From Redemption to Freedom

As the countdown of the Omer approaches its climax, Jews all over the world are preparing to celebrate the holiday of Shavuot, (the Feast of Weeks) commemorating the culmination of the seven weeks between our Redemption from Egypt and the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. The lesson of this holiday is that true freedom can only be gained by submitting our will to that of our Creator. On the surface this seems contradictory. One would think that freedom is the ability to do anything you want, without restriction. But, in truth, that kind of freedom is not freedom at all. It is slavery of the worst kind. . . slavery to our own passions. Torah shows us how to harness our passions and use them for the betterment of ourselves and our fellow man. When we truly recognize the reality of the one and only Creator, and realize that He only wants the best for His creations, then we dedicate our lives to serving Him and thus find genuine freedom.

The function of Project Shofar is to bring this very message to all who will listen. G-d Himself sounded the Shofar on Mount Sinai to prepare His People for the greatest gift ever given to Mankind, His Torah. It is from this example that I take my shofar with me and sound it throughout the United States. In these times of challenge and terror the only response which will help is to turn to our G-d and seek to fulfill His Will. Many nations and individuals have plans to make peace. Yet the one most basic element needed to find true peace is missing…. recognition of and deference to the Living G-d of Israel. Any honest student of the Bible knows, without a doubt, that thousands of years ago G-d decided to scatter His People Israel all over the world, and then to regather them and establish them again and forever in the Land of Israel.No other people were included in this plan. No other nation has claim to sovereignty in the Land of Israel. Yet we find a vast majority of people and nations, including many in Israel, who have come to the conclusion that a newly manufactured people, which uses murder and terror as its tools, has a right to steal the rightful inheritance of the Jewish People. Such a stance is to spit in the face of the Creator. He has wrought modern day miracles to herald the beginning of Redemption and we have done all in our power not merely to deny those miracles, but to reject them completely. By so doing all we accomplish is to bring catastrophe upon ourselves.

President Bush claims to be a Bible believer. Yet he has designed a “roadmap” which defies Biblical destiny. He claims that he wants to make peace in the Middle East, but the reality is that he simply needs to curry favor with Arab oil interests. He doesn’t really want to hurt Israel, but he thinks that he can appease the powerful Arab financial moguls by getting Israel to agree to “modest” compromises.

Ehud Olmert is currently under investigation for charges of bribery and other criminal activities. He is desperate to save his neck, and willing to sacrifice his own country to do so. Not only is he trying to meet Bush’s deadline to make peace with the PLO, he is also trying to make peace with Syria by agreeing to give away the Golan Heights! Syria has never been willing to speak to Israel unless she first agrees to give her all of the Golan Heights. Clearly this demand has already been accepted by Olmert. And they are talking!

When Israel returns to all of her Promised homeland and conducts her life according to the Law of the Torah, all the nations of the world will be blessed. Any person or nation which tries to interfere with the Divine Process brings needless tragedy upon themselves. Today we can hasten Redemption and bring genuine peace to all of Mankind. . . not by rejecting Divine imperatives rather by endorsing them. For the nations this means standing with Israel as the exclusive homeland of the Jewish People and rejecting claims of imposters. And for the Jewish People it means return. Return to both our spiritual and physical roots. Our return is not to be conditioned upon the behavior of those allegedly governing our country. It is based completely upon our desire to please our Creator and follow His Commandments.