Shlomo Carlebach’s daughter will get rid of his stuff at an auction

Neshama with the Black Baptists Choir (guess which one is Neshama)

Neshama Carlebach will do anything for money even getting rid of her father's guitar and her grandfather's tefillin! 

Just a couple of years ago she noticed that no one from the frum community will listen to her music because of "kol isha" and so with funds rapidly dwindling, she dumped the frummies and joined the Reform community who embraced her in a big celebration...

Neshama's name which means "soul" has gotten to her head; she sings "soul music" with black  gospel choirs in  Christian Churchs', no less ...... 
and she'll sing with chimpanzees, as long as she has an audience!

She came up with a great idea. Instead of dumping the few possessions that Shlomo owned, in the garbage dump ... she will auction them off and donate the proceeds to the family's "foundation!"

Even the Shabbos silver candlesticks that Reb Shlomo's mother, who was poor as a church mouse, who held onto them for dear life, never sold them, carried them across borders, and then gave it to Shlomo's then wife as an engagement gift,   will be auctioned off  (he divorced her) .......
Isn't she embarrassed to sell something so precious ?
 And why isn't she using them?
 Even the non frum, light candles on Friday night .... Is she so cold emotionally that she doesn't feel any attachment to those candlesticks to keep it in the family instead of selling it to some stranger?  

She could have been magnanimous and donated all these items to the Carlebach Shul.... and the shul would have made a small museum in the lobby .... 
But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! 
"Lets cash in on the stuff that I don't care about!"

Up for auction are a silver kiddush cup engraved to Shlomo (as he preferred to be known) from Me’or Modi’in, Shlomo’s Moshav in Israel (bidding starts at $3,000); a silver spice tower for Havdalah given to him as a wedding gift (also $3,000); his father Rabbi Naftali’s tallis bag, from pre-war Vienna, given to Shlomo as a gift ($1,200); and silver flatware, 14 forks, nine soup spoons ($4,000).

J. Greenstein & Co., the Cedarhurst-based auction house handling the sale, estimates that the more than 30 items could bring in $100,000 or more. Neshama Carlebach, Reb Shlomo’s daughter, tells us the money will primarily go to the family-controlled Shlomo Carlebach Foundation, which has operated only in fits and starts in the 21 years since Reb Shlomo’s death. The latest “fits and starts” have to do with this very auction, originally scheduled for February, now postponed until the Carlebach family and the auction house resolve unspecified differences, though both sides say that they’re committed to the auction taking place.

No matter how poor or desperate Shlomo’s mother was, fleeing from the Nazis, she never sold her Shabbos candlesticks that she carried across borders. Now, those silver candlesticks from Europe, later given to Neshama’s mother by Shlomo’s mother as an engagement gift, is yours for the bidding.

Neshama says, “I happen to feel very whole [at peace] about the decision to sell. The Foundation is more important” than candlesticks, than a challah knife. The candlesticks, like the knife is “probably German,” says the catalogue. “Shabbat Kodesh” (the Holy Sabbath) is engraved on the knife’s  handle. “Reb Shlomo used this knife in both the home he shared with Neila (his wife) as well as in his parents home. Wear and damage from use.” Bidding starts at $1,800.

Did it hurt Neshama to sell the knife that was used to cut challah every Shabbos in the twilight of pre-war Europe, and later used by her father? Wouldn’t she want her sons to someday cut challah with that same knife, with its “wear and damage from use”?

“Anything about my father is always very emotional for me,” says Neshama. “When people pass away there is so much sentiment attached to their things because they are not actually here anymore. But my father is everywhere. He’s alive, more than any object, almost more alive than were he actually alive.”

Up for auction is the scrapbook kept by Shlomo’s mother, all the newspaper clippings and concert posters when he was just starting out in 1959 and into the ’60s. It will go to the highest bidder.

You can bid on Shlomo’s famous vest, says the catalog, the one with the “black and shiny material.”

How many pennies for a memory? On Simchas Torah, when there would never be enough Sifrei Torah (scrolls) for everyone to dance with, Reb Shlomo would hand out the holy books from his library, “Dance with the books!” He would give each particular book to the specific person whom Shlomo felt most needed the blessing contained within those covers. You might find yourself “dancing” with Moshe Chaim Luzzato, the 18th century kabbalist and philosopher.

