Let’s look at the other side of the coin for a minute. How is it that the Israeli government “understands” why Jews should be forbidden to pray at our most sacred site in the world, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem? It is hard to fathom how Arab violence at our holiest site has achieved its goal with the collusion of the Israeli government, effectively preventing Jews from praying there. Although this site, much like the Cave of Machpelah, was liberated by the IDF in June of 1967, today it remains under exclusive Arab custody.While Israeli and other world leaders may truly seek a peaceful solution to our “differences” with our Arab neighbors, they are turning a blind eye to the reality that every Arab understands. The 1948 War for Independence is still going on! The Arabs, Egypt and Jordan included, have never accepted the concept of Jewish sovereignty anywhere in the Middle East. A sovereign Jewish State is an abomination to Islam and cannot be tolerated. After having tried and failed to destroy Israel by war, more sophisticated efforts have been initiated to accomplish this feat via “peace”.

While many feel that a two state solution is the answer, that too is nothing less than another tactic to destroy Israel. Even those who support such a concept accept as axiomatic that the new Arab state will have no Jews, and that what is left of the Jewish State must accept Arabs. How is it that no one seems to notice the lack of balance here? When Netanyahu agreed to give Arafat 80% of Hebron, he also agreed to allow Arabs to continue living on our 20% while no Jews can live or even visit the Arab side. This is peace?

Everyone wants peace. But that sacred word has been distorted until it has become meaningless. To the Arabs peace is a world without Jewish sovereignty anywhere. To the Jewish government peace is being accepted as an equal in the world of nations. And, to the Living G-d of Israel, peace will come when the entire world recognizes His exclusive sovereignty over all of His Creations. He created the Jewish nation to serve Him and be the vehicle by which all of the nations of the world will come to recognize and worship Him. He made us the tiniest of nations and commanded us to live by His Law in a tiny country. He always knew that the nations would reject Him. He knew that they would be tempted to destroy His tiny nation in the futile hope of overthrowing G-d Himself.

Israel may appear to be the most vulnerable of nations. Our own leadership harbors this misconception. Iran is but the most recent of Jew haters throughout the centuries who sought to destroy the Jews. They all failed and so will Iran. Actually there was a fellow from ancient Iran named Haman who thought that he could destroy the Jews. It looked worse for the Jews then than it does now, but the Almighty switched things around and it was Haman who was destroyed. The time is approaching when all of the nations will gather against Israel. This is part of the Divine Plan. Only after the most powerful nations of the world discover that even their combined strength is no match for the Creator of the Universe, will they accept and worship the one and only King, the Living G-d of Israel.

Netanyahu can make lists. Negotiators can attempt to find a way to please all parties in a future peace agreement. But Biblical destiny has already been written. No power on Earth can change it. Each one of us must decide for ourselves where we fit in the picture. Will we take a stand against the majority and with Biblical destiny? Will we join with the majority against Biblical destiny? Of will we just stand on the sidelines and watch? Time is running out. Exile is coming to an end and redemption is rapidly approaching. Standing on the sidelines is not an option.

For the Jew it is time to come home with your head held high. And for the Gentile it is time to stand with Israel for Biblical, not political reasons. Nations and individuals are being judged by their actions. The future is in our hands.

It certainly was not a simple move. Any move, even across the street, is a major trauma. To take your family into a different country with a different culture and a different language clearly makes it even more traumatic. And when you are moving to a country which is at war, and when the government insists that we must live together with enemies who seek our destruction, then it takes a tremendous amount of faith to stand up to these challenges.

We did not move to Israel because it is a “democracy” (which it really isn’t). We did not move here because we have a government which cares about the country (which it doesn’t). And we certainly did not move because our life wasn’t good in the USA (which it really was). We came home simply because it is our homeland and, while our grandparents could not move here, we could.

Nearly all of the time we have been here we have lived in Kiryat Arba. Our son, Avi, was born soon after we moved in and he was the first Jew in history to have a brit mila in the Hall of Isaac in the building atop the Cave of Machpela in Hebron where our forefathers are interred. Soon after our son was born I began to say my morning prayers every day at dawn at the Cave. Through the years I certainly had my problems there. I often prayed at the site where my son had his brit. But Jews were not permitted to pray there with a minyan. I cannot remember how many times the soldiers threw me out. I was even arrested for this “crime”. And there was one time that, while I was praying inside the building, the Arabs set my car on fire! Yet, to this day, I continue to pray every morning at Machpela and consider it a tremendous privilege.

