"Egypt" Loses Its Power Over Israel on the 15th of Nissan

"...and on the 15th of Nisan they will in the future be redeemed from subjugation to exile.” (Tanhuma, Bo 9)

21 February 2017

Jewish Government - Part 2

26 Shevat 5777

Part 1

After the first Trump/Netanyahu meeting last week in the United States, a press release containing their remarks was issued. One statement stands out: "In today’s meeting, President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed that there will be no daylight between the United States and Israel,....” 

This is in extreme opposition to the Creator's will as expressed in our Holy Torah. Therefore, this being, as it were, attached at the hip bodes grave ill for Israel.

And speaking of "extreme". If the Torah seems "extreme" to you, that says more about how far you have drifted away from the truth than it does about the Torah's "extremism", God forbid, as if the Creator Himself Who gave the Torah could possibly be considered "extreme". He is the One Who defines it, not us. And if you reject this Torah truth in favor of your own ideas and feelings, then you are a rebel against the rule of the King of kings. Think about that. We, as the creatures must conform to the Creator, not the other way around. We are not the masters of our own fate. HKB"H is Supreme!

(Continuing...)

Chapter Twenty-two
The Jewish Government

...The non-Jewish state in our day, as we know it, and as perceived by the alien culture which venerates it, came into being through the gradual development of families, clans, and tribes into distinct nations. These, seeking security and survival, recognized some authority and settled on territory of their own. Thus,  both the nation and the state came to be controlled by an authority elected by the people. There was nothing miraculous or unique about this development. The state did not come into being at a specific moment or via the intervention of some supernatural power. It was created by consent of the people, who for practical, utilitarian reasons recognized the need for an authority which would maintain internal order and defend against external enemies. Such a government derived its authority and its right to decree without protest both from the practical need for order and from the power invested in it by the people to act and to speak on their behalf.

This idea - that the people are the ones who gave the government the right to speak on their behalf, and that in actuality the government is the people - is what backs up the argument that the individual must not violate the government's decisions. In this secular, mundane conception of government, the people are the ultimate authority. They are the legislators, whether by direct decision, or by the election of representatives who speak and legislate on their behalf. Hence, government becomes the ultimate authority, and on this is based the non-Jewish government's demand for absolute obedience by the individual.

Yet, none of this is relevant to the Jewish People, whose inception did not involve gradual, mundane development and whose ultimate authority does not derive from the people, itself, but from an external source. There was a moment defined in time in which the Jewish People became a nation, and it was a very special moment.
Now, if you obey Me and keep My covenant, you shall be My special treasure among the nations, even though all the world is Mine. You will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to Me.... All the people answered as one and said, "All that the L-rd has spoken, we will do" (Ex. 19:5-6, 8).
This special, supernatural, planned moment, in which the nation was born, was underscored once more when the day of Moses's death drew near:
Today you are all standing before the L-rd your G-d - your leaders, your tribal chiefs, your elders, your law enforcers, every Israelite man, your children, your women, and the proselytes in your camp - even your woodcutters and water drawers. You are, thus, being brought into the covenant of the L-rd your G-d, and accepting the dread path that He is making with you today. He is establishing you as His nation, so that He will be a G-d to you." (Deut. 29:9-13)
At a precise moment, the Jewish nation was created. This moment was special, supernatural and planned. Israel's creation stemmed from an outside source, such that its supreme authority and the right to make decisions about its fate and future, likewise, did not derive from the people's will, as with other nations, but from the external force which created it - G-d.

Israel's creation resulted from a covenant with G-d. This covenant created a unique, exclusive nation, committed to obeying the laws and statutes of G-d and to accepting one supreme authority.

This supreme authority is absolute and not open to restrictions or objections. It is the Kingdom of Heaven, and we are commanded to accept its yoke upon ourselves. As the Mishnah teaches (Berachot 13a): "R. Yehoshua ben Korcha said, 'Why is the paragraph of "Shema" read before the paragraph "And it shall come to pass, if you hearken...."? It is so that one will first accept upon himself the yoke of Heaven and then the yoke of mitzvot.'"

The Torah is our supreme authority, and its laws bind and control us. In order that we should recognize its overriding domination over us, we daily swear loyalty to it: "Hear, O Israel, the L-rd is our G-d, the L-rd is One" (Deut. 6:4). Through this, we daily accept upon ourselves the yoke of Heaven, the laws of the Torah. This is the ultimate authority over Israel--(Source)

Part 3