Soon, at the auction, you could buy Luzatto’s “Yalkut Yediot He’emet” — bidding starts at $1,200. Inside the binding is a stamp from the House of Love and Prayer, Reb Shlomo’s legendary shul, located, says the stamp, at 1456 Ninth Avenue, San Francisco,” in the heart of Haight-Ashbury’s hippie kingdom in the Summer of Love. Surely there’s a story behind Theodore Bikel’s signature and phone number in Luzatto’s book, a story for a Shabbos afternoon in another world.

What are the bids for Reb Shlomo old scratched stand-up piano, the one he played by ear, or rather, the one he played by soul? Rabbi Sam Intrator, Reb Shlomo’s globetrotting manager, told us, “Shlomo couldn’t read music, but he’d close his eyes like he was davening, leaning into the piano as if to hear the music better, and on the spot compose and create — it was hishtapchus hanefesh, an outpouring of the soul.” And yet, he never played piano in public, says Intrator: “He didn’t feel proficient at it.”

You can bid on his silver esrog box, “hand spun filigree in citron shape,” says the catalogue. Greenstein estimates the bidding could reach $6,500. The esrog always meant more to Shlomo than the box. Intrator remembers, “He always held the esrog next to his heart, and brought it back to his heart, when he would do nanu’im,” the shaking of the lulav and esrog in the six directions, “sweeping the world.” His nanu’im could take 45 minutes, what could be five minutes for anyone else. Intrator remembers, “He was so engaged, so intense in what he was doing, nothing else existed; he was in another world.” Of the “four species” used on Sukkos – the willow, palm, myrtle and citron (esrog) – the esrog is symbolically associated with the heart. On his last Hoshana Rabbah, before his fatal heart attack, Shlomo lost his esrog, and was almost crying, “The esrog is your heart, I need my esrog.”

Intrator recalls visiting Majdanek with Reb Shlomo and the chevra, when  Reb Shlomo said, “Chevra, sometimes a second can be an eternity.” It was his key for saying Yizkor, as well: no schlepping, no kitsch. “When there’s an opening between worlds,” he’d say, you can’t waste time, “it’s one-two-three.” The more you believe in the Other World, he’d say, the less time is needed for Yizkor, a second can be eternity.

Intrator says, “We had a long trip ahead of us.” So, after touring the death camp, “We were back on the bus, all except Shlomo. I found him in the room with the thousands of shoes. He was wearing his long black raincoat,” bidding starts at $800. “He was shaking, davening — he was ‘somewhere else.’ He had his microcassette recorder and was recording all these new niggunim that were coming to him. The next day, says Intrator, the microcassette recorder got lost; “Those songs weren’t meant to be heard.”

On a long ago Friday night, Reb Shlomo joined several of his chevra for a Shabbos meal in a dimly lit Upper West Side apartment. No one, including Shlomo, had any money but “all we need is wine and challah,” he said. "The main thing is to be together." We splurged on seltzer, turkey slices, paper plates, and plastic forks and spoons.

Reb Shlomo was overheard saying to one of the chevra, “… Your three rebbes are Reb Nachman, the Sefas Emes and the Ishbitzer.”

“And you, Shlomo.”

Reb Shlomo, who never put on airs, said quietly, “No, I’m your best friend.”

After the meal we threw the plastic forks and spoons into a garbage bag. Who knew?

Then Reb Shlomo spoke of Torah, and lesser things, until the wee small hours.

Priceless.

Neshama Carlebach Kickes Her Father to Curb to Save Her Dying Career

Neshama Carlebach will do anything to sing in public even if it means destroying her father's legacy! 

In 2012, Neshama recorded Hatikvah ... changing the lyrics to include Arabs ..... yes Arabs ..... the same guys that are killing our brothers & sisters! 

In 2013, after losing her frum audience because of "Kol Isha" she decided to join the Reform Movement to save her crappy career.

In 2014, she asked a bunch of Black Baptists to join her on Parshas Zachor in singing "Essah Einah"  in a reform shul!

In 2016, she  auctioned off his guitar ....

It didn't take long before the Reform Leftists banned her and cancelled all her concerts and kicked her out of their "shuls" because of accusations that her father, Shlomo Carlebach z"l had a bad reputation.

