Iran will remain a world threat because the U.S. and Israel did not finish the job in the fashion dictated in the Torah. But we must recognize that Trump made up for FDR’s refusal to bomb the tracks leading to Auschwitz.
The Tanach (Kings 1, chapter 18) records that Eliyahu HaNavi confronted the evil Achav (Ahab), king of the 10 northern tribes, with a challenge. To gather on Mount Carmel with many of his subjects along with 450 prophets of the idol Baal for a test.
Two altars would be constructed, each with a slaughtered bull prepared for sacrifice, but with no fire lit. The prophets of Baal would call on their god to send fire, and Eliyahu would call on Hashem; and the deity who answered would be proven as the authentic one.
The prophets of Baal went first. From morning until noon, they cried out to Baal, danced around their altar, gashing themselves ritually, hoping to provoke a response. Eliyahu taunted them, suggesting that perhaps the Baal is occupied with personal matters, perhaps he is sleeping or even traveling. Despite their fervent efforts, there was no fire and no response.
Towards late afternoon, after their dismal failure, came Eliyahu’s turn.
He repaired a long broken-down altar to Hashem, using twelve stones representing the tribes of Israel. And in order to make the awesome miracle even more undeniable, he requested that the slaughtered bulls, the altar and its wood, be drenched with twelve large jugs of water, enough to fill a large trench around the altar.
Then Eliyahu uttered a prayer, asking Hashem to show that He is the omnipotent God of creation and of the Jews. Fire immediately appeared out of nowhere and consumed not only the sacrifice and the wood, but also the stones of the altar and even the water in the trench.
Witnessing this undeniable display of divine power, the Jews bowed as one and exclaimed, “Hashem – He is the only God! Hashem – He is the only God!” Eliyahu then commanded seizure of all the prophets of Baal to be brought to the Kishon Valley and killed.
My question regarding this dramatic incident is: after realizing the feebleness, collapse and impotence of their deity, why didn’t the prophets deny the deity of Baal and submit to the Jewish God? Why had he forsaken his faithful children? E-lokim, the God of Yisrael is true, and Allah is a fiction?
This same question arose now when the Ayatollahs of Iran and other Islamic religious leaders witnessed the incredible miracles that were performed for the Jews in the miniscule State of Israel (land area of Iran is 80 times larger than Israel and their population is 9 times greater). Why didn’t they rise up and yell, “where is Allah?”
Answer: Belief in a higher being goes beyond an individual’s logic and experience. The prophets of Baal went to their deaths believing that Eliyahu was a master magician, but their Baal was still Baal.
So too with the warped minds of Islamics. We can beat them to a pulp, but their sense of honor will lead them to Gehennom before they admit that E-lokim is the true G-d.
It appears that the only solution when dealing with people like this is the one proscribed in the Torah regarding the ten nations whom we found in the land when entering with Yehoshua bin Nun.
Is there an Eliyahu or a Yehoshua bin Nun anywhere among us today? If so let him step forward and lead.
The 3,000-year-old battle continues
In the minds of most observers, the Arab – Israeli “conflict” is a manifestation of an unresolved political conflict over land, resources, security, and national identity, marked by periods of conventional warfare and ongoing asymmetric violence.
The impression I receive from President Trump’s statements and actions regarding the Arab-Israeli battles is like a parent hovering over his young children as they fight over an irrelevant crayon, and he imposes his parental authority. When and where you can shoot, when there will be a cease fire, and for how long, etc.
But this is far from the truth. The Arab Israeli “free-for-all” is not a mere conflict. It is a three-thousand-year-old struggle to the death between the two sons of Avraham – Yitzchak and Yishmael and their descendants; where Yitzchak is faithful to E-lokim and Yishmael chooses idol worship, Avoda Zara, that has turned into devotion to Allah.
In this three millennium-year-old battle, no holds are barred, and no side will cede.
Evil minds and hearts like the Jihadi Moslems never forget and never forgive. They are like snakes waiting for their prey. By not destroying the regime, and permitting them to reconstruct their atomic facilities, their first ten nuclear bombs to be constructed will be directed at the US, the second batch at Christian Europe, the third will explode over Tehran.
