also show about 30% of blacks hold anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views.

But, when asked, about Louis Farrakhan claiming that Jews have a “tremendous” influence in the US government and as a result “black people in this country will never be free until they are free of that kind of control,” 41% of blacks agreed.

Still it means the majority of blacks do not hold such views.

When Black Lives Matter published their platform in 2016, the Ecumenical Leadership Council of Missouri, a black church group, said that while Black Lives Matter plays an important role in addressing violence by police, it “...rejects without hesitation any notion or assertion that Israel operates as an apartheid country...” See: “Black church group in Missouri condemns Black Lives Matter statement on Israel”

Also, many black conservatives have been criticizing Black Lives Matter, condemned the rioting, insisting on personal responsibility instead of the victim mentality, and the “systemic racism” narrative.

People such as Candace Owens, a former Democrat Party activist, “Candace Owens: I do not support George Floyd”. She points out that Jews don’t riot when another Jew is arrested or incarcerated. Neither do other ethnic groups. Then she goes on to blame, blacks themselves, pointing out that black on black murder is much more severe than what’s done by whites.

Al Sharpton, addressing a group of Reform Jewish leaders in 2019 shared with the audience, the rebuke he received after the 1991 riots by Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow, Coretta Scott King. She was known for her closeness to the Jewish community.

“One of the things she said to me, she said, ‘Al, the purpose of our movement has never been to just get civil rights for us, it’s to protect and stand for civil and human rights for everyone,’” he recalled.

“She said that ‘sometimes you are tempted to speak to the applause of the crowd rather than the heights of the cause, and you will say cheap things to get cheap applause rather than do higher things to raise the nation higher.’” Implying that his anti-Semitic vitriol during the riots was wrong.

It seems that Black Lives Matter is following in the violent confrontational path of the Nation of Islam, the Black Panthers, and other radicals, rather than the racially reconciliatory Civil Rights Movement of Martin Luther King Jr. and those like-minded.

Now we read that, “Black Lives Matter mural painted on block-long stretch of Brooklyn’s Fulton Street”, just like in many other American cities.

Imagine how Jews feel when they see that. Imagine how Jews feel when they see a swastika painted on a wall, or their home.

I repeat, Black Jew-hating Nazis are just as bad as White Jew-hating Nazis.

Ariel Natan Pasko, an independent analyst and consultant, has a Master's Degree specializing in International Relations, Political Economy & Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites and in newspapers. His latest articles can also be read on his archive: The Think Tank by Ariel Natan Pasko.

(c) 2020/5780 Pasko

The God of Israel’s Hand in Nature and History

Just recently, the Jewish people experienced the Revelation of God at Mount Sinai, AGAIN!

The holiday of Shavuot just occurred. Jewish holidays are called a Moed, a private appointment time with the God of Israel, the God of their fathers and mothers.

Fifty days after Pesach/Passover, leaving slavery, leaving the Egyptian exile, the exile of the spirit behind; Moses leads the people to Mount Sinai, where they experience an unimaginable, synesthesiatic revelation, “seeing” God’s voice, the thunder, and sound of the shofar.

“And all the people saw the voices...”

“The voices: They saw what was audible, which is impossible to see elsewhere. Voices emanating from the mouth of the Almighty. Many voices, voices coming from every direction, and from the heavens, and from the earth,” (Rashi on Exodus 20:15, from Mechilta d’Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai).

A spiritual experience, of a magnitude never encountered by any other nation, before or after. As Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi, author of “Sefer HaKuzari” said, all other religions started with a “prophetic revelation” to one individual, who told others about it, and then believers started to follow the “prophet.” Not so with Am Yisrael, the Jewish people, an entire nation experienced the prophetic revelation of God at Mount Sinai, it was so powerful, that the Jews have remembered it for over 3,300 years.

And what did they SEE? “I am the Lord Your God [the God of creation], who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage [the God of history]” (Exodus 20:2).

The Rambam (Maimonides), in his Sefer HaMitzvot, lists Positive Commandment #1, the First Mitzvah, to believe in the Divinity: to believe that there is a cause and a reason, which is the maker of all creations. As The Exalted One has said, “I am the L-rd, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

Rambam then asks, Why does God identify Himself as the One who took us out of Egypt? Why not as the Creator of the universe? Certainly the creation of the universe, is a far greater feat than the Exodus from Egypt.

He answers, We did not witness creation, but we did witness the Exodus from Egypt. Because of this, we owe it to God to believe in Him and follow His commandments.

When God created the world, He created nature. When He took us out of Egypt, He broke the
system of nature, and we saw this happen. Every day we must remember that God not only
created the universe, but that He continues to create it ex nihilo every single moment, and can transcend nature at will. The fact that the First Commandment is given in the singular (“I am
your [singular] God”), tells us that God cares about the welfare of each individual person, and
therefore continues to bring us out of our personal Egypt, our constraints and challenges, every
single day.