Now .... in a post in the  The Times of Israel Blog ...she grovels to her tiny audience like a little pathetic loser ..... 

If it wasn't for her father, she would have been a nobody..... her whole career was singing her father's songs ....

But now because of  the "Metoo" movement the name Carlebach in her reform leftists community is a nono! 

She had to scramble to do something to keep from starving!

So to save her career she decided to  bury her father all over again!

She no longer has a neshamah !

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Neshama Carlebach's Shabbos Parshas Zachor with Black Baptists singing Esa Einai!

They couldn't find some nice Jewish boys to G-D forbid come to shul for the Carlbach Minyan in the Reform Shul in NYC, so Neshama, the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach's daughter, scrambled all over the USA to find a bunch of Black Singers to come to daven with her .... this is her "Aliyah" to Judaism. 
Reb Shlomo, where are you?

Rabbi Shlomo Carlbach ..... Yurzeit

Dancing and singing at the grave of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach

R' Shlomo was born in Berlin on January 14, 1925, and grew up in Baden near Vienna where his father, R' Naphtali Carlebach, served as chief   rabbi.                                                                  With the

Nazi rise to power, the Carlebach family trav to Lithuania, and eventually managed to emigrate to New York, arriving on March 23, 1939

Neshama Carlebach records Hatikvah with changes to the lyrics to include Arabs

She is getting crazier and crazier, first she  mixed ancient Jewish tropes with the pulsating rhythms of an African American Baptist choir,  pushing the boundaries of expectation, and now she decided to insult the intelligence of the Israeli People!

Neshama Carlbach, the "Gospel Singer" joins the dying Reform Movement!

Shlomo Carlbach Z"L, is turning in his grave, his daughter who loves singing with Black Gospel Singers has declared publicly that she is joining Reform Judaism. According to the recent Pew report, the Reform Movement has an 80% assimilation rate. 
If not for her last name, she would be a "nobody!"

I have a theory, she was loosing her audience, only a bunch of Shvartzeh Gospel people were listening, and the frum wouldn't listen because of "kol b'isha ervah" so she figured that if she would come out of the closet (she was never religious) and associate officially with the anti-Torah movement, they would invite her to their dying membership, so they would listen to her music....
It is all about the "rent." 

This is what she will encounter when she joins that dying movement:
1) a near-total, abysmal ignorance of written & oral Torah & an unwillingness to commit to the serious text study needed to remedy that ignorance; 

2) an insensitivity to not only the letter but also the spirit of such basic Jewish tenets as Shabbat & Kashrut; 

3) outright hostility to the State of Israel & indifference to her plight as a bastion of decency surrounded by hostile neighbors. So if you can stomach all that, Neshama (or find a temple where these things are not prevalent), good luck to you & may your personal journey lead to happiness & fulfillment for you & your family!

First she sang in Gospel Choirs ...


Then she took the Hativka's words that welcome all Jews and changed it to welcome and include Arabs!

This is her convoluted sick announcement! 

I grew up Jewish. Simply Jewish.

My late father, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, raised us in an observant Orthodox household. Our lives were filled with beautiful ritual and we celebrated the wonder of a familial spiritual connection.

That said, we also danced along the fine line of progressive Judaism. My father’s Torah was an expression of the beauty of Judaism. He taught the world to love and cherish Shabbat – even on a Tuesday – and to love Jewish rituals in an open hearted, expansively spiritual way that often set him apart and alienated him from many established religious groups.

My father’s true goal was to raise Jewish life above the rote performance of ritual acts. He wanted the light and redemptive message of the Torah to make all of humanity deeper – more empathetic, loving and capable of kindness. He often said that effecting global healing was the reason we were in the world to begin with.

Though it sometimes got him in trouble with the Orthodox establishment, my father was an active member and lover of all interfaith experiences. He attended many different houses of worship, sang with people of all colors, faiths and backgrounds, and attended conferences where he spoke about finding true unity for all of God’s children.

Significantly, he encouraged women to learn and read Torah. At his synagogue he created the space for women to physically dance with the the Torah and stand all the way up, next to the ark on holidays.

For this passion and commitment, my father’s life was complicated. Within the Orthodox world he was a visionary who stood alone and was too often lonely.

