פָּרָשַׁת דְּבָרִים Parashat Devarim
INTRODUCTION:
Parashat Devarim (Deut. 1:1-3:22) contains the following sidrot:
Hundred-and-Thirty-Seventh Sidra՚, introduction - a recap of the last forty years;
Hundred-and-Thirty-Eighth Sidra՚, the encounter with Edom and Moab, arrival in Transjordania, and conquests in Transjordania;
Hundred-and-Thirty-Ninth Sidra՚, the conquests in Transjordania continued, and the landed inheritance of the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh.
ANALYSIS:
Hundred-and-Thirty-Seventh Sidra՚ (Deut. 1:1-2:1): Introduction - a recap of the last forty years.
Sefer Devarim is essentially Moses' farewell address to the Children of Israel, and opens with the words:
"These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel, beyond the Jordan; in the wilderness in the plains opposite Suf between Paran and between Tofel and Lavan; and Ḥaṣeroth and Di Zahav. Eleven days from Ḥorev, by way of Mount Seՙir; unto Ḳadesh Barneyaՙ. And it was in the fortieth year, in the Eleventh Month, on the first of the month; Moses spoke to the Children of Israel, according to all that YHWH had commanded him concerning them" (Deut. 1:1-3)
Moses' speech takes place exactly six months after the death of Aaron and not long after the victory over Siḥon king of the Amorites, whose capital was Ḥeshbon, and ՙOg king of Bashan, whose capital was at ՙAshtaroth in Edreՙi. He begins by recalling how YHWH had told them to leave Ḥorev [also known as Mount Sinai], and that YHWH brought them to the Amorite hill country and all its neighbouring places; the plain, the hill country, the lowlands, the Negev, the shore of the sea, the land of the Canaanites, and the Lebanon, unto the great river the Euphrates. To the land, that He is granting Israel as a possession and as a landed inheritance, the land that He swore to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their seed after them. Moses reminds the people that he was unable to carry them alone since YHWH had multiplied them and today they are as many as the stars in the heavens. Moses blesses them by requesting that YHWH still increase their numbers even more, so that they become a thousand fold, and may He bless them. Moses continues to relate that their burdens, obstacles, and quarrels were just too much for him, so he appointed wise, understanding, and knowledgeable, men from their tribes and placed them as heads over them; officials of thousands, officials of hundreds, officials of fifties, and officials of tens, and officers for their tribes. He commanded the judges, to hear out each case, to judge righteously between a man and his brother and his Sojourner. The judges are to be impartial in judgement, the powerful and the small have the same rights before the court, and they must not dread any man since judgment is God's! The case that is too hard for them, they are to bring to Moses and he will hear it. Moses reiterates how they journeyed on from Ḥorev, travelled through the whole wilderness, and arrived at Ḳadesh Barneyaՙ at the border of the Amorite hill country that YHWH is giving them. "See YHWH your God has set the land before you; ascend take possession as YHWH the God of your fathers spoke to you, do not fear and do not be dismayed" (Deut. 1:21). There they approached Moses and requested that men be sent to search [literally dig] the land and report back with vital intelligence needed to conquer the land of Canaan. Moses says that the matter was good in his eyes, so he selected twelve men, one man per tribe, and sent them to spy out the land. They returned with the fruit of the land in their hands and reported that the land that YHWH is bestowing upon them is a good land, yet they were not willing to ascend rebelling against the mouth of YHWH. They murmured in their tents, saying that YHWH hates them and that He brought them out of the land of Egypt to place them into the hands of the Amorites - to destroy them. Moses tells them how he had told them not to be terrified nor to be afraid for YHWH is going before them and He will fight for them, as He did for them in Egypt before their eyes. In the wilderness, did not YHWH carry them as a man carries his child? "But in this thing; you do not trust, in YHWH your God" (Deut. 1:32). When YHWH heard their words, He was furious and swore that not a single member of that evil generation would see the good land that He swore to give to their fathers, save for Kalev son of Yefunne and Joshua son of Nun, because they fully followed Him. Moses then reminds the people that he too will not enter the land because YHWH became angry with him on their account. However, the next generation their young ones whom they feared would become spoils of war for the Canaanites they will inherit the land. Nevertheless, Moses continues, they realised that they had sinned and were willing to go up and fight, but YHWH said that they are not to do so for He is not in their midst. Even so, they did not listen and rebelled against the mouth of YHWH, and the Amorites defeated them pursuing and smiting them at Seՙir as far as Ḥorma. When they returned they wept before YHWH, but He did not hear their voice nor gave ear to them. Thus, they stayed in Ḳadesh for many days, and journeyed into the wilderness by way of the Reed Sea and circled around Mount Seՙir for many days.