During the intifada I cannot count how many times our car was stoned on the ride to and from Jerusalem. Miraculously none of us was ever hurt. And there was even a time when the Arabs, being frustrated at the fact that our plastic windows were impervious to rocks, began to shoot at us! While, fortunately, I was never actually shot at, for a short while we did stop driving to Jerusalem by car and only used the bullet proof buses.

I am sure that everyone who saw on television the results of suicide murderers on buses and stores must have been sick. You can imagine how we felt living here. Yet we persevered and never regretted our decision to live here. Nor would we ever dream to live anywhere else.

Today one of our daughters is raising her family in the apartment where she grew up here in Kiryat Arba. She has five beautiful children who are all growing up as proud Jews in their ancient homeland. She has chosen not to teach them to speak English, so we can only communicate in our holy tongue of Hebrew. No words can describe the pride felt by a grandparent watching his grandchildren grow up in Israel. . . especially knowing that, had we not come home this couldn’t have happened!

And our son, who was born soon after we moved here, was recently married here in Kiryat Arba. He and his wife have chosen to live here as well and we are expecting another grandchild soon after Passover. And, if that isn’t enough, our son just recently successfully completed all of his examinations at the Chief Rabbinate in Jerusalem and is a rabbi himself!

Could any of these blessings have occurred had we not chosen to come home? Not likely.

There is a joke that asks, “How can you make a small fortune in Israel?” And the answer is, “Come to Israel with a large fortune.”

Many good Jews choose not to come home out of fear. They are afraid that they cannot make a living here. They are afraid of terrorism. They are afraid that they cannot learn to speak Hebrew. They are afraid that Iran will blow us off the map. They are just afraid. And this is understandable.

It is not easy to live by faith when your eyes and ears tell you it is dangerous. Yet, if we would but consider the reality that the reborn Jewish State was clearly a miracle back in 1948, and that every day we continue to exist here is an even greater miracle, we cannot help but realize that Israel is not just another country. It is part of a Divine Destiny that no power on Earth can stop. The mitzvah that is recited by Jews every day in Shema Yisrael, commands every Jew to love our G-d with all our might. How can this mitzvah be better observed then by ignoring our fears and expressing our love for G-d simply by coming home? The fears are real as are the dangers. But the only way to express faith in G-d is to overcome those fears and follow His Commandments.

Our move to Israel was not easy. It was filled with dangers and problems. We worried when our son was in the army and served in a combat unit in the Gaza Strip. We were worried when Prime Minister Barak tried to give away Kiryat Arba to Arafat. But our faith overcame our worries and we can only thank G-d for our countless blessings. I have no doubt that, had we not chosen to come home when we did, we would never know the infinite joy that we have found here. We didn’t come to Israel to suffer. We are not heroes. We are simply fortunate Jews who were blessed with the opportunity to fulfill a dream which our ancestors would have given their eye teeth to fulfill. Every Jew in the world today has that opportunity as well. What a tragedy that so many fail to recognize that fact.

Danger exists wherever you may live. Nowhere is there a guarantee of a good living or a good life. What you may have today you can easily lose tomorrow. All that a Jew really has is his Torah and G-d’s Commandments. This is the real meaning of our lives. And the only place where we can truly live with our Torah is in the Land of Israel. It may not be perfect. The redemption is only beginning. But our only future is here.

There is no way to know how much time is left, but our Rabbis tell us that Redemption and Exile cannot coexist. The Redemption is rapidly progressing, and the Exile is coming to an end. Now is the time to leave with our heads held high before it vomits us out.

I daresay that the American Jew today stands in the same shoes as the Jews of Europe did in the 1930s. I was born in the United States and was always proud of my American citizenship. As American as anyone, I never dreamed of comparing that wonderful country with Germany or with any other country for that matter. America was different. It was the land of opportunity and equal rights. The founding fathers of the United States of America had lofty ideals and had founded their new country upon Biblical principles. It granted freedom of religion to all. Democracy granted freedom of speech and implied that all men were equal.