As the daughter of this great man, I bear witness to the intolerance, cruelty and ostracism he suffered for daring to step outside the “daled amot” (personal space) of observant Jewish life. As his child, I suffered alongside him when he tried to give me a platform to sing, the outcry from my Orthodox brothers and sisters invariably drowning out my voice and suffocating my love for Jewish tradition.

Strengthened by my father’s love and vision, I persisted. It was not easy being taunted and called names, hearing angry voices and seeing the enraged faces of those who believed – genuinely believed – that what I called prayer was an affront to God. Looking back, I believe that the ugliness I saw was not motivated by a desire to hurt me personally but by a deep misunderstanding of the message of our Torah and what it means to be a Jew in the modern world.

Looking back, I feel sadness and sorrow for this narrow vision, this narrow place, an Egypt of the mind – mitzrayim. I know, as my father knew, that the redemption of the world will come from the opposite impulse: expansive love and inclusivity. Isn’t that what klal Yisrael (the whole of the Jewish community) is about?

I have just experienced klal Yisrael in an amazing way, having returned from a most remarkable event – the biennial convention of the Union for Reform Judaism, the URJ. 5,000 people strong, it is one of the most spirited and important events in the Jewish world, and the largest spirituality-oriented gathering of Jews in North America.

Before I arrived at the convention center in San Diego, I felt honored and excited at the opportunity to be able to offer my music and heart to those with whom I don’t often have the chance to connect – my Reform brothers and sisters. The Conservative Jewish world has been a warm and loving home away from home for me (and I had the dazzling experience of joining “The Conversation of the Century” by headlining at the centennial of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism this past October in Baltimore). Many of the Conservative Jews I know share practices and beliefs close to the open-minded Orthodoxy I experienced as a child. But Reform synagogues have always been “the shuls I didn’t attend.”

That world was far away from mine – or so I thought.

Boarding the plane for the West Coast, I did not know what to expect; I certainly had no inkling of the personal transformation that awaited me. So, it is with an overflowing heart and soul that I must report, as I did on the stage on Saturday night, that my soul made an aliyah (coming up) at the URJ’s biennial.

Simply put, I had no idea how extraordinary Reform Judaism was. The tikkun olam mandate is so strongly bound up with the movement, and in the most joyous of ways. I was overwhelmed by the music, by the davening (prayer) and yes, my Orthodox friends, by the ever-present light of Torah. To give you an idea of the stellar caliber of Reform Judaism, here is a link to a keynote address given by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the URJ president.

In his passionate talk, Rabbi Jacobs spoke about the commitment to a path of progressive change, to inclusivity, social justice, nurturing the next generation, egalitarian values and spiritual relationship to all that the Torah stands for. Standing among 4,999 other delegates, I almost couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I found myself moved to tears, inspired and grateful. And when Rabbi David Ellenson, the outgoing head of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion spoke on Shabbat morning, his warmth and scholarship opened my eyes as well as my heart.

Having felt like a refugee from Orthodoxy for the past couple of decades, I feel like I found a new family with values I can get behind. And so, at my show on Saturday night, I told the audience I was making aliyah to the Reform movement. I know that statement made a great sound byte, but I meant every word. To be clear, when one makes aliyah, they take all parts of themselves with them. I have not abandoned anything that is intrinsic to me; I’ve simply expanded myself and been elevated. I’ve been blessed.

In San Diego, I touched something brand new and yet deeply familiar. It reminded me of my father’s teachings. It gave me a feeling of homecoming.

And perhaps that is the best that we can aspire to: a homecoming. Let us return again and again to the land of our souls. Let us transcend our differences and discover that we are one people, regardless of our label, movement or denomination. Let us make aliyah every day to who we are, to what we are, to where we are born and reborn again.!

Eytan Kobre of Mishpacha Magazine Denigrates Eretz Yisroel

An Open Letter to Eytan Kobre and Mishpacha Magazine

Guest Contribution by Rabbi Sholom Gold - Ish Yerushalayim

The Chuchim, Eytan Kobre

Re: Issue 653, 24 Adar 5777, pages 32-33 Kobre writes that: 

“Nothing other than our possession of the Torah plays any role in our national character, nothing whatsoever. Not a common land, language and culture.”

