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From: MElsant@aol.com Date: Wed 9 Jan 2002 Subject: VIPAC and Vaeyra Hello Moish! Below is my dvar torah plugging VIPAC that I've been asked to deliver to the young people's minyan this shabbos. Tell me what you think. I will also send you a copy of the flier I plan on handing out. Regards Marty Moshe was clearly dispirited and depressed when Hashem told him in this week's sedra to go back to Paroh again and once more demand freedom for his people. "The Jews won't listen to me so how will Paro listen to me and I am of uncircumcised lips!" This is Moshe's response which is quite strange if you think about it. Back at the Burning Bush when Hashem first gives Moshe his mission to speak to Paroh and demand freedom for the Bnai Yisrael Hashem warns Moshe right then that Paro won't listen to him and that it will take a whole series of miracles to coerce Paro to let the Jews go. So why was Moshe upset in this week's sedra that Paro didn't listen to him? He knew in advance that Paro wouldn't listen to him so why did he get upset after it happened? Further Moshe's complaint is a non-sequitor. The Jews as it says explicitly in the Pasuk didn't listen to Moshe because of the hard work which weakened their spirit. Paro wasn't doing any hard work. The fact that the Jews were too tired to listen to Moshe doesn't mean that Paro was too tired to listen to Moshe. Why did Moshe use Israel's refusal to listen to him as proof that Paro certainly wouldn't? Why did Moshe try to make a Kal ve chomer in a set of circumstances where it would not apply? The Sfas Emes answers as follows: A leader is only as effective as the people whom he leads. Leaders can only lead if they have a group willing to follow. If the group is too timid to follow the leaders can take them nowhere and accomplish nothing. That is the basis of Moshe's sadness and his connection of the responses of Paro and the Jews to his message of freedom. Sure Hashem warned him that Paro wouldn't listen to him---but that Bnai Yisrael wouldn't listen to him that was a surprise. And to go to Paro to speak on behalf of Bnai Yisrael without their support made his mission appear depressingly impossible. The lack of support from Bnai Yisrael rendered Moshe an aral sefasayim someone with an insurmountable impediment to communicate his message. This past week there has been much criticism in Israel about the Israeli government's inability to make a bigger political gain out of their successful capture of the Karine A. As you all know this ship was laden with 50 tons of long range ballistic missiles that could destroy every city in Israel and it was captured last week by Israel in the Red Sea. The captain of the ship was an officer in the PLO navy and he freely admitted that these weapons were bought and paid for by the PLO in blatant violation of their Oslo obligations. But in Washington DC despite this overwhelming and shocking evidence of Arafat's preparations to destroy Israel it was a non event no one cared and the Israeli Foreign Ministry blamed the Israeli Army which blamed the Israeli Prime Minister for not getting more political gain from this turn of events. But the truth is they shouldn't be blaming each other. It is not any of their faults. It is my fault. &! nbsp;It is your fault. It is all of our faults. How many of us picked up the telephone this week to call our Senators and Congressman demanding that the 100 million dollars that the US sends to Arafat each year be stopped? How many of us told our representatives that this money only makes it easier for Arafat to buy his next 50 ton shipment of long range missiles? How many of us called the White House this week demanding that the that the Bush Administration stop sending 100 million OF OUR TAX dollars as an annual subsidy to the PLO because the next 50 ton shipment of long range missiles that Arafat buys may not be intercepted by Israel and may even have the capability of reaching American shores? I didn't make these phone calls this week and I suspect none of you did either. And without the support of the American Jewish people neither the Israeli generals nor the Israeli foreign ministry nor Prime Minister Sharon had a chance to make their case effectively in Washington DC just as Moshe! was rendered an aral sefasayim by the lack of support of the Jews in Egypt. You know we don't even have the excuse of the Jews in Egypt. We are not slaves building bricks without straw. As a matter of fact right now many of us are busy making our vacation arrangements--as I am. All that shopping and packing and shlepping food from Kind David and Wok Tov is stressful but it is not on par with building pyramids in the hot desert sun under the lash of the taskmaster's whip. We cannot legitimately say as the Jews in Egypt did that we were too exhausted to support our leaders. We can turn this around tonight. Start out simple by sending an email each week to the White House urging more support for Israel and an end to the 100 million dollar annual subsidy the Bush Administration currently provides Arafat's terrorist regime. You can easily accomplish that by going to www.vipac.org--as explained in the flyers I have here for you--and join the Virtual Israel Political Action Committee which will make sending those email messages a snap. Once you have done that you can click on your printer icon to print out those emails on paper and send it out as a fax each week to the appropriate people in Washington. You can even put a stamp on it and send it by snail mail and sign the letter by hand if you think that has more impact. And it is only a small step further to use that weekly email that you've printed out as a script for phone calls to the president and congress. By joining VIPAC at www.vipac.org you will be sent--automatically and for free--a sample letter each week that you can revise as you see fit to reflect your own particular view point urging more support for Israel. Perhaps if we all do this then like the Jews in Egypt we will merit an amazing redemption that will come sooner than any of us could ever imagine. Good Shabbos |
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