Hundred-and-Thirty-Eighth Sidra՚ (Deut. 2:2-30): The encounter with Edom and Moab, arrival in Transjordania, and conquests in Transjordania.
Moses then recounts that YHWH had spoken to him, saying that they had circled around Mount Seՙir for long enough, and now they were to turn northward. YHWH commanded that they were to cross the borders of their brothers the Children of Esau, who are settled in Seՙir, and to be very watchful of the Children of Esau because they are afraid of them. Not to cause them any problems, for YHWH will not give them even a segment of their land, since YHWH has bequeathed Mount Seՙir to the Children of Esau as their inherited possession. However, they may purchase food from them to eat and water to drink. Moses reminds them that YHWH blessed them in all the works of their hands during the forty years that they journeyed in the wilderness, and they lacked for nothing! Moses continues to recount how they passed by the Children of Esau by way of the plain, from Elath and from ՙEṣyon Gaver [both on the tip of what is now known as the Gulf of Aqaba], and then continued along the route leading to the wilderness of Moab. Moses reiterates that YHWH told him - that just as with the Edomites - they are not to cause any problems with the Moabites, nor to war with them, for YHWH will not give them even a portion of their land since He gave the Children of Lot ՙAr as an inherited possession. The Torah records at this point that the Moabites conquered ՙAr from the Rephaites whom the Moabites referred to as Emites, while the Children of Esau conquered Mount Seՙir from the Ḥorites. Then upon reaching the Wadi of Zared (the border between Edom and Moab) YHWH ordered them to cross.
The crossing of the Wadi of Zared occurred thirty-eight years after the incident of the lying scouts at Ḳadesh Barneyaՙ, when that entire generation of warriors had died in the wilderness as YHWH had sworn. The Children of Israel were told that they will be coming near the Children of ՙAmmon, and just as with the Edomites and Moabites, not to cause them any problems, for will YHWH not give them their land since He gave it to the Children of Lot as an inherited possession. The Children of ՙAmmon also conquered their land from the Rephaites, whom the ՙAmmonites called Zamzummites. The Torah mentions here the ՙAwwites who were settled in villages as far as Gaza, and how the Kaftorites [i.e. the Philistines], who came from Kaftor, destroyed them and settled in their place. They crossed the river Arnon the border between Moab and the land of Siḥon king of Ḥeshbon, and YHWH ordered them to take the land of Siḥon king of the Amorites for a possession.
Moses recalls how he sent messengers to Siḥon with words of peace requesting that he permit the Israelites to cross through his land via the main highway and they will not turn to the right or to the left. Any food that they eat or water that they drink they will pay for, just as they did with the Edomites and the Moabites, until they have crossed the Jordan into the land that YHWH is giving them. However, Siḥon refused this request since YHWH had hardened his spirit and strengthened his heart so that He will deliver him into their hands.
Hundred-and-Thirty-Ninth Sidra՚ (Deut. 2:31-3:22): The conquests in Transjordania continued, and the landed inheritance of the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh.
Moses recounts how Siḥon gathered his forces against them at Yaheṣa, but YHWH delivered him into the hands of Israel and they smote him along with his sons and all his people; conquering all of his cities. When the Amorites invaded and conquered the land of Gilՙad and Bashan they exterminated the previous inhabitants. This could be the reason why the cities of the Amorites were placed under Ḥerem [חֵרֶם - Devoted (for destruction)]. Not a remnant was left of the men, women, and young ones, only the beasts and spoils of the cities, which they took as plunder. Because of the defeat of Siḥon, all the territory in the land of Gilՙad came under their control including the kingdom of ՙOg, king of Bashan, whom they defeated at Edreՙi; for YHWH had placed them in their hands. They captured all of the cities in ՙOg's kingdom - sixty in total, all the district of Argov. These cities were fortified with high walls and bolted gates, nevertheless, they did to the cities of ՙOg and to his villages as they did to the cities and villages in the territory of Siḥon. However, they did not approach the land of the Children of ՙAmmon. The land that they took from the two kings of the Amorites stretched from the river Arnon to Mount Hermon, all the cities of the plateau, all of Gilՙad, and all of Bashan, as far as Salkha and Edreՙi in the territory of ՙOg. We are informed that Hermon is called Siryon by the Sidonians and that the Amorites call it Senir. Also that ՙOg was the last of the Rephaites, whose couch was made of iron measuring nine cubits in length by four cubits in breadth [4.05 metres x 1.80 metres or 159 inch x 71 inch approx.] and that it is in Rabba of the Children of Ammon.
