Blue and White: Shmuel Sackett

This Thursday – the 18^th of MarCheshvan – marks the 33^rd yahrzeit of Rabbi Meir Kahane. I am proud to have been a student and follower of his from my early teens. I continue to quote him extensively, teach his Torah wisdom, and publicly call him “Rebbi U’Mori” – my rabbi and my teacher. Over the years, countless people have advised me to drop “the Rabbi Kahane thing” – as it would label me an extremist and prevent my success, but I never listened to them. I have spoken in over 500 Jewish communities across America and Canada and in every one, I say it loud and say it proud: “Rabbi Meir Kahane was – and still is – my guide, my mentor, and my rav. I agree with every word he wrote and spoke.” But it wasn’t just his words that excited me – he was the greatest rabbi of action that I ever met. He did not sit in an office while sending others to do his work. He was the first to fight the anti-Semites, the first to protest Jewish suffering, and the first to be arrested battling evil and injustice.

I’ll get right to the point: Every Jew needs to see this movie.

This Yom Kippur marks 50 years since the Yom Kippur War, when Israel lost 2,656 brave soldiers plus had over 9,000 wounded. If not for Hashem’s help – guiding the hands of some incredible heroes – the outcome would have been far worse. During the war, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan told Prime Minister Golda Meir the famous words: “We are facing the destruction of the Third Temple.” The fact that this Yom Kippur – 5784 – we will pray to Hashem in a beautiful, quiet and Jewish Eretz Yisrael is nothing short of a miracle.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. The Eiffel Tower. The White House. The Empire State Building. England’s House of Parliament and Palace of Westminster. The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and The Opera House in Sydney, Australia – all lit up in blue and white showing support for Israel over Hamas.

This is the time of year when people email each other far more than usual. Most of the correspondence centers around wishing “A Happy and Healthy New Year” but, for some reason, the emails I receive are much different.

There isn’t a Jew in the world who isn’t asking some very tough questions at this time – and I have my share, as well. But let me be perfectly clear in what I am about to write: Now is not the time to ask these questions! Yes, we need to clarify and understand the failings and tragic errors – and at the appropriate time we will demand answers – but not at this time.

Many years ago, a wonderful fighter for the Jewish people, Shifra Hoffman a”h, coined a term that I never forgot. She said that our leader, Moshe Rabbeinu, referred to the Jewish nation as “a stiff-necked people” (Sh’mos 34:9). Now, however, we have become “a short-necked people.” She explained this to mean that when things get difficult for our nation and we reach out to our leaders for help, they put their hands and shoulders up, making their necks very short, and say, “Sorry, but what can we do?”