Iran will remain a world threat because the U.S. and Israel did not finish the job in the fashion dictated in the Torah.
Next Battleground: The Strait of Hormuz
The Zohar (end of parashat Va’eira, second parasha in the book of Shemot) reveals that the “Sons of Yishmael” will, in the future, provoke three great wars against the descendants of Edom (Esau); one on the sea, another on land, and the third in the vicinity of Yerushalayim where Yishmael will then be totally destroyed.
I suggest:
At the exact moment of our planet’s creation, Hashem had already navigated Man’s destiny through the design and placing of continents, with their specific raw materials essential for the development of societies.
Hashem placed huge underground oceans of petroleum for the benefit of the descendants of Yishmael, leaving a relatively modest quantity of natural gas in the Mediterranean for the descendants of Yitzchak.
Around 20-30% of global oil trade and approximately one-fifth of global natural gas transit the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, leading out to the Gulf of Oman and from there to the Arabian ocean, and Indian and Pacific oceans.
As matters are now developing and the present threats of the Iranian Nazi regime, it appears that the battleground of Yishmael’s naval battle against the Christian west will be at the Strait of Hormuz. This strait is of immense importance due to its critical role in global energy and international trade. It is the world’s most important oil transit choke point. A significant portion of the world’s seaborne oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) passes through this narrow waterway.
The Strait provides the only sea passage from the oil-rich Persian Gulf to the open ocean (Arabian Sea and beyond). Countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE, Qatar, Iran, and Kuwait rely heavily on this strait for their crude oil and natural gas exports.
Any disruption or threat to the flow of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz can immediately cause significant price spikes in global energy markets. This will have a cascading effect, leading to higher fuel costs, impacting economies worldwide.
At its narrowest point, the Strait is only about 33 kilometers (21 miles) wide, with shipping lanes just 3 kilometers wide in each direction. This makes it highly vulnerable to blockades, military actions, or even terrorist attacks, which could severely impact global supply chains.
The Iranians have threatened to block the strait with sea mines even though they themselves will be the big losers. It would be by international law “casus belli” (Latin term meaning “a cause of war” or “an act or event that provokes or is used to justify war”).
President Trump made the correct choice
President Trump deliberated with his advisors whether to get involved in the Iranian situation by bombing their major nuclear facilities. We are not privy to the issues involved nor his inner thoughts, or perhaps the impulses imposed on him by Hashem through his conscience, but there is an interesting issue.
Every day 12,000 Jews were murdered in the Auschwitz Birkenau camps alone. They were brought from all over Europe by train and to many other death camps that dotted the landscape of Europe. Jewish leaders begged FDR to bomb the track leading to these camps. Every day that the trains would not run thousands of Jewish lives would be saved.
How many times did the US Air Force, which flew in the vicinity of many of these camps, bomb them?
NOT EVEN ONCE!
I recall an interview with a Jewish pilot whose plane had to land but could not because of the bombs he was carrying. He was commanded to jettison the bombs but warned not to drop them over the rail tracks leading to the camps!
This is an indelible stain on the moral history of America.
President Trump was in a similar situation last week, with an opportunity to blur that stain somewhat.
MAGA! President Trump chose the right direction of history by bombing the elements designed to murder millions of Jews as was planned in ancient Persia and intended to be put into practice by their present-day descendants.
In closing: What is unfolding now is just the beginning of an ongoing world change.
A world where the Jewish nation, led by Hashem, ascends the historical stairway to world leadership.
GREAT TO BE A JEW!
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Nachman Kahanais a Torah scholar, author, teacher and lecturer, Founder and Director of the Center for Kohanim, Co-founder of the Temple Institute, Co-founder of Atara Leyoshna – Ateret Kohanim, was rabbi of Chazon Yechezkel Synagogue – Young Israel of the Old City of Jerusalem for 32 years, and is the author of the 15-volume “Mei Menuchot” series on Tosefot, and 3-volume “With All Your Might: The Torah of Eretz Yisrael in the Weekly Parashah” (2009-2011), and “Reflections from Yerushalayim: Thoughts on the Torah, the Land and the Nation of Israel” (2019) as well as weekly parasha commentary available where he blogs at https://NachmanKahana.com