While the original concepts were lofty and idealistic, the passing of time has greatly eroded them. The concept of separation of religion and state was designed to prevent the government from creating a state religion, certainly not to outlaw religion. Yet today, atheists use that concept to separate the government from the Creator. This is completely alien to the intention of the framers of our constitution. It was the fact that our founding fathers included G‑d as a full partner in the establishment of the United States that it became the leader of all nations. By denying that partnership, our leaders are literally pulling out the foundations upon which this country was built and are setting the stage for self-destruction.

Islam today seems to be the catalyst that will eventually force the Jewish People to do what they should be doing on their own: coming home to Israel. Much of Europe has already fallen prey to the creeping growth of Islam and the United States is rapidly catching up. Our new president is bankrupting our country at an alarming rate. History has shown that in times of financial crisis the Jew is blamed and serves as a scapegoat. There is no reason to assume that things will be different this time around.

Unlike in Jabotinski’s time, today we have a sovereign Jewish State where all Jews are welcome with open arms. It is not perfect but it is a real haven for all Jews. It was created, against nature, as the beginning of fulfillment of Biblical prophesy which will eventually see the homecoming of all of the Jewish People. Ever since its recreation in
1948, Jews have had the right to come home on their own. Most have chosen not to come home. Soon that choice will be taken from us as the Exile will vomit us out. When that happens we will be lucky to escape with our lives. There is still time for us to choose to come home and avoid the horrors that are about to unfold throughout the lands of our Exile.

Project Shofar is sounding the alarm, to all who will listen: it is time to come home. Although this is clearly a "mission impossible", it is a G‑dly effort whose exercise is its own reward.

I am no Jabotinski, but I sound my shofar in the hope that some will get the message. Should you be in a position to help me by setting up speaking engagements in your area please feel free to contact me by email. If not, you can also help by sending us a tax deductible contribution which pays for my trips and makes it easier to reach those who otherwise could not invite me.

Time is short. Redemption is beginning. It cannot come into completion until the Exile comes to an end. While it would be best to see the Exile end with Jews voluntarily leaving, avoiding needless tragedy, clearly this is not likely to happen. The holocaust was historical proof of how the world can accept the most horrible treatment of Jews and just look the other way. Today we are sitting atop a smoldering volcano which can erupt at any time. If we are honest with ourselves we can see this. But most prefer not to look. If we do not sound the alarm people will ignore the danger and enjoy the "safety" of the Ostrich.

Why do our leaders consistently talk about giving away parts of our country to our enemies? When Sharon gave away Gaza to the PLO he had no illusions that peace would result. He stated from the outset that not one Jew would remain in Gaza. Is that a vision of peace? And, even worse than that, he ordered all Jewish graves dug up and the remains removed for reburial outside of Gaza. Is that a vision of peace? Our leaders know very well who our alleged “peace partners” really are, yet they continue to pretend that we are engaged in a peace process. Our enemies are at war with us and we continue to make peace. Clearly our continued existence is nothing less than miraculous.There is no Jew who wants to see Gilad Shalit remain in captivity. Yet when demonstrators take to the streets demanding that the government accept anything our enemies demand to get him back, what they are doing is aiding our enemies! Maybe we should just surrender unconditionally to get him back. We already set the precedent to release murderers from our prisons. That precedent is what lead to our present predicament. Only a strong leadership can get us out of this mess and steer the country in the right direction. Unfortunately we have no such leadership.

In war there are no innocent civilians. Our enemies know this and demonstrate it when they deliberately attack our civilian population.
Rather than recognize an act of war, our government treats each attack as if it were a criminal offense and limits its response to the attacker. Every Arab who calls himself a “Palestinian” is an enemy of the Jewish State. Yet our government recognizes them as legitimate citizens of Israel and even accepts such people as members of our Knesset! No other country in the world would behave this way.

Our enemies continue to attack us because we continue to demonstrate our weakness and unwillingness to fight for our country. Why shouldn’t they attack us and kidnap our soldiers? This is how they hope to defeat us!
And we are helping them.