The southern half of Gilՙad, Moses continues, was given to the tribes of Reuben and Gad as their inherited possession, whilst the rest of Gilՙad and all of Bashan became the inherited possession of half of the tribe of Manasseh. However, this is only upon the condition that they cross over the Jordan as a shock force before the Children of Israel, whilst their wives, young ones, and livestock remain in their cities, and are not to return home until YHWH brings their brother Israelites to possess their landed inheritance. Moses tells the people that he commanded Joshua, "Your eyes have seen all that YHWH your God did to these two kings, thus will YHWH do to all the kingdoms, into which you are crossing. You shall not fear them; for YHWH your God, He is the one fighting for you" (Deut. 3:21-22)
TEACHINGS OF HAKHAM REKHAVI:
"You shall not fear them; for YHWH your God, He is the one fighting for you" (Deut. 3:22)
Nations come and nations go, empires rise and empires fall, this has been a rhythm in the history of civilization since its inception. The times in which we live are times of great uncertainty. It is one hundred years since the Battle of the Somme, the bloodiest battle of the Great War, where almost 1,000,000 men lost their lives; but the carnage still continues. The Great War of 1914 - 1918 brought in its wake the process that set in motion the collapse of the Great Powers that had begun to dominate the map five hundred years previously. One such Great Power whose demise came as a consequence of the Great War was the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Sultan Selim I (1512 - 1520) conquered Jerusalem in 1517, and for the next five hundred years the Ottoman Empire ruled the land of Israel. In Basle Switzerland in the year 1897, Theodor Herzl convoked the first Zionist Congress, which was a supra-communal parliamentary institution, whose goal it was to establish a Jewish state in the land of Israel. In 1917, the British General Edmund Allenby conquered Jerusalem from the Ottomans, in the same year that the British Empire signed the Balfour Declaration. The Balfour Declaration declared not only Britain's support for the re-establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in the land of Israel, but that Britain - the greatest world power at the time, would actively facilitate the achievement of this objective.
However, it did not take long for Britain to negate upon the terms and spirit of the Balfour Declaration by limiting Jewish land purchase and immigration, while encouraging Arab immigration from neighbouring areas. Even Transjordania, the first region to be conquered by the Children of Israel at the mouth of YHWH, was severed by the British from the territory allocated by the League of Nations for the sole purpose of re-establishing a Jewish homeland and handed to the deposed Emir Abdullah bin al-Hussein. The period after the Great War saw a rise in world anti-Semitism, and in Germany in 1933 a party that openly called for the extermination of all Jews was democratically elected with 43.9% of the popular vote! The ensuing Jewish flight from death was hampered by the so-called enlightened democratic nations who placed a strict quota on Jewish immigration to their borders and shores. Moreover, Britain to whom the re-establishment of a Jewish homeland was entrusted, still limited Jewish immigration to the land of Israel. From 1939 - 1945 the world was once more engulfed in war - a war against true evil. During this war over 6,000,000 Jews were murdered by the Germans and their allies in what has become known as the Holocaust. Many of the survivors of the horrors of the Holocaust scrambled to the shores of the Jewish homeland, but their entrance was barred by the British.
