Don't trust the US.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
In our family, when someone doesn't finish their meal, they threaten them with what Rabin's mother did to them...<\/p>\r\n
It turns out that in one of Yitzhak Rabin's interviews, the former Prime Minister said that as a child, when he didn't finish his meal, his mother would put the leftovers in the refrigerator and serve them to him at the next meal, and so on.<\/p>\r\n
Many days have passed since those distant days of austerity and we have moved to the other extreme. To a festival \u2013 the Rabin Festival \u2013 as one of the Knesset members called it in recent decades.<\/p>\r\n
Twenty years have passed since Rabin's death, and it is time to return and quote here things he said about the Lubavitcher Rebbe, in an article published in the Jewish-American magazine 'Jewish Home' years after they met.<\/p>\r\n
Rabin visited the Rebbe in the month of Nissan 5772, at the height of the euphoric years between the great victory of the Six-Day War and the painful victory on Yom Kippur.<\/p>\r\n
Rabin was then serving as Israel's ambassador to Washington and had come to New York to bring the Israeli government's blessing on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the greatest Jewish leader of our generation. The meeting with the Rebbe lasted two hours, and Jewish Home quoted Rabin's remarks afterward at a private party in Canada.<\/p>\r\n
During the party, Rabin deviated from his words and moved on to talk about the Rebbe. He said that at the end of the long meeting, the Rebbe summed up his remarks with three main points:<\/p>\r\n
\""A people alone shall dwell" \u2013 the Rebbe wanted it to be stated in me, despite my being an ambassador whose job it is to ensure good relations with foreign countries, that the Jewish people are a people alone shall dwell. Therefore, said the Rebbe, we must not place our trust in any alliance or agreement with any nation of the world...<\/p>\r\n
\"Am HaTorah\" \u2013 The Rebbe explained to me that the Israeli argument that Israel needs \"secure borders\" is inadequate and does not convince the nations of the world. The Rebbe said that in an era where people are being sent to the moon, it is possible, with the help of an appropriate strategy, to overcome any strategic depth. Therefore, the Rebbe said, Israel should rely only on the grace of God and the protection of the Creator.<\/p>\r\n
Instead of using the argument of defensible borders, one should use the argument of "historical borders." This argument will be accepted by the nations of the world, as they know that we - the people of Israel - are a people of the Torah who carry the legacy of the Bible.<\/p>\r\n
\""Jewish education" - From here the Rebbe moved on to the obvious conclusion from the previous two points. The Rebbe said that the only way that will enable the existence of the Jewish people is to give top priority to original Jewish education - education according to the Torah - for all Jews in the world.<\/p>\r\n
The end of Rabin's remarks at that closed party is actually the reason I brought that news here.<\/p>\r\n
\""Over time, I understood the Rebbe's words more and more," Rabin said on that occasion. It seems that every additional word is unnecessary and the words are more relevant today than ever.<\/p>\r\n
\u00a0NA difficult ordeal from the Akeda attempt<\/b><\/p>\r\n
It was a week of storms. The storm of rain and the storm of electricity. The storm of the left and the storm of the right.<\/p>\r\n
While hundreds of thousands of people in Israel in 2015 were cut off from electricity, the late prime minister's daughter said that the settlements were stuck to the Arabs like a thorn in their side (I'm not sure I worded it accurately, but that was the spirit of the matter) and inadvertently contributed a little more fuel to the fire of Arab incitement.<\/p>\r\n
The right wing attacked over the weekend after a Supreme Court judge insulted a bereaved mother and openly exposed the perspective, and perhaps even the disconnect, of High Court judges from the lives of Jewish citizens of Israel.<\/p>\r\n
The ultra-Orthodox and religious in Israel were outraged after a journalist in one of the newspapers wrote things from which it could be concluded that one should distinguish between one Jewish blood type and another, and he also unwittingly contributed to the terrorists' evil fire of vanity.<\/p>\r\n
And this week's torah is also a storm.<\/p>\r\n
Our mother Sarah - the first prophetess - was fed up with the savage man who grew up in her home, and she demanded that her husband, Abraham - the father of the Israeli nation - expel her stepfather from their shared home.<\/p>\r\n
Abraham was also angry at the request, but after God's words, "Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her voice," he handled things with characteristic composure, even though for him it was a greater trial than the Akedah trial.<\/p>\r\n
The Rebbe explains that this experience, in which he had to throw his disturbed son, Ishmael, out of his home, was particularly difficult.<\/p>\r\n
From this experience, says the Rebbe, we can learn what the love of a father for his son is. Self-love that is independent of anything and stands up even in the face of cruel behavior that is difficult to accept.<\/p>\r\n
Even though it's the son of a slave girl, even though it's a savage, he has difficulty expelling him.<\/p>\r\n
And even when Abraham does this at the command of God, he is full of concern for the disturbed child and equips the mother \u2013 the sojourner \u2013 with a way that will enable the child to survive the hardships of the journey. Here too, every additional word seems unnecessary, and here too, the things are more relevant than ever.<\/p>\r\n