The Rambam then points out, that the fact that God mentions the Exodus from Egypt in His First Commandment, reassures us that just as He took us out of the Egyptian exile, so will He take us out of this final exile [as He is doing in our day] with the coming of Mashiach, the Messiah.

Just as the God of Israel is Redeeming the Jewish people from its global exile and suffering today, showing how He is constantly involved in Jewish history and destiny, so too, is he punishing those who most oppressed the Jewish people, throughout the ages.

Recently I saw the data from John Hopkins University, for the CoronaVirus pandemic, the total number of confirmed cases has exceeded 6.23 million globally, almost 30% in the United States. The top seven infected countries are the US, followed by Brazil (about 8%), Russia (almost 7%), the United Kingdom (about 4.5%), Spain (almost 4%), and Italy (almost 4%), and France (about 3%).

The number of deaths in the top six countries, as a percent of all the deaths worldwide, is the United States (about 28%), the United Kingdom (about 10.5%), Italy (almost 9%), Brazil (almost 8%), France (about 7.75%), and Spain (just over 7%). Russia is in 14^th place and has about 1.5% of the total deaths.

Three other countries near the top, who receive dishonorable mention are Germany, Iran, and Turkey.

After China, the first major epicenters of the virus outbreaks were in Korea, Iran and Italy.

It was very evenly spaced out across the globe by-the-way, to go into all Asia, E. & W. Europe, and from Europe and China ==> into USA. God’s Hand could be seen again.

But why Korea? North Korea has been helping Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas for years with, nuclear, missile, and tunnel technologies. North Korean pilots flew Egyptian MIG-21s against Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and always supported the PLO, i.e. Palestinian statehood. See my article, “North Korea: There is an Israeli Connection.”

Why Iran? Well threatening Israel’s destruction for over 40 years, and then a nuclear holocaust for the last 10 years, means something. The God of Israel “neither slumbers nor sleeps,” (Psalms 121:4).

And Italy? The Romans burnt down the Second Temple, robbed the temple treasury, destroyed Judea, murdered over a million Jews and dragged countless others off to slavery. The Coliseum in Rome, was built by Jewish slaves with money from the temple treasury. Christianity set up headquarters in Rome at the Vatican, and the Catholic Church has persecuted Jews for 1,600+ yrs.

Notice, most of the worse CoronaVirus outbreaks, have been in Catholic areas of Europe. The God of Israel is remembering the Church’s millennia long persecution of Jews, the Crusades, the Inquisitions, etc. For example, Italy (the Vatican), France (Burnt Talmuds), Spain (the Inquisition). The Catholic areas of Germany, have been hit worse than the Protestant areas, and we know what Germany has done to Jews in the past.

But why Brazil? As a Portuguese colony, Catholicism was the official religion, and anti-Semitic persecutions followed the Jews from the old world to the new world. Brazil was not free of the inquisition until Brazilian independence in 1822. Roman Catholicism remained the state religion, but the constitution proclaimed some tolerance of other religions, yet anti-Semitism persisted.

Anti-Semitism grew in Brazil in the 1900s, and reached its peak during 1933–1945, with the rise of Nazism in Germany. Brazil locked its doors to Jewish refugees from Europe during the Holocaust. Between 1937 and 1950, more than 16,000 visas to European Jews, most attempting to escape the Nazis, were denied by Brazilian governments.

England, the United Kingdom, Britain? Well that one’s obvious, they were pretty bad to us too...

The first blood libel in Europe occurred in England in 1144. The English participated in the Crusades, killing and looting Jews, in England itself, on their way to the liberate the Holy Land from the Muslims. Then, Jews were forcibly thrown out of England from 1290 until the 1650s.

The British declared the Balfour Declaration in 1917, to support the Zionist goal of establishing a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, and received the Palestine Mandate from the League of Nations to carry out that mission.

Yet, during the mandate period, they perfidiously helped the Arabs living in the mandate to thwart Jewish national aspirations. They allowed many Arabs from the surrounding countries to enter the mandate area, while limiting Jewish immigration to it, even during the darkest days before and during the Holocaust. Their policies toward Israel have been lukewarm at best, since.

Russia, the former Soviet Union, why them? Again obvious, pogroms, persecution, and the Pale of Settlement, under the Czars, and things only went downhill from there under the communists. The Soviet Union persecuted Jews, for wanting to learn Hebrew and practice Judaism. They supported the Arab states politically and militarily during the Cold War period, against Israel, and denied Jews the right to make Aliyah, i.e. leave the Soviet Union and move to Israel.