Eytan Kobre’s article is a smorgasbord of nonsense, apostasy, blasphemy and a rejection of the very essence of all of Torah. The tragedy is that he believes that he is expressing the true, authentic, genuine Torah hashkafa, certainly approved by “Gedolei Yisrael.” The greater catastrophe is that thousands of innocent Jews read it and blindly and naively accept it. The damage done to their souls and minds is enormous. 

Let’s take a closer look at what he writes and study four words: “not a common land.” 

A common land, he says, does not play a role in our national character. He must be talking about Eretz Yisrael. Does he mean that the only land in the world where all mitzvahs (613) apply; the only land in which it is a mitzvah to live (to the absolute exclusion of all others); the land about which Torah says “that the eyes of Hashem are on her from the beginning of the year to the end of the year? Does he mean the land to which Hashem commanded Avraham Avinu to journey and there make him blessed and a great nation, a source of blessing to all the nations of the world? 

Does Kobre mean the land that Moshe Rabbeinu prayed for permission to enter, the one that G-d swore to Avrohom, Yitzchak and Yaakov to give to their children, to which He promised to bring His people back at the end of their long exile? Is it not the land about which it says “there is no Torah like the Torah of Eretz Yisrael”? Does Kobre really believe that “a common land” plays no role in our national character? 

When I was rabbi at the Young Israel of West Hempstead I had a neighbor on the block, a baal teshuva. We became good friends. A few years after moving to West Hempstead he told me that he was going on aliyah. He told me “Rabbi, I have been listening to the Torah reading every Shabbos for five years and the whole Torah is about Eretz Yisrael. I’m going.” 

The ability to read Torah and see the truth is something that Kobre has taught me cannot be taken for granted. My baal teshuva friend got it. Kobre just doesn’t get it. 

I find it very difficult to believe that Eytan has forgotten the hundreds of pesukim in Torah that are devoted to “the land.” Of the many I choose the pasuk that is often said in davening in Selichot and appears in the Parshat Hateshuva. 

Then Hashem, your G-d, will bring back your captivity and have mercy upon you, and He will gather you in from all the peoples to which Hashem, your G-d has scattered you. 4If your dispersed will be at the end of heaven, from there Hashem, your G-d will gather you in and from there He will take you. 5Hashem your G-d will bring you to the Land that your forefathers possessed and you shall possess it; He will do good to you and make you more numerous than your forefathers. (Devarim 30:3–5 3)

I have asked many people to explain the three words “מאבתך והרבך והיטבך – He will do good to you and make you more numerous than your forefathers.” For some strange reason they couldn’t say anything that made sense. 

Historians estimate that the Jewish population of Eretz Yisrael during the Second Temple period peaked at 2,350,000. The rest of the Jewish people, numbering around 7,000,000 were in Bavel and Asia Minor. Modern Eretz Yisrael achieved that number 2,350,000 before the Six Day War and has been rising ever since. There are now 6,500,000 Jews here, kein yirbu. 

I am fond of quoting an article that appeared in the Jerusalem Post in 1990. The author predicted that by the end of the century a man, woman or child will step on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport and a dramatic milestone in Jewish history will have been reached. At that moment the Jewish community of Eretz Yisrael will become the largest Jewish community in the world. The last time Eretz Yisrael held that distinction was during the period of the First Beit Hamikdash!! I usually admit to my audience that I am not so brilliant that I remember an article from 1990 – it’s just that I wrote it. מאבתך והרבך והיטבך the three-word promise of Hashem has been fulfilled. 

How can Etyan say that the land does not impact on the character of the people when Rashi says on the pasuk in the second parshah of Shema “You should place these words of mine on your heart”? Even after you will go into exile be distinguished through the performance of commandments such as putting on tefillin, making mezuzot, so that they should not be new to you when you will return (Devarim 11:18). 

The Ramban (Vayikra 18:25) quotes the pasuk from Devarim and explains “that they should not be new to you when you return” and adds “because the essence of all mitzvot is for those who live in the land of Hashem, therefore the Sifrei says, “Yeshivas Eretz Yisrael shkula kchol hamitzvot – the mitzvah of living in Eretz Yisrael is equal to all the mitzvot.” Study that Ramban well. 

I assume that by now it is unnecessary to quote all the pesukim in Tanach about kibbutz galiyot. 