The government of Israel has other ways to free our prisoners. Rather than accept blackmail it is we who should be offering ultimatums. We have the upper hand. We hold far more prisoners than they do. How dare we permit them to dictate demands to us! Had we genuine Jewish leaders Gilad would have been returned immediately. In any kidnaping there is a fifty fifty chance of rescuing the victim… even if the ransom is paid. We can and must make the price of keeping Gilad far more than the terrorists are willing to pay. They must know that, should any harm come to him, not only will they get all the prisoners they demanded with bullets in their heads, but that the IDF will relentlessly attack them until they are destroyed. It is high time for Israel to recognize that we are at war, and make a decision to win it once and for all.

Today we are living under circumstances remarkably similar to those days. While, indeed, we do enjoy self rule in our own country, our hapless leaders have seen fit to compromise Jewish principles and values in a futile effort to curry favor with powers they deem greater than us.

What they choose to call “democracy”, a concept whose values change with the wind, has become a foreign god which demands total obedience, even when its values clash with Jewish ones.It is patently absurd for any country to voluntarily accept a declared enemy entity as an equal member of its society even as it works within that society to destroy it. Yet this is exactly what the modern state of Israel has done. The very concept of “Palestine” is nothing less than a Trojan horse placed within the Jewish State for the sole function of destroying it. Any normal person with eyes in his head can see this quite clearly. Yet the Israeli government has closed its eyes to reality and insists that we accept the serpent in our midst as if it were some kind of worthy recipient of Jewish welfare.

Worse than this is the fact that, not only are there Arab citizens (sic) of the Jewish State, but the Jewish government has agreed in principle to aid in the building of a new Arab state on Jewish soil in which no Jew would be permitted to live! And they see no contradiction here.

The government of Israel unilaterally decided to forcibly evict Jews from their homes in Israel and turn over the entire area of Gaza to the Arabs… for peace. The result was that this area has become a defacto enemy military compound which continues to fire missiles into the Jewish State. Rather than learn from such bitter experience our leaders are continuing to find new ways to pacify enemies who will be satisfied with nothing less than the complete destruction of Israel!

In the time of the original Chanukah it seemed to most that the Jews had no choice but to accept enemy demands, even those which conflicted with Judaism. After all, the mighty Greek Empire actually controlled Judea.

We didn’t have a government nor an army to protect us from this super power. Yet a hand full of Jewish zealots called the Maccabees arose and called upon the people to rebel. These rebels were castigated by pragmatic Jews who looked upon them as obstacles to living peaceful lives under Greek occupation. Jewish values in this case must be sacrificed for the good of the many. Few remember the fact that the rebellion began when one such pragmatic Jew agreed to bow down to a Greek god in the town of Modiin. Mattityahu ben Yohannan, an aged former High Priest, stabbed his fellow Jew to death in vengeance for the Jewish G-d. He then called out to his people, “Those who are willing to fight for the Living G-d of Israel follow me!” He then fled to the hills from which he led a guerilla war which eventually succeeded in driving the hated Greeks from our homeland and restoring true Jewish independence here.

Were Mattityahu alive today he would probably be arrested by Jewish police and convicted by a Jewish court as a murderer. Our entire government today is committing acts very similar to that of the Jew who bowed down to the Greek god. We worship the dollar, the USA and the European Union above our own G-d. This is the only reason we suffer.

In the special commemoration of the Maccabees which we recite at this time of year we remember how our G-d delivered the mighty into the hands of the weak; the many into the hands of the few; the traitors into the hands of patriotic; the impure into the hands of the pure; and the tyrants into the hands of those who observe your Law. But do we really believe what we are saying? Our leaders are afraid that we are weak; that we are too few and that our G-d cannot save us. This is the same view of the Hellenists who sided with the Greeks for pragmatic reasons.

May the light of the Chanukah lamps remind us where our real power lies.

Our Torah and our history remind us that our only purpose for living is to serve our G-d. When we choose to deny our very purpose in life then, in reality we deny life itself. We have a glorious destiny which has already begun to unfold. How dare we seek to “protect” ourselves by denying that destiny? Rather than freezing the process of building our homeland we should be increasing it. Rather than reprimand rabbis who teach that Jewish soldiers must never throw fellow Jews out of their homes nor destroy Jewish communities, such rabbis should be elevated into positions of leadership. We have all the tools we need to hasten redemption and we choose instead to pacify those who seek our destruction. May the lights of the Chanukah lamps remind us that the miracles of old are still with us today and that Jewish obligations never change.

