Note: Sadly, this post is just as relevant today as it was when first posted a year ago.
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Shooting Themselves in the Foot
(All text in block quotes is the actual words of the Kli Yakar. Emphases mine.)
“....Hashem your God will safeguard for you....” (7:12)
“....Hashem your God will safeguard for you....” (7:12)
And He said, “Blessed you will be from all the nations” (Devarim Rabbah), explaining how all the nations will bless you, etc., along with an evil angel who will answer Amen. And regarding this, the Abarbanel asked, “What is the advantage to Yisrael in that?”
And I say that because Eretz Yisrael is the “eyes of Hashem,” it takes precedence. And this same precedence compels all the rest of the countries because all the countries drink from the extract of Eretz Yisrael. Therefore, they are compelled to bless Yisrael because within its well-being comes the well-being for them, too.
And as it says in Tehillim (117:1-2): “Praise Hashem all goyim, all the nations will laud Him because His Kindness has overwhelmed us.” And it follows accordingly “and you shall consume all the nations” (Ekev 7:16) because they will give to you from that which belongs to you. And davka (Rav Huna, Baba Kama 113): “ ‘that which Hashem your God gives to you’ only in the time [of war] when they are delivered into your hand” as is said (Shelach 14:9), “because they are our bread” and not when [in a time of peace] they are not delivered into your hand, because stealing from a goy is forbidden.
Doggie, would you bite the hand of the guy who feeds you this? (And in that final sentence, the Kli Yakar sums up the last words of Rav Huna in that same passage of Baba Kama 113.)
We see this now, as the world is turning against us, that its social, cultural, and financial well-being is also plummeting.
In a spiritual sense, the nations are biting the hand that feeds them.
Their anti-Israel and anti-Torah behavior ultimately leads to their downfall, not ours.
Once again, we see the vast power of gratitude -- and ingratitude. As a whole, the nations should be praising Hashem and blessing the Jewish people and supporting an authentically Jewish Eretz Yisrael because their essential well-being depends on doing just that.
For example, as long as America basically did this, it experienced growing prosperity. But when America started turning its back on Hashem (and the actual start of this pre-dates even the First World War) and increasingly turning its back on the Jewish people specifically (via the demonization of the Jews of Eretz Yisrael among other things), then America's overall situation has been gradually deteriorating.
Just take a look at when the Federal Reserve was established, when inflation really started bloating, when Hollywood gripped America in its corrupting TV/movie vise, and so on. (And contrary to how a lot of other people think that TV and movies used to be so innocent, I vehemently disagree. The movies and shows never were innocent. There was tremendous corruption within, but most of it was more subtle than it is today.)
And when you look around at all the anti-Israel societies today, both in the Esav world and the Yishmael world, you can see them coming apart at the seams.
And as for all those Chosen-People-wannabees and all those who want to "love" us out of existence? Yes, they are harming us. And ultimately, we'll survive their manipulations. But they won't.
Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Luntschitz (1550-1619) lived in Bohemia (which is today Poland and Czechoslovakia). He served as rabbi and dayan and wrote several books, the most well-known being his commentary on the Chumash known as the Kli Yakar.
This is my own translation and any errors are also mine.
We see this now, as the world is turning against us, that its social, cultural, and financial well-being is also plummeting.
In a spiritual sense, the nations are biting the hand that feeds them.
Their anti-Israel and anti-Torah behavior ultimately leads to their downfall, not ours.
Once again, we see the vast power of gratitude -- and ingratitude. As a whole, the nations should be praising Hashem and blessing the Jewish people and supporting an authentically Jewish Eretz Yisrael because their essential well-being depends on doing just that.
For example, as long as America basically did this, it experienced growing prosperity. But when America started turning its back on Hashem (and the actual start of this pre-dates even the First World War) and increasingly turning its back on the Jewish people specifically (via the demonization of the Jews of Eretz Yisrael among other things), then America's overall situation has been gradually deteriorating.
Just take a look at when the Federal Reserve was established, when inflation really started bloating, when Hollywood gripped America in its corrupting TV/movie vise, and so on. (And contrary to how a lot of other people think that TV and movies used to be so innocent, I vehemently disagree. The movies and shows never were innocent. There was tremendous corruption within, but most of it was more subtle than it is today.)
And when you look around at all the anti-Israel societies today, both in the Esav world and the Yishmael world, you can see them coming apart at the seams.
And as for all those Chosen-People-wannabees and all those who want to "love" us out of existence? Yes, they are harming us. And ultimately, we'll survive their manipulations. But they won't.
Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Luntschitz (1550-1619) lived in Bohemia (which is today Poland and Czechoslovakia). He served as rabbi and dayan and wrote several books, the most well-known being his commentary on the Chumash known as the Kli Yakar.
This is my own translation and any errors are also mine.
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