Further Kobre writes “not ranking on some non-Jews’ list as the world’s eighth strongest power.” That too is as unimportant as “a common land” in Kobrespeak. 

Kobre doesn’t begin to understand the awesome religious meaning of that fact. That list of eight includes China, Japan and India. What Israel achieved in 69 years or less took them thousands of years. Germany and Russia needed about five hundred years, and America about a hundred and fifty. That’s not all. Israel is the smallest country of them all with the smallest population and has nowhere near the natural resources of the other seven. 

Furthermore Israel made it while being in a constant state of war, surrounded on all sides by sworn enemies. Jews had no military experience for 1900 years. According to Janes, Israel’s air force is the best in the world. I don’t have the words with which to describe the incredible nature of that accomplishment. 

A thinking Jew has to ask himself, “Well, how did it happen?” The answer is simple yet profound. For 69 years the Ribbono Shel Olom has been fulfilling his promise, a promise we say so many times. We sing it (I love Carlebach – I cry when I sing it) Hashem oz l’amo yitten. He is working 24/7 to make us a mighty nation. He has done it. He wants the world to see His people in His land as a strong, mighty and powerful nation. The past 69 years have been a constant, incessant, outpouring of Hashem’s strength to His people. The power of the Israeli army should be a religious inspiration to every Jew. A clear manifestation of His presence in our midst in Eretz Yisrael. 

Kobre doesn’t get it. I would have him write one thousand times, “Hashem oz l’amo yitten” until it begins to penetrate his neshama. 

I also object to his obvious snide remark about “a non-Jews’ list.” First, that’s Hashem’s whole purpose, that non-Jews should see us as strong people, which is a Torah value. (See the great Meshech Chochma in Parshat Chukas 21:2. It’s an eye opener.) 

Has Kobre forgotten the pesukim in Hallel: 

הללו את ה' כל גוים שבחוהו כל האמים כי גבר עלינו הסדו ואמת ה' לעולם הללו יה. 

Praise Hashem, all nations; praise Him, all the states. For His kindness has overwhelmed us, and the truth of Hashem is eternal. Halleluyah. 

Kobre becomes all good hearted when he writes, 

“Of course we should hope and pray that Israel’s economy thrives and feel great when it does – and then the Reason (get the capital “R”) for it, too.” 

Kobre reduces the thriving Eretz Yisrael to “parnassah for Jews.” He’s far off the mark. He has missed the magnificent and majestic prophetic process playing itself out in real life so carefully orchestrated by “the One who foretells the generations from the very beginning.” 

Two years ago I had written a response to an abusive letter to me by a recognized spokesman for the “religious” world. I had said in a shiur, “If you want to speak to the Ribbono Shel Olam go to the Kotel, but if you want to see Him, go to Shuk Machane Yehudah.” The following is from that letter which I had asked my son-in-law Yehuda Goldreich to put on the web. That day it was reported that three yeshiva students had been kidnapped. Immediately I contacted Yehudah and told him not to publish the letter because then was the time for unity and prayer not debate. Here it is now. 

* * * * * 

The Tomatoes 

Rabbi, you write: 

"It should likewise be pointed out Rabbi Gold's exaggerated words, upon being inspired by the abundance of produce found in the Machane Yehudah market: 'If this is golus then I can't begin to imagine what geulah is.' An abundance of fruits and vegetables is indeed a blessing; however, the final redemption will be exalted and spiritual, with material abundance being a mere by-product. Until then, it would be wise to seek and find Divinity in the world of Torah, whose growth and develop[ment] is infinitely more astounding than that of the tomatoes and cucumbers in the market." 

I must introduce my remarks with a thought, a story, and my deep feelings. 

The Thought – After the League of Nations in 1922 voted that Eretz Yisrael should be a homeland for the Jewish people, Reb Meir Simcha HaKohen of Dvinsk, The Ohr Sameach, wrote a letter encouraging Jews to participate in the building of Eretz Yisrael and that the mitzvah of Yishuv Eretz Yisrael is in full force. 

At the beginning of his letter he writes that in the desert Jews committed two sins, the sin of the egel (the golden calf) and the sin of the meraglim (the spies). The former was an assault on G-d Himself, the latter was a blow to Eretz Yisrael. On His own honor He was mochel but He was not forgiving for the disgracing of Eretz Yisrael, therefore He said that because of the sin of the meraglim the entire generation shall all die in the desert. 