When Prime Minister Netanyahu declares his painful concession of halting building new communities in our homeland, and calls upon our enemies to recognize our gestures and make peace with us, he is demonstrating the concept of denial. He refuses to recognize that the Arabs do not want to make peace with us. He refuses to recognize the fact that the very concept of a palestinian entity is a denial of the legitimacy of a Jewish State of any size. It is like someone going for a swim in a swimming pool despite the fact that there is no water inside.While it is refreshing to see that the Prime Minister has drawn a red line with Jerusalem, for the same effort he could and should have extended that red line to all of Judea and Samaria. After all we gave away Gaza unconditionally and look how much closer that move brought us to peace.

Gilad Shalit was kidnaped. He is not a “prisoner of war”. The Arabs are blackmailing the Jewish State into freeing hundreds of convicted murderers in order to return one innocent kidnaped soldier. This is not “negotiations”. It is criminal extortion at best. Of course everyone in Israel wants to see Gilad returned home unharmed. There are those who feel that no price is too high to pay to get him back. Such people have chosen not to think. What if the price was surrender of our country? In effect that is exactly what it is.

The Jewish State, with its “higher” morality chooses not to employ the death sentence against those who have murdered and maimed countless civilians. This, in and of itself, is an immoral act. Former governments have already set the precedent that the most foul murderers, who have been given multiple life sentences, have good reason to believe that they will be set free within a few years. And now we are about to see this government continue that policy which not only will give these seasoned murderers another opportunity to engage in their trade, but will encourage others to do so as well since they know for certain, that even should they get caught, not only won’t they have to face a death sentence, but there is an excellent chance that they will be set free in short time! In short in Israel you can get away with murder.

Why do we continue to live in a state of denial? Is it because Truth is too painful to accept? When the President of the United States talks about Israel and Palestinians reconciling their differences it sounds noble. But it reveals incredible ignorance or worse. There is only one way for Israel to reconcile her differences with her enemies. She can either surrender and disappear, which is all our enemies want from us, or we can stand up and declare that we have no intention to do so. We will build wherever and whenever we wish in all parts of our homeland.

We will not tolerate any person or people who deny exclusive Jewish sovereignty here. Arabs who choose to live here and accept our sovereignty and obey our laws are welcome. Those who seek to take Israel away from us cannot be tolerated. Any Arab who calls himself a “palestinian” is one who seeks to turn Jewish Israel into Arab palestine and must not be permitted to live here.

Any Jewish leader who accepts the concept of Arab palestine, may think he is doing a positive thing, but he is in extreme denial and actually committing an act of treason against his own country! Peace will never result from such leaders. The fact that this country still exists in spite of such leaders is clear proof that Israel is not just another country, rather the beginning of fulfillment of Biblical Jewish destiny.

Yes, our leaders continue to live in denial and they continue to make the same mistakes. It is not to please them that I call upon all Jews to come home. Redemption is a Biblical process and it is beginning. The nations of the world are gathering against the tiny Jewish State, exactly as predicted in the Bible. Now is the time to express our faith by standing with Biblical destiny even as the vast majority seek to oppose it. Life for the Jew will get worse in all of the lands of our Exile. The longer we choose to remain outside of our homeland, the greater the danger we face there. Now, more than ever, it is time for us to make plans to come home.

And, as to military ethics, no army in the world has the obligation to protect and defend the civilian population of its enemies. Had Truman possessed the concern for enemy civilians that Netanyahu has shown perhaps World War II would still be going on… and maybe with different results. Had Israel responded to Arab attacks from civilian populated areas with full force and disregard for civilian casualties, not only would the threat of future attacks be almost completely eliminated, but the practice of hiding behind “innocent” civilians would have quickly come to an end. Such a stance might be brutal, but it certainly is not immoral. Placing our civilian population in grave danger by not taking such action is highly immoral.Common sense, morality, and Jewish values have been replaced by the foolish and futile efforts to please world opinion. The gravest danger to Israel today is not Iran. It is the persistence of the Israeli government to accept the legitimacy of a manufactured “palestinian”
entity. Every Arab who calls himself a “palestinian” is, in effect, declaring that Israel is an illegitimate entity. This is an act of war! Rather than combat this effort to destroy the Jewish State our own leaders are actively supporting it!