In 1947, the newly formed United Nations voted for the establishment of a Jewish state in the land of Israel. However, the heart of the homeland, the areas of Judea and Samaria, where the majority of ancient Jewish history takes place and the second region of the land to be conquered at the mouth of YHWH, was severed and given to the Arabs. Even Jerusalem was to be taken away from the Jewish people and placed under the rule of the United Nations. Just three years after the Holocaust, the Jewish people were faced with another catastrophe. The armies of five Arab countries along with local Arab irregulars declared war on the Jews and vowed to complete the work of Hitler by exterminating the 650,000 Jews living in the land of Israel. The so-called enlightened democratic nations once again turned their collective backs upon the Jewish people placing an arms embargo against the fledgling State of Israel, but the Children of Israel remembered the words spoken to Joshua, "You shall not fear them; for YHWH your God, He is the one fighting for you". In the war that ensured the founding of the State of Israel, her enemies were defeated and some of the land severed from the Jewish homeland was restored, but not Judea and Samaria, nor the heart and soul of the Jewish people - Jerusalem.
In 1967, the Arab neighbours of the State of Israel, supported by others, once again vowed to commit genocide against the Jewish people. The combined Arab armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq held a strangle hold on the State of Israel threatening to exterminate her Jewish population of 2,400,000. Yet again the so-called enlightened democratic nations turned their collective backs upon the Jewish people by placing another arms embargo upon the State of Israel. Nevertheless, the Children of Israel remembered the words spoken to Joshua, "You shall not fear them; for YHWH your God, He is the one fighting for you". In what became known as the Six Day War the Israeli army defeated their enemies. In addition, 70 years since the first Zionist Congress, 50 years since the Balfour Declaration, and 20 years since the United Nations partition plan, Judea and Samaria was restored to the Jewish people, and our beating heart Jerusalem was returned to the body of the Jewish people.
Soon it will be 120 years since the first Zionist Congress, 100 years since the Balfour Declaration, 70 years since the United Nations partition plan, and 50 years since the liberation of Jerusalem. It is a time of great upheaval of great barbarity, amongst which voices emanate from every corner of the globe calling for the ultimate destruction of the State of Israel with her 6,400,000 Jews. Worldwide anti-Semitism has reached levels not seen since the Holocaust, levels comparable to those just prior to that horror. Even Jews, who have turned their backs upon their God, clamber amongst those demonizing the Children of Israel; yet another darkness gathers casting its shadow far and wide. If this is to be the final darkness to befall the Jewish people then we should remember His name call upon Him and uphold His Tora, and when the time comes, to remember the words spoken to Joshua, "You shall not fear them; for YHWH your God, He is the one fighting for you".
Parashat Devarim (Deut. 1:1-3:22) contains the following sidrot:
Hundred-and-Thirty-Seventh Sidra՚, introduction - a recap of the last forty years;
Hundred-and-Thirty-Eighth Sidra՚, the encounter with Edom and Moab, arrival in Transjordania, and conquests in Transjordania;
Hundred-and-Thirty-Ninth Sidra՚, the conquests in Transjordania continued, and the landed inheritance of the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh.
ANALYSIS:
Hundred-and-Thirty-Seventh Sidra՚ (Deut. 1:1-2:1): Introduction - a recap of the last forty years.
Sefer Devarim is essentially Moses' farewell address to the Children of Israel, and opens with the words:
"These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel, beyond the Jordan; in the wilderness in the plains opposite Suf between Paran and between Tofel and Lavan; and Ḥaṣeroth and Di Zahav. Eleven days from Ḥorev, by way of Mount Seՙir; unto Ḳadesh Barneyaՙ. And it was in the fortieth year, in the Eleventh Month, on the first of the month; Moses spoke to the Children of Israel, according to all that YHWH had commanded him concerning them" (Deut. 1:1-3)
