Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- D'varim
- Ekev
Unfortunately over the ages the Jews have not always chosen wisely. People hear what they wish to hear no matter what the speaker really said. We are prone to misquote, misunderstand, repeat phrases out of context and generally ignore what we do not wish to hear and understand. Moshe’s attempt to portray the great achievements of the desert and especially of Sinai and balance them with the reminders of the tragedies and wars that also marked Israel’s journey through the desert in the long run had only limited influence on the people. Our sages taught us that the Jewish people simply did not believe that the dire predictions that Moshe warned them about if they sinned would ever really occur. God simply had too much invested in the Jewish people. It was a forerunner of our modern "too big to fail" philosophy regarding otherwise corrupt financial institutions. So Moshe’s darker side of the coin was never really believed by the Jewish people. They heard only the good - what they wanted to hear - and ignored the rest. There are many Jews today that unfortunately listen to the opposite strains of Jewish life. They despair of our future and our wonderful state. They also only hear what they wish to hear and fueled by a biased and ignorant media and screwy intellectualism see no grand future for Israel, the people, the state and the land. A well considered study of Moshe’s words and realistic and balanced message would certainly be in order for everyone.
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Various Events FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook stressed that Israeli politics is G-dly, so I have no problem answering this common question on a Torani blog. Also, Free-Will is a G-d-given right and obligation, to "destine one's fate" (R. Soloveichik, Kol Dodi Dofek, 67), so I obviously don't tell others how to vote. But once not a few (especially young) have already asked, a couple of personal words from experience and thoughts from chazal & Rav Kook which may be of help to others, mainly for whom NOT to vote.