The goal of the Jewish State is not to build a new homeland upon it for our enemies. Our enemies created the ridiculous concept of an Arab palestinian nation for the sole purpose of replacing Jewish Israel with Arab palestine. Prior to 1964 no such concept existed! When the combined military might of the Arab nations failed to destroy us by war, a brilliant campaign was launched in the effort to destroy us with “peace”. And that effort has caused more harm to the Jewish State than all of the wars we fought since our return in 1948.

The only path that will lead to peace is the path of Jewish self respect guided by our recognition that Israel is not a political concept, rather a Divine concept. Our return to our ancient homeland after two thousand years of Exile is the beginning of fulfillment of ancient Biblical prophesy. To deny this reality and pretend that we are just another country, and that we, rather than our Creator, are the true masters of our destiny is the true cause of terror and suffering in our homeland today.

Had we an authentic Jewish leader he would never accept the concept of an Arab palestinian nation. He would declare Israel as the homeland of the Jewish People and the vehicle to demonstrate Divine influence in the world today. In such a state only Jews would be citizens. Any non Jew who wishes to live in peace here and accept Jewish sovereignty, abiding by our laws would be welcome to live here as a non citizen, with full human rights. But any individual who refuses to accept Jewish sovereignty would not be permitted to live here.

The Palestinian concept is our Trojan horse. Unless we remove it, it will continue to try to destroy us from within. The time has long come for us to stop fearing the nations and begin to fear our G-d. No power on Earth is able to destroy Biblical Destiny. The very fact that the Jewish State continues to exist, despite the fact that powerful enemies and blind Jewish leaders seek our destruction, is clear proof of this fact. So let us stop cowering before the nations and begin to stand with Jewish Destiny. Let us tell friend and foe alike that we are back. This is our homeland and our Divine destiny. We will continue to build and grow in all parts of our country and never accept the attempts to take it away from us. If the Arabs wish to create a new country let them do it in Tunis or Saudi Arabia, never in Israel.

One is hard put to find any Jewish leader with the courage to speak like a Jew. The concepts expressed above are certainly not complicated. Yet few are prepared to even listen, much less espouse them. Gary Cooperberg is prepared to present these concepts to those with the courage to hear and discuss them. He is prepared to travel anywhere to speak out to those who are willing to listen. Should you have such a venue please contact him.

Project Shofar is dedicated to spreading these truths wherever it is possible to do so. It is sounding the alarm, to Jew and Gentile alike,to open our eyes to the G­dly process that is presently underway, and work to support it. We dare not stand idly on the sidelines.

Our return to our ancient homeland cannot be explained in logical terms. It is an event which was predicted thousands of years ago, yet it could not have happened logically. Jews from all over the world have been streaming into this tiny country. We have rejuvenated our ancient language and fended off enemies who overwhelmingly outnumber us and continue to seek our destruction. We have been murdered by suicide bombers and rock throwers. We are presently under threat of nuclear attack. And, worse than all of these things, we have leaders who insist upon pretending that we can live in peace with those who seek our demise. Any other such nation would have perished long ago. Yet Israel grows and thrives. All of this is in defiance of logic.The Jewish people is physical proof of the existence of G-d. It is this very fact which causes so many to hate us. In this modern age of computers and cell phones we tend to forget and deny the concept of Creation. We have begun to believe that we are the creators and that we can control what happens in the world. Even among the Jewish People there are those who prefer not to think about G-d. The very idea of a Jewish State, especially one located in the ancient Land of Israel forces even atheists to take notice.

When the leaders of Israel seek to make Israel like all of the other nations and insist that we are not a product of Divine intervention, they only encourage those who wish Israel would just disappear. No other country in the world ever compromised on its very existence. No other country in the world would as much as suggest building a new county upon its own soil, especially for enemies who seek its destruction. Our leaders have fallen into a trap of their own making by engaging in a so-called “peace process” which, in fact, is a process of self destruction.

Yet, despite our hapless leaders, and despite the overwhelming number of enemies who actively seek our destruction, the Jewish State continues not merely to exist, but to grow and thrive! This too is clear proof of Divine intervention. There is simply no other explanation. Yet most choose not to see. They prefer to continue their denial of our Creator. As such their hatred for the Jewish State grows and is encouraged by the willingness of our leaders to “make sacrifices for peace”.