Moses' speech takes place exactly six months after the death of Aaron and not long after the victory over Siḥon king of the Amorites, whose capital was Ḥeshbon, and ՙOg king of Bashan, whose capital was at ՙAshtaroth in Edreՙi. He begins by recalling how YHWH had told them to leave Ḥorev [also known as Mount Sinai], and that YHWH brought them to the Amorite hill country and all its neighbouring places; the plain, the hill country, the lowlands, the Negev, the shore of the sea, the land of the Canaanites, and the Lebanon, unto the great river the Euphrates. To the land, that He is granting Israel as a possession and as a landed inheritance, the land that He swore to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their seed after them. Moses reminds the people that he was unable to carry them alone since YHWH had multiplied them and today they are as many as the stars in the heavens. Moses blesses them by requesting that YHWH still increase their numbers even more, so that they become a thousand fold, and may He bless them. Moses continues to relate that their burdens, obstacles, and quarrels were just too much for him, so he appointed wise, understanding, and knowledgeable, men from their tribes and placed them as heads over them; officials of thousands, officials of hundreds, officials of fifties, and officials of tens, and officers for their tribes. He commanded the judges, to hear out each case, to judge righteously between a man and his brother and his Sojourner. The judges are to be impartial in judgement, the powerful and the small have the same rights before the court, and they must not dread any man since judgment is God's! The case that is too hard for them, they are to bring to Moses and he will hear it. Moses reiterates how they journeyed on from Ḥorev, travelled through the whole wilderness, and arrived at Ḳadesh Barneyaՙ at the border of the Amorite hill country that YHWH is giving them. "See YHWH your God has set the land before you; ascend take possession as YHWH the God of your fathers spoke to you, do not fear and do not be dismayed" (Deut. 1:21). There they approached Moses and requested that men be sent to search [literally dig] the land and report back with vital intelligence needed to conquer the land of Canaan. Moses says that the matter was good in his eyes, so he selected twelve men, one man per tribe, and sent them to spy out the land. They returned with the fruit of the land in their hands and reported that the land that YHWH is bestowing upon them is a good land, yet they were not willing to ascend rebelling against the mouth of YHWH. They murmured in their tents, saying that YHWH hates them and that He brought them out of the land of Egypt to place them into the hands of the Amorites - to destroy them. Moses tells them how he had told them not to be terrified nor to be afraid for YHWH is going before them and He will fight for them, as He did for them in Egypt before their eyes. In the wilderness, did not YHWH carry them as a man carries his child? "But in this thing; you do not trust, in YHWH your God" (Deut. 1:32). When YHWH heard their words, He was furious and swore that not a single member of that evil generation would see the good land that He swore to give to their fathers, save for Kalev son of Yefunne and Joshua son of Nun, because they fully followed Him. Moses then reminds the people that he too will not enter the land because YHWH became angry with him on their account. However, the next generation their young ones whom they feared would become spoils of war for the Canaanites they will inherit the land. Nevertheless, Moses continues, they realised that they had sinned and were willing to go up and fight, but YHWH said that they are not to do so for He is not in their midst. Even so, they did not listen and rebelled against the mouth of YHWH, and the Amorites defeated them pursuing and smiting them at Seՙir as far as Ḥorma. When they returned they wept before YHWH, but He did not hear their voice nor gave ear to them. Thus, they stayed in Ḳadesh for many days, and journeyed into the wilderness by way of the Reed Sea and circled around Mount Seՙir for many days.
Hundred-and-Thirty-Eighth Sidra՚ (Deut. 2:2-30): The encounter with Edom and Moab, arrival in Transjordania, and conquests in Transjordania.
Moses then recounts that YHWH had spoken to him, saying that they had circled around Mount Seՙir for long enough, and now they were to turn northward. YHWH commanded that they were to cross the borders of their brothers the Children of Esau, who are settled in Seՙir, and to be very watchful of the Children of Esau because they are afraid of them. Not to cause them any problems, for YHWH will not give them even a segment of their land, since YHWH has bequeathed Mount Seՙir to the Children of Esau as their inherited possession. However, they may purchase food from them to eat and water to drink. Moses reminds them that YHWH blessed them in all the works of their hands during the forty years that they journeyed in the wilderness, and they lacked for nothing! Moses continues to recount how they passed by the Children of Esau by way of the plain, from Elath and from ՙEṣyon Gaver [both on the tip of what is now known as the Gulf of Aqaba], and then continued along the route leading to the wilderness of Moab. Moses reiterates that YHWH told him - that just as with the Edomites - they are not to cause any problems with the Moabites, nor to war with them, for YHWH will not give them even a portion of their land since He gave the Children of Lot ՙAr as an inherited possession. The Torah records at this point that the Moabites conquered ՙAr from the Rephaites whom the Moabites referred to as Emites, while the Children of Esau conquered Mount Seՙir from the Ḥorites. Then upon reaching the Wadi of Zared (the border between Edom and Moab) YHWH ordered them to cross.
