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By repeating this patently false narrative over and over again the Arabs have convinced themselves that the Jews are Johnny-come-lately interlopers into the Land of Israel and that the Jews have no legitimate claim to their homeland and territories.
As long as this narrative is continued and reinforced it is difficult to see how any form of any peace process and settlement of the Israeli-Arab dispute can be achieved. Fantastic denials and distortions of historical facts only lead to further confrontation and eventual violence. As long as the accurate picture, not only of current events but of past happenings, is not recognized by the parties to the dispute it will defy logic and reality to expect any long lasting solutions to emerge from any types of conferences, meetings, plans and proposals, no matter how well-intentioned their promoters may be.
And the core of this correct understanding of past events and of history is that the Jews lived and settled in the Land of Israel millennia before Islam and the Arabs arrived on the scene. Our claim to the land is not based on the Holocaust (Obama’s famous error in his Cairo speech) or on United Nations resolutions (Israel’s continuing diplomatic error) but on the fact that the Jews settled the Land of Israel at the time of Joshua and have had a continuous association with the Land of Israel ever since.
Over Simchat Torah I spent some time studying the book of Ezra. I used the Daat Mikra edition published by Mosad Harav Kook to review and understand the text. One of the most fascinating things about that edition of the book is the wealth of seals, shards, and coins of First and Second Temple times that appear in that rather slim volume.
I was particularly struck (no pun intended) by the book’s reproductions of the ancient coins of the Jewish state in those times. I realized again - or maybe it was the first time that I really realized it - that all of the coins in circulation in modern day Israel are replicas of ancient coins used by Jews in the Land of Israel thousands of years ago.
The harp on our half shekel coin is the same harp that appeared on coins and seals in First Temple times. The lulav and etrog that appear on the one shekel coin today appeared on the shekel in Temple times as well. The crown and capital on the five shekel coin also appeared on coins in Temple times as did the date palm tree that today is represented on our ten shekel coin.
Somehow my realization of this continuity of Jewish life in the Land of Israel as represented on our coins invigorated me and made me proud. It connected a lot of dots to me and reaffirmed again our narrative of the bond between the people of Israel and the Land of Israel.
These coins will do little to convince our enemies of the justice of Israel’s cause. But they certainly are valuable in convincing us Jews of the justice of our cause. Ignorance and self-hatred abound in an assimilated Jewish world that worships the idols and ideals of current political correctness and faddish mores. If we do not know and believe our own story and of our right to live in the Land of Israel there is little reason to hope that others will somehow believe it.
When I was a small child I noticed that my father would save the postage stamp from letters that he received from his family in British mandated Palestine. He explained to me, based on the stamps, what the Tower of David and the Temple Mount as represented on the stamps meant to Jews and what they should mean to me. I believe that this was the first history lesson that I then absorbed in my young life.
The power of those postage stamps helped shape my life and attitudes and eventually my future. The same thing is true of our Israeli monetary coins. They are not just legal tender in the market place. They are our story and the narrative of our rights and attachment to the Land of Israel.
Serving Hashem, Mitzvot and Repentance "Of All God's Miracles Large & Small..."
Both Nature & Super-Natural Are Necessary
Ein Aya Responsibility for Teshuva Within Our Family: "Does Father Know Best?"
Ein Aya Shabbat 2, 292
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 9 - "Seeing is Believing" (parag. 21-30)
These paragraphs elaborate on the theme that seeing and knowing is better than any attempt to prove logically, and begins explaining the difference between Israel and gentiles.
Ein Aya Various Universal Stages of the Geula Process
Rav Kook examines the various stages of redemption, explaining how (in addition to the obvious oft-mentioned stages of ingathering the exiles, reviving the Hebrew language, army, state etc.) the messianic dream of world prosperity, the State of Israel and world unity can and are realistically and logically gradually coming true.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 8- "Answering Questions on the Kuzari's Proof from Mass Revelation
How do we know that the "claim" of mass revelation to 2,000,000 witnesses at Mt. Sinai is really true? This important class answers all of the questions skeptics ask about this claim of the Kuzari.
Ein Aya Armies Still Necessary for Balance & the War Against Wars
Rav Kook explains why the world was originally divided into the various seemingly contradicting ideologies and cultures, in order to develop each one respectively. Swords or armies symbolize how each respective ideology defends themselves, as well as deters their opposing ideologies and cultures. On the other hand, the messianic era will be one of peace, and Rav Kook explains the transition to that stage, which mankind is already undergoing.
The Land of Israel LGBT'S IN ISRAEL
The question was asked, how can one make Aliyah with the LGBT parades?
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 7 - Five Accumulative Proofs of G-d
As a preparation for the Kuzari's classic proof of G-d from the mass-revelation at Sinai, we start here with 5 other directions to strengthen our belief which also contribute to what the Kuzari will present as well.
Ein Aya Muscle & Meaning: The Dual Nature of Gevurah (Physical Strength)
Is physical strength and fitness a necessity or an ideal? Although it if often totally overlooked among topics of Judaism, Rav Kook writes that it clearly is also a necessity to deter the many enemies of Israel, but even in Y'mot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era, to a certain extent, it's ideal continues even after our enemies will have been finished off.