Rabbi – you unjustly attacked me a number of times in your letter. I can handle that – but when you trivialized the tomatoes of Eretz Yisrael, you just went too far. For that sin I'm not mochel. 

I heard the following story in the 1950s. A chosid had come from Chutz L'Aretz to visit the Belzer Rebbeh and brought a tray of fruit. When he presented his gift to the Rebbeh he refused to touch them and said to the poor chosid – "Ask forgiveness from the fruit of Eretz Yisrael that you shamed." 

Rabbi – you have shamed me. I can be forgiving. You denigrated the tomatoes of Eretz Yisrael – for that I am not mochel. Since you refer to my agvaniyot as "material abundance" it is obvious that you don't have a clue to what the produce of Eretz Yisrael means. The Bach says that the Shechina, the Divine Presence, enters the Jew through the produce of Eretz Yisrael. They are the conduit to bring sanctity. That's "material"?? (See Tur, Orach Chaim, Siman 208). 

Rav Kook writes that "The produce of Eretz Yisrael brings 'internal sanctity.'" Be careful, he warns, of food from out of Eretz Yisrael. If one longs for Eretz Yisrael, then even his golus-produce gains in sanctity. "It is a mitzvah to taste with one's full mouth the delight and sweetness of the brilliant and fresh sanctity of (the fruit) of Eretz Yisrael. I could go on and on. The tomatoes are spirituality, ruchniyut, not gashmiyut. 

But there's much, much more. My tomato talks to me and tells me a tale of such drama and pathos. 

I'll tell you what my agvaniyah says to me. Rabbi Ploni, from here on I hand over the letter to my tomato. 

My tomato to Rabbi Ploni: 

"After the destruction of the Second Beis Hamikdosh a message came from Heaven to all the flora and fauna of Eretz Yisrael to stop growing. The word went from cedar to hyssop, to vine, to olive, to flowers, to grain, to all plant life – The Ribbono Shel Olom has decreed that we stop growing until we receive new instructions. We were told that only when Klal Yisrael begins to return from golus will we come back to life. We were all very sad to see our people going off into exile – but we heeded the 'Dvar Hashem.' 

As He said in Bechukotai – 'And I will make the land desolate.' We were told not to respond to enemies of Israel who will enter the land, and we obeyed – Romans, Byzantines, Moslems, Crusaders, Tartars, Saracens, they all came and we did not respond to their attempts to bring us to life. We were told that we would be informed in good time before Klal Yisrael begins to return so that we could wake up from our long slumber. 

"Rabbi Ploni, don't you know the Gemorah in Sanhedrin 98?: 

ואמר רבי אבא - And R' Abba said אין לך קץ מגולה מזה -  There is no clearer indication of the "End" than this, שנאמר – as it is stated: ואתם הרי ישראל ענפכם תתנו ופריכם תשאו לעמי ישראל בי ...לבא קרבו – But you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel, etc. [when they are about to come].

"Rashi comments that when Eretz Yisrael gives out its produce in abundance that is the greatest sign that 'the end – the keitz' is coming. "

Cecil Roth wrote that the years after the destruction of the Beis HaMikdosh there was severe drought in Eretz Yisrael – you know why? Because, in keeping with the Divine Order of the day we all began to go into hibernation. We didn't know that it would last for nineteen hundred years. We hoped that it would be for only a brief period of time. 

"During that long period there were moments at which we thought that the end of our sleep is coming. We thought that our children are coming home. In the twelfth century we heard reports that 'they are coming.' The rumor went underground from root to root, the cedar to the hyssop, the vine to the olive, the tomato to the cucumber – we heard that they are coming home. Then we learned to our utter dismay that 300 Baalei Tosafot from the Rhineland arrived but no more. 

"We had other false alarms. The Ramban in 1267, Rav Ovadiah miBartenura in 1492, Rabbi Yehuda Hachosid and his followers in 1700, the students of the Baal Shem Tov and the students of the Vilna Gaon, but we did not receive the message from Hashem. So we waited, we hoped, we prayed. Then, toward the end of the 19th century rumors began again beneath the surface of the earth. There was a report that after Mark Twain left Emek Yizrael that there were angels telling blades of grass: 'grow, grow.' We were skeptical at first. We didn't want to be disappointed. 