The crossing of the Wadi of Zared occurred thirty-eight years after the incident of the lying scouts at Ḳadesh Barneyaՙ, when that entire generation of warriors had died in the wilderness as YHWH had sworn. The Children of Israel were told that they will be coming near the Children of ՙAmmon, and just as with the Edomites and Moabites, not to cause them any problems, for will YHWH not give them their land since He gave it to the Children of Lot as an inherited possession. The Children of ՙAmmon also conquered their land from the Rephaites, whom the ՙAmmonites called Zamzummites. The Torah mentions here the ՙAwwites who were settled in villages as far as Gaza, and how the Kaftorites [i.e. the Philistines], who came from Kaftor, destroyed them and settled in their place. They crossed the river Arnon the border between Moab and the land of Siḥon king of Ḥeshbon, and YHWH ordered them to take the land of Siḥon king of the Amorites for a possession.
Moses recalls how he sent messengers to Siḥon with words of peace requesting that he permit the Israelites to cross through his land via the main highway and they will not turn to the right or to the left. Any food that they eat or water that they drink they will pay for, just as they did with the Edomites and the Moabites, until they have crossed the Jordan into the land that YHWH is giving them. However, Siḥon refused this request since YHWH had hardened his spirit and strengthened his heart so that He will deliver him into their hands.
Hundred-and-Thirty-Ninth Sidra՚ (Deut. 2:31-3:22): The conquests in Transjordania continued, and the landed inheritance of the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh.
Moses recounts how Siḥon gathered his forces against them at Yaheṣa, but YHWH delivered him into the hands of Israel and they smote him along with his sons and all his people; conquering all of his cities. When the Amorites invaded and conquered the land of Gilՙad and Bashan they exterminated the previous inhabitants. This could be the reason why the cities of the Amorites were placed under Ḥerem [חֵרֶם - Devoted (for destruction)]. Not a remnant was left of the men, women, and young ones, only the beasts and spoils of the cities, which they took as plunder. Because of the defeat of Siḥon, all the territory in the land of Gilՙad came under their control including the kingdom of ՙOg, king of Bashan, whom they defeated at Edreՙi; for YHWH had placed them in their hands. They captured all of the cities in ՙOg's kingdom - sixty in total, all the district of Argov. These cities were fortified with high walls and bolted gates, nevertheless, they did to the cities of ՙOg and to his villages as they did to the cities and villages in the territory of Siḥon. However, they did not approach the land of the Children of ՙAmmon. The land that they took from the two kings of the Amorites stretched from the river Arnon to Mount Hermon, all the cities of the plateau, all of Gilՙad, and all of Bashan, as far as Salkha and Edreՙi in the territory of ՙOg. We are informed that Hermon is called Siryon by the Sidonians and that the Amorites call it Senir. Also that ՙOg was the last of the Rephaites, whose couch was made of iron measuring nine cubits in length by four cubits in breadth [4.05 metres x 1.80 metres or 159 inch x 71 inch approx.] and that it is in Rabba of the Children of Ammon.
The southern half of Gilՙad, Moses continues, was given to the tribes of Reuben and Gad as their inherited possession, whilst the rest of Gilՙad and all of Bashan became the inherited possession of half of the tribe of Manasseh. However, this is only upon the condition that they cross over the Jordan as a shock force before the Children of Israel, whilst their wives, young ones, and livestock remain in their cities, and are not to return home until YHWH brings their brother Israelites to possess their landed inheritance. Moses tells the people that he commanded Joshua, "Your eyes have seen all that YHWH your God did to these two kings, thus will YHWH do to all the kingdoms, into which you are crossing. You shall not fear them; for YHWH your God, He is the one fighting for you" (Deut. 3:21-22)
TEACHINGS OF HAKHAM REKHAVI:
"You shall not fear them; for YHWH your God, He is the one fighting for you" (Deut. 3:22)
Nations come and nations go, empires rise and empires fall, this has been a rhythm in the history of civilization since its inception. The times in which we live are times of great uncertainty. It is one hundred years since the Battle of the Somme, the bloodiest battle of the Great War, where almost 1,000,000 men lost their lives; but the carnage still continues. The Great War of 1914 - 1918 brought in its wake the process that set in motion the collapse of the Great Powers that had begun to dominate the map five hundred years previously. One such Great Power whose demise came as a consequence of the Great War was the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Sultan Selim I (1512 - 1520) conquered Jerusalem in 1517, and for the next five hundred years the Ottoman Empire ruled the land of Israel. In Basle Switzerland in the year 1897, Theodor Herzl convoked the first Zionist Congress, which was a supra-communal parliamentary institution, whose goal it was to establish a Jewish state in the land of Israel. In 1917, the British General Edmund Allenby conquered Jerusalem from the Ottomans, in the same year that the British Empire signed the Balfour Declaration. The Balfour Declaration declared not only Britain's support for the re-establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in the land of Israel, but that Britain - the greatest world power at the time, would actively facilitate the achievement of this objective.