No power on Earth can destroy Israel. Those who seek her destruction will themselves be destroyed. The only genuine peace process is the one leading to Biblical Redemption which the rebirth of the Jewish nation upon her ancient soil clearly portends. Those who stand against logic by standing with the tiny Jewish State for Biblical, not political, reasons will survive. Those who don’t won’t. The Exile is coming to an end. It cannot co-exist with Redemption. Jews have an opportunity to express their faith in G-d by coming home now. No one knows how long that opportunity will last before the choice is taken away and either they will escape from an unwelcome Exile, or perish within it.

Project Shofar is dedicated to spreading these truths wherever it is possible to do so. It is sounding the alarm, to Jew and Gentile alike,to open our eyes to the G­dly process that is presently underway, and work to support it. We dare not stand idly on the sidelines.

On this holiday we are actually commanded to rejoice! We build little huts in which we live during this week. Like the Shofar on Rosh HaShannah and our fasting on Yom Kippur, dwelling in the Succah enables us to physically connect to our Creator.

The fact is that all of our holidays and all of the Commandments of our Torah were designed to connect us to our Creator all of our lives. This is what has held us together over the thousands of years of our Exile. We are reminded of our history as a people and also of our Divine Destiny. Our holidays and Commandments were designed to keep both the memory of our past and the Promise for our future close to us throughout our lives.

Yet, the reality is that over long periods of time we learn to adjust to our environment. We Jews learned to live under the most impossible circumstances… in ghettos and even in death camps. The greater the threat the more we clung to our Judaism as best we could. Yet in times and places when the threat diminished so did our passion for our heritage. In the United States, where we found acceptance and relative equality, we placed our Judaism on a back burner and dedicated ourselves to become Americans first and foremost. Such was also the case in our Exiles in Spain, England and Germany as well as other European nations.

The lessons of our ancient observance were intended to give us the tools to stand up to the challenges which have faced us in every generation… but most especially for the climax of Jewish Destiny which lies before us. We have had somewhat of a respite from persecution in the past few decades as our Creator was giving us ample opportunity to open our eyes the reality of the reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty in at least part of our destined homeland. It has always been His Will that we choose to come home. This has been a Jewish dream for thousands of years which our forebears yearned to see come true. Yet, in our time, when the dream is clearly beginning to come true, most of us fail to take notice. It is more than ironic. It is tragic. For if the entire Jewish Nation were to demonstrate our faith in our G-d by simply coming home we could hasten Redemption and bring genuine peace to the entire world.

By closing our eyes to our obligations and our destiny we prolong our Exile and invite needless tragedy. As we recite the slichos prayers early in the morning before the regular prayers as Yom Kippur approaches, we beg G-d to have mercy upon us and forgive our sins. We recount in sorrow how we are forced to endure a difficult Exile and pray for the time when we will be restored to our ancient homeland. Yet that time has already begun and most of us choose to pretend that it hasn’t. If we take our prayers seriously and truly seek the mercy of our G-d, we would be making plans to come home.

Our G-d is patient and compassionate with us and is waiting for us to open up our eyes and just be good Jews. But there is a Divine Plan which does have a time limit even if we do not know what it is. As the Jewish State continues to grow under circumstances which would see any normal country disappear; and as anti Semitism grows all over the world; and as nation after nation seeks to weaken and destroy the Jewish State, the days of our Exile are swiftly coming to a close.

If you prefer logic to Judaism then clearly it makes no sense to move to a tiny country which has hapless leaders and is hated by the nations. But if you truly do believe in G-d and His Torah… Jewish history and Jewish Destiny… then you have no choice but to come home as soon as you can. Exile and Redemption cannot coexist, By definition the Exile must be destroyed in order that Redemption take place. I believe that this process is already taking place. There is no way for us to know how long the process will take until it is actually completed. But it is foolish, reckless and irresponsible to ignore it and hope that it will take a very long time. Now is the time to secure our future and cling to our destiny with a tenacity that our grandparents once had.

When you recite kiddush in your succah in Exile try to feel the connection to our Creator; to our ancient past, and to our destined future. Our holidays are not children’s games or quaint religious customs. They are very real tools given to us by our Creator to help us relate to our identity as Jews. They have held us together as a people, kept our connection with our Creator, and, hopefully, will help us connect with our destiny as well.

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