But the reports became increasingly urgent. Birds flying overhead, clouds cruising the skies said, 'They are coming.' You should have seen (but of course you couldn't) what was going on beneath the surface of Eretz Yisrael. We were all cautious but excited. More and more reports of sightings were coming in. 'They are coming – they are coming home' – and then the word came directly from Hashem:

                           אתם הרי ישראל ענפכם תתנוי ופריכם תשאו לעמי ישראל כי קרבו לבא 

'They are finally coming home! Grow! Respond to the work of their hands! Don't check their tzitzis, it makes no difference whether they are religious or not. Grow – they are My children and they are coming home. Grow even in Shemittah, if it's with the Heter Mechira. Grow, give out your fruits. Grow.' 

"You should have seen the joy and jubilation beneath the surface. You didn't know but we knew. You should have seen how they all started waking up from the 1,900-year slumber, stretching their roots, yawning, smiling. I had not seen such activity in millennia. We were told by the Ribbono Shel Olom that we are commanded to turn little, dry, arid, dusty, nearly dead Eretz Yisrael into a verdant, fruitful, agricultural world super power. And we did it with joy (Google: Israel Agriculture – Wikipedia – It will blow your mind away. Trust me, do it.) 

"I (remember, it's my tomato talking) don't understand how Jews don't realize that we are the bearers of a message that G-d wants all His children home (study that Gemorah in Sanhedrin again)." 

* * * * * 

Kobre has succeeded in trivializing all the manifestations of Hashem’s Presence in our midst. Strong healthy economy, abundance, military prowess – all mean nothing to him. And what is wrong about “hearts swelling with national pride, etc.”? There is a total absence of G-d from the modern miracle of Eretz Yisrael in Kobre’s thought. The awesome fulfillment of so many prophecies is lost to him. 

It has been my misfortune to have just read Kobre’s piece in issue 656, which reveals that he has no longing, yearning or desire to live in Eretz Yisrael. It all is the result of what he recently wrote, “then some people made a state.” Hashem’s greatest gift to a bleeding, battered, decimated people emerging from Auschwitz is reduced to “then some people made a state.” All the pieces of Kobre’s perverted hashkafa are falling into place. There is more. Many years ago I predicted that the incessant finding fault with “the medina” will eventually morph into a rejection of Eretz Yisrael itself. The sin of unbridled rejection of the state has its own built-in punishment. My prediction has proven to be prophetic. 

In issue 656 Kobre writes the worst piece I have ever read. I wonder whether I should rent my garments. 

There’s more than a kernel of truth in the story told of a Jew who, flush with spiritual inspiration, decided he’d had his fill of the tumas eretz ha’amim and would instead make the Holy Land his home. He quickly wound up his affairs, gathered his kin and set out on his journey, his Russian hometown now a mere memory. Entering Yerushalayim, his heart quickened as he made his way swiftly to the Kosel Hamaaravi, the focal point of every Jew’s prayers. 

But strangely, as he prayed passionately for the first time before the ancient stones, he sensed a presence beside him. He looked up and – lo and behold! – it was the yetzer hara, right next to him at this holiest of sites. Stunned, all he could mutter was, “B-b-but I thought I left you behind in Russia!” Came the swift reply, “Silly one – who do you think brought you here?” 

Kobre must ask his gedolim if there is a way to do teshuva for such absolutely despicable trash. 

I have a great deal more to write, about Kobre’s articles but this latest one has wiped me out. I am going to take a break and begin to cleanse and purify myself in preparation for Yom Haatzmaut and the 50th Yom Yerushalayim. 

G-d willing, bli neder, there will be a continuation. 

While reading and thinking about the Kobre papers I was haunted by a still small voice telling me that it rings familiar. Then one morning in the middle of davening it came to me like a flash – the meraglim. That’s exactly what they said, that if we have Torah who needs a land. 

In 1907 HaRav Avrohom Yitzchak HaCohen Kook wrote that what he called “meragliut” or in our idiom “meraglimhood” or “meraglimism” is alive and well. It sure is. Just read Mishpacha.