However, it did not take long for Britain to negate upon the terms and spirit of the Balfour Declaration by limiting Jewish land purchase and immigration, while encouraging Arab immigration from neighbouring areas. Even Transjordania, the first region to be conquered by the Children of Israel at the mouth of YHWH, was severed by the British from the territory allocated by the League of Nations for the sole purpose of re-establishing a Jewish homeland and handed to the deposed Emir Abdullah bin al-Hussein. The period after the Great War saw a rise in world anti-Semitism, and in Germany in 1933 a party that openly called for the extermination of all Jews was democratically elected with 43.9% of the popular vote! The ensuing Jewish flight from death was hampered by the so-called enlightened democratic nations who placed a strict quota on Jewish immigration to their borders and shores. Moreover, Britain to whom the re-establishment of a Jewish homeland was entrusted, still limited Jewish immigration to the land of Israel. From 1939 - 1945 the world was once more engulfed in war - a war against true evil. During this war over 6,000,000 Jews were murdered by the Germans and their allies in what has become known as the Holocaust. Many of the survivors of the horrors of the Holocaust scrambled to the shores of the Jewish homeland, but their entrance was barred by the British.
In 1947, the newly formed United Nations voted for the establishment of a Jewish state in the land of Israel. However, the heart of the homeland, the areas of Judea and Samaria, where the majority of ancient Jewish history takes place and the second region of the land to be conquered at the mouth of YHWH, was severed and given to the Arabs. Even Jerusalem was to be taken away from the Jewish people and placed under the rule of the United Nations. Just three years after the Holocaust, the Jewish people were faced with another catastrophe. The armies of five Arab countries along with local Arab irregulars declared war on the Jews and vowed to complete the work of Hitler by exterminating the 650,000 Jews living in the land of Israel. The so-called enlightened democratic nations once again turned their collective backs upon the Jewish people placing an arms embargo against the fledgling State of Israel, but the Children of Israel remembered the words spoken to Joshua, "You shall not fear them; for YHWH your God, He is the one fighting for you". In the war that ensured the founding of the State of Israel, her enemies were defeated and some of the land severed from the Jewish homeland was restored, but not Judea and Samaria, nor the heart and soul of the Jewish people - Jerusalem.
In 1967, the Arab neighbours of the State of Israel, supported by others, once again vowed to commit genocide against the Jewish people. The combined Arab armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq held a strangle hold on the State of Israel threatening to exterminate her Jewish population of 2,400,000. Yet again the so-called enlightened democratic nations turned their collective backs upon the Jewish people by placing another arms embargo upon the State of Israel. Nevertheless, the Children of Israel remembered the words spoken to Joshua, "You shall not fear them; for YHWH your God, He is the one fighting for you". In what became known as the Six Day War the Israeli army defeated their enemies. In addition, 70 years since the first Zionist Congress, 50 years since the Balfour Declaration, and 20 years since the United Nations partition plan, Judea and Samaria was restored to the Jewish people, and our beating heart Jerusalem was returned to the body of the Jewish people.
Soon it will be 120 years since the first Zionist Congress, 100 years since the Balfour Declaration, 70 years since the United Nations partition plan, and 50 years since the liberation of Jerusalem. It is a time of great upheaval of great barbarity, amongst which voices emanate from every corner of the globe calling for the ultimate destruction of the State of Israel with her 6,400,000 Jews. Worldwide anti-Semitism has reached levels not seen since the Holocaust, levels comparable to those just prior to that horror. Even Jews, who have turned their backs upon their God, clamber amongst those demonizing the Children of Israel; yet another darkness gathers casting its shadow far and wide. If this is to be the final darkness to befall the Jewish people then we should remember His name call upon Him and uphold His Tora, and when the time comes, to remember the words spoken to Joshua, "You shall not fear them; for YHWH your God, He is the one fighting for you".