Even today’s Russia, is playing a two-faced game. Although Putin has had better relations with Israel than during Soviet times, he’s been allied with Iran and Turkey in Syria. Certainly no friends of Israel.

Which brings us to the United States. Why has God hit America so hard? Hasn’t America been good to the Jews, isn’t it the “Goldene Medina?” Maybe that’s the problem?

First of all, America refused entry to the MS St. Louis, a ship laden with Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. Then, America did nothing in particular to save Jews during the Holocaust. Roosevelt even ignored all requests to bomb the railroad tracks leading into the murder camps.

On one hand, America has been so good to the Jews that they’re assimilating in record numbers (a Silent Holocaust), yet anti-Semitism has sizzled under the surface for decades, and has been boiling over more recently. How long before the current riots turn anti-Semitic?

President Trump has been good to the Jewish people, and done God’s will, in recognizing Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and towns in Judea and Samaria. But Trump went too far (something HaShem, the God of Israel, didn’t want), in talking about a “Palestinian” state, and Netanyahu has sinned also, in agreeing to recognize other’s “rights” to our/HaShem’s Land.

Like an overconfident poker player, Trump has overplayed his hand... “Deal of the Century” get it?

He’s also made his biggest blunder, in talking about keeping the status quo on the Temple Mount, i.e. denying Jewish rights, when we all know that God’s House, the Third Temple, is going to be built there soon.

If you think about it for a moment, there’s definitely a pattern here. Starting in mid-January 2020, each weekly Torah reading, since the beginning of Sefer Shemot (the Book of Exodus), has related HIGHLY to what had been going on in the world at the time. The plagues, the exodus, the golden calf, building the Mishkan (Tabernacle), and soon the “Sin of the Spies.”

Back at the beginning of February, I was telling people out here, in Israel, that the Coronavirus hit America at about the same time, as the ten plagues had been being read in the weekly Torah readings, and the announcement that Trump’s partition plan, was going to be unveiled the following week, on January 28th. See my article, “The Likud and Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook.”

The exact chronology is: on Tuesday of that week – the first announced case of CoronaVirus was found in Washington state (no coincidence, note the name). On Thursday of that week, the White House announced that they were inviting Netanyahu, the following week, to unveil the “Deal of the Century.”

Do you see God’s Hand?

The return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the redemptive process, as promised by God, through his prophets (see the Hebrew Bible), has been unfolding in the last couple generations, it won’t be stopped by the Trump Plan, the CoronaVirus, or anything.

Many Rabbis have given three causes, for the CoronaVirus, (a slightly too GALUT/EXILE-CENTRIC perspective, because it ignores the most important reason) in my humble opinion.

1. The World's Sexual Promiscuity (Health)

2.LaShone HaRa (Slander/Evil Speech) (Hate)

3. Excessive Materialism (Money)

I've been telling people similar things, for the last several months...

But, let me end with this, and what about you? The Jews still in Galut?

HaShem is shaking the YIDDEN up worldwide!!! He’s brought:

1. Disease – the CoronaVirus ==> Health.

2. Rising anti-Semitism ==> Hate.

3. Economic collapse ==> To end Money/Power Idolatry & Jews’ false sense of security.

Interestingly, we read about the Golden Calf during this period too, and what symbolizes, modern idolatry, more than money today!

Now, the biggest reason (in my humble opinion) for this pandemic, and all that’s occurred in the last six months.

The God of Israel is carrying out Kibbutz Galuyot (the ingathering of the exiles), just as He promised in the Book of Ezekiel, “...So says the Lord God: Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side, and I will bring them to their land,” (Ezekiel 36:21). The redemption of the Jewish people continues.

All this will lead the Jews in the exile to:

4. Think really seriously, about moving to Israel ==> a massive wave of Aliyah is brewing.

Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Isaac Herzog recently said, “...We are preparing for increased Aliyah once the crisis is over...”

Aliyah, is itself TSHUVA, it is the Tikkun (repair) for the “Sin of the Spies,” who despised the GOOD LAND! That Torah reading by-the-way, Parshat Shlach, is coming up in less than two weeks.

Pesach (Chag HaGeula – the holiday of redemption) culminated in the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, on Shavuot. But the plan was to bring the Jews into the Land of Israel, if not for the “Sin of the Spies.” Remember, 80% of the Jews never even made it out of Egypt...

Don't get left behind! Make Aliyah NOW!!!

 

Ariel Natan Pasko, an independent analyst and consultant, has a Master's Degree specializing in International Relations, Political Economy & Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites and in newspapers. His latest articles can also be read on his archive: The Think Tank by Ariel Natan Pasko.

(c) 2020/5780 Pasko